Taylor or Zola ?

[Griff]

Taylor or Zola ?

Its early in the season, but who do you guys think should be leading the line with Greenacre ?

Taylor looks to be good at holding the line and is a classic target man, yet isnt mobile.

Zola has pace and is mobile, but often looses his head (and the ball) in front of goal.

My opinion is to stick with Taylor and bring on Zola as a sub, but if Zola's contribution starts to tell and Taylor does not chip in on the goal front, then Zola deserves to get a start, even if its just to aid in his confidence/development.

 

[nomur]

I would agree Griff. Leave things as they are because I don't think we've seen the full potential of this pairing yet and of course if Zola starts coming on and putting them away let see.

I would hope by the time we get to the Hull Cup game on August 21st we'll be better at set pieces and Greenacre & Taylor will use the ball feed more from Shuker, Ellison & Mullin (and Tremarco).

 

[NeverBeatDaveHiggins]

I'm delighted that this board hasn't been infected by any of the muppets currently posting on some of the other fansites, saying things like "taylore is like tootally uselss an lazy iznit" or such barely-comprehensible rubbish.

I agree with both the previous posters on this thread so far - Taylor and Greenacre ought to be our first choice strike pairing, given time to build an understanding they will terrorise defenses in this division, and having Zola on the bench to cause confusion to all is a potent weapon.

Taylor isn't the quickest player ever, certainly more in the Niall Quinn / Gary Jones mould than Chrissy Malkin / Ian Moore - but it's clear from the link-up play that he attempts to build during matches that he's a quality player who the likes of Greenacre should be able to feed off.

 

[I swear she touched my...]

Totally and utterly agree with all of the above. Watching the game against Oldham highlighted what potential these two have. They've both showed glimpses of what they can do.

Ok, we've crossed the spectrum already.. won 1 drawn 1 lost 1 but this is a team in transition, still getting to know each other and I firmly believe Greenacre and Taylor will do the biz for us.

Zola has improved since he came to us and he is definately worth having on the bench and bringing on in the later stages of a game. His size and pace would be enough to unsettle the most stolid of defences when hopefully they've been pulled from pillar to post by G&T already

Early days yet as we all know but I'm looking to around game 10-12 to see how we are really doing this season and I'm hoping like the rest of us we are pushing near the top half of the table. :wink:

 

[nomur]

I'm just listening to Ronnie's thoughts before training today. The Radio article on World is titled:

"It's A Matter Of Time Before We Give Someone A Hiding"

Does anyone remember "Stan Laurel" saying anything remotely as confident as that last season???

 

[Birkenhead Born and Bred]

Taylor deserves a chance but I would start Zola aginst Yeovil because I can see Taylor has it there but because I feel he hasnt settled yet it has effected his performances but if you give Taylor games his confidence might rise so im in 2 minds at the mo

 

[Banana Army]

I'm just listening to Ronnie's thoughts before training today. The Radio article on World is titled:

"It's A Matter Of Time Before We Give Someone A Hiding"

Does anyone remember "Stan Laurel" saying anything remotely as confident as that last season???

Thats so uplifting and confidence boosting, compared to last year with Brian going on about we were unlucky, we will defend our way to a draw etc! There must be such an improvement in moral amongst the squad

 

[Al Jolson Singing Mammy]

I'm delighted that this board hasn't been infected by any of the muppets currently posting on some of the other fansites, saying things like "taylore is like tootally uselss an lazy iznit" or such barely-comprehensible rubbish

i bet that really got your back up didnt it

i mean the sentence structure and poor grammar alone is enough to get NBDH foaming at the mouth

 

[Joe_TRFC]

Nice to hear Ronnie say that and hope it happens... think we should stick with Taylor for the moment. We haven't clicked up front yet but he is getting better and I thought he did well Doncaster and he will get better if he keeps playing. Also I think Zola will cause many more problems coming off the bench.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Only seen Taylor twice so far this season for us, so don't feel it right to comment on him as a player. The bit I have seen is he's slow, but he is 33 so to be expected. He holds it up well and can bring others into play.

As a contrast Zola doesn't have the best control but can cause havoc running at people ala 10 mins vs Oldham and irritate defenders.

Think it's good we have 2 good options to partner Chrissy, and am sure Ronnie will use them both to full effect if possible. Am sure with a good week on the training ground, all our strikers can improve and we'll see some goals from them on Saturday.

 

[Ian]

I've added a poll to this thread Griff, hope you didn't mind. Gives us more of a clear indication who we are voting for.

I would say stick with Taylor. He's got great experience and I believe for Greenacre to get a lot of goals which we would all like to see, he needs to have the best player around him. I think Taylor will slowly but surely become very effective for us, as his hold up play is excellent and more games with these two up front, we should start seeing results. They are still learning from each other and how the other one plays.

I'm sure most of you know, but I do like to back Zola when given the chance as I feel he sometimes gets pointless flack and not much praise when he does good things. I honestly believe Zola is getting better as a player. He seems a lot more confident now, and is a great player to have on the bench. He can cause havoc as Coops says, and because of his akward style, can really make a difference.

However I still feel he's improving and isn't quite there yet. The experience of Taylor and his holdup play is far more vital I believe.

 

[Boz]

At this stage I would stick with the current pairing a little longer to see if things click and whether Gareth Taylor seems to become more tuned to the players about him. There were some good ball from the midfield and wings at Doncaster, which he didn't anticipate.

However the benefits of not taking your place for granted have been illustrated by the vast improvements in Goodison's performances thus far. I saw a bit of Taylor in his Man City days and he wasn't a gut-buster then. Is there an element of complacency in his make-up? It did baffle me that it was Chris Greenacre that got subbed on Saturday, although Zola didn't make much impact when he came on.