Where and who will the goals come from?

Some talk of our goals drying up. We're currently on 38 goals, top 4 sides normally get about 65 goals. So that's 27 goals in our final 14 games.
Can we do it and who needs to pitch in? May only need 60ish with our good defence.

My target:
Pelle 7
Mane 5
Tadic 4
Elia 3
Djuricic 3
Schneiderlin 2
Davis 1
JWP 1
Fonte 1
An own goal.

 

Change an to and!

 

At this rate i can't really see Pelle netting 7 more, maybe more like 5.

 

Forgot about Long, he could get a couple. Rodriguez maybe?

 

Done. If our defence lets in goals at its current rate, we should have only conceded 27 by the end of the season. That means we can get away with a few more ground-out 1-0 wins like today. But another 8-0 would be nice.

 

JWP with 1 is optimistic

 

For reference, from November on (so, starting after the 8-0) our goalscorers have been as follows:

Mane: 4
Long: 2
Pelle: 2
Tadic: 2
Elia: 2
Wanyama: 1
Alderweireld: 1
Clyne: 1
Bertrand: 1
Yoshida: 1
Own goal: 1


18 goals in 15 matches, from 11 goalscorers. Heh, we're highly democratic, if nothing else.

 

At the end of the day if we keep on keeping clean sheets, we only need 1 goal to win. I'm not worried about Pelle or lack of goals in general. We have players like Mane, Elia and Tadic who can come up with moments of brilliance or pop up in the right place to score. Whilst our defence is so solid, nothing to worry about.

 

Davis and JWP to score! Have you gone mad?

 

Does mean that matches can come down to one moment though, with all the variance inherent in that. We'll win our fair share of 1-0 matches, but one slip-up (as against Burnley) or moment of brilliance (as against Swansea) and that's that.

The remarkable thing is that, for a team with a great defense/sometimes wanting attack, we seem to be allergic to draws. Our 3 is the lowest total in the PL...QPR's only on 4 themselves, so perhaps we should have expected a late winner for someone.

 

Sam will pitch in with a couple

 

I'll go with JWP to score at least three as my sole random prediction.

 

Rodriguez?.....

 

Ward-Prowse will not be scoring this century, let alone this season.

 

Do think that the 3-5-2 is our best bet for getting back to scoring ways; having Mane/Long/whoever making runs centrally forced defenders to give Pelle a bit more space, and also gave him a player in close enough proximity for his array of flicks to come off. Also allows us to get our real goalscoring predators into the box a bit more: the fullbacks.

 

If Targett isn't available for Wednesday, I really hope that we revert back to that. I was impressed with Elia's tracking back against Newcastle, so I wouldn't be worried to see him line up at LWB. And besides, at home, I'm not sure I want to be seeing Yoshida starting at LB.

 

Same; having three CBs also means a bit more size in the box, which is never a bad thing against Carroll.

 

Gives us the best option at the point of the attack, but main problem is that it means instead of trying to squeeze Mane/Elia/Tadic/Long/Djuricic into two spots it'll be one - unless we force them even more out of position. Think it is an excellent option in very tough away games or if teams play two up, but don't see it becoming the 'Plan A'. I wouldn't mind seeing just some plain old 442 in games where our main concern will always be breaking the deadlock, providing the two CMs are Morgan and Vic.

 

Should be able to shoehorn two of them in; against Everton we had Pelle/Mane up front with JWP tucked behind them, and the return of our disruptive midfield should allow for sufficient solidity to play Tadic/Djuricic in that central attacking role.

Really, the only qualm I'd have is whether Fonte/Yoshida can replicate the work Alderweireld did in the sweeper role; Fonte's presumably the one we'd go with because of his situational awareness, but there are few players as perfect for that role as Toby.