Chicago Fire Midweek Training: 3 takeaways from Week 5

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CHESTER, PA – AUGUST 08: Chicago Fire Midfielder Raheem Edwards (7) walks toward the sideline for a corner kick in the second half during the US Open Cup game between the Chicago Fire and Philadelphia Union on August 08, 2018 at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, PA. (Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Chicago Fire picked up their first win of the 2019 season, overcoming the New York Red Bulls. Here are three Fire takeaways from Week 5.

Hello and welcome again to the Chicago Fire’s midweek training, where I try to pick apart what the Fire should be working on going into the next game.

This past weekend, we saw the first win of the season for the Fire against the New York Red Bulls thanks to an own goal. While there were many great things about the game, not just the three points, there were definitely still places to improve on.

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Here are three takeaways from Week 5 for the Chicago Fire.

CHICAGO, IL – MARCH 09: Chicago Fire forward Nemanja Nikolic (23) battles with Orlando City defender Alex De John (3) in action during a MLS match between the Chicago Fire and Orlando City on March 09, 2019 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

3. Finishing theme continues

Finishing. Where have I said this before? Pretty much every single week is the same story. Even when the Chicago Fire win, they still find ways to miss their chances. When you are able to out-shoot almost every single opponent and create more quality chances, you should be scoring more, right? This isn’t just me who’s going crazy?

While there’s no shame in winning a game on an own goal, it almost feels like an insult when there were plenty of chances for the strikers to make their own luck and score. While watching Nemanja Nikolic’s performance, I came to the conclusion that he is no longer the Golden Boot winner that he was. On a few occasions, he had a chance to shoot, one that he would normally bang right in the bottom corner, but he hesitated and squandered the opportunity. Even on the own goal, his shot clearly hit the post and was coming back out.

So how can this be fixed? Honestly, I don’t know at this point. Strikers are a weird beast. On one hand, you want to have your in-form players out there getting it done. On the other hand, you want to make sure that your best players are able to play their way into form. Strikers need to score goals in order to score more goals. After thinking that he’d scored his first goal of the season, Nikolic looked much better. But now that he knows it wasn’t real, he may be back to square one. Someone needs to start putting the ball in the back of the net, though, because wasted chances will come back to bite.

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