Current Player Thread Mark Harris

[Carpy]

Mark Thomas Harris 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Position: Centre Forward

Nationality: Wales

Squad Number: #9

Signed: 11 Jul 2023

Previous Clubs: Cardiff City

Player Stats: TransferMarkt

Instagram: markharris7

 

[Matt W]

You don't know what you have until it's gone

 

[Jster]

The thing is that we fans can argue about this until we're blue in the face, but like all other transfer decisions, it's entirely out of our hands, and down to what Rowett and others at the club think. And tbh I trust them more than any of us (myself included).

 

[Morris Oxford]

I’m sure we’ll target and bigger more athletic central striker, but Rowett will know if we don’t address the issue of creativity in open play from wide and central areas the vast majority of strikers would struggle for goals in the current squad.

I’d be surprised if Harris isn’t part of the squad next season, but wouldnt be surprised to see him start fewer games.

 

[AssHead]

I have no personal knowledge that Rowett either has or hasn’t offered Harris a contract. But, for the sake of argument, I’ll assume he has.

I’ll concede that Rowett’s judgement should be trusted. He’s the expert and - more to the point - he has to work with the guy on a daily basis. Rowett seems to enjoy the percentage plays and I guess he thinks that Harris is the only player disciplined enough to ‘sit up top’ and not drop deep to join up the play, which would squeeze our territorial position.

For me, choosing Harris to play that role sacrifices so much. He offers no link up with CM, no runs behind for DCM or CB to play one over the top and he doesn’t drop deep to turn and then set Placheta and Goodhram off in the channels. He offers nothing from corners, free kicks or long throws and hasn’t won us a penalty all season. I do not believe he can turn this around for next season.

And yet maybe I would also offer him a contract on the basis that we have no-one else at the club yet. We aren’t guaranteed to get anyone else at the club. He can be nuisance for the last 20mins of games coming on for a tired starter. He is better than Bradshaw. Maybe we can squeeze a small goal-scoring run of 4 in 4 from him again at some point which wins us 7 points - and that’ll do nicely.

 

[Jaboysmith]

He wasn't good enough for League One.

If we have Harris in our squad or even playing from the bench come August, something will have gone seriously wrong with recruitment.

Is this the same Mark Harris who scored 15 league goals, good for 6th in the league, including 6 in our last 6 games to get us into the playoffs?

The same one who then in the final of those playoffs, have one of the best defensive games Ive ever seen a striker have?

For me, Sparky should not be our lead Number 9 next season, but he certainly has a role to play, and one I am sure he will play well.
Even if you disagree with that, to say he would not cut it in League One is asinine

 

[chuckbert]

Is this the same Mark Harris who scored 15 league goals, good for 6th in the league, including 6 in our last 6 games to get us into the playoffs?

The same one who then in the final of those playoffs, have one of the best defensive games Ive ever seen a striker have?

For me, Sparky should not be our lead Number 9 next season, but he certainly has a role to play, and one I am sure he will play well.
Even if you disagree with that, to say he would not cut it in League One is asinine

I still think about that play-off final performance. Masterful.

 

[tatabanya]

He wasn't good enough for League One.

Each to their own and all, but you kind of lose all credibility on this topic when saying stuff like that.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Lots of yadda yadda waffle here but I’m sure he’ll stay. He’ll remain a valuable squad player but won’t be automatic first choice.

 

[Foley]

He wasn't good enough for League 1

Seriously? Amazing comment

 

[Nadi-]

Harris has proved a very good signing.
Without his goals last season, we’d still be in division 1.
As been proved we scrambled to 17th position in a very good league. We’ve been on the back foot for most of that. Take the defenders out of goals scored, who offensively has influenced or contributed better.
We’ve struggled all round offensively other than set pieces. We carried more threat, and were better the previous season with a productive Murphy. Who individually carried and lifted those around him.
And was not adequately replaced.
Harris takes the flak for the whole offensive unit, struggling at this standard.
Need players in the final third who can lift those around them. Rather than hiding in the pack.

 

[Osei Yaw]

Suggesting he isn’t good enough in the Championship is nothing to do with fairness - he quite simply is not good enough at this level. Why do you think Cardiff, in the Championship, got rid of him ? I’m really not sure what you’ve been watching if you think he is good enough.

That's a fair point about Cardiff. It's not only Harris they got shot of - Brown, Vaulks, Bennett and Murphy were all deemed not good enough. And to be fair it's paid off for Cardiff, what a fantastic season they've had.

 

[Osei Yaw]

You don't know what you have until it's gone

This is where I'm at with it really.

There is a lot about Harris that I wish could be better, but on the other hand I can see what he offers. I also think that we've had 3 transfer windows since we signed him where we haven't found a better option.

I also don't think we've done Harris any favours over the last 2 seasons. We've flogged him at points because we haven't had any other options, and sometimes we've played in a style that doesn't suit him because, again, we don't have any other options.

