Tea Light in the Dark Universe: Bobby Wood at Hamburg

What does that tell you?
You are as good as your team is against the competition.

 

That sounds about right. I think he’s probably too familiar with Germany to leave but he strikes me as the type who could do really well in the Eredivisie.

 

Heck if Jozy could, anyone can.

 

Misidjan is a winger. You see the difference? Apples to oranges. He's not expected to score many goals.

I don't want to go through all your examples, but please differentiate the wingers, who are in most cases attacking midfielders, from those that play up front in the center of the attack, and who are tasked with scoring most of the goals. That is a true striker. Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Reus, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Mo Salah, etc.

Aguero, Salah, Ronaldo score at roughly 1 goal per game, which is top class.

If you're not scoring in 1 out 3 games, you are not doing well as a striker, and you're going to be dropped and/or your club will be relegated. If you score in 50% of the games, people will praise you as being a great striker. These rules of thumb are pretty consistent across all levels of play. I didn't make them up. If we want to be more precise, for example, we can look at conversion rate, i.e. goals/chance. That will give us a lot more information. Of course your scoring will depend on both how well your teammates distribute the ball to you and how well you create your own chances.

Do you mean Jacob Bruun Larsen? He's not a starter. He is also a winger. Reus and Alcacer are the strikers who score goals for Dortmund. Max Philipp has 10 goals in 29 games, which is 34%. He's been with the club since 2017, so clearly he only plays sometimes. But 34% is an acceptable (but not great) strike rate.

And that, my friend, is exactly why Hannover 96 will be relegated.

 

Fiete #Arp is set to join #FCBayern from @HSV_English by 2020 at the latest! 👋#MiaSanMia pic.twitter.com/TqegfKIxgO

— FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayernEN) February 7, 2019

He has the option of going in 2019 OR 2020

 

Wood's main issue at HSV is that he's overpaid.

 

Another way of saying he's not good enough for the salary he's earning.

If he were scoring at least at a rate of 7 goals so far (not 3), there may be someone interested in getting him after they go down.

 

it's more than that, HSV have some financial issues and they recently said no player going forward will earn more than $2M/season.

 

I can't see him getting any other club to continue his 3 million a year. Was it 3 million euros or dollars?

I'd figure he returns to Hamburg and probably does well in the 2 Bundesliga or maybe scores 5-7 goals in the BL.

I had high hopes for him. His 2016-17 form was pretty solid. He scored only 5 league goals, but he def looked as though he might have scored double that for them.

 

The players i used are all attackers. They may attack from wide, but they are attackers. Your standard, and the exampls you gave (Kane, Aguero, Suarez, Salah) indicate that you really do not understand how it works for teams in the bottom half of the Bund (or any league).
The point of my post was that your standard is not met by quite a few players who are at this point on clubs who are in the Bund. Therefore they are Bund quality. Saying that players who do not meet your standard are not Bund quality is simply incorrect. Saying they are not top of the Bund quallity is accurate, but the range is much wider than you seem to think.
A goal every three games might be what folks want. For a lot of clubs, that's unrealitistic. They do not necessarily get it. Bobby scored every 2 games for Union in his breakout season, made a huge splash in Germany and set the single season scoring record for Union (17), but in recent seasons, 8 (every four games) to 12 (every 3) had been the club norm for their top scorer. And yet they finish top half of the table.
I am not saying that Wood is having a good season. I maintain that he has shown himself to be a tweener. But there is quite a bit of room between an elite player and someone who makes a squad, sometimes makes the 18. Wood is well within that zone.
BTW, Ronaldo plays on the right, Neymar on the left. Messi on the left, Mbappe on the left. Reus is an AM.

 

Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord apart the Eredivise couldn't pay BL1 money and those three wouldn't pay that to someone who is unlikely to be dramatically improved by their coaching. The sell-on value from taking a prospect and polishing him is their game. Ditto for Belgium. Bobby is long past that stage.

I could see him scoring in Ligue 1 if he was signed by a fourth-to-eighth side, as he'd get decent service and the league is quite open. He'd definitely score in Scotland if the Old Firm signed him. After that it's the Championship.

Maybe Mexico if he wanted to try something left field: they pay OK and he'd be something very unusual in their game..

 

Probably be paid more in the Championship. Isnt that why his former Hamburg teammate went to Leeds?

If I recall, his transfer to Hamurg broke Union Berlin's previous record.

 

It did, and the 2Bl does not pay as well as the championship. For a player like Bobby, MLS might offer him a decent payday, though.
But that is getting ahead. Bobby is still in the Bund.

