Our attacking play is nowhere near good enough. It’s a major weakness and needs addressing in the summer.
It is absolutely essential that McCleary is fit for Sunday. I don’t fancy our chances if he’s unavailable.
I expect we will need three major attacking signings in the summer as a minimum. Lubala and Kone have shown promise, Taylor, Campbell and Kodua will leave. McCleary and Vokes will surely only have bit part roles if they remain.
I think our attacking play has been fine, especially over the last two or three months. What has been lacking has been the ability to finish (put the ball away) when in and around the six yard box.
Richard Koné has had about as many minutes as Ali Al-Hamadi was given last season. Things have turned out quite well for him.
I'm with @micra . It's the finishing that has been missing. Also agree getting forward and getting crosses in will get the best of Vokes. Campbell needs to learn to cross or at least pass the ball forward the way Leahy does.
Agree with @Commoner - crosses from beyond the defenders and Vokes is probably one of the best in the division still, but we so rarely cross from there. Personally I'd also ask him not to drop deep so often as there's been a number of times this season when we have crossed from the right areas but Vokes has been too far back to get on to it.
Right on the nose @drcongo Vokesy tries to be a focal point, but drops too deep so when he does lay off the ball, he is not where he needs to be when the cross comes in. We have enough players who can ping a ball into the box for him....they just need to!
(I have to say I thought the much maligned McCarthy was the only one being effective in that regard...)
I've seen no evidence to support Vokes being one of the best in the division when it comes to conversion of crosses. The two misses yesterday were not easy I agree but the first one he put 10 yards over from 5 yards out. Once upon a time, but not now. There's a long list of strikers in this league that are more effective.
Got back earlier today, ended up staying the night with the kids. Had planned to stay over but when we left yesterday morning we had nothing booked and my intentions was come home after a little walk around the pier.
Crazy what you see and don't see at a match, I completely missed the ref stopping play after the Forino incident, glad its being dealt with. I also enjoyed the game and come away thinking we could of won that. After reading the comments on here I looked up the stats did I realise we only had 1 shot on target (imagine it was Vokes long range one from about 40 yards late on)?
Vokes should of done better with his first big chance but was very unlucky when he hit the bar. The build up to them was really good.
Thought we looked solid at back and thanks to a couple of big saves at the end, they fully deserved to keep a clean sheet. Freddie Potts put in little cameo too, what a great loan move that's turned out for both us and him.
Your journey towards a more nuanced view where you need to play to Vokes' strengths are noted, and I agree with you.
Another way would be more accurate long balls and a runner off him to benefit from the header he inevitably wins, often against more than one defender, creating space. Or in other words the Stockdale, Vokes, Mehmeti blueprint. Convinced that would have taken us up had they stayed together (along with Gaz) for the season
One little moan at Blackpool was they had 2 people behind the kiosk, nothing against these 2 has they worked very hard and non stop but the queue at half time was silly.
People give up waiting in the end. Our away support I've read was an estimated 300 and even if they didn't expect that many surely they could of moved a couple of others from a different part of the ground?
As mentioned above somewhere , they had 3 big defenders, so it was Voakes up against them. Unless my maths is way out shouldn’t that have meant that the likes of Chem should have been exploiting the gaps this would create?
That definitely used to work well, this season though I've seen the flicks on to runners go wide and end up with a ball into the box with Vokes still way too far out to capitalise. Playing to his strengths now also means not expecting him to run - we should probably be playing him like Bayo now.
Although his first attempt on Monday was a full-on howler, that was his first attempt and he'd not even been on long. The two attempts that followed showed that he's still got a great shot in him - if we're going to let him come deep, those runners should be pulling it back for him to shoot from further out.
As someone says above maybe we can play in the Bayo role. Bayo was unique with his control and strength but I also think we played a second striker closer to him (the purple patch with Scotty K springs to mind).
I saw his firt effort a little differently. A ball really fizzed across the box, narrowly missing the defender, an awkward height and he got an outstretched left leg to it and just couldn't get over the top of the ball. Could he have gone with a diving header instead? 50/50 chance at best. I will say I've only seen it live at the ground the once, and I was pretty level with it.
Second chance was brilliant, very unlucky not to score, two inches lower and that's a quality finish!
For the avoidance of doubt I am not claiming we are a goal machine but it’s inaccurate to label our attacking play as ‘woeful’ as the above statistics prove. One goal is often enough to win a game if you defend well and Stevenage have got that off to a tee.
Thinking about that period and without wishing to derail the conversation, whatever happened to Paris Cowan Hall? He just seemed to disappear after his brief spell at Col U.
