playing devils advocate

[Medway Blue]

Playing devils advocate about our current goal drought.

Maybe we have a management team which hasnt got the nous to give the team creativity in the final 3rd.

Is it possible that we we need is a striker coach to come in and start working on improving our play in the final third and in particular from dead ball plays which have been clueless this season.

It would certainly be a cheaper option than another signing.

Absolutely. The lack of goals from any strikers or attacking players is a concern, and it is down to confidence, but the lack of confidence comes from the general poor play of the team in the final third as a whole. A combination of (until recently) playing one man up top (and that man dropping stupidly deep all the time to get on the end of a long ball); the lack of intelligent movement off the ball stretching a defence; nobody being able to play a penetrating pass because he has no options in front of him. It all adds up.

They need to be sticking Bentley and 4 defenders in on the training pitch to defend the goal and having 2 central midfielders, 2 wingers and 2 strikers attacking that goal. Throw the ball in and get them passing and moving in the final third, encouraging the strikers and wingers to run off the ball, pull the defence about and get the ball into dangerous positions. We just need some serious work on the training ground to smarten up in that final third.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Get Super Roy in to motivate them; if he told them to "man up, stop fecking about and put the fecking ball in the fecking onion bag or stay out on the pitch all fecking night" or "have their fecking heads ripped off" we might see the freezes in front of goal replaced by fear of getting a Roy hairdryer treatment.
Old, antiquated management but sometimes it can work; and what we have now isn't going that well is it?

 

[Beefy]

Does anyone remember what sort of player Dave Penney was ? His record was 50 odd goals in 350 odd games , not too bad if he was a midfielder or full back. .

He was mainly a midfielder, although Championship Manager had him as a utility player at the time. My abiding memory of him as a player was scoring one of those 50 goals at Roots Hall for Oxford the day we stuck six past them.

 

[fbm]

There are things you can work on that will reap dividends now. For example, players running off the ball.

On Saturday there was a situation where we had a three on three (it may even have been 3 on 2 - I can't remember). Shaq had the ball, and both Pigott and Worrall (IIRC) were up with him. Both of the players without the ball ran in perfectly straight lines. Neither tried to lose their man. In the end Shaq's shot was weak and straight at McCormick.

In that situation everyone was to blame. Shaq's shot was poor; he really should have make McCormick work harder, but both the forwards with him should have been making much better runs, than in perfectly straight lines. They should have been trying to create space for themselves to give Shaq a better alternative.

However, given the lack of an alternative Shaq should still have buried it.

Movement off the ball is something that can be taught, and should reap dividends in the short term...

I remember the incident and it's a bit harsh to blame Worrall or Pigott on that occasion. They were trying to stay onside and it was screaming for a ball to be laid inside either defender for them to run onto. Either would have had an angle which would have given them a massive advantage when shooting; Shaq was straight on and had no angle. His decision making was very poor and the shot was appalling. If either the other two had not run in a straight line, they would have gone nearer him or further away, neither which would have improved their position.

However, I do agree generally about work off the ball. It can be improved. The great sides don't always win games with what they do with the ball, it's what they do without it that sets them apart.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

Go and watch him in training, you will see a striker that can't hit a barn door. He knows that when he is through on the goalie, that then brings on the bad composure and the panic.
Fix the accurate striking problem and he will be more confident and the other stuff won't happen so much. There are loads of 'How to strike the ball better with more accuracy' on you tube. It's a bit like telling a golfer that with fine adjustments in body posture, he will be a more accurate golfer. It really does work. Colthirst just needs it pointing out to him, and so does Weston. Corr is not so bad at shooting, his problem is he is not in or around the six yard box enough, where he scores all his goals.

i am assuming that Shaq probably got some coaching at Spurs down the years

 

[Jam_Man]

Coulthirst has been, I assume, brought up at a premiership club academy, if he hasnt been told how to kick the ball properly in the last 7 or 8 years he has been there then Spurs coaching is obviously worse than ours.

Maybe we should be telling them they need a striking coach.

 

[spoons]

How about signing a striker coach and playing him, can't be worse than our current strikers.
It is our system, together with finding the only way to use the weak back Corr is to let him amble about outside the box trying to rough up the opposition. The team would be stronger if we replaced Corr for good with a pact strong running forward like Calvin Zola