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Why do we concede so many goals


toe_punt
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This season we have had an uncanny knack of conceding goals at ****, **** times. I.E just before half time, just at the start of the 2nd half, in the last minuite of the game!

 

Could be down to concentration, lack of fitness early on in the season.

 

But it's improved recently, can't deny that. We're a pretty solid shape these days.

 

Don't read too much into our defensive performance against Chelsea, they were just irresistible for a spell and there was nothing we could have ever done to prevent it. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and admit that the oppo are just on a different planet.

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Goalkeeping errors, defensive errors, generally not being good enough - all of those things lead to conceding goals - conceding goals leads to loosing games - loosing games leads to relegation, which is where we are heading. I really hope we get in a CB and Keeper in this window, if not more.

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I blame Merrington:

 

"What we don't want to do, now, is to concede just before half time."

 

"What we mustn't do now, is to give up a goal in the first five or ten minutes of the second half."

 

"We need to hold our shape and stay firm for the final few minutes. To concede now would be a disaster."

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I blame Merrington:

 

"What we don't want to do, now, is to concede just before half time."

 

"What we mustn't do now, is to give up a goal in the first five or ten minutes of the second half."

 

"We need to hold our shape and stay firm for the final few minutes. To concede now would be a disaster."

 

You missed out the "What we don't need to do's".

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Shame many posters don't read the OP. Shipping goals at the end of each half is a result of lack of fitness. Get tired, concentration drops, get slower, opponents fitter, have the edge. Plus maybe a mental thing: thinking its all over too soon.

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Careful Micky, you get slated on here for stating the god dam obvious.

 

I totally agree with you and the chap who posted above you!

 

To many average players, to many below average players. Simple as that.

 

As much as i love saints and it hurts to say it.

 

You can't polish a turd

 

Yes you can go to the Island and in amongst all the fossils over there are some dinosaur turds nice and hard and if you polish them enough shiny they will be :)

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Thought about this the other day and I had a half baked idea about it maybe being worth putting on one of our subs on about 40 mins, would probably sharpen up how we play in those few crucial minutes. (Plus waste a bit of time to get us over the line) problem is the quality on the bench to bring on with this idea.

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Thought about this the other day and I had a half baked idea about it maybe being worth putting on one of our subs on about 40 mins, would probably sharpen up how we play in those few crucial minutes. (Plus waste a bit of time to get us over the line) problem is the quality on the bench to bring on with this idea.

Just as half baked. You could have 3 potential subs for positions viewed as under performing being audibly, to those on the pitch, being called back from warming up and shown the play book, might make those on the pitch go ooo-errr is that for me an play a bit harder for the remainder of the first half: of course that could backfire with a bit of over exuberant play and a silly freekick given away.

You would think that with the amount of sports psychology that exists these days, silly ideas like ours would have been considered in some form or other.

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Not entirely sure how you'd create a control experiment, but it would be interesting to discover whether the fact that half of the ground empties around those times has a psychologically damaging effect.

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It feels like it is just us, but ages ago I took a look at late goals conceded and we actually scored more late ones than we conceded over a 10 year period in the Prem. Moreover, clubs in a similar position (and even some better ones) concede a lot in these time periods too. We just feel that it is only us as we are only emotionally invested in Saints and don't really notice other teams as much.

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What worries me is that it was the same pattern in the last relegation year from premier league. Endless games lost or drawn in last few mins.

 

So much for SaintsFit and Staplewood's high tech trickery ..

 

We aren't losing as many late goals as we were in 2004/5 though Adrian - like Boro home which was so demoralising. Also, that squad had far more PL experience but the club was in utter turmoil at the time which it clearly isn't at present, which probably didn't help that squad allied to a lack of fitness after the Sturrock/Wigley debacles. It's probably related to concentration at this level but I honestly can't recall that many goals conceded at key times in the last 10 this season. Jerome's was a wordly at Stoke, we've conceded plenty of poor goals to stupid individual errors, mostly the GKs and Jos but hopefully that's reducing.

 

Having Clyne fit at Villa will help as Cork can screen the back 4 again, Cork coming into the side and the dramatic decrease in goals leaked is no accident. JWP is a fine prospect and he did very well at City away but Saturday was a learning curve for him. However, we do need to get a couple of centre halves in this week but that's been the case for some time now. I'm sure the club are working on it as I type!

