Saints 1-2 Palace - Match Thread

[Tank]

we could end up below Burnley 😶

[haddock22]

17 hours ago, Turkish said:

We had one and the fans hounded him out because they thought we were boring. 

We were

[Give it to Ron]

29 minutes ago, haddock22 said:

We were

Yep and I must of missed all the marches and banners.

The torchlight procession  from the Bargate, the green stewards pulling the curtains across the lounges.

Sisa and all the fan clubs bringing out fanzines.

A few fans on a noddy forum didn’t get him the sack despite what the trolls have you believe.

The Be’er Shiva home game with that all out attacking tactics to get a 0-0!

[John Boy Saint]

14 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

Yep and I must of missed all the marches and banners.

The torchlight procession  from the Bargate, the green stewards pulling the curtains across the lounges.

Sisa and all the fan clubs bringing out fanzines.

A few fans on a noddy forum didn’t get him the sack despite what the trolls have you believe.

The Be’er Shiva home game with that all out attacking tactics to get a 0-0!

Word within the walls at the time of the departure was ST sales plummeted - few phone calls to lapsed renewers had a re-occurring response of dull and boring football and not paying to watch that - this allegedly had an influence on the decision.

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, haddock22 said:

We were

People need to make up their minds then. We’re a midtable club at best. Either we have a consistent team which are hard to beat, grinds out results or we have a team like we’ve got now, on our day capable of playing some great stuff but also capable of getting a hiding. We don’t have enough money to bring in good enough players to play consistently attacking winning football

[Give it to Ron]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

People need to make up their minds then. We’re a midtable club at best. Either we have a consistent team which are hard to beat, grinds out results or we have a team like we’ve got now, on our day capable of playing some great stuff but also capable of getting a hiding. We don’t have enough money to bring in good enough players to play consistently attacking winning football

Some need to make up their mind about the manager does he have ability to get a game  out of this lot?

Is he tactically good enough with the little money we have?

Could someone make better use of substitutes?

Our black box has allegedly got his successor in the plans

I have no problem being mid table what I have issues with are the tactics, subs, treatment of some and the constant selection of under performing players with no signs of improving the coaching.

[Lighthouse]

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Either we have a consistent team which are hard to beat, grinds out results

If you’re still talking about Puel’s team, being better defensively didn’t mean they were harder to beat. If you only need one goal to beat a team, they are definitively easy to beat. We really were no better then than we are now.

[Whitey Grandad]

9 minutes ago, Turkish said:

People need to make up their minds then. We’re a midtable club at best. Either we have a consistent team which are hard to beat, grinds out results or we have a team like we’ve got now, on our day capable of playing some great stuff but also capable of getting a hiding. We don’t have enough money to bring in good enough players to play consistently attacking winning football

Those are not the only two options. I am certainly not going to pay a lot of money to have to sit through and endure your first option either.

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Those are not the only two options. I am certainly not going to pay a lot of money to have to sit through and endure your first option either.

What else do you suggest? 

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, Turkish said:

What else do you suggest? 

Something in between?

A settled team for a start. Our best team being selected for every game. A game played with intent and enthusiasm and passion and not centred on retaining possession just for the sake of it. 

Something worth paying money for.

[Lighthouse]

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

What else do you suggest? 

There is nothing to suggest. Why do so many people assume there must be some magic formula which gets one of the cheapest squads in the league into top half contention? Unless we find some money to recruit some much better players, this is where we are. Our defenders and ‘keepers are too error prone to play a resolute, defensive game; our attacking players are too blunt and toothless to go blood and thunder.

Villa fans are talking about whether they can keep Philipe Coutinho next season, we’re talking about whether we’re going to keep Shane Long.

[Give it to Ron]

4 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

There is nothing to suggest. Why do so many people assume there must be some magic formula which gets one of the cheapest squads in the league into top half contention? Unless we find some money to recruit some much better players, this is where we are. Our defenders and ‘keepers are too error prone to play a resolute, defensive game; our attacking players are too blunt and toothless to go blood and thunder.

Villa fans are talking about whether they can keep Philipe Coutinho next season, we’re talking about whether we’re going to keep Shane Long.

Are this squad good enough to beat Norwich, Burnley, Watford, Everton, ?

[Turkish]

11 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Something in between?

