11 goals in 14 games

[Newcastle Canary 0]

Another great point tonight and continued our unbeaten run.. However, am I the only one who is a bit concerned about the lack of goals we are scoring! 11 goals in 14 games is not nearly enough. We struggle to unlock defences and when we do we lack the composure or the numbers in the box to put the chance away.

For now it is fine as we are defending well. However, I feel it could spell trouble later in the season!

[chris_sabian 0]

No you aren''t. We seem to find it impossible to score more than one goal a game. This needs to be sorted - i''m sure the transfer window should help.

[87canary 0]

I''d be lying if I said it didn''t concern me a little. But as long as we''re not losing games because of it, I suppose I can live with it.

[canarydan23 4,060]

We''re 13th in the Premier League.

No I''m not concerned.

[AJ 1,218]

The problem is we''re playing defensive to stop other teams scoring. Yet we continually fail to provide the goods up front.

First half tonight was a prime example, all crosses and final balls were very poor, and most of the time Holt had next to no service. A lot of the moves we DO create involve Holt moving out of position towards one of the wings, meaning the cross comes in to nobody, or Hoolahan, who isn''t exactly going to beat the centre half to a header...

Our attacking play needs to be re-thought. There''s goals in our side, we know that, but at the moment it''s just not good enough. Pilks looks out of sorts still at the moment, and Holt is just growing more and more frustrated. The front players are too isolated from each other. Maybe bring Benno in move Snodgrass over to the left for a game. I think some injection of pace could really help us get behind the defenders and create something for Holt

[JF 694]

The transfer window wont change this, It''s how the team is set out to play. We could have Messi upfront but if the tactics are negative he wouldn''t score.

[Newcastle Canary 0]

If we had only scored 30-32 goals by the end of the season.. will we be safe?

[ricardo 7,347]

[quote user="canarydan23"]We''re 13th in the Premier League.

No I''m not concerned.[/quote]And we have played 2 more games away than we have at home.Ricky is well pleased with progress so far but 3 points on Sunday will make for another nice happy weekend.

[grefstad 0]

Welll...try to shake things up a bit by benching Holt for a start.

And give Jackson and Morison a chance to see what they can do.

That might bring some fresh ideas.

Holty is a certain starter, and his form seem to be suffering.

Let Morison run like hell for 60 mins, and Holty can come in, and likely find it easier to score against tiring defenders.

Morison for a start spot vs Sunderland!

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Its the way we play and Holt is clearly getting frustrated with it, hence his spitting his dummy when subbed.

 

Morison played the lone striker better last season.

 

He might get the nod.

[Making Plans 936]

We will never score lots of goals until we improve on crosses. Once again they were abysmal. Surely Hughton must have noticed this. If the Pilkington, Snodgrass & the like can''t get a decent cross in then it''s time to bring in someone who can. The current lot have had plenty of opportunities to get it right but they continually fail. Elliot Bennet, opportunity knocks.

[Gingerpele 0]

I''m slightly concerned now because Holt isn''t scoring...

He isn''t even playing badly, so doesn''t have that excuse.

I don''t care if we are good enough defensively to keep teams out most of the time, we will still concede the odd goal, like today and Saturday. And we need to have the ability to get 1 or 3 points on those occasions.

Instead of improving in attack, we are getting worse. A last minute equaliser and a big GK mistake. We are creating so many chances, why aren''t we scoring more? It just makes no sense...

[lake district canary 0]

Its not the striker''s fault!   Holt isn''t getting any decent service.   You have five midfielders who are not gelling as they should.  Hoolahan flatters to deceive most of the time.  Snodgrass plays too selfishly.   Pilks needs a bomb up his backside.   Johnson needs to stop shooting and only play easy passes.  Tettey is exempt - a key performer, but the rest of the midfield - the chemistry is not good.

[paul moy 235]

We''re a more refined version of Stoke. [;)]

[Gingerpele 0]

LDC, it isn''t just the service. We are having more than enough shots. And quite a few decent balls that Holt isn''t getting on the end of.

A big mix of lack of quality from strikers, from midfielders, poor finishing, poor final ball, and a large helping of bad luck.

We are doing fantastically well at the moment. But the most encouraging thing is the room for improvement in attack.

