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From the last few games I've been looking at what happens to goal kicks, punts and free kicks from Smithies. Against the Jacks only 4 kicks from the 20 I noted did we gain meaningful possession (two touches in succession). Against Brum in second half from 14 kicks we gained possession twice. That seems to me a very low return and wonder if we need to vary it with some shorter stuff.... most other teams do and it usually leads to a much higher level of possession.
Over the last 6 games it's been wonderful to see our strikers scoring regularly. Glatzel now has 3 from 6 but that was only from 190 minutes so actually the equivalent of two games. Moore was got 4 goals from 5 games. Combined that is a tremendous strike rate recently. What makes this even more special for me is that I think the service to these two has generally been poor. Their conversion rate of chances created is really high. We are almost in Chopra Bothroyd territory but over a short period of time. And if Glatzel had scored from that pen today.......
Smithies kicking is clear and long, you have to evaluate whether the issue is with winning the ball or where the ball goes.
Etheridge used to make me nervous especially when he first came would hit a lot low and not very far.
Smithies is just a much more cleaner striker of the ball
Surprised we didn’t chase down back passes to Etheridge more last night, I always thought he was a bit of a panicker when a forward was bearing down on him and prone to dodgy clearances, whereas Smithies looks to be calm and in control in the same situations.