Here's a funny stat about Davis and Bayo : Bayo : 3 big chances created (on fraction of the minutes), 0.5 KP/90 Davis : 1 big chance created (in 1200 mins?) 0.4 KP/90 Most of these are overhit passes under no pressure, missing the target or running him into a bad area of the pitch. Not a great advert for someone who is supposedly a great link up/playmaking striker.
Put any stats aside for the time being, with your own eyes, which player do you think is better? Bayo or Davis ?
Honestly Bayo. Bayo is ***** at most things but great at one thing, which is poaching and sniffing out chances. A lot of times in football especially at lower levels that is enough. He has 4 goals and 1 assist in under 800 Champo minutes, at a time where we are struggling to find goals in our team. He's also fit enough to actually press and move around unlike Davis. Just because he can't dribble or do a nice trick doesn't mean he isn't talented in other ways. He seems to often be in the right place and finishing isn't as bad as claimed either despite it not looking 'aesthetic'. Davis is a player who doesn't really seem to be good at anything other than the occasional nice touch/dribble. He's not good in the air, he's not a goalscorer, he's not very creative, he doesn't press or work very hard, in my eyes he doesn't have a clear profile. This can perhaps explain why at almost 25 he finds himself with a dozen career goals as a striker. His one virtue is perhaps that he participates in the buildup more than your average striker but he's not amazing at that either, as evidenced by the very technically limited Bayo managing to statistically outcreate him on half the minutes. Aesthetics would tell you Davis is the better player but football is more than a first touch or nice dribbling. Bayo probably sucks in training which is why no manager plays him but he scores the goals on the pitch and has won us 2 games with a last minute goal already whilst coming off the bench.
You are correct. Bayo can score. Davis does not score enough. However IMO Bayo offers nothing if he does not score whereas Davis does. The ball bounces off Bayos shins etc and Davis holds the ball up and brings other players into play . However football is all about opinions.
We must be watching different videos. Pass #1 = put exactly where Sarr wanted it, you can see Sarr move across to receive it in that area just before the pass is played Pass #2 = lovely backheel, unlucky not to get an assist Pass #3 = maybe could've squeezed off a pass to JP a little bit earlier, but did well to find a team-mate surrounded by 3 opponents. Pass #4 = lovely nutmeg to open up the pitch. The pass could've been slightly better (although I do think if Sarr ran at full pace he might've got there) here I agree. Pass #5 = Sarr might've got on the end of it had he not been bought down, but Davis was under pressure for the pass and only just managed to get it away. Sure Bayo has more key passes per 90, but a key pass doesn't really tell you much. Watching the video most of those have been horrific passes at awful angles and is more a case of his teammate doing well to get the shot off or a lay off to a teammate to shoot from range (although there were a couple of nice passes against Wigan). To say that Bayo is a better playmaker cos he has more key passes is laughable. Here's Bayos key passes:
Appreciating that you joined the forum roughly when we signed Bayo, I just want to add that your son/brother/friend got and still gets a lot of unfair criticism. He’s a limited player who has his uses and has a great knack for finding a goal when one is needed. £5m may have been an overspend, but he’s certainly a useful squad player and the player to turn to for the last 20 mins of a game when chasing a goal.
Well he's going to have plenty of opportunities now to show us. Pointless making comparisons between Davis and Bayo, he's been overlooked now by both Edwards and Slav and they got to see him train day in day out. What I will say is we don't play to his strengths which is constant deliveries into the box. If we adapt to this then maybe it works out for him. But apart from his goal his general all round play wasn't up to scratch.
He’s obviously very limited in his all round game. But that’s now 5 goals/assists in less than 800 mins. His 0.56 goals/assists per 90 is the third best in the squad, behind Imran Louza who has only played 264 mins and Joao Pedro (0.59). Isn’t that exactly the kind of striker you’d want coming off the bench? Given that output Im not sure what else Bilic and Edwards have seen (maybe something in training etc) to demote him below Manaj.
