Shot Shy

Last updated : 07 March 2007 By Jim Bonner
Like your typical summer drought, the goals at Pompey have well and truly dried up. We have failed to find the net in 5 of our last 6 Premiership games which is a worrying stat for any Premiership club, let alone one that is supposedly challenging for Europe.

41 goals all season isn't a bad tally at all but what isn't good enough is that only 7 of them have come since New Years Day. Not only that but it doesn't help when your defence can't keep a clean sheet either as David James has had to pick the ball out of his net during every game in 2007 bar one, and we even failed to win that one! (0-0 at home to Boro.)

Harry has said he's looking at targets to make sure this doesn't happen next season because the team rely too heavily on Kanu. Indeed, if I told you at the start of the season that the Nigerian would be our top scorer your reply probably would have been along the lines of "So none of our players are gonna get more than two are they?"

It could just be that our other strikers don't get as much time on the pitch as we'd have thought. Andy Cole and Lomana LuaLua's seasons have been dogged by injury and have only got 4 and 2 goals respectively.

Benjani is seen as more of a runner and a creator but he has missed some sitters this season too, but then it wouldn't be Benjani if he didn't cause us to put our heads in our hands every now and again would it?

Which brings me on to Svetoslav Todorov. He's been sitting around since January playing in reserve matches but we all know that he's got goals in him. His goals tally matches that of LuaLua yet he's only played 91 minutes of football in a Pompey shirt, just over the equivalent of a single football match.

Why not give him a chance? Andy Cole was supposed to be a higher calibre version of the Pompey fan favourite but it hasn't taken off for him for various reasons. Toddy should at least get a chance to prove that he shouldn't be sold in the summer.

Just who would we buy in the summer anyway? David Nugent is set on Everton. Are West Ham misfits Marlon Harewood or Bobby Zamora really the answer? Will a random unknown striker from the French league be the cure for our goal drought?

I guess we'll find out this summer.

The Pompey gaffer has also highlighted his need for a goalscoring midfielder as that's another area where we seriously lack.

Matt Taylor has got 6 this season but hasn't scored since the end of last year at Bolton. Pedro Mendes has only come up with the two corkers this season whilst Gary O'Neil has only scored once, and was very fortunate to do so.

With Pedro Mendes out for a while why not give Niko Kranjcar a run in the team in the middle? Sean Davis and Richard Hughes are solid players but they both lack the creativity that Kranjcar has and giving him some games will not only give him more experience but could also be beneficial to the team when going forward.

Maybe Toddy and Krunchie are the solution but whatever the answer is to our problems, Harry needs to find it very quickly before this season goes down the pan completely.