Dicko & Bodvarsson's Lack of Goals

[Derby Wolf]

A good question Prog, and one that I constantly ask myself.
If you look at our last 10 games we’ve scored 18 goals and taken 17 points. Project that over a season and you have 82 goals and 78 points. Burnley won the league last year with 72 goals and 78 points will put you comfortably in the play-offs. So on the one hand you could say the system is working and does it really matter who scores the goals for us? [And we’ve stuck two past Liverpool and Stoke as well…]
But then you have to say that 2/25 and 0/16 is simply not good enough. Whatever else they bring to the team a striker’s main job is to score and they’re not doing that. Right now I’d start Bod over Dicko (who to me doesn’t even look like scoring) and if someone offered £4m for ND I’d definitely take it. I’m not sure he’ll ever be the player he was. I don’t subscribe to the “just needs a bit of luck theory” and I’ll still have my doubts if he scores a hat-trick on Saturday…
I do like the 4231 system, and I wouldn’t want to change that. My personal preference is new striker, Bod as back up/impact and sell Dicko

It's a reasonable point but this is Edwards most prolific season and while he's doing well it isn't wise putting all our eggs in that basket. He could run dry for the rest of the season tomorrow and nobody should be surprised and then the pressure intensifies on Costa and then the younger players like CR and BE. I do think it's nice to see the defenders contributing goals with Stears, Gloves and Hause scoring since Lambert arrived. It's a good spread of goals but think we need that focal point who scores goals.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Yes, I agree with you, Lincs. Edwards is having his best ever season but you can't have the main strikers finishing below even the LB in the goals tally.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Bod for me offers slightly more at present. Dicko needs to score and score regularly as he isn't as good a target man. The fact others are scoring works. It never did Spain any harm. I don't care who scores as long as we are scoring and we are creating much more these days.

 

[sycophantia]

They obviously need to start scoring, but both do offer other things, tbf the system we're playing atm with one of them up top on their own, often with a massive gap to the next Wolves player makes it difficult to score loads of goals but of course they bring the likes of Costa, Cav, Edwards and hopefully Weimann into scoring areas. If they can both end the season with half a dozen apiece, then probably worth persevering next season and hopefully we've have some competition for them too

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I certainly don't see us selling Dicko, we wouldn't have extended his contract if that were on the agenda. We probably wouldn't get much more back for Bod than we paid so not really worth getting rid of him? Won't be on silly wages anyway.

They're both good lads who clearly have a huge affinity for the club so I don't think they'll play silly buggers if they're not an automatic first choice.

 

[TornadoTed]

As we only play one up front if Lambert brings in another striker I don't see a place for both of them especially as we have Ennis that could fill the 3rd choice role. It is a massively hard choice who to get rid of but I would just go with letting Bodvarsson go. Dicko has delivered reasonable goal numbers consistently in the past where as Bodvarsson never has at any point in his career, even when playing in the weak Scandanavian leagues. I am probably only 51/49 in favour of Dicko at this moment though.

 

[TornadoTed]

I certainly don't see us selling Dicko, we wouldn't have extended his contract if that were on the agenda. We probably wouldn't get much more back for Bod than we paid so not really worth getting rid of him? Won't be on silly wages anyway.

They're both good lads who clearly have a huge affinity for the club so I don't think they'll play silly buggers if they're not an automatic first choice.

Both are really likeable guys and both have a huge amount going for them but I just can't see how we could give a new striker, Dicko, Bod and Ennis enough minutes playing one up top. I think it would be a much easier decision without Ennis. Maybe loan out Dicko for a season to a League One club and hope he regains his confidence.

 

[ProgWolf]

.........Dicko is a more difficult one to call I think, I didn't manage to catch up on the Liverpool game until Sunday and after seeing quite a bit of praise for him before viewing I have to say I was pretty disappointed, whilst he covered a lot of ground I don't think he really had any great influence on things for the most part. A couple of seasons ago it seemed that anything that thrown forward ended up with Dicko beating a defender to the ball, watching on TV something would look a hopeless punt forward and by the time the camera panned to follow it you'd have Dicko already on his way chasing it down but against Liverpool that sharpness seemed a distant memory. I'm not sure if he's lost a bit of acceleration or whether it's just anticipation but he largely got nowhere near anything of that ilk........

..........he did generally seem to have pretty decent instinct in front of goal before whereas as in that game he didn't look anything like sure of himself, perhaps it's a lack of confidence following the time out that's made him lose conviction in his decisions so he could well return with a few goals to take the pressure off.

This post really rings true for me, and if this is the major cause of him not scoring yet, then surely it is only a matter of time and confidence ? As you say, he always had that instinctive knack of shooting early and surprising the keeper. But back then he also had Sako and Afobe with him. Perhaps, when you look at what we have up front now, compared to what we had then, the forward line of Dicko, Afobe and Sako could all score goals and kept defenders a lot busier and pulled them out of position more etc ?

Any chance we can get a message to Nouha tomorrow and tell him to start shooting earlier against Burton on Saturday ?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Look how well he takes those two goals. He's got it in him for sure.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

They're just instictive efforts for me.

