Our Lack of Goals is Killing Us Big Time

[ElectroClaret]

Yes, we're still second and our defending is legendary, but far too many 0-0s against rubbish like Derby, QPR, PNE etc. Should be collecting these three points.

Still, onwards and upwards.

UTC

[Goliath]

Some of our attacking players need to take a long hard look at themselves. The lack of consistency is a joke compared to the rest of the team.

Today it was Flemming who had an absolute stinker. It's happening to often for whoever plays in that role and it's the same with the widemen and Brownhill in the 10. I feel a bit for Parker because there's no way a team set up like this should be scoring as few as they are.

On the other hand this defensive record is potentially causing us to become even more risk averse. That last 10 minutes stunk of a team terrified to concede. As the home team we should have been the side looking to take on the game but it was the opposite, we went into our shell.

However, that's one of the hardest fixtures out of the way. If we can avoid defeat in the next 2. We are in a really good position.

[warksclaret]

We don’t have a “natural”finisher in the box-not even Fleming
That knock down by Brownhill to Fleming and some of Anthony’s crosses were begging to have a natural striker on the end of them

[Newcastleclaret93]

Said it on the match thread but we desperately need better quality in the final third.

I actually really like Anthony but he showed tonight exactly where our problems lie. Does amazing work beating a player then can’t cross for toffee.

I think if tresor is on that wing tonight we win the game.

Pace has got to sign someone this window or promotion is gone

[Woodleyclaret]

20 mins to go Ash Barnes should have been on.Too slow build up cost us points tonight

[jojomk1]

Foster is more of a natural No 9 than Flemming
Barnes is more of a natural No 9 than Flemming
Jay is more of a natural No 9 than Flemming

Just wish our manager could see that

[BurnleyFC]

Foster looked decent out wide first half, definitely our biggest threat going forwards, but (presumably under instruction) started to drift more deep and central second half, so much so that Humphreys almost because left winger.

I can’t understand how we set up at times.

[Goliath]

Foster looked decent out wide first half, definitely our biggest threat going forwards, but (presumably under instruction) started to drift more deep and central second half, so much so that Humphreys almost because left winger.

I can’t understand how we set up at times.

Agree with this. Foster needed to be exploiting the spaces in behind that Flemming creates dropping deeper.
I'm not convinced by Humphrey at all as a left back, I know he's become quite popular but I think he's far from convincing in possession. Too often he ends up turning out and going backwards. He is the polar opposite of Maatsen last time around.

[Hedontplayforyou]

I pray that Parker can find a way to unlock us offensively, because the sheer dedication to defending has been brilliant thus far.

If he can, then he will have the perfect mix which is very hard to find in football as we all know.

Having said that, Anthony should probably score but it’s a good save. Flemming scuffs a great chance wide. A great move unfortunately ended in a very poor cross from Anthony were Foster was ghosting in unmarked at the far post . All good opportunities along with the Roberts swinger in the first half .

[fanzone]

Bringing Barnes on with 10 seconds to go was a disgrace

[colne-claret]

I think Whittaker would make a big difference. We are crying out for a left footed right winger. He is also somebody who can individually win games.

[Pickles]

We kack our kecks every time we get close to the opposition goal. Composure and quality disappears. Overhit passes, underhit crosses, bobbly first touches, wrong decisions. And this season must be a record for shots going over the bar.

[Devils_Advocate]

I think our short passing lets us down. The amount of times the player has to wait for the ball or check their run just kills any fluidity we have and makes us easy to defend against. We need to move the ball a lot quicker to create the gaps that can give our forward players the chances to get more goals

[Vegas Claret]

It's the only thing that will stop us getting promoted

[Passing Clouds]

Defending our goal is helping us big time

Joint top

[ElectroClaret]

Defending our goal is helping us big time

Nobody said it wasn't.
But as Vegas says, our lack of goals is the only thing that will prevent us being promoted.

Got to be better.

[Papabendi]

Said it on the match thread but we desperately need better quality in the final third.

I actually really like Anthony but he showed tonight exactly where our problems lie. Does amazing work beating a player then can’t cross for toffee.

I think if tresor is on that wing tonight we win the game.

Pace has got to sign someone this window or promotion is gone

Plenty of good supply into the box tonight, we just don’t have a natural finisher

[SouthLondonexile]

I think that being second in the championship
does not mean our lack of goals is killing us.
Nil Nil represents a good score against an impressive Sunderland team whose own lack of goals sees them with just one point. This is despite every effort by the referee to give them every advantage in the game.
Footnote i have never been to a game where a goalkeeper has saved two penalties. Really well done Trafford!

