New Striker or tighten up at the back, or can we have both?

[Ernie 0]

Is it possible for us as a team to still play the way we do with attacking football, add to the squad with another goal scorer to help out Grant (or even someone to supply the ammunition) and still be able to tighten up at the back without distracting from the way we play?  We know we have good center halfs, full backs, Ruddy''s coming good and we do score alot of goals but still I believe we concede to many and often end up chasing games.  Can we have our cake and eat it or is it one or the other?

[king canary 7,603]

I think in the formation we play we may have to accept we will concede a few. Its funny because individually most of our back four have been outstanding performers this season. Maybe a center mid with a bit more bite, as when we play Fox, Wes and Henri in midfield we can be a little lightweight.

[ZLF 274]

Many of our goals have been due to the central partners allowing the strikers too much space and not tracking properly.  They have performed well across the season but have had positional errors, moments of indecision and lapses in concentration  punished.  The Cardiff goal came from Whitbread being out maneouvred (lost header then turned & reacted slower) by Parkin and Barnett not being close enough to Chopra to allow the sweet effort by parkin - watching the goals we have conceeded over the last three months does show a repeated patten of a soft centre in the back 4 despite the overall good impression they create. 

The rotation in partners does have a part to play in that but I would expect to see both individual improvements to cut out these errors as as well better understanding of each others positioning to reduce the amount we conceed.  2 from Whitbread, Barnett or Ward I think will be enough as long as they do sharpen - and there are signs this is impoving so no purchase needed for me.

Up front we need to take a shot - not sure how we compare to other club but the proportion of efforts to the % of possession feels low - we should shoot more instead of trying to walk the ball into the net?  That seems to be a philosophy rather than a problem with the strikers.  We have 4,  getting anyone a step improvement better is likely to be very expensive.  

The demand for me is more creativeness for better openings and more contributions from midfield to our goal tally.  Surman and Lansbury back would help that I think.  

[Ernie 0]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

Many of our goals have been due to the central partners allowing the strikers too much space and not tracking properly.  They have performed well across the season but have had positional errors, moments of indecision and lapses in concentration  punished.  The Cardiff goal came from Whitbread being out maneouvred (lost header then turned & reacted slower) by Parkin and Barnett not being close enough to Chopra to allow the sweet effort by parkin - watching the goals we have conceeded over the last three months does show a repeated patten of a soft centre in the back 4 despite the overall good impression they create. 

The rotation in partners does have a part to play in that but I would expect to see both individual improvements to cut out these errors as as well better understanding of each others positioning to reduce the amount we conceed.  2 from Whitbread, Barnett or Ward I think will be enough as long as they do sharpen - and there are signs this is impoving so no purchase needed for me.

Up front we need to take a shot - not sure how we compare to other club but the proportion of efforts to the % of possession feels low - we should shoot more instead of trying to walk the ball into the net?  That seems to be a philosophy rather than a problem with the strikers.  We have 4,  getting anyone a step improvement better is likely to be very expensive.  

The demand for me is more creativeness for better openings and more contributions from midfield to our goal tally.  Surman and Lansbury back would help that I think.  

[/quote]

Agreed to many soft goals and sometimes we over play it when whats needed is for someone just to put their foot through it.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,748]

I don''t think theres musch else we can do at the back the personnel wise, we''ve 4 decent central defenders at this level and you wouldn''t change the full backs either, the problem is that because we don''t always turn our possession and domination into goals the strain is on the back 4 to not concede more than one goal every match.

Another striker -thats better than we''ve got- to help put these chances away ,would allow for a bit more margin for error.

[Lambert is King 0]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

Many of our goals have been due to the central partners allowing the strikers too much space and not tracking properly.  They have performed well across the season but have had positional errors, moments of indecision and lapses in concentration  punished.  The Cardiff goal came from Whitbread being out maneouvred (lost header then turned & reacted slower) by Parkin and Barnett not being close enough to Chopra to allow the sweet effort by parkin - watching the goals we have conceeded over the last three months does show a repeated patten of a soft centre in the back 4 despite the overall good impression they create. 

The rotation in partners does have a part to play in that but I would expect to see both individual improvements to cut out these errors as as well better understanding of each others positioning to reduce the amount we conceed.  2 from Whitbread, Barnett or Ward I think will be enough as long as they do sharpen - and there are signs this is impoving so no purchase needed for me.

Up front we need to take a shot - not sure how we compare to other club but the proportion of efforts to the % of possession feels low - we should shoot more instead of trying to walk the ball into the net?  That seems to be a philosophy rather than a problem with the strikers.  We have 4,  getting anyone a step improvement better is likely to be very expensive.  

The demand for me is more creativeness for better openings and more contributions from midfield to our goal tally.  Surman and Lansbury back would help that I think.  

[/quote]

This not shooting thing is not true and getting a bit silly. We are the fourth highest scorers in the division with a game in hand over 2 of the teams above us. We also are the only club with 2 players in the top 10 of shots at goal ( Holt and Martin ) Martin being amazing as he has not played all the games and now plays more in midfield. As far as shots at goal go we are 3rd. People keep saying if we shot more we would score more goals as you score every 3 - 4 shots. If that was true we would have scored 130 goals so far this season.

It has also been mentioned that we have the same problem as Arsenal, but guess what they are top scorers in the prem and yep they have had more shots at goal than any other premiership team. Brilliant football gives a perception of not shooting as you have the ability to set up the perfect goal rather than keep shooting aimlessly from anywhere. 

[YellowLittle1 0]

The midfielder with a bit more bite, is the reason I think we should buy Michael Brown. 2-1 up, and they look like they have a way back in the game, put him on, off the bench, means we can add experience and someone who can tackle to maybe help out the midfield.

I think Michael Brown will not be too expensive, wages could be an issue but even so I think we would be able to afford a striker who can bang a few in. I hear a lot about Charlie Austin, I wouldn''t mind Adam Le Fondre nor would I mind Steve Morison. I think the loanees going out will probably make way for two additions to the squad.

OTBC

[Nexus_Canary 1,016]

I really dont see why or how ( past signing John Terry ) we are wanting to sure up our defence.We really dont have any weak links.I think another striker would be a good move. I would like to see a striker that can play the ball as well as score goals. Its pretty clear that whippet players are not working for us, so a player similar to Chris Martin would be good.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

I have faith that Wilbraham will provide the needed target in the box as he did against Cardiff, he just needs to get his fitness levels up.

[Lambert is King 0]

[quote user="Nexus_Canary"]I really dont see why or how ( past signing John Terry ) we are wanting to sure up our defence.
We really dont have any weak links.

I think another striker would be a good move. I would like to see a striker that can play the ball as well as score goals.
Its pretty clear that whippet players are not working for us, so a player similar to Chris Martin would be good.
[/quote]

It was a statement made by Dion Dublin that we need to sign a quality centre half and he would then be certain we would be promoted.

[Nexus_Canary 1,016]

[quote user="Lambert is King"]

It was a statement made by Dion Dublin that we need to sign a quality centre half and he would then be certain we would be promoted.

[/quote]Yes at that point I realised that Dion hasn''t been following our club very closely :(