Goals...

Recent stats read for some worrying viewing (league games only):

Ings: 3 goals in 9 games

Austin: 0 goals in 14 games

Long: 2 goals in 64 games

Gabbiadini: 2 goals in 27 games

Redmond: 2 goals in 49 games

Mo: 0 in 7

Long n Redmond

Utterly pathetic

What's a "goal"?

Still think Gabbiadini would start to score if he were in the team on a regular basis, rather than played and then dropped on a regular basis. Long, Austin, Hoedt all get picked week on week despite poor performances. Gabbiadini deserves a good chance to find form.

Still think Gabbiadini would start to score if he were in the team on a regular basis, rather than played and then dropped on a regular basis. Long, Austin, Hoedt all get picked week on week despite poor performances. Gabbiadini deserves a good chance to find form.

Makes perfect sense to most averagely intelligent fans but not our Manager it would seem .....

How and why we persist with Long is a unknown.

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Still think Gabbiadini would start to score if he were in the team on a regular basis, rather than played and then dropped on a regular basis. Long, Austin, Hoedt all get picked week on week despite poor performances. Gabbiadini deserves a good chance to find form.

Long is Long, shocking really that he is still here but saying that him and Ings have been our best partnership this season.

Austin is done at this level offers nothing to the team at all, is not fit enough to be a premier league player, u didn't mind that when he was scoring but that is now gone

All 3 off these need to be moved on in January imo and find a decent striker someone like Llorente would be good.

You mentioned Hoedt aswell but he has improved a bit and has been part of a defence which has now kept 2 clean sheets in a row

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We ain’t scoring vs City so next up is Watford to avoid 7 league games without a goal. Not confident at all, this could go to 10+.

What's a "goal"?

You're probably too young to remember them. Kids today, I dunno!

I don't personally get our fans obsession with Gabbiadini. Granted he started well but he doesn't offer a lot when he gets a chance and hasn't for a while now. If we got rid of Gabbiadini, Austin and Long in the summer I really couldn't care less.

I don't personally get our fans obsession with Gabbiadini. Granted he started well but he doesn't offer a lot when he gets a chance and hasn't for a while now. If we got rid of Gabbiadini, Austin and Long in the summer I really couldn't care less.

I don't either. He has done zero this season and last.

Ings, Gabbi, Austin, and Long all haven't played well. Makes me wonder if there isn't a bigger problem, and if some of the fault lies with the midfield.

I don't either. He has done zero this season and last.

 

Ings, Gabbi, Austin, and Long all haven't played well. Makes me wonder if there isn't a bigger problem, and if some of the fault lies with the midfield.

Well for starters you can point a finger a Redmond in that department, get the ball run, then stop, dither while the oppo defence sets themselves.....resume.

On the rare occasion football actually breaks out in the team and we move the ball quickly, teams open up like a can of Spam and we look a threat. Alas that is a rare freak of nature as the default setting is get the ball upfield then fanny about.

It’s a horribly unbalanced squad that lacks quality in most areas, but what makes that so much worse is how much these players have cost us. The only positives I can take from the season so far is that I think Hojbjerg and Lemina have the potential to be a really solid pair in midfield and can control games.

I’ve heard Les and Ralph talk before about how we need a big squad of senior players but I just fundamentally disagree with that when we rarely play European football. We have a senior squad of about 30 players and it’s just too many, hence us sending players out on loan all over the place. There are at least 10 players this squad could do without and if you replaced them with 4 or 5 quality players, as well as showing more faith in some of the youngsters (Reed and Gallagher come to mind), then I think we’d be much better off. H.Reed is now having a good season with Blackburn following on from a good season last year and should be in this squad fighting for a place. He had some good games under Koeman and the fact he can play in a few positions would also help the team out. Gallagher also has a lot of good attributes and surely could offer us more than the likes of Austin right now. Having a smaller squad and making them feel a real part of it is half the battle and at the moment I imagine Gallagher knows no matter what he does in training he won’t be getting a game any time soon. He at least deserves a chance to show if he’s good enough when so many others look so poor.

It’s pretty clear that Hughes decided in the summer he wanted to play with 3 at the back and 2 up front and therefore chose to overload the squad with central defenders and strikers and wasn’t concerned about wide players. After 60 mins of the season that predictably went out of the window (our CBs simply aren’t good enough to play in a back 3) and now we’re paying the price for it with only 2 wide players and neither of them are good enough. Despite Redmond looking better so far he still doesn’t commit defenders enough or ever go past them and Elyounoussi just looks slow and weak. The final ball from both is terrible and as a result we lack creativity. Hughes must take some blame for that as he was obviously shaping a squad for his chosen formation but Reed and Wilson shouldn’t have let him do it and they are the ones who are ultimately responsible for recruitment.

