City might be sixth in the table having taken the World Champions close in the EFL Trophy, but the last four games have led to a few mumblings about being clinical.
We’re still outperforming our xG, and we’re still taking points, but the Imps have just one goal in the last four outings, despite creating a lot of chances.
In his pre-match press conference, Michael was asked if he felt converting more chances was the next step to progression, despite us having a great goals-to-xG ratio before this four-game run.
“We’re creating chances,” he said in the interview on Imps+. “We need to create a few more chances, if anything. Not just the finish here, but the final ball or, if you like, the assist to be cleaner in those moments. But we’ll create chances and we’ll go through moments where we need to put more away.
“There’s no doubt about that, but there’s no crisis for me. There’ll be times where we’ll score a lot of goals and times where we won’t. You look at Peterborough, you could argue that we had some great finishes against Peterborough in a 3-0 game and there’ll be more like that, but we’ve just got to keep moving in the right direction.”
As outlined in my piece this evening on what it takes to get promoted, Michael pointed to remaining solid at the back as being key, something that has been notable. We kept one of the division’s busiest attacks quiet on Tuesday night, and rarely conceded xG or goals.
“Thing when you’re creating chances you stay solid at the back, and you know our defensive record, I thought Sonny Bradley, Tom Hamer, all the back four, were really solid.
“I reflected late in the Orient game, we weren’t on it. That wasn’t the performance we wanted, even though we created chances, but it’s a balance between getting the performance and getting the chance.s I thought Tuesday night, we look good at that.”
We now move into the FA Cup, a competition in which we took a lot of chances last season. Across three ties, we scored nine goals, getting to the Third Round. The tie against Salford will likely see fewer goals, but it’s a good chance to be brave without risking league points.