Rhead and Akinde | Vital Football

Rhead and Akinde

UnbelievableJeff

UnbelievableJeff

Vital Squad Member
So two starts for The Biggun in two consecutive games and it just shows there is life in the old dog yet.

Two outstanding performances by Matt shows that we don't have to resort to route one. He had a hand in two of the goals and also set up Freck, which should have been a penalty.

Yes Big John gives us options, but with Rhead linking up with McCartan so well....this offers us a potentially devastating alternative. It reminds me somewhat of Stant and Ainsworth, but with better football in the build up. I haven't felt JA and McCartan have linked up as well as The Biggun and McCartan. With JA injured...have we finally found a real striking partnership that is to be really feared?

Over to you to argue it out, be nice.
 
Akinde hasn't scored as many goals as he or we would like but he's contributing with assists and link up play, as he did twice in the lead up to the winner last week.
You can't compare ANY of our strikers to each other as they're all entirely different styles of players IMHO.
 
Whilst seemingly of interest, it could be said that Rheady hasn't scored in these two games...

Equally as daft as pointing to how many JA has scored of late...

I suspect that any team preparing to face us would treat both with great respect - and deservedly so.

As in the conference winning season, we are seeing goals from throughout the team, surely an indicator of how well the team is now performing as exactly that, a team. A very effective team.

Come on you Imps!!!!!
 
Whilst I was unable to go today, I think the outcome suggests things clicked far better.
Whether that was due to Rheady up front, I don't know, but to date I haven't seen anything yet from Akinde to have him automatically picked ahead of Matt Rhead.
Rheady is still highly effective and wins balls that others can't. He links up well too.

I am sure we WILL see excellence from Akinde but it's going to take more time yet for him to reach his best level.
 
I think they both offer a lot of quality at this level, as does Green.

They also have one hell of a support act in Pett, Andrade, McCartan, Harry and Freck who can all get and set up goals.
 
I can’t think of anyone in our squad who wouldn’t play for most teams in this league.

With regards to best player. If we were championship, then yes Pett and McCarten. At this level, i’d say Bozzy. You need warriors and the guy is pretty much William Wallace reincarnated as an Englishman.
 
UnbelievableJeff said:
So two starts for The Biggun in two consecutive games and it just shows there is life in the old dog yet.

Two outstanding performances by Matt shows that we don't have to resort to route one. He had a hand in two of the goals and also set up Freck, which should have been a penalty.

Yes Big John gives us options, but with Rhead linking up with McCartan so well....this offers us a potentially devastating alternative. It reminds me somewhat of Stant and Ainsworth, but with better football in the build up. I haven't felt JA and McCartan have linked up as well as The Biggun and McCartan. With JA injured...have we finally found a real striking partnership that is to be really feared?

Over to you to argue it out, be nice.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure l quite agree. Rhead’s an excellent player at this level. His aerial ability and reading of the game are n’t likely to diminish quickly. He’s played really well in the last 2 games. I think today’s result however, is more to do with the continue improvements which we are seeing, as all the summer additions are getting settled in. We have changed our style, with a general improvement in the average ability within the squad. Rhead is a good enough player to still be able to be a thorn in league 2 sides. He is also intelligent enough to play with better players. It’s certainly easier for him to play with players of the quality of McCartan, than say Jack Muldoon (sorry Jack)...

BUT the same applies to Akinde, only he’s had a handful of games to bed in, not 3+ season. Mobility and speed however will always give Akinde the edge in the long run. We are lucky to have Rhead in reserve, but for me Akinde comes back in to develop his partnership with McCartan, when he’s fit.

Just a thought... if Akinde had missed the sitter of a header Rheady did after about 10 minutes, I imagine we’d now be discussing this. The reality is all good strikers miss sitters (Akinde as Cheltenham, Rheady today). We have all seen Rheady over a long period and know what he can bring at his best. Akinde’s best however should be the next step up as he settles in over the coming weeks and years.
 
Last edited:
We have a very strong squad. For me Akinde is a key part and would be first on my team sheet. But no one is indispensable. We’ve had great wins recently with far from a first choice team.
Great days for the Imps.
 
Imp13 said:
They're both terrific options. I would still start Akinde when fit as I think he offers a little more but Rhead has been magnificent for Lincoln.

Dare I say Akinde would have received a bit more stick if he'd have missed the chance Rhead put wide in the first 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

I don't recall him getting any stick (on here at least) for missing an even bigger sitter at Cheltenham
 
Rheady played really well today showing he has a big part to play in our season but his performance also demonstrated how we have improved as a team with Akinde leading the line. It's that extra threat from McCartan/Anderson/Andrade/Pett even Toffolo which the target man brings into the game where we are better than last year and what will get us promoted
 
Today's result was in large part due to Vale's inability to deal with the same corner routine 4 times.
 
HitherImp said:
Was so good to see the corners better worked this time: training ground must have been peppered with in-swingers to the far post this last week!
Click to expand...
No Vale were just terrible at dealing with them. They were decent corners, unfortunately better teams would deal better with them. Without our 4 corner goals, it would have been 2-2. Now that's scary.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.