[Albion] Is the problem goalscoring or not?

[BensGrandad]

It will be more painful to get relegated.

 

[Bold Seagull]

At this point last season we'd conceded 32 goals to this season's 31.

You can prove anything with facts.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

We need goals from midfield. We've needed this for years now. In the premier League it's ridiculously fine margins, but I'm not convinced it's lack of decent strikers. Maupay, Murray and Connolly is just about enough.

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Agree on the midfield point. But going with a player who has never played in the Premier League, a promising 19 year old, and a 36 year old legend now well past his best, as your strike force is a risk. Blindingly obvious the team needs some help both in creating and scoring goals but right now a new striker must be the priority.

 

[dwayne]

An overrated kid and a Championship striker leading the line isnt good. I like Maupay a lot but with a heavy heart I don't think he is quite good enough. Finishing lets him down. Playing him on his own is pretty pointless and ineffective. He needs somebody to play alongside
Murray hit double figures in the previous two seasons and nothing to his name now.
9 goals scored from 3 strikers is on the poor side.

Maupay is on course to get about 13 which is the same as Glenn last season . In the last few games he has had ZERO service you can't blame him for that

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[Not Andy Naylor]

I agree with Mo about the lack of 1-0 wins. It's the inability to keep a clean sheet that means we have to score at least twice to win.

Since we saw Tottenham off 3-0, we've only been able to keep clean sheets against truly poor sides such as Norwich and Bournemouth. We're not good enough to rely on our defending to see out wins. And that's tactically as well as individually. Look at yesterday: everyone in the Amex knew there was only one player who was ever going to hurt us. And yet instead of man-marking him or doubling up, we allowed him a free run into oceans of space to equalise.

 

[martin tyler]

Lack of presence upfront I think is a big problem because the times we need to relieve pressure we can’t. I think Maupay personally is very good. 7 goals is a decent return for a young player who will only get better. He looked good playing just off Connolly yesterday as well. Think to much is expected of Connolly tbh due to the spurs goals. His movement is brilliant but for a young player to go from u23 football to PL regular. He is someone to bring on at the moment when players are tired to run the channels late on. Could do with Murray being 26 tbh. We really do need a replacement to spearhead the attack with mupaay trossard and 1 other just playing off him.

 

[zefarelly]

I suppose we have to take into consideration the PL is a constantly moving and evolving thing, D&D and the core of the championship team excelled in our first year up, but haven't improved much if at all since. We still have that core, is that holding us back?

GP is effectively working with what he inherited, despite his press conference, I sincerely hope he's begging for a few reinforcements/improvements

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I think I posted something similar-ish a few weeks ago.

I guess for me, it comes down to the fact that we are not converting dominance into the goals required to win (more) games.

If we were battling to hold our own in many games then the goals scored, conceded and points picked up would probably feel about par. But in many games we have been the better side, often by some margin, but that has often not translated into the vital three points.

My impression is we have a lack of chances created rather than converted. I don’t have stats to back this up but it can be very frustrating watching yet another performance with lots of possession but a lack of a final accurate pass in behind the opposition. There has been some criticism of Connolly’s performance yesterday but I would defy any striker to do much with the balls that were sent in his general direction. Virtually every final pass seemed to make the defender favourite. Mooy is the only player we have who can deliver a decent final pass and he was seemingly immediately shut down by three Villa players. Perhaps he should have responded by switching wings.

 

[symyjym]

An overrated kid and a Championship striker leading the line isnt good. I like Maupay a lot but with a heavy heart I don't think he is quite good enough. Finishing lets him down. Playing him on his own is pretty pointless and ineffective. He needs somebody to play alongside
Murray hit double figures in the previous two seasons and nothing to his name now.
9 goals scored from 3 strikers is on the poor side.

To be fair Connolly scored two great goals against Spurs and it would have been criminal not to have him on the team sheet or starting games, and fans would have been moaning if he wasn't.

We can only use hindsight in this instance and he may well be better off being loaned out, or just being used as a sub when the opposition has expended most of their energy. I think calling him an overrated kid is a bit unfair though.

A top Championship goal scorer is still a goal scorer as was Murray. Moving up a division doesn't change this but form and a certain amount of luck does. Maupay had the assist and he was unlucky when he pulled a good save out of Reina. I haven't lost faith in him.

As far as comparing last season to this we have demonstrated that this season we have the same issues collectively as we had last season. The decision making in the final third, not taking our chances and giving the ball away at dangerous moments.

This time last year we had goals;
For: 25 Againts: 32
This year we have goals;
For: 26 Against: 31

Played 23
Potter: 25 points
Hughton: 26 points

There is nothing between the two seasons and it's neck and neck, but we have to be really awful to not get 15 points from the next 13 games.

We have got the players we have and it's out of everyone's hands, even Bloom's.

If I was given these points at this time of the season I would have taken them because with a change of manager it was always about seeing this season out.

