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Cambridge United looking for ways to create better chances for Sam Smith




Head coach Mark Bonner believes his Cambridge United side may have to consider the quality of chances they are currently creating for Sam Smith.

The forward enjoyed a memorable 2021/22 campaign in front of goal for the U’s, finding the back of the net on 21 occasions from his 57 appearances in all competitions.

He also started the current term in positive form with four goals throughout August, yet he heads into tomorrow’s home encounter against Port Vale having not scored in any of his previous 10 outings.

Sam Smith has not scored since he netted a hat-trick against Burton Albion in late August. Picture: Simon Lankester
Sam Smith has not scored since he netted a hat-trick against Burton Albion in late August. Picture: Simon Lankester

However, with United finding goals hard to come by collectively in recent weeks during what has been a tricky run of fixtures, Bonner feels it is more about the type of opportunities that are being carved out for Smith rather than a worrying dip in form.

“I’m not sure he’s more of a marked man (but) he’s a marked man definitely. We’ve got to think about how and what sort of chances we create for him,” said Bonner.

“And also people have to respect the level we’re playing at. Against Sheffield Wednesday last week we had loads of the ball, created lots of moments, but a lot of six foot-plus defenders are throwing themselves in the way and they defend really well.

“Some of the defenders at this level are Championship players and they’re very, very good.

“For years we’ve wanted players to score 20 goals (a season) and two years running we’ve had them (Paul Mullin and Smith). We’d be very foolish if people think that it’s easy. It’s a really rare commodity to be able to do that.

“I know there are some geniuses at the top level who might score 50 goals this season and they make goalscoring look really easy, but obviously it’s really difficult.

“Some of the teams we’ve played recently in terms of the number of defenders they get behind the ball, the athleticism of those players and the quality of their defending just means we've got to do really well to create chances and score goals.

“We’ve got to become more creative with the type of chances we create and then obviously that will improve the likelihood of him adding to his goal tally.

“He scored some wonderful goals earlier in the season and I think if you look at the batch of games we’ve played recently and the teams we haven’t got results against, if you predicted it at the start of the season you wouldn’t have wanted all those games to come in one block.

“I’ve absolutely no doubt he’s a goalscorer and he’ll score plenty more for us. It’s probably a little bit more about how we create chances for the team and him.”



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