Zohore.....again

[Tuerto]

A couple of seasons back he lost the ball, chased back 30yds to tackle the defender on the half way line, won the ball, rang back at the defence, played a one-two, and nearly scored. He can do it, he just hasn't got the heart..

I think you have a point. He looks like he's somewhere else, drained of confidence, self belief and anything else in between. Maybe it's his character that we should be looking at. I've posted enough crap about Zohore, my main issue is that I don't really know what kind of player he is. Not a natural striker, a wide man or Number ten. If he isn't playing well or involved then he doesn't really have that ability to influence a game in other ways. Warnock was his saviour, maybe he's turned into his nightmare and needs something else. Ken's form dipped pretty much after we went more direct and players weren't getting close to him. I'm not saying that's the reason, but it seems that he is struggling to do the basics right now.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

A couple of seasons back he lost the ball, chased back 30yds to tackle the defender on the half way line, won the ball, rang back at the defence, played a one-two, and nearly scored. He can do it, he just hasn't got the heart..

His form in the second half of 2016/17 was exceptional, even by the standards of some of the best City strikers. He never really lived up to that potential last season, sadly, and I agree that mostly it's down to heart and effort.

[Wolff]

4 4 1 1 is basically 4 5 1 just with an advanced midfielder, and it isn't working, I don't think anything will work with the players we have. There's a severe lack of pace and thinking in the midfield apart from camarasa who does try and get on the ball. We are so flat at time is unreal. Ralls is way off, and Arter is just wasting energy and getting angry, it needs to be a bit more sophisticated than that. The problem-in my opinion-is that we set up not to lose, that's fine if there's an outlet, or a couple of players with the individual ability to win a game and a defence that can defend, we haven't got any of that at the moment. I reckon that we should press high and go all out to win at home, get higher up the pitch and support the front man, if it means leaving gaps then so be it, we need a win, and our current style and tactics wont allow it. Warnock needs to be braver and allow the midfield to press higher and for the defence to play a higher line. We may get smashed by the better sides, but have more of a chance against teams from the bottom half. Things need to change, we don't look like winning under the current format.

I have to disagree. 4-5-1 is a very different set up, where the striker is the target man, the wide men comes for overlaps and one of the central midfielders move up behind them in the space hopefully created. Then the team can maintain balance defensively, and slowly offer support to the men up front. But most importantly it’s a much more compact set up to compensate for the lack of abilities you mention. I also disagree about Arter. I think he leads by example on how much work the players need to put in. Every time he looses the ball, he goes straight after it. We do that often, press up high. But we are easy to play through, and all thought Tottenham didn’t exploit that with movement in their team, others have, and will.

[Tuerto]

I have to disagree. 4-5-1 is a very different set up, where the striker is the target man, the wide men comes for overlaps and one of the central midfielders move up behind them in the space hopefully created. Then the team can maintain balance defensively, and slowly offer support to the men up front. But most importantly it’s a much more compact set up to compensate for the lack of abilities you mention. I also disagree about Arter. I think he leads by example on how much work the players need to put in. Every time he looses the ball, he goes straight after it. We do that often, press up high. But we are easy to play through, and all thought Tottenham didn’t exploit that with movement in their team, others have, and will.

Ok, 451 is more defensive, although you have wingers who attack, and who either tuck in or track back-no overlapping fullbacks, although I can't see a huge difference in what I've described as to how we play now. As for Arter working hard after losing possession, then maybe he should work on keeping the ball for a bit longer and put that energy into something more positive I can't see what people see in him.

[life on mars]

Something is not right with the lad , and for me even if your off form , you can always just put that effort and desire in ,does he do that , is the question we have to all ask .

[Wolff]

His form in the second half of 2016/17 was exceptional, even by the standards of some of the best City strikers. He never really lived up to that potential last season, sadly, and I agree that mostly it's down to heart and effort.

Didn’t he have a broken season last year? Injuries and never got going?

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Didn’t he have a broken season last year? Injuries and never got going?

Never got going at the start, either. Great goal at Burton, but that was as good as it got, really.

[Tuerto]

Never got going at the start, either. Great goal at Burton, but that was as good as it got, really.