I follow him on Instagram, and I can’t really work out what he does. Clearly loves Starbucks and is a gym bunny but that’s all I see. Don’t think he is playing for anyone. Wasn’t he an exciting player.
Seems a bit weird he never found another club, unless he didn't want to. Maybe we/Ainsworth got something out of him no one else could; maybe he just fell out of love with playing. On his day though, a glorious player to watch and a huge part of some of my favourite more recent Wycombe memories.
I must have been positioned somewhere close to you and I saw the chance much the same. Vokes did well to get a decent contact on it - perhaps too good a contact but the move happened at pace and he had to get what he could on it. Second effort was a cracking shot and deserved a goal but wasn’t to be. No criticism of Vokes from me was good to see him have a chance to get on the end of some decent deliveries.
He was, and was so integral to that really positive period of the club's existence. Just think of Luton (a), Carlisle (h), for example, and his part in those victories.
I think Paris had the best spring from a standing position of any player I've ever seen. Used to get up so high. Great header of the ball
He was absolutely flying when he left us during that transfer window, along with Josh. I'm convinced that has they both stayed we'd have gained automatic promotion that season
He was in the away end at the MK Dons playoff 2nd leg, think he lives up that way anyway. Suppose that squad still had a few of his mates from his time at Wycombe - Stewart, Akinfenwa etc
Potts is a wonderful player and has the opportunity to go onto much bigger and better things than Scowen, who at his peak was a top half Championship player. I’ll be disappointed if Potts is “just” that when at his.
This season though we’ve suffered much more when Scowen is missing than Potts. The latter’s passing and all round play is fantastic but the formers ability to cover every part of the pitch, especially on the edge of both boxes, is essential to us.
Scowen is my POTS, followed closely by Potts & Leahy.
Comments
Our attacking play is nowhere near good enough. It’s a major weakness and needs addressing in the summer.
It is absolutely essential that McCleary is fit for Sunday. I don’t fancy our chances if he’s unavailable.
I expect we will need three major attacking signings in the summer as a minimum. Lubala and Kone have shown promise, Taylor, Campbell and Kodua will leave. McCleary and Vokes will surely only have bit part roles if they remain.
I think our attacking play has been fine, especially over the last two or three months. What has been lacking has been the ability to finish (put the ball away) when in and around the six yard box.
Richard Koné has had about as many minutes as Ali Al-Hamadi was given last season. Things have turned out quite well for him.
I'm with @micra . It's the finishing that has been missing. Also agree getting forward and getting crosses in will get the best of Vokes. Campbell needs to learn to cross or at least pass the ball forward the way Leahy does.
Agree with @Commoner - crosses from beyond the defenders and Vokes is probably one of the best in the division still, but we so rarely cross from there. Personally I'd also ask him not to drop deep so often as there's been a number of times this season when we have crossed from the right areas but Vokes has been too far back to get on to it.
Right on the nose @drcongo Vokesy tries to be a focal point, but drops too deep so when he does lay off the ball, he is not where he needs to be when the cross comes in. We have enough players who can ping a ball into the box for him....they just need to!
(I have to say I thought the much maligned McCarthy was the only one being effective in that regard...)
I've seen no evidence to support Vokes being one of the best in the division when it comes to conversion of crosses. The two misses yesterday were not easy I agree but the first one he put 10 yards over from 5 yards out. Once upon a time, but not now. There's a long list of strikers in this league that are more effective.
Got back earlier today, ended up staying the night with the kids. Had planned to stay over but when we left yesterday morning we had nothing booked and my intentions was come home after a little walk around the pier.
Crazy what you see and don't see at a match, I completely missed the ref stopping play after the Forino incident, glad its being dealt with. I also enjoyed the game and come away thinking we could of won that. After reading the comments on here I looked up the stats did I realise we only had 1 shot on target (imagine it was Vokes long range one from about 40 yards late on)?
Vokes should of done better with his first big chance but was very unlucky when he hit the bar. The build up to them was really good.
Thought we looked solid at back and thanks to a couple of big saves at the end, they fully deserved to keep a clean sheet. Freddie Potts put in little cameo too, what a great loan move that's turned out for both us and him.
Your journey towards a more nuanced view where you need to play to Vokes' strengths are noted, and I agree with you.
Another way would be more accurate long balls and a runner off him to benefit from the header he inevitably wins, often against more than one defender, creating space. Or in other words the Stockdale, Vokes, Mehmeti blueprint. Convinced that would have taken us up had they stayed together (along with Gaz) for the season
One little moan at Blackpool was they had 2 people behind the kiosk, nothing against these 2 has they worked very hard and non stop but the queue at half time was silly.
