Strikers

[robbiez666]

Neither McBurnie nor Robinson look up to it at the moment but neither are the kind of player who will create much themselves. Whilst it would be easy to point the finger in their direction, they're not getting many chances. Playing 3 in the middle has made us more solid but at the expense of our attacking options.

I guess it's the stick or twist gamble but a game like today for crying out for Freeman to come on and cause them a few problems.

I'm not sure we have the money to bring in a striker who will be able to create for himself so something has to give.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Neither McBurnie nor Robinson look up to it at the moment but neither are the kind of player who will create much themselves. Whilst it would be easy to point the finger in their direction, they're not getting many chances. Playing 3 in the middle has made us more solid but at the expense of our attacking options.

I guess it's the stick or twist gamble but a game like today for crying out for Freeman to come on and cause them a few problems.

I'm not sure we have the money to bring in a striker who will be able to create for himself so something has to give.

Agree that’s the conundrum.....we look so defensively strong....but our attack seems weaker then normal.

 

[BettingBlade]

Henry, Shearer, Owen, I could go on...wouldnt have scored today. We created the square root of fuck all.

Strikers aren’t the problem, it’s actually creating the chances for someone to. Incidentally we have at least one creative player sat on the bench and one out on loan.

 

[YES Blade]

100% the flat 3 in midfield is the issue, we should be attacking teams like Watford.

We just lacked quality in the final 3rd today and you can’t put the blame for that solely on the strikers.

 

[YES Blade]

Agree that’s the conundrum.....we look so defensively strong....but our attack seems weaker then normal.

To be fair we didn’t look that strong defensively today, if it wasn’t for some poor finishing and good saves from Hendo we would’ve lost today.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Thick end of £35m on new blood.

Still Sharp n Dids for me (Moose maybe when he can do a full 90, which at present looks like he can’t !!!!!).

UTB

 

[BladeInIreland]

Henry, Shearer, Owen, I could go on...wouldnt have scored today. We created the square root of fuck all.

Strikers aren’t the problem, it’s actually creating the chances for someone to. Incidentally we have at least one creative player sat on the bench and one out on loan.

So far Wilder has tried to compensate for playing the flat 3 by assigning one of the forwards to drop deep and create. McGoldrick is great at this but has struggled to finish and Robinson is no good at it or finishing. McBurnie is made ineffective by this IMO. McBurnie looked at his best next to Sharp and even better with freeman.

 

[BettingBlade]

To be fair we didn’t look that strong defensively today, if it wasn’t for some poor finishing and good saves from Hendo we would’ve lost today.

If we’d have been playing anyone half decent we’d have lost today.

Felt like a Warnock away performance at times today.

 

[bromtom]

Henry, Shearer, Owen, I could go on...wouldnt have scored today. We created the square root of fuck all.

Strikers aren’t the problem, it’s actually creating the chances for someone to. Incidentally we have at least one creative player sat on the bench and one out on loan.

We have the players on the pitch to make chances, even without an AMF, but for whatever reason we keep trying to go over the top, and neither Oli or Robbo are strong enough to deal with it.

Assuming we're not dropping people from the middle, at this point I'd sacrifice a striker for a 10 until McGoldrick is fit, and then put him in behind whoever looks most dangerous, which for me is Mousset.

 

[Guesty]

If we aren't going to play to McBurnie supposed (and at this point entirely theoretical) strengths, why buy him?

It's like last season, Hogan played in a way that didn't match up with our style at all. Of course, he was also garbage and had a terrible attitude (on the pitch at least) but still, weird signing.

 

[davidblade]

We seem to have a policy of keep it tight , if we conceded then we go for it , if it succeed for us this season I’m happy but I think our home form has to improve otherwise we could be in trouble.

 

[blade67]

Thick end of £35m on new blood.

Still Sharp n Dids for me (Moose maybe when he can do a full 90, which at present looks like he can’t !!!!!).

UTB

none of our forwards play 90 minutes. I'd have sharp and moose start the next with Didsy, mcburnie and robbo made to wait for it and fed raw steak on match days.

