Not converting our chances - a problem?

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

on a serious note does anyone know how he is progressing with his injury?? be good to see him playing again and scoring hopefully! We could do with the 8mil next summer!

I thought we had agreed a deal with Marseille already to buy him at the end of the season?

Perhaps we could swap him for that scarface sort. Ribery.

[TheStig]

Of course he would.

I'm starting to worry that Pennant just isn't up to it. Remember that Wenger dumped him and he's very rarely wrong about a player.

Why haven't we seen Gonzalez. He gave the Chavs problems in Cardiff last month. Scored a vital goal against Haifa, yet we've hardly seen him since. And Garcia should always play against Chelsea.

Wiltord has done well since leaving (one of the rare cases as you say ).

[Sir Bob]

Our finishing this season has been very poor. Against Everton & Chelsea we had the better chances in both games but have come away with no points. In short thats not good enough.

Yesterday, kuyt & SG were the worst culprits. Both had one golden chance each & 1 or 2 half chances. none were scored. Its not bad luck, its bad finishing. Kuyts effort that hit the bar wasn't unlucky, it was bad finishing. he basically blasted the ball & didn't really know were it was going.

Against EFC we had some good chances. SG should have scored when he hit the post (the 2nd time). His chance was very similar to Johnsons 1st goal. Johnson scored, SG didn't. The result, 3 points to EFC.

So far this season we've scored 3 league goals. One was a dodgy peno, one a wonder strike & 1 a really good move, finished clinically. In the 1st 2 games we didn't create much but in the last 2 we have. We had alot of chances yesterday but didn't score. In the league you get punished for that & we were. We weren't unlucky yesterday. A very good performance was let down but poor quality finishing. If we continue in this vein for much longer our title challenge really will be all over.

[Los Rojos]

Like in past seasons we are yet again struggling to convert clear-cut goalscoring opportunities, and this is costing us in games.

We had three very good chances to score yesterday but failed to take any of them that would have got a well deserved point. Kuyt's effort early on was a good effort, and in blasting the ball with such pace he was unlucky that the ball didn't end up giving a team-mate another chance on goal, but I suppose he should have scored or at least made the keeper save it! Gerrard simply should have scored when he was clean through on goal, and should he have mis-hit the shot he most probably would have scored - a yard either side of Cech would have resulted in a goal. Then, Crouch's headed chance in injury time. Again, a mi**** would probably have meant a goal but it ended up looking more like a back pass to the keeper than an effort on goal!

So, why can't we take our chances when these fantastic opportunities crop up? Scoring two out of those three great chances would have resulted in us coming back from the Bridge with the three points and everyone would have been happy on here today! And looking at them again, we should have scored at least two of them, shouldn't we!?

Are we not technically sound in the finishing department? Are we not practising our finishing enough in training? Or are we just unlucky? I mentioned the other day in another thread I posted that we weren't getting the luck this season - is it continuing?

This isn't a post slagging off our players and coaching staff, it's just a few questions from a puzzled fan who can't get his head around why we aren't able to convert these wonderful chances that fall our way. All I know is that we MUST start scoring when the chances fall at our feet if we have any hopes of pushing Chelsea, the mancs and the other leading clubs all the way this season, 'cos continuing to fail in front of goal again will come back to haunt us meaning dropping more points when we need to be getting a run of successes together to get back amongst them.

In Kuyt, Bellamy, Fowler and Crouch we have a fantastic amound of talent which should provide plenty of goals - Kuyt has scored 71 goals in 101 games in Holland which proves he's a goalscorer, Bellamy finished one of the leading goalscorers of British strikers in the league last season, Crouch's scoring for fun once he puts on an England shirt, and Fowler will always score goals as long as he's given the opportunity. We also have others in midfield who'll score a fair share over a season too, so I just can't see why we aren't converting them so far.

It's probably a confidence thing, and once one goes in the rest will follow, but the longer we struggle the harder the mountain will be to climb back amongst the leaders. More missed chances just won't do, we need to get scoring against Newcastle on Wednesday night if we have hopes of pushing for the top places. Chelsea only had a few half chances yesterday yet they took it with Drogba's brilliant finish - a sign of a great team?!

Right, that's it from me - let's hope the killer touch returns on Wednesday and that we start hitting the target to score the goals needed to win games. We've a great squad now and the potential to be as good as we want to be under a superb manager, so with a crucial run of games ahead we need to be firing on all cylinders!

Good post that Taffy.

I've got a feeling we may fill our boots in the next two games.

[Deano]

forgot about that one - three clear chances.

Nay four - Kuyt when about three yards out !

Five if you count when Gerrard skyed it instead of an easy ball to bellamy

[carrsim]

Cisse would have put those chances away

owen certainly would of.....

great original post taffy.

for me 3 (or as others have said 5) clear cut chances at the bridge and yet we got nothing from the game.

the stark difference between us and both sets of blue****e is marked- they create little but convert a high percentage of those chances.

we actually create quite a bit considering that we are nowhere near our best.

[Taffy]

Good post that Taffy.

I've got a feeling we may fill our boots in the next two games.

Let's hope so mate!

[Taffy]

owen certainly would of.....

great original post taffy.

for me 3 (or as others have said 5) clear cut chances at the bridge and yet we got nothing from the game.

the stark difference between us and both sets of blue****e is marked- they create little but convert a high percentage of those chances.

we actually create quite a bit considering that we are nowhere near our best.

Cheers Simon.

As you say, both Everton and Chelsea have made the most of their chances against us, and we haven't!

The sooner we start converting these opportunities the better! Let's hope it starts tomorrow night!