Goal scoring. That's what its all about!!

[ferrarilover]

I think tonight's game demonstrates exactly what I was saying. We've had 20 chances today and not scored, Barnet have had a couple of shots on target. We should have been three clear at HT, but we weren't because we don't take our bloody chances.
Rene now booked and banned for Saturday, have your house on an Oxford clean sheet.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

It's also the reason we didn't get over the line last season too.

[Modgull]

Still in the playoffs - God knows how!

We just can't score - 17 attempts but only 5 on target tells a story, a very similar one to the Harrogate game.

Can't see us scoring against Oxford on Saturday with Howe out.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Can't see us keeping a clean sheet either if Pokey is out too.

But i must add if Ricey does play then we must give him our full support and if he makes any ricks then so be it. If we give him a chance he may prove some of us wrong. I feel a little awkward assuming that he isn't that good as i'm only forming an opinion on him based on members posts. I've never seen him play personally so i take back the above statement as it is unfair. The truth is i don't really know what to expect from Ricey.

[diamondgirl]

Well after tonight's game I rest my case and stick by what I said in the opening post on this thread.
And, forever Dave, you are saying that it matters not if one man is scoring pretty much all of or goals. Well, we were, once again, unable to score with that man playing tonight. We now have absolutely zero chance of getting anything other than 1 point from a 0-0 draw, at Oxford , on Sat. now that Rene won't be playing, due to his booking tonight.

To be honest, do we really want promotion? We would be torn to bits in L1 with this current squad.

[Dave]

I still don't think we need to place to much importance where or how the goals are coming, yes it is concern if only one player is scoring, Rene Howe will no doubt go to score 20 plus this term, Billy Bodin will have a couple of snap shots in a game soon and they will both hit the back of the net instead of the tower of London from Plainmoor and his confidence will shoot up.

Confidence builds from the back, stop conceeding so many chances, you stop conceeding goals, when that happens it is amazing how the attacking players stop panicking in front of goal and start scoring.

[oldpedant]

I like a good stat.

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/S ... 26,00.html

Here it shows that Bodin has had 50 shots on goal (the highest of any of our players) of which 23 were on target. And we know he has scored just 3 times.

An overall 6% success rate is even worse than Luis Suarez!

Another stat. here is that Howe is the 'fouliest' player in the division!

[Gullscorer]

Why can't our players score more goals? Perhaps because they don't keep their eyes on the ball because they get too excited about how they're going to celebrate the goal they're just about to score? Or in the heat of the moment they simply get too excited, which adversely affects their judgement and their innate abilities.

The goal isn't going to move around anytime. They should always know where the goal is and, that being the case, they should focus on the kicking or the heading of the ball with ice-cold clinical precision. Why can't they do that?

Perhaps, in addition to training, fitness, coaching and practice, the squad needs a psychologist or two..?? It would also help if players possessed a minimum degree of intelligence, foresight, spacial awareness, alertness, and ability to work as a member of a team... Oh, and basic footballing skills..!!

But we are a League Two club, with average attendances of around 2000...!!

[diamondgirl]

I see what you are saying Gullscorer...we are a L2 club. Our players are L2 standard, thats why they don't play for Man U or whatever.

The thing that annoys me most, is the lack of ability, when it comes to putting the ball in the onion net. Surely, our strikers should practice, practice and practice again. They should know how to hit a ball from any kind of delivery. They should get to the point where a ball is crossed, or put through for them to run onto, and because they have spent 100's of hours practicing, the senario should be automatically running through their brains. Head over the ball, knee over the ball, take into account the spin on the ball, access the weather conditions, where are the defender's/goalkeeper in relation to the goal. I know that sometimes they do not have time to compute all of this info, but most of the time they do and, with practice, it should become 2nd nature to them. Georgie Best, and I understand, Bobby Charlton both spend hour upon hour using a tennis ball to perfect their shooting skills, and look how that turned out. I do appreciate that they were both world class players, but there is still no reason why so called goalscorers in the lower reaches of the football league cannot go, at least, part way to acheiving this. After all they are 2nd division strikers playing against 2nd division defenders and goalkeepers.

