Our lack of goalscorers...

[CP Gull]

30 games gone and some shocking statistics which really do highlight where the majority of our problems have been this season. Yes, we do concede far too many poor goals, but for me the major problem all season has been the inability of our forward players to get anywhere near enough goals.

As pointed out by another poster on here, it is quite incredible that after 30 (yes that's THIRTY) games we have not had a single League goal from a midfielder(as opposed to a winger). None of this little lot have managed to hit the target all season ... Mansell, Harding, Lathrope, McCourt, Labadie, Mozika and Craig ... not one has found the net in 2700 minutes of football , that's FORTY FIVE hours!!!

Other areas of the field shouldn't be excused. We haven't had a single goal from our full backs (Nicholson, Tonge, Cruise and O'Connor) either. More forgivable perhaps but when you think back to the days of Gurney and Gibbs .... who managed SIXTEEN goals from full back ( or more accurately wing back) in the 97/98 season.

Our strikers haven't fared much better with our two main recruits in the summer barely registering either. Hawley has hit the target on just three occasions (23 appearances) and Benyon just twice (24 appearances). Add to that the fact that Bodin has only scored once (21 appearances) ... despite playing in such an advanced role in the team and it quite frankly beggars belief that between them all the players I have listed so far (Hawley, Benyon, Bodin, Mansell, Harding, Lathrope, McCourt, Labadie, Mozika, Craig, Nicholson, Tonge, Cruise and O'Connor) have only managed to scrape together six goals despite most of those featuring regularly throughout the season. The one exception, has been Jordan Chapell who despite finding goals more harder to come by in recent times (admittedly he has been out of the side recently) did at least manage to score five times earlier in the season, but he also hasn't hit the back of the net since the end of October!

So where have the goals come from them, yes you guessed it our loaned players. Of our 30 goals this season, 12 have come from players(strikers in the main) who we have borrowed, with Marquis(3) and McCallum (3) leading the way followed by Azeez(2) and Ball (2) and more recently Stockley (1) and now Goodwin(1).

Aside from the loanees, who have undoubtedly won us points that we might not otherwise have gained, the only area of the team to come out with any real credit in the goalscoring department is our centre halves where Downes has managed to get 4 goals in 22 appearances (better than any of our own strikers) and Pearce has 3 from 19 (ditto above).

When your most regular scorers (with the exception of young Chapell) other than players you have borrowed are your centre halves, when your centre of midfield has not contributed ONE single goal, when your three main strikers at the beginning of the season (Hawley, Benyon and Bodin) have managed just 6 goals between them in a combined total of 68 appearances when we are two thirds of the way through the season, you can see just where our problems lie.

No one can surely blame Greavsie for bringing in striker after striker on loan .... four at the latest count ... because it sure as heck feels as though if we have to rely on our own strikers (those that have actually played, we can excuse Yeoman and Sullivan) we would have no chance of staying up.

When watching games at Plainmoor, I have often said one of our main problems is that we quite simply DO NOT SHOOT ENOUGH!!! That is not just true of our strikers, but in fact all through the side. Our wide men, our midfielders, even our full backs (although to be fair to Nico he does at least try!) do not seemingly have the confidence, or perhaps it is just the technique, to have a go when in sight of goal. They would rather pass the responsibility on to someone else, something which I feel Hawley and Bodin are especially guilty of. Clearly both of them do have the ability to score on a fairly regular basis ... for goodness sake Hawley was once regarded as prolific in League 2! Likewise with Benyon for us a few seasons back. I guess they (the strikers) might point the finger at the lack of creativity in midfield as a major factor and they probably have a point, but the reality is that in the main others (brought in on loan) have proved that scoring goals in this team is not impossible!

[Dave]

Ball retention Chris, as a team we just do not hang on to the ball long enough, of late we seemed to have been sucked into whacking the ball long from the back (maybe the state of the pitch) and more often than not it goes no where or to no one, when we finally do get the ball down in midfield I despair at the number of times we fail to complete a 5-10 yrd pass , still wonder if it's the kit, said right from the start pale yellow against white stripes was disaster waiting to happen( Newcastle had a similar away kit a few seasons ago, ditched it very quickly) the number of times we've actually failed to complete short pass can't be all down to a general lack of ability, next time we play Chris have a look for yourself, see how many central midfielders we have in advanced positions and how times a CM player actually get up to the opposition penalty area, quite often you'll see our central midfield back behind the ball as it keeps coming back time and time again.

And that points towards why midfielders aren't scoring, and generally points towards another problem, service into the front players at times just isn't there, how many times when Hawley came on against Northampton did we see him go deep to get ball himself, one point he was even back in our area defending, and there's a confidence issue as well, defenders scoring naturally from set pieces, and if we have to continue with this awful kit at least wear blue shorts, might help the players see each other.

Oh forgot will be up Ashmoor tonight, might see for a quick chat..

