Statistics back up Latics' lack of goalmouth punch

ON THE STRETCH . . . Lee Erwin attempts to control the ball

ATHLETIC need to find a way to penetrate within the penalty area next season in order to improve.

That is the conclusion that can be drawn from statistics that show the club was only one of three in Sky Bet League One this season to fire more shots from OUTSIDE the box than in it.

A rock-solid defence led by captain Peter Clarke kept 18 clean sheets, earning goalkeeper Connor Ripley a share of the all-time club record alongside Les Pogliacomi.

But a back-line that let in only 44 goals in total was matched with a paltry attack that registered only 31 successful strikes.

Top scorer Lee Erwin contributed eight but aside from Clarke's five, no other player managed more than two.

Collated figures produced by 'Experimental 3-6-1' (@experimental361) show that it was within the opposing penalty area where Athletic struggled to make any headway.

CAMPAIGN

More than half of the team's shots over the campaign (50.3-per-cent) were taken from outside the box - a larger percentage than any other side in League One, other than Walsall (53.3) and Peterborough (53.6).

And in terms of matches where Athletic managed to rain in more shots that the opposition, that happened in only 11 out of 46 matches. Only relegated Port Vale matched such a poor record.

Manager John Sheridan is back at the club after a family holiday at the start of next week and will work on addressing the lack of spark in the final third within his recruitment for 2017-18.

His former charge Richie Wellens could see early on that Athletic may well struggle to break teams down, as previous boss Stephen Robinson worked with a very hastily-assembled group of players.

Now, he says the key for Sheridan is to bring in men who can buy into his philosophy to make chances for the strikers - whoever they end up being, along with already contracted pair Aaron Amadi-Holloway and Darius Osei.

"Watching the team in pre-season, I felt that there wasn't enough creativity or goals in the side to finish in the top 10," Wellens said. "That is the way it panned out.

"John always likes to play with two strikers. Whatever formation he picks, he will have two players occupying the opposition centre-backs.

"There haven't been many goals scored where teams have been really opened up.

"But pressure football is difficult to deal with and it worked for Oldham in terms of avoiding relegation."