Sorry no it wasn’t aimed at you directly, it’s just something I think a lot of fans of all clubs, not just Walsall tend to do.
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Not just about goals, though he’s proven himself to be pretty clinical. He contributes far more in the build up than he’s given credit for and perhaps suits our approach better than Johnson.
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Yeah that’s a different question. I think Draper suits the style of football Sadler wants… but I don’t think that makes DJ any worse of a player.
It does beg the question why we signed DJ though…
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Freddie’s stats at drogheda don’t tell the whole story. It took him a while to get going. For the first few matches, he missed a good few sitters, but you could see he was a player. I’d always worry about forwards who don’t get into the right positions, but he was getting into right positions and getting chances. I knew the goals would eventually come.
Once he got going, he just couldn’t stop. He started to get targeted by defenders off the ball but never let his head drop. Defenders were terrified of him. Was devestated we couldn’t hold on to him. Love his attitude in the pitch, if he keeps going like he was at drogheda, gets a couple of breaks, I think this lad has the potential to go far
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I think Johnson is more than capable of playing the lone striker role and offers a lot more than he is given credit for. He has had very limited opportunities, played a big part in the goal v Forest Green and played an absolutely superb through ball for Hutch again last night. He is a clever player who seems to have been penned as a player that can only finish.
Not suggesting he should start ahead of Draper at all, he has been superb but it’s almost as if Johnson has been written off altogether now. We will probably need him sooner or later to step up again.
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The above post is the one I was referring to not the one you’ve quoted “not on the Radar “
I don’t think that’s been suggested, just that Draper is deservedly ahead in the pecking order at this moment.
Sure DJ has a big part to play this season and is more than sharp enough, that clipped ball for Hutch last night shows exactly what he offers. But if DJ had scored that second goal like FD did last night some would be commenting on how we’ve missed his experience and clinical finishing.
Ultimately, it’s a question of whether we can persist with Draper knowing we might lose him in January, and for that reason I’d agree that Johnson needs more starts.
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Yep, agree there.
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Just mentioned that above, wonderful bit of play. Certainly not suggesting Johnson isn’t a very good player for us, his departure broke us last season, and I’m not sure he’s being written off either.
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Written off was probably the wrong term.
It seems the general feeling is DJ can’t play the lone striker role. I don’t agree with that and never have. It would look different to Draper playing it but there is no reason at all it can’t work in my opinion.
You can’t fault Draper though, he has knocked in more goals already than I expected. Two of his goals last night are goals I’d expect DJ to knock in also but that second goal was a finish of the highest quality, some real composure that will make teams in higher leagues take notice.
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Dj needs good service to be affective whereas Draper can create his own opportunities and he is more of a team player. Dont get me wrong DJ can still have a big part to play in this season but while Draper is at the club hes definitely at the top of tge pecking order.
Why isn’t DJ a team player ?
I didnt say he wasn’t lol.
I don’t understand where you get the inference that DJ is less of a team player. Based on what?
Previous clubs issues with him and his reaction to being subbed off earlier in the season shows me hes not such a great team player.
I think that’s nonsense.
There must be something in it everywhere he goes he falls out of favour despite him being a bagsman.
Think he proved himself as a lone striker last season, just the approach is different now.
I felt Flynn’s game was to get the ball into dangerous areas as soon as possible and create chaos in the opposition box, and that really suited a quality poacher like Johnson. We’re more measured under Sadler, and the lone forward has needed to drop deep, mix it up physically, give and go.
I’m not saying Johnson can’t do that, but it’s very suited to Draper’s game and that may be why he’s being favoured by MS at this point.
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However god draperies doesn’t really matter as we lose him in January and will be no better than mid table anyway
If we don’t use these quality players same with bennet to Atleast fight for the playoffs we may aswell have just not had draper used Matt saved the money and not done anything in the league for yet another year anyway
Yeah but I’m pretty sure the whole post gives that some context.
As in had we known we were going to sign DJ and one of Oteh or DJT I don’t think we’d have needed to sign an 19 year old on loan other than for cover. 5 forwards is overkill.
No one was going to anticipate us playing a system that only had one striker and absolutely no one would’ve anticipated anyone other than DJ being our main striker.
What I’m certain of is I didnt see Draper score 8 goals and then suggest we shouldn’t have signed him and my comments regarding him receiving some praise I considered a little OTT, at the time, would’ve been among the period he scored once in his first 5 games. Again I never said I didn’t rate him or that he didn’t have potential, I simply said he hadn’t yet done enough to warrant some of the praise being heaped on him.
Since then and particularly over the last 4 games he has deserved every bit of it with the exception of the MK game where he clearly needed a rest….which he got…and has been the catalyst for his immediate form.