Late goals

A

AFCB_Liam

First Team
Just did a quick check and I noticed that we have only scored 4 times in the last 20 minutes all season. 2 of those when we were already cruising (against Barnsley and Swansea at home) and the other 2 in the same game (Birmingham away).

Seems like we completely run out of ideas towards the end of games. On Saturday, as soon as Hull scored I had zero belief we would get an equaliser, let alone come back to win it.

Feels like we used to get a lot more late goals last few seasons.

Probably a combination of lack of attacking options, Parker's inability to change a game and a fragile mentality. Don't think it can be fitness as we have a young team and spend a lot of the game in possession.

It's a worrying trend coming into the business end of the season. Nothing more galvanising than a late goal or 2 to turn a game around, but we just seem incapable of turning it around once we go behind or don't break a team down early.
 
Also an acute lack of midfield creativity - we blast away at teams but as the game goes on we lack players to manoeuvre the ball, hold and beat a man, pass and move. Saturday was a sorry example - for the last half hour we looked bereft of ideas, pushing the ball to the wings where Hull closed us down. Midfield was an empty space - at least empty of ideas. Just a week now to recruit a midfielder and a capable forward.
 
No plan B, like for like subs are about as far as it goes when it comes to tactics, persistently attempt the same thing despite the opponent quite clearly figuring out what needs to be done.

If it were boxing and all you were doing were uppercuts and the opponent is blocking you'd probably try something different...no?
 
I can recall one game where we went behind and came back, and we were partly lucky as it was a penalty. I think it's a lack of belief as well as everything else said. I also think Parker lacks the experience to tactically help make things happen.
 
Gloria Hunter said:
I can recall one game where we went behind and came back, and we were partly lucky as it was a penalty. I think it's a lack of belief as well as everything else said. I also think Parker lacks the experience to tactically help make things happen.
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Sheffield United. They scored on 56 and we equalised 5 mins later and winner 5 mins after that. Pretty sure it was backs to the wall for the remaining 25mins but that was at least good character.
 
langham said:
Also an acute lack of midfield creativity - we blast away at teams but as the game goes on we lack players to manoeuvre the ball, hold and beat a man, pass and move. Saturday was a sorry example - for the last half hour we looked bereft of ideas, pushing the ball to the wings where Hull closed us down. Midfield was an empty space - at least empty of ideas. Just a week now to recruit a midfielder and a capable forward.
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Is this Scott's fault though?

The centre of midfield was signed by Howe and Tindall,all non goalscoring,non creative midfielders.

A goalscorer as we all know is the hardest position to fill,especially in January.

Perhaps it's a position Scott is aware needs strengthening but hasn't been able to find the right personnel as of yet.
 
bigfatolly said:
Is this Scott's fault though?

The centre of midfield was signed by Howe and Tindall,all non goalscoring,non creative midfielders.

A goalscorer as we all know is the hardest position to fill,especially in January.

Perhaps it's a position Scott is aware needs strengthening but hasn't been able to find the right personnel as of yet.
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You make some good points. Some problems are inherited, but he could have got others in before the last window. I also think he's maybe just not very creative himself. He wears the same thing most matches, says the same things every interview and we play the same way every match. There are patterns. Not everyone is creative and that's okay, but he's got to get creative coaches in the team to balance out his inclination to play it safe and stick to what he knows. I may be completely wrong about him and hope I am... but I want a bit of spontaneity and I'm not convinced Scott does that.
 
Has to be the quality of the bench.

If you're not scoring in the last quarter of a game your bench isnt making a difference.

When we are chasing games, which seems to be the modus operandi lately, we don't have quality to make something happen.

I think Scotty thinks his starting 11 should be enough, but unfortunately it isnt at present.
 
Difficult to say what the precise reason is although tbf we've spent 3/4 of the season defending leads in the last 20 mins.... don't think Parker really knows how to go all out attacking when we're behind.... there's always that bit caution ... apparently as soon as we equalised at Luton his instruction to the players was to 'take a breath'!.....that's just the way he thinks.
 
