Whilst out at lunch today I happened upon a copy of the Sun, so read the report on the City match, what interested me is that it used Opta stats to report on the 3 players for each team who covered the most distance, Meyler was non surprisingly top, but I was a bit surprised, and also delighted, to see that 2 and 3 were Long and Jelavic. Credit where it's due, a strikers' main job is to score, but with 2 up top putting in that much running, closing down an opposition's defence and tracking back it will make a massive difference to our survival bid. Good on you lads
Aye, it's pleasing to see. This would be good in the other thread discussing the strikers. It reminds me of when Campbell was here, he doesn't give defenders a second.
I think a lot of it was trying to run beyond the Spurs defence to, not often have Sagbo or Graham tried it due to lack of pace but every five minutes Jelavic or Long would pull away and make a run beyond the last man, it really stretched them.
That bodes well for the future, as it helps defences to get a breather and time to re-shape. I few times yesterday Long and Jelevic were at the Spurs defenders, which keeps the ball in their half.
That is interesting, Thanks for posting. Meyler was genuinely superb yesterday. I wished we had the 3 points our play deserved.
Interesting... I wonder how much they did cover? I thought Long was going to be number 1 to be honest. Very surpised about Jelavic but that clearly explains why the lad tired around the hour mark - not having played much recently then covering all that ground. Well played them. If your strikers defend from the front, it stops quality passes coming in and gives the defence a chance to take a breath and find their formation. Meyler did have a good game again - I didn't believe he was PL quality (same as Boyd), but both of them really are putting everything into improving and giving it 100%. All football fans love players who try hard, but I think we're a club where that is particularly true. Remember when McShane was crap? We still liked him for his work ethic - then he got decent.
Meyler and Long don't surprise me, but Jelavic being 3rd does, I didn't think he did that much running. I don't mean he didn't do any, not like Graham who always seemed to start 10-20 yards in front of our wing backs and end up 20 yards behind by the time they were looking to cross, it was more I didn't think he did much closing down compared to Long, and when we had the ball I don't remember him wasting any running. Maybe it's just at the end of his runs he kept getting the ball where Long was making a lot of runs and then the ball never came to him because the move broke down or someone else had a shot.
Got to be wrong, Huddlestone was easily top followed by Figueroa. I don't believe those ratings at all.
Thanks, those figures sound about right but I must say I'm really surprised Jelavic and Long were so close.
