Liam Cullen

[talyfan]

Pretty much identical to the last goal he scored in Swansea's match against Coventry

[jimexotic]

3 goals in 9 appearances this season, turns 24 in April but worth keeping an eye on as we wait for the likes of Mark Harris to step up.

[surge]

I've said before but Wiki still has out 2017 Toulon Tournament squad listed under the Wales Under 20's page. Under strikers, we had the likes of:

Dan James
Nathan Broadhead
Tyler Roberts
Mark Harris
George Thomas (our top scorer with 2 goals in the tournament, both against the Ivory Coast who lost on penalties in the final)
Liam Cullen.

It wasn't exactly a vintage year* with Harvey Barnes, Reece James, Dai Brooks, Hiroki Ito, Dan James and Jean-Phillipe Mateta being the very few stand-out names, but it would be fantastic if Liam Cullen (or any of forwards listed) could step up and add their name to that list.

It was a very smart and composed finish yesterday and he appears to be well liked at the club.

*albeit that World Cup U'20's going on at same time so some players were away at that. 

[CrackityJones]

Another goal tonight

[jbt95]

Dec 30, 2022 21:40:54 GMT CrackityJones said:

Another goal tonight

A goal in each of the last three games!

Assisted the first goal too v Watford.

[jimexotic]

He's becoming difficult to ignore now, definitely worth a look I think

[surge]

How did he perform against Burnley yesterday?

Saw on the highlights that he had shot on target (although it was straight at the keeper, it was hit with good power and I thought the ball through to him didn't have enough pace/pushed him too wide to expect much else) and was sniffing around for the goal that Oli Cooper scored.

For those paying greater attention, what was he like against one of the best two sides in the league?

[jimexotic]

Got this from Walesonline

LIAM CULLEN 6

Hit and miss in possession and could only fire straight at Arijanet Muric in the first half but his energy helped to keep Swansea on the front foot. Tired after the restart but tracked back defensively on numerous occasions to keep his side in with a shout.

[CrackityJones]

Scored again. Getting hard to ignore

[dai]

Im sure iot will be along soon to say otherwise!

[iot]

Jan 14, 2023 16:42:03 GMT dai said:

Im sure iot will be along soon to say otherwise!

Right you are!

I have to say, I'm not convinced by him at all and would be very surprised if he ever becomes an important part of our squad.

He will be 24 in April. Having watched him a few times for our u21s and for Swansea, I think he's technically very decent, has a great left foot and is a good finisher. But he really struggles physically - he's easy to brush off the ball and has next to no pace. He can't hold up the ball, he isn't very good at carrying up the pitch, and when he doesn't score he contributes little else. Then when you look at his end product, he ha 9 goals in 72 games. He played 20 times in League 1 last season for Lincoln, scoring once (also played 14 times for Swansea without scoring any). He never stood out for our u21s - was mostly quite poor actually. 

Fair play, he's in good form now. Wasn't getting a look-in for the first couple of months, but now all of a sudden on 4 goals and an assist in the last 6 games. However, I watched him in the cup last week and don't think he's improved much - still getting brushed off the ball almost every time he got it. Obviously you can't deny that he deserves a call-up if he maintains those sort of numbers for the rest of the season irrespective of the flaws in the rest of his game. Let's see how he does going forward

[talyfan]

All for getting more players involved get him involved and have a closer look. Personally feel it's just a purple patch to be honest. Don't think he's got that much in his locker to be much use to us.

For the goals he's scored you'd expect most players to put them away. Not scored many long range goals, headers or taken a few players on to score.

Appreciate there's a knack for being right place right time. If form continues then great.

[jimexotic]

Jan 14, 2023 20:05:13 GMT talyfan said:

For the goals he's scored you'd expect most players to put them away. Not scored many long range goals, headers or taken a few players on to score.

Appreciate there's a knack for being right place right time. If form continues then great.

Gary Lineker says hi!

