Last season midfield goals

[sneezey15]

Am I right in thinking until the last game Faurlin,Henry and Lunogo had not scored a goal in the league between them pathetic return.

[Rangers77]

Yep. Tozer got one. So nothing from our central midfielders.

[Greg1882]

#### poor to be honest. All the people crying out for ale to stay need to appreciate that we've never scored goal from midfield with him in there. Not laying the blame soley at his door but it's a big factor. Look at all of the successful sides and every single one of them has goals from midfield. It's pretty simple

[upperloft]

Am I right in thinking until the last game Faurlin,Henry and Lunogo had not scored a goal in the league between them pathetic return.

That's a Scary stat, let's hope that changes next season.

[nanocopic]

Yeah was really poor. Fer got a couple although I know he was number 10. Our wingers did well last year, Chery, Phillips and Hoilett did very well goal wise.

[West Acton]

The exact reason why the meltdown over Faurlin was so bizarre. A midfielder for me should be able to do all the basics including getting up and down the pitch

Lack of goals from Luango is my biggest criticism of him as early in season he was bursting into the box but then he stopped doing it. We lack goals from the midfield as our midfield is so cumbersome and unathletic!!!! They would rather hang around 20 yards away from opposition box so they can get back if they break as they don't have the legs to respond and recover if their high up the pitch and that's why we don't score from the middle of the park and why Faurlin had to go.

We're such an easy team to mark when we attack as there is one focal point for defence to concentrate on!!! No runners from deep to distract or get into gaps causing havoc and chaos. When do you last recall one of CM bursting into the box late??? Until we get legs in middle of park it won't change

[nasser95]

Faurlin's never been a goalscorer so why people were expecting more is beyond me, especially since he hit the post a few times, had some good free kicks saved and assisted 6 times so got more done than most. Luongo got chances but doesn't have the best finishing. Henry is not a goalscoring midfielder. Honestly, this is people looking for a reason to complain. We had 15 different goal scorers last season, More than Burnley (13), Derby (14), Sheffield (14) and just slightly less than Burnley (16), Middlesbrough (16), Brighton (16), Hull (18). Those are all in the top 6 so to have as many goalscorers as them is impressive. As for whether we've had midfielders burst into the box, Luongo generally makes runs in every game he's played but in addition, we actually do have 5 players minimum attacking because one full back is generally making a run (hence how Perch has managed 3 assists). We've had plenty of success in the past when we had Faurlin and Derry who both never scored goals so why is it an issue now? Because the rest of the team isn't doing their job? We have 2 players who played in total a combined 12 games up front and didn't get a single goal, why aren't we criticising them for it, but the defensive midfield pivot is getting the blame? (Phillips and CW btw). Ultimately, that's a key difference between us and a top 6 team: Every single top 6 team striker that played more than 4 games starting up front got goals.

Also, if you're saying the top sides always have goalscoring midfielders, Man Utd who won the league in 2010/11 had 2 legitimate midfielders score 1 goal each over the whole season (scholes and Anderson), which is the same as what we have. That championship winning team, only Faurlin scored from cm and he got 3 total while getting 3 assists, making him as effective a final ball player as he has been this season. Don't get how we're complaining, as long as someone who is supposed to score does, you don't get people complaining about others not scoring. Unfortunately, one of our biggest issues has been that the players supposed to score (the strikers) haven't done it consistently enough, so let's blame the centre mids who are playing the pivot role.

[Greg1882]

Faurlin's never been a goalscorer so why people were expecting more is beyond me, especially since he hit the post a few times, had some good free kicks saved and assisted 6 times so got more done than most. Luongo got chances but doesn't have the best finishing. Henry is not a goalscoring midfielder. Honestly, this is people looking for a reason to complain. We had 15 different goal scorers last season, More than Burnley (13), Derby (14), Sheffield (14) and just slightly less than Burnley (16), Middlesbrough (16), Brighton (16), Hull (18). Those are all in the top 6 so to have as many goalscorers as them is impressive. As for whether we've had midfielders burst into the box, Luongo generally makes runs in every game he's played but in addition, we actually do have 5 players minimum attacking because one full back is generally making a run (hence how Perch has managed 3 assists). We've had plenty of success in the past when we had Faurlin and Derry who both never scored goals so why is it an issue now? Because the rest of the team isn't doing their job? We have 2 players who played in total a combined 12 games up front and didn't get a single goal, why aren't we criticising them for it, but the defensive midfield pivot is getting the blame? (Phillips and CW btw). Ultimately, that's a key difference between us and a top 6 team: Every single top 6 team striker that played more than 4 games starting up front got goals.

Also, if you're saying the top sides always have goalscoring midfielders, Man Utd who won the league in 2010/11 had 2 legitimate midfielders score 1 goal each over the whole season (scholes and Anderson), which is the same as what we have. That championship winning team, only Faurlin scored from cm and he got 3 total while getting 3 assists, making him as effective a final ball player as he has been this season. Don't get how we're complaining, as long as someone who is supposed to score does, you don't get people complaining about others not scoring. Unfortunately, one of our biggest issues has been that the players supposed to score (the strikers) haven't done it consistently enough, so let's blame the centre mids who are playing the pivot role.

