Chances created

The reason why we are not higher in the league is because we did not sign a striker pre season.
The one important position where you need keen competition is up front where taking chances keeps you in the team.
To make anything of this season we must act in this window to expedite a finisher

Quoted from bedders78

While I don't dispute that the squad need an extra striker to give Taylor a breather, would we risk changing the shape or dropping Taylor to accommodate them in our first choice line up?

Going two up top with Taylor + AN Other makes it difficult to accommodate McAtee in his most effective position, replacing Taylor with AN Other you probably trade Taylor's remarkable ability to control and lay off the ball.for a bit more mobility and he's not a shabby finisher either.

This is where I am on the debate. Who do you drop from our front 4 to make way for this number 9?

Quoted from darren9

It’s not as simple as that though, do we create those chances because we don’t have a striker? Is it from Clifton or fox coming from midfield or the wingers creating opportunities? Or are the changes from McAtee creating something for himself? We also create a fair few ‘chances’ for the defenders from set pieces. We’d still do that with or without a n n n n n n nine.

I’m not saying that we don’t need a striker, we evidently do but I don’t think it’s as simple as we’d score loads of the chances created with one. It relies on that striker being in the right place to score that chance or that chance even coming to that striker.

Course it’s not, but the difference between us and certainly Chesterfield and Notts was that they had someone there to take their chances when we didn’t. Tishminga did intercourse all for most of the game but they went away with the points because he was there.
I say all this thinking Hurst was correct over not signing him, but I do think there needs to be a little more balance between such caution and signing the best you can possibly get.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

This is where I am on the debate. Who do you drop from our front 4 to make way for this number 9?

I made the same point after Saturday’s game. Taylor is an excellent technician and links up play really well however, I believe his weakness is that he doesn’t get on the end of enough crosses but has shown on occasions that he knows where the net is when he does, Barnet, Wrexham and Southend. Thus as others have said that leads you to think we need another striker to play with him but how does this change McAtee’s role or do we lose some width? If we lose width we may reduce the number of crosses into the box and having two front players down the middle may mean we lose some of the slick interplay that has been on show at BP.

As Ska said earlier it’s a real dilemma for the Manager given that most of us share the opinion that a “proper striker” is required.

It's not that cut and dried to my mind.

Quality of chances is as important as it just being a chance. What is the criteria? If you are put clean through, one on one with the keeper, or a cross is put right on your foot 6 yards out in the middle of the goal, you are more likely to convert it.

As ska pointed out, It's just as important that we have decent overlapping full backs who can deliver a dangerous cross or score the odd goal themselves as it is to have an out and out goal scorer. That's why I have high hopes for Amos who looked to be able to contribute going forward more readily than Crookes.

I think Taylor has looked more than a decent finisher and has converted a couple of crosses into goals that were very difficult chances. He also brings a lot to the game in the build up pay. His holding up and lay offs are top notch, so it may be that a more attacking midfielder coming from deep and timing his runs will yield more reward. Perhaps Burgess will fill that role.

Then there is the defence. The top three have all got much more miserly goals against than we have, but the next 6 teams, including us, all have about the same slightly higher rate. It all adds up to getting those three points.

It's not simply about having a more lethal striker, although we clearly need one and I expect we will see one in before the end of the month. Then he will have to be accommodated into the team, which will mean a change of shape or dropping someone.

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

Fair points but the reality of the situation is we don't have someone who regularly puts away their chances, which this stat clearly shows. Would we be better off with a player who had a higher conversion rate than our existing players even if that meant we create less chances overall?  

I'd say the answer is a highly likely yes we would be higher than ninth in the league as we've lost most of our games by very small one goal margins.

I'd argue the point on 'stats clearly show', because they don't. It's a basic number with no breakdown. How many of those chances are headers won on corners? What are the stats on most corners to quantify the rate of corners to chances? How many are direct free kicks at goal? How many direct free kicks have we been awarded? How many are strikes from outside the box taken by midfielders?

The stat which would truly show the exact need of a striker who can convert is how many chances were created in open play inside the box and missed. You could have Michael Owen in his prime but if the ball isn't getting where he needs it then he's just as useless as I would be.

I haven't seen every game this season but I don't recall Taylor having many chances for himself in what I have seen and if there are stats available for his conversion then I'd guess it wouldn't be horrific. Much as I like Sousa's drive and how he can get us forward I'd argue a lot falls down once he gets to the crucial point of finding a man or shooting when in and around the box.

No arguments from me that a striker is required to offer different options and lessen the burden on Taylor a bit but if our chances are stacked up predominantly in corners, free kicks and shots outside the area then it doesn't automatically stack up that new striker = chances converted.

Clean sheets - saves a lot of heartache if the defence is mean and solid.

Bear in mind that Taylor's effort in the first half on Saturday would have been classified as a 'chance'. However, it was one where a keeper coming off his line would be able to smother the effort most of the time so it wasn't really as clear-cut as you might think. It is small margins, though - if Taylor could have reached the ball a foot further out, the dynamics of the situation would have changed in his favour so it is very subjective.

Similarly, Fox's header. I personally think the cross was just a tiny bit high, but also Fox didn't anticipate it quite well enough. Certainly a chance, but a good one? Not so sure too many players would have scored that one - perhaps that elusive No. 9 we're looking for might have got there.

Just goes to show how completely arbitrary somebody listing the number 'chances created' might well be. I'd say we've missed some good ones in our recent poor run, but we've not exactly peppered the goal in most of the games we've lost. We've created enough to get something out of the game but haven't on too many occasions.

A lot of strikers create their own chances

Quoted from golfer

A lot of strikers create their own chances

Yeah, but we release those ones…

https://youtu.be/Mhs-yiyPyDg