Unfortunately whilst Nik has looked improved over the last two games, he has definitely looked below par in comparison to all of the other strikers in the A league over the last two rounds. He has never looked like he can or even might score this season. I want to be wrong. But I can see very little evidence to the contrary.
That said, to be fair to Nik, our entire attack has been lacking, with little creativity, poor service and slow movement being genuine issues. But the hard facts are, that we have only scored 3 goals in our last 5 games and Nik is clearly the weakest link... I agree that Matty is not having a great time up front either and neither is Dylan... and to be honest... its not even just not getting on the sheet that worries me... its that NONE of them are looking like they are going to get on the sheet very often at all... though Matty looks the most likely, most consistently for mine, and is the only striker as yet on the sheet.
A few stats...
To put things into proper perspective - Matt Simon has played more than twice the amount of game time as the other strikers, but that was largely as a lone striker -
Matt Simon
Goals - 2
Attempts - 9
On target - 4
Assists - 0
Offsides - 13
Fouls - 13
Nik Mrdja -
Goals - 0
Attempts - 4
On target - 0
Assists - 0
Offsides - 1
Fouls - 7
D Mac (with 45 mins approx less game time than Nik)
Goals - 0
Attempts - 3
On target - 1
Assists - 1
Offsides - 1
Fouls - 7
Mc Glinchey
Goals - 1
Attempts - 5
On target - 3
Assists - 1
Offsides - 0
Fouls - 5
And now to REALLY put things into perspective...
Nigel Boogard
Goals - 1
Attempts - 4
On target - 2
Assists - 0
Offsides - 0
Fouls - 10
Alex Wilkinson
Goals - 1
Attempts - 4
On target - 2
Assists - 0
Offsides - 0
Fouls - 9
Attacking woes?
ANSWER...
A three pronged attack comprised of Boogs Wilko and McGlinchey should take care of our attacking problems!
Seriously now...
It's depressing... but it's also insightful...
I included fouls as it shows just how much Matty puts himself about - only Pedj is in front of him with 17 fouls committed.
Offsides... Like fouls, usually considered a negative stat, but a striker who is NEVER caught offside either A) Possesses demonic powers or B) Is never trying to break the line. Don't jump on me, I fully understand target men and hold up play. But 1 offside for Dylan and 1 for Nik verse Matts 13 offsides tells a story imo. We certainly need another striker who can break or at the very least stretch the line or atleast will try. Mrdja rarely if ever stretches or breaks the line and rarely if ever creates/finds any space for himself, and unfortunately his hold up play is only average. And if you've played 250 odd minutes of football as a striker but haven't managed to put a single shot on target... something is wrong - or your just not good enough.
D Mac is again unfortunately looking a similar to Nik, but generally speaking he creates more space and looks more threatening than Nik on the ball imo.
But at the end of the day... It's simply woeful.
I want to say step up... But in truth I'm just not sure that they can. And I don't want to bag the shit out of these players, because they may honestly be doing there very best. But we quite clearly seem to need more. At the very least we still need a quality AM now Wolfe is reported useless... and to splash the Canberra cash and whatever else they can scrape together on a Marquee striker who is fast and has good feet is looking like a must imo.
Otherwise...
If 2 of your teams 3 strikers are being outscored 6 games into the season by Wilko...
then your team is in serious trouble.
