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The Seasons Verdict - Attack

85 goals rattled in made Saints the most prolific scorers in the Championship last season, so how did our attackers rate individually in contributing towards this.

It has to be said that not only did Saints score a lot of goals but there were a lot of goalscorers as well with 15 members of the squad sharing the burden, of those 5 were forwards if you include Guly who played around half his games in a forward role, in total Saints used 7 forwards in the league, the only two not to score being Lee Barnard who came on as sub 6 times and Jonathan Forte who had a solitary sub appearance to his name.

Rickie Lambert had yet another great season up front, 42 starts and 27 goals, the Saints number 7 was integral to the team and once again Rickie stepped up a gear in his game so much so that in many respects he is a much different player than the one that arrived at St Mary's a little under three years ago, back then Lambert was very much a selfish type of forward, he knew only one way to goal and although that meant plenty of spectacular goals from long range and free kicks, there was something missing from his armoury, it has to be said that over the past two seasons he has worked hard not only at his fitness but his overall play, he no longer hits so many from long range but the benefit to Saints has been that others have scored from chances he has created, of course he is till the vanguard of the attack, but gone are the days when if Rickie didnt score he didnt contribute.

Initially his partner up front was David Connolly who started the season well with four goals in five games and looked set to challenge Rickie for the top scorer spot, however fitness was again his problem and he would only score two more after August, one in October and another in January, it soon became clear that Nigel Adkins would have to bolster his firepower through the transfer window, Guly replaced Connolly and in truth did a decent job, however for some reason the Saints crowd for as long as i have been a fan seems to need a whipping boy and Guly was their choice possibly because he didnt charge about like De Ridder, some sections of the support equate running around a lot as playing well, harking back to the times when Bradley Wright Phillips was a hero due to his ability to chase balls out for goal kicks near the corner flag whilst Kenwynne Jones got stick because he didnt but concentraded on goals, Guly like others suffred because he was flexible and could play in a number of positions and this affected his form.

The transfer window brought two new arrivals, Tadanari Lee and Billy Sharp, Lee's season lasted little ove a month but he had a big impact, initially Billy Sharp was preferred but then inexplicably seemed to drop from favour, Lee took his chance spectacularly with a screamer against Derby County and this made him a crowd favourite when added to his high octane game and Sharp had to sit and watch whilst Saints went on a winning run, Lee played well but that screamer apart he wasnt looking like scoring, but that wasnt a problem as Saints were winning games and to be blunt beating the likes of Derby and Barnsley at home and Watford away werent difficult games.

Then came one of those moments when a decision is made for a manager, no offence intended to Lee who played his part in the season and will surely have a big future at the club, but he got injured just as Saints hit a run of games when goals were becoming harder to get, would Sharp have got his chance at this time if Lee had have been fit ? thats a question that we will never know the answer to, but just as Saints needed to up a gear to push themselves over the finish line up came Sharp to the plate to add some goals, Sharp came in with eight games to go against Doncaster and hit the two goals in the game against his old club, in those final eight games he would score 8 times, exactly half of the sixteen goals that Saints would manage as a team, but perhaps more vitally all apart from the last two would have seen points dropped without them, when Saints just needed a scorer on the pitch who knew where the goal was, Sharp was the man for the job, indeed the best man in the division, perhaps Sharp would have come in and been preferred to Lee ? as i said we will never know, but it was the right man at the right time and thats what counted and for Nigel Adkins, he showed that sometimes managers need a quirk of fate to give a helping hand.

So Saints in the main relied on the famous five of Lambert, Connolly, Guly, Lee and Sharp up front and it has to be said all played a part, but a special mention must go to the forgotten man, Lee Barnard, as April 2011 arrived Lee Barnard was the man of the moment, the man in form pushing Saints to promotion, then he got a bad injury that took him almost a year to recover from, but Barnard played a little cameo role in his six appearances as sub, coming on and his hard work heling running down the clock, perhaps Saints in the premiership will be a step too far for him, but in his time here he has never let us down and scored some vital goals and we shouldnt forget that.

Overall Saints had a strike force that was varied and thats why we scored so many, although our approach play in many respects was rigid in the way we got the ball to the forwards, they all had diferent talents that they brought to the table, Lambert brought sheer force amongst many attributes, Connolly brought experience, Guly brought guile, Lee brought hard work and Sharp brought a knack for scoring goals and being in the right place at the right time, between them they were the reason why Saints scored so many, defenders could never be sure of what would happen next, Saints had options when they got the ball into the final third.

All in all our five main attackers contributed 53 out of the 85 goals scored in the league and although it should be noted that Guly scored some of his from midfield, thats still around half a century between them and thats no mean feat.

 

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