I have to be honest, in that I don't think there is a problem with the ability of any of our current forwards or any of our other squad members per se (apart from the obvious injury problems that Hunt, and others are still recovering from), the underlying issue as I see it is that Phil Brown is so defensively minded that much of the creativity has been driven out of the side in the name of efficiency and the "clean sheet" mentality. There are some facts that we might want to consider - we have several defenders and midfielders who can score goals consistently, and I am thinking Barrett, Leonard, Timlin and Worrall to name a few, and we have Mooney who has scored for fun at previous clubs, and Piggy who looked likely to score regularly in his earlier days with us. BBBC hit 20+ goals under Sturrock, and is on track to do the same at Cambridge, but was unable to make an impact while he was stuck up front on his own. The same isolation is there for Mooney, Piggy and maybe for Hunt, and the rest of the team all seem to have no confidence in the final third.
For me, Brown does need to look in the mirror and reflect on his own part in the lack of goals, which is a direct result of his beloved philosophy. We don't have an attacking coach, he insists on the 1 up front thing which doesn't really work, even when we are in a 442 formation, and the players don't seem to have the freedom to be really creative. Even Worral, Hurst, Lenny and Coker seem a bit stifled, and as for Adam Barrett, he must be really disappointed in his conversion rate as he would normally have scored 2 or 3 times at this point in a normal season![/QUOTE
You have hit one of the big nails on the head. We all know Phil is a big clean sheets man and operates from a first instinct of defensiveness. Maybe he has pounded this drum so hard that the players are getting too tense. Barry Corrs comments about when he does play up front on his own at Cambridge and continues to score is insightful as he talks about the team getting forward sufficiently to support and also score.
Gillngham for example bomb forward quickly with 4 blokes capable of 100 metres in around. 11 seconds. Dack for example in scoring 10 goals has scored more than all our midfielders in he squad put together . This also says something about forward momentum
However the other side of the coin which is also clear, is that whilst each of our forwards has ability, Brown is now publicly stating effectively than none have the ability or quality to score goals decisively. Brown, Paul Clarke, Adrian Clarke and Pennyfather have all repeated that we lack pace upfront, so in this sense we do not currently have the ability to score more regularly and consistently. Both notions of ability and mindset apply?