How do we get more goals from midfield/wingers?

AriseSirWalter

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As much as I’ve been critical of Morelos at times I’d say our bigger problem is the lack of goals from midfield and wide areas. This is a problem that will potentially hit us harder if AM is sold and a new striker needs time to settle.

The goal tally from Arfield, Kent, Aribo, Hagi (although Hagi hasn’t played a huge amount of games) wasn’t enough if you’re wanting to win a league.

How do we get more goals, is it a case of new players needed? Or a change to formation or players just needing time to settle?

Personally I think we could get Haji to 12-17, Aribo 8-13, Arfield 5-10. Kent ???

Kent, I’ve no idea to be honest and I think his goal tally is the biggest disappointment from those mentioned. He scores goals in big games but we need more from him. I’d like to see Haji more central with one of the widemen able to score goals regularly to support forward.

I think players having more experience (Aribo and Hagi) will give more goals, a change of formation would help (Hagi and Kent) but do think we need another goal scorer.
 
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Sign goalscoring midfielders. I think we have done that with Hagi. Some of our fans are finally starting to admit Kent isn't going to do that. Aribo is more about assisting goals.

Signing another goalscoring attacking midfielder should be a big priority for us.
 
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I think in the case of Kent, he comes towards the ball a lot but should maybe do more runs off the ball like runs beyond the striker.
often in games he drops in to a sort of wing back position which leaves him more to do. He needs to start higher up the pitch.
i think he can be a great player but his positional sense just needs tweaking.

Hagi will defo score a few this year. We do thou still need more runners off the ball as there is only really arfield who does that but he lacks a little bit of composure off the ball
 
As much as I’ve been critical of Morelos at times I’d say our bigger problem is the lack of goals from midfield and wide areas. This is a problem that will potentially hit us harder if AM is sold and a new striker needs time to settle.

The goal tally from Arfield, Kent, Aribo, Hagi (although Hagi hasn’t played a huge amount of games) wasn’t enough if you’re wanting to win a league.

How do we get more goals, is it a case of new players needed? Or a change to formation or players just needing time to settle?

Personally I think we could get Haji to 12-17, Aribo 8-13, Arfield 5-10. Kent ???

Kent, I’ve no idea to be honest and I think his goal tally is the biggest disappointment from those mentioned. He scores goals in big games but we need more from him. I’d like to see Haji more central with one of the widemen able to score goals regularly to support forward.

I think players having more experience (Aribo and Haji) will give more goals, a change of formation would help (Haji and Kent) but do think we need another goal scorer.
We don't play a system suitable for midfield scoring. It's all about one striker. Free play and sometimes just shoot
 
As much as I’ve been critical of Morelos at times I’d say our bigger problem is the lack of goals from midfield and wide areas. This is a problem that will potentially hit us harder if AM is sold and a new striker needs time to settle.

The goal tally from Arfield, Kent, Aribo, Hagi (although Hagi hasn’t played a huge amount of games) wasn’t enough if you’re wanting to win a league.

How do we get more goals, is it a case of new players needed? Or a change to formation or players just needing time to settle?

Personally I think we could get Haji to 12-17, Aribo 8-13, Arfield 5-10. Kent ???

Kent, I’ve no idea to be honest and I think his goal tally is the biggest disappointment from those mentioned. He scores goals in big games but we need more from him. I’d like to see Haji more central with one of the widemen able to score goals regularly to support forward.

I think players having more experience (Aribo and Haji) will give more goals, a change of formation would help (Haji and Kent) but do think we need another goal scorer.

Hi Mr Gerrard, I hope you are well.

To be blunt, this is the gaffers problem.

Thanks,
WATP87
 
Encourage them to shoot when the opportunity presents itself. Too often they appear to prefer to pass the buck rather than take the responsibility. Gerrard was never shy in that respect and I would expect him to be positively encouraging the players to have a go.

We could also encourage a bit more positivity in term of making that late run into the box - the kind of run wee Doddie, Ian Durrant and even Barry Ferguson made a habit of making, between defenders into open space with a clear sight of goal. Not difficult but players seem so focused on sticking to the script, maintaining the line and too concerned about what's behind them to consider making such runs for fear of the "what if".

In general - be more positive and take more chances in the final third. Let the defenders worry about what's behind you. You don't buy a ticket you don't win the raffle.
 
We badly need to work harder on shooting from outside the box. We rarely do it, and when we do it's usually completely powder-puff. Ryan Jack's has improved slightly but that's about it. I'd have thought Gerrard and McAllister would be the ideal coaches for it.
 
It's not an exact science to be fair.

Playing passes with a bit of zip and a quicker tempo would certainly help playing against packed defences.

Shooting from distance might help as well.
 
