Desperately Seeking Goals

[Nebraska Red]

Having watched the last 4 games from the comfort of my executive chair, I have to say that our strike force is unbelievably impotent these days.

 

Not one of our top 3 strikers pose any kind of threat to the opposition. They are not physical, they do not hold and shield defenders off the ball, they do not have the pace and skill to beat a defender and then make a telling pass to a team mate. Defenders seem to have an easy time marking them out of the game and removing any potential threat.

 

The lack of attack puts so much pressure on our defence that it is inevitable that they will have a lapse and concede a goal.

 

I do not think that physical tiredness is the problem, but I think our defence is mentally shattered at trying to make up for the deficiencies of our toothless attacking play.

 

The thing that concerns me is that we have no real options up front, Fowler is clearly not ready to start a game and the other 3 look pi$$ poor at the moment. We do not have anybody ready to take a step up fromm the reserves and we have even more critical games coming up.

 

Wigan will be up for this game on Saturday and will be smelling blood having seen us perform poorly all over the park in recent games.

[Magic8Ball]

Desperately Seeking Goals -- Starring Morientes as Madonna ...

[Guest Anders Honoré]

I think we're missing gerrard and garcia at the moment. with them back, someone like crouch will also have more options to work his game with.

[Cheesecake]

I do not think that physical tiredness is the problem, but I think our defence is mentally shattered at trying to make up for the deficiencies of our toothless attacking play

 

Explain that please - you appear to contradict yourself.

[Nebraska Red]

I do not think that physical tiredness is the problem, but I think our defence is mentally shattered at trying to make up for the deficiencies of our toothless attacking play

 

Explain that please - you appear to contradict yourself.

 

 

footballers are like everybody else, they can be physically or mentally tired.

 

for me, playing in defence is more stressful than playing in attack. as a defender you know that 1 mistake can cost your team the game. if, as we see at the moment, your attack is struggling, then the pressure on the defence becomes greater not to concede a goal as it is unlikely that your attack can reply.

 

attackers can miss a chance in the hope of getting another later in the game. a goalkeeper or defender does not have that luxury if a goal results from their error/lapse of concentration.

[Guest Les Howard]

Seeking goals eh?

 

1. Drop Crouch. He's out of form, too weak, and lacks any sort of killer instinct.

2. Drop Morientes. Don't get me started on this waste of space....

 

Playing those two together gives us zero mobility and movement. All of the play is in front of the defenders - which is EXACTLY what they want. They offer no pace behind or down the channels - which restricts the kind of balls that our midfield can provide. This in turn makes us very predictable and easy to defend against.

 

As much as I hate to say it - we've gotta get Cisse up front in the middle. We're all aware of his lack of workrate but at least he's a goal threat FFS - which is more than those two wasters last night. When Fowler's fit - he should be given every opportunity to stake his place also. Until then - we all know we're gonna struggle. We've seen it coming, or at least some of us have.

[Widnesian]

We have or rather had two pacey forwards in Pongolle and Cisse and have three fairly static target men in Morientes, Crouch and an unfit Folwer.

If we play any combination of Morientes, Crouch or Robbie upfront we lack pace and Crouch especially needs someone running on to his fick-ons.

I can't understand why we let FSP out on loan and would like to have seen him playing more with Crouch or Robbie in the latter part of the season.

[Guest Les Howard]

We have or rather had two pacey forwards in Pongolle and Cisse and have three fairly static target men in Morientes, Crouch and an unfit Folwer.

If we play any combination of Morientes, Crouch or Robbie upfront we lack pace and Crouch especially needs someone running on to his fick-ons.

I can't understand why we let FSP out on loan and would like to have seen him playing more with Crouch or Robbie in the latter part of the season.

 

 

Not really a fan of FSP. He's ok from the bench but doesn't do the business when on from the start.

 

PS Whereabouts in Cronton are ya? I'm near Old Upton Lane.