Reasons why we don’t score

[sage]

42 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Thanks for the analysis and highlighting these examples. For me the game hinged yesterday on Lawrence refusing an easy shot with the goal at his mercy. It would have put us into the lead.

Tom could have simply passed or blasted it into a largely empty goal, first time, with his right foot. It's a great example of why we don't score but I thought it was perfectly set up for an instinctive right foot finish. He clearly has zero confidence and wasn't prepared to hit it first time. Instead he took half a dozen touches to prepare himself for the shot, running into a crowd of players leaving him very little to aim at. For me it's a confidence issue with him.

For Waggy I don't think he believed he had the pace to go straight for goal, so needed to fashion a shot from further out. Hence trying to move the ball onto his left. These chances aren't as good as they look when the forward isn't fast enough to capitalize. But it's also a confidence thing and you're right the most likely way to score is to back your pace against the defender and go straight for goal, cutting across in front of them to block their chase if you can get ahead.

We have fast youngsters who love scoring goals, and don't have the same fear as older players. Right now the reason we don't score is probably because we refuse to play any of Jahmal Hector-Ingram, Morgan Whittaker or Jack Stretton.

 

Sadly Lawrence has Rolf Harris Syndrome. 

 

He always wants too many touches. 

[bimmerman]

1 hour ago, IlsonDerby said:

One of those players is very different to the other 2 ?

You think our Johnny's the best of the lot as well do you?? 

[Chris_Martin]

The main problem i see every game is that we just play too slow.

We get in good areas(sometimes)and then just seem to pass backwards all the time. this slows the game down and allows our opponents to get back in shape with men behind the ball. we struggle to break teams down because we always allow them to have so many players behind the ball.

Iit has been a constant theme since Cocu took charge. Look back at the Lampard era, it was all about fast play and taking some risk. When you play fast the opponents cant get back in time and when you play slow they are always back in shape ready to defend. 

[RamNut]

2 hours ago, sage said:

Mo Salah plays on the right whilst being left footed.

But if you watch his goals, a lot are scored by running across the box into the inside left position. Those that do come to him on the right, he hits 75% right footed. He is two footed. He doesn’t have to get the ball onto his left foot.

[BondJovi]

1 hour ago, i-Ram said:

You can’t win with fit and eager kids Carl. Look at Barnsley yesterday. 29% possession. Shocking.

Since that team meeting we have abonded the energy of the kids. You would think that when we need goals, Whittaker, JHI and Stretton would offer something. That is what we were aiming for? I get that players have come back from fitness but it goes against everything I believe Cocu was here to do.

Cocu got stick last season for being willing to bring on a youth player ahead of Martin or mostly Marriott. 3 games in and that vanished. I also wonder why Clarke exited yesterday instead of Davies.

 

[sage]

13 minutes ago, RamNut said:

But if you watch his goals, a lot are scored by running across the box into the inside left position. Those that do come to him on the right, he hits 75% right footed. He is two footed. He doesn’t have to get the ball onto his left foot.

Sorry but that is factually incorrect. He scores the vast majority of his goals with his left foot from the right hand side.

[Millenniumram]

Think it’s very simplistic to blame our attacking woes on what foot our forwards prefer. I’d say that’s a very minor issue to be honest. Lawrence has always played on the left, and Waghorn has always played on the right for us. We’ve scored plenty of goals like that before. Seems to be some weird obsession that forwards have to play on the same side as their preferred foot, not heard of inverted wingers? It can work either way around, it’s just slightly differently tactically. There’s absolutely no reason why a right footer can’t have success on the left, it’s worked before, and it’s absolutely not the cause of our lack of goals.

There are plenty of legitimate causes of our lack of attacking threat though. I’d say the biggest is our failure to sign a striker to replace Chris Martin. That’s a problem pretty much all of us could see coming as soon as the window shut, absolutely suicidal decision by the club which has cost us any chance of success this season. Waghorn is not a good enough number 9 to be your main man there, and Kazim-Richards is just a joke. Another criminal error to add to a long list of poor recruitment decisions in the Mel Morris era. Should have been a top priority in the summer.

Having a manager as negative as Cocu doesn’t exactly help either mind. We don’t press anywhere near often enough, or we’ll enough as a team, to expect to get many chances in the Championship. It’s always sit back and let the opposition come onto us. You’re just not going to score goals with those negative tactics - especially when we have absolutely zero pace on the break, because we’re lacking in fitness and have to play Rooney who moves about as quick as my Nan. Playing with 3 centre backs and 2 defensive mids doesn’t exactly leave you with many men going forward to cause any danger either.

I’d then question the quality of the coaching as well. For such a renowned coach, our attacking players haven’t half regressed under Cocu. It’s like they’re not being told what to do at all, no one has any ideas in the final third. There’s no movement whatsoever, and not even an ounce of creativity. Doesn’t seem to me that we ever have a game plan of how we’re going to score, so it’s no surprise we keep drawing blanks. The sooner Cocu is gone the better, I fear his poor coaching is already too ingrained in our players. It’ll only get worse the longer he stays.

[DRBee]

cocu caution and the way we are set up. Play more adventurously , create more chances and we can afford a lower strike rate.

We don't get enough players forward and if another player makes a run its like they  they are not seen by player with the ball.

[RamNut]

Just now, sage said:

Sorry but that is factually incorrect. He scores the vast majority of his goals with his left foot from the right hand side.

He gets loads left or central......but the point is he has a right foot too.

 

[one_chop]

If we didn't fart about with it at the back we might score.

