Just Give Us A Goal

Five goals in seven league games tells it’s own story and must be a worry to Swansea fans as the league starts to take shape and the support starts to wonder whether we are better than the league table currently suggests.

Of course we have the positive that the goals against column reads the same number as the goals for but even John Hollins would tell you that if you don’t score that many goals then you won’t win that many matches (of course I realise the irony of this statement compared to the 99/00 season!)

But why aren’t we knocking the ball into the onion bag at the moment? We have the players that were scoring for fun at the start of last season and we seem to be creating the chances at the same kind of level but for some reason the net doesn’t bustle and the crowd remains silent and not celebrating another Swansea goal.

7 league games into last season we had seen 17 league goals for and 13 against. The improvement on the defence is unmistakable but that is 12 goals that are missing compared to the same stage of last season. And those 17 goals also included two games where we failed to score.

Of course all the goals at the start of last season failed to get us anywhere so there is that argument to be used but the big question has to be why are the same players with better ones added than released failing to find the net at the moment.

Trundle (2), Nuge, Izzy and Robbo are the only players to score for the Swans this season whilst in the last 6 league matches we have conceded just three goals – one a fluke and one a penalty so are we destined for a run of 0-0, 1-0 and 0-1 games this season?

Personally I don’t believe so. You have a look at the squad on paper and it has goals inside it. Statistics will say that Maylett, O’Leary, Forbes, Britton and Martinez don’t have many goals in them but surely they have four or five in each of them this season? Trundle and Connor I believe could both be 20 goal strikers with the correct service and Nugent we know is capable of 8/10 in a season. And of course there is James Thomas. Good old James Thomas. Written off by so many but given a chance in the last year and a bit? Has he hell.

I’m not saying Thommo is Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry or even a James Beattie but he is no mug in front of goal. Sadly too many believe he has had one chance too many but when has he had a run in the side since that Hull game that others have had? Thomas appeared 22 times last season, scoring just three goals but the record books will tell you that 15 of his 57 appearances in the league have been off the bench and yet he has 16 league goals to his name for the club. Many of which were in part of what many will agree was the worst team in living memory at the Vetch (Cusack’s team)

Thomas deserves a chance the same as everyone else surely and if he doesn’t cut it then fine but at this moment in time everyone is saying he has had the chance but Thommo’s chances mainly come in two or three game runs – even Steve Watkin was given longer than that.

And before I finish on this subject, I would point out that a few games on the left wing is not going to bring the best out of James Thomas. No way. I have talked to several people in the game on this subject and they all struggle to understand why he hasn’t been given a run but I guess that is football. This isn’t down to ‘local lad’ syndrome, Thommo could be a good striker but he needs to be given the chance to prove it. Think back to summer 2003 and think how many goals he grabbed then. And then remember how he was almost immediately discarded and never given the run again.

Anyway, that’s that high horse out of the way and now back to the subject of all of this – where are the goals to come from. Thommo is a 15-20 goal a season striker. So that makes three at the club.

Add to all of this the goals from Robinson in midfield but there’s another chestnut. He isn’t utilised on the left and we are missing his abilities going forward because of it. If we want a left winger let’s get one – the side has been missing it for years and we have suffered because of it. We have an inbalance that needs to be corrected.

But if we have the players why aren’t we scoring goals? Confidence will play a part of it. Goalscorers thrive on confidence and when they aren’t hitting the net then they suffer for it. It happens to the best of strikers – Michael Owen anyone – but if the ability is there then the goals will come.

We do need one addition to the squad but it isn’t a goalscorer strangely enough, it’s that left winger. Fill that gap and we have players in positions that will see us get the best out of people. And when we do that then the goals will flow and we can look forward to a side that can score but is mean defensively. And if that happens, we could well head off on a serious run that will give us what we all crave. Promotion.

Let’s put the fun back into the football with the goals but we can do it with the squad that we have with just that one addition. Can’t we?

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