Libor Kozák (confirmed post #190)

[taylorsworkrate]

Personality and commitment is useless without any quality. I wasn't too impressed with Kozak yesterday, he's too slow to play with Benteke. We shall see!

How unimpressed were you with his goal?

I think Shola Ameobi scored a goal once, so I'm not sure that's the best argument Dave.

From what I've seen of Kozak, he looks like he could become a reasonable striker in the league. I don't think him playing alongside Benteke is going to bear much fruit in the long run though. I think Kozak could flourish in a side that plays with a lot of width.

I fail to see how you can criticise a striker in a game where he scores.

Plenty criticised Bent for his lack of an allround game despite scoring goals.

A striker can score in a game, but still play poorly (not that I think Kozk did yesterday)

I agree that Kozak hasn't looked too bad so far, and has come up with a couple of important goals

[walsall villain]

All too common for fans to write players off after 1 or 2 games. I recall Bacuna was slagged off by some after his first few games. Petrov and Angel took a whole a season to really reach the levels we remember them for (remember WM constantly slagging off Petrov but that's another thread!). Lambert appears to have patience and a lot of belief in the players he signs and hopefully work with them to develop their game. Yesterday's performance was not fantastic from Kozak but you could see he is improving.

[richardhubbard]

He scores 2 goals in 7 appearances , if he plays 25 games and get 7 goals this season , I think be a success. Barring Benteke who had a really impressive first season name another villa player striker who come from in last 20 years with a really impressive strike rate?

Angel was 1 in 4, and and same is Gabby's and in recent years those 2 are viewed as demi gods by certain parts of our support, so lay off him

[supertom]

He's not fantastic in the air with his back to goal so we just need to be mindful of how we use the guy and make his job easier. Get balls into the box and he showed on a few occasions he's got good movement. The goal was a little scrappy but it went in. In the first half he had that header against the post which was good. Granted he was just offside, but he'd shown some clever movement initially to free up some space. Had the ball come half a second later, he'd have been on.

Keep it to his feet, and give him some good service in the box and he'll do okay.

[Chipsticks]

He scores 2 goals in 7 appearances , if he plays 25 games and get 7 goals this season , I think be a success. Barring Benteke who had a really impressive first season name another villa player striker who come from in last 20 years with a really impressive strike rate?

Angel was 1 in 4, and and same is Gabby's and in recent years those 2 are viewed as demi gods by certain parts of our support, so lay off him

While thinking about previous strike rate's, I stumbled upon the fact that Milan Baros now plays for Medical Park Antalyaspor. He may have been the worst marquee signing in history.

[Karl Bridges]

So far he's scored the only goal in a game and the second in a 2-0. That's two points, possibly four knowing our penchant for throwing away leads, he's got us and that might could repay his transfer fee by the end of the season. 

He played an important part in the winner against Man City as well. Despite not getting a touch, it was his challenge that allowed the ball through for Weimann to run onto.

[adrenachrome]

So far he's scored the only goal in a game and the second in a 2-0. That's two points, possibly four knowing our penchant for throwing away leads, he's got us and that might could repay his transfer fee by the end of the season. 

He played an important part in the winner against Man City as well. Despite not getting a touch, it was his challenge that allowed the ball through for Weimann to run onto.

Yup.

[tomd2103]

So far he's scored the only goal in a game and the second in a 2-0. That's two points, possibly four knowing our penchant for throwing away leads, he's got us and that might could repay his transfer fee by the end of the season. 

He played an important part in the winner against Man City as well. Despite not getting a touch, it was his challenge that allowed the ball through for Weimann to run onto.

That's grasping at straws a little. 

[Monty]

So far he's scored the only goal in a game and the second in a 2-0. That's two points, possibly four knowing our penchant for throwing away leads, he's got us and that might could repay his transfer fee by the end of the season. 

He played an important part in the winner against Man City as well. Despite not getting a touch, it was his challenge that allowed the ball through for Weimann to run onto.

That's grasping at straws a little. 

Not really. Yes we relied on a defensive mistake there, but his constant challenging for the ball caused them problems that day.

[pauliewalnuts]

So far he's scored the only goal in a game and the second in a 2-0. That's two points, possibly four knowing our penchant for throwing away leads, he's got us and that might could repay his transfer fee by the end of the season. 

He played an important part in the winner against Man City as well. Despite not getting a touch, it was his challenge that allowed the ball through for Weimann to run onto.

That's grasping at straws a little. 

Although it's just as well he didn't get a touch, as Weimann would have been offside.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

He makes the defenders work and do what they would rather not do.
It may not be striking genius but if he's making the opposition constantly uncomfortable then he's doing a good job.

[ozzjim]

As I said yesterday, if we are going to be direct at home, it is better to have 2 men up than 1. He holds it well, brings others in and I thought actually helped Benteke get in the game a lot more than if he was on his own up top. He is not pretty, and is certainly a yard short of being a top player, but he will be effective against the type of side we played yesterday.

[taylorsworkrate]

I think its a fair comment about the side he played Ozzjim. He looked ok yesterday, but had a bit of a shocker against Spurs

[tomd2103]

He makes the defenders work and do what they would rather not do.
It may not be striking genius but if he's making the opposition constantly uncomfortable then he's doing a good job.

I honestly don't think I saw him win a flick on yesterday against Caulker and Turner.  As others have mentioned it is still very early days for him and he definitely needs time. 

[ozzjim]

He won 3-4 in the first half.