I think defensive players pitching in with a few goals will be important come the end of the season - so far as I recall Hoover has a couple, Harding and Hammond with one. Fonte hasn`t got of the mark yet this season (I think) - he`s always good for a few, so add them to some from Cork, Fox, Richardson etc in the second half of the season, then hey-presto!, losses become draws, and draws become wins !
If only it were that easy! Not sure why Fonte has not been among the goals this season. He had about 7 last time round. Jos and Fonte will be important at set pieces. However i think the problem (if there is a problem) is that the midfield (particularly CM) is not scoring as many. Chaplow was on a good run until he got injured. Lallana is going through a dry patch. I would like to see Cork on the score sheet a few more times and we all know Schneiderlin has issues with scoring. However so long as we are scoring goals and winning games I don't really mind who is scoring them.
Couldn't agree more, especially about the midfielders scoring. One other strange thing I've noticed is that all our goals since Rickie's first one against Blackpool have been from headers. It would be nice for Rickie to get back in the habit of blasting a few 25 yard free kicks in, not to mention Connolly slotting a few.
I think we are scoring more headers because with Fox and Richardson we are getting some fantastic crosses coming into the box at the moment. Another thing which is probably being picky. But when Guly is scoring at the moment, he is scoring as a striker and not a midfielder. Which may seem a foolish thing to say as goals are goals but he is one of our only midfielders that scores goals. When Connolly gets back fully fit we will be benefiting from Guly's goals from midfield while still having two 'proper' goal scoring strikers.
I'm looking more at the midfielders than the defenders to be chipping in from now until April. Just two goals between Hammond, Cork and Morgan - and one of the them coming way back on the opening day - is very poor, especially for a side wanting automatic promotion.
Guly wont score nearly as many from midfield. He's getting on the end of crosses because he's alongside Rickie up front. People are making the point that midfielders are not scoring enough and to an extent I agree, but we are the top scorers in the league so to be honest there is no real issue unless Rickie gets injured and misses a few games.
This, I think is the most important point. As long as we create (and take) chances it doesn't really matter who pops them away. In the away games that I've been to where we have either drawn or lost, we have always had excellent opportunities to have got a better result. Missing those chances (in some cases they were sitters) has cost us points and I think that is a bigger issue than who actually gets the goals.
I have noticed that fonte hasnt been going up for all the corners, which is fair enough, Hooiveld is obviously more of a threat from set pieces. the reason both the cb's cant go up this season is because fox is taking some corners, whereas last season harding used to be the player to sit. i find it odd that richardson isnt the one to sit instead of fonte, but maybe he is considered more of threat with his ability to get the ball back in.
