leedsmad wrote: ↑Sun Feb 10, 2019 6:07 am
I find it alarming at the amount of opportunities we need to put the ball at the back of the net and this could potentially be our own doing. We have been in the top 2 basically all season and our conversion rate against our possession is alarming.... Billy Sharp would of had a field day if he was Playing for us.
Kemar Roofe isn't a striker not that it's his fault as we had to make do with the Bamford situation from the start of the year, Roofe won't fire us up to the Premier league his only scored 1 goal in the past 7 games simply not good enough and every one of those games we easily dominated possession.
Players like Che Adams 19 goals, Abraham 20 goals even Maupay 17 goals and there Clubs are not even in the top 6 and Roofe has 14 goals..... that is simply not good enough for a top 2 side. Do we rely to much on our Midfielders in getting goals? Have they been creative enough and assisted Roofe enough?
All in all we have seriously over achieved with this squad if Bamford doesn't find the net with all the possession we have and find form quick smart we will be in this League next year, our problem for me? We didn't invest properly in the transfer window IMO and seems like we have sweet FA money.... Mind boggling when you consider where we are on the ladder and not take advantage of it with all the injuries we've had.
So does Bielsa...
I'd like a deeper breakdown of our chances (and I'm sure Marcelo could give us one!), but for me the difference is how teams have set up against us. I'm a lot of those early games we were hitting teams on the break and basically running them ragged. It's been said a lot, but an early goal will always suit our style because we dominate most aspects of matches, so once we're ahead the other team are unlikely to get a sniff.
Most teams now set up defensively and sit deep, allowing us to have posession, but not allowing us space. I think one of the reasons we've had more comebacks than anyone in the league is that teams who have set up like that and then nick a goal probably think 'job done', which brings complacency.
Think you're being harsh on Roofe there. He is having his best season for us and has had to be the focal point for the majority of the season with very little as backup. Him and Hernandez have been absolutely critical to our season with their goals and assists. I think Roofe has probably scored some goals which Bamford wouldn't have, but equally spurned a few a player with more experience as a centre forward would have put away.
We've been top 2 since before Christmas and have had a ridiculous number of first team players out and in that sense we're fine. These next couple of weeks are critical though as we're going to need to integrate those coming back into the squad/11 and maintain their fitness.
Think the players currently coming back from injury are a big part of why we didn't spend big in January. You've got Bamford, who cost us £7m in summer, making his first league start yesterday - it's going to be massive if he stays fit for the run in just to give us another option up to, as well as allowing Roofe a breather. Brown still hasn't played first team, but has been impressing with goals and assists in the u23 league, as well as having experience getting promoted playing great football.
Then you've got the fact that Bielsa targeted 2 positions to strengthen (key word
stengthen, not just more bodies): keeper and winger. We've brought in a keeper with an excellent pedigree, but who will probably need a little time to acclimate to the league. Then there was the Dan James saga - a deal agreed for essentially £10m before their chairman blocked it. James would have added another edge to our attack, and we were all in on him...
I'm very much on the side of 'they have been excellent before, so they'll be excellent again' with this team. We've had a bad patch, but are still top (albeit maybe only until this afternoon). You might say we should be further ahead, given the competition stumbling, but that just shows how competitive the league is this season. Any one of the top 6 are in with a chance at auto-promotion, but we know we can beat anyone in this league on our day.
Starting with Swansea this week
hope you are feeling much better