[TimRam]

Last few games we were clueless what to do once just outside opposition penalty area. Just cross the thing...less messing about.

[LeedsCityRam]

2 hours ago, G-Ram said:

Against Barnsley We had 71% possession, 9 attempts & 3 shots on goal. 

Watching the game how many clear cut chances did we have ?‍♂️ 

If you don't shoot you don't score. Its so poor. We put crosses in when they have three defenders back & one of our attackers in the box. We dont win second balls or 50/50 and were too easy to defend against. We don't comit men forward & take a gamble want to score. If we put a cross in 3 or 4 players should be running in trying to get on the end of it. 

Totally agree.  I would say the 3 areas we are very poor at currently are; a) getting a shot off anywhere within 30 yards, b) not looking to put the ball into the box from wide earlier & c) not committing enough men into the box.

In some ways b) may seen as a consequence of c) and probably highlights that we have no proper CF or midfield looking to break into the box. I've been confused by Kazim's lack of minutes on the pitch & why Hector-Ingram has barely been on the pitch since a promising cameo vs Luton. It also highlights the waste of Knight sitting deep, when he is exactly the Bryson type player to run in behind attacking players. With a physical presence up front & a mobile goal scoring midfielder occupying defensive minds, it then opens up space for Lawrence, Jozwiak & Waghorn, who should be encouraged to shoot on sight - worry keepers & defenders and bring rebounds/deflections into play.

Barnsley's manager expressed surprise at how easy it was against us yesterday but he shouldn't have been. Our sole intention in open play is to score via intricate passing moves through heavy traffic and it has worked precisely once this season - vs Luton.

[Chris_Martin]

43 minutes ago, RamNut said:

But if you watch his goals, a lot are scored by running across the box into the inside left position. Those that do come to him on the right, he hits 75% right footed. He is two footed. He doesn’t have to get the ball onto his left foot.

i seriously doubt this

[Chris_Martin]

22 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

Totally agree.  I would say the 3 areas we are very poor at currently are; a) getting a shot off anywhere within 30 yards, b) not looking to put the ball into the box from wide earlier & c) not committing enough men into the box.

In some ways b) may seen as a consequence of c) and probably highlights that we have no proper CF or midfield looking to break into the box. I've been confused by Kazim's lack of minutes on the pitch & why Hector-Ingram has barely been on the pitch since a promising cameo vs Luton. It also highlights the waste of Knight sitting deep, when he is exactly the Bryson type player to run in behind attacking players. With a physical presence up front & a mobile goal scoring midfielder occupying defensive minds, it then opens up space for Lawrence, Jozwiak & Waghorn, who should be encouraged to shoot on sight - worry keepers & defenders and bring rebounds/deflections into play.

Barnsley's manager expressed surprise at how easy it was against us yesterday but he shouldn't have been. Our sole intention in open play is to score via intricate passing moves through heavy traffic and it has worked precisely once this season - vs Luton.

i think our sole intention is actually just to Pass.  no matter if we're in front of the opponents goal or our own. 

[NottsRam77]

3 hours ago, RamNut said:

lawrence - right footer playing on the left

gets played in with the whole goal to aim at. 

Left foot shot required......

Has to get it onto his right,

drifts across the box into traffic, shoots straight at the keeper

ends up with defenders in between him and the goal

waghorn as usual is running offside 

 

knight plays Waghorn clean through

left footer on the right

 

take in on and shoot

right foot shot required

Has to get it onto his left,

drifts across the box into traffic, shoots straight at the keeper

 

 

 

Great analysis... please forward to the dcfc management team 

I’d also like to add we don’t get anywhere enough bodies into the box when we’re attacking in wide areas .. like now where near enough 

[RamNut]

17 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

i seriously doubt this

Watch the video then.

p.s. Anyway. What has mo salah got to do with the fact that Lawrence has got no left foot and Waghorn has got no right foot. 
can anyone find evidence of Lawrence scoring with his left, or Waghorn scoring with his right? 
i doubt it very much.

[Ramslad1992]

3 hours ago, IlsonDerby said:

One of those players is very different to the other 2 ?

Just because Salah is African and the other two are European doesn’t mean he’s not as good ?‍♂️

[Grumpy Git]

TL needs someone to baalock him into practicing with his left foot. To me the fact a pro player earning god knows how much a week can't use both feet is a complete joke.

[Spanish]

3 hours ago, Tyler Durden said:

Good points I don't think it's necessarily that simplistic though.

Waghorn has long been profligate in front of goal especially in 1 vs 1s. 

Can't remember the last deadly striker we had and to be fair if they were that deadly they wouldn't be playing for us in the Championship. 

I think we're at the position now where we expect to miss rather than score as the whole team confidence is shot. 

The whole underlying cause is that we don't generate enough goalscoring opportunities due to our set up or when we do get promising positions we balls it either through poor selection of pass or inevitably someone running offside. No names mentioned.

Deadly, strangely I guess that would have been Marriott until some sort of melt down occurred 

[HungForALamb]

We managed to concoct a unique way of playing long before the frustrating tactic finally came to bite us terminally in the a***.  The boss's orders were clear -- draw an imaginary no-go line a third of the way up the pitch and keep fannying around with the ball, passing it sideways and backwards until you bore the opposition (and fans) to death. We don't score because this nonsense is drilled into the players. Our opponents DO score because inevitably we are never going to keep possession for the full 90 minutes. None of us are rocket scientists -- but we've all seen it happening game after game. Opponents simply wait to pounce because they too are acutely aware of the pathetic pantomime.