The most apparent issue facing Tony Mowbray directly is this one, but he still needs to find a solution: how in the world can he address our issue with centre forwards scoring goals?
Even though we recruited four attackers in the summer, as of mid-November, none of them had made an impact.
We gave Mason Burstow a fair go, but he only really managed to muster one passable effort, which came against Sheffield Wednesday. Other than that, he hasn’t come close to finding the back of the net.
Hemir has not been seen much at the conclusion of games coming off the bench, and even though he has been in some nice situations, he has not been able to finish any games.
Eliezer Mayenda is the member of the group who Mowbray has expressed the greatest excitement about when discussing the potential he may offer, despite the fact that he has been sidelined since joining and just made his debut late in that Birmingham game. He seems quite useful.
In any event, I believe we should strive to structure our play to include the attackers more and create better opportunities. Although it hasn’t been the case for the most of the season, it’s evident in the last few weeks that Clarke and Roberts have been getting more crosses into risky areas. All we have to do is keep going, I suppose.
We’re still winning games and scoring goals, but having a striker who can score goals is invaluable, especially if you’re trying to get promoted.
Really, he has to decide whether to stick with Rusyn when it appears that a goal may be imminent, throw Mayenda in despite his lack of experience because he is ultimately the player out of the four that he likes the best, give Burstow or Hemir another chance, or go with two up front and alter the composition.
Regardless of the situation, it is very important. Before January arrives, we have to make a case for having these four guys around.
More clean sheets
Recently, I was listening to a podcast with Sam Allardyce, and he made a very clear point that I don’t think is mentioned enough: winning teams consistently have the cleanest sheets, thus improving your defence could be a smart idea if you want to win.
We play an expansive style of play, which causes us to give up some careless goals, but overall, I’m happy with how we’ve defended this season.
Nevertheless, there’s simply no justification for some of the subpar performances in recent weeks, especially when it comes to set pieces or swiftly switching between scenes. We need to stop it right away, even if I’m not sure if that’s due to inexperience or anything else.
We’re always hearing from opposing managers and coaches that we’re among the best teams in the division, and while I agree, I would trade in part of that style if it meant our defence was tighter, especially in the second half of the season when every victory seems to mean even more.
Recently, Mowbray made a point to emphasise that while we train hard on our set parts, are we really working hard enough? He must have been disappointed by the recent errors made by his players, such as O’Nien’s pulling in the box against Swansea, which resulted in his giving up a penalty, or the marking for the goal we gave up against Leicester. Then there is the defence we played against Norwich, which has been a problem for us all season.
We almost never give up goals that make you say, “Christ, what a goal that was”; instead, our mistakes almost always lead to goals being conceded.
Mowbray and his group must figure out how to fix it because we can’t just depend on outscoring everyone if we want to finish in the top six. We need to maintain more clean sheets.
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