Simon Church

[marcusopp]

I've never rated him. I genuinely think he's not good enough for this level.
Hunt's not the best player, but at least he works hard and puts the opposition defence under pressure.
Surely Le Fondre, Manset, HRK and our loaned out forwards are better than church?

[LWJ]

Church puts a lot of effort in, and works as hard if not harder than anyone else. He just needs confidence.

[Snowball]

I have very mixed feelings about Churchy.

People have always gone on about his "movement" and he was hailed as a good-player-in-the-future,
then the season before he got 12 goals at a rate of a goal every 180 minutes, the sign, usually, of
a very good striker.

I expected him to push on and get around 20 goals in a full season.

Whether he had a long-term niggling injury, whether stuff outside football affected him,
or whether the 12 was a fluke (unlikely) or whether it was just confidence, I don't know
but I had all but written him off.

But then this season he has started to run harder and chase down like Shane Mk II
and I began to have hopes again... but...

Watching him I think the problem might be "raw courage". I can't remember him ever
putting a foot in or going in when he knows he'll be clattered. Think of Long's goal
at Southampton and many others. Shane's strength is allied to commitment and bravery
and it makes a big difference.

The sad fact is, I NEVER raise my hopes now if Churchy comes on as a sub.

I still think that a few goals, even if they are flukes, might yet help him
become a good support striker, but I find it really hard to see him as
a main striker unless something radically changes.

[LWJ]

I used to think of him as a super sub - he would always come on and make a difference but you are right he has faded. I just hope he can get back to where he should be

[Ian Royal]

Church isn't a natural finisher. He's a support striker and is very limited in the style where he'll do well. We don't play that style. He has also had his confidence shot to pieces. He'll always work hard and sometimes look bright... a couple of potential MOTM performances earlir in the season iirc... but in a team struggling to create clear cut chances he isn't going to create those chances himself or put away many half chances.

I like him, but I'm not far on giving up on him. Think he might need to restart his career somewhere else.

[RoyalJames101]

Unbeaten this season when he has started. Fact.

[Ian Royal]

Unbeaten this season when he has started. Fact.

Although he's had very little to do with that in a couple of the games, given we were losing when he went off at Bristol & Ipswich. Which makes it a slightly misleading fact.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

I have very mixed feelings about Churchy.



The sad fact is, I NEVER raise my hopes now if Churchy comes on as a sub.

I still think that a few goals, even if they are flukes, might yet help him
become a good support striker, but I find it really hard to see him as
a main striker unless something radically changes.

Despite 5 of his last 7 goals for RFC coming when he came off the bench

[Snowball]

I have very mixed feelings about Churchy.



The sad fact is, I NEVER raise my hopes now if Churchy comes on as a sub.

I still think that a few goals, even if they are flukes, might yet help him
become a good support striker, but I find it really hard to see him as
a main striker unless something radically changes.

Despite 5 of his last 7 goals for RFC coming when he came off the bench

Perfect example of why I use statistics and don't trust gut-feel impressions or intuition.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Of course player coming on can change a game without scoring as well. You do know Church will get a hat trick on Tuesday now, but you will miss it

[Ian Royal]

I guess a goal every 5 or 6 sub appearances is actually pretty good.

Although he hasn't scored off the bench this season, admittedly in only 4 attempts.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Weren't people saying exactly the same sort of things about Shane Long this time last season....?

[marcusopp]

Weren't people saying exactly the same sort of things about Shane Long this time last season....?

Not me though, I was one of a few defending him.
Long always gave defenders a torrid time, even when he couldn't score, but church seems to lack strength and interest, and pace!
I'd love it if he proved me wrong and made me look like a total cnut, but i can't see that happening.
I think opposition centre halves breathe a sigh of relief when they see him line up against them.
The only good thing about church is that when he gets subbed off, the player coming on is always an improvement!
In his defense, he scored a cracker against sheffield wednesday a couple of years ago.

[who are ya?]

Weren't people saying exactly the same sort of things about Shane Long this time last season....?

Leading up to the celebration he did infront of us behind the goal at Stevenage.
We'll be VERY lucky to get the same turn around from Church though, just don't think he's got it in him

[Ian Royal]

Weren't people saying exactly the same sort of things about Shane Long this time last season....?

When Long played well, he really bullied defenders and could make a goal out of nothing with his work rate. He'd also had two or three good spells in the past.

Church has had one decent season, and doesn't really bully defenders or create goals for himself out of nothing. It's possible he can turn it around, but I think we'd have to change our way of playing for him to do it. I can't really see lightning striking twice. But then I thought Long was going to have to step down to another club to be able to kick start his career again.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Church and Le Fondre could be Butler and Curo, however, not while we employ two out and out wide players. We need more variety in the midfield, and full backs pressing forward like Murty and Shorey could do. All in all a change of style to accomodate what we have really.

[Royalee]

Church and Le Fondre could be Butler and Curo, however, not while we employ two out and out wide players. We need more variety in the midfield, and full backs pressing forward like Murty and Shorey could do. All in all a change of style to accomodate what we have really.

Church isn't fit to lace Butler's boots.

[melonhead]

i like him
i want him to succeed
but like henry and cox before him, we cant afford to play him every week in order for him to progress into a half decent player
im starting to think we should let him go, though the money wed get for him wouldnt get us much better

[LWJ]

he got 12 goals at a rate of a goal every 180 minutes

Most of those were very, very fortunate goals which he battled into the net.
Someone else would shoot, then the ball would rebound straight at him, and he could tap it in from 5~10 yards.
IMHO it was mostly just a run of very, very lucky chances that happened to fall to him, because we as a team were pushing very hard to get goals.
Sure, some of them were good goals, but most were these "pure luck" goals that could have happened to anyone.

I expected him to push on and get around 20 goals in a full season.

Did you really now? That sounds completely unrealistic, if you really thought that you must have some massively rose tinted glasses.

A goal is a goal, a strikers job is to score goals, it doesn't matter how he does it. He was in the right place at the right time, yet you would complain if no one was there to tap it in.



And yes Church does not score enough goals before you say it.

[melonhead]

church is probably the only one of our strikers who has 20 yard screamers in him tbf