Scoring Goals

[meggoisgod]

Big week coming up...goals and wins at hillsboro is the key

[N0rtherner]

Maybe also need to address how our strikers get in the best situation to score, because what I saw on a couple occasions now is how a Wednesday attack suddenly gets a bit of pressure on a man, Bannan, Harris, etc and all of a sudden a series of back passes sees the ball back with Dawson. And moments before we were at corner of their 18 yard line and our strikers in the box looking for a cross or some rebound they could get on.

 

We shouldn't be so crazy about keeping the ball in our possession that we fear crossing into their box to maybe give us a chance, or actually going for shots.

 

I don't remember seeing many other teams who go all the way from 18 yard line back to defense, even using a back pass to their keeper, as we do. Or am I wrong?

 

Makes for horribly defensive football and seems you only want to let go of the ball if you are 99% sure of scoring. I'd much rather have a lot more shots, it adds pressure on the other team.

[Bluesteel]

Who else gets the feeling “when brown is back” is going to be a sentence used regularly...

[Southie_Owl]

19 minutes ago, Bluesteel said:

Who else gets the feeling “when brown is back” is going to be a sentence used regularly...

My Brighton in laws have made it clear to me that they don’t rate Brown. Their main point is “he’s alright when he can be bothered and is actually fit to play”.  I’ve shrugged off the ability comments as he’s proved since at Luton that he’s a good player.  But the fitness is a problem.

 

Hopefully others can step up and help create chances in his absence, like Reach, Windass and Hunt 

[Mick70]

Think atm we have to just compete and keep picking up the points? If we go all out and attack to win games we can leave ourselves wide open and be picked off? Wot I’m trying to say is if we go for it we could end up marooned at the bottom of the league without a chance to stay up? Keep picking off points keeps the players on an upward curve with everyone all pulling in the same direction! I’m sure Marriott will become a good player for us and Bannan and brown will play him in, we have to stay in touch with the teams above and atm this style of play although limited is doing the job

[Inspector Lestrade]

I've bleated on about it, the lack of goal scoring forwards.  I know under the circumstances it's difficult but I hope the recruitment team are scouring every Under 18/23 team, lower league clubs,  even non league clubs, and have the feelers out abroad.  

 

The football is quite enjoyable and entertaining to watch until we get to the goal area, where it all becomes a bit desperate and unconvincing.

 

The lad from Derby might be a stop gap answer he was a little unfortunate with his chance yesterday but he showed good awareness.

 

If we can catch a few clubs by the next transfer window hopefully we might be able to attract better quality forwards.

 

Will give Monk and the team their dues, they are making a good fist of it and are showing a willingness and a determination which I wasn't really expecting with the burden the club is carrying.  

[Animis]

We're not blessed with natural goal scorers, so it's important the team chip in. They'll be a lot of squad rotation this season, and they all have to play their part, including the center halfs - not enough from this position over the last few years, primarily because the crossing at set pieces has been poor.

 

Monk's plan is also to keep it tight and he'll be banking on clean sheets to accumulate the points - it's a risk as even he admits, but we deal with what we've got.

[Bluesteel]

27 minutes ago, Southie_Owl said:

My Brighton in laws have made it clear to me that they don’t rate Brown. Their main point is “he’s alright when he can be bothered and is actually fit to play”.  I’ve shrugged off the ability comments as he’s proved since at Luton that he’s a good player.  But the fitness is a problem.

 

Hopefully others can step up and help create chances in his absence, like Reach, Windass and Hunt 

I think he looks a really good player at this level. Like Mcgugan but with more energy and a nasty side. But he’s already been playing with a knee strap on so maybe it’s his style of play that gets him knocks which could have him in and out of the side. 

[SwellOwl]

5 games in is not the time to question I don’t believe. I think it will come and click but 4 goals and 8 points isn’t bad at all. 

[CalmJimmers]

I think I agree with a lot of the replies, which probably goes to show it's a combination of factors. 

 

We do play half decent football until we get into the final third, where we seem to become stuck. We don't seem to have that creative midfielder that can pull a rabbit out of a hat and give us a clear opportunity. 

 

This is not helped by the formation we have been playing. It has been solid and we accumulating points, so hard to really disagree with it at the moment. But not having the opportunity to overlap down the wings and stretch teams which creates gaps is, imo, a big contributing factor. Dem Shithouses and Conte's Chelsea made it work with a 352/343 by getting the CBs to overlap and dropping a midfielder deep. Nobody marks CBs, massive overload. Obviously that's a risk, and I think teams are getting wiser to it now. Having a 433 or 4231 which naturally lends itself to overloads is better for me, but again, would leave us less solid at the back. 

 

Then combine that with strikers who are both new and, let's be honest, not massively prolific means that we struggle to put away chances when we do get them. Mourinho's Inter were unbelievably good at shutting out teams and scoring when needed. That's what having a Samuel Eto'o or Diego Milito gives you. We obviously can't afford/don't have that at the moment. 

 

Hopefully with Dunkley, Iorfa and Flint we now have a real threat at set pieces, and that will help. Just concerned with the midfield, but having Reach and Windass/Harris/Kachunga on the wings would give us more of a goal threat from midfield. 

