Most liked posts in thread: Where are the goals coming from?

Andy Cook scored 12 from 35 starts, if you keep him fit he at least gets 15 a season in this team. He was scoring a goal every 255 minutes in the league, in a bad side. Last season in L2, Lee Angol scored every 200 minutes. Kian Harratt scored every 205 minutes. Jake Young scored every 151 minutes. We have strikers who when given minutes do score goals or make an impact on games.

Compare that to Robinson who scored every 381 mins, Lavery with 1 goal in 536 minutes of L2 football.... our rotation options are now guys who made impacts in short times on the pitch. Comparing to guys who scored 15+ in L2 last season, our guys score at a very similar rate already, other than the lads who had freakishly good seasons.

Only 6 players actually got over 15 goals in L2 last season.
Telford scored 25 at an average of every 122 mins.
Stevens scored 23 at an average of every 117 mins.
Matt scored 19 at an averagae of every 207 mins.
McKirdy scored 19 at an average of every 141 mins.
Keilor-Dunn scored 15 at an average of every 253 mins.
Collins scored 15 at an average of every 213 mins.

Like you say, the service already seems an improvement. I'd be happy with any of our forward options starting, as the can score if they stay fit, any of them.

 

Good, no decent manager has ever caved in to fan pressure or a guy on radio Leeds who was doing Cricket a month ago.

Parkinson didn’t change when people called him Plonkinson and rightly so, most fans don’t have a clue. I spent 90 minutes on Saturday with a guy near me screaming at Richie Smallwood to feck off back to Hull every two minutes. I’d rather my club didn’t listen to imbeciles like that.

 

All over.

Total football, this season. Hammering Donny 4 nowt in the first game.

 

I have to agree with you on this. No decent manager abandons his principles. People around me were yelling for us hurry things along with less passing across our back four yet Mark Hughes was saying that we need to be a little LESS hurried and more patient.
Had we had a little bit more end product with say 3 or 3 more goals there wouldn't be all this negativity. Like you say we only need a few tweaks, maybe in personel. At times Gillead has been okay, he works hard and is always prepared to get on the ball. On the other hand he is always just a mistake away from some of the crowd getting on his back so we probably need another central midfield player to push him or replace him. I like Andy Cook a lot but whether we go up or not I can't see him being offered a new contract and just playing one up top I think we need someone more suited to that role who can spin off defenders, maybe a bigger version of Harry Chapman! I don't think Oliver can play that role.
Stephen Gent said he was planning for January once the August window closed so we need to stay in touch. The weaknesses in the squad will have been highlighted by Hughes, Hodges and Gent so it will be interesting to see what we do in the January window.
For me the MOTM on Saturday was between Chapman and Halliday yet a guy behind me was yelling clear off Halliday you Ginger b*****d (where were the stewards). Halliday has been much improved, playing a different role to what he says he is used to playing and the back four (five with Lewis) is looking quite solid and we are conceding hardly any goals from open play.
Like you say just tweaks, we seem to forget how bad the football was under Bowyer then Adams.

 

Interesting looking back at this thread.
It looks like we had the 15-20 goal striker on our doorstep but the other incoming players you detailed are true to form so far. We still need someone to chip in with another 10.

 

Well that's true and astute, but it doesn't mean the question is daft.

He's just asking who gets the goals at the end of the day!

I think none of us are totally sure, but doesn't mean we won't score any

 

I always thought Dieng was a quality cdm for us. possibly the last quality player we had in that position. Was good to see him showcasing his abilities last season for Exeter

Jaime Proctor was a good striker for us as well. An is very capable of playing a specific role in a team. Both players have gotten stick from fans in the past an I struggle to see why

 

Most teams deploy the high press against us, yet we have lost 1 in 10 and are 6th with a game in hand over 3rd. Sorry but struggle is an exaggeration, we’re league 2 and are not going to dominate games for 90 minutes no matter what style we play. We’ve failed with long ball managers as well in recent years such as Bowyer and Adams.