My feeling is that we become very negative
We need to attack as we all know when you go negative the opposition sense that and for the last 20 minutes we invite them to come at us
We have the players and they should be fit enough to play 90 plus minutes

ATTACK PLEASE


UTCIAD
 
Personally I'd just put it down to Dom being the only striker in the entire squad and while he's playing in a false 9/shadow striker role while it suits his strengths he he has to cover a fair amount of ground.

Where we've had games clustered quite tightly together over Christmas has coincided with poorer results although not necessarily poor performances IMO.

The collapse against Hull's timewasting was pathetic but that aside it feels like we're doing enough to win games, just need to wait for form to pick up a bit.
 
I think what was hard for most to take is that we were very optimistic after an extremely dominant first half with 80 per cent possession.

Arguably we should have been 3 up comfortably.

For Parker to then throw the family silver (Anthony) on for Davies showed a genuine complete lack of awareness of the game.

Hulls pre game plan would have been to defend the left, and after we let them off the hook for 45 mins at 0-0 HT, they came out and thanked Scott for giving them a reprieve.

SP lost us that game, one that Woodgate would have won.

Have never seen Parker improve a team consistently enough this season after the first half to make me think the players believe in him.

Sad, but true.
 
dragonm8 said:
I think what was hard for most to take is that we were very optimistic after an extremely dominant first half with 80 per cent possession.

Arguably we should have been 3 up comfortably.

For Parker to then throw the family silver (Anthony) on for Davies showed a genuine complete lack of awareness of the game.

Hulls pre game plan would have been to defend the left, and after we let them off the hook for 45 mins at 0-0 HT, they came out and thanked Scott for giving them a reprieve.

SP lost us that game, one that Woodgate would have won.

Have never seen Parker improve a team consistently enough this season after the first half to make me think the players believe in him.

Sad, but true.
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Wtf are you talking about? Everything in your post is wrong after the bit about the first half.

Anthony was the only player who looked like he was going to make something happen in that last half an hour. He came on for Lowe, Davis was on the pitch when they scored and came off for Rodgers.
 
I think we lack the creative options to revert to when teams sit back. It seems to be overlapping full back to the byline or nothing.

Through the middle we lack the passing triangles, players getting close to Dom to play off etc. especially on the daya when Billing is missing (either on the pitch or off it).
 
If the question is why don't we score late in games very often the two factors you have to look at :
1) how many goals do we score generally, at any point in the game
2) the bench that comes into play late in games

We have in Dom one main goalscorer, and a few who can chip in occasionally. We need more goals from the rest of the team. Billing has dried up lately? More goals in the team would equal more goals in the last 20 minutes.

We have a bench that is really more of the same. If the opposition has succeeded for 70 minutes against us, chances are they will succeed for another 20 minutes against more of the same. More variety to keep opposition guessing, try something a little different, that might produce more goals in the last 20 minutes.

Variety doesn't have to mean 'lump it up to Fletch', it can be more subtle than that. Try swapping wingers so they're no longer inverted, change the balance of central midfield, give Dom a more direct strike partner etc.
 
We often seem to respond by going to a back 3 including Stacey and have wingers at wing back presumably to have more attacking players in the game. I'm not sure I've ever seen this be effective though we often look disjointed and less likely to score when we change it.

I'm not sure on Saturday the system was the problem, we had to tweak it a little when Cahill came on for Mepham, but I thought Billing and Marcondes in particular dropped in levels a lot as the second half went on (excellent first half). The move for me would of been fresh legs in those places but we didn't have the personell. That's where a move for Rothwell/Lawrence looks good business.
 
Topfarrier said:
Difficult to say what the precise reason is although tbf we've spent 3/4 of the season defending leads in the last 20 mins.... don't think Parker really knows how to go all out attacking when we're behind.... there's always that bit caution ... apparently as soon as we equalised at Luton his instruction to the players was to 'take a breath'!.....that's just the way he thinks.
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In fairness we did just that against PNE and ended up losing!
 
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