Our Finishing...

[mscenterh750]

I'd be more worried if we weren't creating chances.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

We are 13 points clear in the league , final of league Cup , Champs league knock out stages and progressing in the FA Cup , if our finishing is poor , god help other clubs , we do miss chances and in the latter stages of the Champs League we will no doubt pay for it against elite opposition , but domestically we can afford to miss chances and still do the treble ,because apart from the Dippers in their annual City cup final no one can touch us this season

 

[East Level 2]

Poor finishing was the feature of this game, and maybe a poor final ball. But do we generalise from one game? It would clearly be stupid to do so in respect of Sterling.

Of course it would be ridiculous to generalise from one game but there have been many others when we've failed to turn possession into chances.
And I'm not talking about the over inflated possession stats we gain from passing around at the back time after time while waiting for the perfect forward pass, but from good possession we have in and around opponents penalty areas. Sometimes it pays off and we get a hatful: Stoke, Dippers, Watford etc, but all too often we struggle particularly against parked busses: Southampton, rags, Everton.
The problem with trying to analyse something like this is that we're scoring loads and winning the vast majority of games so there is always likely to be an over-reaction from fans when something goes slightly wrong. I like to think Pep has it all under control, but the lack of a new forward in January concerns me. We should have started lining up someone else from the moment Sanchez showed bugger all interest when Arsenal visited in November.

 

[tonea2003]

I'd be more worried if we weren't creating chances.

that's where i stand too, on another day it would of been 3 or 4

 

[BigBluey]

I don’t know why Raheem didn’t just slide it in. I didn’t matter if it came off his foot, shin or knee. Just bundle the ball in!!

 

[Marvin]

Of course it would be ridiculous to generalise from one game but there have been many others when we've failed to turn possession into chances.
And I'm not talking about the over inflated possession stats we gain from passing around at the back time after time while waiting for the perfect forward pass, but from good possession we have in and around opponents penalty areas. Sometimes it pays off and we get a hatful: Stoke, Dippers, Watford etc, but all too often we struggle particularly against parked busses: Southampton, rags, Everton.
The problem with trying to analyse something like this is that we're scoring loads and winning the vast majority of games so there is always likely to be an over-reaction from fans when something goes slightly wrong. I like to think Pep has it all under control, but the lack of a new forward in January concerns me. We should have started lining up someone else from the moment Sanchez showed bugger all interest when Arsenal visited in November.

I appreciate the comment, but I don't agree that we have a problem scoring goals. We may need to bring in a centre forward in the Summer because Kun wont go on forever

 

[Marvin]

I don’t know why Raheem didn’t just slide it in. I didn’t matter if it came off his foot, shin or knee. Just bundle the ball in!!

Probably already celebrating. Hope he can handle the increased pressure he's just put on himself

 

[cadds92]

I don’t know what Pep has to do but he has to fix these missed chances.

The amount we create is ridiculous.

Messi would have scored 10 yesterday.

If we don’t sort it out we have no chance of winning the Champions League.

 

[Charlie Chuck]

Our lack of long range shooting frustrates
me, especially against bus parkers. Tippy tappy into the net is often not the answer. They should be practicing shooting more imo

 

[Kladze]

It’s pretty clear that Sterling sometimes struggles in front of goal, yet he’s still our top scorer in the league. Aguero has been criticized a lot lately for missing chances and making bad decisions in the box, but he continues to score a ton of goals. I’ve had many ‘discussions’ on here and in real life about the ability (or not) of Dzeko, and yet his goals/min ratio for City was always extremely good.

So what’s going on – are these three no more than average goal scorers that are (were) lucky enough to play in a fantastic team? Is it just so easy to score that they can do so even when they’re (playing) shit? Could we save ourselves a ton of money and just spend 10 million on a Championship striker, because he’ll score for fun with all the chances we create? And what does this say about Bony?

Or maybe we’re missing something when we criticize these players. I think that part of the problem is that we see every chance our players get, so we see them miss most of the time (because that’s what even the best strikers do, on average). In contrast, we usually only see highlights of the other top strikers, and these mostly show their successes, so we get a false sense of how often they convert their chances.

Another problem is that we don’t give the player any credit for being in the position to miss the chance. But if Sterling hadn’t read the situation and busted a gut to get to the far post ahead of the defender, the ball from Walker would have whistled across goal and out for a throw-in and Sterling wouldn’t be getting any criticism right now for missing the chance. Yes, he f*cks up quite often, sometimes really badly, but he’s still scoring loads of goals because he keeps putting himself in positions to f*ck up, and sometimes he doesn't. A truly crap striker wouldn’t miss nearly as many easy chances, because they wouldn’t be there in the first place to have the opportunity.

So, to answer my own question, if a striker’s good enough to repeatedly get into the right positions (which is a vastly underestimated, but vitally important ability for a striker), this City team will provide him with a lot of good opportunities, so it’s pretty easy to score goals. A world class finisher in top form might convert 1 in 4 of these chances over a season – poorer finishers (or world class finishers who’re a bit out of sorts) won’t score as many, but if they can be in the right place at the right time in this team, they’ll still score a lot.

Good post. However, Sterling is not our top scorer in the league (14). Aguero is (17).

Sterling positions himself very well, but his finishing is generally abysmal, unfortunately. Just imagine how good he would be if he was a good finisher and made better decisions - he'd be world class.