[willsclarets]

Flemming has scored his fair share recently. He's not a bad finisher, but like any striker needs service. Cracking cross from Humphrys I think for the rovers goal, Tresor put it on a plate for his first goal against Reading. Both really good finishes.

Our problem isn't personnel so much imo, it's our pace of play in the final third. It's so slow the defence is set by the time the ball arrives in the box. And all too often the quality of the ball isn't good enough. Nearly all our goals from crosses have been from balls between pen spot and beyond back post. The amount of times we hit the first defender is ridiculous.

[Newcastleclaret93]

Plenty of good supply into the box tonight, we just don’t have a natural finisher

Not sure I agree to be honest.

I thought Flemming had one half chance from a knockdown by Brownhill.

The second Flemming chance (penalty incident) was another fortunate knockdown.

The best chance of the game was for Roberts and that was a pin ball chance.

Apart from that can’t really think of any other decent chances tonight

[matttheclaret]

Not sure I agree to be honest.

I thought Flemming had one half chance from a knockdown by Brownhill.

The second Flemming chance (penalty incident) was another fortunate knockdown.

The best chance of the game was for Roberts and that was a pin ball chance.

Apart from that can’t really think of any other decent chances tonight

There was certainly a really good ball in from Laurent in the first half that was begging to be put away but nobody gambled on it. Foster and Flemming both knew straight away they should have been there

[Commy]

If we could score goals we would already be waving goodbye to the rest. We camped in Oxfords half for 90 minutes and didn't score.

[123EasyasBFC]

As things stand the lack of goals and creativity I feel will ultimately mean we have to settle for a playoff spot, we still have time in the window to solve the problem

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

We don’t score at home as we spend the majority of the game passing it around between Trafford and the defenders. Sure it looks great on the stats front.

[ElectroClaret]

I think that being second in the championship
does not mean our lack of goals is killing us.

It really is.
Off the top of my head, I think we've drawn eight home games. If we'd won just half of those, (not an outrageous suggestion for a team pushing for promotion) we'd have another eight points and almost out of sight. And a lot of those games were against teams that certainly weren't "impressive".

Simple maths really.

[Newcastleclaret93]

As things stand the lack of goals and creativity I feel will ultimately mean we have to settle for a playoff spot, we still have time in the window to solve the problem

Or we build the bridges with Tresor

[California Colner]

We don’t move the ball quick enough.
Defenders have so much time to get set, they are never under threat from fast flowing football

[willsclarets]

As things stand the lack of goals and creativity I feel will ultimately mean we have to settle for a playoff spot, we still have time in the window to solve the problem

With the players we have already we should be scoring more goals. I'm not sure more players solves it unless you're talking a big upgrade. Which I'm not sure we can afford. For me we're just too predictable going forward. You know where the balls going to go watching it a second before it goes there

[BigGaz]

Careful lads, this is verging on agenda driven nonsense.

The attacking unit was once again cohesive, aggressive and full of quality.

[Papabendi]

Not sure I agree to be honest.

I thought Flemming had one half chance from a knockdown by Brownhill.

The second Flemming chance (penalty incident) was another fortunate knockdown.

The best chance of the game was for Roberts and that was a pin ball chance.

Apart from that can’t really think of any other decent chances tonight

You don't have to agree or disagree, the chances were there. The point about having a natural striker is they are positioned properly for chances and they take half chances. Remember Charlie Austin? He didn't need things on a plate, he was the kind of player who could score with headers 18 yards out. We don't have a natural finisher like that at the club. Simple as that

[123EasyasBFC]

Or we build the bridges with Tresor

Don’t even think it’s bridges, it’s match fitness and we aren’t at a stage of the season to really be giving him match fitness

[Spijed]

It really is.
Off the top of my head, I think we've drawn eight home games. If we'd won just half of those, (not an outrageous suggestion for a team pushing for promotion) we'd have another eight points and almost out of sight. And a lot of those games were against teams that certainly weren't "impressive".

Simple maths really.

On the flip side we should win most of our away games

[123EasyasBFC]

With the players we have already we should be scoring more goals. I'm not sure more players solves it unless you're talking a big upgrade. Which I'm not sure we can afford. For me we're just too predictable going forward. You know where the balls going to go watching it a second before it goes there

It might well be that we are to predictable to but either way something has to change. Can’t always take the one big chance you get in a game. Flemming took the big chance at Blackburn but missed the big chance tonight

[RVclaret]

I think Newcastleclaret has a point. Did you see the defence splitting pass that Le Fee played to Isidor in the second half to play him 1 on 1? We don’t have a single player that is capable of playing that pass.