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Shame many posters don't read the OP. Shipping goals at the end of each half is a result of lack of fitness. Get tired, concentration drops, get slower, opponents fitter, have the edge. Plus maybe a mental thing: thinking its all over too soon.

This^

If you recall when WGS was here, we were super fit due to his preseason work, and we hardly ever conceded near the end of each half. We do not have the same level of fitness in terms of stamina that we did in those days, whatever NA may say or think. We have a different type of fitness. Tiredness results in lack of concentration.

 

Question though, ignoring Saturday, are we still conceding late goals, I know we were early in the season, but frankly we are conceding very few goals period in the lasy 6-8 weeks. The other factor that influences late goas in the 2nd half is late substitutions - whenever we take off SRL our style of play changes, we do not have players that can hold the ball up like he does, and so the opposition get the ball back up our end much more often and quickly. Obviousy taking SRL and others off is probably due to tiredness, but we definitely suffer when we have to change our style/formation late on.

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between 40 and 45minutes....and from 85mins to the end of the game?

 

It's a tough game, players are looking forward to a rest to recover (HT) .....or the final whistle and either they try to hold onto the scoreline before the end.....or attack like crazy to try and get an advantage.

 

Many clubs play on this and when one side tries to " shut-up-shop " they invariably fail. A quick look at the top clubs shows that they score even more goals in these periods because they have better players who can exploit the situation.

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Because we know that we concede goals at those times so we defend deep and let the opponents attack us. Against Chelsea early on we kept the ball, playing meaningless count the passes going nowhere football, why didn't we do that in the last 10 mins v Stoke and many others, thats what frustrates teams, kills the momentum, frustrates the crowd and uses up time. It would help if players were more streetwise, eg. Richardson crossing into the box when it was crying out to go into the corner and win a throw in/corner and keep it there as long as possible.

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What will it take for some people to realise we are just not good enough at present.

 

All the tactics and reasons in the world won't change the fact the likes of Gully,Boruc,S Davis, amongst others are just not up to it. As if they would get a look in on the bench of any other premier league team. Let alone a start.

 

Then we have to many other players who have a blinder one week and look like a drunk wasp the following week.

 

We would make a great 7 a side team.

 

If we had a keeper.

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What will it take for some people to realise we are just not good enough at present.

 

All the tactics and reasons in the world won't change the fact the likes of Gully,Boruc,S Davis, amongst others are just not up to it. As if they would get a look in on the bench of any other premier league team. Let alone a start.

 

Then we have to many other players who have a blinder one week and look like a drunk wasp the following week.

 

We would make a great 7 a side team.

 

If we had a keeper.

 

Absolutely spot on.

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This^

If you recall when WGS was here, we were super fit due to his preseason work, and we hardly ever conceded near the end of each half. We do not have the same level of fitness in terms of stamina that we did in those days, whatever NA may say or think. We have a different type of fitness. Tiredness results in lack of concentration.

 

Question though, ignoring Saturday, are we still conceding late goals, I know we were early in the season, but frankly we are conceding very few goals period in the lasy 6-8 weeks. The other factor that influences late goas in the 2nd half is late substitutions - whenever we take off SRL our style of play changes, we do not have players that can hold the ball up like he does, and so the opposition get the ball back up our end much more often and quickly. Obviousy taking SRL and others off is probably due to tiredness, but we definitely suffer when we have to change our style/formation late on.

 

We do, it's just that all the other teams hve it too, so it's not the advantage it was back then. Sports science is a cost effective way of getting more out of elite players and every PL team uses it. It's beyond teams with small budgets, hence why we were such a fit side in the Championship and L1.

 

1. Keeping posssession uses far less energy than chasing the ball. Spain and Barca score lots of late goals because their possession football has conserved their energy and worn the other side out.

2. The rich teams with big squads have the luxiury of being able to rotate and rest players to conserve their energies.

 

Neither cheap nor easy.

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This season we have had an uncanny knack of conceding goals at ****, **** times. I.E just before half time, just at the start of the 2nd half, in the last minuite of the game!

 

Could be down to concentration, lack of fitness early on in the season.

 

But it's improved recently, can't deny that. We're a pretty solid shape these days.

 

Don't read too much into our defensive performance against Chelsea, they were just irresistible for a spell and there was nothing we could have ever done to prevent it. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and admit that the oppo are just on a different planet.

 

Don't agree. The simple fact is we too often score and then proceed to sit deep and stop closing down making opposition look good......it is now a worrying reoccurring habit ....

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