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Are we clinical enough?

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Diamond Whites

Diamond Whites

I imagine this has already been discussed to a certain extent, but am new to the forum and can't find a similar thread title.

Pretty self explanatory really. As good as our front four are; I don't think we convert enough chances against big opposition. This was especially evident in the Woolwich game and concerns me going forward. Having to spend the last few minutes of that match hanging on felt like a cruel injustice in light of our dominance. I still feel disappointed despite the win, as we should've smashed them to pieces. We DID smash them in everything but the goal tally.

I'm generally very positive about our club, and know every team misses chances, but this is definitely holding us back. Dele in particular squanders too many opportunities and often looks too casual in front of goal. Even Harry has missed a few sitters recently.

How do we improve our conversion rate? Is it just a spell we're having - considering our recent results and performances have generally been outstanding?
 
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Diamond Whites said:
I imagine this has already been discussed to a certain extent, but am new to the forum and can't find a similar thread title.

Pretty self explanatory really. As good as our front four are; I don't think we convert enough chances. This was especially evident in the Woolwich game and concerns me going forward. Having to spend the last few minutes of that match hanging on felt like a cruel injustice in light of our dominance. I still feel disappointed despite the win, as we should've smashed them to pieces. We DID smash them in everything but the goal tally.

I'm generally very positive about our club, and know every team misses chances, but this is definitely holding us back. Dele in particular squanders too many opportunities and often looks too casual in front of goal. Even Harry has missed a few sitters recently.

How do we improve our conversion rate? Is it just a spell we're having - considering our recent results and performances have generally been outstanding?
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I think it’s just a spell we’re having. When it clicks we’ll put 5 or 6 past someone.
 
We all know goal difference is huge towards the end of the season, especially when things are tight. Teams will always miss chances, it's more of a problem when you don't create many. I don't think we're firing on all cylinders but we're still picking up the points. I'm not going to knock Kane as his contribution in games is evident for everyone to see. Midfield could do with chipping in with a few more then we will start walking away with 3-0 wins.
 
Is it better to score 70% of 10 chances or 40% of 20 chances?

We create many more chances than other teams (stats call-out!). On the Juve thread, before the match, I quoted the single stat where we had the upper hand: total chances created.
 
We've missed a few but we scored shitloads, just as we have done the past two seasons. Absolutely nothing wrong with our attack. Bayern Munich have scored 1 more goal than us. In a truly shite league PSG have scored 76 goals, looking at them against Real Madrid the other night I don't think they are better than us. Over in Spain, Barca have scored only 8 more than us! And in Italy Juve have scored only 5 more than us with Napoli (a team everyone is describing as one of the most attacking teams in Europe have scored just 2 more!!). We are in the top 6 or 7 best scoring teams across Europe!!

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Compared to other seasons I think we are lacking goals from other areas, namely Alderweireld, Dier (our DM's & Defenders) as a collective these lads are way off from chipping in from previous seasons. Just as scoring from free kicks (apart from Eriksen's this week that was his 1st in approx 2 seasons!!).
 
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We are a bit selfish at times, all our front players have that trait and it does worry me a bit. It's a very hardworking bunch of players but Son, Kane and Alli (Eriksen a lot less) have a very greedy side to their game , but to their credit that side only really shows after we go ahead - very rarely when we are still equal/behind.
 
Thanks for the stats on this Guido. It's clear our midfield haven't scored anywhere near as many as last season - namely Son and Dele who both hit around twenty. Eriksen and Dembele have never been prolific goal scorers either. Also Toby and Vic' being injured has meant we've been less of an aerial threat from set pieces.

I think my question relates more to games against big opposition (I've edited my original post accordingly). Apart from Liverpool at home; I can't think of another big game where we've really punished a team this season. We lost against Chelscum despite our dominance, and never really put the Manure and Arse' games to bed.

Definitely not knocking the lads though - especially Harry. It just concerns me because quality opposition - even lesser teams - can, and will, punish us.
 
