Anthony Stokes

highlight of the season, * * the season has not been that bad has it

 

And that's my point also Sean,the kid cost us 1.1 mil,he's our current leader in goals and assists,he had a very bad ankle injury a couple of years ago when the kid was on fire.

But you know what,the kid sucks in Europe,he sucked against the huns(how many times did he start against the huns ffs?)

Och well lets get rid of the *,but it will be a long time before we get a player for 1.1 mil who has scored and assisted as much as Stokes has at that price.
Whit they like.

 

I agree, our left side has been our most dangerous all season. That's been lost a bit since Stokes hasn't been playing. Armstrong has been fantastic so far but he leaves Izzy isolated a lot.

Forrest is lost on the left in this formation I feel.

 

have you got any proof that they haven't changed ? No - and you dont need any , its your opinion and you entitled to it. This is a forum , we speculate and give our opinions and theories after consideration , not everything we say needs to be proved .

heres my theory ...

four years ago (date of said article ) he was 22 and probably still had aspirations of developing into a top striker (and maybe getting a second crack at the EPL) , and so would not want to be a squad player at celtic.

now he is 26 and knows exactly how good he is and has probably realised that celtic is as big as its gunna get for him . He would be far more prepared to fight for his place here now .

it isnt unfair at all to say that a player can change in four years.

 

Forrest can only play on the right, he is in direct competition with GMS imo. Even though he is predominately right footed, some of his more intricate stuff comes when he cuts in and plays one twos and gets shots off with his left foot.

I actually thought it was strange that we played Forrest on the left today, made little sense when Wakaso, Armstrong and Commons (and Stokes) were available.

 

He likes inverted wingers, Forrests game on the right is all about cutting in, seems like you think that would translate well him going into his stronger foot.

Doesn't work out that way.

 

'highlight of the season' is probably the wrong phrase because it's not a highlight its the whole of the first half of the season. Some of their interplay has been an absolute joy.

I bet if you asked Izzy who he wanted in front of him he would say Stokes before you finished the sentence.

 

I said it after Dundee as well, he is no way one of those opposite wingers coming in and spreading killer, wonder passes. He's all about exposing his full back and taking him on. He can't fully do that on the left as he's not got a good left foot for a start so the only place he can come on the left, is inside..

I think he's gonna be left roasting now, especially after today..

 

He's probably more left footed than even he himself would admit to. When you play one position all your life and use one foot to sprint with the ball but the other to play passes and have a dig it's hard to swap that over even if the other foot is your so called better foot.

Not sure what's going to happen with Jimmy but I still hope he makes it here, he's only 24 ffs.

It's a real shame when you think of the talents we've lost to injury.

 

agree with all of this .

he is snookered here imo.

 

Sadly I think Stoke's days are numbered here,which is a shame cause he's a really talented footballer as the assists stats point out

 

Aye, his biggest problem is he just does mot dribble with his left foot. He's quite happy playing off wee one two's on his left though.

 

So everything being said is just been repeated over and over.
From reading the posts from the last couple of days its as simple as.
He isn't in the current best 11.
Shouldn't be sold.
Wont do a job in a big game.
Still good enough for the league.

 

Trying to adapt Stokes into the starting 11 at this point would be going backwards imo. He's not a bad player, but he doesn't quite fit in on how we want to play as many have pointed out. If he doesn't suddenly start playing great I think it's better for his career to move on in the summer.

 

If he doesn't fit it that's damning on every other attacking player in our squad, considering his contributed towards the most goals.

 

Stokes doesn't need adapting into the starting 11, he's been there all season. :smiley-laughing002:

 

He hasnt featured much since everything clicked.

 

Our attack started clicking in October when we embarked on a run of wins and only one domestic defeat and qualification for the last 32 of the EL.

 

Stokes was responsible for securing a lot of points for us before things started to click. When he got injured we lost creativity and dropped points aganst ross county and United.

 

Because he's a clever player who links up well with Izzy and in the SPL that is enough. He's not a winger, though, and I still think he is mediocre in that position compared to what we need to aim for.