On present form we will easily reach 70 goals, but the worry is the number we ship at the other end. I believe we are getting to grips with this, but even last week a team like Charlton who struggle to score can put 2 past us. We don't get enough clean sheets folks and thats the real problem now.
To be fair the first one of those was a great goal from outside the area which the best defence in the world wouldn't have kept out. The second was a sloppy one to concede, but again credit has to be given to Church for the supply to Jackson, whose run should've been tracked. Overall though it was good to see us throwing bodies on the line to make blocks, and Zaliukas looked assured in the air. He was also already passing on his experience to Lees and Pearce, making sure they marked up properly
Do you reckon Zaliukas will be a good addition. I'm always wary of these lads with no club but was hopeful of this one given crappy Rangers and QPR apparently wanted him
I don't believe we will because if you break it down Ross has 10 league goals and Smith is next with 3 then Varney 2 and Austin 1 - Ross is not going to get 30 goals although he probably has more chance of doing that than Varney getting 6. Believe me this team has not got 70 goals a season in it as things stand. You would have to rely on Ross playing every game injury free and never hitting a dry spell. Leicester have had 9 different goal scorers Forest have had 9 different goal scorers QPR have had 9 different goal scorers Leeds have had 6 different goal scorers, Varney, Smith and Poleon no longer start for us... We have three players in our starting 11 who have scored this season.
Ristac, you cannot discount those players not currently starting as goalscorers. BMD loves squad rotation and you could see that in his reading team, the goalscoring aspect doesn't concern me that much. Cardiff scored 72 goals last season and there top goalscorer was Whittingham who I believe didn't get past 12 goals in all competitions, you'd be surprised come season end where the goals come from I reckon, be interesting to look back on at least.
It will be very interesting and I am sorry to say I fear we will reflect on a missed promotion chance due to scoring too few goals
I think we will reflect on a missed promotion chance due to a lack of quality out wide and squad depth but there you go
We were never in for promotion with our squad, A couple, of very class players in jan,maybe. But won't happen.
I agree, Warnock just left us in such a worse position than when he took over that it was always going to take at least a year to build a platform. I think BMD is going about it very well, has the view of buying players who have the potential to improve and grow with the club, I think we will see the benefits of this in a year's time. Problem is, we cannot be selling any of our first team players (bar a couple) for this to work effectively.
I keep hearing this about Warnock, but has anyone looked at the dross he managed to get rid of? I'm not convinced that we started this season weaker than last season. Weak, yes. Weaker, no!
How do you work that out? These are Warnock's transfer dealings Players In: Paul Green Paddy Kenny Jamie Ashdown Andy Gray Rodolph Austin Luke Varney David Norris Michael Tonge Jason Pearce Lee Peltier El Hadji Diouf Steve Morison Stephen Warnock Players Out: Adam Clayton Mika Vayrynen Andy Lonergan Robert Snodgrass Alex Bruce Andy O'Brien Billy Paynter Andy Gray Luciano Becchio The only players that actually were good was Austin and Warnock. You could argue Pearce with his gain in form this season but then every single player has gained form this season due to McD's ability to get more from players. However, there is absolutely no chance that you will convince me that we ended last season (after warnock's dealings had concluded) with a better team than the season before. Imagine the effect that players like Snodgrass and Clayton would have on our current team and I still rate Lonergan far higher than Kenny. All of his signings were just nothing players who have no real quality about there game AND he spent over 3m to collectively bring these players in (5m if you include the 2m valued Becchio for Morison).