 

Or we could shoot more - splitting hairs though innit. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by CalmJimmers

[Guest everydays_wednesday]

16 minutes ago, Animis said:

We're not blessed with natural goal scorers, so it's important the team chip in. They'll be a lot of squad rotation this season, and they all have to play their part, including the center halfs - not enough from this position over the last few years, primarily because the crossing at set pieces has been poor.

 

Monk's plan is also to keep it tight and he'll be banking on clean sheets to accumulate the points - it's a risk as even he admits, but we deal with what we've got.

Scary that we actually bought the most natural goal scorer the championship has ever had and he turned into a lame duck it’s the Wednesday way.

[SiJ]

The encouraging bit is I think in every game we've had really positive spells where we should have bagged a few goals.

 

The issue is the only time we've really done that was against Cardiff. Even against QPR, we had that spell where we should have bagged at least two.

 

Yesterday, we should have been a few goals to the good before Brum started to get into the game. 

 

Problem is we seem to struggle putting the ball in the net and that inevitably makes those last 10 mins a bit dicey.

 

Still - with our new striking options, I'm hopeful we will start to sort this out. We also should be getting a few from set plays and free kicks given the size of some of our cbs.

[mark77]

13 hours ago, Southie_Owl said:

I’m a fan of Italian football and I’d love us to be a team that wins games 1-0.  But as Monk says, in the championship teams start throwing the kitchen sink at you in the last 10 mins and you can easily come unstuck.

I just hope we can take more chances in the first half and make things more comfortable for ourselves. Brown coming back and creating chances should help 

 

You clearly haven't seen much of Serie A in the last few seasons...

[Swingin' Sixties]

In the good old pre-Covid days, I amused myself by getting early to my seat in the North and watching the pre-match warm-up.  The shooting-in exercise was the highlight - shooting from about 16 yards with no defenders to tackle; results - usually about 30 shots, average 10 goals, GK saved two, perhaps three, the rest were high and wide.  Bannan the worst culprit, perhaps Reach being the best.

Hope that the new squad and coaches are practising shooting in every training session!

We now have a better squad than before so I am optimistic, even though we have no prolific scorer; but who is to say that one may come to the fore with more shots ON TARGET and following up to turn rebounds into goals.

[soldierboyblue]

6 hours ago, Jim said:

Always felt that scoring goals would be a problem for us this season and the key to our survival is being good defensively.

 

We’ve now got a couple of central defenders who have a reputation for scoring goals in Flint and Dunkley so we should improve here but we still don’t have sufficient goal capacity from midfield or full/wing back and this probably will hinder us?

Can't agree in the slightest - the players he has brought in will contribute and the early signs are good. I would prefer our Wing Backs to be providing the crosses for the forwards and midfielders to attack than judging them on how many they score

[Pressman 1]

The signs are there but its going to take time for the new side to gel,paterson has only played twice and marriott 2o mins or so,think kachunga needs to be up front looked lost out wide yesterday

[jonesy87shef]

Jut because we are having shots doesn’t really mean we are creating much. Arguably our 3 best efforts were reach early on, Windass’ freekick and Paterson’s header. None of which I’d expect us to put away. Header debatable, I think it was a good effort.

 

The only clear cut chance to score yesterday was the Reach miss first half.

 

Often to me it’s the slowing down play on the break, final pass or decision making. That will come. I don’t think our players have really had many chances to actually miss.

 

I remember the season under Jos. We just kept scoring worldies for a long stretch, that can paper over cracks.

 

I think it will improve, especially when Brown is fit and playing week in week out.

[gurujuan]

It’s not surprising that our approach play can be good, but we fall down in the final third, as it’s in the final third where we lack quality. I’m not sure that the individuals can improve that much, but as they play more together, our the teamwork should mean more chances. None of Paterson, Windass or Kachunga, have ever been prolific, so we will have more chance of picking up the points if we can keep the games tight. I actually thought we played quite well for an hour or so, but that period at the end was a bit hairy, and we could quite easily have lost a game we should never have lost. Of course, we didn’t lose the game, but we can’t afford to retreat like that and surrender all control. For all Flint and VanAken’s stout defending, Hogan had two headed chances that he should have put away.

[Mike Hunt]

1 hour ago, gurujuan said:

It’s not surprising that our approach play can be good, but we fall down in the final third, as it’s in the final third where we lack quality. I’m not sure that the individuals can improve that much, but as they play more together, our the teamwork should mean more chances. None of Paterson, Windass or Kachunga, have ever been prolific, so we will have more chance of picking up the points if we can keep the games tight. I actually thought we played quite well for an hour or so, but that period at the end was a bit hairy, and we could quite easily have lost a game we should never have lost. Of course, we didn’t lose the game, but we can’t afford to retreat like that and surrender all control. For all Flint and VanAken’s stout defending, Hogan had two headed chances that he should have put away.

I must have missed both the Hogan headers when I went for a pee 

 

Were they as close as Patterson’s from that delicious cross from odabajo 

[Mike Hunt]

2 hours ago, hugeowl said:

I must have missed both the Hogan headers when I went for a pee 

 

Were they as close as Patterson’s from that delicious cross from odabajo 

Did he miss the headers ?