do we really need a 20 goal a season striker?

[Country Fox]

looking at a lot of the stuff written on here the past week or so the implication seems to be that having a prolific striker is essential to promotion or indeed even coming anywhere near the playoffs

last time we went up though we didnt have anyone particularly prolific and the key was a tight defence and lots of contributions from all round the team

dickov got 20, only 12 of which were from open play
deane got 13
scowy 10 or 11
tricky trev 8
matty elliot 6 or 7
muzzy and jordan about 10 between them

so IMO as long as at least a couple of our strikers can at least get into double figures, which at least 3 out of the 4 are certainly capable of doing, then what it really needs is for the defence to click together, which i think it will and for the rest of the side to weigh in with a few goals, joey knows where the back of the net is, as does stearman and maybury, hopefully the CBs will develop a taste for scoring and i think hughes could well bag a few. in other words while it would be nice to have a striker you can look at and say yeh its a definite possibility hell get 25 goals this season i dont think not having such a player is crucial to our chances of success

 

[jb5000]

I suppose you're right. They do say that the best sides are build on solid defences, thing is we don't have one of those right now.

 

[fcukcov]

The other problem IMO is that I cant see the midfielders adding that many goals this year.

 

[MKFox]

so IMO as long as at least a couple of our strikers can at least get into double figures, which at least 3 out of the 4 are certainly capable of doing

I really can't see any justification that they can.
Just where are our goals going to come from?

 

[Chrysalis]

The problem is I cant see how we going to get 3 goals a game, which is what we need right now to win.

 

[fcukcov]

3 goals a month would be nice.

 

[MKFox]

The problem is I cant see how we going to get 3 goals a game, which is what we need right now to win.

I can't see how we'll get 3 goals this season...

 

[fcukcov]

I can't see how we'll get 3 goals this season...

always have to take it to the next level MK dont ya!! tsk.

 

[MKFox]

6 games gone, 4 goals scored once DC is out of the equation....
hhmmmm, or rather, hume......I hope you start soon matey boy.

 

[Graz]

It doesn't matter that 8 of Dickov's goals were penalties, all that matters is that they hit the back of the net. 33 goals from your 2 first choice strikers is pretty good I think! I can't see the current lot getting that though.

And I don't think we really have any goalscoring midfielders at the moment, although hopefully Hughes and Williams will prove me wrong

 

[highland fox]

It doesn't matter that 8 of Dickov's goals were penalties, all that matters is that they hit the back of the net. 33 goals from your 2 first choice strikers is pretty good I think! I can't see the current lot getting that though.

And I don't think we really have any goalscoring midfielders at the moment, although hopefully Hughes and Williams will prove me wrong

Some,myself not included would disagree and say we have just bought a Goalscoring midfielder...

 

[Lako42]

this type of discussion is a bit pointless really. we can only wait and see if we have what i takes. the goalscoring issue has been gone over and gone over.

 

[PONTUS KAAMARK]

so IMO as long as at least a couple of our strikers can at least get into double figures, which at least 3 out of the 4 are certainly capable of doing,


This the problem are the currently strikers really capable of hitting double figures even!?!! I am not so sure.

 

[Feriol]

Hume got 16 in league one last season so even if he makes the step-up easily you cant expect more than that, which is a reasonable tally, if he gets it.

Elvis is hard to judge, but we'll see.

MDV has got one goal in seven games this season so 6-7 goals at that rate.

Dublin is yet to score this term, but he got 4 last season, with only about a 3rd of that as a striker. so if he is used as a striker all season, maybe 12. but i doubt he will start enough games to achieve that

so if we say elvis get 10 and dublin 8 and hume gets his 16, thats 40 goals, less than a goal a game from the strikers

Williams has only scored for us twice since joining, so i don't expect many. joey has about 4? Tiatto might get a couple more free kicks, and maybe a couple from sylla. add hughes and an optimist might say 8-10 from the midfield.

= 50

the way we take set peices, our defence aren't given the chance to score many. i will be very optimistic and say 5

thats about 55 goals this season.

The lowest scoring team to make the promotion spots last season (inc playoffs) were west ham with 66 goals and a +10 GD

we will score less, and conceed quite a few more the way things are looking.

Last season we scored 49 and conceeded 46

draw your own conclusions...

 

[PFKAKTF FOX]

Can we please allow the likes of Hume and Hammond a decent run in the side before we decide whether they are capable of scoring goals at this level or not. None of us have seen enough of either player to decide one way or another.

