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Billy Sharp - unfit?


doddisalegend
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Right having had the chance to see Sharp a couple of times I'm impressed with his movement and postioning. He gets in to dangerous postions which is half the battle for a striker. However watching him today he looks awfully slow and off the pace, seemed to get beaten to the ball quite a few times by Derby defenders, and just looks knackered after a short time. Does anyone else think that the fitness trainning at Donny might not be up to Nigels exacting standards? I'm hoping the saints back room staff can work their magic with Billy like they have with Lambert becuase I reckon if we can find Billy an extra yard of pace he will be one hell of a player.

 

In the mean time Lee looks sh it hot to...

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I fear it may be a little lack of confidence, he looks to me like a man who is putting himself under pressure to deliver. He scored in his last home game but the performance he put in at Upton Park wasn't the best. He needs to score an important goal (not a knee in by an opposing defender...) to really get himself going. Once he is away he'll thrive.

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Think he'll turn out to be a cracking signing but Nigel has already said he's got some niggles which may be impacting on his fitness & sharpness. Add that to him needing to adapt to the team & them to him & the problem is possibly exacerbated. Once over his injuries & fully fit & he'll be fine for us & a great foil for Lambert.

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I think it's a combination of a lack of confidence and not being quite up to our standards of fitness.

 

It's always good if a striker gets off to a good start at gets a goal early on, but he's still waiting at the mo (there is no way I'm giving him the goal against Burnley....).

 

What you can say though is that his movement is terrific, he's always making clever runs on the shoulders of the centre backs - and he works his flaming arse off. If he carries on that, gets fitter, and gets a goal - then they'll start flowing. I'm pretty sure of that.

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His twitter account also says he follows Skate players. No seen him but since he arrives he's been involved in more bad things than good. Must be difficult commuting from one end of the country to the Southern Riviera but then moving from the Far East to play in the UK takes guts and can't be easy for Chung

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I remember Adkins describing him as "fit, but not Saints fit".

 

Is that like Adkins asking people if players were Jonno quick?

 

There is doubting the lads goal scoring ability, he'll be a big player for us, just needs time to settle.

Edited by Turkish
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Think he'll turn out to be a cracking signing but Nigel has already said he's got some niggles which may be impacting on his fitness & sharpness. Add that to him needing to adapt to the team & them to him & the problem is possibly exacerbated. Once over his injuries & fully fit & he'll be fine for us & a great foil for Lambert.

 

This is correct, plus the fact he is about 10 lbs over weight. He will be a very good player again but I think it's going to take a big chunk of this run in to see that.

 

What I don't agree with is the fit with Lambert. I would prefer to have seen the type of player who gives us a different option and takes Lambert's game to another level. You can definitely see the possibilities but it will be based around Billy scoring shed loads with Lambert giving up some of his game.

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Right having had the chance to see Sharp a couple of times I'm impressed with his movement and postioning. He gets in to dangerous postions which is half the battle for a striker. However watching him today he looks awfully slow and off the pace, seemed to get beaten to the ball quite a few times by Derby defenders, and just looks knackered after a short time. Does anyone else think that the fitness trainning at Donny might not be up to Nigels exacting standards? I'm hoping the saints back room staff can work their magic with Billy like they have with Lambert becuase I reckon if we can find Billy an extra yard of pace he will be one hell of a player.

 

In the mean time Lee looks sh it hot to...

 

Given the obvious factor of injuries etc, Donnie's side doesn't look THAT bad on paper, but of course they don't play games on paper...

I just think he's been trained poorly and hasn't got upto speed with a top of the table side yet, but agree he looks the part..though maybe not for 90 mins. yet

 

I think NA will give both him and Lee 45 mins. each for a few games to see who develops best ....

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Whatever happened to signing a player and them earning the right to get selected in the team. He did not do that and has been thrown in for starts straight away instead of getting games from the bench as we bed him in. There is no way he should have been selected before Guly and Connolly up front. There is an argument for him being selected before Lee as he has bags of Championship experience but after Lee's goal yesterday he has slipped behind him for now. Sharp will come good, that there is no doubt.

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When Beattie recommended Saints to Billy, I hope he didn't pass on all the addresses of the muffin parlours he used to frequent. 10 lbs overweight is nothing, he should have easily lost that amount since his arrival unless due to injury he has been told to wait till they've cleared up.

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why do you say that, he didn't at Sheffield United?

 

Billy did very well in his career - both before and after his time at Sheff.Utd. where he scored 12 times in 51 games, but it should be remembered that part

of that time James Beattie was quite successful in his time at Sheff Utd. and was their first choice striker.