Dont wait until the last 10 minutes to start hitting shots from just outside the box!! Last season we passed it around outside the box until we realised we were in trouble and started shooting from outside. This season id like to see us, particularly arfield, hagi, kent, test the keeper. The teams knew we werent going to shoot and would knock the ball out wide.
 
A large part of the issue lays with recycling the ball, imo.

The ball being picked up around the box by our MF players, Ian Ferguson and Pedro Mendes are good examples of where a player should always be stationed at corners and crosses.

When the ball is headed clear, there should be recycler's waiting to collect the clearances. When they have the ball, they should have at least three forward targets to hit besides the instinct to "hit it".
 
We’ve got players that can score goals. Kent, Aribo, Hagi are all more than capable. Our system relies to much on the striker scoring.
 
Kent has to contribute much much more, He only had 2 assists for the entire season both in cup games no assists in the league which really isn’t good enough. There lies the problem. Though should be fair to say not just Kent needs to do better, the entire midfield & attacking players need to contribute more in terms of assists & goals. As we need to take the pressure of Alfie, really any good successful team has goals littered throughout the team & are not reliant on just one player.
 
You get them into areas where they have more chance of scoring goals which is in and around the box.

Our attacking midfield/wingers are supposed to be playing in the half-space, from there they should be getting into the box. This is what the system is designed for. None of the players have a goal scoring instinct though, all too often Kent, Aribo, Arfield, Hagi have dropped to become involved in the build up.

Arfield done a bit better with it the season before, especially the last few fixtures of the season. However, he was badly off form when we returned.
 
Change the system to a narrow 4-2-3-1 with the full backs bombing forward, have the attacking forwards cut in supporting the number 10 and the main striker.

A box to box midfielder with creativity and a dynamic right sided forward could make all the difference.

Keep the 4-3-3 for the games against the scum and in Europe. It seems to work a treat in these type of games.
 
It’s largely the way we play currently, the way we build up play pushes our full backs to hold the ball on the wing, they begin our attacks usually and then they usually cross the ball in further up the park. To start having more goal scoring coming from anyone except Morelos, we need to start building attacks up the middle of the park which we don’t do very often, which is one of the reasons why we don’t score often from midfield.
 
Yep, liverpool play the same formation as us and play with 3 upfront who can call play as strikers

Liverpool have 3 of the best strikers in the world, and probably the best target man in the world in Firmino in terms of dropping off and allowing Mane and Salah to play off him and run in behind. Not as simple for us to replicate.
 
As much as I’ve been critical of Morelos at times I’d say our bigger problem is the lack of goals from midfield and wide areas. This is a problem that will potentially hit us harder if AM is sold and a new striker needs time to settle.

The goal tally from Arfield, Kent, Aribo, Hagi (although Hagi hasn’t played a huge amount of games) wasn’t enough if you’re wanting to win a league.

How do we get more goals, is it a case of new players needed? Or a change to formation or players just needing time to settle?

Personally I think we could get Haji to 12-17, Aribo 8-13, Arfield 5-10. Kent ???

Kent, I’ve no idea to be honest and I think his goal tally is the biggest disappointment from those mentioned. He scores goals in big games but we need more from him. I’d like to see Haji more central with one of the widemen able to score goals regularly to support forward.

I think players having more experience (Aribo and Hagi) will give more goals, a change of formation would help (Hagi and Kent) but do think we need another goal scorer.
Easy by encouraging them not to be frightened to have a pop rather than trying to walk the ball into to net
 
Shoot from distanceand dont try and walk ball into net.
Arfield and Jack scored a few prior to winter break. Cant remember many after winter break which didnt help as Alfie was off the boil
 
We need a better striker our main striker getting 12 in the league is not near good enough.
One striker is not working well for us, we should be blowing most teams away.
 
Liverpool have 3 of the best strikers in the world, and probably the best target man in the world in Firmino in terms of dropping off and allowing Mane and Salah to play off him and run in behind. Not as simple for us to replicate.
They have better players than us in every position. Probably the best GK, best centre back in the world too.

I'm raising the comparison about the different team dynamic of having players suited to different positions playing similar roles. Not underestimating the quality gap.
 
Sorry if we are playing 433 then you should not play wingers unless they are able to play as a striker and can score goals.
If anything we should be looking for strikers who can play from wide positions.
When we played it and were successful with it before we had the likes of Lovenkrands, Arveladze, Cannigia and even Buffel and Novo who could all play from wider positions and still score a decent amount.
It is this type of player we need if we stick with 433. If we continue to play with wingers and attacking midfielders Forced to play wide right we will continue to struggle to get more goals through the team.
I would also add that our midfielders such as Jack , Kamara and Davis are not dynamic enough to create the chances for a front 3. I think we need 2 good options in there and we will need to spend to sign them.
 
I'm putting the blame on the fact our right wingers weren't good enough last season. They carried no threat so the opposition barely marked them, which meant Kent had about 4 guys round him at all times.

