"40 chances but just two goals" -

[chucky1973]

I was interested to see Oscar's observation. That was exactly the problem last year as numerous threads from last year will show. A wasteful forward line costs us and will be interesting top see what Oscar does to try and sort this out.

and we finished 4th..........blimey.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

The fact that a league 2 team had little trouble finding the net against us suggests that our problem is not the lack of a striker good enough. As many have said last year many of the chances came early in the game when maybe strikers haven't quite settled in and defenders are still at the height of their concentration.

This year we seem to have created a lot more chances throughout the games and when we sharpen up after a few league games maybe it will all come good naturally. The main thing is to be creating chances in the first place and the rest will take care of itself eventually

 

[Stat Brother]

I'd say Orlandi is by far the guiltiest when it comes to missing guilt edged chances.

He seems to struggle when he has time to think.
Sadly being a quality player he also finds himself with more space and time than anybody else.


CMS isn't wasteful in front of goal, he was just never there.
He was have to scratch around 30 yards out looking for the ball/team mate.

 

[albie_noobs]

I just can't see that happening. Oscar has pretty much said he plays 1 up front which is Ulloa. I can't see us spending big on a striker who will be backup or played out of position as we already have Barnes for that. I'd prefer spread it around, other than the much needed full back positions, another winger to put pressure on Kaz/Buckley and another playmaking midfielder if the budget will go that far.

I agree we need strengthening in those positions but goals win games and if Ulloa gets injured Barnes is not sufficient back up imo, he was awful against Leeds and missed a hatfull against Newport. It is a long season in the championship and Ulloa can't be expected to start them all, 2 quality frontline strikers are a must imo.

 

[Working class pride]

I agree we need strengthening in those positions but goals win games and if Ulloa gets injured Barnes is not sufficient back up imo, he was awful against Leeds and missed a hatfull against Newport. It is a long season in the championship and Ulloa can't be expected to start them all, 2 quality frontline strikers are a must imo.

Agreed. Both CMS and Barnes have for a couple of seasons needed a ridiculous amount of chances to get one goal. Poyet created a superb midfield but he couldn't find a clinical finisher up front.

 

[withdeanwombat]

I was at that game. A promotion chasing side against relegation fodder and not one shot. Showed the limitations of our management team at the time. Conservative, cautious, possession driven - but you still have to be offensive and we were simply passive. I don't doubt that will change this year.

Still, the pie and a pint at the cricket clubhouse at the car park were very welcome. Come on Brizzle, swapping you for Yeovil is a poor deal.

 

[Stat Brother]

Agreed. Both CMS and Barnes have for a couple of seasons needed a ridiculous amount of chances to get one goal. Poyet created a superb midfield but he couldn't find a clinical finisher up front.

No he didn't.

Poyet created a superb defensive midfield, which didn't concede goals.

 

[Working class pride]

No he didn't.

Poyet created a superb defensive midfield, which didn't concede goals.

I disagree. How many 1 on 1 chances did CMS and Barnes miss over the last 2 seasons. It was almost 2 or 3 a game at one point.

 

[saafend_seagull]

No he didn't.

Poyet created a superb defensive midfield, which didn't concede goals.

Fifth highest scorers with conceeding the least goals suggests it was fairly creative.

 

[Stat Brother]

I disagree. How many 1 on 1 chances did CMS and Barnes miss over the last 2 seasons. It was almost 2 or 3 a game at one point.

A midfield with at least 2 from Bridcutt, Hammond, Dicker, Crofts, then add in Barnes playing as a defensive left winger.

We could have Messi up front and still not score.


The only reason we were comfortably in the play-off was because Gus eventually said:-

'we've got to start risking losing games, to win more'.

 

[Rookie]

A midfield with at least 2 from Bridcutt, Hammond, Dicker, Crofts, then add in Barnes playing as a defensive left winger.

We could have Messi up front and still not score.


The only reason we were comfortably in the play-off was because Gus eventually said:-

'we've got to start risking losing games, to win more'.

Or because Ulloa came in to show us how a front man runs the line and scores goals?

 

[Stat Brother]

Fifth highest scorers with conceeding the least goals suggests it was fairly creative.

18 of our 69 goals came from the 8 games from 17.03 onwards.

Leaving just 51 goals from the other 38 games.

 

[Stat Brother]

Or because Ulloa came in to show us how a front man runs the line and scores goals?

At the point Spanish Dave got into his groove.
Orlandi was given game time.
WB & KLL were appearing.

We had 2 different attacking units last year.
CMS' was appalling but didn't concede goals.
Ulloa's was much more attacking and he's a fookin quality player.

Ulloa should flourish this season, and I'd like to think CMS will do too.
If he doesn't I'll be hanging up my 'Team CMS' trackie.

 

[Acker79]

I'll add some more stats later, but thought I'd point out 32 of those chances were against a league two side over the course of a match that ran 136 mins including injury time, and of those, nine were on target.

 

[Tooting Gull]

We battered teams but did we miss sitter after sitter? That's not my recollection at all - happened sometimes (Leeds and Bolton spring to mind) but what happened more often is that we played pretty football with nothing to show for it

Bar a few exceptions that is my general recollection as well, maybe there will be more chances this season. After Tuesday, if Buckley wants to ever play in the Premier League he really needs to work on his finishing.

 

[BBassic]

I'm not too worried about our finishing to be honest. We've got enough quality attacking players that the goals will come. From the Leeds and the Newport games my main concern is the sloppiness at the back.

 

[Acker79]

This table is league only, as I didn't have cup info for every season. The individual player data is from the AP, via ESPNsoccernet, because of an error with the system on opening day, individual stats are missing for the game against leeds, so I didn't include them (I know Ulloa must have had at least one shot). Because I didn't have cup stats for all the seasons, I didn't include them for anyone.

It should be noted that the AP aren't the most reliable, since I have for the last couple of seasons copied their match by match stats yet have different end of the season totals to them. Some times it appears as if goals are counted separately (i.e. is a shot goes in it isn't included as a shot or a shot on target).

So, this is a rough guide only...

 

[BensGrandad]

In would think that OG priority will be for an attacking midfielder/striker call him what you want but to play 'in the hole' behind Ulloa rather than a 6 yd box poacher

 

[Canonman]

I despair sometimes at our shooting efforts, what on earth do these players do all week, surely it's not beyond them to hit the target more times than not. Perhaps there ought to be some sort of financial penalty introduced.

 

[Mr Apples]

If Orlandi could finish, he would have scored about 20 last season. I lost count of the number of sitters he missed especially in fornt of the north stand.