A settled team for a start. Our best team being selected for every game. A game played with intent and enthusiasm and passion and not centred on retaining possession just for the sake of it. 

Something worth paying money for.

A team that is solid defensively and plays great attacking football capable of getting great results but also really hard to beat. I can’t believe we haven’t tried that already. 

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, Give it to Ron said:

Are this squad good enough to beat Norwich, Burnley, Watford, Everton, ?

Well we’ve lost to all 4 of them…..

[Turkish]

7 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

There is nothing to suggest. Why do so many people assume there must be some magic formula which gets one of the cheapest squads in the league into top half contention? Unless we find some money to recruit some much better players, this is where we are. Our defenders and ‘keepers are too error prone to play a resolute, defensive game; our attacking players are too blunt and toothless to go blood and thunder.

Villa fans are talking about whether they can keep Philipe Coutinho next season, we’re talking about whether we’re going to keep Shane Long.

Which is exactly my point, there isn’t.

[Lighthouse]

12 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

Are this squad good enough to beat Norwich, Burnley, Watford, Everton, ?

In an individual game or over a season? Let me put it this way, my combined XI from the Burnley game last week would have been 9 Burnley players and 2 Saints.

[nta786]

58 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Something in between?

A settled team for a start. Our best team being selected for every game. A game played with intent and enthusiasm and passion and not centred on retaining possession just for the sake of it. 

Something worth paying money for.

What is our best team out of interest? Other than Shane Long starting yesterday I'm not sure what else to complain about? Everyone is so off the boil bar JWP/KWP.

As for the bit in bold, without looking at running stats and number of sprints etc I can't tell you if the players didn't try yesterday... what I do see though is some incredibly limited players?

If I will beat Ralph with any stick though it's probably his vision of football doesn't suit the players at disposal - he needs to adapt to what we have because a lot of these players lack that killer instinct, positioning, vision, knowing when to press and general technical ability. We don't even have as quick players up top. 

Also, Ralph's sub irk me quite a lot but he already bought this up yesterday how disappointed he was by them. 

Edited 1 May, 2022 by nta786

[gallaghert366@yahoo.com]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

A team that is solid defensively and plays great attacking football capable of getting great results but also really hard to beat. I can’t believe we haven’t tried that already. 

Goal difference is a good indicator as to where you should be in the table.

Southampton are in the bottom six  - which is an accurate reflection of their ability in the Premier league.

A two fold problem  - leaking too many and not scoring enough at the other end to compensate!

[Chez]

Went to the game and went out in town to drown my sorrows, so have not read the tread. I am sure its been mentioned, but I don't think I've seen us offer so little in terms of creativity, attacking threat and chances created against a middling team like Palace. A one two and Armstrong shot apart, did we create a single shooting chance in the whole game? Woeful. 

You can put some of that down to player performance, the absolutely terrible display by Tella - who was total waste of a shirt, the nothingness offered by Adam and Long (why on earth are we giving him starts ahead of Broja?) and the minimal threat of Redmond, but the formation and tactics must have a bearing too.

Why did we not try a different formation a some point in the game?

 

Edited 1 May, 2022 by Chez

[Give it to Ron]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Well we’ve lost to all 4 of them…..

That’s my point am making badly we shouldn’t be with this squad those defeats mainly the managers tactics and substitutes or team selection 

Edited 1 May, 2022 by Give it to Ron

[Chez]

17 hours ago, Nemi said:

Another goal from a set-piece again. I actually get depressed by how we play at the moment, it just makes it seem like scoring a goal from open-play is an impossible endeavour.

I certainly wont complain about a set piece goal. Thank god we get so many of those, as we are creating absolutely nothing.

Players and tactics need to change in the summer. If the 4-2-2-2 has been hiding our deficiencies, we need to do something about those deficiencies and find a new plan as this one does not see t be working. Not sure Ralph is willing to adapt though. He seems tied to it.