 

If we improve from being a midtable team to one chasing promotion we need to see more goals all across the pitch.

Remember that season Aden Flint scored double figures from CB for Bristol C - 15 i think it was, including a hat-trick.

we need more goals from CB, more from the wingers as Gilly and Vernam rarely bagged, more from attacking midfield as Cooke wasn’t a regular scorer, and more from Cook or whoever leads the line.

If the whole team is playing better we can easily improve output across the side, not just with a striker.

 

We don't need to abandon our principles, but we do need to be open to tweaks. Trying to establish a style of play you believe in and riding out the setbacks isn't a bad thing. We've had far too many resets and we've recruited to a style - it'd be madness to tear that up. I do think a couple of obvious squad tweaks are becoming apparent though. And the playing out from goal kicks thing needs to stop. Far more often than need, it leads to pressure on our goal, not the oppositions. I'd also welcome the idea of leaving at least 1 person up front when defending set pieces.

These aren't massive changes.

 

I really don't understand the personal abuse dished out so vehemently by so called supporters of our club. Maybe it's the drink, but abuse like that is hardly going inspire confidence in the lad. We all get frustrated at times but if you can't handle a little disappointment then Bradford City ain't for you. For successive games I've attended (missed the Swindon game), I've heard the opposition fans chant 'your support is f%#king sh#t' and its hard to argue against that when you hear what's been said.

 

Strange question.
Different players at different clubs, different surroundings.
Harratt, could get 20, he could get none. Same with all the players that will be here this season.
Comparing these lads with Lavery, Robinson, Elliot and Delfonso, who scored 5 goals between them is like chalk and cheese.
If Chapman is as good as Vernam or better , he could match his 8

 

We're not going to get that "20+ goals striker" and we don't need one either.

Cook / Angol / Harratt / Young / Walker / Chapman / Eisa / Perreira?? all have goals and assists in them. If they can average just over 1 in 4 between them (which I think they can) and throw in a few goals from CBs and the deeper midfielders and that is a high scoring team.
We look to be a well balanced squad with threats from all sides now with great options from the bench - that makes us a difficult team to play against, teams can't just set up to mark one striker or playmaker out of the game.

Compare those options to who we started last season with and the difference is night and day

 

well we have 4 strikers. Cook is in better shape than how he left things last season
Angol will be rotated often to prevent further injuries
Young an Harratt will chip in with goals whenever played. They are certainly better options than Elliot, Lavery, Robinson an Delfonseo

As for the midfield. With a full pre season behind him, Walker should be firing on all cylinders
Chapman has an eye for goal
Smallwood will chip in with a few
Eisa didn’t play at all last season, he’l bring goals into the team
Jury is still out on East, Osadebe
Still talks of Periera coming back

The lads at the back, Songo, Platt, Osudina will be a threat from set pieces

there certainly is enough goals in the team. Its simply a case of getting more creative players into the squad. Periera back and an attacking RB would help add to that

 

The good thing about this season is we have numerous attacking options. As it stands, 4 strikers, 2 Wingers and a CAM. All of whom are good enough to be regular starters in a league two team but will be rotated so will have fresh legs when playing. There is enough goals on the attacking side of things. We just need the CMs to chip in every now an again, an we need the defenders to be a threat from set pieces. Songo did well at the end of last season, it remains to be seen how much of an Ariel threat the likes of Platt & Odusina will be

 

Appearances or goals?! Im not convinced on Eisa but hope im badly wrong

 

Andy Cook.

He'll get 30 and we'll be up by Christmas.

 

Very true, we need to remember that when start getting impatient at home. Things are very different when we play away.

 

The best team we have had in recent years finished 7th in this division, and barely scraped into the play offs.

They played rigid football, but come the end of the season we'd really mastered it.

It's a bit annoying watching people get worked up over draws. I know it's frustrating at times, but you could clearly see that Crawley were no longer the easy pickings they might have been under their previous manager.