First one he knows Sako's caused havoc and he's got space so gathers the ball and just gets as much on it to send it goalwards as he can, not a particular good strike but all it needed with the keeper out of position.

Second one he does well to turn the first defender, skips a few challenges and he's just looking for that half a yard to get the shot off, big hit and it's in the back of the net.

I don't think there's a great deal of thought or composure with Dicko, personally, much more direct and instictive.

 

[Johnny75]

They're just instictive efforts for me.

First one he knows Sako's caused havoc and he's got space so gathers the ball and just gets as much on it to send it goalwards as he can, not a particular good strike but all it needed with the keeper out of position.

Second one he does well to turn the first defender, skips a few challenges and he's just looking for that half a yard to get the shot off, big hit and it's in the back of the net.

I don't think there's a great deal of thought or composure with Dicko, personally, much more direct and instictive.

Deary me Mark, are you just bring contrary for the sake of it today?

 

[ProgWolf]

Andy Mutch is a bit of a favourite on here (disproportionately so IMO), his record in his final three years here was:

1990/91: 29 apps, 8 goals
1991/92: 37 apps, 10 goals
1992/93: 39 apps, 9 goals

I think Bod could match that output eventually. Miles better player too.

As I said in Saturday's blog it's telling that though neither has scored for ages, no-one is really giving them huge amounts of stick, either at the match or on the forums.

Sorry Deutsch Wolf, but I must leap to the defence of Andy Mutch . Maybe it's because I saw him in every single home game in which he played, and quite a few away from home too. I can't agree that Bod is a 'better' player. When he was at Wolves, he scored nearly 100 league goals in just under 300 games. I wish I could find the stats for his number of assists, particularly for Bully ? Yes he scored more of his goals in Divisions 3 and 4 but I think Bod would still prefer Mutchy's goals per game ratio in this division, than his own ?

But if he gets 8 goals in the next 14 games, he will at least beat Mutchy's stats for '92/'93.

 

[Freddeno]

bring Leigh Griffiths back then... ratio of 0,54 goals per game since 2006...60 goals in 84 games for Celtic is decent apparently scored 40 goals last season

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Deary me Mark, are you just bring contrary for the sake of it today?

I can't have a different opinion to someone?

I don't think there's anything particularly special about either of those goals, to me they're fairly typical of a striker who gets their head down and does what they can to score, I don't think either show any real sign of footballing intelligence or foresight.

 

[Johnny75]

I can't have a different opinion to someone?

I don't think there's anything particularly special about either of those goals, to me they're fairly typical of a striker who gets their head down and does what they can to score, I don't think either show any real sign of footballing intelligence or foresight.

You don't think Dicko's second goal shows, technique and footballing intelligence?

You're seeing a different goal to me. I think taking that many touches and choosing to hammer the ball shows a lot of intelligence and lesser players and strikers would've taken the shot/ pass earlier. It's testament to Dicko that he makes the correct decision and ends up with the goal.

Just a different opinion mind you.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

You don't think Dicko's second goal shows, technique and footballing intelligence?

You're seeing a different goal to me. I think taking that many touches and choosing to hammer the ball shows a lot of intelligence and lesser players and strikers would've taken the shot/ pass earlier. It's testament to Dicko that he makes the correct decision and ends up with the goal.

Just a different opinion mind you.

I hadn't knocked his technique anywhere, but no, I don't think there's any great footballing intelligence in there, he's just skipping challenges and then smashes when he gets half a yard. Granted some would've hit it earlier, perhaps once they'd beat the first defender with strength but I think that'd be the sign of a moronic forward hitting it into someone's shins rather than Dicko showing anything out of the ordinary by delaying the shot until there's space, it's standard practice for a decent forward.

I think the first goal is a better measure for his current struggles though, takes the touch and just hits it goalwards without looking up, if that'd happened against Liverpool the weekend then you'd have either ended up with a panicky first time effort or he'd have wanted another touch so he could get his head up and look what was around him then probably lost the opportunity. Back in that clip he didn't have to think about it, he just acted on impulse.

 

[Johnny75]

I'd say he was more confident in his ability in the clip rather than now when he is snatching at things and making the wrong decisions.

He may need a spell in the U23's just to get his confidence and critical thinking back as there is nothing wrong with his technique.

 

[The Bear]

You'd hope that once one or two goes in for Nouha his confidence in front of goal will come back and his overall game will benefit again.

With Bod, you know he's only going to get you 10 goals max in a season really. But his all round ethic and ability to traumatise defenders in the later stages of games is so useful.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Dicko 2017 is nowhere near as confident or clinical as dicko 2015. It may come but it may take time

 

[YoungWolf]

Bodvarsson and Dicko are two very good options to have for us, and I feel all we are missing (I'm trying not to stray into Hoddle territory here) is more of a poacher and finisher. Though Dicko's record before his injury was excellent - almost one in two I think - he brought much, much more than that to the team. And Bod is a hero. I'm happy with both of them for the moment.

For me, that player could well be Ennis. He is so highly thought of us that I can't see Lambert not giving him the chance. If in the summer we need someone to add more depth and more of a 'poacher' then fair enough. But I'd rather Ennis or even Wilson gets the opportunity first.