Samid
He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
The league is wide open this year. We are pretty much in the mix thanks to Bruno but we need our forwards to wake the feck up and take some responsibility if we want to challenge. Most title winners these days have forwards scoring 20 goals. For any of our forwards to hit 20 goals they need to score 2 per 3 games for the remainder of the season.
There's always the argument that we don't create enough chances but that's not been the case this season. We're creating loads, Bruno is topping the charts... but our conversion rate is a disgrace. And this isn't long shots skewing up the numbers. We're missing golden opportunities 1v1, free headers from set pieces etc.
Our conversion rates in the last 10 seasons:
20/21: 9.7 %
19/20: 15 %
18/19: 16.6 %
17/18: 19.7 %
16/17: 13 %
15/16: 16.4 %
14/15: 19.2 %
13/14: 18.8 %
12/13: 20.6 %
11/12: 19.8 %
Our league goals after 11 games:
Bruno 7
Cavani 3
Rashford 3
Maguire 1
Wan-Bissaka 1
Beek 1
Pogba 1
Greenwood 1
Martial 0
Wan-Bissaka and Maguire have scored twice as many goals as Greenwood and Martial combined. To be fair to Greenwood he's still a teen so his inconsistency is excusable. For Martial there simply aren't any excuses anymore.
Rashford is an odd one. 10 goals in all comps but half of those off the bench. He looks like the best player in the world when he plays as a sub but ridiculously lethargic and disinterested when playing the full 90 mins. It's a catch-22 where he can't be benched on merit because the other forwards are worse performers, and because he can't be benched he seemingly gets complacent and doesn't have the same urgency and point to prove as "sub Rashy" has.
Cavani looks the most promising of our forwards in and around the box but he isn't getting any younger and his recent injury record isn't great. Can we really rely on him to get 15+ goals with the games coming thick and fast this season?
I'll mention Donny too since he has often been compared to Thomas Muller on here. Why is he so timid? Why is he sideway passing when in great shooting positions? Back yourself to challenge the goalie man.
In the last 15 seasons these players were top scorers for the title winners:
19/20: Salah 19
18/19: Aguero 21
17/18: Aguero 21
16/17: Costa 20
15/16: Vardy 24
14/15: Costa 20
13/14: Toure 20
12/13: van Persie 26
11/12: Aguero 23
10/11: Berbatov 20
09/10: Drogba 29
08/09: Ronaldo 18
07/08: Ronaldo 31
06/07: Ronaldo 17
05/06: Lampard 16
Mid/late noughties was mostly Mourinho setting a 'concede as few as possible' trend and Fergie to an extent following suit so those teams weren't reliant on 20 goal strikers. The trend in the past decade is quite clear, you need a forward capable of 20 goals to win it. Toure is the only exception but even in that season Aguero and Dzeko scored 33 goals combined.
If we use the 13/14 season as benchmark and assume Bruno gets 20 goals, we'd still need another forward getting 17-18 or two forwards getting 15+ goals. What's frustrating is that Rashford and Martial both got 17 each last season but they don't have the consistency or hunger to build on that.
If we are to challenge, where are the goals going to come from apart from Bruno? Do we have a forward who can go on a consistent high-class run for the next 3-4 months?
There's always the argument that we don't create enough chances but that's not been the case this season. We're creating loads, Bruno is topping the charts... but our conversion rate is a disgrace. And this isn't long shots skewing up the numbers. We're missing golden opportunities 1v1, free headers from set pieces etc.
Our conversion rates in the last 10 seasons:
20/21: 9.7 %
19/20: 15 %
18/19: 16.6 %
17/18: 19.7 %
16/17: 13 %
15/16: 16.4 %
14/15: 19.2 %
13/14: 18.8 %
12/13: 20.6 %
11/12: 19.8 %
Our league goals after 11 games:
Bruno 7
Cavani 3
Rashford 3
Maguire 1
Wan-Bissaka 1
Beek 1
Pogba 1
Greenwood 1
Martial 0
Wan-Bissaka and Maguire have scored twice as many goals as Greenwood and Martial combined. To be fair to Greenwood he's still a teen so his inconsistency is excusable. For Martial there simply aren't any excuses anymore.
Rashford is an odd one. 10 goals in all comps but half of those off the bench. He looks like the best player in the world when he plays as a sub but ridiculously lethargic and disinterested when playing the full 90 mins. It's a catch-22 where he can't be benched on merit because the other forwards are worse performers, and because he can't be benched he seemingly gets complacent and doesn't have the same urgency and point to prove as "sub Rashy" has.
Cavani looks the most promising of our forwards in and around the box but he isn't getting any younger and his recent injury record isn't great. Can we really rely on him to get 15+ goals with the games coming thick and fast this season?
I'll mention Donny too since he has often been compared to Thomas Muller on here. Why is he so timid? Why is he sideway passing when in great shooting positions? Back yourself to challenge the goalie man.
In the last 15 seasons these players were top scorers for the title winners:
19/20: Salah 19
18/19: Aguero 21
17/18: Aguero 21
16/17: Costa 20
15/16: Vardy 24
14/15: Costa 20
13/14: Toure 20
12/13: van Persie 26
11/12: Aguero 23
10/11: Berbatov 20
09/10: Drogba 29
08/09: Ronaldo 18
07/08: Ronaldo 31
06/07: Ronaldo 17
05/06: Lampard 16
Mid/late noughties was mostly Mourinho setting a 'concede as few as possible' trend and Fergie to an extent following suit so those teams weren't reliant on 20 goal strikers. The trend in the past decade is quite clear, you need a forward capable of 20 goals to win it. Toure is the only exception but even in that season Aguero and Dzeko scored 33 goals combined.
If we use the 13/14 season as benchmark and assume Bruno gets 20 goals, we'd still need another forward getting 17-18 or two forwards getting 15+ goals. What's frustrating is that Rashford and Martial both got 17 each last season but they don't have the consistency or hunger to build on that.
If we are to challenge, where are the goals going to come from apart from Bruno? Do we have a forward who can go on a consistent high-class run for the next 3-4 months?