Jordan grahams crosses | Vital Football

Jordan grahams crosses

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Cookiejar

Vital Reserves Team
Anyone else getting really frustrated by the amount of crosses we get from his side yet we never seem to get a head on them these days.

On that point its equally frustrating knowing it's going to be the same trick and same gross, regardless of how good it is please sometimes attack the box or try and go past your man. I'm sure hed by more effective cutting in from the left
 
It is too one dimensional. I’d like to see him cut inside sometimes and go towards goal. Mix it up a little. Keep ‘em guessing.
 
Agree. While to my mind he's one of the best crossers of the ball I've seen for a while in a Gills shirt. I would like a little bit more variety in his play.
I also think I'm being a bit picky too.
 
His crosses were awful tonight. All overhit, and every time he went outside and eventually they read it and cut them out.
I agree that he has the ability to beat his defender and cut in and shoot sometimes, if he played on the left he could try that like Jarvis used to do for us.
 
They weren't as good as usual tonight but he has served up some fantastic crosses this season. The lack of goals arising says more about the strikers in my view.
 
I agree about mixing it up.

Studying Dempsey's goal on Saturday coming in from the right where he took on the defender, got a yard of space, and then hit a screamer from a tight angle - I just thought that is what Graham could be capable of.

Maybe he is just too unselfish. I think I remember he alluded to that when he said he should score more goals after his brace against Wigan.
 
Trashbat said:
Nobody is scapegoating him.
Bonham and Jackson were both shit last night.
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But Bonham has saved us many points this season and has been my MOM more than once.

Jackson looks like a liability defensively every game. Although he is good going forward and he has a mean long throw, I really can not fathom how BFSE and Raynor can watch him in every game and not think to themselves that McKenzie could not be any worse. Even keeping Hodson may have been a better option.
 
Trashbat said:
Nobody is scapegoating him.

Bonham and Jackson were both shit last night.
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Criticising a player if they have a bad game is not scapegoating. I'm a big Bonham fan but he f###ed up big time last night. It instantly turned the game (although they may well have turned it around anyway).

Was thinking about Graham's crosses before seeing this thread. Not so good last night I admit. However, even when they are good it seems players almost never get on the end of them to any effect. I think he's our best player yet somehow his contribution almost invariably comes to nothing. We seem to do better without him. Perhaps he's playing in the wrong team.

Some defence of Akinde going off the boil 2nd half as he had no service. Jackson less shit than usual. Only 1 goal came down his side. Can assume he's in the team purely for his throw ins.

Our defence is poor this season. Porous.
 
As stated previously Jordan Graham is class at our level but when he plays we become one dimensional, I agree that if he ran towards goal got into the area we would have bag loads of penalties and or chances. Sometimes he picks the ball up centrally and his first thought is to run to the line and put in a cross which if I am honest are usually too deep going past the far post
 
Trashbat said:
It is too one dimensional. I’d like to see him cut inside sometimes and go towards goal. Mix it up a little. Keep ‘em guessing.
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I wholeheartedly agree with you. Graham has been a wonderful acquisition for us and I am most certainly a fan however, as someone else mentioned on another thread, when he is on the field, others tend to try to ping the ball his way and hope he will mesmerise the opposition defenders with his guile. That works sometimes but yesterday their leftback knew exactly what he was going to do (run towards him, stop, knock the ball towards the back line, cross the ball) and covered him every time. This resulted in him hitting the ball so hard it flew over our players in the box, much to their frustration.

I'd far prefer him having a free roll and going where he thinks he is more likely to produce something special. I also sometimes wonder whether he might be more effective playing slightly behind Oliver (who I do like) and/or Akinde (warmed to him first half, frustrated by him in the second). The reason for saying this is that Jackson often steps on Grahams toes because he goes so far forward and might be better positioned as a wingback as long as there is a real rightback behind him.
 
For ages we've moaned about the lack of having a decent crosser of the ball and now we've got one it's still frustrating. For me Graham is a bit predictable but he's still produced plenty of decent crosses that no-one has even been near let alone attacked in the box this season.

On nights like last night we need to be a bit cuter and utilise the fact Graham was occupying at times three defenders but still we didn't have the nous to utilis the space that should have been left for others.

For having two 'big lads' up top and considering the crosses we've stuck in the box this season, our goal return is shit. It's something they should be working on in training ffs, whether the balls going in early, whether it's picking someone out or just being put into an area of the box for the strikers to attack. It doesn't have to be the same every game, variety is key. Its something we used to work on at amateur level, really shouldn't be beyond professionals who train regularly.
 
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My constant image is of our players under the crosses with the ball lifting gently off their heads back behind them or looping towards the keeper or over the cross bar. If the crosses are coming in deep, why isn't someone coming in from the left to connect? Galvin and Williams would have been doing a double team run-in.
 
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