Tea Light in the Dark Universe: Bobby Wood at Hamburg

Not to be horrible, but 32 yo Jermain Defoe arrived mid-season to exactly the same team where Jozy was flopping and matched his scoring tally after 70 Premiership games in three games.

 

And his team was relegated... cause they played a "play to Defoe" game and lost the grinding "get a point somehow" style.

And back across the Atlantic, Jermain's old team was helped to a bit of silverware by Jozy...

Many in soccer mistake weather for climate.

 

correlation =/=causation

but what the hell does this tired old argument have to do with Bobby? He isn't very good simple as. I like the guy and he is probably better than his goals this year, but he is barely a top flight striker.

Even if he was in a team that was creating four or five clear chances a game it is doubtful he would score more than ten in a season. Doesn't hold up well, doesn't combine well, and now if the tweet is to be believed, can't be arsed to chase lost causes in the hope of forcing a lucky break.

That is sad because the one redeeming quality to his game was his work rate.

 

Yeah, I think I got a little heat for saying something similar over the summer, but unfortunately, this is looking the correct read on his game. He really just had that one good season in the 2nd Bundesliga where he was scoring at a good rate, and it looks like that might be an anomaly, not a breakthrough.

 

Bobby is a striker, he's not a midfielder. He can score goals if he gets the ball in dangerous areas. Hamburg are not capable of keeping the ball far up the field for an extended period of time, much less putting him or any of their other players in position to score. Midfielders can carry a team that can't finish but a striker can't finish chances that don't come his way. I'm all for being critical of our nats abroad when they underperform but I don't think that's Bobby's issue here.

I think he should move down in quality of league but up in odds of playing in Europe/relative stature. I think he'd be incredible at a place like Anderlecht or a similar level club around Europe, but being at a bottom-feeder like Hamburg in such a difficult league is a lose-lose. Just my 2 cents.

 

Time to move to Holland, score regularly and earn a move to mid table team in a bigger leaugue.

 

I will just leave it at this: In the year S'land went down Defoe scored 15. S'land scored 29 and gave up 69. GD -40. S'land as a team had never scored less than 40 (or more than 49) in the 10 years before Defoe's second season.

Is Defoe an EPL level striker? Clearly. Was the player Sunderland needed in 16-17? Nope. Should they have sold him (or someone else, or a lot of elses) and gotten midfield/defensive quality? Yes. Do strikers "just need to score?" Not if their scoring means the team drops.

How does this relate to Wood? First, that a Kicker writer questions his work rate is a big shrug. Hamburg not getting points with him on the field is the biggest concern. Wood is not going to score a lot of goals with his midfield, but he needs to keep dogging and battling and drawing attention and helping Hamburg claw out ties. I don't know if he can or will, but that's his first job. Goals without points are useless (except for transfer options.) But if Hamburg can manage a few points (and I doubt they can with this midfield) with Bobby on the field, he may just barely get another chance to see if he can play in the B1.

 

You know we know what **** means just as well as actually writing it out?


Anyway this is about Bobby's level. Problem is Bobby is one of the highest paid players on Hamburg so a lot is expected of him. Hamburg suck but when you suck your top players get the most blame.

 

Blame Hamburg for paying him so damn much when they can use that money in other areas to improve the team.

 

I apologize to the rest of you. The argument is old and tired and it amounts to pro/rel and if anybody would he would go four pages over the same stupid argument to prove his opinion trying to twist it into a fact.

 

I think what Hamburg are missing is the injured and key player of Nicolai Muller as well as Gregoritsch moving to Augsburg. Those 2 were important players scoring 10 goals and providing 10 assists last season between them. Well according to TM, Muller is back in early April, so could contribute in the final 5-7 games of the season.

without them the upper half of the team looks dead and Sakai has been one of the worst players. In plenty of games, they actually played better when he wasn't in the XI. Their is a lack of decent service as well.

concerning midfield, Hamburg seems interested in buying RB's Kaiser. Although he might stay at RB until the end of the season. So from that they do seem to be searching for midfielder.

 

Honestly having watched Hamburg more than I want to, it kinda reminds me of Newcastle. How many of these players would another club in the top league want?

Very few I suspect. Sadly I think Bobby Wood is one of them. But it's not the end of the world if he ends up back in B2 and starts scoring again.

 

You seem nice.

 

Yet not so old and tired that you can't resist. You still seem nice.

 

defoe might have the traits that would make him look decent at a club like sunderland and jozy may not....but that doesnt mean defoe is better than jozy!!

its a team game and teams score goals .... messi wouldnt score as many goals as he does with barcelona as he would if he were playing on hamburg in wood's place. sure he would still score some but not that many, imo.

the point is ...it is about fit...not how good a striker is.

if a striker like brian mcbride had played on a team that couldnt cross the ball at all....he wouldnt score any headers...but that wouldnt mean he wasnt an "EPL-level striker".... .is this really that hard to understand???

Bobby wood is clearly bundesliga quality.....but he isnt good enough to create and score his own goals on a toothless team in the bundesliga....and guess what? a lot of famous and great strikers wouldnt be able to do that either.

only players like messi and ronaldo could score on hamburg....and just because wood isnt on THAT level doesnt mean he isnt good. he would score a lot on a team that matched his style of play....in any league.

 

I actually think he made the right choice. He was never going to be a Lewandowski, and he had to take the chance to make the jump after a good season. He's got good money with HSV, he would've earned a fraction of that if he stayed in the 2.BuLi --with no guarantees of ever amounting to much again.

 

Of course, the counter argument is that some of his problems are due to knee issues that would also have caused him to less productive in the B2 and he would never progress beyond Union. I certainly have no idea, but if HSV drop, he's B2 again, for more money and a chance to regain his mojo, perhaps. I do think Muller early injury took most of this team's ability to compete off the field, and without other upgrades to the midfield, they really seem unable to put together a style, even one of bunker and counter. They try to play "real" football but don't have the skill at this level.

That said, I like the culture at Union better and would love to see a version of life where we get to see what happened if he stayed there.

 

Did you ever hear the saying "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush?"

You are "speculating" on what might have happened and projecting a best case scenario.

There is another consideration in that athletes seldom correctly rate their skills. The same competitive spirit that drives them to success causes them to over rate their abilities.

 

I think he knew himself enough to know that was it.

I've never seen anything from Bobby to tell me he could become a regular mid-table BuLi starter.

So, basically, this is as good as it gets. Which is quite fine with the national team, where he gives his all (unlike others).

 

He established himself over a full year and a half or so at a directly lower level. So I think he made a natural progression. It just hasn't worked out so well because Hamburg's midfield has gotten over-run and he could have done better with his limited chances.

Now it's probably going to be time to get demoted one way or another. Doesn't have to be linear. Ideal next move would be to a mid-table French team. Would still be in a relevant league while maybe it's not above his pay-grade at this point and he could get more service. Otherwise he could make the type of move that Danny Williams made, to the Championship in his mid 20's. I think he still improved a little there and it may have fit his style more. Eventually he got promoted with them, he's tasting Premier League football, and he's an asset to his club in some capacity at least. Not everybody needs to be Ronaldo or Messi.

 

On the Dafoe debate, I just want to add that Willem has never gotten enough credit for his vast and diverse career and I hope he finally gets his due for Florida Project.

(Just as relevant to this Bobby Wood thread as most of the past 25 posts or so.)

 

I think this post belongs in the "Is China communist" debate in the Pulisic thread. That one is on fleek.