Gary1906

Spot on. 4 goals scored in 9 games played is abysmal. Won't exactly bring the crowds flocking back to BP! I've been to 3 home league games and not seen a goal yet! How crap is that!!

Green didn't look better yesterday that's for sure! He looked hopeless like the rest of them. Not good enough I'm afraid. Another one who wasn't wanted where he was previously.

How much was the so called 'decent fee'? Because according to the press it was undisclosed. The fact remains that we don't have a midfield player who can tackle properly, we don't have any who are creative, and we don't have a striker who can score. A pretty sad sad state of affairs. Kelly was our captain and was the Chronicle star man of the season last season. And remember that Kelly and Forte both left to join clubs in a lower division. Another sad indictment. I still say that Kelly, Jones and Forte would have made a massive difference yesterday.

With the exceptions of Connor Ripley - who prevented a 4 or 5-0 loss, Peter Clarke, and possibly Cameron Burgess. We are performing like a team made up of players who have been released by their previous clubs because they weren't good enough, or free agents who weren't signed by anyone, again because they weren't seen as good enough. We have got a team that is virtually full of that calibre of player. Defenders that can't defend, midfielders who struggle to tackle properly and don't have a creative bone in their bodies, and strikers who can't hit the proverbial barn door!! As individuals and as collective team, they are not good enough! Can't blame the players too much though, they are simply playing to the level that they are capable of playing at. It's not been good enough where they've played before and it's not going to be good enough here. Liam Kelly, Mike Jones and Jonathan Forte would have made a massive difference to that team yesterday, yet they were all allowed to leave for nothing. Ridiculous!!I

Mind you. Andy Ritchie, Roger Palmer and Neil Redfearn - even at their current ages - could have played yesterday, and they'd have improved the side AND we would have more of a goal threat!

Richie Wellens currently at Salford City FC. Surely he could do a job for us??

With the exceptions of Connor Ripley - who prevented a 4 or 5-0 loss, Peter Clarke, and possibly Cameron Burgess. We are performing like a team made up of players who have been released by their previous clubs because they weren't good enough, or free agents who weren't signed by anyone, again because they weren't seen as good enough. We have got a team that is virtually full of that calibre of player. Defenders that can't defend, midfielders who struggle to tackle properly and don't have a creative bone in their bodies, and strikers who can't hit the proverbial barn door!! As individuals and as collective team, they are not good enough! Can't blame the players too much though, they are simply playing to the level that they are capable of playing at. It's not been good enough where they've played before and it's not going to be good enough here. Liam Kelly, Mike Jones and Jonathan Forte would have made a massive difference to that team yesterday, yet they were all allowed to leave for nothing. Ridiculous!!I

How far have we dropped in our expectations when we are thinking that this sort of performance is acceptable? We have pretty much no goal threat at all. This is the worst I can ever remember a Latics team as regards lack of goals. I'm afraid today's team looked like a team made up of players who can't catch the first team of their parent club - therefore shipped out on loan, or those who have been found to be not of the required standard and consequently released. The only exception I would say is Clarke who's experience shines through. Can anyone tell me what Flynn has done to merit a continued place in the first team? He doesn't bring anything to the team at all! We are a team of misfits and 'not good enoughs'. I know that sounds very pessimistic but I'm sick and tired of turning up hoping for goals and seeing precious little of them. We are just not good enough. End of!!

Flynn has definitely been disappointing so far, the game just seems to pass him by without him getting involved, he needs to up his game quickly. Osei on the other hand has looked bright and pacy and dangerous so why not give him a run of games. We are wasting opportunities to get points on the board.

I think you are being very optimistic if you think Erwin will get 14 goals this season! I hope he does do but he's so far scored 14 goals in a total of 68 games in his career, and 8 of those were in Scottish League Two.

Further to my earlier post, I haven't seen Ladapo yet but he might be the answer, I'd like to know what anyone who's seen him thinks? Osei has been impressive from what I've seen and definitely deserves more game time, he has an 'arrogance' about his game which seems to say that he thinks he can handle it at this level, I like that about him. Erwin is full of endeavour - the same as Curtis Main last season - but he's not going to score enough goals. McKay just hasn't done it yet, he's the one with the goal scoring pedigree though so maybe he will come good soon.

Wasn't at yesterday's game because I'm on holiday in Cornwall but in my opinion nothing much has changed over the past 4 or 5 seasons with Latics, in as much as we probably aren't going to score enough goals to get us out of trouble once we concede. How many times can you remember a Latics team recently where we've gone behind but still won the game? Not many at all!! Our strikers just don't have the goal scoring experience or pedigree for us to expect them to be prolific and that's where we will probably fail, like we always seem to. IMO we need a striker in the Luke Beckett or Lee Hughes mould, someone with a bit of aggression and who is only interested in sticking the ball in the back of the net. I appreciate that they cost the most money but without goals in the team we just aren't going to get enough wins. There's not going to be many goals coming from midfield by the look of things which makes the strikers even more important. Coincidentally Curtis Main, Jonathan Forte and Dominic Poleon all scored yesterday!

You could say 103 games played. We've needed a decent striker for years! That's why we never score enough goals. It's not rocket science!! ?

Spot on. The midfielders and wingers are not going to get anywhere near enough goals. Another striker is imperative! We need a Luke Beckett / Lee Hughes type who are almost guaranteed to get double figures. Ryan Lowe might have been able to do a good job but he's probably a bit too old now. For the doubters who still aren't convinced we need a striker, ask yourself this. How many times have Latics come from behind to win a game in recent seasons? Yes there may have been the odd one, but basically if our opposition takes the lead in a game, I can't see us scoring twice. And that needs addressing otherwise we'll be struggling again IMO.

** Won't win enough games not goals!! ?

Northampton was my first game of the season due to work commitments. I stand by what I said in a couple of previous posts on different threads. Where are the goals going to come from? We are crying out for another striker, someone who is going to get us 12-15 goals at least. Yes I know they cost money and we have very little of that but the fact is that without goals in the team we are simply not going to win enough matches to get very high up the league table. On the positive side however I thought we looked solid at the back, all of the back four played well. Clarke will be another Sean Gregan for us. Very commanding, and a proper captain. In midfield Fané definitely looks to have potential, Green probably didn't have his best game but he will get better. I think Flynn has a tendency to drift in and out of the game, something that he needs to work on. Croft will give 60 mins of all out effort. Up front McKay just didn't seem to get into the game at all, perhaps the system doesn't suit his style of play? Erwin put a lot of effort in and was impressive, but neither of the strikers looked a goal threat to me and that is a big negative. From strikers I want goals. Push the boat out SC and pay good wages to attract a striker of some calibre, otherwise we just won't win enough goals. Simple!!

Where are the goals going to come from? Why leave McKay on the bench when he's the only one with a decent goal scoring record? Can't see the sense in that. Surely we can play with two strikers at home?!?!?

Strikers - and goals - win matches. We have really struggled in that department over the past 3 or 4 seasons. There won't have been many times where Latics have come from behind to score a couple of goals to win a match, and that is part of my argument. It can be a touch depressing at BP when a team takes the lead and you just know that we aren't going to score twice. Midfield players and wingers can supply quality balls into the box, but it's goalscorers that win matches. Push the boat out please SC and SR and sign a match winner!

Maybe so, I don't mean to sound pessimistic but it's been a perennial problem for quite a few seasons now, and to be fair to the strikers who we usually sign their goal scoring records are usually 'fair' at best so we can't expect them to suddenly start banging them in when they come here. I stand by my comment that we wont win many games if we don't score many goals though. Hope I'm wrong!