jezzer
Active member
This!They need to learn how to kick for goal. RDZ should cancel normal practice for the next few days and have them all kicking for goal hour after hour until they are thoroughly fed up with it. They won't miss gimme goals again.
But I would do some serious mental training and maybe with the help of a sports psychologist too. Alexis, solly, Welbeck, even Undav etc all have had fantastic chances to score in recent months that with some composure and mental strength I’m sure they would have put away, but I’m convinced the reason they miss them is mainly a mental thing.
Physically they’re all very capable because they have all demonstrated so at times, but mentally I think they get the wobbles and panic internally due to the importance of what they’re doing. I think they need to learn to zone out from their surroundings somewhat and just concentrate on how they’re hitting the ball and I think our strike rate would increase for shots to goals if they stop trying to whack it in too.
The reason I loved Zamora was he very rarely wellied it, in fact if you watch a video of his 80 odd goals for us and countless ones for West Ham, 8 or 9 times out of 10, he strokes the ball in, passing it in as such and nearly always bottom of either corner along the ground, because statistically it’s more likely to go in, but far far too many top premier players constantly try and boot it. As for the ones that hit it right in the middle of the goal right at the goalie…?! If I was a manager, I would rather see a shot go past the post cos the player was trying to get it in either corner than straight down the middle at the goalie yet the times they do it, it’s bonkers. Solly would have scored more goals if he stroked it in along the ground the past couple of years, he passes the ball fantastic around the pitch then when he got in front of goal, he doesn’t, that’s not a physically capable issue, it’s mental attitude and shooting attitude and technique and they’re all guilty of it. Welbeck yesterday alexis yesterday both had cracking chances to bury the game with a 2 goal lead, they’re physically adept so why didn’t they score, it’s mental attitude.