Morning all, Yes - we drew once more at home against a side we should be beating and yes, we failed to score again. However, I find other aspects of far more frustrating. Lacking Pace We've never been the quickest team in the league but we look incredibly slow at the moment. I know it's not all about express pace and acceleration but we need more players who able to dribble with the ball and not afraid to take on players - i.e. Suarez and Bellamy - not blistering but he's quick and attacks with pace. Downing has pace and he can beat players but he's lacking confidence so he doesn't do it often enough. Failure To Get Players In The Box I don'r understand why our midfielders cannot support our striker by getting into the box. I saw on a number of occasions where Johnson or the wideman was on the wing, got to the byline, ready to put the ball into the box only to find that there was only one player there (sometimes no one!). Set Pieces and Crossing By failing to get bodies in the box, it makes it more difficult to find a target when crossing. We brought in players like Downing and Adam to whip the ball in but we rarely beat the first man. We are struggling to score goals from open play so we need to take advantage of set pieces. Without good quality set pieces, we lose a dimension to our attack. Our Players Can't Head The Ball Stemming from poor set pieces and crossing, and this may be just me, but I noticed that we can't head the ball. I have seen Kuyt miss very good chances with his head and he should be doing better. In fact, the only time he scores with his head is when he is literally 2 yards away from the goal. I miss the days when we had Sammi Hyypia who would tower over everyone and would head the ball with power and accuracy. Torres was another good header of the ball as well. I thought Carroll would finally give us more of a threat when the ball is in the air but he looks afraid and weak.
Good article LFC_009. Your second point is so right! Watching the game yesterday and I was screaming when there wasn't anyone in the box. That is something that can be worked on in training and it needs to be.
Ya, second point was the best one for me, we just don't look like scoring/ want to score. I wish I had video of the Swansea, Blackburn, Norwich games as well to see if it has been an occuring theme or something that has come recently. I do agree about the pace thing too, that has got to be Spurs biggest strength for me, they are far and away the fastest team in the prem and teams struggle to keep up. Not saying we go buy speedsters for the fun of it ( pennant, gonzalez) but a bit of quality and pace won't hurt ( possibly a defoe?)
I just find it ironic that we've all been calling for wingers (i.e. Downing) to get balls into the boss and there's no one to attack it. Defoe would be a decent shout however I'm not sure I want to be bringing in an older player - Bellamy, Kuyt, Maxi are key players IMO and they are all on the wrong side of the 30. Would be interesting to see if we bring Granero from Real Madrid - don't know much about the lad but he's an attacking midfielder and maybe he possesses a little clas to unlock defences.
Not that I want to get all technical and go above the heads of some, but my main concern is that we are a bit **** at kicking the ball into the net.
Been a rumour going around that Granero might be heading to us in the Summer, not happy about being way down the pecking order and even seeing Coentrão (LB) being preferred to him in CM, his natural position
Could be worth a punt? Slight concerns that Mourinho prefers a left back in that role rather than Granero however, Real Madrid also couldn't find room for Van Der Vaart and we know how that turned out.
That wasn't the problem on Saturday though - the problem was we created ONE good opportunity and Kuyt headed wide. I think the fault here has to lie with the line up KK put out - last time I looked we wern't at old trafford we were playing Stoke at home.
