Nathan Fraser

[Northampton_wolf]

Many of us said this in January that sometimes you need an alternative option that may not necessarily be a guaranteed starter and quite a few on here shot us down. Not every signing has to be a progressive signing that 'improves you' - you can also sign a player on a short-term deal that doesn't necessarily walk into your first team, but in the event of injuries doesn't leave you completely exposed. You can take a chance on a player coming back from injury to help out another club or a journeyman that hits purple patches occasionally but isn't consistent - there seems to be a total aversion to this despite that plenty of clubs do it.

We've done it before with the likes of Iwelumo and Dean Sturridge to good effect, we've also done it and it's failed (Bassong, for example) - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it doesn't leave you in the position where if your injury prone attackers do pick up a knock, you aren't potentially destroying the confidence of a teenager who is carrying a knock and expected to lead the line in important games where every additional place in the league can bring extra much needed revenue.

I think it was as much the optics of bringing in a player potentially weaker than Fabio on paper that dissuaded the hierarchy from bringing anyone in. Once again, Wolves under Shi get their risk assessments completely wrong.

Well they didnt in one way they had yuri all but sorted on Tuesday with Wednesday agent changing the goalposts

but we should have learnt they did this with west ham, so chose another target so i guess that risk wasnt asssessed

 

[Adrian_Monk]

Well they didnt in one way they had yuri all but sorted on Tuesday with Wednesday agent changing the goalposts

but we should have learnt they did this with west ham, so chose another target so i guess that risk wasnt asssessed

Sorry, I didn't explain that last line very well: I think the optics limited the pool of potential targets, rather than directly dissuaded them from bringing anyone in.

Which is why we were splashing around in shark-infested waters on the last days of the window.

 

[MattH]

Fraser is clearly a talent but watching the game on Sat it seemed that our way of playing under O'Neill isn't suited to his natural position as a more traditional no.9. I think he'll be out on loan a fair bit once we've brought another striker to the club.

 

[oldsamdingle]

I think a lot of the hype on here and the excited posts come more from him being a local academy kid and people viewing him through gold tinted specs. If we'd signed him from Lisbon or Milan he'd be written off, I haven't seen anything in him that's overly special or exciting about, half the south bank would beat him in a foot race. But that's not on him, the current state of the squad has left us in a position where we have no other option than to play him. If anything I thought Chiwome looked brighter, sharper and offered more in his 30 mins.

Nathan is 19 where can he get 2 yards of pace from !! he gave there Centre Backs the easiest game they will have all season , Milk can turn faster, He's nowhere near the first team squad. I know he is young but an anybody see him making it in the Premier League.

 

[Beastier]

He was very poor on Saturday, I don't think he offered us anything at all - but I'm sure he'll know it.

This one game won't define him, it's how he learns and adapts from experiences like these and if he can develop into a better player as a result that will.

 

[PezzaOnthesouthbank]

i think you have to blame GON for not replacing him at HT. It didn't work against Fulham, why he thought it would have been any different against Cov i don't know. Would rather have played with a Lemina as false 9 and overloaded in midfield. Fraser made some decent runs against Fulham but was not picked out, but against Cov he was chasing shadows.

 

[Parkfieldswolf]

In his defence he was feeding off scraps Saturday. The service to him was so poor I felt for the lad. When Semedo robbed his man on the bye line Fraser took up a great position in anticipation of the ball but Semedo overcooked it took one too many touches and the ball didn’t find Fraser. I’m not sure what he is capable of or what is his favourite position but it’s obvious the role he has in this team is futile.

 

[oldgoldheart]

who knows he might turn out to be great but he did look lost on saturday. the young lad who came on after looked much more likely to make it to me

 

[Rednal Wolf]

Nathan is 19 where can he get 2 yards of pace from !! he gave there Centre Backs the easiest game they will have all season , Milk can turn faster, He's nowhere near the first team squad. I know he is young but an anybody see him making it in the Premier

Sounds harsh but when you've watched a lot of football you get a feeling if someone will make it or not .
Reminds me of Lee Mills , Cedric Rousell and Adam Proudlock ......slow and ponderous .
He needs a decent Championship loan and yes of course its way to early to write him off . I'm talking first impressions .

 

[Ned]

He needs to play more football and find his own style and game. Needs to spend next season at a good league one side that plays good football and won’t be struggling (ie, not Shrewsbury). Matt Jackson is back so hopefully all the players out on loan next season have a decent chance of playing games because, let’s face it, it’s been largely disappointing from this aspect this season.

 

[MattH]

In his defence he was feeding off scraps Saturday. The service to him was so poor I felt for the lad. When Semedo robbed his man on the bye line Fraser took up a great position in anticipation of the ball but Semedo overcooked it took one too many touches and the ball didn’t find Fraser. I’m not sure what he is capable of or what is his favourite position but it’s obvious the role he has in this team is futile.

That's the thing. Yes he didn't seem to have any great pace but the main reason he was a spare part on Saturday was down to the formation and the players around him, not Fraser himself.

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

If we sign a forward in the next window then Fraser should be sent to the Chump for a season.

 

[Bawtry Wolf]

That's the thing. Yes he didn't seem to have any great pace but the main reason he was a spare part on Saturday was down to the formation and the players around him, not Fraser himself.

He honestly didn’t do enough to be picked out. A couple of times he got the ball and laid it off but most of the time I could have sworn he was marking the centre half. His movement was non existent either to come for the ball or go behind so he wasn’t giving an option for team mates. Chiwome did far more. To be honest Fraser reminded me of me when I was on occasion put up front - if I wasn’t sure or was blowing through my **** I’d stand next to the Centre Half that way I’m not an option or if they chose to pass to me I had a ready made excuse.

 

[loppers86]

i think it’s a bit unfair on fraser - the sample size is too small and he’s been put in the same exact same position Fabio was. Who knows what his team orders were.

the simple fact is he should have been playing in that match and he shouldn’t have been on the bench.

the strength of our bench against Cov was nothing short of a disgrace for a top half premier league and it is 100% down to Shi.

and don’t come back with the FFP thing either … FFP is a constraint that has to be lived with and Jeff’s job is to make sure we do this and have a striker over 19 years old in the bench in FA Cup quarter finals.

Its easy to do this just don’t spend over £100m on strikers that never wanted to play for us or only came here because of a terrible injury record.

Jeff has been saved this season by the amazing performance of GON and Hobbs - without that he would have been toast by now. He quite literally ‘doesn’t know what he’s doing’ - hasn’t got a clue!