[AJ 1,218]

That''s literally it, Holt just isn''t getting the chances to score. But that said, we shouldn''t have to rely on one man to score our goals. Hoolahan often frustrates when he could just give it a whack!

All our forward players can score goals, we just need a system that works, because the current one isn''t!

[Scooby 0]

Last season people were bleating due to the amount of goals conceded even though we were scoring for fun. Now we are keeping clean sheets and have conceded, what is it, 3 in 7 or 8? Guess what, more bleating. Just goes to show.

[cornish_canary 0]

[quote user="lake district canary"]Its not the striker''s fault!   Holt isn''t getting any decent service.   You have five midfielders who are not gelling as they should.  Hoolahan flatters to deceive most of the time.  Snodgrass plays too selfishly.   Pilks needs a bomb up his backside.   Johnson needs to stop shooting and only play easy passes.  Tettey is exempt - a key performer, but the rest of the midfield - the chemistry is not good.

[/quote]

Tettey is proving himself to be a very classy player indeed, head and shoulders above the rest in the middle of the park at the moment. Didn''t put a foor wrong again this evening.

Johnson''s shooting has been embarrassing at best! He will connect one day soon and score an absolute screamer!

[Gingerpele 0]

[quote user="Scooby"]Last season people were bleating due to the amount of goals conceded even though we were scoring for fun. Now we are keeping clean sheets and have conceded, what is it, 3 in 7 or 8? Guess what, more bleating. Just goes to show.[/quote]

We were not scoring for fun...

Basically we haven''t been able to find a balance. No one is suggesting we can keep a clean sheet and score 3 every game. But when the opportunities are there we need to be able to take them. To be honest we missed plenty last season. But it just felt like we could score at any moment. But after Holt''s header today I just knew we wouldn''t score.

I''ll say it again, obviously 7 unbeaten is outstanding. But there is most certainly room for improvement without changing the system, and without brining in new players. Anyone who suggests there isn''t, well I can only think you can''t want us to be better?

[Aggy 752]

I still think we create a decent number of chances - especially at home. Away, I''m afraid if you want to get points regularly in the prem, you have to play more within yourself. But we are still creating chances. The quality of ball in to the box hasn''t been great far too often, and I also feel that by playing Snodgrass on the right and Pilks on the left, we very rarely get past the man and put a cross in, as we always have to cut back inside on to our stronger foot.

The point about Holt drifting is a good one as well. Holt will and has always roamed around and he''s arguably the best crosser in the side at times! But we need him to hold his position and be in the middle all the time with this formation.

He doesn''t worry me though. I do think it will ''click'' going forward and one game we''ll put two or three away and then we''ll go from there. Holt will hopefully find his scoring boots again, and maybe we''ll bring in a Tettey-esque signing to either play up front or on the wing to give us just a little bit more quality in those areas in January and we''ll be good to go.

[Gingerpele 0]

A few games ago, I had a look at some of the stats from last season. And we aren''t necessarily having quite as many shots (but not loads less, were talking about an average of 3/4 less). But to be honest, I think we are failing to connect with more shots this year.

I mean, there are plenty of crosses, passes, deflections, dribbles etc that should be ending in shots, but aren''t, due to poor final ball, good defending or bad luck.

[Shack Attack 0]

The other side of this is that we have only conceded three in the last seven. Last season everybody was moaning about our defence and our lack of clean sheets and that hs improved dramatically. It is very difficult to improve the defence of a free scoring side as we were last season without sacrificing some of that attacking intent. We simply cannot afford to buy the players who would allow us to remain as cavalier in attack as we were last season whilst also improving our defensive record.It should not come as a surprise to anyone as Lambert faced the exact same problems last season. He tried one up front and he tried three at the back in an attempt to control the game better in the midfield but each time he did we lost attacking impetus. In the end he kept going back to that ultra attacking way of playing as it was our most succesful way of playing but I think he realised that this could not sustain us indefinitely.The problem Hughton seems to have is that a lot of his attacking players are not quite firing on all cylinders. When Lambert went to one up front early last season when Holt was struggling Morison came in and performed really well and Pilkington and Bennett were on form and linking well with Wes. We retained some attacking impetus with one up front and showed that this was not a negative formation. Hughton one the other hand has to decide between a woefully short on confidence Steve Morison or Grant Holt who has not scored in his last seven games as his striker. Pilkington has been very hit and miss this season and Wes, despite having a decent season to date, isn''t quite linking up with the rest as much as you would like.I''m not entirely sure what the answer is but maybe there isn''t one and we should be happy with being unbeaten in seven. Do we really think bringing Simeon Jackson in or pairing Morison and Holt up front will improve our results? I''m not convinced and as long as we are winning at home and drawing away I think there is maybe nothing to worry about. It is when those home wins turn into draws that you should start to worry as that is a sure sign of a team in trouble.