[Smirking_Saint]

5 hours ago, Turkish said:

People need to make up their minds then. We’re a midtable club at best. Either we have a consistent team which are hard to beat, grinds out results or we have a team like we’ve got now, on our day capable of playing some great stuff but also capable of getting a hiding. We don’t have enough money to bring in good enough players to play consistently attacking winning football

The problem is mate, this Ralph team that does have extreme swings in form is all well and good until we find ourselves into a season that our positive results do not outweigh our negative results, and then we are bang in trouble

He plays this high risk high reward football, its great to watch at times but struggles towards then end of the season, I suppose fatigue plays a part and not only removes the effectiveness of the press but starts to cause us more mental mistakes... Romeu hasn't been able to get around the pitch to his imposing level since probably christmas time(ish), the defence are making mistakes in and out of possession (could be a symptom of Romeus poor form), our 'press' and final third 'traps' aren't as effective

Ultimately Ralph needs to adapt or find a way to ensure that we can carry on with our primary tactics because otherwise we'll be found out and unfortunately we don't have the cash to fund depth to the levels required

[S-Clarke]

1 hour ago, Smirking_Saint said:

The problem is mate, this Ralph team that does have extreme swings in form is all well and good until we find ourselves into a season that our positive results do not outweigh our negative results, and then we are bang in trouble

He plays this high risk high reward football, its great to watch at times but struggles towards then end of the season, I suppose fatigue plays a part and not only removes the effectiveness of the press but starts to cause us more mental mistakes... Romeu hasn't been able to get around the pitch to his imposing level since probably christmas time(ish), the defence are making mistakes in and out of possession (could be a symptom of Romeus poor form), our 'press' and final third 'traps' aren't as effective

Ultimately Ralph needs to adapt or find a way to ensure that we can carry on with our primary tactics because otherwise we'll be found out and unfortunately we don't have the cash to fund depth to the levels required

This is a fair and balanced view I think. Ultimately we could employ someone like Allardyce, Benitez etc and whilst we'll be harder to beat I bet you that we'll finish on pretty much exactly the same points as we will finish with under Ralph. The extremes are frustrating because you the good times get your expectations up, people talking about Europe - but that was never going to happen with this rabble.

Ultimately there's not enough quality in the team, I'm sure the club know it. If we want to be a Top 10 club then we have to spend some money this summer and it's a real test of our new owners in my opinion. You can only stand still when you sell your 'best' players to strengthen in other positions, so let's hope this summer is the first opportunity we have to build on what we have first and foremost.

[Dellman]

The present squad was so close to top ten, even up to last Saturday a win would have put us 9th. A lot of focus has been on defensive errors and Romeo losing form or energy but my comment is --when did a forward last score a goal? That's the critical thing, no one up front  to put the ball in the net

[Smirking_Saint]

1 minute ago, Dellman said:

The present squad was so close to top ten, even up to last Saturday a win would have put us 9th. A lot of focus has been on defensive errors and Romeo losing form or energy but my comment is --when did a forward last score a goal? That's the critical thing, no one up front  to put the ball in the net

Again this could be argued that it is symptomatic of our fall off from our tactics, maybe fatigue I don’t know

Primarily we are a sort of gagenpressing team, in a way, and a lot of our goals come from forcing mistakes in the final third and we just aren’t as effective in it these past couple of months.. this means we then become reliant on standard chance creation and to be honest we just don’t have the players with the ability to do that

[Badger]

4 minutes ago, Dellman said:

The present squad was so close to top ten, even up to last Saturday a win would have put us 9th. A lot of focus has been on defensive errors and Romeo losing form or energy but my comment is --when did a forward last score a goal? That's the critical thing, no one up front  to put the ball in the net

Super Shane... well worth a new contract.

[S-Clarke]

13 minutes ago, Dellman said:

The present squad was so close to top ten, even up to last Saturday a win would have put us 9th. A lot of focus has been on defensive errors and Romeo losing form or energy but my comment is --when did a forward last score a goal? That's the critical thing, no one up front  to put the ball in the net

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. We're relying on set pieces, free kicks and defenders/defensive midfielders to score our goals. Our attack is blunt and most, if not all of our creativity in the attacking third comes through our full backs or a loan bit of work by Broja when he was on his game - says it all really.

Ralph doesn't help himself by selecting the worst of the bunch in those positions I'd have to say, but....it's a toss of a coin really, they're all a much of a muchness in the main. 

If you have a look around us in the league most, if not all teams have what I'd consider to be 'star' attacking players who make a difference. Leeds have Raphinia. Everton have Richarlison, Burnley have McNeil and Cornet who I rate to be fair. Palace have Zaha, Eze, Olise, Newcastle have ASM, Villa have Buendia, Coutinho, Bailey, Brentford have Ericksen (who has changed their season tbf). Leicester have Maddison, Barnes.