Totally looking over the fact that when we had faurlin and Derry we also had adel who almost single handily won us the league. I don't know where to look but can you compile a list of all the clubs in the division and their total goals from central midfield this season? Be interested to see where we come in that

[nasser95]

Totally looking over the fact that when we had faurlin and Derry we also had adel who almost single handily won us the league. I don't know where to look but can you compile a list of all the clubs in the division and their total goals from central midfield this season? Be interested to see where we come in that

Of course, and you'll probably find that they have a few goals overall from centre midfield. What I've got is the list of players who have played more than 10 matches at centre mid (so we eliminate the players who just filled in but aren't actually centre mids).
Of the 78 players who filled the criteria, 53 of them scored goals. But just going on open play goals, 41 of them scored goals. If we can agree to look at purely open play goals since Penalties aren't taken by our centre mids and as a club we don't create many dangerous set pieces shooting opportunities:
Burnley - 1 goal
Middlesbrough - 1 goal
Brighton - 6 goals - (2 scorers)
Hull - 7 goals (4 scorers)
Derby - 16 goals (5 scorers)
Sheffield Wednesday - 6 goals (1 scorer)
Ipswich - 7 goals (4 scorers)
Cardiff - 3 goals (3 scorers)
Brentford - 3 goals (2 scorers, although consider that one of them was Judge playing one match at cm and scoring twice)
Birmingham - 7 goals (2 scorers)
Preston - 9 goals (4 scorers)
Leeds - 2 goals (1 scorer)
Wolves - 8 goals (3 scorers)
Blackburn - 1 goal (1 scorer)
Nottingham Forest - 3 goals (3 scorers)
Reading - 9 goals (4 scorers)

I could go down to the end, but ultimately the comparison wouldn't really show much given how poorly the rest of the league has performed. You can get the idea though from this. There's really not much correlation. The promoted teams had one goalscorer from midfield in open play, most of the play off teams had a few goalscorers, some of the others had one. We had 2 goalscorers from Centre mid scoring 2 goals total.

[Pinkie]

The exact reason why the meltdown over Faurlin was so bizarre. A midfielder for me should be able to do all the basics including getting up and down the pitch

Lack of goals from Luango is my biggest criticism of him as early in season he was bursting into the box but then he stopped doing it. We lack goals from the midfield as our midfield is so cumbersome and unathletic!!!! They would rather hang around 20 yards away from opposition box so they can get back if they break as they don't have the legs to respond and recover if their high up the pitch and that's why we don't score from the middle of the park and why Faurlin had to go.

We're such an easy team to mark when we attack as there is one focal point for defence to concentrate on!!! No runners from deep to distract or get into gaps causing havoc and chaos. When do you last recall one of CM bursting into the box late??? Until we get legs in middle of park it won't change

Diakite

[Greg1882]

Of course, and you'll probably find that they have a few goals overall from centre midfield. What I've got is the list of players who have played more than 10 matches at centre mid (so we eliminate the players who just filled in but aren't actually centre mids).
Of the 78 players who filled the criteria, 53 of them scored goals. But just going on open play goals, 41 of them scored goals. If we can agree to look at purely open play goals since Penalties aren't taken by our centre mids and as a club we don't create many dangerous set pieces shooting opportunities:
Burnley - 1 goal
Middlesbrough - 1 goal
Brighton - 6 goals - (2 scorers)
Hull - 7 goals (4 scorers)
Derby - 16 goals (5 scorers)
Sheffield Wednesday - 6 goals (1 scorer)
Ipswich - 7 goals (4 scorers)
Cardiff - 3 goals (3 scorers)
Brentford - 3 goals (2 scorers, although consider that one of them was Judge playing one match at cm and scoring twice)
Birmingham - 7 goals (2 scorers)
Preston - 9 goals (4 scorers)
Leeds - 2 goals (1 scorer)
Wolves - 8 goals (3 scorers)
Blackburn - 1 goal (1 scorer)
Nottingham Forest - 3 goals (3 scorers)
Reading - 9 goals (4 scorers)

I could go down to the end, but ultimately the comparison wouldn't really show much given how poorly the rest of the league has performed. You can get the idea though from this. There's really not much correlation. The promoted teams had one goalscorer from midfield in open play, most of the play off teams had a few goalscorers, some of the others had one. We had 2 goalscorers from Centre mid scoring 2 goals total.

Cheers for that. I thought we'd be further behind than that to be honest. Suppose the two primoted teams did have a decent amount of goals from their forwards and wide areas. Surprised leadbitter and Clayton only scored one between them. Even so we're still bottom of the pile which simply isn't good enough for me. Add to the fact we don't score many goals up front unlike boro and burnley and that's a serious issue. We need runners and energy from midfield, they need to control and drive the game not let it pass them by

[nasser95]

Cheers for that. I thought we'd be further behind than that to be honest. Suppose the two primoted teams did have a decent amount of goals from their forwards and wide areas. Surprised leadbitter and Clayton only scored one between them. Even so we're still bottom of the pile which simply isn't good enough for me. Add to the fact we don't score many goals up front unlike boro and burnley and that's a serious issue. We need runners and energy from midfield, they need to control and drive the game not let it pass them by

This is the key. Ultimately, when you think goals, the first people you think are wingers, attacking mids and strikers. The complaints should be why haven't our strikers done enough, because ultimately, Chery's got 10 goals, Phillips has got 8 goals and Hoilett has 6 goals, but Polter only managed 6 although at least that's a lot more than Washington. If we had a true goalscoring striker, we wouldn't really be complaining about the midfielders. Hopefully polter can develop into a true finisher, but even more hopefully we sign an "andre gray" so to speak, ie a striker who will just score goals no matter what.

[FACTS]

Goals have to come from somewhere, if the midfield are scoring them it's because of the way the team's set up. Not every midfielder has to score goals, this isn't 5 a side. It's about their role within the team.

Iniesta has scored 1 goal this season playing for the best attacking team in the world but is comfortably the best midfielder of this generation. Modric hardly scores but is MAdrid's best midfielder.

Rather than looking for X amount of goals from midfield/forwards/wingers we need to address the way we play as a team.