19 goals in 20 games

[SuperSAINT]

Apologies for starting a new thread, but I was just looking at the league table and noticed we've only scored 19 goals in 20 games.

 

9 out of the 19 goals came in just 3 matches (Burnley, West Ham, Bournemouth).

 

So that leaves just 10 goals scored in the remaining 17 matches.

 

That's a pretty woeful return.

[Pilchards]

Apologies for starting a new thread, but I was just looking at the league table and noticed we've only scored 19 goals in 20 games.

 

9 out of the 19 goals came in just 3 matches (Burnley, West Ham, Bournemouth).

 

So that leaves just 10 goals scored in the remaining 17 matches.

 

That's a pretty woeful return.

 

And we are being linked with a striker who has scored 3 times in 17 matches?

Thats about right!

[Whitey Grandad]

Worse than woeful. To be honest I'm surprised that you have only just noticed this but it's hardly surpising when the team is instructed not to be too ambitious and always to hang back in case of counter-attack.

[disconnect]

We've struggled for goals from midfield for a while, with very little return from JWP, Davis and others like Romeu, Clasie and now Hojberg who dont ever look like scoring more than the odd goal every 10-15 matches or so. The problem this season is we've let go of our two main goal sources (Pelle and Mane) and haven't replaced them (although I like the look of Boufal - shame he's not off for a month!). Before anyone says it - Austin was already here and was signed when we had very little other options upfront with only Long as a realistic 'alternative' to Pelle at the time.

[SuperSAINT]

We've struggled for goals from midfield for a while, with very little return from JWP, Davis and others like Romeu, Clasie and now Hojberg who dont ever look like scoring more than the odd goal every 10-15 matches or so. The problem this season is we've let go of our two main goal sources (Pelle and Mane) and haven't replaced them (although I like the look of Boufal - shame he's not off for a month!). Before anyone says it - Austin was already here and was signed when we had very little other options upfront with only Long as a realistic 'alternative' to Pelle at the time.

 

I know we only spend what we get from sales etc. But in an ideal world the summer signings of Hojbjerg / Redmond / Boufal should have been made even without selling Mane/Pelle etc.

 

Then we would have had a squad to be competitive in all comps.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

And we are being linked with a striker who has scored 3 times in 17 matches?

Thats about right!

 

Half of those appearances from the subs bench. 3 goals in 672 minutes, so a goal every 2.5 games. Not THAT bad when you consider half the appearances are from the bench.

[FriendlySaint]

Idiots blaming the strikers need to realise whoever plays up front gets no service. We have no goals from midfield and no creativity either . We need a creative central midfielder or one that scores a lot of goals. Ideally we need one that's creative and one that's a goalscorer

[FriendlySaint]

Half of those appearances from the subs bench. 3 goals in 672 minutes, so a goal every 2.5 games. Not THAT bad when you consider half the appearances are from the bench.

 

No bad at all. Pilchards needs to be quiet and stop making out that he's played 90 minutes 17 times. His comment is deliberately misleading

[Lukee]

Idiots blaming the strikers need to realise whoever plays up front gets no service. We have no goals from midfield and no creativity either . We need a creative central midfielder or one that scores a lot of goals. Ideally we need one that's creative and one that's a goalscorer

 

100% agree, though must say it has been difficult for the more creative (tadic, ward-prowse arguably) when we have no real in-form eager striker making good runs.

[Heisenberg]

No bad at all. Pilchards needs to be quiet and stop making out that he's played 90 minutes 17 times. His comment is deliberately misleading

 

Its what people do, happens all the time

 

Same with Shane Long "no goals in his last 19 league games" when the reality is hes played only 90 minutes in the league once (& scored) this season and the rest hes been sub or taken off. Hes played 553 minutes this season = the equivalent of 6 games not 19

[Whitey Grandad]

Idiots blaming the strikers need to realise whoever plays up front gets no service. We have no goals from midfield and no creativity either . We need a creative central midfielder or one that scores a lot of goals. Ideally we need one that's creative and one that's a goalscorer

All very true but I have come to the conclusion that the players are playing the way that they have because they have been told to play that way. Safety first every time. Don't attack or try anything adventurous because we might give the ball away.

 

There is an interesting piece in The Times this morning bemoaning the rise tof tippy-tappy football:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-death-of-proper-defending-came-about-0gz3q9klf

 

These quotes in particular:

 

Pep Guardiola best exemplified a shifting landscape when he said he “doesn’t coach tackles” after Manchester City’s 4-2 defeat by Leicester City last month. “I’m sad, because if everybody plays the same, if everybody takes it from the back and passes and passes then it’ll become the most boring game you could watch,” Moyes said. “You don’t want football to be predictable. You want different styles, different ways of playing.

[Deano6]

Wait...who has scored 19 goals in 20 games and can we sign them?

[Edmonton Saint]

Idiots blaming the strikers need to realise whoever plays up front gets no service. We have no goals from midfield and no creativity either . We need a creative central midfielder or one that scores a lot of goals. Ideally we need one that's creative and one that's a goalscorer

 

This.

[Dark Munster]

Call me an idiot, but I blame the lack of goal-scoring strikers. We've had plenty of shots. Our conversion rate is crap. A midfielder who scores plenty would be great, but the first priority is a striker who scores plenty.

[Lukee]

Call me an idiot, but I blame the lack of goal-scoring strikers. We've had plenty of shots. Our conversion rate is crap. A midfielder who scores plenty would be great, but the first priority is a striker who scores plenty.

 

This is also a fair point, we have definitely had clear cut chances that weren't taken that could've decided games.

 

On the midfielder perspective though (not sure if already posted)

http://readsouthampton.com/2017/01/05/southampton-plotting-honda-move/

 

Would love this. Real professional.

