Goal droughts

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Revolution

Revolution

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Having sat through last season’s horror show, where we of course equalled the PL record for lowest goals scored, I have become convinced that we have no chance of promotion because there are nowhere near enough goals in the team to achieve that. There’s no creativity and with the exception of Didzy we couldn’t finish.

Looking more closely at the numbers, you see that some of the league goal droughts for midfielders and forwards are of epic lengths. Here’s a list of the droughts lasting over 10 games for such players that are ongoing. I make no apology for including wing backs.

George Baldock 55 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 52 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
John Fleck 42 games, last goal v Arsenal 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 28 games, no league goals
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 13 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Oli McBurnie 12 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21

Good God. What sorry stats. 4 forwards who’ve gone 10+ games without scoring, and 4 midfielders/wing backs who haven’t scored since the season before last.

Some people need to buck their ideas up if we are to do anything this season.
 

Revolution said:
Having sat through last season’s horror show, where we of course equalled the PL record for lowest goals scored, I have become convinced that we have no chance of promotion because there are nowhere near enough goals in the team to achieve that. There’s no creativity and with the exception of Didzy we couldn’t finish.

Looking more closely at the numbers, you see that some of the league goal droughts for midfielders and forwards are of epic lengths. Here’s a list of the droughts lasting over 10 games for such players that are ongoing. I make no apology for including wing backs.

George Baldock 55 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 52 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
John Fleck 42 games, last goal v Arsenal 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 28 games, no league goals
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 13 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Oli McBurnie 12 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21

Good God. What sorry stats. 4 forwards who’ve gone 10+ games without scoring, and 4 midfielders/wing backs who haven’t scored since the season before last.

Some people need to buck their ideas up if we are to do anything this season.
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What does that matter when we can have 75% possession and no shots. 🤭
 
Possession is half the battle. Goals will come once movement and shape is sorted. Need to remember that last season not only did we not score we also never had possession.
 
Revolution said:
Having sat through last season’s horror show, where we of course equalled the PL record for lowest goals scored, I have become convinced that we have no chance of promotion because there are nowhere near enough goals in the team to achieve that. There’s no creativity and with the exception of Didzy we couldn’t finish.

Looking more closely at the numbers, you see that some of the league goal droughts for midfielders and forwards are of epic lengths. Here’s a list of the droughts lasting over 10 games for such players that are ongoing. I make no apology for including wing backs.

George Baldock 55 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 52 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
John Fleck 42 games, last goal v Arsenal 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 28 games, no league goals
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 13 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Oli McBurnie 12 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21

Good God. What sorry stats. 4 forwards who’ve gone 10+ games without scoring, and 4 midfielders/wing backs who haven’t scored since the season before last.

Some people need to buck their ideas up if we are to do anything this season.
This is the main issue for us. Goals need to come from al

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This is vital if we are to do anything this season. We have to get goals from all over the pitch. Even centre halves can score goals and should occassionally. Not sure it will change any time soon but it needs to.
 
It’s about creating the chances, we got the ball into some good positions last week, far more than we did last season, but didn’t play the crucial final ball to the striker, if I see Baldock cut back inside when in a great position to put an early ball into the forward one more time I will have to call in a surgical air strike, …

I think (hope) this will change when some of these players realise we are no longer playing Wilder ball and constantly looking for overloads on the out side and play in the striker, on Saturday Moose, Brewster, Sharp and even Burke made good runs inside the centre back and the ball never came it was recycled back into midfield.
 
HeySethUTB said:
Possession is half the battle. Goals will come once movement and shape is sorted. Need to remember that last season not only did we not score we also never had possession.
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Yes, but that's because we didn't want it
We didn't have much more than 30% possession in games the previous year either, the difference was the players wanted to work their bollox off getting forward and getting back, but last season they didn't for some strange reason. I wonder what it was ?

I bet even in away games the season we got promoted we didn't have much possession either.

