Karlan Grant

[Tom Joad]

Whilst I agree with the opening post and personally can't make out exactly what Grant is good at (not good in the air, no real pace, doesn't hold the ball up, finishing not great etc) to make him a £5m player let alone a £15m one, the blame lies wholly with the club.

We needed a target-man (Rondon / Fortune) to play as a lone striker in a 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 last Summer and, as when we got Austin, we bought a player totally unsuited to the system. That isn't Grant's fault at all and it's clear that his confidence was shot last season and again this after that woeful penalty against Millwall.

Surely it isn't hard to profile the sort of striker (player) needed and specify their relevant attributes and then find someone who fits the bill? We did it with GMac and Yacob. It totally sums up last Summer's recruitment - three left wingers and ignoring the vast holes elsewhere in the team.

Spot on.

Imagine a Fortune/Rondon in last seasons team, even more in this team. Having the right forward for your team us so important, yet we're so bad at doing it.

'Cos a decent forward is the most expensive piece of the puzzle. Hence we end up with non goalscoring, 2nd rate ones. Or occasionally, none at all.

[Lurker#3]

To be fair, Grant's performances early season when we were playing well, were very good. Which led him to being in the team of the month for the Chump.

Should he be more of a goal threat given his goal scoring record? Absolutely. But you cant question his work rate, and funnily enough when we have been playing well he has, more often than not been on the pitch/involved.

[Tom Joad]

He has neither excelled nor been terrible. Needs a lift and who knows what he might do?

[Sliced]

To be fair, Grant's performances early season when we were playing well, were very good. Which led him to being in the team of the month for the Chump.

Should he be more of a goal threat given his goal scoring record? Absolutely. But you cant question his work rate, and funnily enough when we have been playing well he has, more often than not been on the pitch/involved.

Yep. There’s actually some very short memories. If you search back three weeks or so one of the main topics of discussion was how Grady has completely lost it.

[Hopalong]

His highlights reel from Hudds tell you there is a good wide forward in there and one who knows where the goal is.  However lost confidence robs you of a split second of sharpness and zip in the shot, and the missed penalty was a good example of player struggling.

Without the pricetag and indeed without Grady and Robbo around we would have no issues with giving him more time, he works hard and has created chances, indeed the goals may come.  However in Grady we allready had our specialust left winger and fans favourite in place to be joined by Robbo who although only makewait was a real upgrade on Burke.

So we have an unbalaced forward line lacking a quality CF as Slav decided that KG could play the lone striker role and pushed for the deal even though overpriced. Still a baffling decision which seems to sit heavily on KG's shoulders and makes him an easy target for those fans looking for a spacegoat.

Apart from not matching up to unrealistic expectations I don't think he's done a lot wrong this season.  His work ethic looks good and with confidence may still make a major contribution this season.

Grant played as a centre forward at Charlton where he scored 14 in 28 in the first half 2018/19 which earned him a move to Hudds in the Prem where he scored 4 in 13. 

The season after he scored 19 in 43 primarily playing left side of the front three.  Quite a few of those were penalties.  If you look at his goals that season nearly every goal is a carbon copy - cutting in from he left onto his right foot -  similar to the goal he scored at Brighton.
It's somewhat baffling therefore why we signed him (thought it's clear Bilic thought he could play a lone striker role which proved beyond him) when we already had Diang and Robinson because he's not an out and out No 9 in a 4-5-1.  

Difficult to know what the solution is,  but Val is paid a lot of money to find such solutions.  A change in formation might be the answer but I can't see Val doing that. 

Maybe when Clarke is back Diang could drop to wing-back with Grant playing left side of the three.   But that means Townsend dropping out and weakening us defensively down the left so probably a no-go.  

Or just accepting that at the moment Diangana is ahead of Grant in the pecking order if we're using CR as a centre forward and we take it from there.

His record suggests that he'll score goals, he'll have to earn the opportunity to start games by doing well off the bench.  Saturday was the first game I haven't seen so I'll take peoples word that he improved us.  That doesn't sound like a difficult task.

I understand what your saying but at £12m and £15m they should be the first names on the teamsheet!