Who should we have brought in?

[eamonn]

Jordan Rhodes instead of Gestede?

We'd already filled our Jordan quota.

[mattjpa]

I remember reading a similar view about Benteke from fans of his former club - Blew hot and cold, was lazy and not interested, poor touch etc. He turned out to be (in my opinion) the best attacking player ive ever seen at Villa Park. Gestede and Ayew both look off the pace at the moment but lets give them a chance. We also need to develop play to work to their strengths.

Benteke now looks rubbish at Liverpool every time I see him play and id imagine there are probably similar threads on their forums (overhead worldie aside!)

You can usually tell within minutes as to whether a play has got 'it' or not.  By way of example,  I was so underwhelmed when we signed Withe, but seeing him play his first home you could instantly see he had what was needed.

In my opinion Gestede and Ayew are never going to amount to anything.  They are not off the pace, unfortunately they are not good enough.  There's no pint in trying to get a team built around them.

The option we should be trying is Kozak.  He has got something. 

Well I agree on Kozak but I think your opinion on whether they have "got it" is quite black and white. There are loads of variables that alter how strikers perform - type and number of chances they are getting, match fitness, niggling injuries, keenness to impress, confidence in front of goal, weight of burden that is put on them etc. Look at the strikers that have been signed into the league over the last couple of years who have looked rubbish but been brilliant at other clubs - Bony, Falcao, Benteke, Di Maria, Carroll, Adebayor, Soldado. My point is, its your opinion so it cant be wrong, but we have got a highly paid scouting network in place who have done the research on these two and convinced our executive board to fork out the best part of £20m on them. These were not deadline day panic buys due to others falling through so they must have something.

[oldhill_avfc]

I take your point about the strikers you mention looking good at one club and less so at others - therefore performance is influenced by a number of factors apart from straightforward ability.

But I really can't seen nothing from Ayew or Gestede that gives me any hope.

[Clark W Griswold]

The manager has bought these players and its up to him to get them playing together in the right system to suit all. Upping the tempo would be a start, I don't think you can write off individual players yet except maybe Gabby who has been largely poor for 4 years under different managers. I also think Traore will make a big difference, and it could just be a case of finding which striker works best with him. That bit of extra service could turn an underwhelming Ayew or Gestede into a regular goal scorer. What I will say though is at the moment, looking forwards rather than backwards, a striker looks like the thing to look at in January.

[QuintonVilla]

Ayew looked worse than Agbonlahor when he played, which is some going.

[Monty]

I am disturbed at how bad Ayew looks. He looks like he's playing with buckets on his feet.

[sirlordbaltimore]

a top striker to replace the one going out, and a couple more to replace Bent, Weimann, Gabby and Kozak

[mattjpa]

I take your point about the strikers you mention looking good at one club and less so at others - therefore performance is influenced by a number of factors apart from straightforward ability.

But I really can't seen nothing from Ayew or Gestede that gives me any hope.

If im completely grasping at straws, Gestedes headed goal looked like he could do that with his eyes closed. He has also had a couple of really good snap shots that have gone the wrong side of the post but have shown a promising strikers instinct. But being honest, I tend to agree so far, im really scraping the barrel. In the same time, Andre Ayew has scored 3, got a couple of assists and been voted player of the month which really puts it into persepctive. On the other hand Jordan Ayew has looked completely lost - Ive seen absolutely nothing from him so far. He did however score a really nice goal in international football a couple of weeks back.
Hopefully at least one of them will prove you wrong, starting tomorrow. didnt Gestede score like 5 against Blose last season?!

[Des Little]

Ayew looked worse than Agbonlahor when he played, which is some going.

Shit and Shitter

[oldham_villa]

Out of interest, when does Robinson's loan end? He can finish and moves well?

[KRS]

A lot of the talk pre-season was that we needed to replace Bentekes goals from all corners of the pitch rather than be reliant upon a new CF to carry the burden. It is evident that not only have we not signed a forward capable of scoring a few, we also haven't signed any goal scoring midfielders or any that create a sufficient number of chances for others.

No doubt we have an improved squad upon last season, but the goal scoring problem is as evident as it ever was.

I suppose the signing of sinclair and his 5 goals doesn't count.

I'm not writing off Sinclair...he scored 5 goals in 2 games against Notts County and Sunderland...but that doesn't mean he's the answer to our problems by any stretch of the imagination particularly when he's been largely invisible against Leicester and Baggies.

[kingstanding villa]

The manager didn't buy the players paddy reilly bought the players the same man whos been dishing all the 5 year contracts out. The sooner he is found out and we get rid of the better. The same man who left Liverpool with all the crap they are still trying to get rid of . The same man who signed sissoko not once but twice.

[Ron Manager]

The manager didn't buy the players paddy reilly bought the players the same man whos been dishing all the 5 year contracts out. The sooner he is found out and we get rid of the better. The same man who left Liverpool with all the crap they are still trying to get rid of . The same man who signed sissoko not once but twice.

I see......so Paddy Reilly is in fact the Team Manager. A bet a lot of posters on this site didn't know that!

[PeterWithesShin]

The manager didn't buy the players paddy reilly bought the players the same man whos been dishing all the 5 year contracts out. The sooner he is found out and we get rid of the better. The same man who left Liverpool with all the crap they are still trying to get rid of . The same man who signed sissoko not once but twice.

Paddy Reilly only came back to us in November so we'd already signed Cissokho.

[Dave]

The manager didn't buy the players paddy reilly bought the players the same man whos been dishing all the 5 year contracts out. The sooner he is found out and we get rid of the better. The same man who left Liverpool with all the crap they are still trying to get rid of . The same man who signed sissoko not once but twice.

I see......so Paddy Reilly is in fact the Team Manager. A bet a lot of posters on this site didn't know that!

It's pretty rare these days that a manager scouts, identifies and buys a player.

Paddy Reilly is the Director Of Recruitment - I can't imagine that anybody is being brought in without Sherwood's say-so, but I'd be surprised if the manager was the one spending his time last season taking in Lorient and Nice games to identify our new signings.