Is Tom Cannon the most useless striker we've ever had?

[Chezzy Blades]

Bit of a digression here, but who has worn the No.7 shirt for us?
Apart from the legend that was Woody, and the aforementioned Brewster and Cannon, I can think of :

Colin Morris
Andy Gray?
Alan Roberts
Ian Bryson
Carl Bradshaw
Gary Hamson?
Steve Neville
Len De Goey
Ryan Flynn (if he would be better than Cannon)

Trying to think who had the shirt in the first Wilder spell from 2016 and can only think of possibly Samir Carruthers?

Mark McNulty had it in 2016/17.

 

[Sheffsteel]

What about "The Chief", nice guy it seemed, and a bit of a cult hero, but come in he was dogger.

I reckon Oscar Pistorius, without the metal legs, could have ran onto a through ball quicker.

Also, Phil Starbuck, seemed to remember being quite "excited" when we signed him, he was utter toss as well

Chief always played like he was wearing iron boots…..unbelievably sluggish/ slow

But he was a unit/ a man mountain, his body strength was really impressive when shielding the ball, no defender could knock him off the ball.
So in certain situations he was useful.

 

[Maidenhead]

 

[TJ blade]

A

Adrian Littlejohn springs to mind but even he was at least quick.

Cannon! Not fit to lace Littejohns boots up ffs!

 

[Working Class Hero]

We've obviously had some shit strikers in the 30 years I've been watching, but every one that I can remember at least had some sort of attribute, scored a few goals, or if they didn't and really were bobbar then they got left out or moved on pretty quickly.

Cannon has to be the worst to get to 20 games, based on what we've seen so far. I don't think it's even possible to be ranked worse than him, just because the complete lack of any contribution whatsoever in almost every appearance is quite amazing for a sample size of 20 games.

If you bring the price tag into it, it looks even worse, but that wasn't the question.

I would never boo him or slag him off like some have already, but I do think it's daft to be giving him minutes.

 

[wavy-blade]

Yes !

 

[The Fox]

Yes he's been poor .

However over the last 12 months or so playing up front for us as been as futile as getting a job at the Rotherham Tourist Board .
We create very few opportunities , we dont dominate games or play the ball to forwards fast enough ,chances are few and far between

As said , he's not done great but cant help thinking its a symptom of how we play aswell.

 

[Guesty]

What about "The Chief", nice guy it seemed, and a bit of a cult hero, but come in he was dogger.

I reckon Oscar Pistorius, without the metal legs, could have ran onto a through ball quicker.

Also, Phil Starbuck, seemed to remember being quite "excited" when we signed him, he was utter toss as well

Allison created three goals away at Gillingham, doing more in a single game than Cannon is likely to achieve all season.

EDIT: Also his strike rate is currently twice what Cannon's is, despite not primarily being a goalscorer, which Cannon is meant to be.

He was a fuck load better than Ashley Ward, too.

 

[Silent Blade]

Bit of a digression here, but who has worn the No.7 shirt for us?
Apart from the legend that was Woody, and the aforementioned Brewster and Cannon, I can think of :

Colin Morris
Andy Gray?
Alan Roberts
Ian Bryson
Carl Bradshaw
Gary Hamson?
Steve Neville
Len De Goey
Ryan Flynn (if he would be better than Cannon)

Trying to think who had the shirt in the first Wilder spell from 2016 and can only think of possibly Samir Carruthers?

Hamson was left footed, usually wore number 10 or 11, Bryson was usually 11.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Hamson was left footed, usually wore number 10 or 11, Bryson was usually 11.

Not saying Bryson wasn't usually 11 but I'm pretty sure he did wear 7 a few times.
Just thought of another : Franz Carr

 

[coaxingstar71]

View attachment 222532

Can't believe I missed Lundstram and Brown but I'm not having Brian Smith wore the 7 shirt as he was a centre half. In 1986/87 it was mainly Morris, but also Tony Daws and David Frain.

Edit : according to The Complete Record, Brian Smith's brother Paul wore the No.7 for 3 games in 1984/85

 

[Nick Jansky]

There are National League strikers who would've had more impact over 25 games than he's had.

No there aren’t.

 

[Silent Blade]

Hamson was left footed, usually wore number 10 or 11, Bryson was usually 11.

Wore number 7 if Hodges or Whitehouse wore the number 11

 

[Gimli]

What about "The Chief", nice guy it seemed, and a bit of a cult hero, but come in he was dogger.

I reckon Oscar Pistorius, without the metal legs, could have ran onto a through ball quicker.

