Can't shoot for shit - is it a genuine failing?

[Lush Vlad]

Said this after Wolves.  It felt the same yesterday and for most of the season.  We don't play through the middle or move the ball quickly enough to fashion chances:

 

Quote

When we're not creating chances, it would be nice to rely on the occasional bit of magic or a long shot from the edge of the box.  But if nobody is taking up those positions, then how are we supposed to even get shots away?  When we do find ourselves in a shooting position, it always seems a bit laboured and like we haven't really worked an opening.  Maybe just a fortuitous ricochet or clearance falling to one of our players.  So it is just Gordon, Tonali or Hall for example just having a crack.  Where it seems like they have a very high percentage of their shots blocked.  I certainly agree with all the posters who were saying we need to get more shots off.  But I don't watch us in many games and think 'he should be having a crack from there, he's got loads of time and space.'  I didn't yesterday, at least.

 

[Lush Vlad]

Also Villa use Trackman technology for their set pieces and how they strike a ball.  That would surely also have a bearing on long range shots and the techniques used.  It isn't just pot luck that they score so many bangers.  There will be games where they come unstuck due to their reliance on it.  But it seems like it is something they heavily practice. 

[TRon]

1 hour ago, Pilko said:

The old adage about raffles & tickets comes to mind. Even if we aren't super adept at shooting from distance like some of the Villa lot we might get a deflection for a corner or a goal, even a keeper error. Miley at Everton the perfect example. 

 

We seem content to sling crosses into nobody a lot of the time and turn the ball over that way, so I don't see why shooting is seen as such a huge risk in comparison.

 

 

One clarification here: I absolutely hate it when a player gets the ball 35 yards out and the whole crowd shouts "SHOOOT!!"

 

It's not that I want us to be taking hopeful potshots from anywhere and seeing 90% of them sailing 10ft over the bar. 

 

It's more that I'm not seeing that many of our players actually have much shooting quality from anywhere. I think that is highlighted by how few of them step up and want to take a free kick 25 yards out. 

[TaylorJ_01]

I'm sure I saw Barnes take a shot yesterday which got deflected and forced a save, then get shouted at by a teammate. Not exactly sure what happened but it annoyed me

[gbandit]

9 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Said this after Wolves.  It felt the same yesterday and for most of the season.  We don't play through the middle or move the ball quickly enough to fashion chances:

Bingo. We can’t play through balls to Nick in the middle because of his lack of pace. When we do play through the middle it’s normally against a team with lots of people behind the ball with Nick having come really deep for it. Wissa can make runs through the middle but he’s still not particularly pacy. When we attack we do it so fucking slowly, almost every time. I don’t understand it at all 

[Andy]

As Vlad says, there aren't even that many occasions where I think "he should've had a pop there" from range, the way we build attacks means we're either breaking the lines frantically, or slowly working the ball wide allowing the opposition to keep us at arms length where shooting seems unviable. 

[Stuy_O]

Regardless of various players ability to shoot, as a squad we barely attempt to shoot at all. 

[TRC]

Not shooting because of the low xg of a long shot especially from freekicks is a bizarre one to me when most free kicks are headed away

[kenlau88210]

2 hours ago, joeyt said:

Could be that we prioritise athletes rather than technical ability

 

No doubt we are lacking technical ability, especially when compared to the top teams. But the issue is not helped by PSR and our lack of pull in the transfer market. We wanted Pedro and Ekitike, but got rejected.

 

 

Edited January 26 by kenlau88210

[OoOGazOoO]

To be honest, our entire structure in attack seems to be around getting the ball wide and then crosses in to the box.

 

Anything else just doesn't seem to happen.

[The College Dropout]

Buendia is in the Villa team just to try screamers

[Holloway]

Watching that goal back,he had the freedom of the park. Had a similar effort earlier 

[Lush Vlad]

6 minutes ago, Holloway said:

Watching that goal back,he had the freedom of the park. Had a similar effort earlier 

 

So many of ours ball watching.  Botman the only one who thought it might be a good idea to try and close him down.  But I think Buendia had 3 touches to set himself 20-25 yards out and all the time in the world to look up and pick his spot. 

 

Nowhere near good enough from us.  Tonali just left him run off him and had no clue where he was.  I think there were a couple of others the other side looking right at him with no man occupying them.  Just staring at him admiring the finish. 

 

They must have been drilled beforehand on closing down space and not letting them get shots away from distance, due to how proficient they are at it.  Apparently not  

[Kilcline]

5 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

 

So many of ours ball watching.  Botman the only one who thought it might be a good idea to try and close him down.  But I think Buendia had 3 touches to set himself 20-25 yards out and all the time in the world to look up and pick his spot. 

 

Nowhere near good enough from us.  Tonali just left him run off him and had no clue where he was.  I think there were a couple of others the other side looking right at him with no man occupying them.  Just staring at him admiring the finish. 

 

They must have been drilled beforehand on closing down space and not letting them get shots away from distance, due to how proficient they are at it.  Apparently not  

Isn't Emery on record fairly recently aswell saying they're deliberately shooting more from distance because of the ball or something like that? (insert Cunteta joke here)

[bobbydazzla]

25 minutes ago, Holloway said:

Watching that goal back,he had the freedom of the park. Had a similar effort earlier 

 

From where I was stood, I had exactly the same view as Buendia did and I knew he was going to have a crack before he even pulled the trigger because we parted like the Red Sea and Pope was in a position which meant there was a massive empty area of the goal to aim for.

 

It was like watching a tap in, as long as he didn't fluff the shot it was a nailed on goal.

 

 

Edited January 26 by bobbydazzla

[Lush Vlad]

8 minutes ago, Kilcline said:

Isn't Emery on record fairly recently aswell saying they're deliberately shooting more from distance because of the ball or something like that? (insert Cunteta joke here)

 

Love the bit at the end, as well.  How different it could have been  

 

It's for set pieces.  But it must have a bearing on how you strike the ball from range and it sounds like something they would also work on. 

 

 

 

Edited January 26 by Lush Vlad

[Wullie]

Adam Clery made a video a month or two ago about Villa's shooting from distance that's worth a watch. 

 

https://youtu.be/rjB9Qb-Hp_w?si=EoOUIOdq95WENyo0

[Chris_R]

I've thought this a lot lately and it reminds me of some times I've watched cricket.

 

Sometimes you see a batsman get all defensive and refuse to play shots, just blocking the ball. The upshot of that is that the fielders get in closer and closer, crowding you out, so when you do inevitably nick one then there's someone standing right on your toes to grab it. If the opposition KNOW you won't try to whack one, they get ever more confident in closing you down.

 

Often you need to take a risk and put your bat through a few to drive the fielders back, then when you do pop one up in the air there's nobody standing on your shoes to gobble it up.

 

It's the same in football, if they know you're not going to shoot, they can defend accordingly. They defenders can get closer to you because they know you're not going to shift your weight and try to have a pop. In turn, there's less space for passing. You need to have variation or you become too predictable and easy to nullify.

 

As for XG of a shot from distance vs XG of a shot from in the box, well that's all well and good provided you also factor in the percent of turned-down long shots that actually become shots in the box a few passes later. Using nothing but my eyes, so I don't really have the stats to back it up, it appears we're just not creating enough in the box to compensate for turning down long-range efforts. Often as others say we have whole halves of football where we just don't shoot at all so it feels we're not exacly great at converting 'non-taken' long shots to 'taken' short shots.

 

Again that probably loops back round to my first point though, that if you just refuse to shoot long then the opposition know they don't have to worry about it and so they can focus on stopping you in other areas instead.