[Mo]

People say about his hard work but I see this as a bit of a myth for me he does plenty of quantity not much quality work and wastes too much energy so that when he needs to show in the right place he is knackered . The team should be doing pattern play in training so that when the ball is in a certain area of the pitch Rondon knows where he should be . I don't think we work on it at all . I said on way home yesterday maybe he would benefit from the coaching and insight of someone who has played up front at this level pretty much like the goodman and Pearson scenario from way back .

[elkiellis]

Not sure how you figure that because aside from his 1 in 5 scoring rate Long's worst attribute is holding up the ball/awful first touch.

didn't long score 2 scorchers against the villa playing on his own,rondom couldn't manage a shot,we sold long for a profit we aint got a chance of offloading rondon for anywhere need what we paid

[TheJacko2000]

didn't long score 2 scorchers against the villa playing on his own,rondom couldn't manage a shot,we sold long for a profit we aint got a chance of offloading rondon for anywhere need what we paid

One cost 3 million one cost 12 million 

Long's goals against Villa were the exception not the rule, I was astonished when he controlled that one over his shoulder and slotted, great goal, but he couldn't do it again if you gave him the same ball another 50 times.

[lewisant]

I think it's so SO obvious that Rondon's lack of confidence and goals is not his fault. Watching that compilation shows that he needs the ball to played to him early and incisively. Oh and into his feet rather than constantly aimed towards his chest/head.

The problem with us at the moment, and it was abundantly clear versus Villa, is that we never capitalise on openings and mistakes, never. If we go to play the early ball, we screw it up, if there's a chance to put an early cross in when the defenders are flat footed, we don't do it and we sit so deep that when Rondon receives a hopeful punt he has 2 central defenders and 2 defensive midfielders around him while blue and white shirts are usually at least 20 yards away.

All of the above means that when we do actually get that one opening and a chance is made for him the pressure is on him so much to get it right.

When we get chances to catch teams out, Sess tries one trick too many, Gardner is just awful, Yacob generally needs a playmaker (we don't have any) nearby and McClean is hit and miss.

We need to upgrade Sess, McClean, Morrison and not start Yac and Fletcher together AND stop playing so deep before we see an improvement in Rondon's goal return.

I'm by no means saying the above are bad players but you have to build a team around goals (goals = wins) and we need our "attacking" players to fit our 12 million pound striker.

I'd be happy with Fletcher or Yacob alongside Morrison but ultimately we need an upgrade on one of them. Then the three attacking midfielders need to be a proper winger on the right (Phillips from QPR would be great) who's powerful and puts in early balls, a more dynamic 'in the pocket' player like De Guzman or even Sess (Morrison is even ok here but not with Yacob AND Fletcher behind) and i accept McClean on the left but i do think he lacks the quality we need, although tip of the hat to him, he works 'ard and he has improved vastly and does offer value for money.

So the cheapest way of improving Rondon in my eyes would be:

             Fletcher/Yacob                Moz

Phillips/New winger        Sess/New no.10      McClean

[Albion79]

Its a catch 22, if the problem with Rondon is physical it will show up in these blood tests but would be surprised because as somebody said above he had a two break at xmas.

I wonder if some of it is pyschological, he came as our record signing, for clubs like ours we need them to hit the ground running, for the first couple of months he was flying all over the world and struggled to get going.

I think his performances in general have been okay until lately but he looks void of confidence now and is getting worse, i am not sure he is a natural goalscorer but will probably get 6 or 8 a season.

His finishing has been poor but i have sympathy with him, when he was out we tried to play football and looked a decent team, we did the same at Chelsea when he played too but other than that the 4 games since he came back we have gone back to hoof and chase and everyone 20 yards behind him and i imagine it must be very downheartening for him playing that way when he has more to offer.

For the rest of the seasons games, If we play more often like we did yesterday i would expect he will be moved on either at his request or the clubs at the end of the season.

[lewisant]

I wonder if some of it is pyschological, he came as our record signing, for clubs like ours we need them to hit the ground running, for the first couple of months he was flying all over the world and struggled to get going.

I think his performances in general have been okay until lately but he looks void of confidence now and is getting worse, i am not sure he is a natural goalscorer but will probably get 6 or 8 a season.

His finishing has been poor but i have sympathy with him, when he was out we tried to play football and looked a decent team, we did the same at Chelsea when he played too but other than that the 4 games since he came back we have gone back to hoof and chase and everyone 20 yards behind him and i imagine it must be very downheartening for him playing that way when he has more to offer.

For the rest of the seasons games, If we play more often like we did yesterday i would expect he will be moved on either at his request or the clubs at the end of the season.

See my above post. We just don't play to his strengths at all, even Pulis defended the long ball and you could here him shouting at the players to pump it upfield v Bristol City. If Pulis was behind the signing then it's a massive fail on his part. We may as well play Anichebe when fit (ha!) to be honest.

[LiamTheBaggie]

I feel sorry for him to be honest but I don't think he's helping himself. He has very little movement, is poor in the air, gets out-muscled far too easily, hasn't got any noticble pace and his finishing has been poor.

The down side for him is that we provide very little service from out wide. Usually because we're playing make shift wingers, and we also sit so deep there's never anybody around him anyway.

I think we would have been better off signing someone like Cameron Jerome/Jon Walters and using that £12million or whatever it was on a  bloody good midfielder.

[lewisant]

In fact we may as well have just kept Ideye, he's probably have the same amount of goals at least. All of Pulis' sentiments about settling in time could all have been applied to Ideye last year but instead Pulis decided to move him along and now back his own signing.

Argh i'm having a bit of an anti-Pulis moment.

[darbolina]

Rondon looks a much better player than Ideye to me. Rondon just needs support. Support would create chances. Chances create goals. Goals breed confidence. Confidence breeds more goals.