This season teams will be happier to let us have the ball, even more so knowing we can't do anything with it because the players just look for a simple unthreatening pass every time without making any attempt to get into goal scoring positions.
 
The first team have arguably played 1 game at full tilt, given that fact, anyone that thinks that any professional football player at this level can first and foremost understand patterns of movement and have the confidence to understand how to alter it dependent on the oppositions counter has no idea about football. Possession is half the battle, it will allow us to develop our attacking movement in a real game scenario.

If the opposition this year ”allow“ us possession it’s not because they don’t think we can do anything with its because they will feel that they don’t have the ability to outplay us, or close us down without without exposing themselves. When was the last time Lee bowyer had his team play possession based football In this division?

To use your example JJBlade I‘m quite sure wilder didn’t allow premier league teams last season have the ball because he thought they were going to do nothing with it. He knew they could and probably wasn’t happy about doing it. But he also knew we didn’t have the ability to go toe to toe with them, so allowed them possession. Hoping to keep games tight, disrupt the style and nick something if we could reminiscent of Birmingham.

Swansea and WBA will not do what Birmingham did willingly, because they will feel they have the players to match us technically. Patience is require not only to sort out our cohesion on the pitch but also the mess of a squad that was left behind by the last management team.
 
HeySethUTB said:
The first team have arguably played 1 game at full tilt, given that fact, anyone that thinks that any professional football player at this level can first and foremost understand patterns of movement and have the confidence to understand how to alter it dependent on the oppositions counter has no idea about football. Possession is half the battle, it will allow us to develop our attacking movement in a real game scenario.

If the opposition this year ”allow“ us possession it’s not because they don’t think we can do anything with its because they will feel that they don’t have the ability to outplay us, or close us down without without exposing themselves. When was the last time Lee bowyer had his team play possession based football In this division?

To use your example JJBlade I‘m quite sure wilder didn’t allow premier league teams last season have the ball because he thought they were going to do nothing with it. He knew they could and probably wasn’t happy about doing it. But he also knew we didn’t have the ability to go toe to toe with them, so allowed them possession. Hoping to keep games tight, disrupt the style and nick something if we could reminiscent of Birmingham.

Swansea and WBA will not do what Birmingham did willingly, because they will feel they have the players to match us technically. Patience is require not only to sort out our cohesion on the pitch but also the mess of a squad that was left behind by the last management team.
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He had confidence in the team to go toe to toe with them the previous season
 
Maybe sometimes we tend to over complicate the game, yes there are a few clubs that can afford to spend multi millions on super players and top managers, but with the vast majority of league clubs, especially in the Championship, it should be well within our capability's to at least compete well.
Last season we got our arse's kicked in no uncertain terms, some one had to pay for that and did.
Now our new Manager has to find out how much wreckage he will need to cut away to put us back on an even keel, and not only fit for action but fit for a promotion push as well.
It will more than likely mean a big change in tactics and personal and we may not see any big improvement until after Christmas at least, but looking at our fist couple of games it pretty obvious he can't let things carry on as they are .....
 
if our full backs or wingbacks cant get quality balls in to the box for our strikers we somehow have to change things and try and bring a couple of pacey wide players in
 
Revolution said:
Having sat through last season’s horror show, where we of course equalled the PL record for lowest goals scored, I have become convinced that we have no chance of promotion because there are nowhere near enough goals in the team to achieve that. There’s no creativity and with the exception of Didzy we couldn’t finish.

Looking more closely at the numbers, you see that some of the league goal droughts for midfielders and forwards are of epic lengths. Here’s a list of the droughts lasting over 10 games for such players that are ongoing. I make no apology for including wing backs.

George Baldock 55 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 52 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
John Fleck 42 games, last goal v Arsenal 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 28 games, no league goals
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 13 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Oli McBurnie 12 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21

Good God. What sorry stats. 4 forwards who’ve gone 10+ games without scoring, and 4 midfielders/wing backs who haven’t scored since the season before last.

