Where are our goal scorers??

Lambert, Pelle?

Charlie no legs, Redmond, Jay Rod, Shane?

Austin is the only natural goalscorer we have, and if his goals dry up, as they seem to have, or he is injured then we're in the sh!t.

It was glaringly obvious before a ball was kicked this season that we'd struggle for goals but we sign Redmond to play as a striker.

The main problem is that we have a midfield that would struggle to find a goal between them.

Romeu, Davis, Clasie and JWP are all defensively-minded players who's role has always been to win the ball, pass it and keep possession. Up until now they've played in teams where there's either been other midfield players who've been charged with an attacking responsibility, or a front three (Lallana-Lambert-Rodriguez/Mane-Pelle-Tadic) who has been quite capable of shouldering the goalscoring duties all by themselves.

Now that we have a fairly **** forward line, the fact that we have a midfield where none of them can beat a man, shoot from distance, arrive late in the box or really thread much of a forward pass is seriously starting to haunt us.

I'm really struggling to think of a Premier League side with less of a threat from midfield than we have.

The main problem is that we have a midfield that would struggle to find a goal between them.

 

Romeu, Davis, Clasie and JWP are all defensively-minded players who's role has always been to win the ball, pass it and keep possession. Up until now they've played in teams where there's either been other midfield players who've been charged with an attacking responsibility, or a front three (Lallana-Lambert-Rodriguez/Mane-Pelle-Tadic) who has been quite capable of shouldering the goalscoring duties all by themselves.

 

Now that we have a fairly **** forward line, the fact that we have a midfield where none of them can beat a man, shoot from distance, arrive late in the box or really thread much of a forward pass is seriously starting to haunt us.

 

I'm really struggling to think of a Premier League side with less of a threat from midfield than we have.

Spot on. Our midfielders have got away with it for far too long, you only have to see the love in for Davis to realise how low the standards are now. BUT, I don't think the club would have it any other way as that's how they think midfielders should be playing. Pass pass pass sideways sideways back. We wouldn't be producing or buying such similar players if it wasn't what the club wants from midfielders, nor would we have appointed a manager like Puel who encourages players to be risk averse.

We're stuck with it

Spot on. Our midfielders have got away with it for far too long, you only have to see the love in for Davis to realise how low the standards are now. BUT, I don't think the club would have it any other way as that's how they think midfielders should be playing. Pass pass pass sideways sideways back. We wouldn't be producing or buying such similar players if it wasn't what the club wants from midfielders, nor would we have appointed a manager like Puel who encourages players to be risk averse.

 

We're stuck with it

The funny thing is that as much as I slate Davis at times (only because he's overrated on here), I actually wouldn't be too critical of either him, or any of the above players as individuals (apart from perhaps Clasie who seems to be fairly **** at passing, winning 50/50s and everything defensive as well).

None of them are supposed to be goalscoring players. We signed Romeu knowing full well that he had never scored a single senior career goal (in over 100 games) before he came here. What did we expect?

We need to sign some proper, dedicated attacking midfielders because there is absolutely no way we're going to be able to convert any of the above players (with the exception of maybe Hojbjerg, given how young he still is) into goal threats. It simply isn't their natural game.

Until we either sign some players, or somehow integrate Tadic, Redmond and Boufal into the same team, we're going to continue to be **** easy to defend against like we were tonight.

Spot on. Our midfielders have got away with it for far too long, you only have to see the love in for Davis to realise how low the standards are now. BUT, I don't think the club would have it any other way as that's how they think midfielders should be playing. Pass pass pass sideways sideways back. We wouldn't be producing or buying such similar players if it wasn't what the club wants from midfielders, nor would we have appointed a manager like Puel who encourages players to be risk averse.

 

We're stuck with it

Except we know from player interviews that he is encouraging the team to take MORE risks than last season.

Which is making last night's performance all the more annoying.

Redmond, Austin, Tadic and Rodriguez are about on par with what I'd have expected at the start of the season. The main problem comes from the big fat zero from Long and Boufal. Granted the latter has only just got fit but those two in particular need to start turning it in fairly soon.

I hope the Sturridge rumours are true because if we don't sort this out we are in the shît...

Lambert, Pelle?

Charlie no legs, Redmond, Jay Rod, Shane?

Mané was our top goalscorer last season with 15 goals, even though Koeman stuck him out on the wing for much of the season. Next came Pellè with 14.

I make it 4 out of our 12 league games that we have scored from open play (including a gift at City).

Sunderland, Swansea, West Ham, City. So basically the ****e teams plus a gifted goal.

Quite lucky to be where we are in the league with a record that bad.