Dominic Calvert-Lewin

[TheRam]

Nah, it’s him.

He’s in terrible form and has never been a great finisher.

We create plenty of chances and he’s not taking them .

Dyche has had much worse strikers than him scoring goals at a decent rate in his career.

[brap2]

He's in poor form in front of goal can't be denied like. Worst of his career to date. So bad that I personally do not see it continuing.

But it's odd to me that Beto and Danjuma are BOTH also in career low finishing slumps.

Like we're all watching the games. The only chances we create are wither nicking the ball high up, or a set piece. There's lots of scrambles in crowded boxes following set pieces. There's lots of frantic lunges after turning over the ball. This MUST be having an impact on the players.

Maybe Doucoure flourishes in chaos and DCL and Beto don't.

Either way, he's still a very important player who has shown me personally more than enough to back him to get out of it. It's a shame this is probably our last season with him and his career has gone this way but it is what it is.

[4evablu]

DCL is currently Brett Angel esq...i hope he pulls through it..

[Jamokachi]

No. Statistically, he's been the worst finisher in the prem this season. Stop making excuses for him.

Errr, I wasn't? Literally just posting a fact I read and adding some thoughts of my own. No blame or defence of anyone.

[Goaljira]

I'd never appreciated how limited his goals were. 90% one touch headers, tap-ins or right place right time. And the chances he were getting in the past were completely different. His headers were from when we were getting the ball wide quickly without the defence being set and the quality on the balls and set pieces were better.

[Jamokachi]

I'd never appreciated how limited his goals were. 90% one touch headers, tap-ins or right place right time. And the chances he were getting in the past were completely different. His headers were from when we were getting the ball wide quickly without the defence being set and the quality on the balls and set pieces were better.

Right place, right time doesn't happen by magic.

[brap2]

I'd never appreciated how limited his goals were. 90% one touch headers, tap-ins or right place right time. And the chances he were getting in the past were completely different. His headers were from when we were getting the ball wide quickly without the defence being set and the quality on the balls and set pieces were better.

"Limited" is a choice!

Opinion : scoring in the box is actually a good thing for a striker

[Bluedylan1]

It's fair to say he's been dreadful this season in front of goal. He's missed a load of gilt-edged chances that you'd want any forward to be scoring, even with the caveats about our style and the chaos.

He's a weird one Dom, because there's a load of people who pile on him whenever he has a bad run of form and almost rejoice in his struggles, and then he also has a load of staunch defenders who find it very hard to be objective and critical about him when he's stinking the place out. He's like an embodiment of the culture wars almost.

We need to get away from the social-mediafication of opinion, where criticism means you want someone gone from the club, or liking someone means that you can never see faults. I still absolutely back him and want him at the club, but I'm absolutely sure he's been poor this season and his finishing has been rubbish. I'm sure he'll come good when he scores a couple and confidence returns.

[Goaljira]

"Limited" is a choice!

Opinion : scoring in the box is actually a good thing for a striker

Sorry, limited in terms of how similar they were. Its a lot of instinctive 'poacher' type goals, and thats absolutely not how'd have described him as a striker. I'd have sworn he'd scored more control > shoot goals than in the video.

xG is all well and good for showing the expectation based on position, but it lacks the context of how you get to be in that position, where the opposition are, where the opposition are coming from, where the balls coming from, height/velocity/trajectory of the ball in, etc. A floated ball played from deep from Mykolenko after its been played back to him from a slow build up with 9 men now set behind the ball creates a chance in the same location for a header as a ball played from the by-line where the defenders are the only ones there and are facing their own goal.

Distance to goal - same
Angle to goal​ - same
One-on-one - same
Big chance - same
Body part (such as header or foot) - same
Type of assist (such as through ball, cross, pull-back) ​- same in theory
Pattern of play (such as open play, fast break, direct free kick, corner kick or throw-in) - same

So all the boxes are ticked the same in xG terms, but its a completely different chance.

[brap2]

Ah, agreed there. Are we providing the conditions for a striker to be successful. Do our chances look like the ones prolific strikers are gobbling up, or are we desperately trying to get a toe or a head on a cross from a bad position after having the ball on our possession for 0.2 seconds and being under the cosh trying to press and defend for ten mins prior

[4evablu]

What i've noticed about DCL for a good few weeks now is his anticipation seems to have completely gone. He doesn't seem to read the play very well nowadays...talking about in and around the box here....and thus doesn't anticipate where he expects the cross/pass/through ball/knock down by the keeper/get to the ball before the defender is going to happen...the makings a of a good striker is this anticipation...it's why they're called "poachers"
"foxes in the box"....
it's as though he's never played with the players around him...maybe a consequence of all his long lay offs ?
Just hope it returns.

[superpull]

But he's played for us all season so could easily be how we play?

think 3 goals to an xG of 7.6 or something marks him out as the least clinical in Europe.

Quoting stats at Brap, the worm has turned

[UnsyisaRhino]

It's fair to say he's been dreadful this season in front of goal. He's missed a load of gilt-edged chances that you'd want any forward to be scoring, even with the caveats about our style and the chaos.

He's a weird one Dom, because there's a load of people who pile on him whenever he has a bad run of form and almost rejoice in his struggles, and then he also has a load of staunch defenders who find it very hard to be objective and critical about him when he's stinking the place out. He's like an embodiment of the culture wars almost.

We need to get away from the social-mediafication of opinion, where criticism means you want someone gone from the club, or liking someone means that you can never see faults. I still absolutely back him and want him at the club, but I'm absolutely sure he's been poor this season and his finishing has been rubbish. I'm sure he'll come good when he scores a couple and confidence returns.

What doesn't help that polarisation between the two camps, is that we are generally better with him in the team. His work off the ball is pretty good, although probably less effective than it was when he wasn't protecting himself from injury every game.

It makes that side want to give him time because a big part of the support must come from that impact, where as the other side probably think that the goal scoring has to come first.

My biggest issue is that he should be dropped, but I'm not sure anyone else would be more likely to score right now. beto has been wasteful too and is less effective in his all round game.

It's a shame we didn't keep hold of Cannon, he's scored a few good goals since the move.

[NickNack]

But he's played for us all season so could easily be how we play?

You could say that if he was never getting chances to score but he’s had a fair few this season and missed them.

[Gary1878]

The issue is, what other options do we have?

1. Play Beto and hope that he has a run of form
2. Continue to play DCL
3. Play DCL and Beto together
4. Tweak tactics to allow DCL a different forward role

None of the above have guaranteed better outcomes than continuing with DCL and hoping that he turns this around.

We are a team that actually creates a fair few chances in games and there isn’t an excuse for not scoring more other than not being clinical when it matters.

We are by far and away the worst team in the league for xG on goals scored. By chances created, we should have scored another +14! The next one down is Chelsea at +8 and the majority of teams are between +3 and -3 (where you should be).

The Douc has been great this year, and his xG shows how much more clinical he has been (only +1 compared with DCLs +5).

Again, we only have ourselves to blame. Fulham was another example of really poor finishing, and it is a good thing that our defence is fairly solid otherwise it would almost certainly mean relegation.

Oh, and DCL isn’t the least clinical in the league. I believe that gong goes to Darwin Nunez (+7).