 

Comes off the bench:

63' 🔁 Zweiter Wechsel unserer Mannschaft: #Wood ersetzt #Weydandt. #H96 #NiemalsAllein ⚫️⚪️💚 | #H96FCN 1:0

— Hannover 96 (@Hannover96) February 9, 2019

 

Hannover win El Kackico

 

And this matters quite a bit, as the goal is in the middle
Saying you don't care whether someone plays on the wing or as a central attacker doesn't make the idea go away, nor does the expectation in goals scored go away. Comparing players from the 2 groups is disingenuous.

No, but you desperately want it to indicate that. Those are examples of strikers as opposed to wingers. They are not standards. I chose famous ones because I wanted to pick ones that you had heard of.

These aren't my standards. They are rules of thumb that clubs use the world over. But they obviously look at all of a player's qualities and watch the games.

No, that's absolutely incorrect, and is at the heart of your cognitive dissonance. Huddersfield Town are in the Premiership of England, but they are not Premiership quality. That's why they will go down.
Just getting a ticket to the dance doesn't mean you can dance. Hannover are of marginal quality, and so they may well go down, too. And they use strikers like Bobby Wood, who are not Bundesliga 1 quality, and that's a part of reason why they will go down.

Clubs that bounce up and down between the first and second division do so because they are marginal and have marginal players.

And guess what happened then? He got picked up by B1 Hamburg!

There is making a squad. There is being a substitute. And there is being a starter. If you score in less than 1 in 3 games (again, a rule of thumb), then clubs probably don't want you as a starting striker. That some clubs find themselves with starting strikers who produce less than that just means that they don't have anyone else better, and that usually means they are facing relegation.

Bobby Wood played striker for Hamburg and they were relegated. Then he moved to Hannover and they may be relegated, too. What rotten luck!
He's totally a victim! You are trying to tap dance around what is an obvious point. Strikers who don't score goals go away.

Hamburg is leading B2 at the moment. If Hannover survive the drop, Bobby may well stay with the club. Hamburg looks like they'll get promoted, nonetheless, so maybe they'll recall Bobby. Who knows? I am a USMNT fan, so of course I want Bobby to succeed. You think I don't? But he hasn't really been successful the past 2 seasons. Let's just be honest about that.

I'm glad you mentioned these things. How else could we know?! Reus is both a forward and an attacking mid. Let's be careful. Are you trying to say that Ronaldo is a winger? Messi? Is there anyone on planet earth who would say that?

Hey, Hannover won today! Maybe they can survive the drop. Maybe Bobby will stay in the Bundesliga and replace Mario "Herman Muenster" Gomez at Stuttgart!

 

I think this was the worst soccer game I have watched all season. It was truly painful. Both teams were terrible. There was no flow. I saw no talent. The pitch was bad. Even the visual and sound quality of the broadcast was bad. It was like Fox was trying to talk me out of my bad decision to watch this game. I dare someone to watch this game. I double-dog dare you.

 

Taking the long way round to pitch a meme that will never catch fire?

 

Only 27 minutes, but at least they got the win.

 

On the bench:

Zunächst auf der #H96-Bank:

Sahin-#Radlinger#Albornoz#Asano#Wood#Sorg#Weydandt#Schwegler#TSGH96 #NiemalsAllein ⚫⚪💚

— Hannover 96 (@Hannover96) February 16, 2019

 

Wood came on in the final 20(?) minutes. This team is terrible. Jonathas, Anton, Korb, Schwegler, Walace, and Felipe just need to get off the field and stay off. They can't pass to each other, they make poor choices even when not under pressure. Who knows how this team's attack is? You can't tell because they can't possess the ball so every attack is a panic rush down field to try and create something before their 15-second turnover clock expires.

The first goal in this game is amazingly poor. From nothing. A hopeful ball down the side comes to Korb, who is defending. He inexplicably heads the ball from the sideline into the middle of the field into the feet of Joelinton (i.e. not his teammate, and the worst possible Hoffenheim player to give to). Joelinton runs 30 yards and puts it into the net.

This collection of defenders and midfielders are so very bad, and proof that you can't just throw some random Brazilians (e.g. Walace, Jonathas, and Felipe) on the field and compete.

At least this game wasn't as bad to watch as the last. Hoffenheim can't finish for crap, (the award for that goes to Hertha this weekend, though) but Hannover is kind enough to give you enough chances that you can finish 30% and still win.

 

Only top and bottom left to reply 👀 pic.twitter.com/ArbUfYXrAi

— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) February 17, 2019

Stuttgart 1 point in last 5 games
Hannover 3 points in last 5 games

 

Still plenty to fight for.

 

Yep, the most shocking thing is that H96 still aren't the worst...