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Great finish by Parrot and good involvement all round from looking at the highlights above.
I'm completely biased in that I've really admired this young fella and his style of play since watching him as a kid underage for us, and would always consider him a starter for us once fit, but now that he's a first team regular at a club like AZ and scoring regularly, I just can't fathom how he's not considered central to our senior team.
Glad hes doing well but if Ferguson and Smodics are fit, he wouldn’t start for me…
There are still too many issues with him and he doesn't have a definite position. He's not a lone striker, he's not really a midfielder either and he doesn't have the pace to play out wide.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
Can play as a second forward in a 2 man front line but that's about it. He's a useful option to have, particularly off the bench, but unless he finds something extra it's hard to make a case for putting him in the starting team.
I think he was unlucky not to get more meaningful minutes in the NL all the same. In a team asking a lot of questions maybe he's one of the answers.
Right now I don't think he is. If I want an out and out centre forward it would be Ferguson, Idah or Cannon rather than him. Szmodics is a better support forward than him. Johnston, McAteer and Ebosele are better out wide, as well as Ogbene when fit. Azaz is a better attacking midfielder. I think it makes sense that he's not playing much for us at the moment.
I think that's a bit harsh. Ferguson has one club goal all year. Idah is blowing hot and cold at Celtic; he'll pick up a goal coming on as a sub against a demoralised weaker team but too often he doesn't impress when given a (rare) start. Szmodics is doing ok for Ipswich and Cannon is certainly one to keep an eye on, though the Leicester spell is a concern.
But Parrott has 21 club goals this calendar year, in a tougher league than Idah and many of them for a relegation side. He's still showing a great knack for being in the right place at the right time; the goal against Ajax is another good example of that.
None of that lot are the finished article yet, but I think he's way ahead of Idah at the moment, and a legitimate alternative to Ferguson.
Unlike those other players though (possibly other than Szmodics), I don't think you could/should play Parrott as your main centre forward. Idah has been hit and miss, but he'll use his size and pace to hold the ball up, run the channels, work the defence etc. Parrott is technically better, but he can't really do those things, which are close to essential requirements for your striker.
Similarly, while Ferguson isn't playing brilliantly, I don't think you could just take him out of the team and slot Parrott in. He's just a different kind of player.
No, I get that - but Parrott has a poacher's knack I think. That's exactly what I'd want in a centre-forward first and foremost. Ball across the box, and there's someone who can anticipate, get in front of the defender, and score. A lot of his goals have looked simple and I think that's a big positive.
Idah was very poor holding the ball up against England for example, and his close control has come in for regular criticism this season. The others are all much of a muchness for me (agree Sammy maybe a slightly different kind of player to the others)
Troy's an interesting player. Arguably his best performances as a senior international came alongside Obafemi as a pair. At underage level, he was excellent playing off Adam Idah. He's also been used wide as part of a 3 to mixed results.
I don't see why he couldn't lead the line, he's tall, he's good in the air, he wins enough 50/50s, his movement is good, I'd describe him as medium pace (faster than Szmodics and Ferguson, slower than Idah and Cannon and a tonne slower than Obafemi) and yet, he's always looked better as part of a pair.
I do feel he's been a very influential player for us. 1-0 down against Andorra into the second half, he scores 2 to turn it around. 97th minute winner v Lithuania. early 2nd goal against Scotland to solidify the lead, 92nd minute winner against Hungary. The goals to caps ratio isn't amazing but a lot of his caps have been him being brought on in stoppage time, in fact you could combine the minutes from 10 of his irish caps and end up with just 60 minutes of football.
Another goal for Troy last night against NAC Breda. They got two late goals to win. I think Troy offers us something different that our other strikers. He is our most creative striker, and can play as an old fashioned No 10. I still have high hopes for him. He is getting great European experience in the Europa league also.
Best thing Parrott could have done was change leagues and countries. The last 18 months have been huge in his development
9 league goals and third highest goal scorer in eredivisie at moment, decent going and would be great if he could hit close to 20 this season.
This new chapter in his life is really pleasing to see. I don't know where his eventual level will be but it is very nice to have a player at a relatively high standard scoring goals.
10th goal in 17 games in the Eredivisie this season. While the standard of some of the opposition he's playing against is questionable, he's scoring plenty of goals.
Not just scoring goals, he seems to be a real star in a country where football is more than just a sport. As someone with a strong link to where he hails from, I am absolutely bursting with pride that he's gone from tabloid stuff to this kind of thingQuote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
"Naughty chips!"
Absolutely brilliant.
I wonder , is there a touch of the Steve McClaren's in there ? !Quote:
Originally Posted by Yard of Pace
More that he's enunciating his words (vowels particularly) so as to avoid speaking too fast so that the Dutch can fully understand him I think. I don't hear any gutteral pronunciation of the "sh"!Quote:
Originally Posted by seanfhear
It's still a Northside accent, but with a kind of Dutch pacing. Probably inevitable, he's been there for a year and a half now so it's going to rub off on him a bit. Also going a bit Ruud van Nistelrooy with the hair!
If he spoke like he normally would at home, then genuinely the interviewer wouldn’t understand him. He’s adapting to his environment and keeping most of his accent, while just slightly adapting how fast he speaks, how he constructs sentences and the grammatically complexity of his speech.
There’s a couple of little bits, most obvious is the reduced pace. there’s the linguistic addition of “also” as a filler almost all the time which he’s taken from Dutch English, which gives time for him to be understood. Occasionally he adapts his sentences to how your native Dutch speaker would build a sentence, I dunno if you’d call it a passive voice like “if we have two strikers scoring goals, that can only make the better” or his “this is what I do…” before he actually answers it with his natural: “Listen, I came to score goals…”. And his beginning “This is eh…” before actually deciding how to answer the question “for me, it’s important to…”. Sometimes it’s just a single word like what begins really dub, he uses “is not always possible” where he’d normally say “isn’t always possible” or “it will come, it will come” rather than it’ll. a few simplifications like “I think is really good movement”.
But overall, he keeps a lot of Dub - his “us”, “here” “striker” “better” stuff like that.
To be honest ~ Bar the Steve McClaren comicals ~ This kind of thing is probably the human instinct to try to fit it / to make an effort ~ ~ Maybe he is attempting to learn Dutch !
The first time I was in Spain I was heading down this route myself ~ Probably had a phrase-book / some duo-language cards.
After awhile I noticed that I was speaking English and putting an O on the end of everything and a part of my mind was thinking I was on the road to speaking fluent Spanish !