Sean Dyche says scoring goals has been a longstanding thing here. So, therefore, the development continues. That is what we’re looking to do, remind players of their skillset, on their strengths and working towards them.
On Saturday against 10-man Brentford, the Blues huffed and puffed through 90-plus fruitless minutes with just five shots on target and were held to a third goalless draw in six matches.
It extended their recent run to just one defeat in eight matches but with an average return of less than a point a game so far, it’s not enough to keep the club away from the danger of being sucked into the bottom three, particularly with a daunting run of fixtures to come in December.
In uncharacteristic fashion, Dyche experimented with the positioning of Dwight McNeil and Iliman Ndiaye in the second half against the Bees and then went with two up top when Beto was brought on to partner Dominic Calvert-Lewin but his side still couldn’t make the breakthrough.
“There was lots of effort, lots of shots and stuff, but there were not really killer moments,” Dyche said in his post-match press conference. “I think it’s been something I’ve talked about endlessly since I’ve been in the club, and before I’ve been at the club.
“It has been a reality for a long time here. Developing people who score goals is the toughest challenge as a manager. So, if you can’t develop individuals you want to try to develop a team that can score goals.
“The challenge we have had this season is quite obvious to everyone. We were conceding far too many and we had to change that. So we’ve changed that and now you’ve got to stay effective in the offensive side. So we scored a bit more freely at the beginning of the season, but we were conceding too many. So that’s been the challenge, quite obviously.”