[Norfolkn Good 0]

Jeez this forum is priceless. 4 home wins on the spin, 4 away draws....and the forum complains.

Yes more goals would be nice and I''m sure we''ll start to deliver these soon but I''ll be happy if the next 8 match the last 8 games. Sure a number of you will not be though.

And if any of you think Morrisons the answer, you probably misheard the question.

[Gingerpele 0]

[quote user="Norfolk n Good"]Jeez this forum is priceless. 4 home wins on the spin, 4 away draws....and the forum complains.

Yes more goals would be nice and I''m sure we''ll start to deliver these soon but I''ll be happy if the next 8 match the last 8 games. Sure a number of you will not be though.

And if any of you think Morrisons the answer, you probably misheard the question.[/quote]

If you actually READ the posts, there isn''t really much complaining going on...

Most people are just suggesting that we can improve, is that allowed? Are we allowed to get better? No? You want us to be at this level for ever? You don''t think we have the ability to score more goals? Last season was just a fluke? Holt and Pilks have forgotten how to play football? Snodgrass is rubbish? Hoolahan is past his best? Bennett, Jackson and Moro are no good?

Sorry for the harsh/sarcastic questioning. But that was a pretty silly post. No one is disappointed or upset with the team. Everyone is delighted we have gone 7 unbeaten in the league. But the best bit about that is we can improve.

[ricardo 7,347]

[quote user="Norfolkn Good"]Jeez this forum is priceless. 4 home wins on the spin, 4 away draws....and the forum complains.

Yes more goals would be nice and I''m sure we''ll start to deliver these soon but I''ll be happy if the next 8 match the last 8 games. Sure a number of you will not be though.

And if any of you think Morrisons the answer, you probably misheard the question.[/quote]Agreed, however Ricardo is ecstatic. 24 games to go (13 at home 11 away) and all we need to reach the 40 point mark is 6 wins and 6 draws.And that really is the bottom line for this season.Yippee, I''m lovin it.[:D]

[Norfolkn Good 0]

Yes I have read the posts but to be fair, this is the best run of results we''ve had in what 20 years or so and on that basis, I''''ll take it as it is and wait until the transfer window in the hope that we pick up a striker to support holt. Happy for Morrison to go on loan/sold at that point because there''s something seriously wrong with him in comparison to where he was a year ago.

[Sing Up The South Stand 0]

I think, after last season, Chris Hughton decided we needed to sort out the defence as it was pretty poor last season, and probably thought the team scored so many goals the attack would be ok, but it seems they aren''t quite as good as it seemed (no criticism, but they seem to be struggling now we are more organised as a team).

I think it''s right he focussed on the defence, mainly as it was so poor but also as it might help reduce the chance of ''second season syndrome'' as it''s so different to the Lambert years. Also, if you can keep a clean sheet you know you won''t lose.

I''m pretty sure, now the defence is sorted, the next place will be the attack, and as we''ll be debt free next season, if we stay up it could be quite exciting!

[Sing Up The South Stand 0]

Sorry for the dreadfully long opening sentence...

[Beefy is a legend 224]

3 goals in 7 games.

That''s how many we''ve conceded.

We don''t really need to score that many.

[Beefy is a legend 224]

AJ wrote the following post at 28/11/2012 10:08 PM:

That''s literally it, Holt just isn''t getting the chances to score. But that said, we shouldn''t have to rely on one man to score our goals. Hoolahan often frustrates when he could just give it a whack!

All our forward players can score goals, we just need a system that works, because the current one isn''t!

haha ''the current one isn''t''. Apart from bringing us 13 points from 7 games.