Goals win games. It is football simplified to its most basic form – score more than the opposition.
Dundee, though, aren’t doing that right now. They aren’t scoring much at all.
To their credit they aren’t losing either – Tuesday night’s stalemate against Ross County made it three draws in a row and just one defeat in the past six.
But time hasn’t been kind to the Dark Blues lately. Thanks to an unwelcome three-week break, it’s now over a month since they last scored a first-team goal.
Zak Rudden’s late leveller was the last time the ball hit the back of the net and has been followed up by two 0-0 draws.
That’s now three ‘nils’ next to the Dundee name in the past four after finding the net in each of manager Tony Docherty’s first eight matches.
Opposition must be taken into account – two of those ‘nils’ were at Celtic and Hibs. The latter a very credible point at Easter Road.
But another blank in the following clash at home to Ross County, admittedly three weeks later, raises concern.
The numbers
Across the last 180-plus minutes of football without a goal, Dundee have had 26 shots with 11 on target.
Looking at the season as a whole, the Dark Blues have been pretty good at getting efforts in.
They have the sixth best tally so far with 88 in their eight games, four more than Aberdeen have managed.
They’ve had 29 of those on target, the seventh-best in the division. Again they are ahead of the Dons and have more than double St Johnstone’s tally of 14.
But they’ve managed just seven goals from those efforts – Ross County and St Johnstone are the only sides with a worse return.
What they said
Chances do continue to be created, however.
At Hibs, the Dark Blues had to be defensively solid and that meant opportunities to attack would be limited.
But they could easily have taken all three points with an excellent late Owen Beck chance saved by David Marshall. The ex-Scotland keeper also saved Rudden’s firm header early on.
Though Ross Laidlaw wasn’t quite as tested on Tuesday night, there were still sights of goal and saves to be made.
And Luke McCowan, who netted the winner against Hearts in August, insists the goals will come.
“It’s not like there is something missing,” he said.
“It is a cliche but if we got one we probably would have got two or three in the (Ross County) game.
“We were just struggling to get that one in that game.
“It is annoying as you train throughout the week and you score a million goals and then you get to the game and you want to be as good as you were but against Ross County we weren’t.
“I think if we were not creating chances, it would be a bigger concern for us.
“We know that a team that doesn’t create them has no chance of getting points.
“We know if we keep creating chances, goals will come but it obviously gets to a point where it has to get better.”
What’s next?
Saturday sees Dundee head to a Livingston side who sit two points ahead in the Premiership table.
Then comes a tough test at home to Rangers followed by another meeting with the Livi Lions, this time at Dens Park.
David Martindale’s side have the second worst defence in the division, conceding 15 in nine games. Hibs are the only side with more, letting in 16 from nine.
The Dark Blues will hope to have Zach Robinson back for at least a part of those three games.
Diego Pineda also showed up well off the bench against Ross County, taking three of those 15 shots and bringing two saves from the County keeper.
Rudden and Bakayoko have both hit the net while the supporting cast of midfielders have chipped in.
Shooting opportunities are being made, they are hitting the target but that killer touch is eluding them right now.
If they don’t finish off chances in the next few games, concerns will grow.
And the positives built up in the opening stages of the season will swiftly feel like a long time ago.
Conversation