[Foxstone]

Over the past few seasons (Championship and Prem), I never really worried too much if we ever went a goal (or 2 ) down as I had always felt we had the ability to score at any time.

We have not had a goal-scoring midfielder for a while now but we had Lambert, Lallana, Pelle, Mane - Jay when he was fit, Billy for the short time he was here and even Guly chipped in with a dozen goals on our promotion season.

Right now, I struggle to see where our goals are going to come from, especially with Charlie injured.

 

That is down to personnel I am afraid, and the bad decision in the summer not to recruit a goal- scoring striker to replace part of the contribution from Pelle and Mane.

This must be addressed otherwise I can see us scoring 30 goals this season, which given our pourous defence over the last few games, might send us close to trouble!

[Whitey Grandad]

Call me an idiot, but I blame the lack of goal-scoring strikers. We've had plenty of shots. Our conversion rate is crap. A midfielder who scores plenty would be great, but the first priority is a striker who scores plenty.

 

I know it's only one game but against WBA at home ther were many occasions when a ball was driven across the box and there were no Saints plays in there. None, zilch, zero, whatever you want to call it. Watching other TV games recently I have sometimes counted 6 attackers against 7 defenders, Arsenal being one example.

[FriendlySaint]

I know it's only one game but against WBA at home ther were many occasions when a ball was driven across the box and there were no Saints plays in there. None, zilch, zero, whatever you want to call it. Watching other TV games recently I have sometimes counted 6 attackers against 7 defenders, Arsenal being one example.

 

That's down to the manager's instructions. The players are following orders

[Whitey Grandad]

That's down to the manager's instructions. The players are following orders

 

That's how I see it.

 

Did anybody ever find out what the team instructions were at half time up at Hull?

[Channon's Sideburns]

Harry Kane and Dele Alli both have 10 each.

 

Two players for another team have more than our entire squad have managed since August.

 

Shocking really.

[striker]

I agree this doesn't fall only on the strikers, the mids have a lot to do with this too. However how pathetic will it be (and I guess it will) when Austin is our leading scorer at the end of the season even though he only played in 1/3 of the games.

[Dark Munster]

I know it's only one game but against WBA at home ther were many occasions when a ball was driven across the box and there were no Saints plays in there. None, zilch, zero, whatever you want to call it. Watching other TV games recently I have sometimes counted 6 attackers against 7 defenders, Arsenal being one example.

That's part of what makes a goal-scoring striker a goal scorer: being in the right place at the right time. It's not just being a good finisher when chances arrive, it's the instinct to be there when they do. That's what we are clearly lacking.

 

That's down to the manager's instructions. The players are following orders

Have to disagree. If we had a natural predator I doubt CP would instruct him to avoid going into the box. Of course, I may be wrong, in which case Puel out!

[Dark Munster]

This is also a fair point, we have definitely had clear cut chances that weren't taken that could've decided games.

 

On the midfielder perspective though (not sure if already posted)

http://readsouthampton.com/2017/01/05/southampton-plotting-honda-move/

 

Would love this. Real professional.

Don't forget his great engine.

[DuncanRG]

All very true but I have come to the conclusion that the players are playing the way that they have because they have been told to play that way. Safety first every time. Don't attack or try anything adventurous because we might give the ball away.

 

There is an interesting piece in The Times this morning bemoaning the rise tof tippy-tappy football:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-death-of-proper-defending-came-about-0gz3q9klf

 

These quotes in particular:

 

Pep Guardiola best exemplified a shifting landscape when he said he “doesn’t coach tackles” after Manchester City’s 4-2 defeat by Leicester City last month. “I’m sad, because if everybody plays the same, if everybody takes it from the back and passes and passes then it’ll become the most boring game you could watch,” Moyes said. “You don’t want football to be predictable. You want different styles, different ways of playing.

 

An interesting read but doesn't speak to the Puel problem or lack of goals - quite the opposite, in fact. It's about defending, which we remain very good at with some recent exceptions.

[Whitey Grandad]

An interesting read but doesn't speak to the Puel problem or lack of goals - quite the opposite, in fact. It's about defending, which we remain very good at with some recent exceptions.

 

The lack of goals and slow play is down to the constant rotation in my opinion. Midfielders are constantly having to pause and look for the forwards and any runs they might make. Up front there is no instinctive understanding between the forwards, the player making the cross doesn't automatically know where the attacker will be, no rapid interchange of positions to pull the defence around. This is not helped by playing only one up front even when we're at home. They always used to say that the best strikers operated in partnerships but we don't have one of those. We end up with very few 'team' goals and rely on set pieces or flashes of individual brilliance from Boufal or Bertrand sometimes or even Clasie.

 

The defence had been ok earlier in the season but changing 3/4 of the back four against WBA was asking for trouble. Instead of being a linked chain across the back small gaps develop which are exploited by quality players. Yoshida getting turned for their equaliser being an example. He was slightly out of position and got easily turned by Phillips who then had a free uncontested shot on goal.

[DuncanRG]

Spot on - though lone strikers have been the norm for years in this league. There's been a recent renaissance in partnerships for some teams but they tend to come with a back three or, gulp, a diamond.

[Convict Colony]

Apologies for starting a new thread, but I was just looking at the league table and noticed we've only scored 19 goals in 20 games.

 

9 out of the 19 goals came in just 3 matches (Burnley, West Ham, Bournemouth).

 

So that leaves just 10 goals scored in the remaining 17 matches.

 

That's a pretty woeful return.

 

Forgot about this thread and saw the title and thought it was about some prolific striker we had been linked with.

 

Left disappointed.

[SuperSAINT]

Forgot about this thread and saw the title and thought it was about some prolific striker we had been linked with.

 

Left disappointed.

 

Shall we pretend it's me predicting Shane Long's form for the last 20 games?