[Albion] Thoughts on that missing killer instinct

[Hamilton]

It's our ongoing concern.

Even when the debate was being had a few months back (defence vs attack) I was more concerned that it was the netting of goals not the conceding of them that was ultimately our problem.

As GP said yesterday on 5Live, they pay no attention towards expected goals.

I can't imagine the club not investing in a striker of some sort in the summer, but we need a couple of players pitching in with goals. Maupay has the same number of goals as Mane and Ings, but sits at joint 17th in the league. Trossard has hit the woodwork more than any other player. We're close, but seem to consistently deliver no potatoes. It's been the place where we've all known we need to work all season. One game it'll click and all the players will help themselves to goals. We've got a 6-0 victory in us somewhere.

 

[saafend_seagull]

We do need a striker but our midfield contribute fk all goals. Just look at West Ham or soton, I bet their midfield has scored double ours and strikers similar. Just a guess without looking.


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[tigertim68]

We must be in the top 3 for missing sitters.

We didn’t have any sitters to miss in last night’s game

 

[HP Seagull]

Despite my view that spending money isn’t always the answer, as even £20 guarantees you nothing in the transfer market these days, I’m coming to the conclusion that we do need to find a more clinical striker. I’m hoping it can be Welbeck if we can keep him fit, as he’s without doubt the best striker at the club.

Maupay has some good attributes and does score some goals, but he’s not a goal scorer. Again last night he found himself in some great positions but failed to even test Martinez. I was waiting for him to bend that one round Mings and into the far corner, but he again turned back onto his left foot (I’ve got no idea why he’s so fond of doing that) and the chance was gone.

We’ve done a lot right this year despite our position in the table. We’ve now sorted the goalkeeper out and improved results have followed. I just wonder whether Potter can coach our forwards to the next level, or whether we need to invest if the money is there.

 

[Guinness Boy]

We didn’t have any sitters to miss in last night’s game

Well Ally Mac should have buried his header in the first half and he knew it, which is why he took his frustration out on the post. Calvert-Lewin or, indeed, Murray bury that chance nine times out of ten. But they are not playmaking No 10s.

In the second half Maupay was guilty of very poor decision making when he should have squared to Lallana, who had a tap in.

However, the rest were speculative long range shots which were well saved or half chances that we snatched at. The one exception was Burn's header which was brilliantly clawed away by a keeper who had already built up confidence.

Our xG for last night was of the type [MENTION=13376]albionalex[/MENTION] mentioned. We simply put together a lot of low percentage shots that the keeper saved and then added to that with two golden but spunked chances.

The encouraging thing, and what has put me back into thinking Potter is the right coach for us, is that the xG against didn't lie. Villa wouldn't have scored if they'd still been running around now and Grealish hardly got a kick. Smith may have said they were "less than bang average" but he's covering up - by taking Grealish out of the game we nullified them, and many of their "unforced" errors were simply us reading it and being first to the ball.

However, the failure to capitalize on this is a pattern, repeated all season and should be the collective responsibility of everyone charged with winning football matches.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Its lack of quality, simple. Both in supply and finishing. The rest is excellent. The unbeaten run is largely down to a superbly marshalled defence and confident approach play from Trossard, Mac and Bissouma. Too many wrong decisions being taken in forward positions is letting us down badly.

Harsh to criticise the supply line of chances. Outside of the Big 6 ( whoever they are these days) Groß creates the 2nd highest amount of chances per game and Trossard is 4th or 5th on the list, the man top of that list is Grealish. The chances are being created, we just can’t finish.

If you were a semi competent striker who fancied a crack at the Premier League you’d have to look at Brighton and be thinking that you could fill your boots here.

 

[Icy Gull]

We need to start varying the methodical slow build up with intricate passing and start asking players to run at the defence before they are back in place sometimes. Trossard is probably the best option to do this. We are so so close to being a really good side, but GP needs to come up with something different. Confidence levels are clearly up everywhere else on the pitch, win a couple of games by a margin and the forwards may get theirs back too

As a mate of mine said last night, we don’t have anyone who makes the defence panic.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Yes but then you don’t dominate the midfield like we did.
If you’re going to play one up top then that one has to be top notch. I like Maupay’s attitude and work rate but he’s the weak link in this team. He’s trying too hard, as example trying to take the shot on when he had a defender 2 feet from him instead of rolling it back to Lallana was very, very poor play.

We were incredibly dominant in midfield - almost overkill really. That period where we had Trossard, Lallana, Mac Alister, Gross all buzzing round the edge of the box and Bissouma picking up all the loose pieces - dominant, but I think we could have sacrificed one of them for Welbeck to play alongside Maupay.

Maupay was feeding on scraps all day, I don't think he's the weak link, nor do I blame a striker for shooting - he gets enough grief on here when he takes too much time, after all!

