Terrible finisher, everything else is good. He was never really the answer as such, but our prior PL striking options were just so utterly abysmal/laughable/non existent that he just brought us up to scrapping the bare minimum standard in that position, which in itself was a massive leap, but still not very good.
Some people used to say very similar things about Andre Gray, but to be fair to the man he did put himself about a fair bit just like King, and his finishing was perhaps even more abysmal. That's why I have been saying quite consistently that King is only a slight upgrade on Andy Gray IMO.
Nobody used to say anything of the sort. Gray was awful at everything, couldn’t trap a ball to save his life, wasn’t fast, couldn’t pass 5 yards to a team mate, utterly horrendous at hold up play, couldn’t play as a lone striker. The phrase “everything else is good” has never once remotely been uttered about anything remotely related to Andre Gray. It’s literally only you saying it.
Yet again you are wrong, reasonable things about the rest of his play other than putting the ball in the net have been mentioned on here and in the media. Though I hasten to add I still think Gray is ****, and I am more or less saying that about King too, although I have also said he is probably a slight upgrade on Andy Gray.
He isn't a good finisher. For him to score one or two goals in a game, you will need to create four or five clearcut chances for him. So with our most creative player not playing yesterday, you shouldn't be expecting King to get on the score sheet especially when he is paired in attack with someone who likes to dribble past three or four players before considering other options. Sent from my TECNO P701 using Tapatalk
Gray was an atrocious footballer, let alone striker. King is a competent footballer, there are no question marks about his ability to control a football or pass to a teammate. Gray actively harmed the team when he played because he was that bad, King doesn’t harm us, he just doesn’t score enough goals. There is no comparison between the two apart from in your mind.
Gray is absolute ****, has always been absolute **** and will always be absolute ****. King is a good few levels above him, there's no comparison.
King is a better player technically than Gray and its right that Gray is no longer here - however Gray was able to find space to score and also miss. We are not even having the 'how did he miss that?' conversations about King let alone the scoring atm as he is not making much of an impact in that department. It's perfectly reasonable for some to say the upgrade is minimal based on this.
King didn’t play for Luton. But he did play for Bournemouth which means he gets a bit longer than ‘immediate hate’ from our tiptop supporter base.
This opinion isn’t a new one - and it’s one I know @lowerrous was vocal about - but we really should have added a new striker in January. It is obvious to all by now that Fletcher simply is not seen as good enough. He has been in over 85% of our matchday squads - and yet been brought on or started in less than 15% of our matches. We are 2nd bottom and out of both cups early - a striker of any kind of ability would have played far more. Cucho isn’t a striker and neither is Dennis…. Even King plays wide on occasion. We need a striker to compete with King given we only play 1 up front. He’s literally under no pressure to get a game. King also doesn’t look like getting a goal anytime soon. 5 goals to date, which include a hat-trick, is terrible by anyones standards and not good enough. Remove the Everton game and he has scored 2 goals. That’s awful.
He also had the first shot against Norwich last time out. What they/you are saying is no more 'perfectly reasonable' than anything you said about your fiancee whilst he was here, and I say that as someone who agrees we needed to bring in another forward and would obviously like King to make more of his/make more opportunities.
What i/they have said about King is perfectly reasonable, and i too would like to see King scoring soon.
As has been mentioned in the match thread, King was awful tonight. Of course Roy's defensive set-up doesn't help, but when you compare his performance to how Dennis played - the difference was like night and day. We do seem to have an uncanny knack of finding non-goal scoring goal scorers, which is strange considering we have the best scouting network in football....
I see there are a few more people tonight who seem to be seeing what I see in King, which unfortunately is not a lot. I am not sure anymore that King is even a slight upgrade on Andre Gray as they seem to be cut from the cloth, headless chickens come to mind! Charging around all over the place, but not really knowing what they are doing or where they are going
King is not a striker and to play him as our number 9 is going to get us relegated. I see Pedro as our best front option, his ball control is sublime and did a very good job last year leading the line. With him being fed by Sarr/Dennis/King/Kalu I have no doubt he will find the goals to save our season. King runs alot but his decision making and final pass are so poor no matter who he plays with and alot of the time we get caught on the counter is because he loses possession with players pushing forward to back him up.
King in the box is a bit static on crosses. Gray at least would've tried to look to gain a yard from his marker in his pomp from a cross. That's what King needs to do to enable him to add to his goal tally, give the defenders something to think about.
King and Pedro dont score enough goals. Both good technically in various ways but one or both need to hit the net more often. Pedro looks more talented on the ball but King holds it up better. Its much of a muchness though in picking who starts as neither seem like they'll score many. He had some detractors here, but Ighalo was streets ahead of both of them. Fletchers here for next season.
He's just completely lacking confidence. Nothing's coming off for him, he looks isolated on the pitch and when he does get half a sniff of goal he's over-thinking it and the opportunity disappears. I don't think we play to his strengths - constantly expecting him to act as a target man and hold the ball up - but then he's not helping himself when twice in two games he's been played in behind the opposition defence by a high quality ball on the floor and looked leggy and like he would never score. Normally he'd be a classic one to think a Championship stint would really benefit but he had no desire to go there with Bournemouth and so I'd have thought there's no chance he will with us.
For me we need a goal threat going forwards. I understand why Hodgson is doing what QSF did in the 15/16 season by playing a narrow midfield (remember the days of Abdi, Jurado, Behrami and Capoue as our midfield 4), but back then we had two physical direct forwards that could hold the ball up and bring others into play. King likes the ball in behind and this only leaves our midfield miles behind the play and the forwards very isolated! If you're going to play a narrow 4-4-2 you need an outlet up top and the only one with any quality is JP. Fletcher not good enough I don't think at this level as his record would indicate. Failing that we need to go back to 4-3-3 when Sarr comes back but he needs to be in a 3 with JP & Dennis, not King on current form! He works hard, no slight on him at all, but he's not in form currently.
I don’t think Roy will play Dennis ,Sarr and Pedro together tbh. Just not his style to be so attacking .
The weird thing is you’re right he’s looked leggy a lot of the time, yet in the second half he somehow galloped past four men and through in to the box, weird.
He also has zero competition for his place in the team. Fletcher doesn’t provide it and all our other attackers are wider options.
