24 hours ago we had a game in hand which if we won we’d gin top.
Today we’re down because we lost to team that had lost 7 in a row abd missed a good chance.
We still have excellent chance of making top 2, but, it’s worrying, why, because despite our position, we’re struggling to take enough points per game now to achieve top 2.
We hear the same old line that we had loads of possession, if we’d have taken these chances blah blah blah but we’ve heard that all season. With all due respect to Bielsa it is his job to change that. When asked repeatedly about needing new players he said he didn’t need, them at window time saud he needed 2 and didn’t get them. The end result is that we’re relyjng on non match fit players to dramatically change our points per game ratio and that isn’t a sound foundation.
We know Bielsa won’t change his style and I don’t mind that, but the real problem is the quality of the players and that issue lies with Orta and AR. When you see Alioski passing to an oponent or Douglas completely failing to hit target you feel sorry for Bielsa that this is what he has to work with, but he said the squad is good enough so he has to bear some responsibility too.
One additional issue though is playing players out of position. Is Pablo playing in his most effective role, should Roberts be used as a striker etc
Finally, the one player who could make a real difference for us is Jack Clarke. I’m concerned that we’re hearing some noise about need to follow the procedures etc not sure exactly what that means and what sort of virus this was exactly. I just hope the lads ok and that he’ll play and make a difference for us again this season.
Reality
posted on 27/2/19
I should have added that only 23% of our total passes were in the attacking third
posted on 27/2/19
Kept off for a while as the tension on this board is palpable as we get ever closer to the end of sesson.
I am hoping that last night was the dark before the dawn but I do feel concerned by the underwhelming January and the fact that Bielsa may have got the absolute maximum out of the players and there's not much more to squeeze out of them.
Problems with key players, (Clarke) , and over reliance on Pablo now rearing its ugly head.
Having said all that we are still very much in with a shout .
posted on 27/2/19
comment by Peakwhite (U7815)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by milkyboy (U12731)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Peakwhite (U7815)
posted 2 hours, 6 minutes ago
Yes, we have lots of posession but most of it is in our own half. Only 4 shots on target yesterday against a team that had conceded 11 goals in 3 games shows our inefficiency as an attacking force.
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Stats don’t support that peak.
Our proportion of posession is more geared to the opposition final third than our own third, and we have greater posession as a whole than any other team, so we spend more time in the opposition third than any team in the championship.
We have more shots per game than any team in the championship. We have a high percentage of those from outside the box, but we still have the highest number of shots from inside the box.
Yes those are season based stats so they may have dipped recently but I’m fairly sure it’s been pretty consistent.
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Probably those stats are season based. They do not reflect on last night's performance. We had 86 passes in the attacking third, they had 72. That is not overwhelming superiority. Each team made 10 key passes. They had one clear cut chance, we had none.
I agree we're nothing like Reading under Stam, but our overall posession last night (63%) should have yielded more of an attacking threat. We rarely looked like scoring apart from one pinball scramble in the second half.
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Thought you were talking general rather than specifically last night fella. Even so while those stats don’t show overwhelming superiority.. they don’t show a side that deserved to lose either.
Totally agree that we should pose more of a threat with our posession. Some of it is a lack of cutting edge and efficiency... some also is a result of how we play... posession football tends to mean packed organised defences and vulnerability on transition. We have to work harder than the opposition for chances, but have more of the ball to do so... it’s the trade off of bielsa ball in my view
BTW Not sure what a clear cut chance is, they had a few in my book and so did we.
posted on 27/2/19
Milky, think too many of ours are half chances, players in stretch, too many defenders already back, pass not quite right etc
posted on 27/2/19
Yeh, wouldn’t argue with that Jonty. We have missed some absolute sitters recently too though!
posted on 27/2/19
I'm the only one saying it but i think the problem is the soft goals we concede. We found it much harder to create chances once they took the lead.
We keep giving sides something to hold on to.
Again the goal was conceded from sloppy play. This time Roberts and Phillips wasn't strong enough. Coincidentally both those two had poor games last night.
Keep a clean sheet and we win that game. Keep a clean sheet against Bolton and we win by 3.
posted on 27/2/19
milky, don't disagree, but really feel if we create more of the better chances we'd be converting far more.
posted on 27/2/19
Love this!
https://twitter.com/dan_ferguson87/status/1100511921588060160?s=21
posted on 27/2/19
"Today we’re down because we lost to team that had lost 7 in a row abd missed a good chance."
Six games before last night:
QPR 2 Portsmouth 0
Seven league games perhaps?
posted on 27/2/19
comment by Peakwhite (U7815)
posted 8 hours, 33 minutes ago
I should have added that only 23% of our total passes were in the attacking third
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I'm not surprised that number is less than 25%.
How does it compare to other teams in the top 6?
If one thinks about it, I would expect more than 75% of passes to occur in the first 2/3 of the field.
The final third is more about individual play, following an incisive pass (we could do with more of those)!