Some people need to buck their ideas up if we are to do anything this season.
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That's the spirit!

Different league, different manager, different way of playing.

The strikers have all proven to score goals at this level. A number of players in this team have been good before at this level.

We need some fresh impetus too but for me it's not about if these players can do it. It's if we can get them playing well as a team. Do that and the quality is deffo there.
 
5 games in and let's see how the goal drought table is going:

George Baldock 59 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 56 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
John Fleck 45 games, last goal v Arsenal 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 31 games, no league goals
Oli McBurnie 16 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 15 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Sander Berge 14 games last goal v Liverpool 2020-21
Luke Freeman 13 games no league goals
Ben Osborn 12 games last goal v Leeds 2020-21
Jayden Bogle 11 games last goal v WBA 2020-21

Basically, ever single regular midfielder, wing back or forward has got a goal drought of 10 plus games save for Sharp and McGoldrick.

Most of the movement is at the bottom. Four new entries, two a bit harsh. Luke Freeman has managed to rack up 13 appearances - 10 as a sub - without finding the net in the league, and Jayden Bogle's 2 appearances this season see him sneak on the list. Sander is ever present and, of course, goalless.

Meanwhile a solid four game goalless spell from McBurnie sees him pass the out of favour Ollie Burke and tie with Lys "he'll be back next year" Mousset.

Finally, 31 games without a league goal as a forward for Brewster now. Wow.
 

Chilttheblade said:
They really are a shower and this team has not found its level yet.
I do worry about their mental health though particularly Brewster, can't be easy. I assume that psychiatric help is available.
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Looking at that Brewster cross from the weekend, I'm more keen for him to start wearing his left boot on his left foot and vice versa!
 
Revolution said:
5 games in and let's see how the goal drought table is going:

George Baldock 59 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 56 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
John Fleck 45 games, last goal v Arsenal 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 31 games, no league goals
Oli McBurnie 16 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 15 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Sander Berge 14 games last goal v Liverpool 2020-21
Luke Freeman 13 games no league goals
Ben Osborn 12 games last goal v Leeds 2020-21
Jayden Bogle 11 games last goal v WBA 2020-21

Basically, ever single regular midfielder, wing back or forward has got a goal drought of 10 plus games save for Sharp and McGoldrick.

Most of the movement is at the bottom. Four new entries, two a bit harsh. Luke Freeman has managed to rack up 13 appearances - 10 as a sub - without finding the net in the league, and Jayden Bogle's 2 appearances this season see him sneak on the list. Sander is ever present and, of course, goalless.

Meanwhile a solid four game goalless spell from McBurnie sees him pass the out of favour Ollie Burke and tie with Lys "he'll be back next year" Mousset.

Finally, 31 games without a league goal as a forward for Brewster now. Wow.
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and coming up on the outside is the gruesome twosome closely followed by the Anthill mob whilst Penelope pit stop pulls over to file her nails but wait……….6ft 4 Peter perfect is making a run for glory……..oh bollocks.
 
It's a pleasure to remove people from the goal drought table for the first time: Fleck scores for the first time since Arsenal the season before last - a first goal in 46 games - and Osborn's double are his first goals in 12 games. So the table is now:

George Baldock 60 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 57 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 31 games, no league goals
Oli McBurnie 17 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 15 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Sander Berge 14 games last goal v Liverpool 2020-21
Luke Freeman 14 games no league goals
Jayden Bogle 11 games last goal v WBA 2020-21

Possibly a bit harsh for Baldock to keep racking up games given he's now playing in a flat back four, but he can remove himself with a goal.

McBurnie passes Mousset, but an assist from him on Saturday - his second of the season - was nice to see. Luke Freeman the only other mover with his cameo appearance tying him with the absent Sander Berge.
 
