Ben Brereton Diaz

We only scored one more than the lowest in the top 6 and about 60% as much as the highest.

That said I think it's more due to economical football rather than lack of finishing ability.

We need to generally create much more from set pieces. The defenders should have goal targets too. Christie needs intense shooting coaching and Lerma and Cook too probably. Even Dom needs to work on being more clinical and doing more with his left foot.
 
We need to generally create much more from set pieces. The defenders should have goal targets too. Christie needs intense shooting coaching and Lerma and Cook too probably. Even Dom needs to work on being more clinical and doing more with his left foot.
Infuriating thing about Christie - he gets into lots of scoring positions, moves quickly infield and gets into promising areas, then prods the ball or sends it into RowXXX. It's odd for a player with excellent close control ... how do you coach a player well into his career on basic shooting skills?
 
Phillip Billing has hardly set the World alight in the PL to date either... 1 PL goal from 34 PL appearances with us and 2 PL goals form 43 PL appearances with Huddersfield...

He'll really need to step up with 5 or 6 next season, along with the other midfielders...
 
Billing was playing much deeper then.

I’ve just looked at last year’s leading PL scorers. Excluding penalties, 8 players got 15 or more goals but, of them, only Jamie Vardy was playing for a side outside the Big Six.

A further nine players got between 10 and 14 goals (excluding penalties), including Bowen & Antonio (West Ham), Maddison (Leicester), Watkins (Aston Villa) and Dennis (Watford).

If either Solanke or Moore can get into double figures, excluding penalties, they will have done pretty well.
 
If Dom scores 15 he'll have had the season of his life so we really do need more goals in the team than we currently have.....we'll need 45-50 goals to have a chance of staying up.
45 - 50 goals? Would be nice, but not necessarily true, Wolves scored 38 and came 10th, conceding 43 goals. Obviously why SP wants to focus on defence in the summer window..
 
We only scored one more than the lowest in the top 6 and about 60% as much as the highest.

That said I think it's more due to economical football rather than lack of finishing ability.
We missed so many sitters at times. Christie and billing should have a goal tally nearer 20 mark.
 
Infuriating thing about Christie - he gets into lots of scoring positions, moves quickly infield and gets into promising areas, then prods the ball or sends it into RowXXX. It's odd for a player with excellent close control ... how do you coach a player well into his career on basic shooting skills?

Well, he scored goals in Scotland. I think it's partly a confidence issue. Also, he doesn't have enough competition. That would force him to work on his technique.
 
Phillip Billing has hardly set the World alight in the PL to date either... 1 PL goal from 34 PL appearances with us and 2 PL goals form 43 PL appearances with Huddersfield...

He'll really need to step up with 5 or 6 next season, along with the other midfielders...

Eddie was playing him more defensively, though. Not sure about Huddersfield. This is his big chance to show everyone what he's made of.
 
Eddie was playing him more defensively, though. Not sure about Huddersfield. This is his big chance to show everyone what he's made of.
He'll be playing more defensively in the PL under Parker as well tbf......what does scoring 10 goals in the championship equate to in terms of a PL goal tally?.....3-4 perhaps.......our midfield doesn't have goals in it.
 
He'll be playing more defensively in the PL under Parker as well tbf......what does scoring 10 goals in the championship equate to in terms of a PL goal tally?.....3-4 perhaps.......our midfield doesn't have goals in it.
I’m hoping that Parker’s knew how to get us over the line in the championship even if the football wasn’t great a lot of times .
Hoping he has a plan and tweak of system for this year .
 
He'll be playing more defensively in the PL under Parker as well tbf......what does scoring 10 goals in the championship equate to in terms of a PL goal tally?.....3-4 perhaps.......our midfield doesn't have goals in it.

… and it hasn’t for some time… you could argue since we got promoted initially to the PL…

Lerma - 7 goals from 139 games
Cook - 2 goals from 134 games
Billing - 19 goals from 108 games
Surman - 7 goals from 180 games
Arter - 29 goals from 232 games
Gosling - 12 goals from 168 games

When you look at those numbers and think they would span over 3 or 4 seasons and for some, lower leagues as well… we’ve never really been overly prolific from central midfield… Lerma’s and Cook’s numbers, whilst great players are actually appalling…
 
… and it hasn’t for some time… you could argue since we got promoted initially to the PL…

Lerma - 7 goals from 139 games
Cook - 2 goals from 134 games
Billing - 19 goals from 108 games
Surman - 7 goals from 180 games
Arter - 29 goals from 232 games
Gosling - 12 goals from 168 games

When you look at those numbers and think they would span over 3 or 4 seasons and for some, lower leagues as well… we’ve never really been overly prolific from central midfield… Lerma’s and Cook’s numbers, whilst great players are actually appalling…
We did have a goal scoring midfielder last season in Marcondes but he rarely got played due to his lack of involvement outside of goal contributions. How many midfielders actually netted 10+ goals in the league last season? I can think of Billing, Swift and Gibbs White but struggling to think of another. I’m sure there must be more than three. Gibbs White was pretty much given free license to roam where he wanted too so to even describe him as a conventional midfielder is a bit of a stretch. I think they are a rare commodity.
 
We did have a goal scoring midfielder last season in Marcondes but he rarely got played due to his lack of involvement outside of goal contributions. How many midfielders actually netted 10+ goals in the league last season? I can think of Billing, Swift and Gibbs White but struggling to think of another. I’m sure there must be more than three. Gibbs White was pretty much given free license to roam where he wanted too so to even describe him as a conventional midfielder is a bit of a stretch. I think they are a rare commodity.

Like you say, I dont think we're asking for a midfielder(s) that will grab us 10+ a season, but when you look at the stats above, our potential starting 2 midfielders have scored not even 10 between them in 3 or 4 seasons... and 2 of those have been in the 2nd tier of football...

I know this last year we've played Cook and/or Lerma in a more sitting role due t Parker's preference of 2 advanced players supporting Solanke, but Anthony will never have played at this level before and Solanke is still almost 'untested' at PL level... We really do need to be prepared to add some goal scoring quality into our central midfield, which will likely result in either Lerma or Cook being dropped... Which is unthinkable really, but the reality of trying to stay in the PL...
 
Like you say, I dont think we're asking for a midfielder(s) that will grab us 10+ a season, but when you look at the stats above, our potential starting 2 midfielders have scored not even 10 between them in 3 or 4 seasons... and 2 of those have been in the 2nd tier of football...

I know this last year we've played Cook and/or Lerma in a more sitting role due t Parker's preference of 2 advanced players supporting Solanke, but Anthony will never have played at this level before and Solanke is still almost 'untested' at PL level... We really do need to be prepared to add some goal scoring quality into our central midfield, which will likely result in either Lerma or Cook being dropped... Which is unthinkable really, but the reality of trying to stay in the PL...

I think Anthonys goal return was pretty good, i think around 7 or 8.
 

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