[DJ Gull]

Something that has really been grinding my gears this season is the shortage of through balls. So many times I have seen a striker make a run, to which the man in possesion should clearly attempt to play a ball through for a possible 1 on 1 chance, instead the player in possesion would rather slow down play by turning away from goal or passing to someone who poses no threat. Addmittedly by trying to play it through we may loose possesion but we usually end up loosing possesion anyway. Again this goes down as a confidence issue in which players obviously don't believe in themselves to play the right pass, But they have to try and beat the opposing defence some how, playing long balls don't work, playing for corners DONT WORK! Get some belief and play that ball..

[hector]

Excellent post CP Gull.

A forward line of Benyon/Hawley was never and will never be good enough for this league and probably not even the Conference. Two journeymen. Benyon was about 7th choice at Southend, so it is hardly surprising he has been as ineffective here, as he was always, other than one flash-in-the-pan season that saw Swindon pay a ridiculous amount for him before they too, followed by Wycombe, Southend and now us, saw that really, he is Conference South at best.

Hawley was another of Knill's masterstrokes. A player that has followed him around. Really why was anyone surprised? Alan Knill signs duds in Hawley and Mozika for Scunthorpe. Results are terrible. He gets the sack. He does the same for us with the same outcome and now we are lumbered with an ageing Hawley for another year, who no doubt will get fatter and even slower in our battle to be mid-table in the Conference.

I don't believe we need FOUR on loan forwards but CH is correct in that he needs more than the shambolic, non-existent forward line he inherited. I cannot see us getting anyone who can score the goals we need and that's why I felt we needed to tighten up defensively and just become very difficult to beat.

The stats regarding Downes, are to my mind, another reason he should be in the team.

[Gullscorer]

Our regular players, each and every individual, given all the best efforts of the manager and the coaching/training staff, have until the end of the season to improve their game and convince the manager not only of their individual abilities but also of their ability to play as members of a team, otherwise they will not be on his retained list, they will be gone, and will be unlikely to find paid work as footballers anywhere except the lower reaches of the Conference and beyond..

[Dave]

All roads lead back to the same thing, it's all very well blaming strikers for not scoring, but if you don't get numbers forward to create attacking overloads, then sometimes the only option is to go sideways/backwards in a bid to retain possession, and if we don't create chances strikers can't score goals, and when do create a chance nearly two seasons of poor results have left the confidence in the toilet.

[PhilGull]

Not much else to add really. Players low on confidence coupled with hideously out of form/crap strikers (delete as you see it) leads to not scoring enough goals which in turn leads to small individual mistakes by keeper and defenders being highlighted more than they would otherwise be if the ball were going in the net at the other end.
Having said that, I do still think that even with everyone 100% fit and on top form we still lack an attacking midfielder to link the play. Simple problem is that we still haven't replaced Eunan O'Kane.

[DJ Gull]

With the team we have at current, I think could scrape together enough points to drag us away from the dreaded, all they're lacking is balls (and I don't mean the football). Onwards to the following season hargreaves needs to have a clear out and band together a team of his own.

[Gullscorer]

Clubs with bigger attendances and/or greater resources would have been able to retain the likes of O'Kane and Olejnik and push on to League One and even the Championship. (I exclude clubs such as Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Luton; we all know why they are now where they are..) But given the lack of interest among the local community, I suppose we can count ourselves fortunate that, thanks mainly to the Bristows and to the consortium which took over when we were relegated to the Conference, at least we still have a club which is alive and kicking.

Hargreaves will certainly have an end-of-season clear-out. It's up to the current players to prove between now and then that they are worthy of retention..

[Neal]

All pointed out by myself and Bruce after the AFC Wimbledon game at home. Forward line pathetic, could see that from day one. Nothing to do with formation, tactics etc etc. I judged it on basic footballing skills, and what I saw was players who couldnt control the ball, couldnt pass it and had 0 spark to create anything. I dont know much about tactics etc etc but I can tell if a player can control a ball, and all our attackers up until recently didnt have that skill and a percentage of our midfiled didnt have as well. for club that wants to remain inleague 2 that will not do. Marquis has it, he could trap, hold the ball and lay it off and to me looked like he could create something. The rest of them nope, not league 2 for me. Ive been supporting TUFC for 40 years, and I reckon we have for most of that period had 1 or 2 decent forwards, going back to Steve Cooper and Les lawrence etc. Maybe we are out of our league now and decent league 2 forwards are out of our pay bracket, I dont know. But creativitiy and basic footballing skills for our attack minded players is the Reason we are in this mess again

[ferrarilover]

Thing is Neal, that's all very easy. Just go 'oh, we're shit' after one game and then, if we're shit, you yack on about being a footballing genius.

You can't judge teams, players or anything else on one game, certainly not the first game of the season. I can find you single games which make Messi look Sunday League and Titus Bramble look like a ten-time Ballon D'Or winner.

As it turns out, your prediction (guess) was right, but you're not the next Chief Scout, you just got lucky on a 50/50 deal.

Matt.

