THE GOALSCORING CONUNDRUM

By Connor O’Rielly - writer for YABA

So it’s ten to eight in the morning. I’m currently commuting to work with United on my mind. This season has been interesting, to say the least. The U’s have more or less been solid defensively (bar that one game vs Luton) but up top, surprisingly we haven’t been as strong.

Later today (as of writing) we play against Newport at home, a team who easily disposed of us in the FA Cup with us not making much of an attacking threat to overcome them.

Ahead of next week’s game away to Notts County, we haven’t scored away from home since our loss against Barnet in September. That’s three months. That isn’t good enough. So I’m going to be looking at what’s happened and what we can do as a club to solve this.

Our current strike force

We currently have Jabo Ibehre, Uche Ikpeazu, Ade Azeez and Jevani Brown under contract for the club as potential front men. Ahead of the game vs Newport, we have Uche suspended after getting sent off in an away loss to Port Vale and Jabo Ibehre hasn’t trained all week according to some sources.

This leaves the U’s with no firepower up top. But even with them playing we don't look a threat. Uche and Jabo on paper would be one of the best strike forces in the league, easily, but they haven’t performed at all for us. They have scored 11 goals between them (Uche with 7, Jabo with 4). As a team, we have only scored 17.

Whenever we watch the U’s, we see them train and bang them in before the game but come to the start of the 90 minutes, nothing happens. We don’t get opportunities, and when we do we waste them. 2 goals were scored during November for the whole team.

I don’t understand why we can’t score but it’s becoming a massive problem for us this season. Maybe hoof ball doesn’t work for them but then they should speak out and say something to see change so they can become more prolific.

January

A lot has been said about this January transfer window by Shaun Derry. In a recent press conference, he’s been heard saying that this window really matters for the team and that he would like to see another striker come in. I feel that it’s a very negative thing to say about his team and it was unprofessional.

But, thinking about that statement, who can we get? What Derry has said is that he would like a prolific goal scorer to come in and start scoring again. A player of that description is quite hard to find nowadays, especially in a January transfer window. 

There are only two players who I could see the club moving for who can get that sort of return. First of all, it’s Morgan Ferrier who plays for Dagenham and Redbridge in the national league. This season he’s scored 8 times and assisted 7 times for the Daggers in their attempt for promotion.

He could be the answer to the problems the U’s have scoring, plus he can create opportunities for the likes of Jevani Brown, George Maris or whoever is playing up top with him.

The other player is currently a free agent. Barry Corr. Yes, the Barry Corr that we let go at the end of last season. He’s been training at the U’s to try and regain fitness according to some reports, so why don’t we just offer him a short contract but not at an astronomically high price? 

This would be a risk of course if he gets injured again but if he stays fit for the rest of the season, then he will score goals. He’s proven it before with goals after his long spell out injured so he should be able to do it again.

Conclusion

Who knows how long it’ll be before we score away again. If we are to keep any slim chances (at this rate very very very slim chances) of squeezing into the playoffs then we need goals and fast. Will Jabo and Uche score ever again? Will we get that key striker that we currently lack? Only time will tell, and with the U’s, that time could be forever...