I'm sorry but....

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

If we don''t find a striker who will get us goals we are going to struggle to stay up.  By half time we could have been 2/3-0 up if we had a clinical striker.  I''m sorry to keep harping on about this but it really is important.  If Leon or Sven turn it on all well and good but if they don''t I''m not sure what we''ll do

[StevenageFan 0]

we were also lucky not to be 2 or 3 down DDiM, so is it a striker or someone that organises the defence better that we need?

[Tufnell Park Canary 0]

Get us a striker or we will be relegated. The defence is ok, but they need to mark much, much tighter and get challneges in early. I think it is that simple.

Also, playing a 3 man midfield away from home is a dangerous tactic. If we''d had 4 across the midfield last night we wouldn''t have looked so vulnerable.

[Temp the Revelator 0]

I really felt that we badly badly missed Drury last night - I guess I had underestimated exactly what he brings to the team as skipper.  Sometimes you don''t know what you''ve got until it isn''t there anymore.......

[bananaman 0]

Ok, two things. Firstly, do we really need this to be brought up again? We all want a good striker, NW is looking for a good striker, but we have to wait til Jan.

Secondly, we will need Sven - already he is helping us build attacks which would have fallen apart if Doherty/Hucks was playing up there. As for Leon, he needs to get out there and practice his control and his positional play...

[ZLF 271]

According to the Opta stats our conversion of chances rate is no different than our relegation rivals and many of them have far more expensive strikers than ours - was it a good save by greeno or poor finishing from Anelka - where would the blame have been placed had Hux been in Anelkas position? And NA is one of only 5/6 genuine 20 goal a season premier strikers. We have however had fewer chances. At the end of the day we have scored more goals that some other teams (most would swap Leon & Sven for Defoe & Keane/Kanoute but how many goals have spurs scored and how much did they cost?)

What does stand out in the opta stats is our extremely poor pass completion rate which shows where our training ground focus should be. Fewer completions and the lowest rate than any other side and directly explains why we have so few real goal scoring opportunities.

The lack of goals is not just down to the strikers, it runs from the defence forward and relies on quality passing and movement. At the moment I swear that the best passer at the club is Svensson - Shame on our midfield for that and the manegement for playing players who cant pass a few feet without threatening losing the ball.

The same goes for the number of goals conceeded which is about organisation and responsibility in the back line and structured support from the midfield.

A striker will help - but it wont solve our problems.

OTBC

[Ricko 0]

I agree with ZLF to a large degree on this one. We need to play horses for courses. Away from home especially we need to have a strengthened midfield which can nullify the opposition and keep hold of the ball for periods even if we don''t create too many chances. The amount of time and space especially in the firts half that we gave Man City was completely unacceptable. As I''ve said elsewhere I think we should bring Mulryne into central midfield and play either Holt or Safri in a more restrained role in front of the back four. Although Holt has played well in the last couple of games my inclination would be to play Safri as he''s the better passer. This would mean playing something like 4-1-4-1 with either Svensson or McKenzie as the lone front man. In reality this would be a more fluid formation because Huckerby, Francis, Jonson and Mulryne like to get into advanced positions and Mulryne''s ability at deadball situations would also give us options.

The other thing about defence is that we have lost someone in Malky who was a natural leader and organiser and who was also physically big. At the moment I don''t think we''ve got anyone to replace him in that role.

[Tumbleweed 106]

I seem to agree with you again Zipper. I am in a very small minority when I say I don''t think a striker at the sort of money we can probably afford will be much better than what we have already if Sven gets a decent run and some confidence, Hux continues at centre forward rather than left midfield and Leon stays onside and develops a little more composure. Having said that if we could get a Crouch at £2m then that would add some much needed height to our frontline and that would be handy.

I do however think the greatest need is still at the back- we need height in the box defending crosses and corners and better organisation (someone to say we need to push up the field). If you continually concede silly goals your strikers have to work even harder to score more.

[ZLF 271]

Top quote Tufnell Park - ''The defence is ok, but they need to mark much, much tighter and get challenges in early'' - doesnt that really sum up what defending is about? In summary our defence is ok but they cant actually defend?Nearly as good as HUx a man for man marker!

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

I agree with Zipper in that passing is our problem. We keep lobbing the ball form all directions to our front runners who only ever stand a fifty per cent chance of winning it and consequently when possession is lost we are on the back foot again. Unfortunately our high balls are not as accurate as they should be meaning possession is lost all the easier.

A new striker may solve some of the problems but he will need better service than is being provided at present. I would prefer to see a new coach that can provide fresh ideas on passing and off the ball movement keeping the ball firmly on the ground where we do our best work.

I am still hugely optimistic that we can keep our premiership status but feel that if we continue to perform only in one half then the club must look at both its fitness and training schedules because something is obviously amiss bearing in mind that we were also doing this last season.