Livi Goal Table

LiviCub wrote:I'd have Buchanan signed up for next season but it's a big ask for a 32 year old, Scottish lower league striker to keep a team like us in the Championship next season.

I agree. In an ideal world, we'd be getting someone younger and a bit more capable to partner Mullen next season; that said, I couldn't think of a better option for us to have off the bench, realistically. I appreciate he takes some flak for the amount of chances he misses at times, but he is always good for a goal. You don't reach his age and knock in 25 in one season being shite.

I'm actually astounded by this opinion of Buchanan, he's the most accurate player in the league for goals to shots yet gets some weird tag for missing chances and has scored our record number of goals in a season but is rated too old and 2nd to Danny Mullen, it really does baffle me.

He's a fit guy and does a lot of running around helping pressure defenders and chase down balls, he'd still be our number one striker next season imo, and has a couple of seasons at Championship level in him yet. Last season we had too much chopping and changing with strikers and it didn't do Buchanan or White any good, with Buchanan as our main striker again he'd get 16 or 17 goals easy. Seems to divide opinions though, as did White, but Buchanan has the stats to dispel this perceived notion that he misses lots of chances, he is the most accurate striker of shots on goal in the league, and has scored the most goals.

Granted he looks fitter than a lot of strikers who are closer to 20 than 30, but he is now on the wrong side of that age and it's only going to be more of a personal battle for him to maintain that consistent level of fitness. And to be fair to him, I don't think he's missed a game because of injury since he joined. I never questioned his finishing, I just believe that he'll be up against defences who may be less physical but will be more organised and can read the game a lot better than the guff he's had to face this season. I'll be the first to say I got it wrong if he signs up and ends the season with another 10-15 goals.

I would like to see him as an impact player by coming off the bench when a goal is needed but he seems to have the attitude where he won't take anything less than starting most games. I think he'd rather start most weeks with a part-time team like Alloa again than on the bench with us.

Why wouldn't he want to start every week though, he's the best striker we have, would be a lot stranger if he was happy to be a sub.

Ah well all about opinions, and mine is he's still got a couple of seasons in him as a top player, if we do sign him it'll be to start games, and quite rightly so, you can't say he's not got it in him until it shows and he should be given the same chance as everyone else of starting, if he does it in training and is still doing it in games, then he deserves to be put in the starting 11. Bit ageist just to say someone in their 30's shouldn't start because he should be too old now to do the business on the pitch.

Kenny Miller is still banging them in for Rangers in the SPL at 37.

Good point Orco, Iirc Brewster was about 38 when he was still playing at a high level, and about 40 when he stopped playing and went into management. If you keep yourself fit and have looked after yourself then there is no reason why you can't keep playing at a decent level well into your 30's.

We're not seriously comparing Buchanan with Miller & Brewster are we?

He deserves the offer of a contract because he has been the best goalscorer in the division this season. At 32 he should have another 2 or 3 seasons in him at least.

He does miss chances, most notably this season from 12 yards, which had they been scored would have secured 4 points IIRC & the league would officially have been won. All goalscorers miss though & the mark of a decent goalscorer is being in the position to score or miss the chances. He is regularly in or around our scoring chances.

I think if he had been blessed with real pace he probably would have been a premier division player.

It would be difficult for us to pick up someone better at what he does on our budget so I hope he is offered a new deal and has the chance to show he can do it for us in the second tier, ideally without having to battle relegation.

Bertie Bassett wrote:We're not seriously comparing Buchanan with Miller & Brewster are we?

He deserves the offer of a contract because he has been the best goalscorer in the division this season. At 32 he should have another 2 or 3 seasons in him at least.

He does miss chances, most notably this season from 12 yards, which had they been scored would have secured 4 points IIRC & the league would officially have been won. All goalscorers miss though & the mark of a decent goalscorer is being in the position to score or miss the chances. He is regularly in or around our scoring chances.

I think if he had been blessed with real pace he probably would have been a premier division player.

It would be difficult for us to pick up someone better at what he does on our budget so I hope he is offered a new deal and has the chance to show he can do it for us in the second tier, ideally without having to battle relegation.

In terms of still being able to play to as high a standard as he is now we are yep, players can still play to a good standard if they look after themselves.

Cummings is the Championship top scorer and i'll bet he's missed a few chances too, all strikers do (which you also said). The fact Buchanan has got the most goals and shots on target from shots at goal ratio of any striker in this league makes it kinda overly picky using it as a criticism. He's the best striker we have, the best striker in the league, and i'd put money on him being in the top 5 best strikers in the Championship next season too, if he's still playing for us. He scored 16 goals for Alloa in the Championship, which is what Cummings has scored playing for Hibs.

We've been lucky to have him and would be lucky if we've got him next season, don't even think it has anything to do with budgets, Falkirk have a far bigger budget and for me Buchanan is as good as any striker they've got.

