Where have the Goals gone?

[Cantiaci Canary 556]

One cannot help but notice how our ''goals for'' tally has dried up under the new regime.

 1 against Blues, Cardiff, Sunderland and Colchester

 0 against Port Vale and Stoke City.

Is this:

A) Due to the new manager''s defensive priority - other than Stoke we''ve only conceded one goal ... is this the focus after 19 goals conceded in the 7 games prior to his arrival?

B) The legacy of Worthington''s poor management / transfer misfortune regarding adequate playing staff - Thorne, Dublin, Jarvis, Hendo ... hardly going to bag you hatfuls and the sight of Leon&Ashton&Sven leaving was a blow?

C) Over-reliance on the belief that ''Earny will get us a goal and we can hold on''?

D) The cost of having no creative midfield players in the centre of the pitch - Safs got a great pass on him and Dickson has pelted 4 in this season but they are breaker-up rather than terrorisers. Hucks/Croft can get isolated and over-reliance on them makes us very predictable?

E) All the above / none of the above / something else?

Hands up who thinks this ''issue'' (concern?) will be / can be solved in January? I suppose it will only be a crisis when Earny hits a lean spell and / or our defence falls apart again. I''m not panicking ... we''ve won 3 lost 1 drawn 1 under Grant in the league but just looking ahead.

 

OTBC

[Canary02 0]

Good question. I think E. It''s a combination of factors. The most overriding for me seems to be that Grant really wants to play 4-4-2 but rightly regards Dublin (60mins) and Thorne (30mins) as the only realistic partner for Earnie we have, and as yet he hasn''t been able to play that way due to injuries. If we get a target man who can be a genuine option alongside Earnie, he''ll go 4-4-2 and the outlook should then be more attacking.

Inability to put out a settled side is another consideration, but if we had a squad with more than 12 experienced pros then we''d have more options in that area anyway, so I think the legacy of Worthington is living on.

[komakino 272]

I think Grant is no different than most other managers when coming to a new club in trouble. The defence is nearly always the first thing to sort out. Other than Stoke away, it has been acceptable.

But as mentioned there are problems all over the pitch, but certain areas take priority. Grant is trying to muddle through the best he can until January, there is little he can do other than loan signings. There is not a single area of the pitch which does not need some attention.

I am still not convinced that Earnshaw will be here in January. Grant will have to reassure him that things will change if we have any chance of him staying at Carrow Road. He didn''t want to come here in the first place and our type of football does not suit him atall. He needs a strike partner and should insist on it.

If we can hang around 10th position or so by Christmas it will be an achievement as so much is wrong with the side, which Grant [funds allowing] may be able to sort out, but realisticially, 2006/7 is going to be a write-off.

[Troy Tempest 0]

Phones was asking the same thing yesterday when we were on patrol; unfortunatey the sudden arrival of a Terror Fish cut short the conversation.

Personally, and what I would have said to Phones is that if you keep a clean sheet one goal is always enough. It might not be pretty but we need points pretty bad.

Once Grant gets us on a firmer footing he can be more expansive. In the meantime I guess we gotta be patient.

[Evil Monkey 52]

I would almost certainly say E, as I don''t think it is one thing, but a combination of factors. The main one, however, has to be the transfer policy of Worthington/The Board.

If we get to splash the cash this January, then a strike partner for Earnie followed by a creative midfielder are our priorities.  No one should be shipped out, regardless of how rubbish some players are as we need the depth.  We also need at least a left back and a centre back.

4 players to come in.  Worthington managed 3, including Dublin, since January this year, and let at least 5 go in the same time.

January will really show us what Grant is made of...

[Cluck 0]

I think a look at Palace.....now minus their only strike force of recent seasons should sound serious alarm bells.

Too much reliance on Earnshaw in the long term would be dangerous....but there doesn''t seem to be much left in reserve to do anything about it at the moment. I would have thought PG will be addressing this at some point.....DS allowing that is.

[Syteanric 1]

1-0 is just as much to get promotion as any other score.

 

When WBA got promoted with us they won 13 games 1-0... they only won 15 that season in total.. that shows that 1 goal is often always enough if the defence/Keeper is up to it.

jas :)

[Cantiaci Canary 556]

Don''t get me wrong jas I''m happy to get promoted winning 13 games 1.0 but that would put a lot of pressure on the shoulders of Earny and on the short transfer window.

