If we had have had decent strikers.

[Staffsoatcake]

This season,how many more pts could we have got this this season?

I think anywhere between 12 to 20 pts. If 2 forwards could have got around 12 goals apiece.

The latter would have us in the play offs.

[ersaurebot 1, 000, 000 views]

I’ve thought this also… but how many times have we played a team and thought the same about them?

How many times have we been carved open and struggled to understand how they never put it in the net?

But your point stands and I hope we can do so / develop what we have to be better.

[stokecitydom]

You can say exactly the same with regards to the defence. How many goals have we gifted teams or not done the basics defensively?

The league is very average & it doesn’t take much to be competing for the playoffs. Take Hull and West Brom as examples. We were comfortably the better team in both games and they are pushing at the right end of the table.

We need improvements in all positions, as we will never progress with a defence as unreliable as ours.

[cvillestokie]

If we’d have had better defenders, how many more points could we have had?

We could do this for every position.

If we had better players, we’d have more points 😉

[Vadiation_Ribe]

Play offs is over optimistic I think, but we would've been safely midtable.

I said at the time that Jacob Brown was a massive loss, and it's why I think we only need 3 or 4 key signings (including a forward) for a much better 2024/25. Assuming we keep hold of our better performers this season, those and some good new signings will lift others to better performances.

[albundy]

Haaland would have struggled to get 12 thus year with the chances created

[felonious]

If we can sign Panini from Modena it should sort our problems out.

[Veritas]

Apr 7, 2024 14:13:03 GMT Staffsoatcake said:

This season,how many more pts could we have got this this season?

I think anywhere between 12 to 20 pts. If 2 forwards could have got around 12 goals apiece.

The latter would have us in the play offs.

Every team in the league, in fact in every league, could say the same. If only....

[theonlooker]

The supply to the strikers is the main issue which needs solving before you can even assess how good our forwards are.

[plymouthpotter4]

Apr 7, 2024 15:05:32 GMT felonious said:

If we can sign Panini from Modena it should sort our problems out.

Would you sandwich him into a back three?

[J-Roar]

Apr 7, 2024 15:05:32 GMT felonious said:

If we can sign Panini from Modena it should sort our problems out.

He's red hot.

[danceswithclams]

Apr 7, 2024 15:05:32 GMT felonious said:

If we can sign Panini from Modena it should sort our problems out.

Underrated post.

[rickyfullerbeer]

Apr 7, 2024 15:11:48 GMT theonlooker said:

The supply to the strikers is the main issue which needs solving before you can even assess how good our forwards are.

Happy to take the lead on this one - they're garbage.

[wakeypotter]

If we would’ve had quality strikers we would’ve pissed this league 😬

[theonlooker]

Apr 7, 2024 15:26:12 GMT rickyfullerbeer said:

Apr 7, 2024 15:11:48 GMT theonlooker said:

The supply to the strikers is the main issue which needs solving before you can even assess how good our forwards are.

Happy to take the lead on this one - they're garbage.

I'd rather see proper evidence before jumping to conclusions. The only evidence we have is that bar Burger, the central midfielders we have aren't fit for purpose at the top end of the division and that the wide forwards we have can't score or create.

Only Bae or Manhoef get a free pass based on age and how new they are to the country/league and the fleeting ability they've shown thus far.

[rickyfullerbeer]

Apr 7, 2024 15:58:03 GMT theonlooker said:

Apr 7, 2024 15:26:12 GMT rickyfullerbeer said:

Happy to take the lead on this one - they're garbage.

I'd rather see proper evidence before jumping to conclusions. The only evidence we have is that bar Burger, the central midfielders we have aren't fit for purpose at the top end of the division and that the wide forwards we have can't score or create.

Only Bae or Manhoef get a free pass based on age and how new they are to the country/league and the fleeting ability they've shown thus far.

Which striker do you envisage might be a good option?

Mmaee a tidy link up player but we'd need Bae Manhoeff and A N Other winger to score goals as he won't score anywhere near enough. Wants to do all his work outside of the box.

[cheadlepotter]

A look around various websites reveals our differences are

xG for - we’ve scored 8-9 less than we should have
xG against - we’ve conceded 2-3 more than we should have
Points - we’ve got 8pts less than we should have (we’d be 13th before and after all the other team’s xGF/xGA/points are included)

Obviously a better strike force would create more xG with their movement, 12 more points is realistic but 20 is probably too many to expect.

