Last 5 league ganes - 1/1/1/0/0

[Hotchilidog]

I am going to disagree with the OP here and say that we have been far from boring. In most of the use games the opposition keeper has been called upon to make a number of good saves, not to mention the number of times we have hit the bar and missed the odd good chance. We have been creating plenty of attacking chances but for one reason or another they have not been going in.

All this is being done whilst the squad continues to be in a state of flux with a spate of injuries and plenty of transfer speculation influencing team selection. We are are doing surprisingly well all things considered. I'm hopeful we will see a more settled side by the end of Feb beginning of March when things should be a whole lot clearer for Oscar.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Oscar will only play 1 up front as he said when he joined

Only the second team to stop burnley scoring at home this season.

Was last night our second/third away 0-0 of the season?

Fourth? Yeovil, QPR, Reading, Burnley.

 

[Machiavelli]

I don t think we are negative or boring.
Biggest problem we have is there is a lack of pace in the team.
Ulloa is a great CF but he is unlikely to run beyond anyone. Likewise with Lopez wide right he is never going to attack the fullback at pace beat him and whip in a cross.
Crofts was the man who has been bombing on and scoring goals and that needs replacing.
People saying play 2 up maybe right but you need 2 forwards to compliment each other and we have not had that for a while.
If Wickham and Conway comes i can see us scoring a lot more as especially at home but also away as there will be more pace and a greater ability to put the ball in a dangerous area.

Have to agree with all of this. Injuries and lack of pace have held us back this season. What we need is a goalscoring attacking midfielder, although there aren't too many of them about and they don't come cheap. I'm still hoping that Oscar will identify one in the summer.

 

[Machiavelli]

I am going to disagree with the OP here and say that we have been far from boring. In most of the use games the opposition keeper has been called upon to make a number of good saves, not to mention the number of times we have hit the bar and missed the odd good chance. We have been creating plenty of attacking chances but for one reason or another they have not been going in.

All this is being done whilst the squad continues to be in a state of flux with a spate of injuries and plenty of transfer speculation influencing team selection. We are are doing surprisingly well all things considered. I'm hopeful we will see a more settled side by the end of Feb beginning of March when things should be a whole lot clearer for Oscar.

This is a very good post too. Banish that doom: it's not justifiable.

 

[JBenno]

Fourth? Yeovil, QPR, Reading, Burnley.

5th - Huddersfield.

 

[goldstone]

Good post. Teams at the top of the premier and Champ are attacking teams. I love the Man city model- you score 2? No probs, we will score 4.

Have to agree with this. I go to football matches to be ENTERTAINED. Entertainment on the football pitch means GOALS. We are not seeing anywhere near enough of them from the Albion at the moment.

 

[Seagulls1984]

Until we either play 2 up front or two out and out wingers we will continue not scoring many goals. We have the perfect players to be more atacking , we should have ince and Andrews screening the back 4 then kaz and march out wide and orlandi just behind ulloa. We should be playing this in most home games.

 

[dougdeep]

Who's scored the least goals in the top ten? Oh, it's us. Something has to be done if we are to make the top 6.

 

[Prettyboyshaw]

6 goal leading scorers (and one of those is injured) very very poor with the amount of chances we have created. Its been frustrating this season and the couple before because had we had a prolific goalscorer and a couple of others chipping in we would have/be walking into to the Premiership.

I'm was no massive fan of CMS but think him and Ulloa may hit it off and make a big difference. Would also be nice for the wide players to chip in a bit more as well (drop Lopez too).

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

I am going to disagree with the OP here and say that we have been far from boring. In most of the use games the opposition keeper has been called upon to make a number of good saves, not to mention the number of times we have hit the bar and missed the odd good chance. We have been creating plenty of attacking chances but for one reason or another they have not been going in.

All this is being done whilst the squad continues to be in a state of flux with a spate of injuries and plenty of transfer speculation influencing team selection. We are are doing surprisingly well all things considered. I'm hopeful we will see a more settled side by the end of Feb beginning of March when things should be a whole lot clearer for Oscar.

Agreed.

It's all about context. Our attacking options have been minimal for most of the season, we've basically only had one good striker fit at a time. There's no point in playing Obika with Ulloa for the sake of it, because the strong likelihood is that it won't work, it will detriment our system and Obika isn't worthy of a start anyway.

Bare in mind that we've played Derby and Burnley in our two most recent league games and it's not as bad as some are making out. We do need to score more, and I'm confident we will with a few new signings and the return of CMS and Orlandi (and Buckley if he's still here).