Also if one of them can hit 14 then they will have replaced Connolly. Will people please remember that Connolly wasnt a 20 goal striker either in his time at the club. He scored a hat trick in one game, and granted he was starting to show the type of form to suggest he could be a regular goalscorer, but last season he was as bad at missing chances as all the other strikers and lets be honest without penalties he would have struggled to hit double figures.

Give the new boys a chance if by xmas they are not producing then start with the criticism, but allow them time to settle and you never know they may come good and we may well be saying David "Who".

 

[Redditch Fox]

so IMO as long as at least a couple of our strikers can at least get into double figures, which at least 3 out of the 4 are certainly capable of doing,


This the problem are the currently strikers really capable of hitting double figures even!?!! I am not so sure.

I think we can certainly anticipate: that the goals will be spread more widely than has been the case and that there won't be enough of them.

 

[Feriol]

Can we please allow the likes of Hume and Hammond a decent run in the side before we decide whether they are capable of scoring goals at this level or not. None of us have seen enough of either player to decide one way or another.

Also if one of them can hit 14 then they will have replaced Connolly. Will people please remember that Connolly wasnt a 20 goal striker "

Dont know if you were refering to my post or not...

I think we have replaced connolly quite well, by my predictions we will exceed last seasons goal tally, but i fear we will exceed the conceeded column as well. reading scored 51 last season and were only 3 points shy of the playoffs.

i was just trying to put our pottential to score in perspective with regard to promotion, which i think is the gist of the thread.

Of Course its all speculation, and i will be as happy as larry if we exceed these expectations.

 

[Leigh]

Give the new boys a chance if by xmas they are not producing then start with the criticism, but allow them time to settle and you never know they may come good and we may well be saying David "Who".

I'm already saying that! Didn't see him a very likable bloke really, was more upset when we got rid of Benji. More personality in a gnat, I believe is the saying!

I wouldn't even begin to compare players I've never (or hardly) seen play with players who did well here. Not only is it too much pressure, and builds unrealistic expectations, but its just impossible! We are definitely not going to do as well as we did that season, and in my opinion we won't get promoted at all so everyone just 'chill your beans'

 

[RichMC24]

looking at a lot of the stuff written on here the past week or so the implication seems to be that having a prolific striker is essential to promotion or indeed even coming anywhere near the playoffs

last time we went up though we didnt have anyone particularly prolific and the key was a tight defence and lots of contributions from all round the team

dickov got 20, only 12 of which were from open play
deane got 13
scowy 10 or 11
tricky trev 8
matty elliot 6 or 7
muzzy and jordan about 10 between them

so IMO as long as at least a couple of our strikers can at least get into double figures, which at least 3 out of the 4 are certainly capable of doing, then what it really needs is for the defence to click together, which i think it will and for the rest of the side to weigh in with a few goals, joey knows where the back of the net is, as does stearman and maybury, hopefully the CBs will develop a taste for scoring and i think hughes could well bag a few. in other words while it would be nice to have a striker you can look at and say yeh its a definite possibility hell get 25 goals this season i dont think not having such a player is crucial to our chances of success

I think you have answered your own question here. 'Do we really need a 20 goal a season striker?', followed by 'last time we went up, we had a a striker that scored 20 goals'

I appreciate the point you are trying to make, we do need goals from all over the park to mount a serious promotion challenge, but clearly you do need someone who will get you 20 in a season, supported by someone who gets 15 -ish

 

[Naughty Fox]

We will never know how many goals Conners would have got for us and at the moment we do not know how many the two new lads will get (no doubt after Saturday some will have already judged them), both have got bags of pace and no doubt are going to cause problems for other teams, which is going to result us winning more free kicks, this is where the our problem is at the moment.
Not so long ago a certain A.Wenger said we were probably the best deadball specialists in the country if not europe and even under MA we could look dangerous, but too often now the balls in from corners and freekicks or the shot from a freekick have been lame, so any hard work to get the freekick is wasted.
Deadball goals could make up any shortfall from the strikers tally, do not get me wrong I am not saying we should be a 'one trick pony' (which was the case IMO in the last promotion season) I think CL has started to get us playing a bit more football and if we start scoring goals this is not too much of a problem, but freekicks are a good weapon to have in the armoury, unfortunatly ours is currently like a wet lettuce.