The facts dont support the notion we've slipped away from the top 6

Tubey · August 17, 2015

They're the perfect stats for me.

For once, the opposition were in general aimlessly holding the ball. What we did was put our foot on the ball to kill the game when needed, while hitting hard and quick when the situation called for it.

Fewer passes with more meaning behind them, combined with intelligent possession keeping when requi

Huyton Layne · August 17, 2015

Tubey said:
They're the perfect stats for me.

For once, the opposition were in general aimlessly holding the ball. What we did was put our foot on the ball to kill the game when needed, while hitting hard and quick when the situation called for it.

Fewer passes with more meaning behind them, combined with intelligent possession keeping when requi

Where's that from Tubey? I'd like to check out what our usual pass streak is when we bore ourselves to a draw or loss.

TheCount · August 17, 2015

Was Ross's ball to Rom not a through ball?

Tubey · August 17, 2015

Layne said:
Where's that from Tubey? I'd like to check out what our usual pass streak is when we bore ourselves to a draw or loss.

Think it was WhoScored, closed tab so not sure.

Huyton Layne · August 17, 2015

Tubey said:
Think it was WhoScored, closed tab so not sure.

Had a look and our pass streak doesn't vary much. That surprises me. That means even when we're playing with a complete lack of penetration we're still turning the ball over after 4 passes on average.

Moomin · August 17, 2015

Just checked, Stoke have had 39 points since new year's day.

Mikey_Fitzgerald · August 17, 2015

The only way to prove we haven't slipped away from the top 6 would be for us to finish in the top 6 again. That would point to last season being the blip as opposed to the one before it

davek · August 17, 2015

Mikey_Fitzgerald said:
The only way to prove we haven't slipped away from the top 6 would be for us to finish in the top 6 again. That would point to last season being the blip as opposed to the one before it

Of course. And the data provided suggests we can do that again.

It'd hardly be outlandish. We did finish in amongst it two season's ago.

Mikey_Fitzgerald · August 17, 2015

davek said:
Of course. And the data provided suggests we can do that again.

It'd hardly be outlandish. We did finish in amongst it two season's ago.

@Allezfan made a great point recently

In the 13/14 season, pretty much every side lower than 7th were utter cack, meaning we picked up a lot of points but so did everyone else in the top 6 mix, hence why the record points total meant only 5th

This year, there's probably less cannon fodder but that might actually help us as more teams will take points off each other, meaning the gap between top and bottom will be smaller and sides like Arsenal and the like won't just be able to bulldoze a crap load of teams to push us out of the race

davek · August 17, 2015

Mikey_Fitzgerald said:
@Allezfan made a great point recently

In the 13/14 season, pretty much every side lower than 7th were utter cack, meaning we picked up a lot of points but so did everyone else in the top 6 mix, hence why the record points total meant only 5th

This year, there's probably less cannon fodder but that might actually help us as more teams will take points off each other, meaning the gap between top and bottom will be smaller and sides like Arsenal and the like won't just be able to bulldoze a crap load of teams to push us out of the race

The big difference this season will be preparation time - possibly even more so than new signings.

It's an enormous weight off this squad knowing they dont have to rush into matches without a proper homework done on the opposition and/or carrying knocks and fatigue into almost every game because of two games per week. It just doesn't compute for me that under those circumstances even the squad we have right now would fall out of a decent position in the top half.

djsunyc · August 17, 2015

Tubey said:
They're the perfect stats for me.

For once, the opposition were in general aimlessly holding the ball. What we did was put our foot on the ball to kill the game when needed, while hitting hard and quick when the situation called for it.

Fewer passes with more meaning behind them, combined with intelligent possession keeping when requi

awesome. do you have this for the first half?

davek · August 17, 2015

Layne said:
Where's that from Tubey? I'd like to check out what our usual pass streak is when we bore ourselves to a draw or loss.

Best for passing stats is FourFourTwo's statszone http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone?date_req=2015-08-15 (click match centre)

Seamus Colemole · August 17, 2015

davek said:
Not interested in posting in the Roberto Martinez thread these days mate?

By "these days" i'm assuming you mean 2 days since i last posted in it?

Although i guess for you 2 days is like 3 months as 8 months is a year.

[URL="https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/roberto-martinez-discussion.57212/page-782#post-3772489"]Roberto Martinez discussion[/URL]

Lowste · August 17, 2015

davek said:
It's a fair point. But that in turn underlines that the second half of the season was pretty much of a muchness in the context of our usual pattern of rejuvenation and that the furore over "decline" has been exaggerated beyond belief.

What happened, in retrospect, was that we endured a shock to the system from end of November to beginning of January last season when we lost 6 out of 8 games. That memory endured more than the recovery - which was, as seen from the data I posted - pretty impressive.

We were poor overall last season, but not to the extremes some people had us down as.
I have stated many times that some people for some obscure reason have this belief that under DM we were invincible and playing like Brazil. In reality we are the same team under RM, we offer plenty but deliver very much the same.
To talk of decline is laughable, but I guess it fuels the dislike people have for RM

We have a squad now, hopefully we can deliver what we all desire....Silverware

vagant59 · August 17, 2015

davek said:
Possession tripe: half the possession of the ball away from home got us a 3-0 win. It's not possession, it's what you do with it. You have to have possession to do anything in a game.

Exactly.We did something with the ball on Saturday, unlike last season were we passed the ball around aimlessly. Weren't you a stallwart supporter of the Manager for those tactics while the rest of us were calling for the type of FOOTBALL we saw on Saturday