As someone else has already said, the biggest disappointment in all this has been Kemy; not for a lack of goals, but for a lack of guile and creativity. Although the same could be said of Lopez - but we've have no one to replace him with up until now. Orlandi will start at Watford without a doubt.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I think your being unfair injuries and this transfer window have been extremely unsettling. Oscar had to jump in running from the start and he hasn't ha a settled side since, we can only judge Oscar on the basis of the next two seasons.

 

[Albumen]

I do like a clean sheet though.

We're currently playing to our strengths, and looking to strengthen our attacking side of the squad. 0-0 at Burnley is a very good result.

 

[Trigger]

It's quite an amazing sequence of results...

0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0, 1-1, 1-0, 2-3, 0-0, 1-0

P9 W4 D3 L2 F7 A5

Other than the Charlton game, there's not been a lot to excite the neutrals there.

And that Charlton game was played on a Sunday League pitch so a Sunday League result was to be expected...

 

[LamieRobertson]

Was at derby recently which was the game Steve claridge said on the football league show we were very negative and went for the nil nil creating next to nothing. Looking at jones' comments in BBC last night it would appear he was asked the same question. Maybe our reputation of a team playing the right way is changing to a less favourable one. The issue is we lack creativity, we have a hardworking team but can't play between the lines and stretch teams. We seem to be relying more in set pieces more and more.

Oscar was built up as an attacking version of Gus. Yes we are happy to go a bit more direct but that does not mean attacking. Leicester have just won 8 on the trot and that's by playing 2 up front with 2 or 3 bombing on at every opportunity from midfield. Clearly, this leaves them open and get beat at times. We picked them off nicely at the Amex and actually took our chances that day. But it's proven at this level with previous teams going up like Southampton, reading etc.

I felt Claridge was a bit unfair that day..both wide men injured...Barnes just sold..Ulloa/Orlandi just returned from injury and us being the away side ...he talked about how few goals we had scored away from home and yet in previous weeks had acknowledged how bad injuries had effected our forward line..hey ho

 

[LamieRobertson]

Agreed.

It's all about context. Our attacking options have been minimal for most of the season, we've basically only had one good striker fit at a time. There's no point in playing Obika with Ulloa for the sake of it, because the strong likelihood is that it won't work, it will detriment our system and Obika isn't worthy of a start anyway.

Bare in mind that we've played Derby and Burnley in our two most recent league games and it's not as bad as some are making out. We do need to score more, and I'm confident we will with a few new signings and the return of CMS and Orlandi (and Buckley if he's still here).

As someone else has already said, the biggest disappointment in all this has been Kemy; not for a lack of goals, but for a lack of guile and creativity. Although the same could be said of Lopez - but we've have no one to replace him with up until now. Orlandi will start at Watford without a doubt.

Add in birmingham who were on a q0 match unbeaten run and had just run there last 4 away games..

 

[backson]

I think the key is personnel and fitness rather than formation. We've scored plenty with one up front in the past. The key is to get the wide men, and some of the midfielders forward quicker, to help the one up front.

With Crofts now out, that main central link to the forward has gone, and we need to fill it. Add to that LuaLua and Buckley both being in and out of the side due to injury, and having to rely on Ulloa as the one up front, when he's only just back from a broken foot.

 

[British Bulldog]

We're currently playing to our strengths,

Nail on the head.

 

[bobzam]

The top 4 have run away from us now with their ability to win games. That leaves 2 play off spots we can potentially aim for currently occupied by forest (with 89 players in their squad inc 26 strikers) & reading who have now scored something like 12 goals in last 2 home games and bang in form.

Realistically I think Nathan jones, sorry I mean Oscar is building a squad for next season. The FA cup should be taken seriously this year as an opportunity for wembley (assuming we can beat Hull and get a favourable tie in QF)

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

It's as frustrating as last season. We've got a cracking team,a defence that's as tight as a nats chuff, but because of injury and out of form Leo we just can't score. We're so close to being auto promotion contenders, a couple of decent signings, 1 midfielder and 1 forward please plus cms coming back and we'll be firing again.
OH AND STAY INJURY FREE

 

[Wilko]

I think the injury thing is a bit of an excuse at times. For example- there were several games in a row when we could not score and Barnes was left up front on his ow. The madness for me was that we had Lita sat on the bench doing NOWT. Get two upfront!

My worry is that when CMS is back (or Hoskins) then they still won't get a look in because of Oscar's continuation of the one up front.

Ulloa up top with either CMS, Obika, Hoskins, Orlandi or anyone ATTACK minded would be so much better.

It is all very well praising our defence but the reason we leak so few goals is that we do not flood forward at pace leaving gaps. I watched the Derby game with a few non Albion mates and they said we were one of the most boring teams they had ever seen- sadly, I had to agree