Get a solid goal-threat of a right winger that hopefully gives Kent and Morelos more freedom and space to move around.
 
We rely too much on Morelos to do everything.
I would question that fact...seeing as Defoe outscored him in the league with a far superior goals per minute ratio.
The issue is, even if both contribute 35 goals between them, Christie, McGregor, Forrest alone will contribute that - let alone mention Eduoard and NikNak face.
 
When your one and only tactic is to use the full back's out wide to then swing in a cross, it is quite hard to score from open play consistently.

You watch Man City and the full back's do attack but it is to move the opposition defenders around, to pull them out of position. Not to relentlessly go wide just just chuck a ball into the box.

Once it is wide they then move it back inside and start the combination play with Silva, De Bruyne and Sterling who now have space centrally near the goal. We just could never get our attacking players near the goal.

No reason why Hagi, Aribo and another technical player brought in could not do the same.

The elephant in the room is finding a place for Kent IMO.
 
I'm putting the blame on the fact our right wingers weren't good enough last season, which meant Kent had about 4 guys round him at all times

Get a solid goal-threat of a right winger that hopefully gives Kent and Morelos more freedom and space to move around
We don't play wingers?
 
As Beale says we play with 3 forwards rather than wingers, would be interesting to see us play 4-2-3-1 with wingers. Reckon Kent will get many more goals this year. Love to see more direct running with more options to take the ball inside and shoot, rather than everything going through Morelos.
 
McKay , windarse and now Kent frustrate me at times- how many times are they running at defenders towards edge of or inside box and they stop or check back - make the defender commit - how many pens/ free kicks would come from that ? And if not then you are through or free to find a pass .
 
We don't play wingers?
Call it what you want Pep.

Whether it's right wingers/forwards/midfielders/strikers, my point still stands - we had at least one liability in the front three that didn't need marked so the opposition doubled up on and nullified our more threatening players.
 
As Beale says we play with 3 forwards rather than wingers, would be interesting to see us play 4-2-3-1 with wingers. Reckon Kent will get many more goals this year. Love to see more direct running with more options to take the ball inside and shoot, rather than everything going through Morelos.

If you play Goldson as a striker he is still a CH playing striker.
Don’t care what Beale says we were not playing 3 forwards, first part of the season we would use Ojo and Kent who are both wide players. They are never going to get you over 15 goals a season.
2nd part of the season we were playing an attacking midfielder(Hagi) as the right sided forward.
If they want to play 433, play 3 forwards who can score goals and can be flexible to attack from wide positions, do not play old fashioned wide players and expect them to score you a good number of goals every season.
 
didn’t score enough, and made about 10 crosses a game and lucky if 1 or 2 were half decent.
SG was correct to let him go.
To say he would have helped us win the league is fucking mental :))

In hindsight we would have got more contribution from Candeias last season han we had with the disastrous Ojo.

Candeias may have lacked that creature spark/goal threat but he more than made up for that with his work rate and linking up generally well with Tavernier/Morelos on the right hand side.
 
Must have watched a different player from me then. If he stayed im sure we would have won the league
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Mental that we played the amount of players we did in his position last season and none of them were anywhere near as good as he was. if you cant see that i dont know what to say to you lol.
 
We need more players to be ruthless around the box and take more responsibility for goals. For a period, Jack did step up and was taking opportunities to fire one in and test the keeper. Too many times we try to pass it through a congested defence.
 
In hindsight we would have got more contribution from Candeias last season han we had with the disastrous Ojo.

Candeias may have lacked that creature spark/goal threat but he more than made up for that with his work rate and linking up generally well with Tavernier/Morelos on the right hand side.

Being better than Ojo doesn’t mean we would have won the league, it just means he is better than a player who failed badly while on loan.
Candeias is playing at his correct level now.
 
Kent has to contribute much much more, He only had 2 assists for the entire season both in cup games no assists in the league which really isn’t good enough. There lies the problem. Though should be fair to say not just Kent needs to do better, the entire midfield & attacking players need to contribute more in terms of assists & goals. As we need to take the pressure of Alfie, really any good successful team has goals littered throughout the team & are not reliant on just one player.
Appreciate the point re assists but a bit harsh none the less. As far as Kent is concerned 7 goals in 21 league games is a decent return for a wide player and 8 in 32 for all games is reasonably healthy.

In league terms his goals per minute (218) is only bettered by 8 players of which 7 could be considered as actual strikers. So, excluding strikers, only 1 player has a better goals/minute return in the league.

In addition, based purely on league games, his percentage of shots on target (57%) is only bettered by 6 players.

Statistics can be helpful but also misleading - Kent, although not credited with an assist, contributed to much more than two goals and scored a higher than average number for his position.

He could, unquestionably, do better as could many of the team and I would expect better from him in future.

As you say we need more of a contribution across the team in terms of goals and assists.
 
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