Of the new signings, Gunn looks talented but clearly shouldn’t have been a priority when we didn’t have a buyer for Forster (how nobody has lost their job over his contract baffles me) and Armstrong will struggle to play in a 442 which makes that signing all the more confusing. Ings is being misused IMO by being asked to play a bit deeper and the other 2 new boys just don’t look good enough despite costing a lot of money.

We need a clear out and it’s difficult to see how we will get takers for a lot of them, but frankly Reed and Wilson got us into this mess and now they need to get us out of it in January/next summer if we stay up. Forster, Cedric, 2 of the CBs, one of Targett/McQueen, Clasie, Davis, JWP, Austin, Long, Gabbiadini, Carillo can all go. That’s 12(!!) players that wouldn’t be missed if you replaced them with 4 or 5 quality signings, but like everyone else I have zero faith in the club to identify the right players.

I’ll also add that in a team desperately short of creativity and excitement I wish Boufal was still here. We simply aren’t good enough to be ignoring players with his sort of talent and under a new manager I still think he could come good.

Assuming we do actually do some business in January. Who do we realistically buy? We won't be able to pry any first team players away from their clubs, so it'll be bench warmers to choose from again. I still want us to try for maxi gomez. Won't happen. Sisto is only 23 and is creative. Ziyech also has creativity in him. I wonder who we are going to sell (assuming anyone even wants our dross) if Gabbi does actually go, you can bet hell start scoring for fun in his new team.

Still think Gabbiadini would start to score if he were in the team on a regular basis, rather than played and then dropped on a regular basis. Long, Austin, Hoedt all get picked week on week despite poor performances. Gabbiadini deserves a good chance to find form.

yes i agree ,but what about youth ?..........

Well for starters you can point a finger a Redmond in that department, get the ball run, then stop, dither while the oppo defence sets themselves.....resume.

On the rare occasion football actually breaks out in the team and we move the ball quickly, teams open up like a can of Spam and we look a threat. Alas that is a rare freak of nature as the default setting is get the ball upfield then fanny about.

Except Redmond has created the most goal scoring opportunities in the team this season. According to the stats he is 14th in the PL for opportunities created so far this season and has zero assist which says that the problem is less Redmond and more with the planks trying to put the ball in the net......

Except Redmond has created the most goal scoring opportunities in the team this season. According to the stats he is 14th in the PL for opportunities created so far this season and has zero assist which says that the problem is less Redmond and more with the planks trying to put the ball in the net......

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Except Redmond has created the most goal scoring opportunities in the team this season. According to the stats he is 14th in the PL for opportunities created so far this season and has zero assist which says that the problem is less Redmond and more with the planks trying to put the ball in the net......

If you're using stats then his "expected assists" stat has him 45th in the league, which suggests the chances he's creating are not exactly clear cut... I think he's improved this season but that isn't saying much

If you're using stats then his "expected assists" stat has him 45th in the league, which suggests the chances he's creating are not exactly clear cut... I think he's improved this season but that isn't saying much

How about the rest of the saints team though how many are above him in "expected assists" (which has got to be one of the most stupid stats ever) I bet not many if any?

I'm not suggesting he is a world beater I'm just amused by this idea that Redmond is somehow the root of the problem in our lack of goals when we have 4 strikers who have managed three goals between them all season.

How about the rest of the saints team though how many are above him in "expected assists" (which has got to be one of the most stupid stats ever) I bet not many if any?

 

I'm not suggesting he is a world beater I'm just amused by this idea that Redmond is somehow the root of the problem in our lack of goals when we have 4 strikers who have managed three goals between them all season.

Redmond isn't the root of the problem just the most visible frustration to those in the stands watching on, he hasn't improved since being here - his goal tally backs that up.

The whole team more often than not cross the centre line and take their foot off the gas, they also seem to forget how to play football. On Saturday so many times the ball went backwards and the player who had just passed the ball turned to teamates to tell them where they should have been. Second half latter stages of the game this was highlighted by how long it took for us to take throw ins, no one moved, everyone played statues!

That said our front line is a bit inert, we have one capable of being pretty damn good in the right company, one who is without doubt rusty - but even in Italy scored in fits and starts, one who looks to struggle with 60 minutes of play, and another who's feet are working in a different timezone to the rest of his body: at this level it ain't very potent. You could view it as being so lacklustre that the rest of the team are anticipating that the ball will be coming back at them within seconds of it going up front, which is probably why as was said on MOTD we are snatching at chances, as everyone else is setting themselves ready to defend.

On Saturday we had a free kick 15 yards in their half both Lemina and Romeu went and stood between centre halves on half way line when it was pumped forward.

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If you're using stats then his "expected assists" stat has him 45th in the league, which suggests the chances he's creating are not exactly clear cut... I think he's improved this season but that isn't saying much

Surely with our current forwards' levels of finishing there should be no such thing as an expected assist in our statistics at the moment.