I think Maupay is best as a lone striker when he has a bit of space to run onto a cross. When we have such a dominant midfield it gets really compressed, there is less space to make runs and get up to speed. Instead you need a fox in the box type striker - Maupay can do that too but in that scenario a big strike partner making a nuisance and getting knock downs would help imo. When you have one striker, big or small, they can be effectively marked out of the game, two can cause havoc. And if it meant sacrificing a bit of midfield control, it would have given a bit more time up front when we did have the ball.

I can understand keeping the point and not wanting to give them a chance, but the killer instinct to go for all 3 might have brought dividends.

 

[Bakero]

As a mate of mine said last night, we don’t have anyone who makes the defence panic.

We will do when Lamptey is back.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

It's our ongoing concern.

Even when the debate was being had a few months back (defence vs attack) I was more concerned that it was the netting of goals not the conceding of them that was ultimately our problem.

As GP said yesterday on 5Live, they pay no attention towards expected goals.

I can't imagine the club not investing in a striker of some sort in the summer, but we need a couple of players pitching in with goals. Maupay has the same number of goals as Mane and Ings, but sits at joint 17th in the league. Trossard has hit the woodwork more than any other player. We're close, but seem to consistently deliver no potatoes. It's been the place where we've all known we need to work all season. One game it'll click and all the players will help themselves to goals. We've got a 6-0 victory in us somewhere.

Apropos of nothing much, but kind of on the theme of (a) defence really being the major issue (goals win you games, defence win you titles) and (b) needing more goals chipped in from elsewhere - there is only one striker in the entire premier league history who has scored 20 goals in a season and been relegated.

Guesses anyone?

 

[Richy_Seagull]

Obviously not, if we're top six on aggregate xG for and against but 15th in the real league table.

It's far too simplistic to look at the xG and say we should be top 6. For example, we could have 20 shots with an xG of 0.1, so our xG would be 2, whereas the other team could have two shots with an xG of 0.5, so an xG of 1.

Ha, this literally makes zero sense.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I did think that too. As I said before, most fans will say their team is wasteful in front of goal and certain players can’t finish - its a classic football fan gripe with their team - it’s a narrative with many...

Yesterday was probably exceptional, but against a lesser goalkeeper we could have won 4-0.

 

[Swansman]

Apropos of nothing much, but kind of on the theme of (a) defence really being the major issue (goals win you games, defence win you titles) and (b) needing more goals chipped in from elsewhere - there is only one striker in the entire premier league history who has scored 20 goals in a season and been relegated.

Guesses anyone?

Andy Johnson?

 

[Dolph Ins]

We still have 3 strikers on our books (not including u23) to be given enough time in training and on the pitch to prove they might be the 1. Andone, Tau and swiss Andi. I'm not holding my breathe but matbe we already have the answer here.

 

[Hamilton]

Apropos of nothing much, but kind of on the theme of (a) defence really being the major issue (goals win you games, defence win you titles) and (b) needing more goals chipped in from elsewhere - there is only one striker in the entire premier league history who has scored 20 goals in a season and been relegated.

Guesses anyone?

To support your point and argue with my own, Liverpool are kind of proving that point with a decimated defence possibly unsettling a potent attack. That and Henderson being rooted at the back now.

 

[Hugo Rune]

I've highlighted all of the players you have mentioned who have less than, or no more goals than Neal Maupay so far this season. It's more than half of them.

It’s not about the amount of goals, it’s about converting big chances.

 

[Mackenzie]

I think we take a few too many touches in our attacks allowing the opposition to get into position and pack their area. I think we need to play the ball a bit quicker, be a bit more direct. Other than that though we’re doing a lot of great stuff at the moment, not least working really hard to shut down and stifle our opponents.

We’re becoming a hard team to play against.

 

[Birdie Boy]

I've highlighted all of the players you have mentioned who have less than, or no more goals than Neal Maupay so far this season. It's more than half of them.

You've made a very good point, also a good point is that a lot of those teams share the goals around especially Man Utd. Anybody in that team is likely to score except maybe Wan Bisaka [emoji3]. Its not just a striker we need, a really good team has goals from all over the team.

 

[Hugo Rune]

As a mate of mine said last night, we don’t have anyone who makes the defence panic.

We do actually.

For me, the definition of a panic defence is when players double or even triple up on an attacking threat. You could see it last night when Grealish was close to our box, at least two players were always tasked with dealing with him.

Lamptey is our man who makes defences panic. His drives into the box cause panic, penalties and wet panties from the opposition. I can’t want for him to be back..........perhaps on the left as Veltman is top dog right now.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Maupay's a decent player and will/has scored plenty of goals at this level.

But the truth is, he isn't an instinctive striker.
He needs a split seciod more to make his decisions.
During which, good opportunities become half chances and the lay off option is gone.

Maupay has just one assist this season.
His peers, Bamford/Ings/Vardy/Wilson have 5/3/5/5 respectively.

Now that may be an unfair comparison, but it does highlight what many of us are seeing.
There is a big area for improvement for Neal and that is awareness/decision making.

I hope the club are working on it, because if they can crack it, he will be one hell of a player.