[Hedontplayforyou]

Brownhill epitomised why he’s not good enough for the prem today, his ability on the ball is nowhere near good enough. He’s top end in the championship when he is able to surge into the box and press high, but today he was a passenger and needed to be hooked earlier on for me. We need more technical ability in midfield to block defences along with some more nouse out wide

[Papabendi]

Anthony had a similar chance first half and Flemming in the same move managed to position himself between two defenders when it was easier to be in space

[blatherwickstattoos]

Parker isn’t the man to get us scoring. Sadly. But we will stick with him and give a good fist of promotion until
The fans can’t take it any longer. We are a million miles away from being a premier league team.

[CoolClaret]

I think Newcastleclaret has a point. Did you see the defence splitting pass that Le Fee played to Isidor in the second half to play him 1 on 1? We don’t have a single player that is capable of playing that pass.

Yeah, Ian Maatsen used to play those balls for us as did JBG.

Interestingly, Pires put similar types of balls through way back in game week one against Luton but yeah, we're missing that type of creativity.

[MrEyres]

First of all hats off to the team on the defensive record and JT on the pens tonight.

However, I believe there’s enough attacking talent in this squad to score more goals. Looking at the attacking options there isn’t really anybodies squad I would prefer for this.

Not a dig at SP at this point as I think he’s done terrific to have us where we are after VK left. But the reigns now need to come off. Stop matching teams in formation and start trying to play through them we have better players than most.

[123EasyasBFC]

Yeah, Ian Maatsen used to play those balls for us as did JBG.

Interestingly, Pires put similar types of balls through way back in game week one against Luton but yeah, we're missing that type of creativity.

Pires put one ball into brownhill against Luton who had an 18 year old in the middle and one at the back that completely left brownhill open, he hasn’t done anything since

[ClaretTony]

Not sure how it's killing us when we're second in the table

[daveisaclaret]

Tonight was two things. The first and probably the most important was a special and important chapter in James Trafford's career.

The second is wny did we get dominated from 46 minutes on at home to a worse team and we never looked like scoring after Flemming's missed chance. The ref wouldn't have been able to put us under that kind of pressure if our team could score goals at home.

[claretspice]

Its not killing us but there's no question that tonight, we lacked a genuine recognised number 9 and that has been a feature of the season, and we were short of a killer pass too.

If you were picking a combined Burnley and Sunderland team you'd take our back 5 and Cullen wholesale, but of the 5 more advanced players you could make a reasonable case for taking all, or certainly 4, of Sunderland's.

[willsclarets]

We do need to improve our "goals scored" column no doubt. But if you look at the run of games we've just had, and the run in we have from February, you can't be too disappointed. A lot of very winnable games to come.

[claretspice]

Tonight was two things. The first and probably the most important was a special and important chapter in James Trafford's career.

The second is wny did we get dominated from 46 minutes on at home to a worse team and we never looked like scoring after Flemming's missed chance.

That isn't true though. We had the better of the first half hour of the second half and we had a couple of other very presentable chances other than Flemming's early chance.

We lacked firepower but we controlled the vast majority of the game until the substitutions disrupted us.

[RVclaret]

Its not killing us but there's no question that tonight, we lacked a genuine recognised number 9 and that has been a feature of the season, and we were short of a killer pass too.

If you were picking a combined Burnley and Sunderland team you'd take our back 5 and Cullen wholesale, but of the 5 more advanced players you could make a reasonable case for taking all, or certainly 4, of Sunderland's.

Fully agree with this.

[IrkthePurists]

Our defence cannot be breached.

Our attack will continue to improve.

UTC

[Clive 1960]

said before transfer window opened we needed a striker to get us up and if we don't get one it would be play offs which are a lottery because we can't keep relying on our defence..

[brexit]

Because our manager sets up the team not to lose.
He has done this at every club he managed.
We will scrape through in the play offs be embarrassed in the PL next year.
The squad we have can survive in the PL, but only if we have a manager with the vision to exploit their qualities at the helm.

[Quickenthetempo]

Parkers tactics were poor today and allowed Sunderland to dominate us from around 15 minutes onwards.
When our midfield 3 were getting overrun, he had to instruct Anthony and Foster to get in tight to make it easier to pass to.
Trying to keep the pitch big works against weaker opposition, but it was like we were playing with 9 at times.

I thought Sunderland were good though. Outplayed us over both games.