How badly do you think we need to sign another Striker?

Touched on it in the transfer thread but I feel this topic is worthy of discussion on its own. Currently we are going into the new season with relying on Morelos to bang in the goals for us and Defoe as his sole back up.

My primary concerns are that Morelos is not capable of carrying us through an entire season on his own, and will unquestionably face suspensions, injuries & dips of form just like everyone else, and also that Defoe is just not an adequate replacement for Morelos. Defoe is a fine squad player who'll get you goals but he doesn't offer anywhere near the same focal point as Morelos. He shouldn't be used as a direct Morelos replacement for me.

IMO a quality third striker should be our number 1 priority at present. Our previous title winning/3iar squad always had guys like Jelavic, Naismith, Lafferty, Miller & Boyd - we were never too reliant on one individual to do it for us throughout the entire season and I feel like that's something we desperately need to replicate going into next.

Looking at the names linked guys like Roofe & Toney excite me, but they shouldn't be signed only if Morelos goes - we need someone like this to support Morelos and help bang in goals when he's not doing it for us.
I'd say we need at least two more strikers,one to replace Alfie and another just as good,Kamberi will do a job,but he's not at that level and I think Defoe will be used sparingly.
 
If we go into the season with Morelos and Defoe as our only strikers then it's fair to say we have very little chance of winning the league.
 
We need a striker who can challenge Alfie and keep him sharp, focused and on his game. Last year he knew if he was available he was straight in the team - and he played like that at times.
 
We definitely need another quality striker. Alfie had a form dip before lockdown which happens. We can't expect JD to pick up the slack all the time.
 
Season starts and Alfie unfortunately gets a fucked knee and is out till January at earliest. Would we feel comfortable with Defoe and a 3rd striker like Kamberi or Dykes? Doubt it.

There needs to be legitimate competition for ST. Have someone like a Dario Vizinger as the 2nd/3rd striker who learns from Defoe and Morelos.
Hopefully has the luxury or a season bleeding in. If Morelos goes we spend a few mil on say a Mirko Maric.

As a 4th striker I'd be happy with Stewart there you'd think he wouldn't ever be needed and it saves from bringing in another body.
 
We do need at least one imo, but then again I think we should be ditching the lone striker tactics and playing two up top.
 
The managers reliance on Morelos has been poor management. Gerrard has never spent any real amount of money on a striker apart from a small outlay on Lafferty. Sadiq, Defoe and Kamberi have all been loans. If he doesn’t change that he won’t see out the season as manager. We don’t need one striker either, we need two.
 
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In case you haven’t noticed, Morelos gets suspended for doing stupid things. That combined with the fact that he is a marked man in Scotland means he will be out for at least a fifth of the season with suspensions.

We simply cannot rely on Defoe to score the goals in the system we play. He’s great off the bench when we are pushing for a goal or when the opposition are pushing for an equaliser and leaving gaps - but if the opposition are 11 men behind the ball, I don’t believe he has the strength to play the 9 on his own.

Kamberi will be a decent signing, but I think we need one more.
He may well be but we undoubtedly need a better level.
Put it this way, if you’re a centre back, and you know Kamberi is in for Morelos, what are you thinking?
 
Defoe is almost 38. That alone means we need 2 strikers and that’s before any talk of Morelos leaving.
 
We should ask Daniel Cousin to find the next Daniel Cousin. He’d be perfect for our current system.

agree, our withdrawn tactics mean we are massively reliant on the striker being the focal point. The reason we collapsed was Morelos wasn’t around post winter break.

You take him and/or Tav out the team and we collapse. Morelos single handedly dragged us through Europe at times.

kamberi is a waste of time. Just squad fodder. We need a strong dynamic arrogant take no shit midfielder domestically and a powerful line striker.

I also have the fear aribo or Hagi will play this ridiculous inside right number 10 role the management team are obsessed with.
 
A striker is not the reason we were thirteen points behind with a game in hand when the league was cancelled.

We don't score enough goals but our striker was on nearly thirty. A back up for his back up is needed but there are much higher priorities.
He only scored 12 or 13 in the league though.
 
Have to agree we need at least 1 striker. I'm still not sure Alfie will be here come the close of the transfer window so the sooner the better to get at least 1 striker in.
 
If u look at the top scorer charts it's pretty obvious we need another 10+ goal a season striker, but what we really need is for the midfield to start scoring more goals.
 
Much more important is coaching and tactics should Alfie be out. Never again can we watch Defoe try and recreate what Alfie does....was a shame, and pitiful to watch.

Alfie misses games we have to change system. Or we lose games.
 
The English transfer window will be later than the Scottish one will be, therefore we could end up selling Morelos if a big bid came in after our window was closed and we could be left without a main striker. The club need to decide on Morelos future very quickly and make moves in the market as necessary.
 
We need a lot more goals from midfield if we have any hope in winning the title. That's been our downfall the last 2 seasons.
 
Yes, we need someone to challenge Morelos for the starting berth, Defoe should really be 3rd choice now, and we play in such a way that if Morelos is suspended etc then we need someone to fill that role (strong, aggressive, presser etc).

The bottom line is that Morelos (as good as he can be on his day) can't be trusted.

3 seasons in a row after the winter break he goes off the boil, he still picks up needless suspensions and I was done with him after his red card at the Girodome but to be fair he knocked his pan in the first half of 19/20, however the debacle before the Hearts game was the final straw for me.

We might go into this season with him in the squad, however we are naive if we think this season will be the season where he cuts out the stupid shite.

We need to put a brave face on and get him scoring again to increase his stock but unfortunately I think he will let us down again.
 
