by bigmick » Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:50 pm
I went with Bellamy too Daws' but reading some of the posts I hope people don't make the mistake of thinking we've bought a table lamp when it's actually a chair leg, or whatever the quote was. Though he can score goals, Bellamy is not a Fowleresque poaching specialist and I would have thought that if he can score twelve Premiership goals from open play then he would be pretty happy with that.
What he does do is contribute and offer a threat. Not just in scoring a goal but in making one too. Crucially though, he offers real pace and unlike our previous speed merchant Cisse, he actually has some football intelligence aswell.
When he plays alongside Crouch in particular (unlike many I think this is our natural first-choice pairing if we don't add anybody else) , we should see teams struggling with the natural dilemma about where to hold the line. Obviously against players with pace they like to defend deep, whereas against Crouch they would like to defend as high up as possible. It told a thousand tales last season how many times teams were prepared to defend high up when Cisse was playing, taking the gamble with the pace but knowing that he would like as not run offside or in totally the wrong direction. Bellamy won't do that but I suspect he may not be that prolific in front of goal either.
Crouch will though so theres no problem.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".