we know we have players who can shoot, and apologies for not having the stats to hand but from personal experience attending most matches I know I can state that;

1. ramires doesn't get enuf shots off at all

2. mikel doesn't either, and when he does.............we all duck

3. essie - ditto and when he does he misses

4. lamps better against sunderland but looks way off the pace and ditthers when he has a chance

5. boss shooting is awful

6. kalou yes does get the odd goal but genrerally mish*ts and misfires

7. drogs.................er 1 great hit and the rest pretty woeful

8. nico - poor goal per shot rate considering how often he has clear sight of goal

9. malouda...................probably best overall rating, but still not good enough

confidence part of it, and the defending levels (like sunday) bit come on...............20+ shots and 3 on target (all last 10mins) is rubbish isn't it

we create the chances, thats a start - but we have to get better AND FAST

I'd say that our single most problem was our passing - it's been sh*te since Ray Wilkins left. Coincidence? Maybe...

I'd say that our single most problem was our passing - it's been sh*te since Ray Wilkins left. Coincidence? Maybe...

The Ray Wilkns excuse is exactly that.. an excuse! These are very high paid professional athletes. If an assistant coach leaving has an effect on the way they pass the ball then they have major problems. Passing is a problem, but using Ray as an excuse is just wrong. Maybe the environment in the locker room or training ground is different but professional athletes don't just forget how to play from one week to the next because of an assistant coach leaving.

The Ray Wilkns excuse is exactly that.. an excuse! These are very high paid professional athletes. If an assistant coach leaving has an effect on the way they pass the ball then they have major problems. Passing is a problem, but using Ray as an excuse is just wrong. Maybe the environment in the locker room or training ground is different but professional athletes don't just forget how to play from one week to the next because of an assistant coach leaving.

Yes, but hitting ball from a distance in the corner of the net or missing it is down to small things, same goes with passing. The difference in great through pass and a failed ones can be measured in milliseconds. Ray, our assistant coach, leaving may not be the biggest thing but you can see how such a small thing has effected our form.

The players are not machines(apart from Ess who had a bad oil change recently) and their ability comes from their brain not their extremities. The team was clearly hit by Ray's departure. You sound like the man who fired Ray and sticks with your decision.

Naturally we don't know exactly what goes inside the team but I wouldn't call it an excuse.

I'd say that our single most problem was our passing - it's been sh*te since Ray Wilkins left. Coincidence? Maybe...

i agree our passing has been very poor especially in the final 3rd we are not able to produce that one telling ball that we would be sure our strikers would have scored

But blaming it on the departure of ray wilkins i don't agree,these players have a lot of experience to play and pass well.It comes down to their ability in a match,its their legs and their mind(its become stale,no creativity at all)

Edited February 9, 201115 yr by adren022

It's everything - just the fact that we've lost more home games this season than in the last 5 seasons put together tells you it's more than a single factor - it's combination of many factors: player injuries, individual loss of form, collective loss of form, collective loss of confidence, tactics, board/owner interference, the list is long. But like all sports the number one element is confidence. Now we could discuss who's job it is to give the players confidence, personally I would say its 50/50 between the player himself and the manager/coaching staff and with injury the medical staff. No matter, a lot of people within the club, on all levels, have made mistakes and misjudgments which have resulted in our current position and, should we find ourselves in the position at the end of the season without CL football next year only one man will bear the blame - right or wrong.

I'd say that our single most problem was our passing - it's been sh*te since Ray Wilkins left. Coincidence? Maybe...

Not sure about that. When did Ray leave? Around 1979?!

Surely we would have got it sorted by now!

Our biggest problem, not just this season but the last few years, is creativity.

Our fullbacks get forward an awful lot but they can't cross.

Our midfielders are powerful athletes and runners but they don't really play one two's, create space and opportunities for the forwards.

Everybody seems to blame the forwards but they are absolutely starved of service.

We need wide players with speed that can cross or a clever player inbetween the midfield and strikers with that can create chances.

Benayoun could play the role to some extent but unfortunately he has been out for so long.

Our biggest problem, not just this season but the last few years, is creativity.

Agreed, someone like Joey at his best to come on when we were having trouble breaking teams down always raised the excitement level for me.

Our fullbacks get forward an awful lot but they can't cross.

I think the Pool game excagerrated this as they pinned them back well but agreed they need to work on the crossing.

Our midfielders are powerful athletes and runners but they don't really play one two's, create space and opportunities for the forwards.

I think the fact that they are powerful athletes is what has gone wrong as much as anything, the power seems to be lacking of late and when you think how strong Essien especially was you realise how often his powerful runs come to an end without either the shot that so often followed or with him losing the ball, I think we miss the strength of Ballack in situations like the Liverpool game for the physical pressence as well.

Everybody seems to blame the forwards but they are absolutely starved of service.

agreed in the games where we struggle..until we score usually, teams are very quick to get in our faces and break up our play but we seldom use the same approach, we seem to play like hustling for every ball isn't what we do and we don't do enough defending from the front.

We need wide players with speed that can cross or a clever player inbetween the midfield and strikers with that can create chances.

Benayoun could play the role to some extent but unfortunately he has been out for so long.

I don't like using to much imagination when talking of the effect I feel a player might have had (one of my main reasons for not going over the top on promising youth prospects) but having seen Yossi playing regularly at this level I really feel his injury had a telling impact on the season as a whole, he would have been ideal to step in for Lampard while he was out and/or Essien on his ban and would be just the midfield change that could unlock defenses where our often predictable midfield struggles, I think he could also have played a few games on the wing as he can beat a man and cross a ball.

Being as I'm bored and not much is happening on here, and I can't go out cos my misses has got someone coming for a next returns parcel I thought I'd use your post to add a couple of bits that occured to me as I read it..

Edited February 9, 201115 yr by Chippy

The Ray Wilkns excuse is exactly that.. an excuse! These are very high paid professional athletes. If an assistant coach leaving has an effect on the way they pass the ball then they have major problems. Passing is a problem, but using Ray as an excuse is just wrong. Maybe the environment in the locker room or training ground is different but professional athletes don't just forget how to play from one week to the next because of an assistant coach leaving.

I wasn't saying it was because Ray Wilkins left, I was putting it forward as a question - hence the 'maybe...'

Not sure about that. When did Ray leave? Around 1979?!

Surely we would have got it sorted by now!

Ah, but look what happened after he left back then :D

There is no doubt poor shooting cost us the game against Everton which ended in a draw.

Of the 20 attempts on goal only 3 were on target and Drogba was the main culprit.

This is one area that needs vast improvement.

Not sure about that. When did Ray leave? Around 1979?!

Surely we would have got it sorted by now!

:lol: Exactly what I thought when I read BB's original post! Seriously though my bugbear is the lack of a killer cross getting past the first blocking defender. The biggest culpit is Anelka with his fairy flicks and side foot crosses. Corners are still sh*t too.

:lol: Exactly what I thought when I read BB's original post! Seriously though my bugbear is the lack of a killer cross getting past the first blocking defender. The biggest culpit is Anelka with his fairy flicks and side foot crosses. Corners are still sh*t too.

I think our set pieces haven't been good for a long time, we've got quite a tall team and I don't think we utilise our aerial strength anywhere near enough.

Are all these shots people are complaining about clear chances on goal or just speculative long efforts?

We rarely make enough decent chances for supporters to be complaining about poor shooting.

For example Essien rarely hits the targets with his shots but thats because most of his shots are from long distance with many bodies in front of him and he really shouldn't be shooting from there anyway.