Where are the goals going to come from ???

The strange thing is that Green and Sills were both superb yesterday, as they have been consistently recently, yet the fact is we are not getting enough goals and so people will always point the finger at the main strikers.

One thought that occurred to me was doing away with the wingers, adding Robbo or Ellis at the back, pushing Manse and Nico up and playing both Green and Benyon off Sills in a 3-4-3 formation.

It might work, but then again we might lose the solid shape of two banks of four that has made us so sound defensively.

Vinny - I edited your post because I think you meant "where are the goals going to come from?" Not "where are the goals going to from?"

I agree entirely with you and I think you make a sensible balanced arguement, It is difficult to criticise the players when we are clearly playing well, but playing well and not scoring is a worry.

I spoke to a mate on the phone today who saw the game on MOTD and thought we were unlucky not to win, Ok so we had one or two chances but really I don't think we were unlucky , we just looked like we wouldn't score (in my opinion). Too many shots were "skyed" or well wide.

This I accept was a unusual game being the 4th round against a championship team, but there is a theme.

One thing I'm not and that is a football expert and would never try to claim I was. The word expert to me only means a has been(ex) and a squirt of water.Its my view that if you want your strikers to score goals they need to be in the best place to do so and that has to be in front of goal.

I do feel that the team play a different way having Green up front and I do not think its the best way to play with him in the team, let me try to explain. In the first half I watched Dsans closely, when Nico had the ball at his feet deep in our half, Dsane was just standing far to close to him and was not prepared to make any runs forward( I pointed this out to Timbo during the game) he stood there and just waited for Nico to look to hit the ball long and out wide for Green to run out from the middle and try to win the ball.

Dsane in my view should have been sprinting down the line to give Nico the chance to pass it to him, then Dsane you would hope would beat any player coming on to him and deliver balls into Green and Sills. The way we play now having two banks of four, stops Nico and Mansell ever going to far up the field, you never see Nico in an advanced position of Dsane and he only ever go's past the half way line when Dsane has the ball out wide and level with the penalty area, so he can give Dsane the chance to knock it back for to him, so he can put a cross into the box.

Mansell seldom go's past Carlisle and gets crosses in and its my view that playing with attacking wing backs is the best way to give service to your strikers. How many balls does Green get played to him from the midfield when he is in a more central role? not that many and when Sills played such a ball in a recent home game just a few Min's after the kick off, Green was through on goal. I know he did not take the chance but we need to use is pace more in the central role, than just him having to use it to get to balls pumped up and out wide by Nico and Mansell. Well thats how I see it ;D

Rob, Green wants to score goals thats what all strikers set out every game to achieve, I really can't buy the idea that he now drifts out wide, as he wants to avoid being near the goal , I think Bucks wants the likes of Nico to knock the ball out wide and Green is being asked to get there and win it.

I wouldn't criticise any of the team regarding yesterday as it was a good performance against a Championship side. There has been a trend of less goals since Green has been in the side, for whatever reason, as the thread starter notes and all of us know. DaveR will look to blame Dsane, the Manager's tactics etc.., but we need goals to stay on the pace in the League.

Where are the goals going to come from???






The other team???






Oh come on!!!

I've no idea why the strikers are not scoring - we're really not lacking in chances, the quality of our crossing is better than I remember it being last season.
Our approach is perhaps more measured - having Hodges playing at the back has been a big influence on this. Having the "battering ram" approach that we had when we had Phillips leading the line often meant that possession was lost more often.
I would have thought that at this stage of the 07/08 season we had conceded 10 or more goals, although I expect that this season we have scored at least 15 less.
I'm pretty sure that our points total will be lower this season than last, although I think that the quality of the squad makes us a better bet for promotion.

I feel that our quality of play has hugely improve overall since January 2008 and I would feel over two legs in the play-offs that there are only a couple of teams that I would be very nervous in facing. I'm confident that goals will come to get us out of this run of comparitively lean league form of the last 5 or 6 matches.

I don't want to be critical of Wroe but I find it so frustrating when he gets the ball on the edge of the area nd he (as Jerry says) he leans back and belts it over the bar. He's got ability and I believe that Bucks can coach this into his play.
We're also not having the defence scoring many goals - our top scorer from the back four is Robertson with 2 - Woods is the only other to notch a single goal.

Another point to note is that there is little variance between the scoring this season and last season if you take into account one other factor - having Zebroski and his outlet of creativity and goals. It was highly unlikely that we would be able to replace him adequately - that's not a reflection of Bucks, the coaches and the scouting set-up, just a reflection as to how well he did for us and how fortunate we were to have him.

Anyone know where Plummer was yesterday?

Looking at the rest of the bench, I can't see that he would have been better than any of the other options, TBH. I haven't seen anything to suggest that he offers any more than our current crop of players.
I'd only be happy to see any additions to the squad if we could see some of the current fringe players taken-on at other clubs - such as Brough, Adams, Elis (although I think it would be a shame as he has a lot of offer). I guess that Poke is not coming-cheap either......