As a free transfer from Colchester, Chris Iwelumo is turning into one of the bargain buys of The Championship this season. He's strong, can win the ball in the air, and has shown he's handy with his feet as well. He's essentially everything that Bartlett and Marcus Bent should have been, but better. And free!
A glance at the club stats makes for some interesting reading as far as goals go though. Iwelumo has 8 and Reid 6, the closest striker being Varney with 3. In our last 5 matches, 6 of our 8 goals have come from the midfield.
In fairness, a lot of this can be put down to the formation used so far, 4-5-1 appearing the most effective. Also, Varney was injured for the early part of the season. However, we have been guilty of spurning chances up front, especially in our home matches. At this level we simply have to finish teams off.
Compare this record against the current top two, Watford and West Brom. King and Henderson have 19 between them, and Phillips and Miller have 17. At this stage in the season we've scored 5 less than watford and 17 less than West Brom. With the chance of all 3 of us making a break for it in January, goals could be the important factor in who goes straight up and who's left scrapping in the playoffs.
4-5-1 has had it's success, but when it doesn't work you need a Plan B. There will be times we need to go 4-4-2, and if Iwelumo gets injured it's the only way we could really play with the current personel. Varney has shown promise, but hasn't yet found the killer instinct he had at Crewe. McLeod is completely shot of confidence after the step-up, and Todorov's Charlton career is probably over before it really began. Pardew could go to the market for another striker in January, but there is another option.
Chris Dickson's final loan spell with Gillingham will end in January, and I would urge Pardew to take a chance on him. He's on fire for the Gills after a dissapointing spell at Crewe, and already scored 7 league goals for the Gills, 11 in total.
He has a lot to learn and is far from the finished article, but we need someone brimming with confidence and an eagerness to score. He's a poacher, and playing alongside a player like Iwelumo for the last 15 minutes of a match could be a cracking combination - if he can finish off a few of those flick-ons from the big man we'll have a real asset to the team and a chance to push up the all important goal difference.
Bringing back Dickson could give McLeod the opportunity to go out on a short loan and rediscover the fantastic form he had for MK Dons last season. He's scored 60 in 135 appearances, which is a great record - if he can find that form again he could be an excellent asset for the final few months of the season.
Hopefully we'll see some of Dickson before the end of the January transfer window - if he manages to earn a place in the team and performs, we could have an alternative to our current plans and a real strikeforce on our hands.
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