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Composure up front


Danny

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The difference between 6 points and 1.

It's really that simple.

Against VfB we had a fair number of chances which we wasted - Davis' shot off the post, Papac's point blank header to name only 2.

Against Sevilla we again created a fair few chances, some half chances, but lack of composure stopped us taking them clinically.

The overriding problem I am observing is that the players become nervous kids as soon as there's a chance, too eager to score and therefore sclaff at it, half fall over, trip up, and generally make a hash of the chance.

We're playing surprisingly good football in the CL, but our inability to have cutting edge up front, epitomised with Novo's skied effort and Boyd's poor finish on Tuesday shows why we're on one point.

At this level, if you don't take yer chances, ye wilnae do much.

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The difference between 6 points and 1.

It's really that simple.

Against VfB we had a fair number of chances which we wasted - Davis' shot off the post, Papac's point blank header to name only 2.

Against Sevilla we again created a fair few chances, some half chances, but lack of composure stopped us taking them clinically.

The overriding problem I am observing is that the players become nervous kids as soon as there's a chance, too eager to score and therefore sclaff at it, half fall over, trip up, and generally make a hash of the chance.

We're playing surprisingly good football in the CL, but our inability to have cutting edge up front, epitomised with Novo's skied effort and Boyd's poor finish on Tuesday shows why we're on one point.

At this level, if you don't take yer chances, ye wilnae do much.

Spot on bro ! The difference between teams like Barca and Man Utd is the ability to score with 1 chance. We made many aginst Seville but the difference was the final product.

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You must have skill in order to show composure. All our forwards lack a good first touch which is fundamental at any level in order to show composure. On Naismith's penalty, he actually let the ball get slightly from him. Novo could easily have slipped the ball to Boyd for an empty net goal but instead greedily lobbed it over the bar. Learn the basics and the composure will come.

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Yeah, Novo and Bougherra showed terrible composure to score their goals.

So, you think we do have good composure? This is interesting.

Well, it depends which player you're talking about really. Naismith, Lafferty and (to a lesser extent) Boyd all have composure in front of goal. Novo and Miller are fine when they have no time to think, but if they pause for a second are more likely to put the ball 20 yards over than in the net.

Also I think there might be a grey area between lack of composure and lack of skill. When was the last time Boyd scored a 1 on 1 chance?

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Boyd and Novo's bad composure came when it was 3-0, game over. No point making a big deal of that.

We were handling the game quite well and a goal may have come, the penalty being a very possible rout, but the referee turned the game with his decisions particularly the penalty one.

It feels like i keep harping back to this in every thread but the referee never allowed us to get any momentum going in the game so therefor who knows what could have happened?

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At this level, if you don't take yer chances, ye wilnae do much.

Especially at Champions League level! But, that quote goes for any level!

The lack of composure in an attacking position, especially from our strikers is a real worry. It's especially worrying, as our assistant manager, is a goalscoring legend, who's game was all about composure in tense situations!

Is he able to get his experience and class through, and help the players resolve this, or are our players just not good? I know which part of that last sentance I'd go for - the one that lies within our assistant, and the management team.

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At this level, if you don't take yer chances, ye wilnae do much.

Especially at Champions League level! But, that quote goes for any level!

The lack of composure in an attacking position, especially from our strikers is a real worry. It's especially worrying, as our assistant manager, is a goalscoring legend, who's game was all about composure in tense situations!

Is he able to get his experience and class through, and help the players resolve this, or are our players just not good? I know which part of that last sentance I'd go for - the one that lies within our assistant, and the management team.

I'm not sure Ally can teach what he has.

The problem that follows that is that he was a much better all-round player than he was given credit for as well. He could do things that Boyd, Miller - even Naismith - just can't do.

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cant understand some of the comments here. Composure in front of goal and questioning Boyd who has by far the best strike rate in Scotland these past 4 seasons. He is off form just now - temporarily I hope - but for composure in front of goal he is the best - at SPL level anyway.

Lafferty is also clinical with chances and the two of them are by far our most clinical strikers.

The others all lack composure in front of goal although Naismith might be better than the other two and has a chance to score a few this year. I would play Lafferty and Boyd up front as we did at Tannadice. Davis to Boyd to Lafferty won us the SPL.

At CL level I would play Lafferty up front if fit and probably with Naismith.

Apart from lack of composure our lack of goals is due to our predictable pedestrian build up play and no good real wingers. The team is generally going through a dip in form and hopefully we will correct this soon. Preferably SUNDAY.

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