[chunkygull]

Ball retention Chris, as a team we just do not hang on to the ball long enough, of late we seemed to have been sucked into whacking the ball long from the back (maybe the state of the pitch) and more often than not it goes no where or to no one, when we finally do get the ball down in midfield I despair at the number of times we fail to complete a 5-10 yrd pass , still wonder if it's the kit, said right from the start pale yellow against white stripes was disaster waiting to happen( Newcastle had a similar away kit a few seasons ago, ditched it very quickly) the number of times we've actually failed to complete short pass can't be all down to a general lack of ability, next time we play Chris have a look for yourself, see how many central midfielders we have in advanced positions and how times a CM player actually get up to the opposition penalty area, quite often you'll see our central midfield back behind the ball as it keeps coming back time and time again.

And that points towards why midfielders aren't scoring, and generally points towards another problem, service into the front players at times just isn't there, how many times when Hawley came on against Northampton did we see him go deep to get ball himself, one point he was even back in our area defending, and there's a confidence issue as well, defenders scoring naturally from set pieces, and if we have to continue with this awful kit at least wear blue shorts, might help the players see each other.

Oh forgot will be up Ashmoor tonight, might see for a quick chat..

Especially like the highlighted bits.

A big problem with football in general nowadays is the lack of payers willing to have a go or shoot from any sort of distance. It is all part of the negativity that has crept into the game. Managers/coaches are more afraid of losing a game than trying to win it, so they set their teams up to contain and try not to concede, hence teams such as ourselves having no players with creativity in the midfield choosing instead to play the so called defensive midfielders (hate that expression) which then means your engine room, the area that should be pulling the strings, then consists of mainly of cloggers, hoofers, hard workers and huff and puff merchants (wonder who that could be).

Much has been said about creative or talented players either having all their flair, skill or attacking instincts coached out of them and It is ruining the game from a creativity and entertainment viewpoint. When you look at England recently with Andros Townsend playing on the wing, people were raving about him because he was having a go at teams and causing defences problems, yet I would say Townsend is an average top level player, this sort of player used to be 10 a penny.

Adnan Januzaj comes along ,he runs at defenders and has a go, he causes more problems than the pass, pass, pass, teasey weasey game that Moyes' negative tactics Man utd usually deploy this season, yet Januzaj is nothing out of the ordinary compared to past players in many teams its just that many players now are programmed to be a lot more conservative. Look at how defences now can give a backs to the wall, they shall not pass, block out and mop up everything performance for 90 minutes these days when the opposition are content to keep passing or crossing their way through to goal, rather than a player getting the ball and having a go. Look at the chaos and fear it causes when players run at defences and if it doesnt result in a goal it often results in a foul.

It doesnt help our forwards much either if balls are aimlessly and inaccurately hoofed up to them, giving them little chance to get hold of it and do something ( we all know who the main culprit is) . You can blame the pitch all you like, but the other teams are playing on it also. If you have to hit a long ball then just tease it up, aim for chest height, dont give the defenders an easy header or worse let the ball just run through and we have lost possession. Our coaches and players will know all this, but obviously during a game it isnt easy and things dont go to plan, but then if a player isnt performing or not doing their job, they should not play surely?

Going back quite a few years, I remember when the great Cyril Knowles was in charge and we had a very poor start to the season. Cyril quit - stating he had done as much as he could and had took us as far as he can. Dave Smith quickly took over and much was made in the media before his first game that the team which had been lacking confidence, creativity and firepower were going to have a shoot on sight, attacking policy. In his first match in the first half an hour it was blatantly obvious to see the massive difference, shot after shot rained in, Torquay won 2-0, a first win in quite some time, the policy continued and we rose from bottom of the table to a respectable mid-table finish. The following season that team with a few additions gained promotion, the early part of the season yielding record, wins, goals and points. Some problems behind the scenes brought about a drop in form and the table, we just about made the play-offs then got lucky. However I always remember Smiths football philosophy and the difference it made. I cant for the life of me understand why teams just dont have a go more.

[chunkygull]

Something that has really been grinding my gears this season is the shortage of through balls. So many times I have seen a striker make a run, to which the man in possesion should clearly attempt to play a ball through for a possible 1 on 1 chance, instead the player in possesion would rather slow down play by turning away from goal or passing to someone who poses no threat. Addmittedly by trying to play it through we may loose possesion but we usually end up loosing possesion anyway. Again this goes down as a confidence issue in which players obviously don't believe in themselves to play the right pass, But they have to try and beat the opposing defence some how, playing long balls don't work, playing for corners DONT WORK! Get some belief and play that ball..

Love it. Spot on.

[PhilGull]

Well Said ChunkyGull

[SBP]

Good points suggested earlier.

Ball retention is fine providing there is an end product. I am concerned with our lack of urgency and directness in attack. Bobby O can be credited with many of our attacks which ended up with either a goal or shot on target. His distribution was quick and direct counter attacking the opponent with a great deal of success.
All i see now is occasionally one the full backs or wingers look for a quick distribution. However generally its a hoof ball up the middle. Rubbish, i hate it.