Yesterday the difference was the quality of Grealish's finishing.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I agree with Mo about the lack of 1-0 wins. It's the inability to keep a clean sheet that means we have to score at least twice to win.

Since we saw Tottenham off 3-0, we've only been able to keep clean sheets against truly poor sides such as Norwich and Bournemouth. We're not good enough to rely on our defending to see out wins. And that's tactically as well as individually. Look at yesterday: everyone in the Amex knew there was only one player who was ever going to hurt us. And yet instead of man-marking him or doubling up, we allowed him a free run into oceans of space to equalise.

This decision concerned me as well. They had three players on Mooy and yet we allowed Grealish the freedom of the Amex.

 

[supaseagull]

This decision concerned me as well. They had three players on Mooy and yet we allowed Grealish the freedom of the Amex.

Spot on. Again, a sign of Potters complete naïveté


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[Johnny RoastBeef]

Who says we have a problem?

We are currently 14th, probably unlucky not to be at least 2 places higher.

According to the Premier league's own stats we are generally 11th ish for all criteria.

As things stand, I'm sure the club are very happy with how things are going, and we are on course to achieve our highest ever Premier League finishing position.

Its only the pessimists who are sensing a problem, but the truth is we have never been better.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

It's not an either/or situation is it?

If we could defend and soak up pressure we wouldn't need to worry about having to score a second or third goal. Likewise if we could score more when we're on top then it wouldn't matter so much that we can't keep clean sheets. Unfortunately, at the moment, we can do neither.

In terms of defense the way we're set up our defensive 'strength' comes from keeping the ball. When we can't do that we're wide open. Based off of how disorganised and panicky we look when we come under any sustained pressure I'd guess we don't do a lot on defensive shape. The majority of our work presumably is spent on keeping the ball, playing through the thirds and creating/scoring chances.

Potter is working with a squad built and trained to play a completely different style of football. We don't have the necessary number of players fully capable of playing Potter's way yet. Until we do we're going to have the problems that have been prevalent so far this season. We just need to get to 40 points and let Potter have another summer of recruiting his players.

It's a ruddy frustrating watch at times though. Particularly when the errors are so obvious and our weaknesses so easy to see. It' doubly frustrating that we appear to have forsaken the ability to grind out results, we have to play well to win.

 

[blue-shifted]

I think the keeper and defence have had a good year. Our goals against column looks pretty healthy to me.

I also think we've been pretty strong in Midfield, with Propper and Mooy both player of the season contenders and Alzate not far behind. Stephens started strongly

Then we get into the final third and things unravel bit. Lots of crosses missing their targets, lots of overhit final passes, lots of panicky decision making. Very little decisive contribution from midfield.

In my mind this is where there is room for improvement. We need to improve how consistently we turn decent openings into chances and goals. Yesterday was a good example, loads of great positions in the first half, unable to fashion many chances and not able to take a high enough percentage of the ones we did

 

[Deadly Danson]

Final ball, final ball, final ball. That's been the issue for a while now. When the correct ball is played we have the players who will finish - we're not missing loads of chances. Quicker, more accurate crosses are what's needed when appropriate and ffs if Dunk and co are up front get the ball in the godamn box.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Generally not good enough everywhere (except possibly goalkeeper).

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

The problem is that Dunk and Duffy were never a problem for all CHs faults at back end of last season. Yet he has broken that up for a non defender in Webster. Also a man who is our only proven EPL striker is sat on the bench whilst a relatively raw 19year old is getting the shit kicked out of him every week.

I can ****ing see it. Gpot cant or wont. We are in big trouble.

 

[symyjym]

The problem is that Dunk and Duffy were never a problem for all CHs faults at back end of last season. Yet he has broken that up for a non defender in Webster. Also a man who is our only proven EPL striker is sat on the bench whilst a relatively raw 19year old is getting the shit kicked out of him every week.

I can ****ing see it. Gpot cant or wont. We are in big trouble.

Duffy is injured at the moment btw.

So we try a young player out against Spurs, through necessity after the departure of Andone and Locadia, and he scores 2 great goals. Do you play him again?

 

[Tiptoe through the NSC]

I don’t miss the backs-to-wall attritional football of last year whenever we went 1 goal up, or if we were playing a big team. I know it was effective in the first half of the season in terms of results, but football is still an entertainment business for me and watching us sit on 1-0 leads with 11 men in our half was painful.

Just to be clear, I'm not advocating a return to last seasons risk-averse playing style. I want us to eliminate the defensive errors that seem to occur when we are 1-0 up. We do not come under continuous pressure as we do not sit back, but we still manage to lose a man and concede al la Burnley, Palace and Aston Villa in otherwise good performances.

 

[Jordy]

Yesterday was annoying with our largely dominant display but was nowhere near as infuriating as the Palarse game last month.

For me it’s the final ball, and getting balls in behind the back four or into the box as opposed to always trying to play to feet and almost pass it in. Even just having the odd go from outside the box here and there, it puts pressure on, whereas passing it until we lose possession doesn’t.