However, xG doesn’t take into account the penalties we should have had in the first half of the season. Chuck those in (though we have to admit our conversion level isn’t quite what it should be!) and it could be a lot nearer to 20 if not quite that many.

[theonlooker]

Apr 7, 2024 16:03:55 GMT rickyfullerbeer said:

Apr 7, 2024 15:58:03 GMT theonlooker said:

I'd rather see proper evidence before jumping to conclusions. The only evidence we have is that bar Burger, the central midfielders we have aren't fit for purpose at the top end of the division and that the wide forwards we have can't score or create.

Only Bae or Manhoef get a free pass based on age and how new they are to the country/league and the fleeting ability they've shown thus far.

Which striker do you envisage might be a good option?

Mmaee a tidy link up player but we'd need Bae Manhoeff and A N Other winger to score goals as he won't score anywhere near enough. Wants to do all his work outside of the box.

Looking at previous videos of Mmaee at other clubs it shows a striker that can be lethal in the right areas, the areas we have regularly struggled to get him into. It shows a striker capable of linking the play deeper and spinning in behind. He's shown the ability to drop in and link but our midfield have shown they don't have the ability for the return pass, often stopping or slowing the play down, looking for the full back who in turn looks for the centre half.

Take it away from Mmaee though and look at other forwards.

There are two types of forwards in this league. Forwards that run the channels and forwards that thrive off crosses.

We have midfielders that can't find the channels and wide men that literally can't cross a ball.

[Staffsoatcake]

Apr 7, 2024 15:00:33 GMT albundy said:

Haaland would have struggled to get 12 thus year with the chances created

He would have bagged at least a hat trick yesterday.

[nott1]

Wasting your time...the club are not/have not been listening for years!

[lordb]

Apr 7, 2024 16:10:15 GMT theonlooker said:

Apr 7, 2024 16:03:55 GMT rickyfullerbeer said:

Which striker do you envisage might be a good option?

Mmaee a tidy link up player but we'd need Bae Manhoeff and A N Other winger to score goals as he won't score anywhere near enough. Wants to do all his work outside of the box.

Looking at previous videos of Mmaee at other clubs it shows a striker that can be lethal in the right areas, the areas we have regularly struggled to get him into. It shows a striker capable of linking the play deeper and spinning in behind. He's shown the ability to drop in and link but our midfield have shown they don't have the ability for the return pass, often stopping or slowing the play down, looking for the full back who in turn looks for the centre half.

Take it away from Mmaee though and look at other forwards.

There are two types of forwards in this league. Forwards that run the channels and forwards that thrive off crosses.

We have midfielders that can't find the channels and wide men that literally can't cross a ball.

Would help if they played on the correct wing

[chad]

Apr 7, 2024 15:00:33 GMT albundy said:

Haaland would have struggled to get 12 thus year with the chances created

He’d have got three yesterday

[professorplump]

A prolific striker would really help, although Blackburn have one and have still struggled.

[baconburger]

Apr 7, 2024 14:51:21 GMT cvillestokie said:

If we’d have had better defenders, how many more points could we have had?

We could do this for every position.

If we had better players, we’d have more points 😉

If we’d scored more goals we’d be in a better position and the games would have been a better watch particularly at home. Needless to say a better defence would be nice too but not nearly as transformative. You can still be challenging for promotion with a defence no better than ours, you can’t say the same about the goal scoring situation though I couldn’t care less who scores them. We just need to score a lot more goals.

[moon]

Apr 7, 2024 14:53:58 GMT Vadiation_Ribe said:

Play offs is over optimistic I think, but we would've been safely midtable.

I said at the time that Jacob Brown was a massive loss, and it's why I think we only need 3 or 4 key signings (including a forward) for a much better 2024/25. Assuming we keep hold of our better performers this season, those and some good new signings will lift others to better performances.

Despite how bad we've been up front I don't think Jacob Brown was ever the answer and I don't think we miss him. I don't believe we're struggling up front from a lack of effort on the players part, and that is pretty much all that Brown ever offered, guaranteed effort, we got a reasonable fee for such a limited player.