We have....Redmond, Moussa, Elyonoussi, Armstrong, Theo, Long. When you look at it like that we have no right to even be comfortable.

Edited 1 May, 2022 by S-Clarke

[nta786]

5 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. We're relying on set pieces, free kicks and defenders/defensive midfielders to score our goals. Our attack is blunt and most, if not all of our creativity in the attacking third comes through our full backs or a loan bit of work by Broja when he was on his game - says it all really.

Ralph doesn't help himself by selecting the worst of the bunch in those positions I'd have to say, but....it's a toss of a coin really, they're all a much of a muchness in the main. 

If you have a look around us in the league most, if not all teams have what I'd consider to be 'star' attacking players who make a difference. Leeds have Raphinia. Everton have Richarlison, Burnley have McNeil and Cornet who I rate to be fair. Palace have Zaha, Eze, Olise, Newcastle have ASM, Villa have Buendia, Coutinho, Bailey, Brentford have Ericksen (who has changed their season tbf). Leicester have Maddison, Barnes.

We have....Redmond, Moussa, Elyonoussi, Armstrong, Theo, Long. When you look at it like that we have no right to even be comfortable.

The counter argument is what if someone else could extract more out of the following?

(I’m with you though, not that I am holding my breath)

Or equally, would players like Eze, Olise, ASM, Buendia etc etc etc flourish under Ralph? 

Right now I find it hard to call… 

[S-Clarke]

5 minutes ago, nta786 said:

The counter argument is what if someone else could extract more out of the following?

(I’m with you though, not that I am holding my breath)

Or equally, would players like Eze, Olise, ASM, Buendia etc etc etc flourish under Ralph? 

Right now I find it hard to call… 

My opinion is that we'd be a different proposition with some pace in the attack, the likes of Eze, Olisie, ASM etc in a counter pressing side would be great. Look at the impact that the pace of Broja had when he was on form.

We do press well and the problem I see is that when we get it to the Ely/Armstrong/Redmond there's no vision, no creativity, no pace...it's just very predicable and slow. We looked better when Tella was fit and running at the oppo (he has a bit of pace) but he's 'ok' and not a world beater. Truth is that we can't rely on a young loan player to give us that thrust for the entire season. I would find it very hard to believe that Ralph sends the attackers out to do that, seeing as we are quite an aggressive side....so having more 'aggressive' attackers would make a huge difference imo.

I think most managers would struggle with creativity with the bunch we've got.

Edited 1 May, 2022 by S-Clarke

[Lighthouse]

The manager discussion is now in the Ralph thread

 

[Kingsbridge Saint]

Relegation odds slashed by 1/3 following yesterdays results. The only side I'm confident we'll finish above (as well as Norwich and Watford) is Leeds. Burnley and Everton are both likely to sail past us.

 

[John Boy Saint]

Just one question, bringing it back on topic, when, I’m guessing, Bednarek and Matteta were rolling about together on the floor first half, was it just me or did I see a Palace punch swung?

[Whitey Grandad]

I’m struggling to see where the next point is coming from but if there is to be one it has to be at Brentford surely. 

[Bad Wolf]

Just seen the goals and though I don't actively blame Forster, had McCarthy conceded those they absolutely would have been his fault.

[Nemi]

On 01/05/2022 at 04:37, Saint_clark said:

Weird complaint, most teams goal of the season contenders are "just" long range shots or freekicks.

My complaint is that our football is shit, we create no chances whatsoever and a few moments of individual quality paper of the cracks. I think it’s quite clear the point I was making and it’s quite obvious from our performances to that’s what I’m referring to. 

[Chez]

8 minutes ago, Nemi said:

My complaint is that our football is shit, we create no chances whatsoever and a few moments of individual quality paper of the cracks. I think it’s quite clear the point I was making and it’s quite obvious from our performances to that’s what I’m referring to. 

we certainly didn't on Saturday. Zero creativity. Has that been the case all season? Trying to think back.

