I see where your coming from however we've scored more goals than any other team in the league, therefore creating chances is clearly not a major issue for us. Finishing has been a major issue, somebody should make a compilation of our missed chances, it would be an hour long.
Sure were going to have games where lower level opposition park the bus and make it difficult. West Brom have done exactly the same to Liverpool and others this season.
More often than not we've broken these teams down and scored goals, created chances to win only to give away shite goals at the other end of the pitch.
IMO Haaland is an absolute must, having the likes of Martial instead of Haaland starting will only make your point an even more difficult issue to deal with.
Pretty much. To add to that, world class strikers aren't reliant on others spoon-feeding them service, they create chances for themselves through movement, anticipation, making runs etc.
Just spot the difference between the no. 9s in the following clips. One is on his arse 60m from goal but gets up and less than 10 seconds later he's almost there to score a "tap-in". And then he's cursing as hell that he didn't do more in that situation, even though it would be physically impossible to do anymore than what he actually did. And this is what he does for 90 minutes, always on his toes, waiting to capitalise on any sort of opportunity.
Having already scored twice in that half it would have been very easy for him to stay down and take a breather for a few seconds. But his mind is only fixated on one thing, goals. Any kind of half chance, sniff, rebound, he simply wants to be on the end of it.
The next clip shows a no. 9 with zero awareness or anticipation. He has no clue where he is in relation to the CBs. For about 2 seconds he is ball watching as the passage of play passes him by. And then he's half-heartedly jogging towards goal. No desire to get on the end of a potential shot, rebound, anything.
Just so oblivious to his surroundings.
People love throwing out the "oh we don't create enough" argument, that's completely nonsense. Bruno is one of the top creators in the world. Wan-Bissaka and Shaw have 6(!) assists between them in the last three games, that's probably more than they managed in the previous 1.5 years combined in the league. Why is that? Is it because they've learnt to cross overnight? No. It has coincided with an actual CF starting to get a consistent run of games. CBs know they have to be extra careful against Cavani. Not only is Cavani a threat from crosses but it has a knock on effect because if all eyes are on him then that leaves space for other attackers to score from the crosses.
A static lamp post like Martial would even make prime Beckham's crossing look bad.
Saw an interview with Ibrahima Konate yesterday. He said Lewandowki is the toughest striker he has played against. Obvious answer you'd think but his reasoning was interesting. It wasn't because of any physical attributes but because he's mentally switched on for 90 minutes. Whenever goal clips are posted in match/player threads on this forum people always go "he wouldn't get that kind of service here", "the defending in the PL isn't this bad" etc. They only see the goal clips and not the rest of the 90 minutes where these attackers are constantly tormenting the defenders and forcing lapses in concentration. That shows a real lack of appreciation for top class players.
. As a fellow striker the words R9 and Haaland in the same sentence should be blasphemy. You know your football though. But you're wrong and strong with this one mate. You can't hide behind the goalscorer tag either.. In the 90's era being a goalscorer didn't make you special.. you should know that.. he's a good goalscorer like Lukaku was and he's had an impressive start. He's nowhere near the level of strikers you think though. Whether he's here now or gets their later. Sometimes the stars just fall in line nicely for people.. Rashford being a good example of that. His career start was a fairytale. I bet you rate Haaland better than him though.
), where he beats himself up for not scoring a fourth of fifth when he’s scored a hattrick.