Dundee have lost their best goalscorer after Zach Robinson’s recall to parent club AFC Wimbledon.
But what options does he currently have at his disposal?
And how do they compare against each other and the rest of the division?
Team goals
Strikers are in the team to score goals, whichever level a player plays at.
And compared to the other top teams in the Championship, Dundee need more than they’ve been getting.
The rest of the top four have outscored the Dark Blues quite handsomely so far this season.
Leaders Queen’s Park stuck six past Cove Rangers last time out and took their season tally to 44, taking them above Partick Thistle (42) in the goal charts.
Ayr United, too, have scored six more goals than the Dee this term, netting 39 compared to the 33 notched by Bowyer’s boys.
Top scorers
Dundee’s only player in the Championship’s top 10 scorers this season left last week.
Zach Robinson remains in sixth place with seven goals but, unless there is a major change of mind at Plough Lane this month, he won’t be adding to that.
Streaking away at the top of the goal charts this season has been Ayr’s Dipo Akinyemi – until former Dee Simon Murray struck four times last weekend and went level on 15 league goals.
Billy Mckay, Aidan Connolly, Brian Graham, Grant Savoury, Robbie Muirhead, Connor Scully and Anton Dowds make up the rest of the top 10.
That means players from seven of the Championship’s 10 teams are ahead of any current Dundee player in the goal charts.
Dundee strikers and their goals
To be fair to them, the Dark Blues have shared goals around this season.
Thirteen players have found the net in the league. Add another six to that list with cup goals.
Nineteen is a lot of goalscorers, though that list includes now departed Robinson and Niall McGinn.
With Robinson gone, however, a major aspect of Dundee’s goal threat has disappeared.
Zak Rudden’s numbers aren’t far behind – he’s scored the same amount when all competitions are taken into account.
However, only five of those have been in the Championship, the same total as Paul McMullan. Behind them is Luke McCowan on four and Cammy Kerr on two.
Looking solely at the strikers there’s not a lot to shout about.
Alex Jakubiak has four goals in all competitions but hasn’t scored since July while Cillian Sheridan’s only goal came in the SPFL Trust Trophy.
Derick Osei, meanwhile, grabbed two against Airdrie in the Scottish Cup but only has one league goal to his name – a strike looking more and more important by the week as it rescued a point away to Queen’s Park.
Chances created/missed
He’s said it before and he’s said it again – the key area boss Bowyer wants his team to improve upon is their “ruthlessness”.
So how does their chance creation compare to the rest of the division?
In terms of shots on goal they are fifth in the table behind Raith Rovers and the rest of the top four.
Looking more closely, Dundee are fourth in terms of the quality of chances created across the season.
Their xG (expected goals scored, not including penalties) for the Championship before last week’s game at Raith Rovers was 26.23.
Taking out penalties Dundee have scored 30 league goals.
Both Queen’s Park and Partick Thistle are well ahead on that front, too, with 33.76 and 32.26 respectively while Ayr are slightly better with 26.92.
So what does all this mean?
Defensively, Dundee are sound – they give up fewer chances than anyone else in the league.
However, creating and scoring goals is an issue they have to address.
The rest of the top teams are leaving them behind on the goal front.