Also, Phil Starbuck, seemed to remember being quite "excited" when we signed him, he was utter toss as well

Chief scored a few - including one against Pigs. Also he did actually have other strengths, like strength for example! Cannon has nothing.

That said, I’ve just seen Oliver Burke score a hat trick for Union Berlin, maybe theres hope for Cannon yet!

 

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

Chief always played like he was wearing iron boots…..unbelievably sluggish/ slow

But he was a unit/ a man mountain, his body strength was really impressive when shielding the ball, no defender could knock him off the ball.
So in certain situations he was useful.

And the irony is that The Chief was always brought on as a "fresh pair of legs" late in the game!

Bring some pace on to shake it up a bit, WTF!

 

[b1ade4life]

If we had any other decent strikers he would have been loaned out, league one side, get his confidence back

 

[VictoryBlade]

The irony is that when Vanistelrooy was manager at Leicester, he was happy for him to be loaned to Stoke, then sold him to us knowing that Leicester would be in the Championship this season and had he been any good would have stuck with him for the season ahead. Van was no mug in terms of identifying a good striker so why oh why did we sign this fool? After all Van played for Man U in their Prime?

 

[Addison]

As has been said. If we playing slow possession based triangles in the corners how are any of our strikers supposed to score goals. When was the last time we saw a ball whipped in low first time into the box from the flanks. Our alternative appears to be hoofing it six foot above the forwards head down the middle. A change of formation and tactics would go some way to providing ammunition for the likes of Cannon. He's been a disappointment but he may have a case arguing mitigating circumstances.

 

[Kevincarterversion2.0]

No, Cannon is playing in a useless system for a goal poacher.

 

[HuddersfieldBlade]

Obviously didn’t see Paul Williams, signed by Bassett in around 88. He was dire

 

[1973Blade]

Now Ian Rush for us .....

 

[Chief]

No there aren’t.

I didn't say better footballers... but they'd at least look like they're desperate to do something, or anything, and you'd notice them occasionally.

Of the 40-odd strikers in that league, there's an above zero chance that one of them would have a better record than one goal and one assist.

Ryan Oné, who we all agree is clearly not at the level yet, has played probably a third of the minutes Cannon has and matched his goal record.

Christ, even Wednesday gave a 19-year old who was playing in the TENTH tier a year ago his debut on Saturday... and he's matched his goal record.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Mark McNulty had it in 2016/17.

No one saw it though because it was hidden under his jumper when it was draped over his back with the sleeves tied at the front.

 

[AWetFlannel]

How many chances has he actually had? He's a finisher, and so can look a bit pointless if he's not being fed chances.

 

[raimond]

He’s averaging an incredibly low 1 or 2 touches per game. Basically he hardly ever touches the ball, at least he can say he’s not missing chances.

A bit like a saffron Buddhist monk saying he's actually quite good at pulling.

 

[GymClassHero]

A genuine debate to be had on this. And not just "he's shit" - he's genuinely like playing with 10 men and it's making us so much worse when he comes on the pitch.

When I say useless - I don't mean in terms of his actual technical quality, I mean in terms of the little (no) impact he has in games.

He is certainly since I've been going.
Conor Sammon made the strikers work. So would Craig Beattie.
Joe Ironside would rough them up. As would Michael Higdon.

Tom Cannon just ambles around and doesn't do a fucking thing.

I'm of the opinion that he is a much worse option now than either Ryan One or Jevan Beattie.

What have the coaches been telling him to work on since January?

Hard to argue with any of that tbh.

 

[GymClassHero]

Same height as Ogbene, yes he is a winger/RCB however with his pace he would be better up top than Cannon. Although Cannon is still young at 22, there are plenty of academy kids like you say that could have done a similar or not any worse job than him and for £10million less!

Just can't fathom why he was signed instead of Japhet. We sign Japhet, we go up. We could've used, as you say, Oné instead and spent the fee on Tanganga.

 

[GymClassHero]

Surely we should have a look at signing Bamford. Am I right in saying you can sign free agents outside the transfer window as long as they were released during or before the last window?

We have no options up front. They are all of a similar profile.

 

[knowsnowt]

We send every opponent this via facey messenger before every game.

"Hi SUFC here. Today we'll mostly be playing the Ball forwards via 347 passes. When we get near your box we'll play the ball back wards or sideways allowing you to get 10 men behind the ball. Hope that helps".

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

We send every opponent this via facey messenger before every game.

"Hi SUFC here. Today we'll mostly be playing the Ball forwards via 347 passes. When we get near your box we'll play the ball back wards or sideways allowing you to get 10 men behind the ball. Hope that helps".

You forgot the part about the steady walk taking the scenic route back to our own half when we lose the ball and the opposition counter.