[Chris Meadows 0]

last time i looked they were just in front of the Barclay and river ends

[chicken 0]

This is quite amusing. Worthington always thought our teams strengths were on the counter attack. Problem with that is your team need to be able to play well when the opposition have the ball. And you look at the formation we used to play - a 4-5-1 with more of an emphasis on 4-3-3.

Grant gave that a go - no luck. All of the best teams build from the back forwards. Man U in their height of glory had Schmeical, Stam, G Neville, Erwin to name but a few. Good solid defencive players who new their jobs and were tremendous team players. They have had a wobbly defence untill recently because they struggled to find a consistant partner for Rio who struggled with the pressure as their only consistantly good defender.

Also when you look at our team on paper we have attacking players by the dozen, a good two or three at least that will get you goals but we have limited resources defencively, this means those that we do have have to be made to work twice as hard to ensure that they are given every oppertunity to do their job. There is little competition and so PG has to put pressure on them himself.

[nutty nigel 7,528]

[quote user="chicken"]

This is quite amusing. Worthington always thought our teams strengths were on the counter attack. Problem with that is your team need to be able to play well when the opposition have the ball. And you look at the formation we used to play - a 4-5-1 with more of an emphasis on 4-3-3.

Grant gave that a go - no luck. All of the best teams build from the back forwards. Man U in their height of glory had Schmeical, Stam, G Neville, Erwin to name but a few. Good solid defencive players who new their jobs and were tremendous team players. They have had a wobbly defence untill recently because they struggled to find a consistant partner for Rio who struggled with the pressure as their only consistantly good defender.

Also when you look at our team on paper we have attacking players by the dozen, a good two or three at least that will get you goals but we have limited resources defencively, this means those that we do have have to be made to work twice as hard to ensure that they are given every oppertunity to do their job. There is little competition and so PG has to put pressure on them himself.

[/quote]

All good points Chicken and well made.

I posted on another thread that maybe it''s a priority to get in defenders but I just did a little research on our defence this season and when we have been able to field Colin - Doherty - Shackell - Drury we have only conceded 11 goals in 10 games. When any of those four are missing we have conceded 16 in the other 6 games. The stats suggest that our first choice back four are better than I had thought. Dublin proved an excellent defender against Sunderland and we kept a clean sheet. But when we lost Drury or had to put Fleming into the centre we on avarage conceded 3 goals per game! So decent cover at left back is an essential priority.

I like the fact that we have good attacking players but we don''t defend well as a team as a result. While we play 433/451 it leaves us short of defensive options when we defend set pieces. Players like Earnie, Hucks, McVeigh and Croft don''t really add anything in this area. I remember Iwan winning as many balls in our box as he did the oppositions. In fact Iwan and Gary Holt were two of our best defenders in those situations. In my opinion a return to 442 with someone like Dublin up front would help us defensively too.

 

[malkybarkid 0]

Bristol

[alex_ncfc 662]

So another 1-0 on Saturday, which indeed takes Grant''s tally of 4 wins so far to 4 "one nils" - but don''t get me wrong, I''m not complaining about this, quite the opposite. I think it''s fantastic and would love us to become a 1-0 team!!

[Marty 0]

same place Arsenals where back in the 90''s!

1-0 = 3 points.

[Saint Canary 0]

At the end of the day, 1-0 wins are fine.  Clean sheets boosts the defence''s confidence and hopefully the whole team can go on from here.  I lost count of how many games the last few years we have had to come from behind to win/draw and to be scoring first and holding on is big thing.

On the question of getting more goals, what needs to happen is for the midfield to contribute more goals, maybe a partner for Earnie can help in this but of our 3 central midfielders it''s only really Dixon who gets forward enough.  Robinson has scored once this season and Safri has none.  You can''t help feeling it will be a while before either of them score again because they just don''t get in the right position enough.  Croft/Hux/McVeigh/Chadwick are all capable of chipping in with a few and have done so.  As much I hate to admit it, we miss Francis.  He was always getting into the box and won us many games in doing so.  If Safri is going to stay back, I see no reason why Robinson cannot get forward more.