Why is Tom Pope undroppable?

[JOHNNYAITCH]

Is it in his contract that he plays if fit

[alwaysvaleme]

Can't believe you've just listed world class players like Foyle and Naylor in the same breath as Kane, ronaldo, Rooney, messi, shearer & Henry

 

Seriously though Tom Pope is none of those players, he isn't a player that can latch onto a through ball or turn and beat a man with a trick or a quick turn of pace. But get a good delievery into the box for him and play to his strengths and he might have a chance. You mention Akimnfenwa, look how Wycombe played to his strengths down at Vale the other week.

 

We are aimlessly hitting long balls up at Pope, hoping that he can flick it on, hold it up or win free kicks in the opposition half. That is the summation of our tactics this season.

 

My point exactly, I said it in an earlier post that pope needs to be facing goal no more than 15yrds out

If we aren't going to play to his one last remaining strength then stick him on the bench and put him on with 20 mins go and tell him wait for the balls in as we are telling the so called wingers every time they get the ball lump it on to your head

 

 

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[PV1973]

Point blank free header at Chesterfield saved. free header v Crewe hit bar. Totally free effort at Coventry to get a point with last kick. He has had chances....granted not many

And that shows the issue in us creating very few chances, it puts extra pressure on the strikers when those chances come along because we have to take them. He has one chance and has to score it.

[bycars bootboy]

There were some decent crosses in last night but Tom was nowhere near them. Our best efforts were from ADF and Worrall.

 

Excuses for Tom aside, all strikers are judged on goals scored. He is/was cut some slack for his overall contribution to the team, but that has been missing all season.

 

Yet another who didn't attend the Crewe game.

[old sage]

He was through on his own against notts county dan jones gave him yards start and caught him up before he got his shot away in the 18 yd box Tony Naylor at his age now would have walked that chance in the net. Get real he is past it he should not be in the team like the management team and the two chairmen that we have he should be nowhere near vale park.

You are comparing chalk with cheese there Hamil. The clue is in his nick name 'Nippy Naylor'. The Tom Pope of four years ago wouldn't have scored with that chance either because Tom has never been blessed with pace. Bloody hell he was 45 yards from goal when he got the pass. Tom's strength is in the air in the box. Tony didn't score with too many towering headers though did he. Quite simply because at 5' 5"- 5' 6'' we wasn't big enough so please compare like for like in future.

[butt lane vale fan]

In answer to the original post. Because he's a Vale fan and had 1 good season, so some posters lick his ass. That's why. Sorry folks, but how many times has Tom scored 20 in a season. Once is it?

Frightening stat for you, which I noticed on Facebook this morning. It states Pope hasn't scored since Feb.

Again if it was any other player Fans would be slating him to high heaven.

And if you don't think fans lick his ass, ask yourselves why when we played Bury in the first game at their place when he played for them, were certain so called Vale fans wanting Pope to score against us.

Tell me how the hell can any right minded Vale fan want an opponent to score against us. That to me says some fans think Pope is more important than Port Vale.

 

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[JOHNNYAITCH]

it puts extra pressure on the strikers when those chances come along because we have to take them. He has one chance and has to score it.

 

He's an experienced player (300+games??)...should know how to handle that pressure. If he can't (and I'm not in a position to say whether he can or cannot, the manger should be able to though) then don't pick him

[TheSage]

I'm sorry but you really can't drop the one player in our team who has scored more league goals than anyone else. We're shot shy as it is. You can't then drop the one player who conceivably might get us a goal.

Granted he hasn't been as good as we'd have liked but he's had little or no service whatsoever. He's nearly scored on a couple of occasions but for a bit of bad luck. But he's had nothing to work on. There's no-one running past him from midfield. often no-one within 15 yards of him. How often do our players get to the byline and deliver a good cross? Never!

 

The real problem is the service to him. Our midfield is woeful and as bad as it was last season. Little creativity. No goals. No-one supporting the striker. No-one running past an opponent with the ball or shooting accurately from the edge of the box. No Dodds. No Eagles. Nothing.

 

In our understandable desperation to pin the blame on our poor start on someone we've gone from Brown to Smurf and now from Kay to Montano to Wilson to Pope. Ronaldo wouldn't score in our team. We've probably had only about 7-8 shots on target in the past 5-6 games. We create nothing, zilch, not a sausage.

 

Pope will score at this level if we give him enough chances and put the ball in the box in front of him. He won't score with long diagonal 60 yards passes and he won't score from 35 yards out. He's largely isolated and feeding off crumbs, if he's lucky.

 

We don't have much choice in attack do we? Barnett & Pyke coming back from injury and both Pyke and Turner are young lads learning their trade. There's no-one there who will guarantee us more goals than Pope, sadly.