Not sure that's the case, certainly played well against Villa and Sheff utd? I seem to recall that he started to slip after we battered Leeds at home, he wasn't scoring many but his contribution was good. Maybe others could weigh in as my memory is shit.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Not sure that's the case, certainly played well against Villa and Sheff utd? I seem to recall that he started to slip after we battered Leeds at home, he wasn't scoring many but his contribution was good. Maybe others could weigh in as my memory is shit.

There's some truth to that. However, he didn't really show last season the form he did in the previous season.

[Zenith]

He's got a good set of attributes to be a 10-15 goal per season striker in the Prem. Though we've not seen any of these this season and his performances have been lethargic and tiresome, not sure why as this is the biggest level a player will often play at.

[the other bob wilson]

People mention Zohore not chasing down "lost causes" these days - I've no problem with that because the clue is in the word "lost". Now, if you are talking about your main striker trying to put defenders under pressure as part of an overall high pressing approach, then that's a different matter, but at City, strikers, be they Zohore or Ward (Madine is too immobile to do it), have been pointlessly running from side to side chasing defenders who easily pass by them by finding midfielders who receive the ball with time and space to spare because the press by the striker is not being replicated in other areas of the pitch - if Zohore's "laziness" is down to problems motivating himself to use up most of his running power on something which barely ever performs a positive service for his team, then I can sympathise with him to a degree.

Having said that, this cannot be used to excuse Zohore's form this season - whereas you get the impression that Ward is trying his hardest for the team in all aspects of the game, Zohore is given an impression that he would rather be somewhere else. I rate Zohore and so have probably been guilty of finding excuses to justify poor performances from him in the past, but it is getting harder to do that because he is wasting a huge opportunity for himself. At his best, Zohore is a Premier League level performer and our prospects would look so much brighter if he was playing to somewhere near that level, but, certainly since he returned from his injury last season he has only turned in the occasional performance which repeated what we were seeing from him in the second half of 16/17.

it is hard for whoever plays the lone striker role for Cardiff because we don't tend to be quick to get support up to him when he receives the ball,(usually from a long clearance), but Zohore was coping with that at one time, now, for whatever reason his mobility is less than it was and he is either unable or unwilling to display the pace which enabled him to be a very effective runner in the channels (that's how I think we should use him - forget about his size and utilise his real assets).

[Taunton Blue Genie]

People mention Zohore not chasing down "lost causes" these days - I've no problem with that because the clue is in the word "lost". Now, if you are talking about your main striker trying to put defenders under pressure as part of an overall high pressing approach, then that's a different matter, but at City, strikers, be they Zohore or Ward (Madine is too immobile to do it), have been pointlessly running from side to side chasing defenders who easily pass by them by finding midfielders who receive the ball with time and space to spare because the press by the striker is not being replicated in other areas of the pitch - if Zohore's "laziness" is down to problems motivating himself to use up most of his running power on something which barely ever performs a positive service for his team, then I can sympathise with him to a degree.

Having said that, this cannot be used to excuse Zohore's form this season - whereas you get the impression that Ward is trying his hardest for the team in all aspects of the game, Zohore is given an impression that he would rather be somewhere else. I rate Zohore and so have probably been guilty of finding excuses to justify poor performances from him in the past, but it is getting harder to do that because he is wasting a huge opportunity for himself. At his best, Zohore is a Premier League level performer and our prospects would look so much brighter if he was playing to somewhere near that level, but, certainly since he returned from his injury last season he has only turned in the occasional performance which repeated what we were seeing from him in the second half of 16/17.

it is hard for whoever plays the lone striker role for Cardiff because we don't tend to be quick to get support up to him when he receives the ball,(usually from a long clearance), but Zohore was coping with that at one time, now, for whatever reason his mobility is less than it was and he is either unable or unwilling to display the pace which enabled him to be a very effective runner in the channels (that's how I think we should use him - forget about his size and utilise his real assets).

It's shocking that a striker of his height (6' 3.5") doesn't genuinely challenge for most headers. And when he has a clear header on goal he usually makes a pig's ear of it. We can't escape relegation without a regular goalscorer up front.