People give up waiting in the end. Our away support I've read was an estimated 300 and even if they didn't expect that many surely they could of moved a couple of others from a different part of the ground?
As mentioned above somewhere , they had 3 big defenders, so it was Voakes up against them. Unless my maths is way out shouldn’t that have meant that the likes of Chem should have been exploiting the gaps this would create?
That definitely used to work well, this season though I've seen the flicks on to runners go wide and end up with a ball into the box with Vokes still way too far out to capitalise. Playing to his strengths now also means not expecting him to run - we should probably be playing him like Bayo now.
Although his first attempt on Monday was a full-on howler, that was his first attempt and he'd not even been on long. The two attempts that followed showed that he's still got a great shot in him - if we're going to let him come deep, those runners should be pulling it back for him to shoot from further out.
I think we are quite good at taking our chances but apart from five to six games we really haven't threatened as much as we could.
Games with no goals - 13 with 5 draws and 8 defeats
Games with one goal - 11 with 2 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats
Games with two goals - 11 with 6 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats
Games with three goals - 3 - 3 wins
Games with four and five goals - 2 with two wins
In 24 games we've scored one goal or less. In the other 16 we've scored 2 or more but only scored more than twice on 5 occasions in 40 games.
I'm not sure what the stats are in other seasons but this feels quite low.
10 clubs have scored less than us, one club equal and 12 clubs more.
9 clubs have conceded less than us, one equal and 13 more.
As someone says above maybe we can play in the Bayo role. Bayo was unique with his control and strength but I also think we played a second striker closer to him (the purple patch with Scotty K springs to mind).
I saw his firt effort a little differently. A ball really fizzed across the box, narrowly missing the defender, an awkward height and he got an outstretched left leg to it and just couldn't get over the top of the ball. Could he have gone with a diving header instead? 50/50 chance at best. I will say I've only seen it live at the ground the once, and I was pretty level with it.
Second chance was brilliant, very unlucky not to score, two inches lower and that's a quality finish!
So we've scored around the median and conceded around the median number of goals. Pretty much reflected in our position in around mid table.
Let's hope on Sunday we can score more than Peterborough - which is what matters.
8 out of our 51 goals have come v Peterborough
For the avoidance of doubt I am not claiming we are a goal machine but it’s inaccurate to label our attacking play as ‘woeful’ as the above statistics prove. One goal is often enough to win a game if you defend well and Stevenage have got that off to a tee.
Thinking about that period and without wishing to derail the conversation, whatever happened to Paris Cowan Hall? He just seemed to disappear after his brief spell at Col U.
I follow him on Instagram, and I can’t really work out what he does. Clearly loves Starbucks and is a gym bunny but that’s all I see. Don’t think he is playing for anyone. Wasn’t he an exciting player.
He was released by Col U three years ago and hasn't played for anyone since, so I assume he's retired.
Shame if he had to finish at 30.
He did well for us across a few spells.
Seems a bit weird he never found another club, unless he didn't want to. Maybe we/Ainsworth got something out of him no one else could; maybe he just fell out of love with playing. On his day though, a glorious player to watch and a huge part of some of my favourite more recent Wycombe memories.
I must have been positioned somewhere close to you and I saw the chance much the same. Vokes did well to get a decent contact on it - perhaps too good a contact but the move happened at pace and he had to get what he could on it. Second effort was a cracking shot and deserved a goal but wasn’t to be. No criticism of Vokes from me was good to see him have a chance to get on the end of some decent deliveries.
He was, and was so integral to that really positive period of the club's existence. Just think of Luton (a), Carlisle (h), for example, and his part in those victories.
Don’t think Paris was at the JJ do? I remember a fantastic header at Cheltenham right in front of us away fans. He was quite an athlete.
I think Paris had the best spring from a standing position of any player I've ever seen. Used to get up so high. Great header of the ball
He was absolutely flying when he left us during that transfer window, along with Josh. I'm convinced that has they both stayed we'd have gained automatic promotion that season
He was in the away end at the MK Dons playoff 2nd leg, think he lives up that way anyway. Suppose that squad still had a few of his mates from his time at Wycombe - Stewart, Akinfenwa etc
Potts is a wonderful player and has the opportunity to go onto much bigger and better things than Scowen, who at his peak was a top half Championship player. I’ll be disappointed if Potts is “just” that when at his.
This season though we’ve suffered much more when Scowen is missing than Potts. The latter’s passing and all round play is fantastic but the formers ability to cover every part of the pitch, especially on the edge of both boxes, is essential to us.
Scowen is my POTS, followed closely by Potts & Leahy.