Goals!!

Iron Bru Forums Blast Furnace Goals!!

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  • #321271
    cassidystashcassidystash
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    Registered On: January 4, 2014
    Topics: 150

    Too hot to work so I’ve been looking for something to do and found these disturbing stats.
    1. We had easily the worst defensive record in the top 7.
    Conclusion – we need defenders.
    2. 7 defenders made a significant number of appearances (230) and managed to produce 2 goals.
    Conclusion – we need defenders that can score a few.
    3. Our much praised MF trio made 125 appearances and scored 6 between them.
    Conclusion – a couple of goalscoring midfielders might be useful.
    4. Top goalscorer gone and his quality unlikely to be matched by any replacement.
    Conclusion – the defenders and midfielders will have to step up markedly in the goalscoring department. Is it unreasonable to expect 10 or so from the defenders (especially if they can’t defend) and maybe 20 from MF?

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    #321272
    alcazaralcazar
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    Registered On: December 24, 2013
    Topics: 60

    To score we need service in their area.
    Plus players who will shoot, not pass to a colleague trying to give them a tap in.
    I bet that the high scoring teams took far less touches in or around the opponents area than we do.
    And a message to AB: we are NEVER going to score, or create a chance from a back pass or a pass parallel to our penalty area in our half.
    It’s not clever and it’s not pretty.

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    #321273
    BigLeftToeBigLeftToe
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    Registered On: June 6, 2017
    Topics: 10

    Playing Beestin in his preferred advanced midfield position will be a good start, he always pops up with important goals and isn’t afraid to shoot.

    3 users thanked author for this post.
    #321274
    Deereyme66Deereyme66
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    Registered On: May 8, 2017
    Topics: 186

    ‘Too hot to work’. Sure you’ve said in the past you’ve retired?

    And I said the same thing about midfielders and defenders needing to score more next season in an earlier post this morning. Royalties owed. Ta.

    #321275
    mkironMK Iron
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    Registered On: December 23, 2013
    Topics: 51

    Mentioned before about our shockingly poor goals return from corners and wide set pieces. This is part of the reason for our lack of goals from defenders.
    Even more worrying that this was despite having pretty accurate delivery from both sides. Not quite Saka/Rice levels but as good as any other National League team that I recall.

    The bad news is Roberts has gone and Ewing is waiting at the door. Does our coaching team need help from someone on set pieces – perhaps on a part time basis?

    #321276
    Deereyme66Deereyme66
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    Registered On: May 8, 2017
    Topics: 186

    100%

    #321277
    cassidystashcassidystash
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    Registered On: January 4, 2014
    Topics: 150

    ‘Too hot to work’. Sure you’ve said in the past you’ve retired?
    And I said the same thing about midfielders and defenders needing to score more next season in an earlier post this morning. Royalties owed. Ta.

    Well retired Deerey but the grass still needs cutting and bits of essential maintenance required.
    Sorry I was too busy doing my fascinating research so I haven’t read your post, I’ll have a look now.
    Sadly no copyright = no royalties but nice try. Hopefully you are Andy Butler and will act on what we both know is needed.

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    #321278
    SODIronSODIron
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    Registered On: July 8, 2014
    Topics: 27

    I think the interesting thing with the goals discussion is that most people are understandably focusing on replacing Roberts, but for me the bigger issue is actually what happens in midfield if Roberts, Westbrooke and Ewing all leave.

    Roberts is the obvious headline loss because you’re talking about goals, assists, set pieces and somebody who could win a game out of absolutely nothing. You don’t replace that easily at National League level.

    But I’d argue Westbrooke and Ewing leaving together could be just as damaging to the overall team.

    Westbrooke gave us control. Ewing gave us physicality and balance. One helped us play, the other helped us compete. Take both out and suddenly you’re not just replacing players, you’re replacing the platform the team was built on.

    Looking at the season as a whole, I actually don’t think scoring goals was our biggest problem. We scored 77 in the league which is more than enough to be competing at the right end. The concern is we conceded 62. York and Rochdale were down around the low 40s. That’s a massive gap. We were already too easy to play against at times and too many games became basketball matches.

