Are our strikers working too hard

[Guest Kev]

Talking about this last night, I just think that our strikers work too hard in the wrong areas of the pitch. I would love to see them working more in the danger areas rather than 40-50 yards from goal.

 

I know sometimes strikers track back, but for me there are too many times when the likes of Crouch and Kuyt have the ball in midfield there is no-one upfront. I see Kuyt working his balls off down the channel and no-one in the box.

 

It's just something that is bugging me at the moment.

[Cunny]

Crouch, Kuyt and Fowler all like to drop deep.

We could do with a forward playing on the last defender, like Owen did. Bellamy could do this.

I don't think the Kuyt and Crouch looks a good partnership.

 

In general our off the ball movement is woeful. This slows our attacks down and the player with the ball gets the stick from the crowd. The amount of times yesterday that one of our centrebacks had possession but had no passing options apart from square to another defender was shocking.

[Guest DanTheDaggerman]

Isn't this the effect of the midfield problems we are having; the lack of quality delivery to the front men? If the strikers aren't getting the ball in or near the box, then they would drop back further and further to try and get the ball. This is especially true for those hard-working strikers like ours, possibly less so for out-and-out goal hangers.

[Maldini]

They drop too deep because the supply isn't coming from midfield. Our back 4 are humping the ball too much too.

[Cunny]

decent service depends on players with vision and decent movement from the forwards - I think we are lacking a bit of both at the moment.

Yes, the back four do tend to resort to the aimless hoof but a lot of the time there is no other option.

[anny road]

decent service depends on players with vision and decent movement from the forwards - I think we are lacking a bit of both at the moment.

Yes, the back four do tend to resort to the aimless hoof but a lot of the time there is no other option.

 

 

we suffer with how deep teams are playing also

[Cunny]

teams play deep against chelsea and the mancs as well but it does not seem to affect them like it does us

[Will]

In general our off the ball movement is woeful

Agreed - Luis is a rare beacon of light for this

[Foo]

Off the ball movement is too poor in my unqualified opinion, plus I still believe this team does not push itself to the max, and have the belief that they actually can be the best.

[floyd the barber]

agree with most of this thread......our movement off the ball is simply awful, watching the mancs-chelsea game today was horrid....those two teams so far ahead of us in terms of quality of movement,organisation and passing...

 

of course in a one off game we have the passion and desire which gets us through, but week to week and we just dont have it....

 

Now strikers coming deep....well rooney does it all the time as does henry.....even drogba drops deep , picks up possesion plays the ball out wide then runs into the box..

 

i suppose this whole thread stems from how good kuyt is, and how much he does....yet we just dont have the quality around him....we dont have a giggs,ronaldo,robben, j cole, scholes........closest we have..and yes im being honest here, is probably steve finnan...a player who can always be relied on to provide a decent pass/cross into the box.

 

gerrard obviously another....though he hasnt been himself this season.

[Knox_Harrington]

teams play deep against chelsea and the mancs as well but it does not seem to affect them like it does us

The former are far more relentless than us and the latter have an outstanding ball carrying wide man who commits people like nobody's business.

 

I think the Crouch/Kuyt partnership has legs but agree with the thread opener in that Crouch needs to play as a more orthodox point man. I'd lash Bellamy wide right for the forseeable to see if he can pick it up and carry it over distance if he isn't too busy in court cases.

[Bootle Buck]

Talking about this last night, I just think that our strikers work too hard in the wrong areas of the pitch. I would love to see them working more in the danger areas rather than 40-50 yards from goal.

 

I know sometimes strikers track back, but for me there are too many times when the likes of Crouch and Kuyt have the ball in midfield there is no-one upfront. I see Kuyt working his balls off down the channel and no-one in the box.

 

It's just something that is bugging me at the moment.

 

Finally someone else who agrees!

 

I've been saying the same thing for years. It's like our strikers are told to do too much work 30 yards from goal. This had an effect on Morientes last year he never had to work so hard on his other teams. I think Kuyt is going to struggle to score the amount of goals he is capable of because too many times he is doing unselfish work out of the box. Even Bellamy said recently in an interview he is asked to work so much as a striker at Liverpool compared to Blackburn. Most of Crouch's good work is also done in midfield.

[Koogan]

Off the ball movement is too poor...

 

Which is one of the reason for the long balls aka 'hoofs', IMHO. And people should not talk about 'hoofing' when the ball is 'cleared'.