Other teams have centre forwards that do one sort of job really well (like hold it up), with another to do a different type of job really well (like run in behind and down the channels) with maybe a third who is just a goal scorer but with little outside of that. For 2 seasons now we've just had Harris and not a lot else. People moan about him, but what would we have done had he been injured for a long spell? We shouldn't put our recruitment failings as a club on Harris' shoulders. Instead, we should look to recruit others who can effectively do other jobs (like causing a centre back an issue under a high ball)

I'm happy to see him in the squad again next season, but we need 1 or 2 other different options options who can rotate with him.

 

[vcool]

Selected for June 2025 WCQ ( Wales - Liechtenstein, Belgium - Wales )

 

[Northstand Grandad]

Without Harris, would we have not made it to the championship?
We may have signed another striker...and may have scored more.

 

[Yellowmania]

The bloke seems indestructible. Runs his nuts off every game and rarely gets injured.

 

[dickwalton1964]

The bloke seems indestructible. Runs his nuts off every game and rarely gets injured.

Agreed.

But he doesn’t score goals.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Agreed.

But he doesn’t score goals.

Well he does - he scored 15 league goals last season. He scored six this season. Now that is far from brilliant, but it is more than any other forward.

The fact that *none* of the forwards were scoring many goals (defenders: Leigh equalled him, with Helik close behind) surely points to an issue that is more to do with the available personnel and/or the way we set up (under two different managers).

Now it may be that Harris isn't good enough for the Championship (he didn't score many for Cardiff there) - and if Bradshaw, Scarlett, Romeny or any other striker had hit a hatful then it might be case proved. But I'd rather judge when we have seen him playing in a side that was creating more decent chances, both from out wide and from the midfield.

We do of course need another striker (or two) going into next season.

 

[WRox]

The bloke seems indestructible. Runs his nuts off every game and rarely gets injured.

100% true but I do think there’s a correlation between his patchy form and burn out. Looking forward to seeing what he’s capable of at Championship level after a proper pre-season and some proper balance to his minutes with another striker.

 

[Swaby39]

100% true but I do think there’s a correlation between his patchy form and burn out. Looking forward to seeing what he’s capable of at Championship level after a proper pre-season and some proper balance to his minutes with another striker.

Not to mention a coach that knows this level like the back of his hand and should (will) know exactly how/when best to deploy a player like Harris. Another striker or two in the building will stop us needing to flog him through every game irrespective of game plan or opponent. To my mind our failure to get a proper striking department together across the last 2 seasons has done Harris no favours whatsoever and eroded his effectiveness.

I’d like to see him get back to being that channel runner that turns defences rather than getting sucked in to small spaces where he struggles, but had to as a bi-product of having nobody else to do it for us.

 

[Northstandboy]

Lets hope the rest he has had will energise him.

 

[Toucan]

Agreed.

But he doesn’t score goals.

He does score goals, but clearly in your opinion not enough.

 

[SSO]

You don't know what you have until it's gone

Big Yellow Taxi for Harris?

 

[bdodwell]

Unless an offer we can't refuse comes in, I'd not look to move him out. He got flogged to death, looked sharper as a sub and needs to be kept fresh.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

He isn’t a goalscorer but then how many are there in this league anyway. With better support from the other forward players he would have got into double figures. We don’t need to replace Harris we need an alternative to be able to mix it up when we need to.

 

[Eric Blair]

Even if you disagree with that, to say he would not cut it in League One is asinine

Lovely to see the word ‘asinine’ on the forum.

 

[MJB]

You don't know what you have until it's gone

We fucked off a fourth stand to put up a parking lot

 

[Symp59]

You need players that work has hard has Mark , we know we need a couple of real strikers but he's brilliant in a lot of games .And Rowett will get the best out of him ,

 

[dabigfella]

One of the analysts on RadOx pointed out that top strikers in the championship on average scored one in three of their chances. He pointed out that with lack of creativity Harris was extremely lucky if he got one chance in three games. As I have said before Harry Kane would have problems with this side last season.

 

[Oxonion]

Lovely to see the word ‘asinine’ on the forum.

but no more than one would expect from a forum of this standard!

 

[tonyw]

He isn’t a goalscorer but then how many are there in this league anyway. With better support from the other forward players he would have got into double figures. We don’t need to replace Harris we need an alternative to be able to mix it up when we need to.

I think he would have gotten into double figures this season if he was a better finisher.

The misses against Bristol and Swansea were shocking, and there were a number of other occasions when he got the ball in and around the area and was unconvincing when players like Sainz/Sargent/Isidor/Piroe/Maja would have been more clinical. I'm just not massively confident that if the ball drops to him more than 10-12 yards out that he's going to strike it truly or find the corners......and I'm even less confident if the ball reaches him head-high!

He wasn't alone, though. The finishing from all of our forwards was not great this year. Was just made up for by the fact that the finishing from our defenders was generally outstanding!

Which is not me saying I want to get rid of Sparky - I don't, he brings a lot to the squad with his energy, work rate and attitude. I would just like to have a broader range of options so that we're not so reliant on him. And I'd love to have someone in the squad where if the ball falls to him in and around the area, I'm surprised if the net isn't bulging one second later (a Championship version of League One Matty Taylor or Conference Beano). I don't think we have a player like that now. Michael Helik is the closest!