A real concern. That is now since Reading in the league, 3 goals in 8 games or put another way 3 goals in 720 minutes, and all those were headers from set pieces. And these are our home games where we are supposed to be the taking the game to the opponents. So not one goal in all that time from open play. Unacceptable.
Seemingly goal scoring reputations count for nothing at this club. Both Le Fondre previously and more recently Doyle have been under productive to say the least. Only Jones has made his mark and more often than not purely because of the style we play. I still can't get away from the feeling that the players we've got generally are much better individually than the sum of their efforts on the pitch. The lack of goals has everything to do with the fact that we are not creating enough opportunities through the playing system. The reliance on Whitts for every single game this season playing mostly in a 4 man midfield set up to create has basically killed the guy off. That has got to be down to the ways they're set up by the manager. If Slade sticks with a 4-4-2 again at Rotherham, we may get lucky with a more dynamic mid 4 setup because of Whitts absence. Kick and rush might do it with someone like Adeyemi pushing through to trouble defenders. We know Whitts can deliver, but he rarely supports after the ball leaves his foot. Other than the set piece scenarios, that's a luxury we can't afford in open play.
I've been saying all season "We don't get the ball into the penalty area enough for our strikers to threaten". Last Saturday when Noone or Kennedy had the ball and were attacking their full backs i was screaming for them to get into the box and put their opponents under pressure. Inevitably they will either stand off so we get a cross in or they will commit to a tackle and risk a pen and even a red card. But no, Kennedy just wanted to cut inside (second half on my side anyway) and Noonie, for some odd reason, just didn't get at his right back enough. Think back to the days of Chris Burke, how many goals or pens came from him tearing his full back a new hole? Until we use the other side's penalty area as a playing surface we will suffer with this problem. We even had 47% possession Saturday. Trouble was 80% of that 47% was in our own half.
I missed Saturday as it was my Wife's birthday but I feel like we saw the game........ It's basically the same old story, our complete inability to play any sort of football, move defenders about and make the space then the crosses or passes that result in goals from open play.
I know you cannot score goals generally unless the ball gets into the opposition area (which City are not very good at) but when did City ever look like scoring from a 20 yard+ plus shot from outside the area? in fact when did they last make an opposition keeper make a decent save? They have conceded plenty of those type of goals this season; perhaps it's time the midfielders got their shooting boots on.
True Sparks but he's not been doing "Mutch" of that this season. Nin, not a 20 yard fizzer but Doyle's header made the Huddersfield keeper pull off a great save. Bit of an isolated incident over the last 15+ games though. What happened to Noonie cutting in and unleashing a shot from the edge of the box? Oh yes, he plays on the left now and would need a right foot to do that.
I'd settle for Jay Bothroyd, Bellers, a Chopra free kick or even Peter Whittingham - he used to do a bit of that didn't he? Oh..................?