[Hodgey]

I don’t see the new owners spending much more than previous, but a few years of ML apart that’s always been the case. I don’t think changing manager will do much, it’s the player quality that is the issue. If we can keep getting frustrated young players from bigger clubs, and get the youth production line running again we’ll progress. In truth we are still recovering from a disasterous transfer period and having national league quality players coming through our youth.

so reasons for optimism - a better transfer strategy, new owners with hopefully a more investment mind, and by the looks of it a few players who could make it in the Prem in our u18s.

all that said - can’t help but feel that next year is a crunch one. As things stand we have championship level strikers and no10s, a player who gave us a real spark last year out for most of the season, a gk who is clearly not good enough for this level, no depth to def mid, a manager who looks depressed and wants to retire, and a load of cbs who are all prone to gaffs!. We are going to have to be very clever in transfers.

[Chez]

4 minutes ago, Hodgey said:

I don’t see the new owners spending much more than previous, but a few years of ML apart that’s always been the case. I don’t think changing manager will do much, it’s the player quality that is the issue. If we can keep getting frustrated young players from bigger clubs, and get the youth production line running again we’ll progress. In truth we are still recovering from a disasterous transfer period and having national league quality players coming through our youth.

so reasons for optimism - a better transfer strategy, new owners with hopefully a more investment mind, and by the looks of it a few players who could make it in the Prem in our u18s.

all that said - can’t help but feel that next year is a crunch one. As things stand we have championship level strikers and no10s, a player who gave us a real spark last year out for most of the season, a gk who is clearly not good enough for this level, no depth to def mid, a manager who looks depressed and wants to retire, and a load of cbs who are all prone to gaffs!. We are going to have to be very clever in transfers.

Agreed. There wont be money, we have some holes to fill and our low-cost transfers will need to be very smart.

Edited 2 May, 2022 by Chez

[Nemi]

6 minutes ago, Chez said:

we certainly didn't on Saturday. Zero creativity. Has that been the case all season? Trying to think back.

I think we probably create less chances than most teams anyway. Even on our good spell we mainly just applied periods of pressure without ever troubling the goal too much.

We’ve scored 4 goals in a match once this season and most of our wins have been by one goal. Rewatch our goals and most are headers from crosses / set-pieces or shots taken in-front of the opposition defence. There not many examples of us getting in behind the defence, and when we did we were often gifted it by oppositions mistakes (Armstrong v Everton, Broja v Burnley etc).
 

Again, compared to other teams I feel like we score our goals disproportionality in a similar manner, whilst rarely creating many clear chances in a game.

[Saint_clark]

30 minutes ago, Nemi said:

My complaint is that our football is shit, we create no chances whatsoever and a few moments of individual quality paper of the cracks. I think it’s quite clear the point I was making and it’s quite obvious from our performances to that’s what I’m referring to. 

I've seen us play some absolutely superb football this season. Our problem isn't reaching high standards, it's doing so consistently.

[Nemi]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

I've seen us play some absolutely superb football this season. Our problem isn't reaching high standards, it's doing so consistently.

Fair enough, but apart from a few instances I disagree. We can pop it around nicely on a good day but I still think it doesn’t translate to enough clear chances.

Edited 2 May, 2022 by Nemi

[Micky]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

we certainly didn't on Saturday. Zero creativity. Has that been the case all season? Trying to think back.

I'm struggling to remember too many games where we could say we were unlucky to lose, I'm also struggling to remember too many where we had lots of chances on goal and really tested a goalkeeper.   Not only do we lack creativity, but also our strikers are all sub standard, snatching at, and missing, the few opportunities that we do manage to fashion.  

[Whitey Grandad]

6 minutes ago, Micky said:

I'm struggling to remember too many games where we could say we were unlucky to lose, I'm also struggling to remember too many where we had lots of chances on goal and really tested a goalkeeper.   Not only do we lack creativity, but also our strikers are all sub standard, snatching at, and missing, the few opportunities that we do manage to fashion.  

Saturday was an example. We seem to want to always take another touch, to walk the ball into the net, when a first-time shot might have better results. The only one who seemed to hit the ball first time was Adam Armstrong. There was some criticism of him that he needed a lot of shots for each goal that he scored. We never get round to taking that shot.

The only chances that I remember in the second half on Saturday were the two wild shots from JWP and S Armstrong that were as near to the corner flag as they were to their goal.

[Bad Wolf]

1 hour ago, Nemi said:

My complaint is that our football is shit, we create no chances whatsoever and a few moments of individual quality paper of the cracks. I think it’s quite clear the point I was making and it’s quite obvious from our performances to that’s what I’m referring to. 

The fact that we lost 2-1 suggests that we did create at least once chance.