I get what you're saying but if it continues he's worth a look when you look at the other options.

[allezlesrouges]

It's good to have lads at Championship level we can call in if we get an injury crisis

[jackanapes]

This is the crux if it with Cullen. He’s an instinctive finisher and sniffs out chances but he doesn’t contribute enough outside of that. I reckon he would thrive in a traditional 442 and would have got a hatful of goals back in another era. I’d like to see him play off Moore with James and Johnson on the wings. Just to see what happens.

[jimexotic]

Definitely, I was saying to a mate earlier that I kind of miss the days when defenders were defenders first and footballers second, strikers were strikers first and footballers second, it feels like in today's game you have to have so much more about you which is good in some ways but often pushes out certain talents. I feel this way about Rodon who is almost 90% defender and 10% someone who wants to be Beckenbauer.

[jimexotic]

Scores again today

[dai]

Call him up Page, needs looking at.

[surge]

@jordanwebber96 on Twitter has video of Grimes playing through ball to Cullen for chance that keeper saves. Cullen's movement for that is very nice, though maybe more to be expected from the finish.

His critics are always going to ask what he does outside the box and if he's too small to play at highest level. He's probably had that all his career but is in form of his life so definitely edging closer to a call-up.

[jimexotic]

5 goals in 467 Championship minutes as he gradually plays his way into the starting eleven, when the regular scoring starts. I don't care if he's 4ft 11, if he barely leaves the opposition half, if he barely touches the ball, as far as I'm concerned if a striker has a knack of scoring regularly they're worth their weight in gold. I can't tell you how many times I've watched us and thought "if only someone was in the box, if only someone got into that space", I think Cullen could be an answer to that when called upon, we'll see how he continues to develop. Imagine Brennan tearing it up and getting dangerous low balls in the box for Cullen to feed off. It's the scrappy and tappy goals that can be the difference, we haven't got Bale screamers to count on anymore, we're going to have to evolve as a team.

I've touched on this before but this modern day obsession with strikers being seen as needing to do more, it reminds of my frustration at seeing a few club managers unable to understand what an asset Robert Earnshaw was. At the likes of West Brom you'd see static tubs of shite up front for them and then Earnie would come on and cause havoc, once coming off of the bench in a Premier League game at Charlton to score a hat-trick.

[iot]

Think the two of us have a very different view of football. You've often bemoaned the 'modern day obsession' around playing the ball out from the back instead of lumping it forward when pressed, and now the 'obsession' with having rounded forwards instead of old-school forwards. Personally, I think playing those old-school tactics would quickly get found out, as the likes of Mick McCarthy discovered at Cardiff and Warnock found out after leaving Cardiff. There's a reason football has gone the way it has - the successful managers adapt on the basis of what they see working week to week. The ones that don't adapt quickly get found out and gradually go out of the game. 

[jimexotic]

Hey, that's not quite what I've said in the past, my issue is the obsession with it which leads to problems. There's a time and a place for it in the game but when you see players that aren't capable of playing that way throughout a whole game it gets very frustrating to watch and leads to errors that cost goals. Look at Daniel Farke's Huddersfield, look at his Norwich yesterday, he's only been there a month and they've already conceded two goals, that have led to home defeats, from messing around with it unnecessarily at the back, losing possession and conceding. You have to mix it up if you're not Man City or you will make mistakes, we were absolutely shocking at it in the World Cup, we got pressed and it led to a number of errors. 

As for old school fox in the box style strikers, as long as football is decided by goals there will always be a place for them in the game. The game is changing and a lot of it for the better but certain aspects of it are experiencing teething problems because it's stuff that only the elite level are able to get right consistently at the moment. 

