To have almost 80% of possession throughout most of the game, and still not manage to find the net, is quite frankly, an embarrassment. Carabao Cup or not.
Colchester United needed one chance and they took it. We had a total of 19 shots, of which only 7 were on target, and we lose. That tells me something. We still lack that killer instinct and unless we find a prolific striker soon – or miraculously, some of our strikers hit a rich vein of form, then we can forget those automatic promotion places, and perhaps too, the play-off’s altogether!
I am aware that we fielded a weakened team, but so too did the U’s, who were with former Town favourites Freddie Sears and Alan Judge. It is all very well having lots and lots of possession which we seem to have almost every game, but it serves no useful purpose unless you can add to it with some goals! Goals win games. Simple as that.
The visitors had one shot on target thanks to a horrendous error by Rakeem Harper, who, quite frankly, I am surprised to still see in the building. He was awful last year, and he seems to be getting even worse! Manager Kieran McKenna has given him lots of chances to redeem himself and has moved him around a bit as well, but he is one player that I would happy to see head towards the exit door.
So what did we learn from Tuesday night at Portman Road? The answer is nothing that we did not already know. Macauley Bonne was the one striker I wanted to stick around but along with Joe Pigott and James Norwood they are plying their trade elsewhere, and we have not seriously strengthened in what is arguably the most critical area of the pitch. We need to do so fast, otherwise we can forget this season as well.
Forget the automatics and play offs??? Ridiculous, we’re 2 games in with 4 points. How can you say we haven’t seriously strengthened that position. Ladapo score 15 last season, more than the guy you want back here. Harness scored 12. That’s 27 goals we’ve gained alone. Yes it wasn’t a good result but I’d rather us attacking and dominating games than what we’ve been served up in recent years. It will click but we’ve just got to be better at breaking teams down. I expect quite a few games like this and I think we’ll get another striker this month. But please don’t write them off after 2 games. It’s frankly silly.
I get you Redhotitfc, but you cannot deny the undeniable. We are in urgent need of another striker. Freddie Ladapo will get us goals but don’t bank on him being our top goalscorer because if he is, we will struggle.
I admire your passion but possession alone counts for very little – unless your name is statsman. I know it is early days, but it’s in those early days that we must address these issues because I want us to succeed just as much as you, and we still can!
Keep hearing we need azatriker to score goals. And yes,zwe do need another one. But how many chances are the strikers missing? Fact is, they simply arent getting chances come their way right now. So frankly we could have mbappe playing for us and hed not score goals. The biggest issue for me right now is, the player who provided most of our chances last season, (burns), isn’t doing anything so far. Thus the chances aren’t coming for the strikers. So as much as we may need to sign another striker, unless we get the service to him it won’t improve thstxarea of thr team. As for Bonne. No thankyou. 1 goal in his last 31 games? Is that really what we need? Should have kept Piggott, and actually give him the game time he never got last season and he’d have shown what he’s about. As he already is doing at Pompey.
With regard to Bonne Christopher, there were mitigating circumstances for his form falling away – not least, that miscarriage and the devastating impact it had on his wife, as it was the third time that had happened. Prior to that, he had scored 11 goals in 16 appearances and was only surpassed by Burns on the last day of the season, when he was fed in by none other than Macauley Bonne! Ad for Burns, I think that him being selected by Wales has gone to his head and he is a pale shadow of the player we saw last time around.
Hi Frank, completely agree with you, but wouldn’t it be nice to have someone upfront that could regularly hit the target with his eyes closed?
My solution is simple, I seem to remember reading one of our current owners stating last season that even though being in his 40’s his friend, co-owner & ex player of Pheonix Rising (Didier Drogba) has kept himself fit & would score 20 plus goals in this league. Time to see how good a friend he really is & ask him. With the current flexible rules on substitutions we really would have a super sub to turn to….
Sorry this was in reply to Redhotitfc
That is an interesting suggestion Chris, and the thought had crossed my mind as well. There is nothing to lose really if we cannot get a proven striker through our doors and we all know how Didier Drogba could terrorise defences!
Was that a serious suggestion? A 40 year old. Woeful. How do you build for the future with that. We’re averaging 2 goals a game and it feels like people are writing Ladapo off after 3 games. His work rate is brilliant and he does so much good work which brings in Harness and Chaplin. I can see all 3 of them getting 15+ this season and that would be enough with others chipping in like Morsy, Aluko, Jackson etc. Burns will easily be hitting double figures. It’s so simplistic and dangerous to just play a system where 1 man scores 25 goals. What if he’s out for a few months. We need a team where the goals are spread out, that’s what the successful teams do.