Not what we wished for

Our season so far has been disappointing, and last nights carling cup exit at the hands of Brentford is rock bottom. Therefore I present you with this nice list of oversimplified problems and solutions:

Problems:
First off, having a quick glance at the table can tell us some of what is wrong;
We have played 5 league games, and scored 4 goals and conceded 7.
(the same digits incidentally as Liverpool)
That puts us at around middle of the pack with regards to conceded goals, but only West Ham and Wigan has scored fewer than us.
Obviously our lack of goalscoring is a major part of our current problems.

Solutions:
Strikers not scoring is a problem that is notoriously hard to solve.
Our goals so far has been scored by Tim Cahill (2), Pienaar, and Arteta. Last night wingback Coleman scored our goal.
Changing the strikers around and using the ones that are on form would be one option, but not necessarily the best one as scoring form as with all other form is gradually built over time.
Sticking with what we got only adds to the pressure though.

My solution would be to change the formation from the 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 that we have alternated between to a 4-4-2 or even 4-3-3, a 5 man midfield only makes sense if you aim to dominate through overpopulating midfield and pressing your opponents. Something we aren't doing anyway.
Instead we should overpopulate the box and try to play faster direct football.
If we opt for a 4-4-2 or keep playing the 4-5-1 we need to drastically improve the quality of our crossing.

A quicker way to solve the goalscoring issues would be to work on set plays, free kicks and corners should be more of a source of goals for us as we have got quality free kick takers, and the right players to aim our corners at.

Defensively we have been alright, but there are still things to be sorted out.
As mentioned our midfield is not dominating the games, and the timing and precision of crosses and forward passes are not where it can be. Likewise, the defensive work is left by and large to our center backs with our wing backs up front supporting the attack. Our defenders are often overworked or like on several occasions this season abandoned.
Either leave the backs on our own half, or begin pressing the opponents on midfield so our center backs aren't outnumbered and overrun.

 -MF.