Nathan Redmond has spoken about how if the team keep creating chances they will start to win games after statistics emerged that they are one of the Premier Leagues top creators but lowest scorers.

Saints are the third lowest scorers in the Premier league with only 6 goals from their opening 9 games after a reasonable tally in the opening 5 has now seen the last four games pass without a goal registered, however only the Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs have had more shots on goal and Saints 125 attempts is only 1 behind Liverpool and Spurs so the chances are there they just aren't being taken.

This was again the case at Bournemouth where Saints had several good attempts to break the goalless run not least Manolo Gabbiadni's last second header that went just over, indeed in the previous game at home to Chelsea Saints had several good chances, some saved well by the keeper and others where the target wasn't hit.

Of those 25 chances 40 have been on target and we have hit the woodwork 3 times and we have created 10 big chances so why aren't we scoring.

Part of it is confidence. the longer a run without goals goes on both individually and as a team it becomes a millstone round the neck, the harder you try the more it doesn't go in, then suddenly it clicks and the goals flow.

Those who claimed last season that we were not attacking or didn't entertain can't level that accusation this season and Danny Ings has made a difference not only has he had the most shots with 25 but the most goals with 3, he needs others chipping in though.

The problem is that we have not had a settled attack, Charlie Austin, Manolo Gabbiadini and Shane Long all have their good points despite what some would tell you, but they aren't contributing goals and that has to change.

On Saturday Gabbiadini's header initially looked like a bad miss, but the Italian was put off by the keeper who flapped and missed, likewise Charlie Austin when he was through, the keeper closed hm down quickly and forced him wide in the first half, perhaps the best chance fell to Stuart Armstrong, Shane Long did very well to get up and nod the ball down into Armstrong's path, from six yards he looked odds on to score, but his balance was all wrong and he snatched at it when he really should have scored. That is the story of our season.

Nathan Redmond has not got the credit he deserves, there are still those who slag him off as a matter of routine, but haven't really looked at what he has contributed to the cause.

He has had 16 of those 125 shots and although he hasn't scored he has hit the woodwork, but it is really his work outside the area running at defences that has show much improvement, he seems to have lost the fear that he had last season when the crowd were on his back every game, he has tried to wipe the slate clean and so should some of our supporters and base him on this season not last.

His work in the final minute at Bournemouth when he took on his man cut back and then put in a great cross that teased the keeper off his line was typical, you can't ask more from a winger than a cross like that, sadly he is not seeing them put away.

Redmond has spoken of how if we keep creating chances then the goals will come.

“I’m just trying to create as many chances for the team as I can to ensure that we try and win some games. The more chances that we create, the more chances we have of scoring.

“My job as a winger is to try and participate in as many goals as I can. If that’s through goals or assists, then that’s my job.”

Redmond has created 12 chances for the team this season, 2 of them as in Gabbiadini's header classed as big ones but is yet to register an assist, but he sees it as a team effort not just individual, but he recognises that he had to put in the work to convince both the manager and the fans that he was worth a place.

He now seems to have convinced Mark Hughes who has started him in every Premier league game, now it's just the fans who need convincing.

“I said last year that I wouldn’t care if I scored another goal as long as we stayed up, retaining our Premier League status was more than enough for me,” Redmond added.

“But I’ve had a summer away working on a few things like my body and I’ve come back feeling more refreshed.

“I’ve stopped caring about things that don’t necessarily need caring about too much.”

“I was left out of the squad a lot last year and I think there were one or two games I wasn’t in the squad when the gaffer came in.

“I think he realised I wasn’t in a great moment. But I had a conversation with him just before I came back - after he was appointed - and I’ve been continuously talking to him every day to get a feel of what he wants from me.

“It’s been a positive start to the season for me but at the end of the day there is a lot of work that needs to be done as it’s the team that matters.”

Redmond is right, Saints do have a lot of work to do, however it is not as much as some would have you believe, at the back on Saturday things were tightened up against a Bournemouth side who themselves are one of the Premier Leagues top scorers this season due to their home goals tally and restricted the hosts to just one real chance the Ake header.

Up front we worked hard and created four good chances, if we can keep doing the right things as we did against The Cherries then the season will start to improve.

On Saturday against Newcastle the team need to take renewed confidence into this game, but so do the Saints supporters, some need to see what a good result it was at the Vitality Stadium and that we need to and can build on it.

Photo: Action Images

Sanguin added 10:05 - Oct 23 We need someone who can finish, maybe one of the top clubs have a striker they don’t really need any more that we could get for around £20m?
3

HythePeer added 10:22 - Oct 23 "How to score a goal" Rule 1: Don't shoot when there's someone standing in front of you. Rule 2: I you are just about to shoot bring it on to your other foot, you'll probably have a tap-in. There's more but I don't think they've passed level one yet.
3

REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 11:49 - Oct 23 There's a new stat being used in Prem football called expected goals where they analyse the % chance of scoring from each attempt at goal. Saints currently lie 9th in this table while they're 5th for overall attempts on goal. It means the quality of chances we're getting aren't very good. Ie the quality of the final ball isn't quite there, or the touch of the striker isn't quite good enough, or the team as a whole aren't creating clear opportunities. Put it all together and you'll find that we don't quite have the necessary quality going forward to create and finish chances at Premiership level. We either need someone like Ings to hit a hot streak and finish every chance he gets or we need to sign a top quality creator and a top quality finisher in January in order to stay up.

4

SaintBrock added 13:08 - Oct 23 As has been observed repeatedly on here and everywhere, if you keep on doing the same old things in the same old way you'll always get the same old outcome. There's at least four reasons why we can't score and won't score, Redmond, Austin, Long, Gabbiadini. How do you train a parrot to stop saying "Rollocks"?
1

DPeps added 14:16 - Oct 23 Well, I suppose "If you build it, he will come" worked on Field of Dreams...
2

LoisDeem added 10:37 - Oct 24 Too many 'providers', not enough 'takers' -unfortunately, this sits contrary to most things in life. Whatever it is, it's become contagious among our heroes in stripes.
0

SanMarco added 11:51 - Oct 24 We need to score another 31 to simply match last year's pretty unimpressive total. Teams who score plenty of goals employ players who regularly take chances - we don't. If Redmond sees himself as a non-scoring creator then there is a lot of pressure on Ings because Long doesn't score and Austin and Gabbi have been seen by successive managers as bit-part players. Reddy's suggestion of the signing of a top quality striker is the only answer.

0

SanMarco added 11:52 - Oct 24 Sorry about the typo Reedy...
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Derby County Polls