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Saints Owe Someone A Tonking
Saturday, 28th Sep 2013 11:04

Hard to believe but we have to go back almost six months and 12 games since the last time we scored more than a single goal in a game.

When Saints defeated Reading back at the start of April, little did Saints supporters realise that this would be the last time they would see their side score more than one goal in a game for a long time, of course half of the time that has elapsed since was taken up by the summer break, but the cold hard fact is that since that trip to the Madejski we have played 11 games and have yet to hid the heady heights of 2 goals scored in a game since.

Indeed in 5 of those games we have failed to score at all and the goal tally in those 11 games has been a measly 6 goals for, in 5 of those games we have failed to score at all, so why have the goals dried up, a quick look back over the fixtures, shows that if we take the Reading game and include it in Saints previous 11 fixtures we scored 18 goals, so apparently overnight after that game, we have gone from a side that scores freely to one that barely scores at all, only Sunderland have scored less than us.

There will be those that point to the goals against column and whilst there is certainly some truth in the theory that in order to shore things up at the back you have to lose a little in the attacking side of things, I think its a little more than that, there will be some who will say that its down to the change of formation in playing both Osvaldo and Lambert and whilst I would concur that this tactic hasn't helped either player or the team for that matter in scoring goals, the fact is this theory only goes back 3 games and as I said the problem stretches right back to April.

It cannot be said that we are playing a defensive line up either, in the past three games we have started four players who are essentially attackers in Osvaldo, Lambert, Rodriguez and Lallana, all are attack minded rather than defenders and even when our usual formation was employed it still saw Lambert supported by Rodriguez and Lallana.

Saints seem to have created a few chances but in truth they haven't been missing them, this season hasn't seen a plethora of glaring misses and in the main opposition goalkeepers have rarely had to save anything other than what you would expect a keeper at that level to save, yes the woodwork has been hit on a couple of occasions but no more than average.

So I put it down to in the main one thing, a bit of bad luck in front of goal, players are trying too hard and therefore its not coming naturally to them, its whats called the "ketchup bottle theory" think when you try to get ketchup out of a newly opened bottle, you tip it up and nothing comes out, you shake it about, still nothing, you bang it hard and again nothing, you repeat this and then suddenly you get a result and hey presto it flows out like water, this is the same for goalscorers in football, they try and try and cant seem to hit a cow's arse with a banjo, then all of a suddent they notch a gaol and cant stop scoring.

Hopefully this will be the case with Saints and to be blunt they have several attacking players who are having "ketchup" problems, it only needs one of our attacking players to score and usually when they do its a flukey goal rather than a text book finish,it could create that effect and before you know it they will all be scoring for fun again.

Which one will it be ? quite frankly I don't care, I just want one of them to do it and open the floodgates and when that happens someone will feel the frustration of the past six months taken out on them, whether its Crystal Palace this afternoon is yet to be seen, but hopefully with full respect to Palace I hope it will be.

Photo: Action Images



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slynch added 11:59 - Sep 28
Your observations get more erudite every week but I'm unsure how many footballers would understand the concept of more non-Newtonian fluidity in attack?

Still ~i think you're right! 6 - 0 Plop!
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IanRC added 13:18 - Sep 28
I have been thinking that your headline might be right myself for a while but for different reasons Nick. I do believe that the Rickie / Dani combination can work and I think Adam has grown into the captains role. If we can keep Luke and Nathaniel fit to provide wise supply I am sure that things will take off, hopefully this afternoon.
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