[PV1973]

He's an experienced player (300+games??)...should know how to handle that pressure. If he can't (and I'm not in a position to say whether he can or cannot, the manger should be able to though) then don't pick him

I'm not saying he can't handle pressure, the point making is that Tom Pope isn't a striker who only needs one chance to score a goal. So when you've got a team that are creating nothing then the expectation to score the odd chance we get is high because invariably we won't be getting many more in a game.

[Shropshire_Valiant]

I think a better manager would possibly get more out of Pope(say 5-10 goals if we played to his strengths) but from the 3 games I've seen this season he generally looks past his best. That said the problem is we are judging him(and probably have it clouded) on the player of 4/5 years ago who got 33 and then 16 so 49 goals in 2 seasons. The 33 especially was a phenominal effort of which most clubs probably only see a player do every 20 years.

 

I'm not defending him or saying he is undroppable but TheSage makes a good point, is anyone else really going to do much better? Having said that I'm disappointed in Brown not giving Turner a go after scoring twice, in a side playing ***** and lacking goals the lad has got 2 more than most in the squad!

[JOHNNYAITCH]

I'm sorry but you really can't drop the one player in our team who has scored more league goals than anyone else.

 

You don't continue to pick a player because of what they have done...what's the point in having a squad if you are just going to pick players based on being fit and successful in the past.

 

But yes by all accounts if we changed how we are playing and played to his strengths then he would stand a better chance of scoring..if he still failed to then the position would need looking at. If we are going to continue to play how we are then by all accounts Pope is not he man to lead the attack so others should be tried

[hamilboy]

He is isolated because he cannot run the channels he is to easy to mark being the static forward that he is all this myth that certain people have about our tom he would not get in the top 25 of stikers i have seen playing for the vale

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fact is that he does not even look like he is going score he is to static easy to mark for a defender.We all have our own opinions about players mine is that our tom would not be in the top 25 of strikers that i have seen playing for the vale,at the moment he is not doing his job and he should be dropped end of.

[valiant_593]

I think that the last three replies have answered your question quite well. As Ray Williams said on RS last night when the question regarding lack of goals and Popey was raised when he said repeating the song 'Feed the Pope and he will score'. Then he added when will they start supplying him with some food!!! So don't blame Popey for the famine look at the lack of a food chain!

 

Here we go again!

 

Yes he's had very limited supply but come on, his alround game has been absalutey garbage! Give barnett a chance with Turner.

[valiant_593]

I'm sorry but you really can't drop the one player in our team who has scored more league goals than anyone else. We're shot shy as it is. You can't then drop the one player who conceivably might get us a goal.

Granted he hasn't been as good as we'd have liked but he's had little or no service whatsoever. He's nearly scored on a couple of occasions but for a bit of bad luck. But he's had nothing to work on. There's no-one running past him from midfield. often no-one within 15 yards of him. How often do our players get to the byline and deliver a good cross? Never!

 

The real problem is the service to him. Our midfield is woeful and as bad as it was last season. Little creativity. No goals. No-one supporting the striker. No-one running past an opponent with the ball or shooting accurately from the edge of the box. No Dodds. No Eagles. Nothing.

 

In our understandable desperation to pin the blame on our poor start on someone we've gone from Brown to Smurf and now from Kay to Montano to Wilson to Pope. Ronaldo wouldn't score in our team. We've probably had only about 7-8 shots on target in the past 5-6 games. We create nothing, zilch, not a sausage.

 

Pope will score at this level if we give him enough chances and put the ball in the box in front of him. He won't score with long diagonal 60 yards passes and he won't score from 35 yards out. He's largely isolated and feeding off crumbs, if he's lucky.

 

We don't have much choice in attack do we? Barnett & Pyke coming back from injury and both Pyke and Turner are young lads learning their trade. There's no-one there who will guarantee us more goals than Pope, sadly.

 

Nobody is blaming anything on pope. He's just not been very good and people are looking at different options.

 

We have already dropped our top scorer in turner.

 

Popes goals are in the past, this season he has 0 and has had chances even if you deny it, remember one against Notts county.

 

I completely agree with everything else regarding the supply and the wingers, we have created very very little but I do think pope looks a shadow of what he was.

[For Us All]

You are comparing chalk with cheese there Hamil. The clue is in his nick name 'Nippy Naylor'. The Tom Pope of four years ago wouldn't have scored with that chance either because Tom has never been blessed with pace. Bloody hell he was 45 yards from goal when he got the pass. Tom's strength is in the air in the box. Tony didn't score with too many towering headers though did he. Quite simply because at 5' 5"- 5' 6'' we wasn't big enough so please compare like for like in future.

 

I'm not sure Tosh would have scored that chance to be honest,one-on-ones wasn't his strong point?