Foe example, Vardy couldn't hit a barn door last year , then with good players around him and confidence he looks like the bionic Man!

On paper Rondon and Berahinho up front with McLean and CMc on the wings should've worked well.

He needs a partner/ foil......

[smethwickw]

I feel sorry for him to be honest but I don't think he's helping himself. He has very little movement, is poor in the air, gets out-muscled far too easily, hasn't got any noticble pace and his finishing has been poor.

The down side for him is that we provide very little service from out wide. Usually because we're playing make shift wingers, and we also sit so deep there's never anybody around him anyway.

I think we would have been better off signing someone like Cameron Jerome/Jon Walters and using that £12million or whatever it was on a  bloody good midfielder.

Other than that he's brilliant.

Seriously I do agree with all that you've posted here. It's the fault of TP to sign a player that doesn't fit his system. That said from what I've seen he doesn't look like he'd fit any system.

[OldburyWBA]

Not sure where the very little movement comment comes from, he is absolutely knackered each game from running and chasing. At the weekend he spent too much time covering and doing the chasing work for Sess and McClean.

He needs to develop a ruthless streak and put himself in there more instead of being the nice guy.

I think he is a much better player than Brown Ideye and will come good. Saw him a few times watching Malaga on Sky to see he is upto it

[skyclad99]

He needs to learn to control the ball TBH.

[RowleyBaggie2]

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-salomon-rondon-having-10778948

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-salomon-rondon-striker-10784234

Both intersting and offer a bit of insight rather than "he's rubbish" etc 

[Albionic]

Lewisant said above , and I quote, you have to build a team around goals (goals = wins)

Well, thats one philosiphy another is "you have to build your team around not conceding goals, not conceding = draws at worst and wins at best.

I suspect our current managers strategy is the latter.

[Jordie1471]

Really wish people would get off his back. It really feels like many just made a snap judgement on his goals/game ratio and then work off a confirmation bias moan around this. For example the 'lack of movement' moan I found borderline hilarious.

I must admit I feel really sorry for the lad to only ever feed off aimless hoofs in his vague direction, and then when he does manage to impressively collect, there are no West Brom players within 30 yards of him and as a result surrounded by 2/3 defenders! How is anyone supposed to 'make their own chances' from this setup?

Regardless, who would you really drop him for? Is it really that much of a coincidence that Anichebe, Berahino and Lambert have also all struggled up front too this season (to put it mildly)

[Signor_Maresca]

The Rondon transfer was a real coup for the club, I know some may chortle at the suggestion now but I’m still confident he will come good, however I don’t believe we will see the best of him until next season.  It take players time to adapt, people forget that after Modric’s first season at Spurs people said he wasn’t up to the Premier League, its only recently Ozil has been widely accepted as success at Arsenal, infact there’s dozens of examples; Koscielny, Monreal, Willian off the top of my head, all had a prolonged period where they learnt to adapt to the English game.  Mahrez another one, he wasn’t half the force last season that he is now.

[tuamigos]

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-salomon-rondon-having-10778948

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-salomon-rondon-striker-10784234

Both intersting and offer a bit of insight rather than "he's rubbish" etc 

You have to laugh. I don't know what team that 'Russian Football expert' has been watching but he has us down as playing with natural wingers!
Apart from Mcmanaman and Brunty, nether who figure there consistantly, have we got a natural winger on the books?

That said I do agree that we need to keep him here and hope we can develop a style of play where the midfield  gets to support the striker more quickly on a more consistent basis.

[RowleyBaggie2]

The Rondon transfer was a real coup for the club, I know some may chortle at the suggestion now but I’m still confident he will come good, however I don’t believe we will see the best of him until next season.  It take players time to adapt, people forget that after Modric’s first season at Spurs people said he wasn’t up to the Premier League, its only recently Ozil has been widely accepted as success at Arsenal, infact there’s dozens of examples; Koscielny, Monreal, Willian off the top of my head, all had a prolonged period where they learnt to adapt to the English game.  Mahrez another one, he wasn’t half the force last season that he is now.

He's an excellent player who needs time to adapt, the travelling won't be helping him either.

[M666EYS]

He's an excellent player who needs time to adapt, the travelling won't be helping him either.

with the right players around him, not 9 players chasing after the ball and him living off scraps. we have the players who could supply him but they are sat on the bench.

[gerry m]

Feel sorry for the guy, People are coming out and saying he is rubbish dont realise the system Zenit play is totally different to ours. 1st season at the club and in a new country, needs to be given a bit of time.

[RowleyBaggie2]

with the right players around him, not 9 players chasing after the ball and him living off scraps. we have the players who could supply him but they are sat on the bench.

So he's not a bad signing then?

[M666EYS]

So he's not a bad signing then?

there is no evidence to say that it is a good signing AT THE MINUTE.

[RowleyBaggie2]

there is no evidence to say that it is a good signing AT THE MINUTE.

Or that it's a bad one.......Although i'd argue several good performances means that he has contributed this season.

[Jeremy Roland Peace]

we had the same issue with Ideye, we don't play a style that suits Rondon. we didn't play a style that suited Ideye.

I'd be hard pressed at the moment to identify what style we do play other than defend.

we lack quality in almost every position on the pitch.

we also lack pace throughout the whole team, we play a deep defensive system which relies on counter attacking for any kind of attack other than lumping it forward.

when we do lump it forward it is never anywhere near Rondon so he has to go chasing it.

our ball retention is quite frankly a joke and when we do have the ball our passing is atrocious

[Droitwich Baggie]

our ball retention is quite frankly a joke and when we do have the ball our passing is atrocious

I can only agree.
Fletcher and Olsson are the biggest culprits.
Olsson can only hoof.
Fletcher talks (shouts) a good game, but most times that is it.