Where will the goals come from?

[VectisSaint]

Now that the majority of signings have been made, I am actually feeling a little more bullish about the season. Long will do good for us, the others well we can only hope they do

 

My updated where the goals will come from

 

Pelle. 16

Thanks for the laugh.

[Rasiak-9-]

I'm afraid that with Lallana, Rodriguez and Lambert all having left since last season, the lack of attacking ability from our midfield may well be shown up in this.

 

Steven Davis for instance was a useful utility player last season who was 1) vital to our pressing game and playing at a high tempo under Pochettino and 2) wasn't really called upon going forward as the front three shouldered pretty much the whole burden in terms of creativity and goals. Of course, this wasn't an issue as the job of our midfield was simply to feed the front three. Things are different now.

 

We scored 54 goals last season. Lambert/Lallana/JRod scored 38 of them. Our centre-backs Yoshida, Fonte and Lovren chipped in with 6 between them coming up for FKs/corners.

 

That leaves 10 goals last season in total that weren't scored by either our three forwards or from a set-peice.

 

We've always known that our midfield has seriously lacked goals and now that we've got a striker up top who'll be lucky to get into double-figures this season, that weakness is looking more and more likely to be exposed and prove to be a major issue. Chickens have come home to roost.

 

We seriously need to give Ramirez a go.

 

Not an on-from-the-bench-played-out-of-position-out-wide-for-the-last-15-of-an-away-game go, but a start-him-in-the-number10-give-him-90-minutes-build-the-team-around-him go for several consecutive matches.

 

Pelle/Long may not be a completely catastrophic failure but when you look at how badly we utterly relied on our front three last season and you realise just how big the shoes are that they have to fill, you realise we can't possibly go about this season absolving the midfield of creative responsibility and relying on our strikers the same way.

[stknowle]

I'm afraid that with Lallana, Rodriguez and Lambert all having left since last season, the lack of attacking ability from our midfield may well be shown up in this.

 

Steven Davis for instance was a useful utility player last season who was 1) vital to our pressing game and playing at a high tempo under Pochettino and 2) wasn't really called upon going forward as the front three shouldered pretty much the whole burden in terms of creativity and goals. Of course, this wasn't an issue as the job of our midfield was simply to feed the front three. Things are different now.

 

We scored 54 goals last season. Lambert/Lallana/JRod scored 38 of them. Our centre-backs Yoshida, Fonte and Lovren chipped in with 6 between them coming up for FKs/corners.

 

That leaves 10 goals last season in total that weren't scored by either our three forwards or from a set-peice.

 

We've always known that our midfield has seriously lacked goals and now that we've got a striker up top who'll be lucky to get into double-figures this season, that weakness is looking more and more likely to be exposed and prove to be a major issue. Chickens have come home to roost.

 

We seriously need to give Ramirez a go.

 

Not an on-from-the-bench-played-out-of-position-out-wide-for-the-last-15-of-an-away-game go, but a start-him-in-the-number10-give-him-90-minutes-build-the-team-around-him go for several consecutive matches.

 

Pelle/Long may not be a completely catastrophic failure but when you look at how badly we utterly relied on our front three last season and you realise just how big the shoes are that they have to fill, you realise we can't possibly go about this season absolving the midfield of creative responsibility and relying on our strikers the same way.

 

Never-witnessed-such-wanton-over-use-of-dashes-in-a-sentence-but-largely-agree

[Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd]

Whilst we continue with this 4-3-3 nonsense I don't see things improving. It may help us defensively but it leaves us too lightweight up front and going forward with huge gaps all over the place. Fine if you've got pacey players who can get into those spaces but we haven't. We need two up front.