my two cents on the forward line :
i) All our players seem gun shy. Why try to pass when you are inside 50, or 55m out and heading goalwards. Chances of error in a kick-mark-set shot in a congested forward 50 have to be higher than an an instinctive shot on goal. Why handball to someone when you are 30 out and not actually being tackled. Don't try to work it around until someone is in the perfect position - snap the f*****g thing. It's what forwards do. This over-use is killing us, and this has to be an instruction from the coaches.
ii) if you think it's hard playing in our forward line, spare a thought for the guys who have to deliver into our forward line when there are 1-3 unmanned, loose backmen filling space, double teaming and prepping for the intercept. Now add some fatigue and a bit of opposition midfield pressure. Poor bastards. Maybe if we had some players down there to make the backline accountable, there would be some space for our midfield to kick to, the forwards to lead into, and the delivery might not look so bad?
iii) Ross said in the presser that the forwards were leading to the right places, clearly laying the blame on delivery. I was at the game and for the most part all I saw was confusion - often no presence or our own players contesting themselves. Ballas, McCarthy, Kersten, Taberner. Ballas and McCarthy are smart footballers, but they can't get near the ball. DeBoer, Barlow. Even Pav could barely get a touch there last year. Mundy and Weller have struggled to get touches when shifted into those forward roles. Walters is doing well because he is basically in the midfield. Is this coincidence, or does someone need to actually look at the structure (or lack thereof) and ask some hard questions? At the moment, our forward line is a graveyard. It's where good players go to die.
The forward line is part of the team, not some bolt on accessory. We are missing quality personnel, and putting them down there in any sort of meaningful numbers would involve a serious restructure up the field where we currently play the numbers. Ross's presser suggests that at the moment, he doesn't see these as problems, and anyone who buys into the argument that we would have won if we had kicked straighter, has missed the point as well.
This will not be a quick or easy fix, and we will not be a good team until it is sorted.