Diamond Whites said:
Thanks for the stats on this Guido. It's clear our midfield haven't scored anywhere near as many as last season - namely Son and Dele who both hit around twenty. Eriksen and Dembele have never been prolific goal scorers either. Also Toby and Vic' being injured has meant we've been less of an aerial threat from set pieces.

I think my question relates more to games against big opposition (I've edited my original post accordingly). Apart from Liverpool at home; I can't think of another big game where we've really punished a team this season. We lost against Chelscum despite our dominance, and never really put the Manure and Arse' games to bed.

Definitely not knocking the lads though - especially Harry. It just concerns me because quality opposition - even lesser teams - can, and will, punish us.
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Son played CF last year when Kane was injured, scored loads too, which is why he's down on this years figures. As for Dele last year was a total freak season, no Midfielder in Europe scored more, so a repeat of that was highly unlikely, but having said that he's still a part of the reason why we score more goals. Basically our front 4 (Son, Kane, Dele and Eriksen) are right up there with the very best in Europe. We aren't going to score shit load of goals against the top 6 on average (although we did against Liverpool this year), those games (namely Liverpool and City) you can flip a coin as to who will win and by how much, all three teams with the main philosophy to attack where possible, one game it's 5-0 to City, the next it's 4-3 to Liverpool, or 4-1 to City or 4-1 to Spurs. The other game against Man U or Chelsea will be very tight as their style is to defend and looks like Woolwich are falling into this bracket too. This is the reality of these games, so nothing to get concerned about, especially since we might have strengthened with Lamela back fit and Moura being bought.

I'd be worried if I where Utd, Chelsea or Woolwich, not us, as they didn't create anything. Imagine not creating anything in a game and like Chelsea, scoring 2 goals from 2 shots, this isn't sustainable over a period of time. Leicester are living proof of this (although they kept up their shots per game to goals going all season, which was unheard of), if it was sustainable they would have won the Title a 2nd year running and would be competing again this year. Basically if your team doesn't create then you're fucked.
 
Those kind of games happen every now and then.

We've been one of the most clinical teams in the league the last 3 seasons. Even in Poch's first season we were the only side to have 3 players hit double figures for premier league goals. Scoring goals is not a problem for us.
 
No we're not.

I k ow we had a great GD last season, and I see from above were doing well this season, but I think we're actually better than that.

I'm not sure it's clinical, I don't think our possession and play generates enough clear cut chances.

The sunny side is that when we do we will be getting Barcelona and Real scorelines.......
 
From a non statistical analysis I would say we are pretty clinical - we have one of the best finishers in world football up front (who has admittedly missed a few easy ones in the last few weeks but he is only human!) who takes a lot of shots but almost always converts the simple ones. We have goalscorers from the edge of / outside of the box in Son and Eriksen and a threat in the box of Dele (who has been more wasteful this season than last of course).

If you cast your mind back to the Soldado / Adebayor days where we had a very creative midfield but not much up top you could call us wasteful because they missed lots and lots of chances. We don't create as many clear cut chances nowadays because we don't play teams who are stupid enough to open up against us. That's why we need to play with more precision and guile to even get a clear opportunity.
 
Nope, we miss far too many chances. It's a mix of lacking quality in every position and maybe lacking the right kind of mentality. I think we are a bit too worked up and intense sometimes, which is part of our intended playstyle to be fair, but then when it comes time to putting the final delicate touch to finish a chance after some frantic buildup, we don't have the required composure.

The thing is that we don't necessarily have as much 'natural' attacking talent in our squad as the clubs around us, so we work harder to be better than the sum of our parts and hold our own, etc. And that has got us far, but to be as clinical and graceful in front of goal as Man City or Liverpool are for example, we need to A: Bring in more quality players to compliment the ones we already have, and B: Become more comfortable with our current standing in the game and the caliber of competition we are in these days, which comes with time and experience, so then we are not driven as much by adrenaline but rather cold calculation.
 
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