I can't be bothered to check, but from my recollection wasn't Manaj more often brought on when we were already winning and so more needed someone to hold on to the ball, which is where Manaj is preferable?
Even though Bayo's linkup play is poor, I don't think his control and all-round game is quite as terrible as Gray's was. Bayo at least generally seems capable of completing a simple 5-yard layoff to a team-mate when he receives the ball, which was far from a formality with Gray. Bayo's pass completion percentage is currently 71.8% for us, which is pretty weak and the 3rd worst of our regular players this season behind only Gaspar and Ngakia. But Gray's pass completion rate was typically at a shocking c. 66% for us, which is way below any of our current first team (unless you count Hungbo).
Fair. I wasn't directly comparing the two, it's just he repeatedly failed to get the ball under control on the counter yesterday. For what it's worth I think if we consistently created chances/played it into him in the box I think he'd do well as he's clearly a poacher. Maybe if we ever get Louza and Pedro on the pitch at the same time we'll see the best of him. He's also not a total **** like our Andre was.
He was never ours. And a real troublemaker later on with his antics through the lockdown. £17M. £17M. The mind boggles.
I think Davis is significantly more effective. He is just being asked to do a lot more than Bayo is, because Bayo isn't capable of performing the role Davis does. I am sure that if Davis was coming off the bench as an impact sub and playing a more selfish poaching role, his output would increase.
I agree that Davis is a better player, but if he was capable of being an effective poacher, wouldn't he have more than 12 league goals to his name at almost 25 years old?
They both have the same amount of goals I think, Bayo from fewer minutes, although Davis does offer a lot more outside of pure goalscoring, he can hold on to the ball and get us up the pitch which Bayo is pretty useless at. Bayo has tended to be a better option off the bench, he's not tended to be as effective as a starter
Im not suggesting it is something he is suited to, I am just saying that if he played in a more selfish manner (as Bayo does) he would score more goals. However, that would obviously be a total waste of the best parts of his game.
Davis has had the benefit of being consistently picked. Hard to judge Bayo unless he's given the chance to be more than an impact sub
No doubt Davis is technically a better player, but he's not doing much, while also not scoring. Bayo is better in the air, and more likely to score goals. We'll find out I guess anyway as Bayo is our only fit striker for a while
As soon as Davis was fit this season he played. He didn't score but he practically dragged the team up the pitch by himself multiple times vs Norwich, whereas Bayo can't control a football. Bayo is not good enough to start games, two head coaches have seen that already and anyone watching in the stands can see it as well. No wonder Bilic has asked for another striker.
Yeah he turned up against Norwich, but he's been missing since October. Ultimately Davis neither scores or creates goals in a side that isn't prolific, so what's the point? Neither of them are good enough, but I'd currently rather have the striker playing who's more likely to score, and that's Bayo
Both aren't as good as you'd expect in the air for their heights, but I'd agree that Bayo is better in the air than Davis.
Had very high hopes for Davis and at this point I'm sad to say we certainly can't say they've been fulfilled, but at the same time he's one of the best players we have available with the ball, apart from anything else, and he's shown both the ability to finish and, somewhat maddeningly, the rare ability to progress the ball (given how incredibly few players we have capable of that, leading Davis to feel the need to, and therefore render himself less effective as a centre forward as a result). His fitness seems a little inexplicable and several aspects of his game sort of run counter to how you imagine they should - his use of strength among them, for example. But there's no doubt in my mind he should be our starting striker if picked from our current squad. Hopefully we might get the chance to pick from something other than our current squad rather soon.
He's out of juice by about 65 mins so maybe the best compromise when both are fit, and in the absence of alternatives, is that Bayo comes on for him for the last 20 mins or so ?
Well, he might jump higher but he often seems clueless as to how he should, you know, head the ball towards goal. EDIT: as Chumlax has already said.