[Chez]

3 minutes ago, Micky said:

I'm struggling to remember too many games where we could say we were unlucky to lose, I'm also struggling to remember too many where we had lots of chances on goal and really tested a goalkeeper.   Not only do we lack creativity, but also our strikers are all sub standard, snatching at, and missing, the few opportunities that we do manage to fashion.  

I thought the Wolves defeat at home was harsh and Norwich away too. How we didn't win against Brighton at home I will never know. Not sure we deserved to lose to Newcastle at home either.  The flip side to that coin is games like Arsenal, City and Brighton that could easily have gone the other way.

Creativity is the issue for more. I think the one game that really should have scored a hat full was Watford away, which somehow ended 0-1 to us, but having not taken our chances we might have let that win slip. We deserved the win for sure. Oh and Spurs and United away. Created a lot in both those games. Maybe both Norwich games too. All over them and quite a few decent chances. Leeds at home is another, but they were on their knees. Not too many games where we created decent chances.

[Bad Wolf]

Just now, Chez said:

I thought the Wolves defeat at home was harsh and Norwich away too. How we didn't win against Brighton at home I will never know. Not sure we deserved to lose to Newcastle at home either.  The flip side to that coin is games like Arsenal, City and Brighton that could easily have gone the other way.

Creativity is the issue for more. I think the one game that really should have scored a hat full was Watford away, which somehow ended 0-1 to us, but having not taken our chances we might have let that win slip. We deserved the win for sure. Oh and Spurs and United away. Created a lot in both those games. Maybe both Norwich games too. All over them and quite a few decent chances. Leeds at home is another, but they were on their knees. Not too many games where we created decent chances.

I've always thought the team that scores the most goals deserves to win 99% of the time. Maybe once a season you get a game where everything goes against you and circumstances beyond your control dictate the game (ie Brighton at home this season) but ultimately, it's about putting the ball in the net.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

10 minutes ago, Micky said:

I'm struggling to remember too many games where we could say we were unlucky to lose, I'm also struggling to remember too many where we had lots of chances on goal and really tested a goalkeeper.   Not only do we lack creativity, but also our strikers are all sub standard, snatching at, and missing, the few opportunities that we do manage to fashion.  

Went for a look and, according to link below:-

7th on shots per game and 7th for shots on target per game.

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/8618/Stages/19793/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2021-2022

9th on xG (1.53) and, while I was nosing, 12th on xGA (expected goals against 1.59).

https://footystats.org/england/premier-league/xg

15th on the failed to score chart, where lower is better.

https://footystats.org/england/premier-league/failed-to-score-table

[Chez]

13 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

I've always thought the team that scores the most goals deserves to win 99% of the time.

I understand the argument, but I don't agree that teams and performances get what they deserve 99% of the time. 

[Chez]

21 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Went for a look and, according to link below:-

7th on shots per game and 7th for shots on target per game.

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/8618/Stages/19793/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2021-2022

9th on xG (1.53) and, while I was nosing, 12th on xGA (expected goals against 1.59).

https://footystats.org/england/premier-league/xg

15th on the failed to score chart, where lower is better.

https://footystats.org/england/premier-league/failed-to-score-table

so basically, we are not really worse, creativity wise, than the other mid table (and worse) sides. We certainly were Saturday, and have been in recent weeks,  but not over the course of the season.

When I look at Brighton, failing to score in 9 home games and scoring only 34 goals all season, maybe our problems are not that bad. Wolves have only scored 33 goals all season. Only conceded 32 mind.

[Nemi]

43 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Went for a look and, according to link below:-

7th on shots per game and 7th for shots on target per game.

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/8618/Stages/19793/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2021-2022

9th on xG (1.53) and, while I was nosing, 12th on xGA (expected goals against 1.59).

https://footystats.org/england/premier-league/xg

15th on the failed to score chart, where lower is better.

https://footystats.org/england/premier-league/failed-to-score-table

For me, it’s the how we create chances and the type of chances we create. It’s so one-dimensional and predictable. While we manage to get some results from it when we’re in good form, when we’re not it ends up in the crap we see far too often like we have in the last few months, the start of the season and the majority of last season.

To be fair, there are some other teams that have similar problems - Wolves and United come to mind but Wolves at least have the defensive quality to get away with it while United have underscored massively. And I’d rather not watch those two teams plays either because the spectacle is terrible.