[iot]

I think you're missing the point. It's not a case of having an 'obsession'. It's about trying to beat the press - do so and you've got loads of space to get into, but fail to do so and you risk conceding chances. You say there's a 'time and a place for it'. What do you mean by that? Presumably when the opposition are not pressing. But any decent side who sense that the opposition are not comfortable facing the press will do so continuously. They'll put three or four players up on every goal kick, every time the backline has it. Are you saying in those instances we should never attempt to play it out? 

It's a bit of a bug bear of mine when people point to the goals conceded when trying to play it out, as if Pep and co had never considered it. Yes of course there's a risk of conceding goals playing that way, but generally those types of sides concede far fewer because of how they're able to dominate possession. 

There's an interesting debate to be had about finishers and how much they add to a side - Cristiano Ronaldo scored 20+ goals for Man U last season, but didn't contribute towards any other facet of play - the press, build-up play etc. Plenty of people think despite being their top goalscorer, he had an adverse effect on performances and results overall. Similar could be said about Halaand this season. The difference in overall performance of those two sides this season and last would certainly support that thinking. 

[jimexotic]

It's an obsession to keep doing something that is often failing, Daniel Farke's Huddersfield being a prime example of that. You fine tune it, you play it out and about the right way when you can, not when there's a genuine risk of getting pressed unless you've implemented a system where enough players are making themselves available for the ball in space that involves a pass that's not overly risky. It's about percentages, risk/reward, you don't just try and play it about in areas where conceding it can be dangerous. Of course Pep and co had considered the problems, the difference is they were doing it with sides that were so good that, in Pep's case, he could call on two of the best central midfielders of their generation, in Mascherano and Alonso, to drop back into centre back to be playing it out too, there's a big difference between an experienced World class midfielder playing it out from the back, players that have played in multiple European Cup finals, won multiple league titles and played in World Cup finals, playing it out from the back and asking players of lesser ability and experience to do it. Again, in Guardiola's case, he could call on a team, often a squad, of World class players to play his way and his style, Pep Powerball, where you assemble a squad of incredibly talented footballers with loads of money and play the ball about like the best players do. No disrespect to our lads but we saw what happened when we tried it, Roberts getting closed down, Ampadu looking isolated, Davies turning into trouble and getting robbed and the game against England then effectively being over 30 seconds after we conceded the first. For us to play that way we at least need the players to know how to play that way even if they haven't got the ability to do it frequently. We're not there yet and to be honest I'd rather someone like Page not try and do it right now, there's far more chance of it failing, we just need to keep it tight and simple at this point in time.

It's best we move away from the "missing the point" narrative as it's not that at all, we just have differing opinions on this, which is absolutely fine and a reason why these forums can be a good read because people have different views and we can all share them. I maintain that as long as football is about who scores the most strikers who "just score goals" as they're often described will always be valuable assets to any side. It might require 10% more from certain other players in the team from time to time but, for me, if there's someone on the pitch who looks anonymous all game and then pops up with the 81st minute winner they've justified their place in the team. They exist, they'll probably always exist and I really hope that Liam Cullen could be our one because right now we need a goalscorer, we need goals, we don't score enough.

[cadno]

7 goals for the Swans this season, not a bad return! 24 this month. I think he’ll be one of the next players to get a first cap.

Nice that he can play out wide or up front, clearly has an eye for a goal, a classic poacher!

[allezlesrouges]

Apr 3, 2023 11:44:37 GMT cadno said:

7 goals for the Swans this season, not a bad return! 24 this month. I think he’ll be one of the next players to get a first cap.

Nice that he can play out wide or up front, clearly has an eye for a goal, a classic poacher!

Can see him getting the odd important goal for us in future, similar to Jonny's goal in Bulgaria, or Cotterill's cross-goal against Cyprus

[jbt95]

Works well with Piroe, so could play well with Moore given a chance.

[jimexotic]

7 goals in 769 minutes, 9 starts, 13 sub appearances

That's decent

[winsumluzsum]

2nd assist of the season, both really good ones too. Got only 1 all season last season.

[CrackityJones]

Scored a cracker today