Why do we miss so many chances?

[Gabriel]

Why indeed do we miss so many chances?

We continually get into the correct positions but either fail to hit the target or fail to work the goalkeeper; think the Tottenham keeper only made three saves yesterday.

It seems that many players are shooting first time when they may actually increase their chances of scoring by taking a touch. It also seems that players are shooting from angles when we have an extra player in the box who might be in a better position to score.

Is it a psychological thing? ‘I know another one will come along in a minute so it’s not really that important.’

I always remember watching Guardiola’s Barcelona and thinking that they seemed to want to walk the ball into the net. Not sure I want that exactly, but I wouldn’t mind seeing us showing a little more composure and taking an extra touch/pass in the box. A tap in is generally the culmination of great team play.

Guardiola keeps saying that we can and must improve. Well, this is an aspect of our play that he can certainly have them work on this week.

 

[Indaparkside]

Winning the trebble seems to me were doing ok?? We average more goals per game than any other team i bet.

 

[everythingchangesbutblue]

I'm assuming we miss the same on average but we create so many more chances per game that it seems like a lot more.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Because it’s generally not our striker on the end of them. If we could get more chances to him then we would score more but it seems that he is used more to create space for the others.

 

[Jordie]

10 shots on target.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Winning the trebble seems to me were doing ok?? We average more goals per game than any other team i bet.

But if we only converted, say, five per cent of the efforts that are squandered we'd really have some goals, and points. It has been a characteristic of our play for seasons. I call it the 'hundred and thousands' like those sugar strands on cakes. Sooner or later one will go on. I said at the game yesterday that the players, as KdB was walking inside the Spurs half with the ball, know another chance will come, and it does, and it is repeated. Gundog, KdB and two or three others could have got on the scoresheet yesterday. They had as good a chance or better as the two we let Spurs manufacture! Teams are also extremely fortunate at stopping our chances with knees, ankles, shins and other legitimate parts of their anatomy. And there's also the ubiquitous VAR ever ready to chalk off a chance!

 

[Gabriel]

But if we only converted, say, five per cent of the efforts that are squandered we'd really have some goals, and points. It has been a characteristic of our play for seasons. I call it the 'hundred and thousands' like those sugar strands on cakes. Sooner or later one will go on. I said at the game yesterday that the players, as KdB was walking inside the Spurs half with the ball, know another chance will come, and it does, and it is repeated. Gundog, KdB and two or three others could have got on the scoresheet yesterday. They had as good a chance or better as the two we let Spurs manufacture! Teams are also extremely fortunate at stopping our chances with knees, ankles, shins and other legitimate parts of their anatomy. And there's also the ubiquitous VAR ever ready to chalk off a chance!

Good points but let’s keep VAR out of this debate, as it wasn’t there last season, and as you acknowledge this has been a feature of out play since before its introduction. :-)

Haven’t watched the highlights again, but for me Sterling, Gundogan, and Bernardo could all have taken an extra touch before shooting. It may have led to them being closed down, but it might have allowed them to steady themselves and score or pass to someone better positioned.. Similarly, de Bruyne shot wildly when had he squared from that angle he would have had Sterling and Agüero waiting to tap in.

I’m at the stage where I wish a journalist would ask Guardiola why his team is missing so many chances. He’d take that as personal criticism and have us blasting teams away each week.

 

[SebastianBlue]

In addition to what has already been posted in response, I would offer that we may see the team be *more* focused and clinical in the future now that they have specific experience of how the result of their efforts can be manipulated if they don’t put the match result beyond the grasp said manipulation themselves.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

I think we miss because the team's always confident that they're going to create more. That's not an excuse, by the way. We're terribly profligate with chances.
That said, Gundogan takes one little touch on that astounding assist from Kev (the best of the three in my opinion - and the other two are brilliant) then he increases his chances of putting that ball in the net exponentially, and it's game over. Kev's assist gave him so much space that he didn't, at all, need to take that on the volley.

 

[OB1]

Good points but let’s keep VAR out of this debate, as it wasn’t there last season, and as you acknowledge this has been a feature of out play since before its introduction. :-)

Haven’t watched the highlights again, but for me Sterling, Gundogan, and Bernardo could all have taken an extra touch before shooting. It may have led to them being closed down, but it might have allowed them to steady themselves and score or pass to someone better positioned.. Similarly, de Bruyne shot wildly when had he squared from that angle he would have had Sterling and Agüero waiting to tap in.

I’m at the stage where I wish a journalist would ask Guardiola why his team is missing so many chances. He’d take that as personal criticism and have us blasting teams away each week.

Pretty sure Pep referred to missing too many chances in his post match interviews. I'm certain they work on finishing in training.

Even the very best players have conversion rates that indicate the fail to score at least two thirds of the time.

I do think City waste too many opportunities and it happens for all sorts of reasons. It's not just the final shot either, the final pass goes astray too often for my liking.

One solution might be to get better players but actually that is difficult to do.

Pep will have to keep analysing and keep coaching; the players will have to keep practicing and learning. We do score the most goals so even some marginal improvement could make a quite a difference to how many we score but you still can't win many more trophies or get many more points than we did last year.