I think that's what Palace have missed this season though is a target man who can hold his own. Ayew and then Batshuayi work hard and hurry defenders but when the ball comes up to them they can't hold it long enough to bring the likes of Zaha and Townsend into play. I don't think we need a pacey striker with our current system as we hardly ever play through balls that would make use of one and it is on the wings where we tend to make more use of pace.

Mitrovic is still fat. Please look closer at him.

I've seen at least 5 matches of Mitrovic in the last 6 months and he is very fat. And doesn't run at all to help his team.

I've seen him in the Serbia national team matches this past months too and he does good things for them setting up others and being a threat at headers, but is very imobile.

He is not for the Premier League level and speed

Bakary Sako was fat in the context of that discussion, which was to field him as a winger.

He seems overweight even for a center forward, let alone to play on the wing, where he had played most of his life.

But yeah, I think he could be converted into a center forward and he was briefly so the past season, but it's a gamble and one that Palace doesn;t afford in the long term. He did great, scored some goals as center forward, but he doesn;t really have continuity in that position.

And to prove that I war right about Sako being fat, he went to the Championship and played less than 100 minutes in 6 months for WBA. And I doubt he is fit now. A career plagued by injuries for a player who is unfortunately for him disposed to getting extra weight, has prevented him for training well this past season, which.....I dare say is an end career

Bakary Sako at Wolverhampton 5 years ago: akary_Sako.jpg" target="_blank">[Link]

Bakary Sako in Crystal Palace when I said that thing:

[Link]

Pretty certain we won't be spending much on players this season unless there is a sale of one of our star players. Looking at the accounts, we simply don't have the cash to spend.

I would imagine we will see a very similar window to the last one with a couple of frees, if there are any decent ones out there, with maybe one signing of a similar stature to Kouyate.

AWB is the most saleable asset we have but he's also the best fullback I've seen at Palace since we had Cole on loan. It's a gamble between cashing in now or holding onto him for another season and hoping he gets an england cap and another good season under him t see his value really rocket.

Could we raid Chelsea for Zouma, Drinkwater, Moses, Abraham, Loftus-Cheek, Cahill, Batman, Bakayoko?

Let's get our facts straight.

I don;t have time to explain this all the time when a simple wikipedia search clarifies it.

Screw second division goals. Mounie also had great numbers in the second division, that's not what we're talking about. There's a huge difference between the Championship and the Premier League.

There is also a difference between the Ligue 1 of France and the Premier League, but not that much and considering that goals are scored there much harder, a goal in Ligue 1 values as much as a goal in the PL.

Mounie had 14 goals in the 2016-17 season, 7 goals for Huddersfield last season and just 2 goals the current season. That's 23 goals in 86 matches, one every 3.66 matches.

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Alex Mitrovic has had in the same time period 16 goals in 42 matches in the Championship. But let's just focus on what he did at top level. 11 goals in 38 matches in the Premier League. That's one goals every 3.5 matches, but coroborated with the ones in the Championship, I'd say his goalscoring is below that of Steve Mounie.

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When you go deeper into analysis, you can conclude that Steve Mounie has also contributed with 8 assists in this time period too, getting 23 goals and 8 assists in just 6200 minutes.

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Aleksandr Mitrovic has just 2 assists at top level in the Premier League, for a total of 11 goals and 2 assists in 3000 minutes.

Yes, he also has 7 assists in the Championship for a total of 16 goals and 7 assists there in 2600 minutes, but it's a much lower level. Mounie had 11 goals and 5 assists in 2600 minutes in the 2015-16 season of Ligue 2 as well.

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Now, while they're both good, strong pivots, who can set up other players, the other things Mounie does, like running, pressing and defending are much, much better than the overall game of Mitrovic.

Therefore my cocnclusion that Steve Mounie is a much better bargain for the price he would cost. He's cheaper and better than Mitrovic, who is pretty overrated because he has been in English football longer and has stepped up through other issues rather than football.

I do respect Mitrovic for what he has done for the Serbia national team, but there's no way to compare the 2 there, with Steve Mounie playing for lowly Benin.

And this season:

Mounie- 2 goals and 3 assists in 1700 minutes

Mitrovic- 10 goals and 2 assists in 2950 minutes

Yeah, it is better for Mitrovic, but if you look at the playing time it's not THAT MUCH beter. 1 goal or assist in more than 200 minutes is not good for a center forward.

Yeah, it's even worse for Mounie, he has had a lousy season too, but the team was really poor, had given up the fight half way through and he has previous seasons to support him, he could get back to that form.
He had 7 goals and 2 assists in 1800 minutes last year, for the same lowly Huddersfield, while Mitrovic was playing for 1st place in the Championship. And 14 goals and 3 assists the year before that for mid-table Montpellier in Ligue 1 in 2800 minutes.

Plus, he's much more fit and works for the team. Mitrovic is already chubby. If you take Mounie you take him for the future and even possible re-sale value.

Mitrovic on the other hand won;t make it to 30 years in a high competitive league at the way he looks.

Just to be clear, I;m not saying Steve Mounie is the best option for Palace at the moment (as he's going through a decrease in performances), but I'm just making the comparison with Mitrovic.

Yes, I stand by what I said, he would be a much better investment than Mitrovic.

Edited by mattteo (09 Apr 2019 1.09pm)