I've always said that Berge kid would come good. Sander off the list after 14 games without a goal. The drought list shrinks further:

George Baldock 61 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 58 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
Enda Stevens 41 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 32 games, no league goals
Oli McBurnie 17 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 15 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Luke Freeman 15 games no league goals
Jayden Bogle 11 games last goal v WBA 2020-21
 
10 games in....

George Baldock 64 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 60 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
Enda Stevens 43 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 33 games, no league goals
Oli McBurnie 19 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21
Lys Mousset 16 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 15 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Luke Freeman 15 games no league goals
Jayden Bogle 11 games last goal v WBA 2020-21

Which of the 4 blank firing strikers will score first? Against my better judgment, my money's on McBurnie, as he's most likely to get minutes.
 
83 games without a league goal for strikers McBurnie, Brewster, Burke and Mousset! Wow

That tells you all you need to know about them. Pathetic really. It's embarrassing.

For all the criticism of Sharp and McGoldrick at times, at least they may get the odd goal here and there. These 2 lads probably will be gone by the end of the season (out of contract) and we are stuck with the above 4 clowns on huge wages and the chances of recouping anywhere near the circa 60 million (if you factor Robinson for Burke swap and what we paid for Robinson) back
 
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Don't think our full backs belong on the list as you said. Brewster, Mcburnie, Stevens and Freeman have all scored in the cup this season, which I think proves we have started turning the corner.
 
AWetFlannel said:
Don't think our full backs belong on the list as you said. Brewster, Mcburnie, Stevens and Freeman have all scored in the cup this season, which I think proves we have started turning the corner.
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Yes, it's funny that 4 of these players have cup goals to their name. Hopefully they will do something in the league too.
 
After Deadbat plugged the goal drought chart on the Tufty pod I had to provide an update. Here we go:

George Baldock 65 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 61 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
Enda Stevens 44 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 33 games, no league goals
Oli McBurnie 20 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21
Lys Mousset 17 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 15 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Luke Freeman 15 games no league goals
Jayden Bogle 11 games last goal v WBA 2020-21

Congrats to Oli McBurnie who has now hit the 20 games without scoring barrier. There were some promising moments on Saturday, though, most notably when the shot cannoned off his head and flashed just wide of the post. That was the most powerful attacking header I've ever seen from him, and a few inches past the post is also pretty accurate. We might be onto something there.

It's also nice to see a return to the side for Mousset, 8 weeks after he suffered an injury that was to keep him out for 4 to 6 weeks. So close to coming off the list too, had he not missed the easiest chance presented to a United striker this season. Oh well. Be interesting to see if he manages to get a knock during the international break.
 

Revolution said:
After Deadbat plugged the goal drought chart on the Tufty pod I had to provide an update. Here we go:

George Baldock 65 games, last goal v Norwich 2019-20
Oliver Norwood 61 games, last goal v Watford (pen) 2019-20
Enda Stevens 44 games, last goal v Brighton 2019-20
Rhian Brewster 33 games, no league goals
Oli McBurnie 20 games, last goal v Leicester 2020-21
Lys Mousset 17 games, last goal v Spurs 2019-20
Ollie Burke 15 games last goal v Man Utd 2020-21
Luke Freeman 15 games no league goals
Jayden Bogle 11 games last goal v WBA 2020-21

Congrats to Oli McBurnie who has now hit the 20 games without scoring barrier. There were some promising moments on Saturday, though, most notably when the shot cannoned off his head and flashed just wide of the post. That was the most powerful attacking header I've ever seen from him, and a few inches past the post is also pretty accurate. We might be onto something there.

It's also nice to see a return to the side for Mousset, 8 weeks after he suffered an injury that was to keep him out for 4 to 6 weeks. So close to coming off the list too, had he not missed the easiest chance presented to a United striker this season. Oh well. Be interesting to see if he manages to get a knock during the international break.
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Got visions of an post season Underachievers Award Night probably to be held in the car park with mobile catering.
 
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