Strikers

[maxjak]

Got to feel a little sorry for Wells, as he gets hardly any service, Semenyo just isn't a natural goal scorer, he has pace and strength, but no eye for the chance.  I appreciate he is only 20, possibly if we could get in a specialist striker coach to work with him, he could make a go of it? Fam is steady but hardly spectacular. As someone else stated, our strikers.....and the service to them is no better than average. If we are serious about the top 6 I  would try to bring in a quick and busy goalscorer in Jan ( I know that is NOT easy). Surely we have been monitoring potential forward recruits over the past months?,and must have an idea of a forward that would fit the bill?   The great hope is the return of the two W's, if they are able to get fit and up to speed, then hopefully we will have some creativity, that we have lacked ever since Palmer and Elliason left.  Finally I think O'Dowda is having a good season, and I don't understand the constant criticism of him

[Davefevs]

14 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

Top scorer is all well and good if the team is scoring a lot of goals.  If the goalscorer’s lack of ability in general play means the team score fewer goals with him in it then there’s a problem.  Seem to remember having a similar conversation with you about another one of our strikers before. 

Wells does need a system built around him.  He needs to play in a team that creates a lot of chances and he needs to not he involved in bulld up play as he isn’t good enough at it.

I think Wells’s general play has been ok (not great) in the past few matches, and add to the fact he’s not playing as a centre forward either.

If you’re referring to Diedhiou, I agree.  If you’re going to get 13 goals but provide little else then I think that’s insufficient.  Having said that I don’t think Diedhiou offers nothing else, but I want a bit more from him.  I want a bit more from Wells too...but I generally think we lack composure in the final third in the current set up.

I would say the early weeks of the season we built a bit of territory through possession and our attacks had shape that allowed patterns of play to evolve.  Little things like “third man runs” through players knowing the phase of possession, where to be, where the runner would be.  Goals like Exeter (Pato opener), Wells v Stoke, etc.  They were goals where we worked the ball into a position where an opening was created to get a player in, or cross for an obvious target.

I don’t believe that “system” was “built around Wells” but it was more exciting, more creative for not just Wells, but other players too.  Look at how good Hunt was in that period of games, as was Martin, Weimann, Paterson, Bakinson, etc.  I do think Mawson’s calmness is being missed, but not all about him.

Of late where we’ve played more transition football (circumstances driving it imho) and we look more scattergun in attack.  We rarely build possession-based attacks....and yesterday was the first time in a few games where we did build some pressure through possession in first half, but missed cutting edge (I can live with that against a disciplined Brum).  For me our front 5/6 are playing more like individuals than a team and it’s stifling us.  Individual bits of good play (O’Dowda second goal creation v QPR) are the creative element.  But they are one-offs, they aren’t build through good possession.  Even when we haven’t scored (Semenyo v Watford) it’s been individual bits of skill.

I do get the “same as LJ” comments....because that was how we played under him....but it’s only been like this over the latter games, whereas some want to tar the whole season like this, when it most obviously hasn’t been.

We need to go back to playing as a team.

I honestly couldn’t care less who gets the goals, plays in what position, but we need to get the cohesiveness back, it’s been anything like that for large spells of recent games.

I don’t think that involves building a side around any player.  The strength of the unconventional 352 (a six and two eights) wasn’t the 352 per se, but players familiarity with their own roles and their team mates.

For a part of yesterday (20-45 mins) we attacked as a team.  Kalas and Vyner stepped into the middle third, creating an extra man.  Nagy fed O’Dowda, he drove into the space, often feeding Semenyo to cut in from the left, Wells started to link up, etc.  I think Holden got it wrong at h-t, when in fairness he’s generally made good h-t tweaks.  He lost the middle of the pitch by pushing O’Dowda wide....I started to see a good bit of connection from him and Nagy....and I think his energy covers Brunt lack of it.  I didn’t mind him trying what he did, the error was not realising it wasn’t working, and swapping back.

I digress a bit.

You don’t need to build a team around Wells, you build a team that is cohesive, we shared the goals around early season, because players could make runs forward off of established possession.

I argue that even the halcyon days of 17/18 weren’t always free-flowing.  I hark back to Boro and Forest at home where we were anything but free-flowing, but we ground them down through possession and patience of possession and didn’t let them get out.  Bailey Wright in the final third crossing for Joe Bryan to head home, because we had built solid possession in the opposition Half allowing Wright to catch up the play and then become an attacking option (yes, Bailey Wright!!).  Pack, not sat in front of the back 4, but squeezing the distances out of the opponent midfield, breaking into the box to score from a nod down, because he only had to run 15 yards to get there, rather than 40 yards from the centre circle.

Holden has changed our methods.  I hope he realises.  Then we might see Wells, Diedhiou, Semenyo and Martin in any combination look a threat.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on how we improve the service to any of our strikers, irrespective of who Holden picks.