Problem is, I guess they just don't really care. They get paid either way. If I did my job as inconsistently badly as some of our so called strikers do, I would be sacked.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I like a good stat.

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/S ... 26,00.html

Here it shows that Bodin has had 50 shots on goal (the highest of any of our players) of which 23 were on target. And we know he has scored just 3 times.

An overall 6% success rate is even worse than Luis Suarez!

Another stat. here is that Howe is the 'fouliest' player in the division!

I think Rene's stat is unfair though because each 'foul' he commits is down to the refs decision. Many times this season he is unfairly penalised as he is clumsy or appears cumbersome and many of the opposition players know this. I think he has been unfortunate with a lot of decisions that have gone against him.

[Dave]

Can't agree with you there me old mate Diamondgirl, it's got nothing to do with them not caring, agree with you however on practise it does help, but the thing is on the training ground you can go through many match scenario's as you like including attack.v.defense what can't do is replicate what is actually going to happen in the game.

It's hard to understand what it feels like to be 5-10-15 yards from goal with a good chance of scoring unless you have played the game whether that is in the Sunday league, S-D-L, semi pro, or as a pro, it is partly down to ability of course, other factors are pressure, and a big part as if said many times recently is confidence, when your scoring you hit ball with out thinking, of your laces, or placed of your instep or outstep, when your not scoring and there are 2000 pairs of eyes watching you, easy in that split second to question yourself, and then in turn end up making an arse of yourself.

Yes they are league 2 players for a reason, however we have some very good players at this level, problem is, again as said it's not happening for a few our players at the moment, as fans support the players, it will click, all the likes Mansell, Bodin etc need is a game where things go right for them and confidence will flow.

[TorquayBoy]

I have found it although real sitters have been missed, much of the goals in the league seem to be on the edge of the box, through players spotting a gap in the defence, keeping their composure and hitting it with a bit of venom whilst keeping it down, and that, in my opinion: is what we lack- somebody with the balls to have a go and not get over-excited, like Niall does occasionally (no offence to him he's a great prospect) and sends it howling over the bar. That's what I feel anyways

[ferrarilover]

I think Torquay Boy has a good point, I agree that our chaps seem always to get a bit excited.

I used an analogy in conversation on this topic a while ago, which relates to sports car drivers. I'm not talking about F1 here, just the enthusiastic weekend racers with their Renault Clios and Honda Civics, stripped, caged and fitted with Toyo R888s, belting round Brands and Coombe on a Sunday afternoon. These guys will get quicker lap on lap, because they will have some idea of the maximum speed at which they can attack each bend on a lap, but that speed will gradually increase as the race goes on, until one lap, they overcook an entry speed, or squeeze on just slightly too early and end up with two wheels on the grass. The speed at which this occurs varies according to driver and is based on their talent (since all the cars are identical) It's at that point that they know precisely how fast that bend can be driven, and they stick to it. The same theory can be practiced in football. Start off, 18 yards out, dead centre of goal and just dolly the ball into the bottom corner of the net. Then, do it again but a little bit harder, repeat until you miss, then throttle back on the power and that is pretty much (the abridged version, of course) how hard you can strike a ball from that position to get it reliably on target into the bottom corner.
We see it when the lads are warming up doing that shooting drill. They all, to a man, try to blast the ball as hard as they can, and they all, to a man, miss with a good 90% of their efforts. When I recently had cause to attend Liverpool v Swansea, LFC did the same drill, but rather than just hit the ball as hard as possible and hope, they took the line of first ensuring they hit the target (which 80% of shots did), then being concerned with power later in the drill. The majority of the shots were, in fact, hit considerably harder than any of our boys could possibly conceive of, but then, we are talking about Gerrard and Suarez here. But it was the astounding accuracy which struck me. Every shot, whether struck powerfully or not, was nicely on target and offered the keeper (Doni, I think) absolutely no chance.
How hard is it lads? Yes, I understand that your £50 goal bonus will buy lots of FIFA credits (or whatever children's game is flavour of the month this week), but how about trying to hit the target first, and burst the back of the net second?
Further proof, have a look at the goals of both Van Persie and Oscar tonight in the Champions League. Neither of them easy finishes, and both a million times more difficult than the majority of the chances we spurn every week, yet both took their time, got their shots off accurately and with just the requisite power. Equally the Celtic winner (what a result that is, by the way!). Almost identical to the Bodin chance against Harrogate (except from the other side, and I'll concede Bodin had an attending defender at close quarters), the Celtic lad composes himself and opts for a classy finish across the keeper, Bodin opts to attempt to set the world record for first football in space and hits it, with the most agricultural hack of a left boot you'll see this side of Hackney Marshes on a Saturday afternoon, and hits the roof of the away end, very, very hard.

