I think it's a completely valid point from @
sammyspurs
and a lot of people are making light of our lack of goals by suggesting we just need to gel, However (and that's a capital H)...
This isn't a new predicament, it's an extension of the same football we played last season. The main difference being that last season we had a complete enigma in Gareth Bale seemingly being able to score from anywhere on a football pitch, so our lack of penetration was masked. This is exactly why a lot of Spurs fans were right to be worried about where the goals would come from without him.
I refrain from saying it too much as it makes me sad, but I hate watching us at the moment, despite liking AVB. I just hope he gets this out of his system.
The problem isn't out players execution of the tactics, but the tactics themselves for me. As though all the possession in the world will lead to goals. All that is happening at WHL is teams show our inverted wingers inside where the midfield is completely overcrowded by both teams.
Meanwhile, we are ponderous and slow moving and are completely failing to create any service in the final third. The amount of times I've wanted to take a photo of the whacking great hole sat in the centre of midfield with no Lilywhite shirt to be seen is infuriating. A perfect square of opposition players covering the central ground and not a single Spurs player trying to exploit the space in between... So an attacker drops short, or Dembele tries to wriggle through as the entire defence has time to set-up.
So we finally move the ball into the final third as the earth slowly spins on its axis and there are ten opposition shirts eager and waiting to crowd us out of any meaningful goal scoring opportunity and yet another shot is taken from out side the box.
It is so predictable and defendable that I'm not surprised nobody comes to play football at the Lane. On current showing parking the bus might not get them goals, but it is effectively stopping us scoring in open play. Take away a Townsend swinger and three pens and we are having a very different season.
At this point I can't say a word against Defoe or Soldado as I don't see how people expect them to do anything when we seem completely devoid of a method of getting the ball to them. We might as well be playing without a striker.
Anyway, rant hat off, I'll probably get flamed to oblivion for this but I thought I'd back up the OP as there is a good point there. We might have the second best possession stats in the league and take 20 shots a game, but it's all for naught if they aren't actually likely to go in. You can count on your fingers the amount of players in the world capable of returning a decent tally of goals from outside the area in a season, yet we seem to be basing our whole system on taking swingers.
... Didn't proof read, Lol