 

[DronnieBlade]

100% the flat 3 in midfield is the issue, we should be attacking teams like Watford.

We just lacked quality in the final 3rd today and you can’t put the blame for that solely on the strikers.

I do accept the loss of the #10 is impacting creativity. It’s bound to.

But ignoring the poor displays of the strikers when they ARE given work to do is equally a problem for us.

McBurnie in particular is horribly slow both in feet and in thought.

UTB

 

[Speedracer]

I agree we are not seeing Robinson or McB at their best but I am not writing them off just yet, I think it is the system we are playing is not suiting their games. It is always good to get a point away but that game was there for the taking, I said at half time it was crying out for L Freeman to come on for either of them & play the McG role, they stood off us all game yet with all our possession we didn't create anything. I don't like the flat midfield 3, I think it stifles us, although we are doing ok & our defence is strong we are not flowing as a team in attacking areas. We are not far away, teams are not dominating us & we are competing very well, but we need to find a way to provide better chances for our forward players, we owe them that before we start saying they aren't up to it.

 

[Champagneblade]

Neither McBurnie nor Robinson look up to it at the moment but neither are the kind of player who will create much themselves. Whilst it would be easy to point the finger in their direction, they're not getting many chances. Playing 3 in the middle has made us more solid but at the expense of our attacking options.

I guess it's the stick or twist gamble but a game like today for crying out for Freeman to come on and cause them a few problems.

I'm not sure we have the money to bring in a striker who will be able to create for himself so something has to give.

I think part of the issue is also the league we are now in and our expectations.

Staying in the league is so important so there is much more emphasis on not losing.

Going for the win and getting picked off is a very real risk at this level and I can't blame Wilder at all.

He has to pick his moments when to throw that knockout punch that sees him hit the canvas if he misses or just cling arms together and see out the round.

Keeping Watford back, dropping an away game for us and a home one for them will be decent come May.

 

[Guesty]

We seem to have a policy of keep it tight , if we conceded then we go for it , if it succeed for us this season I’m happy but I think our home form has to improve otherwise we could be in trouble.

A colleague and I were talking about this. We seem to play to the level of the opposition (by, as you say, keeping it tight) and therefore the games are won and lost on small margins. So we ran Liverpool mighty close, but were unable to go on and blow away a weak Watford side. All of our games have been close, but that leaves us at the mercy of defensive errors (Chelsea, Southampton, Liverpool) or poor finishing (Bournemouth, Southampton again).

Fortunately today the poor finishing was displayed by Watford. Unfortunately we didn't make enough chances, finished poorly or otherwise, ourselves.

 

[metalblade]

Where the hell did we look strong defensively today? We gave them two one on ones with Hendo and a free header late on. We were absolutely awful today but still managed to have more posession, the trouble is we did nothing with it. No service at all to the strikers but they too were very poor today no runs to pull defenders out of position no strength to hold the ball up. McGoldrick and Sharp have to start when available which is a bit of a worry as the three brought in over the summer should be an improvement on what we had but they just are not doing it.

 

[Rodley]

Miss McGoldrick dropping into that space behind the striker IMHO.

 

[Moosie]

I'm not questioning Wilder tactically, but do we have to approach each game differently in terms of the formation?

While we've been 'solid' with the flat three in midfield, do we need to change this approach against the so called 'lesser' teams? The three worked fantastically well last week against the dirty scousers, but do we need that 'Duffy role' against teams such as Watford where we're looking for all three points. Not seen the game, or watched a stream, but it sounds like we were kind of toothless in attack, and i'll take Dion Dublin's comments with a pinch of salt to be honest.

Surely using Freeman, or even Didzy in the hole behind the two would surely give us some more threat attacking wise. Plus we've got that extra man to press high up the pitch which was something Wilder has adopted since he's been here. Having that midfielder/forward higher up the pitch allows us to do just that.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

It’s all very well “bossing the midfield” but if we don’t create chances from having so much possession, you have to say that’s very poor indeed.