The goal is 8 yards (24 feet) wide and 8 feet tall, meaning it takes up an area of 192 feet^2. A goalkeeper with his hands up is 8 feet tall and can jump 8 feet, giving him an effective height of 10 feet. Apply some High School mathematics (too American?) and we see that that allows him to cover an area of 157 feet^2 (of which an amount I can't be arsed to calculate) is wasted by being above the crossbar, this will be somewhere in the order of 8% of the total area covered by the goalkeeper. This leaves us with 47.5 feet^2 of unprotectable goal to hit. A ball is about a square foot, meaning there are 47.5 wholly unique positions to hit where the keeper won't be able to reach the ball. From just 54 feet away (18 yards), how hard can it really be? Power is no the answer, regardless of the power in a shot, if the keeper can't reach it, he can't reach it.

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

We have "managed" to score 23 goals in 15 league games, including 4 (Twice) in one game.
Rene has got 10 and the nearest to him has got 3 (2 players, one of which is our centre back!!)
An average of 1.53 per game. It does not take a genius to work out that this is where our problem lies. Simples. >:(

Given the length of time since this was posted (about 3 months back ) and the fact that Rene now has 14 with the closest in 2nd being Jarvis who has only increased that by 1 to 4 goals it becomes apparent how completely off the ball Martin is with regards strikers and goal returns. It is shocking if i'm honest and i don't see how anyone can not agree. In matchday threads in the same month that this was posted (November) there is an increasing desperation for Ling to bring someone in because most saw a dire need for it yet 3 months down the line he STILL hasn't done it. If it is only the fact that Rene is suspended that has now left him with no option then i find it pathetic.

These issues have been clear for all to see and whilst most others in league 2 have been adding loanees to their squads left right and centre, we get exactly what the BBC Sport headline said a month ago, TORQUAY BOSS MARTIN LING WILL NOT RUSH STRIKER SEARCH.

NO SH*T!!!!!

In that article he goes on to say, "We've got to make sure we're fetching someone better than we've got".

Given what we've got have turned out to be akin to a collection of poultry minus their heads running around a farmers field i'd say there would be a pretty good chance that ANYONE we brought in would be better than what we've got. Add to that the fact that Ling refuses to trust Yeoman and it looks very bleak all round.

Oh, and Bodin hasn't scored since the middle of October in our 3-1 win at home to Accrington, a run of 3 and a half months or 13 games ( i've knocked off the ones he was injured in ) and this season he has made 28 appearances, a sub on a couple of occasions. Yeoman has 1 goal in 9 appearances, 8 as sub and Jarvis has 24 appearances 12 as sub and has got 6 goals in all comps. How do people find it within themselves to support Billy when the stats are so damning. This is not a direct pop at Bodin yet again, it is purely to highlight a severe problem which he is part of and i have to include him to give the overall picture.

I've said it a thousand times and i'll say it again. If it weren't for Rene Howe then we'd be in the bottom 2 and most of you want Ling here next season?

[Bitchie Renault]

dude, you are so destined for a heart attack/mental breakdown have you thought about therapy?

As things stand Football league teams over the 4 divisions average about 1.37 goals per game, Torquay average 1.29. So we are margainly below the average. 32 teams have scored less goals per game than us, I would imagine their 'Eratic Club Austrian' must be in complete meltdown!!

How about this Andy, try one of the following to see if it helps:

Apply for the manager's job at TUFC
Pay for a new striker
Pay for Bodin to go on a shooting practice course

OR

Just bitch, moan and bleat about it fruitlessly 10 times a day to an online community