How did we get it so wrong.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

So has goal scoring changed in football ?

Chatting to my mates the striker is supposed to be the most advanced attack-focused player in the team with a primary focus to convert the chances created by teammates the general remit still states. 🤔

So do we actually have a consistent effective "finisher" or "poacher in the squad capable of regularily scoring from created chances ?

Do we actually have that "target-man" who is good in the air so we can "target" him with long balls to either win the required header or hold the ball up to allow teammates to make forward runs ?

Fact is, too many modern-day Leeds central strikers of late have been required to have a lot of elements to tactically perform "for the team" so when we press we've aquired a CF style of play focused on hassling & hounding the oppo's defenders into mistakes by giving them little time on the ball to think or pass.

This is quite an aggressive role but comes with a lot of closing down running & even more off ball running to drag defenders about for others to exploit - all duties that rarely sees our CF actually in the damn box & far too often quite isolated, imo.

Recently watching sent Youtube clips of us being under the cosh we always appear underloaded against opposing centre-backs & Farkes use of this safety first static possession tactic means it takes far longer for others to push forward to support our attacks which is basically a counter-attack system in truth.
Ok away but at ER not so good really is the general consensus from the paying fans attending i know.

Concern also that our central midfield has recently been overloaded by a 4-4-2 counter attacking ploy from teams who "park the bus" far to many times also of late which defo needs addressing this week as the creative Rutter is being forced deeper to help out during that ploy throughout the 90 mins & to be fair looks knackered fitness wise.

More worryingly is our wide areas have been vulnerable to switches of play during counter-attacks when both our full-backs have pushed forward which our central defenders & indeed our midfielders have 'failed to cover' either by concentration or lack of communication.

Too sloppy all over the pitch for sure which makes the slow tempo square-passing tactic futile considering all the facts noted unless we are carrying mentally tired/injured limbs ?

Its indeed goals scored that win games regardless of possession stats - more to the point is how our goals are in fact being scored after reading below article drawn to my attention.
That criteria certainly needs addressing as it appears we dont have a set piece speciality coach on the books presently unlike many clubs.
https://acampostams.medium.com/has-g...l-8c78fc21b382

So open play, set pieces, counter attack & penalties gets them in the net apparently Herr Farke & having a keen CF to do it helps, just saying 😇

Good post and yes I agree that a lot of modern formations and tactics rely less and less on a traditional striker but maybe why we treasure or pine for good ones.

There is so much pressure and money in football now that everything is analysed to the nth degree and often tactics are risk free designed to avoid turnovers and losing goals ‘in transition’ as opposed to going for it, playing ‘killer passes’ and risk losing the ball.

Equally, if a team has an effective way of playing then this will get analysed and tactics to negate it will be developed (which other teams will pick up on) which is why teams with a mixed styles of play are often the most successful or who can change it up.

I don’t mind possession based football where it is progressive and the team tries to use the ball creatively and actually score. Often it is used negatively so that if we have and keep the ball the other team can’t score - that seems to be us on occasions recently.

Risk free possession football can be dull as ….

There seems to be a decrease in shots from range too, some teams just use corners as a restart or adopt ridiculous ways to waste time (which is also a thing in rugby).

Despite all of that some players are good at taking chances when they come and we seem to struggle with that generally at the moment and Bambi in particular has bar the odd hot streak always struggled with it. It’s not just he misses chances but is prone to miss chances at crucial points in a game or when we really need a goal.

It might also explain why Summerville and to a lesser degree Rutter and taking on too much as they don’t have faith that Bamford will score.

He is still finding his feet having played most of the season at RB but also like Gray in the 8 role as he looks to move the ball forward and can run aggressively either with or without the ball.

[spaldy]

Scoring has changed.

They all look for the "beautiful" goal. How many games have we lost this year to some incredibly ugly goals off restarts and corners? That seems to be beneath our current squad. Perhaps someone like Joseph of Joffy that are hungry and will get in there and get ugly to get the ball across the line is what's needed.

Of course, the standard mantra is to refer to "hoofball" and kick and chase. There is a big, big difference between Ted's style of ball and a focused approach to scoring regardless of what's needed. You can look at some of our squad during restarts or corners and see they aren't going to go the extra bit to get the ball in the net. That's not the case with a lot of the other teams in the championship. You don't have the best defense in the championship and still give up a lot of goals on restarts or corners without some player on the other team going the extra bit to get the ball over the line.

I've noticed that even the teams that play "beautiful football" such as Citeh, Real Madrid and Liverpool score lots of "ugly goals".

Our "hardest player" - Rodon is still not doing that extra bit on a corner to get the ball in. He's a stud when playing defense. Not nearly so much when setting up for a corner.

[Monaco_Totty]

Scoring has changed.

They all look for the "beautiful" goal. How many games have we lost this year to some incredibly ugly goals off restarts and corners? That seems to be beneath our current squad. Perhaps someone like Joseph of Joffy that are hungry and will get in there and get ugly to get the ball across the line is what's needed.

Of course, the standard mantra is to refer to "hoofball" and kick and chase. There is a big, big difference between Ted's style of ball and a focused approach to scoring regardless of what's needed. You can look at some of our squad during restarts or corners and see they aren't going to go the extra bit to get the ball in the net. That's not the case with a lot of the other teams in the championship. You don't have the best defense in the championship and still give up a lot of goals on restarts or corners without some player on the other team going the extra bit to get the ball over the line.

I've noticed that even the teams that play "beautiful football" such as Citeh, Real Madrid and Liverpool score lots of "ugly goals".

Our "hardest player" - Rodon is still not doing that extra bit on a corner to get the ball in. He's a stud when playing defense. Not nearly so much when setting up for a corner.

Good point Spaldy.

In the O'Leary book it was mentioned that George Graham did'nt rate the young Alan Smith but O'Leary did cos of Smiths take no prisoners approach & do or die attitude.

Just shows how Coaches differ regarding what they want & how they handle players who know they are "good" like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. 😧

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Scoring has changed.

They all look for the "beautiful" goal. How many games have we lost this year to some incredibly ugly goals off restarts and corners? That seems to be beneath our current squad. Perhaps someone like Joseph of Joffy that are hungry and will get in there and get ugly to get the ball across the line is what's needed.

Of course, the standard mantra is to refer to "hoofball" and kick and chase. There is a big, big difference between Ted's style of ball and a focused approach to scoring regardless of what's needed. You can look at some of our squad during restarts or corners and see they aren't going to go the extra bit to get the ball in the net. That's not the case with a lot of the other teams in the championship. You don't have the best defense in the championship and still give up a lot of goals on restarts or corners without some player on the other team going the extra bit to get the ball over the line.

I've noticed that even the teams that play "beautiful football" such as Citeh, Real Madrid and Liverpool score lots of "ugly goals".

Our "hardest player" - Rodon is still not doing that extra bit on a corner to get the ball in. He's a stud when playing defense. Not nearly so much when setting up for a corner.

We miss the presence of Struijk at set pieces a lot