With the signing of James Beattie all but confirmed. There is much excitement and anticipation over his return. There is no doubt his goalscoring record was second to none at United and he can be classed as our greatest striker of the last ten years (not counting Neil Shipperley) but the question is… Has James Beattie still got it? and will he bring anything new to the Blades attacking line?
Beattie will never be the same!
) Lack of game time-
irst and foremost James Beattie has not played competitive football since until his loan spell with Blackpool last season. In addition to this he has not trained in a consistent environment since the Summer. As we have seen with a number of players that come to a club at this point in the season they are constantly playing catch up in terms of match fitness. There is no substitution for game time and Beattie is very much lacking in that department. It would be a struggle for him to even nearly get fir before Christmas.
2) Lack of Goals-
ince leaving United in the January of 2009 Beattie has only netted 9 goals in a total of 54 appearances. For a man that was averaging a goal every game during his time at United, this record indicates a sever drop in form. The majority of these goals came in the period just after he left United when he was oozing with confidence from his spell at the Lane. In the last two years Beattie has struggled and this may be a rut at the age of 33 he may not be able to get out of.
3) Is he anything different-
hen Billy Clarke and Matt Phillips came in on loan it was evident that United severely lacked pace in the attacking third and United’s goal tally benefitted from their inclusion. This need has not gone away and in James Beattie you have a player that was never known for his pace and is more in the mould of Evans or Cresswell. Beattie like Ched Evans is very much a luxury player up front who will get goals but doesn’t contribute to much to the defensive side of play. We have seen in Wilson’s decisions not to play Evans and Clarke and his consistent selection of Cresswell that he likes to play one worker or hold up player up front. If Beattie did sign it is hard to see this changing and Beattie may become just a straight swap for Evans, when it would be probably more beneficial to put both up front.
However…
James Beattie has been a consistent Premier League performer throughout his career and it was only two years ago when he was scoring goals for fun at the Lane and subsequently for Stoke in the Premier League. Although, he lacked goals for Blackpool it is important to note that this was against some of the greatest defenders in the world and as we have seen defenders in League One are likely to give you far more chances. It is the old addage form is temporary and class is temporary. Beattie has definitely got class and a record of 134 goals the majority in the Premier League highlights this. In terms of Beattie giving us a different proposition upfront, he will give us the most needed commodity of every team and that is goals. He may be similar to the majority of strikers we have at the club and still doesn’t give a solution to our lack of pace upfront. However, if you were to ask me who I would back in front of goal James Beattie or Richard Cresswell I would put my savings on Beattie every time.
Na Na Na NA NA NA NA NA HEY! HEY! HEY! BEEEEEEEEEEEAATTTTIEEEEEEEEEEE!
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