I believe Morelos loss of form was the main reason we lost our rhythm after the winter break. This is no dig at him , because I also feel he won us games that we probably shouldn't have earlier in season.

We need someone to challenge / replace him and goals from midfield, which Hagi could address.
 
Last season I was more concerned with sorting out our defence. I still am and now on top of that we look like we need a good striker. Things are not getting any better. We need a striker and at least 2 players to bolster the defence. That's at a minimum.
 
Need a tall striker thats going to knock defenders around and get on the end of cross balls.

The smaller players with skill and movement will get kicked off the park, refs will encourage it something Celtic dont need to worry about their important players get plenty of protection, when these sides crowd the box it can be difficult to find space and get shots on target. We will no doubt get more injuries than the tims due to this issue and ofcourse more suspensions as they dont pick up any cards.

Dont think theres much chance of winning that league at the moment anyway but to get anywhere near the tims/cabel theres plenty of things that can and need to improve, more shots from midfielders/ men in the box, getting if forward faster nothing wrong with a long punt or cross from 30 yards out... most of all a powerful/physical forward that batters their centre backs. Theres no reason why we cant play a quick passing game sometimes but change it to a more direct style which gets the vital 3 points and a 1-0 win..... If you put the ball in the box these teams make errors playing in the first 2/3 of the pitch is pretty pointless and a waste of time.
 
I believe Morelos loss of form was the main reason we lost our rhythm after the winter break. This is no dig at him , because I also feel he won us games that we probably shouldn't have earlier in season.

We need someone to challenge / replace him and goals from midfield, which Hagi could address.

Building a team around two full backs as driving force and a temperamental striker with discipline issues cost us. You've also got a midfield trio who offer very little going forward it has virtually no creativity and a management team who had no plan b or c etc.

Also you have a strong argument that the mentality of some players just isn't good enough.

The issues which cost us last season can be rectified imo but it's up to the management to address it.
 
Building a team around two full backs as driving force and a temperamental striker with discipline issues cost us. You've also got a midfield trio who offer very little going forward it has virtually no creativity and a management team who had no plan b or c etc.

Also you have a strong argument that the mentality of some players just isn't good enough.
I think the foundations of the system are fairly strong, we just have guys that can't execute it consistently, square pegs in round holes etc etc.

The system falls down through loss of form and lack of options, hence why it worked so well in 19/20 and then fell apart after the Winter Break.

We are a good holding midfielder, box to box midfielder with an eye for goal, a right sided forward and a striker in the mould of Morelos minus the daft red cards away from a really strong and exciting squad.

If we could get those through the door and it's guys that go straight into the starting 11 with a few going out then that's half the battle.

Helander picking up a knock in training and missing the Hamilton game has highlighted his lack of regular appearances in his senior career and now that's maybe an area where we need to look at as well, but it's lower on the priorities list than the above in my opinion.
 
I know it won't be popular but if Morelos is staying, we will need another striker to come in but you are not going to get a top player to come and be 3rd or 4th choice.

I would personally go for Dykes as he's a different type of player to what we have and we know he can cause damage to defenses like ours and theirs.
 
We need a right sided forward, a central midfielder, cover for Katic and a striker
My thoughts exactly. Would love to see the lad Olsen as our main signing this summer as I wouldn’t want to see the bulk of the money going on a striker who may spend a lot of his time on the bench. Cover for Katic shouldn’t mean big money and central midfielders we have a few but for me it’s not as big an issue as a right sided forward.
 
My thoughts exactly. Would love to see the lad Olsen as our main signing this summer as I wouldn’t want to see the bulk of the money going on a striker who may spend a lot of his time on the bench. Cover for Katic shouldn’t mean big money and central midfielders we have a few but for me it’s not as big an issue as a right sided forward.
Central midfield is a major issue , we need steel and more goals from midfield.
 
I’d be asking serious questions on Gerrard and Team if they haven’t learned that lesson.

It’s critical to being able to sustain a serious challenge.
 
I’d be asking serious questions on Gerrard and Team if they haven’t learned that lesson.

It’s critical to being able to sustain a serious challenge.
Would suggest the season finishing early perhaps stopped those questions being asked already.
 
Would suggest the season finishing early perhaps stopped those questions being asked already.

I think he failed us last summer in not adding a third option then.

Our whole style and philosophy is built around Morelos. It’s not easy to change that, but it’s worrying.
 
Badly. Our players don’t have the mental steel to pick up the pieces when Morelos either isn’t there or goes off form. Defoe has a good record but the reality is he was mostly getting games against the weaker sides, at his age the decline each season will be more and more pronounced, and he’s just not very effective in our system when we’re really drawn into physical battles which so often happens.

So yes, we badly need another striker and I’ll go as far as to say that if we don’t get one we will once again not make any significant challenge for league. In fact I think we need several first team picks replaced to make that challenge happen which is why I’m personally shitting myself at our season begging in a matter of days.
 
Central midfield is a major issue , we need steel and more goals from midfield.
I don’t disagree. But we need a right sided striker more I feel. To add quality and be a first team starter is going to cost and I don’t think we can afford both this summer.
 
I don’t disagree. But we need a right sided striker more I feel. To add quality and be a first team starter is going to cost and I don’t think we can afford both this summer.
If we can’t afford both and you may be right then we need to sell , we ain’t winning the league otherwise.
That being the case the £7m spent on Kent needs to be questioned.
 
I’d be asking serious questions on Gerrard and Team if they haven’t learned that lesson.

It’s critical to being able to sustain a serious challenge.

We will find out over the course of our pre seasons/Aberdeen away.

If we go with the same system, the same predictable tactics, and no major additions I'll be majority concerned.
 
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