Decided to look back and figure out how many points we've dropped this season in the last 10 minutes of league matches. At my count it's nine; from oldest to most recent; New – 86m (l) 1 WBA – 90m (d) 2 Cardiff - 90m (l) 1 Swansea - 80m (l) 1 Spurs - 82m (l) 1 Liverpool - 90m (l) 1 West Brom - 86m (d) 2 If we go down that's where the fight was lost. Problems with fitness and holding possession seem to have played a big role - I hope that we don't see any more, just shy of 1 in 4 games have seen us drop points in the last 10 - and that's on top of the ones we've already been out of by that time. Then looking at it in terms of goals conceded; New – 86m (l) 1 WBA – 90m (d) 2 Chelsea – 84m Cardiff - 90m (l) 1 Swansea - 80m (l) 1 West Ham – 82m, 86m Spurs - 82m (l) 1 Everton – 84m, 90m Man City – 83m Hull – 84m Sunderland – 85m Man Utd – 80m Liverpool - 90 (l) 1 West Brom – 86 (d) 2 16 goals conceded in the last ten minutes over 27 games. That's terrible.
I bow to your superior collation of stats. We absorb so much pressure due to sitting further back it's inevitable that the opposition score. Sort this out and we will get some wins under our belt.
Attack is the best form of defence. Gloomy though those stats are, and in 'defence' of the team, we've picked up 5 points ourselves by scoring in th last 10 minutes - Stoke at home, Norwich and Manchester United away.
I basically agree. If we were a bit more technical and held onto the ball more we'd spend less time "chasing" the ball while our opponents have it. We'd have more in the tank at the end of the game. We were in the same boat during Cookie and Sanchez era, giving up loads of goals in the last 10 minutes for exactly the same reason (IMO). But when we had Murphy and Dembele in the midfield and BZ up front, we had a much easier time controlling the game. I remember a game at the Cottage where we made Arsenal do all the running. But that was then; this is now.
The thing with possession and passing is that you have to do it in the opponents half to make them run around, not the way we use to do it under Jol, which was a slow build up from the back 5, which meant if they were put under pressure it went back to keeper to lump it front, or if we did eventually get it into midfield the opposition had already formed a 9 man defense.
The issue with the last 10 minutes is that we don't have any impact subs to push us forward and to keep the opposite side at bay! Time will tell!
While I understand the point you make and to an extent agree, Madness, the main problem has been that the wrong substutions have been made. And all too often seemed to have been pre-planned rather as a reaction to the state of the game. Saturday was a bit of an exception in that I really believe Felix made the last two in an attempt to influence play. However, as I said in the other thread, they were still the wrong ones. In his original post Silky makes two points. The first that we've 'lost' 9 points by conceding in the final 10 minutes and I countered that we had 'gained' 5 points by scoring in the final 10. So yes, we could/should have been a bit better off and boy how that would have helped, especially when you look at the teams we dropped points to. However his second argument about us conceding 16 goals in the final 10 minutes is even more telling. Not least because this has happened in a significanlt larger number of games. And says to me that a big contributing factor has been that the substitutions were not correct.
C58 I agree. But my point is that if we had a couple of players with that impact factor, even if they were the wrong choice might have resulted in something better. The analysis is great. Shows where we need to focus!