 

During the loan period and subsequent signing Billy was very good at Donnie and his strike rate was up around 0.50% goals per game (an excellent figure).

 

Overall, Billy has scored 120 goals in 263 games, a good figure in itself (even allowing for the low water mark in his time at Bramall Lane).

 

Donnie were a half-reasonable side last season, but this season really have dropped down a lot. However, he was good enough to score against Saints when Donnie took 3 points off us in December.

He hasn't been subject to the Saints training regime for very long and can hardly be expected to look like " the finished article " in only a few games.

 

If he's going to be any real good this season, we should see some results by Easter time.

Edited by david in sweden
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on another note....remember some having a break down because we never sign craig mackail-smith...?

 

can't make the 1st team at brighton anymore and is on the bench

 

He's just a L1 goal scorer tbh. The same happened to him with Posh the last time they were up, he scored goals - about 8 or 9 - but no where near as prolific as in L1.

 

Can't believe they forked out up to £3.5m for him.

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He's just a L1 goal scorer tbh. The same happened to him with Posh the last time they were up, he scored goals - about 8 or 9 - but no where near as prolific as in L1.

 

Can't believe they forked out up to £3.5m for him.

 

I'll be honest I thought he'd do better this time out...very much a player who is all about hard work rather than silky skills. Then again maybe Posh just played to his strengths and Brighton don't.

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on another note....remember some having a break down because we never sign craig mackail-smith...?

 

can't make the 1st team at brighton anymore and is on the bench

 

He had ONE good season in the four he had at Posh. Strikers are dependant on the service they get and the other players around them.

Because someone moves clubs they don't automatically take their success with them...eg.. Andy Carroll.

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Watch him in interviews - he looks petrified. I know it's very early on, but it's possible he hasn't got the bottle to perform at bigger clubs. Hope i'm wrong.

 

I agree that he does look a little like a fish out of water in some ways and it doesn't look as if he is settling as quickly as I thought he would. I am slightly concerned that it's going to take a while. However, if anyone can develop him it's NA whom he knows and has worked with in the past. As a previous poster mentioned, a good NA pre-season and I reckon he'll be fine. In the meantime we can afford to 'blood' him in gently considering we still have Lee and Connelly as backup.

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Nothing's being over analysed. The blokes looked properly nervous since he signed for us.

 

Paul Scholes always looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in front of the camera when being interviewed & he did ok!! I guess it's something not everyone is comfortable with & hopefully it's not indicative of his state of mind as a player. For me, it's more about losing the niggles, gaining fitness & fitting into our patterns of play before we'll see his best.

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I remember Adkins describing him as "fit, but not Saints fit".

 

That sounds about right - look at Richardson's lethargic performances last season after his pre-season injury compared to him this season when he had a full pre-season behind him, it's been the difference between him chipping 40 yarders generally at Lambert because he was knackered and bombing up and down past defenders and whipping crosses in. A "Saints-fit" Sharp will be ripping defences apart with his movement, he causes plenty of problems now just by being a second finisher up with Rickie.

 

Also, he's got a very stocky build, he'll look "fat" even when he's at about 5% body fat.

Edited by The9
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Nothing's being over analysed. The blokes looked properly nervous since he signed for us.[/QUOTE]

 

 

 

good observation Saint Clark...

 

noted that on TV interview he said," I've come from a club second to bottom - to one that is second from top " ...Guess he knows the score already.

 

What we paid for is his potential goal tally for next season - not his problems with acclimatising to SFC only a month after arriving !

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A "Saints-fit" Sharp will be ripping defences apart with his movement, he causes plenty of problems now just by being a second finisher up with Rickie.

 

Also, he's got a very stocky build, he'll look "fat" even when he's at about 5% body fat.[/QUOTE]

 

 

I seem to recall that Steve Moran always seemed to look " a bit chubby " or should I say "stocky," but it didn't stop him banging in the goals !

Edited by david in sweden
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People thought Beattie was a tubby bloke in reality he had a swimmers shoulders and a barrel chest that just created the illusion.

If Sharp was a pit pony I doubt we would have pursued him.

 

 

...we shouldn't forget that "size" doesn't always mean everything!

 

I grew up watching the team with George O'Brien as a striker. Only 5' 6" and was 11 stone when we signed him, and steadily put on weight afterwards.

Not the trainer's dream boy either, but he still managed to bang in 180 goals in 281 starts (1959-1965)

George didn't wait to see the whites in the goalies eyes, and could hit them - left or right foot - from anywhere, and took a pretty mean penalty, too.

 

I hope Billy's aggresive style will create the sort of panic in the box that another former Saint did (in same team as O'Brien) GEORGE KIRBY..few who saw him will ever forget him.

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