Jordan Bowery

[eastie]

Bowery is basically a back up target man and playing him totally out of position yesterday did nobody any favours , dawkins can play the wide attacking midfield role and i cant see why bowery was played out of position.

As some people have already said, he was probably a starter because he is quite tall and fairly strong and would be more useful than someone like Dawkins when it came to defending against a team who are strong at set-pieces.  I'd be suprised if he starts in that position again outside of games against the Stokes/West Hams of the league.

In fact this is one of the few games of the season where I think Lambert got the tactics/squad selection bang on.

Maybe but i would rather we concentrate on playing to our strengths rather than worrying too much about the opposition - we looked far better balanced once dawkins came on .

[not3bad]

I expect the plan was to bring on Dawkins when the opposition had tired a bit.

[LeeB]

I expect the plan was to bring on Dawkins when the opposition had tired a bit.

I think this is what the less enlightened of our support struggle with.

The fact you can use subs to change the game in a premeditated fashion, instead of just reacting to a situation.

[dekko]

Bowery is basically a back up target man and playing him totally out of position yesterday did nobody any favours , dawkins can play the wide attacking midfield role and i cant see why bowery was played out of position.

As some people have already said, he was probably a starter because he is quite tall and fairly strong and would be more useful than someone like Dawkins when it came to defending against a team who are strong at set-pieces.  I'd be suprised if he starts in that position again outside of games against the Stokes/West Hams of the league.

In fact this is one of the few games of the season where I think Lambert got the tactics/squad selection bang on.

Maybe but i would rather we concentrate on playing to our strengths rather than worrying too much about the opposition - we looked far better balanced once dawkins came on .

I agree about playing to your strengths (and that we looked a lot better when Dawkins came on) but given how much people were shitting themselves about the aerial threat Carrol etc  presented I still think starting with another Big Lad was the most pragmatic choice.

Plus I love a good impact sub

[Drummond]

Right now we need mature, proven quality. That's Bent. Not Bowery. It's up to Lambert to find a system that accommodates the former.

No, we need results and players playing on merit.

Precisely. For all we know, Bowery may have been amazing in training, works really hard and deserves his chance as a team player.

In the end, Bowery played, didn't cost us anything despite some loss of control and didn't create much though played some nice passes. And we won the match.

[Chrisupnorth]

Right now we need mature, proven quality. That's Bent. Not Bowery. It's up to Lambert to find a system that accommodates the former.

No, we need results and players playing on merit.

Precisely. For all we know, Bowery may have been amazing in training, works really hard and deserves his chance as a team player.

In the end, Bowery played, didn't cost us anything despite some loss of control and didn't create much though played some nice passes. And we won the match.

How low our expectations have fallen.  Very sad.

[Risso]

I expect the plan was to bring on Dawkins when the opposition had tired a bit.

I think this is what the less enlightened of our support struggle with.

The fact you can use subs to change the game in a premeditated fashion, instead of just reacting to a situation.

To be fair, when it comes to tactics, effective substitutions and changing games, Lambert has hardly proved himself to be a master this season.

[dave.woodhall]

Right now we need mature, proven quality. That's Bent. Not Bowery. It's up to Lambert to find a system that accommodates the former.

No, we need results and players playing on merit.

Precisely. For all we know, Bowery may have been amazing in training, works really hard and deserves his chance as a team player.

In the end, Bowery played, didn't cost us anything despite some loss of control and didn't create much though played some nice passes. And we won the match.

How low our expectations have fallen.  Very sad.

That's more like it. We haven't had a good "How low have we fallen?" for ages.

[Chrisupnorth]

Not how far we have fallen, but how far our expectations have fallen. Distinct difference.

[dave.woodhall]

Not how far we have fallen, but how far our expectations have fallen. Big distinction.

Really? I can't see any at all. We sign a player for peanuts from Chesterfield, he did okay on his full debut and most people accept that as reasonable. There's no change there between him and every other similar player we've signed for as long as I can remember.

[Chrisupnorth]

Most people on here are looking for any positives they can in a season most of us would rather forget already. I don't blame them for that, but clearly Bowery is out of his depth at this level and looked every inch as much yesterday. He may be good enough for many on here, but I expect much better for my club.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

The kid cost next to fuck all, he's barely been played in his proper position of centre forward.
Time will tell if he can hack it, but he needs to be played where he's grown up playing.

Was it £500,000?
We certainly won't lose anything on that.

[Chrisupnorth]

That's not the point.  We have a multi-million pound proven international goal scorer sat on the bench, while we play a £500,000 recruit out of position ahead of him. It makes no sense whatsoever.

[Jockey Randall]

That's not the point.  We have a multi-million pound proven international goal scorer sat on the bench, while we play a £500,000 recruit out of position ahead of him. It makes no sense whatsoever.

We played him for one game. As Gabby was unavailable and Bowery offered more against a physical side like west ham than the other options would. It makes perfect sense. That striker referred to doesn't do a great deal when you're not creating chances for him. I'm sure the reasons he's not playing have been explained to him and I'm glad he looks like he's accepted it and is getting on with it like a professional should. He didn't exactly look pissed off when we scored did he?

[Drummond]

My expectations haven't fallen, I'm just being a realist in a season that isn't exactly going as well as we would hope.
We won a match in which a young player made his debut. Of course you probably expect is to try and win every game by 3 goals... I'll take the three points, I'd be more than happy if we played that badly and won every game 2-1.

What expectations do you have?