I am just curious as to how many people out there believe in the philosophy of the strike partners needing different qualities to be sucessful. For example in MLS Ngwenya and Ching seem to be the most obvious example of this last year. ONe is a wide strong body and one is fast dribbling player. Because many times coaches don't play two strikers with similar qualities together for example inter milan never played Vieri and julio cruz while they were at inter at the same time, but of course there are numerous sucessful examples of similar players being sucessful, for example gomez and donovan were very similar in style, as are rooney and tevez at Manchester united. Do you see twellman and Christman fitting together in a successful way or are they "too similar."
My personal feeling is that they're too similar. But I don't know if Cristman is capable of playing another way, which would take away the thing he does best, which is use his body. Noonan and Twellman worked well because Noonan wasn't always looking to score, he'd look to Twellman often. I don't know if Cristman would do the same.
Twellman is a poacher, but one who is opportunistic more than fast or technical. The Revs have always needed holding ability and speed to stretch defenses; neither Noonan nor Twellman have been able to provide that. Cristman seems to have promise as a holding forward and power player, but they still need a speed threat to give them more options. Between Mansally, Issac and Deli, they have pure speed candidates for the first time since ... Brilliant? Smith worked well as a speed alternative off the bench, but that option gets negated when he's a starter (and he's not a true forward at any rate).
I might be in the minority, but I think Twellman and Cristman is a better partnership. Cristman can take on a more traditional "target man" role, and Twellman can expend his energy where it's better suited - harrying the defenders when they have the ball and making more runs into the box when we have the ball. Twellman's worked really hard at becoming more of a "center forward", but the truth is, that's not what he's best at. He gets better at it every year, but he still gets knocked off the ball too easily. When Cristman played that role earlier in the year, he showed the ability to hold the ball under pressure and flick headers on. He lost that ability in the second half of the season, but I think that's because the coaches asked him to take on Noonan's role when he came on as a sub. If he goes back to playing as a target forward, I think he and Twellman will combine very well.