Southend United (A) Tue 23rd Oct, 7.45pm

I personally think Zeli’s been disappointing for a while now and would do well on the side lines.

He looks like he’s bulked up to me and doesn’t have the same zip he had.

Not sure about the weight but wingers are notorious for being good some weeks and poor others…remember Willie Naughton,Scott Houghton ,Gary Childs etc. I just think Zeli is a good player others may disagree which is fine.

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He’s unquestionably a good player. He’s just been poor for some weeks now. Kieron Morris on the other hand has been lively every time he’s played and is sat on the bench most weeks.

I’m not saying drop him because he’s useless. I’m saying drop him because it might be best for him in the long run.

I’d say the same of Ginnelly and Osbourne.

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Agreed, especially regarding Osbourne. Kinsella was fantastic at Bristol Rovers and although I wasn’t at Luton, it doesn’t sound as if anybody covered themselves in glory there.

Because Kinsella is busier and more mobile than Osbourne I think he lifts the defensive burden on Dobson. When Dobson has more freedom to play and join the attack, I think the whole team improves.

I’d agree to an extent.

I think the Cook signing hasn’t really paid off - he’s looked a long way off the standard whenever I’ve seen him, and I think that’s screwed up Keates’ plans.

May get shot down for saying this, but I’d take Bakayoko over Cook right now.

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Hmm he’s only 6 league goals off the amount Baka managed in his entire time here so I wouldn’t go that far, but that’s more because Baka is terrible than Cook has been good.

But when I said he needs to bank on players that have performed best this season Andy Cook isn’t in that bracket. Change of formation or personnel I don’t think he warrants a starting place at the moment.

According to SaddlersStats we’ve scored 13 of our 15 goals when Andy Cook has been on the pitch.

He’s not been amazing but offers more than some give him credit for.

It hasn’t helped that our forward players all seem to have gone off the boil at the same time. Combine this with the fact that we haven’t got a natural goal scorer in the side then we are bound to struggle. Nothing against the forward players but when a chance drops to one of them, you don’t have the same confidence that they are going to find the net as you did with say, Bradshaw. Even if he was having a bad game, you knew he’d score of a chance fell to him.

With the midfield, if we play 4-4-2, then Osbourne simply can’t play. He’s hasn’t got the legs to get up and down all game. He’s generally pretty good on the ball, but he’s so knackered when he’s got it that he can’t affect the game. Dobson has been brilliant all season but is becoming less effective every game due to him having to do the work of two men. He’s spending more time defending than he is driving the team forward

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Would rather have this blip come along now than later on in the season with the solid start we’ve made and hopefully we can pick up momentum with players coming into the side i.e Martin and Edwards

Think Edwards and Dobson will be a very good midfield partnership and Martin should improve the defence

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The sad fact is that if we still had Bakayoko he would be our first choice striker. There is no way he would be left out of the side in favour of Andy Cook or Ferrier.

I was glad when we sold Bakayoko because I thought that we had signed better forwards to replace him, unfortunately I was wrong.

Morgan Ferrier 13 League Apps 3 Goals

Andy Cook 13 League Apps 3 Goals

Amadou Bakayoko 93 League Apps 9 goals.

I’ll go out on a limb and say both of these players will have amassed 9 goals by the time they reach their 93 league appearance. They’ve got 6 to get in 80 to be as good as Baka…

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Morgan Ferrier is miles ahead of Bakayoko. Cook on the other hand, I think he’ll score more but I really don’t think he’s a massive upgrade. It’s like going from an iPhone 5s to a 6s. A little better in performance but there isn’t a fat lot of difference.

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Mmm I think he holds the ball up much better and is a much better finisher, but to be fair he doesn’t have anywhere near the pace that Baka has. On balance I’d still rather have Cook.

Oh yeah I’d rather have Cook all day long. I don’t think he’s as good as he thinks though. I desperately want him to do well.

Ferrier is a like-for-like upgrade on Baka and Cook is a completely different type of striker. He’d be bench-warming if he was still here.

I don’t even think he’d make our bench, Gordon is a far better option and in his brief appearances has shown he’s got far more about him than Bakayoko ever has in his 93 games

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:gun:

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I’ll point, you shoot!