STUART Pearce believes the signing of Bernardo Corradi will bring the best out of all the City strikers.
Competition for places to lead the Blues front line will definitely hot up now the Italian has joined to put pressure on Andy Cole, Darius Vassell, Georgios Samaras and Paul Dickov.
The City boss, who made Corradi his fifth summer signing, said: "I think last year we paid for having a thin squad and, come the last quarter of the season, we had no options.
Fighting
"We lost players to injury, ten at one time actually, and players lost a touch of form and I don't want that to be the case this year.
"I want everyone fighting for a place in the squad. and I hope everyone will be on their toes.
"At the end of last year I think Georgios needed to be dropped away from it and then dropped back in. I didn't have the luxury of that.
"Vass was playing with a hernia and again, I didn't have the luxury of leaving him out.
"Hopefully this year the strikers will put pressure on each other and then it's the best two or the best three men who take the shirt and the rest of them will be fighting for a place. That's what every club needs.
"We need one, two or three players to give us more of a balanced feel to the squad.
Spine
"There's certainly a nucleus there straight down the spine of the team."
Samaras certainly staked his claim for place with two goals at Wrexham on Wednesday night and Pearce is expecting great things of the young Greek.
"At 21 years of age he's going to get better and I've said that from day one.
"He has shown he has an eye for goal and he'll keep improving," Pearce added.
Another young striker anxious to make a first-team start is Ishmael Miller, who scored the opener in the 3-3 draw at the Racecourse Ground.
"Ishmael is one of those players who will catch your eye and always score a goal for you, he did that with 14 goals for the Reserves last season," said his boss.
"He's in that catchment area where he needs to make the step from being a good reserve player for spells of matches to being a consistent performer at a Premiership level.
"One thing about Ishmael is that he can score a goal, and, if he gets a good run at you, he can cause you big problems."
Pearce was pleased by the collective effort at Wrexham, stating: "You can do eight or ten days on the training pitch, but when you come into matches that is when it really changes things.
Delighted
"After the summer every one, to a man, looks in good shape. The new players have got on the pitch in among their team-mates and I'm delighted with that.
"Looking at Ousmane Dabo and Didi Hamann you can see they're proper professionals. I saw that from day one. They keep possession of the ball and that's absolutely paramount in the game.
"They're clever people and they can influence people around them."
"We needed a game under our belt and we'll get better against Rochdale today."
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If anyone hasnt seen him play before go onto his website (its in italian) but you can see some videos of him scoring for differant clubs. he should be a good signing and every striker now knoms there place in the team is there to be won and lost. at the start of last season sp said he didnt mind if strikers didnt score so long as they played well, seems that has changed after last season. p.s. do we need lua lua or would that be a waste of time, i would like to see one or two defenders in to add some strength and depth there. i would hardly say we have that with mills and thatcher.
All good comments from Pearce...again. It's good to actually read that he's aware that he is still short of a couple of players or so in order to add some balance to the squad. Hopefully he's referring to the flanks, particularly the left.
The squad looks in better shape and i'd say we have enough options up front. Hopefully there's still life in the older legs of Dickov, Vassell and Cole and Samaras should have settled a bit more, at the end of last season he blew hot and cold too much for my liking. Corradi is a good signing and hopefully Ishmael Miller will also get a chance this time around and will develop and benefit from the experience and quality around him. All we need now is to clear out the dross and boost our defence and midfield. Any chance of Patrick Viera in a swap deal for Joey Barton?
Looks like Mr Pearce still wants three more players which accords with the indication he gave of wanting seven or eight new players at the end of last season. I think and hope that he has been saving his pennies to splash out on some creativity for the team. Must say I agree with a lot of people who have posted over the close season that he should try to get Arca for the left flank.
Healthy competition can only bring the best out of the players,
plus the fact that you can change formations for certain games against the opposition.
It's nice to have the luxury of keeping the other teams baffled
and by giving certain players a break when needed.
Come on you BLUES!
Very good news all this.I hope that SP rotates the squad particularly with the view of offsetting the strengths of other teams.I think the top coaches stop the other team playing.KK and SP appear to put out the same team and play in the same way each match.When SP makes a substitution it is invariably a like for like swop.
Lets hope we can move onwards and upwards this coming season.
"and then it's the best two or the best three men who take the shirt "i think this gives a clue of what kind of formation up front stu will be going for this year.i like the fact that stu has seen what went wrong last year and is doing a very good job of sorting the problems out.now hopefully 1 or 2 more players in left side and some form of playmaker if not sort the barton distin contracts out and look very much forward to a promiseing season.
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last season one thing that was good to see was the vassell and cole strike partnership or the vass and cole show as i called them, the chemistry between these 2 players was brillient something we coudln't do with anelka i mean how many strike partners did he have?. we do have some good strikers samaras has had a good pre season so far , dickov will play out his heart, vassell has some good cool finishes and cole gets better with age , don't know alot about corradi but with danny sturridge coming through we have some great striking options but i have to say that we could do with a good strike partnership like the ones a few years ago a few years ago like quinn and white, uwe and walshy. goater and dickov/wanchope/huckerby. i think this is s big thing we've missed at city and last season vass and cole gave us a glimpse of that
It's exciting to see Miller solidly in the first team mix - wonder if Pearce is willing to consider him either up front or on the left. Suppose it depends on what happens in the rest of the transfer window. Either way I think Pearce is right to seek competition up front - now for elsewhere in the squad too. Keep it up SP!
Can someone please explain to me why the likes of Cole, Vassell, Dunne, Onuoha, Dabo, Sinclair were not even included in the squad for the rochdale game. Are they match fit already, or are they all injured. I just don't understand that squad for todays match.
Competition for places? What about left midfield?
Fine, fine, Stu, but please get a creative midfielder, at least. One more signing, AT LEAST.