Not really arguing with you, just making observations...but
He only got 14 league goals at Alloa according to Soccerbase
And only 6 league goals for us last season
Admittedly both in struggling sides but he was under utilised by us last season IMO
He is currently having his best goals per game ratio of his career, marginally better than his time at Cowdenbeath & not counting his goal a game record of 2 in 2 for Sligo Rovers
His career gpg is better than 1 every 3 games.
http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=34219

Yeah think it was 16 for Alloa in all comps, but he def scored more than 6 league goals for us last season, was about 14 or 15.

Just checked the archives and this is the games Buchanan scored in last season. 11 in the league and another 2 in the play offs. Think he got a goal or two in cup comps too but didn't bother checking.

St Mirren 1-1 Livi-Buchanan 1(Pen)
Alloa 0-3 Livi - Buchanan 2
QoS 1-4 Livi Buchanan 2
St Mirren1-4 Buchanan 2
Sevco 4-1 Livi Buchanan 1
Livi 1-1 Falkirk Buchanan 1
Livi 2-0 Dumbarton Buchanan 1
Livi 2-3 St Mirren Buchanan 1

====================
Play offs

Stranrae 5-2 Livi Buchanan 1
Livi 4-3 Stranraer Buchanan 1

I think him and White would've got a few more if either of them was playing in all games as the main striker that season but they were chopped and changed about a lot with Burchill and Hopkin, didn't do either one of them much good but both got a decent amout of goals in spite of that. Reckon Buchanan would get 16 easy next season being our main striker same as he was this season, seems to be in his prime in his 30's.

Read a nice stat for Livi this season, only Celtic have won more games than us in the SPFL.

We've won 1 more game than Aberdeen who is 3rd in the SPFL games won stats.

Aye... 11 league goals last season... My mistake, I looked at his league total on Soccerbase and subtracted 25 instead of 20... Doh!!

Scotty P & Jackson Longridge scoring our 2 goals against Alloa last week, and Liam Buchanan getting his 21st league goal yesterday against Stenny.

I seemed to have missed a goal with the league table having us on 70 goals, dunno where the extra goal came from and can't really be bothered checking back through all our goals to find out, sorry.

21 Liam Buchanan (Livingston)
20 Scott Sinclair (Celtic)
18 Andy Ryan (Airdrieonians)
18 Shane Sutherland (Elgin City)
17 Moussa Dembele (Celtic)
17 Jason Cummings (Hibernian)
17 Peter MacDonald (Clyde)
16 Liam Boyce (Ross County)
16 Stephen Dobbie (Queen of the South)
16 Iain Russell (Airdrieonians)
16 Greig Spence (Alloa Athletic)
15 Rory McAllister (Peterhead)
Read more at http://spfl.co.uk/news/article/leading-spfl-scorers-201617/#iJ4qykGcMMF1fTWm.99

Still the SPFL's top goal scorer. Mon Buch's you can do it.

3 games left, 13 goals required for 100 in all competitions. Aye, we'll do that.

Jings, Livicub just went to number 1 on the Livioptimists charts, c'mon LF let's see you be more optimistic than that!

9 goals left for 2 games then? 6-0 against the 2nd bottom club and a routine 3-0 to end the season with a bang.

Doable.

We are overdue giving someone a real pasting, so you never know.

Actually we only need 8 goals to hit 100 in all comps, I've missed a goal somewhere in the league and the table has us on 74 goals, plus the 18 in cup comps that makes 92. Have no idea who scored that missing goal or what game I missed it in, but it must've been quite recent, aint going back through them to find out though, too much work.

Todorov, Mullen, Mullin & Cadden getting the 4 goals against QP.

Liam Buchanan and Danny Mullen in contention for SPFL League One PoTY. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39700721

Livi 4-1 Peterhead

Buchanan, Pittman, Mullin & Mullen with the goals.

That's us on 96 in all comps for the season.

LiviCub wrote:3 games left, 13 goals required for 100 in all competitions. Aye, we'll do that.

1 game left, 4 more required

Someone should contact the club & give them the challenge.

Pity we only got 1 at Stenhousemuir really.

With us scoring for fun this season I thought i'd start a thread to keep track of our goal scorers and how many goals they've scored. This is in competitive games only.

League (80 goals)

Buchanan-22

Mullen-14

Pittman-9

Cadden-6

Mullin-4

Miller-3

Longridge-3

Carrick-3

Todorov-3

De Vita-3

Byrne-2

Gallagher-2

Halkett-1

Crighton-1



OG's-3


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Cups (18 goals)

Buchanan-5

Mullen-3

Cadden-3

Mullin-2

Crighton-2

Carrick-1

Pittman-1

De Vita-1



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Total goals Scored (98 goals)

Buchanan-27

Mullen-17

Pittman-10

Cadden-9

Mullin-6

Carrick-4

De Vita-4

Miller-3

Crighton-3

Longridge-3

Todorov-3

Byrne-2

Gallagher-2

Halkett-1

OG's-3

Pittman and Rafa with the goals today in our 2-0 win over Rovers.

Didn't hit the 100 goal mark but 98 goals is a terrific tally, and we ended the season with a record breaking 9 league wins in a row.

Liam Buchanan finished League One's 2nd top goal scorer with Andy Ryan snatching it out of his grasp on the last day with 2 goals against QP.

Now, if he had just scored those pens I moaned about earlier...