How do we address our abysmal finishing?

He was completely invisible against West ham and never once created any sort of space for himself
Well, he did. Garnacho fed the ball to him and he turned his defender well before hitting the keeper. He has the skills but barely gets more that 3 chances a game. Haaland misses a tonne of chances but still ends up scoring goals and Jackson at Chelsea gets chances all the time. We are predictable.
 
By creating a lot more chances. We seem to obsess over our finishing because we create very few chances and those misses seem to remain in memory. If you watch top teams, they miss a boatload of chances too but since they create too many they convert chances too.
 
The obvious make more chances and there is more chance to score. Rashford on the left and garnacho on the left are both greedy bastards. They only pass if they are about to lose the ball and can’t get a shot off, at least 90% of the time. Hojlund has no chance of being prolific with these two.
 
Buy better strikers - we only have 1 proper #9 and he's young & learning

We have clearly been lacking upfront since the start of last season - Zirkzee clearly was not the answer to that
 
Buy better strikers - we only have 1 proper #9 and he's young & learning

We have clearly been lacking upfront since the start of last season - Zirkzee clearly was not the answer to that
And keep on creating chances. Yes, we're wasteful, and have created lots of chances in spurts, but nothing sustained. The more chances we get, the more they'll score, and the more confident they'll get.

It's a young forward line, they ain't gonna be clinical but we can't be turning up for 30 to 40 mins during a game and packing it in for the rest of the game
 
And keep on creating chances. Yes, we're wasteful, and have created lots of chances in spurts, but nothing sustained. The more chances we get, the more they'll score, and the more confident they'll get.

It's a young forward line, they ain't gonna be clinical but we can't be turning up for 30 to 40 mins during a game and packing it in for the rest of the game
Højlund is
 
Take more shots on goal. Play a more exciting game where attacking play is primary. With Ten Hag, it feels like his goal is a 1-0 shoreline at the end. That’s a) boring, and b) not likely to happen.
 
By creating a lot more chances. We seem to obsess over our finishing because we create very few chances and those misses seem to remain in memory. If you watch top teams, they miss a boatload of chances too but since they create too many they convert chances too.
We're fifth in the league in creating big chances. Above even City. We create loads of chances. Our finishing is indeed shite.

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/clubs/big_chance_created?se=719
 
Is it generally accepted that we won't have money available to spend in January?

I'm guessing the Ugarte signing took the last of whatever we had for this season
 
In short...give it time.

In many ways we have been somewhat unlucky while also running into some extremely hot goalies. If you look at out metrics, our goals vs expected goals are dreadful. our G/Sh is also dreadful. That would seem to point to some issue in finishing, since we are creating chances...we are 5th in the league at big chances created.

But if you drill down it's a little more nuanced than just, "we suck at finishing". For example, our SoT is 5th in the league. We're 6th in total shots on target per 90. We're 2nd to last in G/SoT.

So we are creating plenty of chances and doing a good job of getting those shots on target. You can make an argument that just getting a shot on target isn't necessarily "clinical". I can agree with this anecdotally in a random game perhaps. But once you have a large enough sample size, which we have now, it is a very good indicator of your clinical ability as a team.

So at this point, IMHO, we really just need the results to adjust to the performance and data. I don't know what you can "do" as a manager to put your team in better position if you are already in the top quarter of the league in chances created, SoT/90, and SoT. I don't even really know what you can "do" as a player...practice shooting more? I mean these guys probably crush it at practice shooting...and they are getting the shots on target during the game.

It's been a weird season, and the metrics show this. Typically a weak offense needs to work on creating more chances and getting more shots on goal. We all marvel at the pinpoint shots that are perfectly placed like Garnacho's bicycle goal, but to be fair, there is often a bit of luck involved with those. The real key to being consistently clinical is getting shots on target. We've done that. IMHO the only thing we can really do its keep it up and...wait.