    Roberts could get away with that because he could produce moments that won games. If he’s gone, you can’t just rely on having another shootout every week.

    For me the recruitment priorities are:

    1. A creative midfielder who can dictate games
    2. A genuine goalscoring wide player
    3. A defensive midfielder with legs and presence
    4. A commanding centre-half

    I actually think the central midfield rebuild is more important than replacing Roberts directly. Without Westbrooke and Ewing there’s a danger we become a side that works hard, runs around a lot and competes physically, but struggles to control games.

    Butler deserves a lot of credit because a newly promoted side finishing 5th and reaching the play-off semi-final is a very good season. But if we want to move from being a play-off side to an automatic promotion side, we need to become harder to score against and better at controlling matches, not just find another winger and hope he scores 20 goals.

    The positive is that I genuinely think we’re closer than some people think. The negative is that replacing Roberts, Westbrooke, and Ewing properly is probably the biggest recruitment challenge Butler has faced since taking over.

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    #321283
    NorthumbironNorthumbiron
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    Registered On: January 3, 2014
    Topics: 73

    We’ve got a potential 20 goals a season striker in the building if we use him correctly.

    PS I don’t mean Whitehall.

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    #321286
    IronIronIronIronIronIron
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    Registered On: December 24, 2013
    Topics: 9

    I think the interesting thing with the goals discussion is that most people are understandably focusing on replacing Roberts, but for me the bigger issue is actually what happens in midfield if Roberts, Westbrooke and Ewing all leave.

    Roberts is the obvious headline loss because you’re talking about goals, assists, set pieces and somebody who could win a game out of absolutely nothing. You don’t replace that easily at National League level.

    But I’d argue Westbrooke and Ewing leaving together could be just as damaging to the overall team.

    Westbrooke gave us control. Ewing gave us physicality and balance. One helped us play, the other helped us compete. Take both out and suddenly you’re not just replacing players, you’re replacing the platform the team was built on.

    Looking at the season as a whole, I actually don’t think scoring goals was our biggest problem. We scored 77 in the league which is more than enough to be competing at the right end. The concern is we conceded 62. York and Rochdale were down around the low 40s. That’s a massive gap. We were already too easy to play against at times and too many games became basketball matches.

    Roberts could get away with that because he could produce moments that won games. If he’s gone, you can’t just rely on having another shootout every week.

    For me the recruitment priorities are:

    1. A creative midfielder who can dictate games
    2. A genuine goalscoring wide player
    3. A defensive midfielder with legs and presence
    4. A commanding centre-half

    I actually think the central midfield rebuild is more important than replacing Roberts directly. Without Westbrooke and Ewing there’s a danger we become a side that works hard, runs around a lot and competes physically, but struggles to control games.

    Butler deserves a lot of credit because a newly promoted side finishing 5th and reaching the play-off semi-final is a very good season. But if we want to move from being a play-off side to an automatic promotion side, we need to become harder to score against and better at controlling matches, not just find another winger and hope he scores 20 goals.

    The positive is that I genuinely think we’re closer than some people think. The negative is that replacing Roberts, Westbrooke, and Ewing properly is probably the biggest recruitment challenge Butler has faced since taking over.

    I can’t agree that we scored enough goals. We did early on in the season, but we stalled badly in the new year.

    Butler did better than many expected last season, but he will have one hell of a job next season and I’m still not convinced he is up to it.

    As posted earlier, we need goals form defenders, midfielders & strikers. That’s a lot to find in a single close season.

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    #321287
    SideriteSiderite
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    Registered On: December 12, 2014
    Topics: 101

    We scored enough goals to be a solid team, but we need to score more if we want to have a realistic shot of promotion. Defence was far too error prone though and was the bigger problem.

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    #321289
    Deereyme66Deereyme66
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    Registered On: May 8, 2017
    Topics: 186

    We scored freely before Christmas, then the goals gradually and generally dried up in more and more games with less decreasing to virtually nothing from Whitehall and a reliance on Roberts. That’s how the season ended and Roberts is now gone, hence the importance of other positions chipping in more next season. It’s not sustainable to be relying on two players to score the majority of the goals all season every season.

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