Why can't we score?

[Lancet Fluke]

Bollocks. None of that has anything to do with the chances and shots we are actually missing.

The above would be an explanation of a lack of chances. And chances are the one thing we don't lack.

Possibly the worst explanation to the OP you could have come up with.

I think that's a bit harsh tbh. It doesn't explain how poor our shooting has been but I was only saying to a friend yesterday how frustrating I find it that too often we have really decent openings and don't even get a shot away at all or don't pull the trigger when there is a clear sight of goal, fuck about for a few more seconds and then shoot when the better chance has gone. I think blueanorak's post probably explains those occasions. There are probably a number of reasons why we get in such brilliant positions without the ball ending up in the back of the net.

 

[SWP's back]

We might have drills that have shooting involved in them but no player above the age of about 14 practices shooting. There's no need to. They already know how to shoot.

Do you practice counting? Why not? It's a skill you use every day?

Yes obviously there are various drills. There are one on one drills. There are lay off and shooting drills. There's full games. Set piece drills. Mini games. One touch. Two touch. All sorts of drills that the players go through on a daily basis.

The forwards will be shooting on goal tens of times every day.

I want to know which idiot seriously thinks that we just practice "walking the ball into the net".

 

[Phil1]

People overthink stuff like this. Players miss chances, they're human. As fans it can be frustrating when they are costing you points but there's no big secret, no sure fire way of improving someone like Aguero who's been doing this gig for years very successfully.
Some games we'll score chances that seem impossible and others we'll miss when it seems easier to score.
As long as we continue to make chances (which we do) then we'll give ourselves the best chance to win games.

 

[BlueAnorak]

It's got nothing to do with defenders. We keep missing simple shots. We miss one on ones.

We keep getting in great positions and not hitting the target. That is the problem.

Well that's true, but most are not cast iron tap it in the back of the net jobs.
And whenever it is an easy opportunity the opposition simply foul us because they know the refs won't give it.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

We might have drills that have shooting involved in them but no player above the age of about 14 practices shooting. There's no need to. They already know how to shoot.

Do you practice counting? Why not? It's a skill you use every day?

Well now that's just semantics. They don't train shooting but they practice through doing it as part of wider drills

 

[Damocles]

Yes obviously there are various drills. There are one on one drills. There are lay off and shooting drills. There's full games. Set piece drills. Mini games. One touch. Two touch. All sorts of drills that the players go through on a daily basis.

The forwards will be shooting on goal tens of times every day.

I want to know which idiot seriously thinks that we just practice "walking the ball into the net".

Of course. What I was getting it is that Pep Guardiola doesn't grab a bunch of our strikers then sit with them and say "right lads, this part of the foot is where you hit with power, this part is how you hit a volley, let's do a drill to practice this". Imagine saying that to Sergio Aguero.

I'm going to piss people off with this word, but Guardiola's coaching drills are held up by many coaches as really well designed because of their holistic nature. He manages to make its main focus about a certain game situation but then incorporate a few different concepts into them all at once to practice 10 things for every drill.

 

[Damocles]

Well now that's just semantics. They don't train shooting but they practice through doing it as part of wider drills

Well they run a lot during training too but I wouldn't classify this as training running.

Although they do actually train running technique sometimes now that I think about it.

 

[CTID1988]

We just need to score a couple and get some confidence back. We are missing open nets pretty much, not much we can do in training to fix that

 

[TonyM]

It's all Peps fault imo.

1. He has us playing too predictably and our opposition is almost always as prepared as they could be
2. He floods the players minds with too many options so they all panic rather than focus when opportunities arise
3.His system is too greatly dependent on "confidence" which withers away easily (though to be fair to the players they keep trying so can't be faulted usually).
4. He wastes so much time building from the back
5. He has us whizzing crosses in so hard and fast that it's almost impossible to get on the end of or do anything with if you do get there.

But then I always blame the manager. Whether it was Keegan/Sven types or Hughes/Royle types or Pep today the buck stops with him over a season. We can blame individual players or not signing players or missing players but the manager knows his available squad and has to have a plan A, B and C. He has to live and die by results.

It's Peps hole to dig us out of and I hope he does. Thankfully he should be given sufficient time. I just hope he has the ability to adapt too.

 

[moz]

So we are simply not good enough then and peps job is a lot harder than we all thought?