 

[Deadbat]

It's concerning we controlled so much of possession but did nothing at all with it. We created nothing against the worst side inn the league. Defensively we are solid most weeks but make stupid errors still. We made 3 today and they missed 3 sitters. On another day we lose 3-0 which sounds ridiculous when we had more of the play.

Worrying trend in bad mistakes at one end and nothing from the strikers or any penetration the other way. Makes all the neat and tidy play in between a bit meaningless.

For all the 35 million spent I still think Sharp and McGoldrick are the most likely to create/get a goal at the moment. Robinson and McBurnie did not have much service but don't hold the ball up, don't link and don't even look like scoring.

Disappointing performance and result with only Henderson, Norwood and Fleck coming out with much credit. Even the centre halves switched off that against a better team would have cost us.

 

[Addison]

We need to play a number 10 against the likes of Watford. We just don't get forward quick enough without a 10 to link the play. The forwards are isolated because of the huge gap between the flat three hence the temptation to keep going long.

To-day was the first game this season where we've had more of the possession but we still did nothing with it. They had the best chances on the break and missed a sitter even though they sat deep all game.

Unfortunately our next game is after the dreaded international break so not expecting much of a return from that one but there comes a point particularly at Home where you have to take the hand brake off and go at the opposition from the off rather than sit back.

 

[metalblade]

Watford did to us what we did to Liverpool we were clueless how to break them down. the difference was we gifted Watford three golden chances which they didn't take. On another day we take a hammering playing that poorly. One we got away with today.

 

[Withington Blade]

It might sound negative but the important thing was not to lose today IMO. Every point is valuable and the draw keeps them pegged to the bottom of the league with no wins in 8. We had to change our system from last season or we’d be like lambs to the slaughter. Look at Norwich, they have stuck to their principles and are having to score 3 to be in with a chance of getting a result. Today could prove to be a great point later in the season

 

[John Street West Terrace]

We are an excellent defensive unit and agree that this is largely due to the flat 3 in midfield, I feel we are missing Duffy or a Duffy type midfielder to give us that extra creativeness add chip in with goal or two from midfield .
From the Leics, S’ton ,Liverpool & Watford games we could and should really have 8 points not the solitary one we’ve picked up .
I certainly think in the JTW we need to look to bring in that type of player & another striking option

 

[BettingBlade]

We are an excellent defensive unit and agree that this is largely due to the flat 3 in midfield, I feel we are missing Duffy or a Duffy type midfielder to give us that extra creativeness add chip in with goal or two from midfield .
From the Leics, S’ton ,Liverpool & Watford games we could and should really have 8 points not the solitary one we’ve picked up .
I certainly think in the JTW we need to look to bring in that type of player & another striking option

Or we could just play the creative players we signed in the summer?

 

[Redhead]

As a proud Blade and Scotsman, you are starting to see why most Scotland supporters who have watched McBurnnie play for the National team don’t particularly rate him, and why £20m paid for him was probs £12m too much.

Sharp and McGoldrick for me at the moment.

 

[SB_90]

rediscover our shooting boots. because to win you have to score. i felt we couldve been there all night & not scored. Mcgoldrick as number 10 i thought we had our best attacking game of the season

 

[Sean Thornton]

Where the hell did we look strong defensively today? We gave them two one on ones with Hendo and a free header late on. We were absolutely awful today but still managed to have more posession, the trouble is we did nothing with it. No service at all to the strikers but they too were very poor today no runs to pull defenders out of position no strength to hold the ball up. McGoldrick and Sharp have to start when available which is a bit of a worry as the three brought in over the summer should be an improvement on what we had but they just are not doing it.

IF, you mean with McG dropping deeper, that’s going to leave Billy on his own up front.

 

[Revolution]

Mousset and Sharp did a little better than the starters. Mousset makes space for himself, which Robinson and McBurnie do not really do, and Sharp put himself about a bit more.

Robinson is very easy to knock off the ball, and McBurnie doesn’t win enough 50-50 balls. Mind you, when the ball isn’t being delivered very often or very well it ain’t easy.

In this league I’ll always take an away point happily, but we have got to do better than that up front.