Yes AVB and the modern generation see differing aspects to the game such as eleven players defend the ball and that comes before having the old simple you are a defender you are a midfielder and you are a defender But scoring goals has the age old practices such as: 1 Turn defenders to face their own goal 2 Wide players hit the dead ball line 3 and close the door with attacking arrivals into the box Closing the door in anticipation of crosses from wide players means near post arrival no 1 attacker followed into the middle by attacker no 2 and attacker no 3 closes the door at the far post Against City and other sides this season we hit the dead ball line the ball crossed low across the box and we had one attacker attempting to get a touch Not too difficult and not new to the game but we have turned class act mid-fielders into slow circle turning players afraid to hit the box and hit (shut the door) hard preferably across defenders now facing their own goal If we really must play only through the middle then we need far more one touch angled forward play that gives our one striker half a chance before the opposition floods their own box
Good posts. Why we aren't scoring goals isn't a mystery even to me, and I'm a newish fan. Too few going towards the goal too late and too slowly. Fair enough to blame AVB. But the players who do try to put themselves in good positions haven't been shot, so they share part of the blame. Gylfi actually got a couple of goals that way. Of course, he was benched, which may explain why no one seems to want to imitate his example. The story of the season so far is two sights. 1. Chadli (not everyone's favorite player, I know) launching decent cross after decent cross against Arsenal, following the ball with a certain, fading degree of hope, and seeing, every single time, I thought, our single undersized striker get shoved out of the way by four red shirts. 2. Paulinho yesterday with the ball the moment after an interception, looking around, seeing no one running forward, and turning back himself.
