Great article in the 'Live' magazine in the The mail on Sunday. Shows that sometimes we should stop having a pop at the managers team selection and that Mark Gower deserves his place in the team. Also explains the importance of match stats and the Prozone systems out there. Good read. http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/home/...Gower-Who-best-Premier-League-footballer.html
This statistic amazes me because the one thing about Gower that sticks with me from yesterday's game is the number of times he received the ball facing his own goal, with plenty of time and space to turn and be forward thinking / looking, he made an almost immediate pass back, which allowed United to press high-up and put the defender with the ball under pressure. I don't consider him a creative contributor in midfield ... Compared with Allen let's say. Would be very interested to see Allen's same stats.
I think all our midfield trio are guilty of an immediate backpass on occasions, when they could turn quickly and look for a forward pass instead. Some people think his corners are poor - Charlie Adam's are a lot worse. Mark Gower put in an amazing cross/volley from a high ball down the wing yesterday - superb. Shame his shooting hasn't carried on from the goals he scored against Norwich & Hull at the end of last season.
I agree with you YankeeJack. Theres a reason why at least 50% of the crowd are giving Gower such a hard time. Ive thought it myself during a game. But it looks as though thats why managers are managers and the crowd should not influence thier decision. Maybe as a crowd, people sometimes only see and remember the bad things, instead of remembering everything 22 players do over 90+ minutes.
It just shows that you can make anything you want out of various stats . Gower is doing well at the moment and long may it continue , but mark isnt the best Premier footballer in our midfield let alone the Premier league!! Do you think we will lose him to Real Madrid in January ?? Buck better get him signed up ASAP !!
I definitely have felt for a while now that our midfield should turn and look for a forward pass more often. The way we play, we do create space in the midfield, especially as we usually have the extra man 'in the hole'. When one of our midfielders picks the ball up in the middle of the park (given that there isn't an opponent immediately on his back), it would be nice to see him turn and face the opponents goal, see what's on, and if needs be, spin back round and find a full back. I love watching Barcelona because their midfield are not only aware of what's happening in front of them, but also what's going on behind them. If we can learn to play a little higher up the pitch, it will stop teams pressing so high on us, and will also give us a better platform to immediately put pressure on opposition if we lose the ball in their half. Additionally if we can make other teams play more in their own half, we'll also take more pressure off our defence when their on the ball. I know that our players are good enough to play 10 yards in the opponents half, than 10 yards in our own half. Easier said than done, maybe - but if we could do it, we could really start to hammer a few of the 'lesser' teams in the Premiership. In simple terms and for those who don't want to read my gumph - what I basically just said was, we need to add some territory to our possession. Onto the OP - Gower is part of the midfield that has earned us the most points this season. We all complain about his corners/free kicks, but we made a couple of good chances from his corners yesterday. Gower was not the weak link for us yesterday, the fact that we only had 2 natural midfielders on the pitch was what unbalanced the team and meant that United got on top in the middle. In that sense, it was a tactical mistake from the manager.
Maybe we can Swap him for Ronaldo Norway? With a sell on clause of course . Id prefer Gower tho, he doesnt dive as much
Of our 3 midfield players Gower is probably the weakest. But in saying that he has upped his game beyond where I thought he could and much respect to him for that. He can strike a ball well but his is a deep role now. I'd like to see him get up and have a few more pops at goal in open play because the law of averages states that he will get the odd goal. Some good points made here about our first instinct being to play the ball back - the safest option for ball retention. This invariably loses us impetus and is the reason we always have to keep playing through defences. They have time to regroup. It is also the reason why we so rarely set Graham free the way he enjoyed at Watford. Our play is too measured at times, almost as though we were playing chess. We need to be more explosive on the attack. RM's team was, they were far more fluent in attack than we are now because his team moved forward quickly as a team. Trouble was, as we all know, when the move broke down we were exposed and often conceded on the counter because we didn't get back quickly enough. If Buck can address this and get us attacking with more urgency, we will be a really potent team.
Does anyone think that Gower and Leon do pretty much the same job? Especially when Allen plays. Maybe we should have a more attacking player, Dobbie or Lita instead of one of them? As for which of Gower or Leon i'd drop, it has to be Gower for me, Sorry
Funny how ya can make any stat look wrong Lol !!. People seem to only remember bad passes & not good ones ... well except for the last trio of managers I suppose . Gower had some nice passes yesterday also . Alot of players had worst passes than Gower yesterday but it always Gower taking the flak it seems . I was just getting over Rangel's " lazy " part in the Arsenal goal to lose the game & WHAM !! , along comes yesterday .. maybe you should talk about him for a bit
crc- Ronaldo might enjoy the glamour of wind street so it would be easy to sell Swansea to him!! It is easy for us to say that we dont move the ball quick enough but being measured has worked ok so far, our options on the break are quite poor though,with the final pass never seeming to reach the right player. Coming off the back of Liverpool and Man utd its easier to see potential problems but when up against the more regular prem teams our problems are perhaps not as evident. we need to do better in the final 3rd i think we all know this but we are doing alot better than i thought we would ! As for Lita in the midfield, no thanks . His touch is not good enough for me. I think we need a fresh option in January, that position in midfield that can release a player hasnt been filled and im sure by bucks public courting of Josh maceachren its a position he is looking to fill ! there are pieces of this jigsaw to complete and i think the manager knows what pieces he needs, affording them is another question though !!
Norway, I was thinking of Lita as a more forward option in midfield, as when our wingers are bombing up the wing to cross, as noted by a few pundits (dont go there) , it seems as though only Graham is in there waiting for the ball. The one game we used Lita, provided us with a central target man, or plan B, that could help us
yes i understood that crc , but i dont think his touch is good enough to play in a deeper role. just my opinion but i think he is for playing up top in and around the box i dont think playing deep is his thing
It's amazing how this stat has taken on a life of it's own and is more famous than Gower himself. I'd have Gower in my team but the stat is heavily flawed. I think he created 6 chances against Wolves and 7 against Bolton (or other way round) then a couple of chances in the 25 min he was on against Arsenal. In other games figure is a lot lower but as he hasn't played as many games as others, a couple of good games carry far more weight. The stat was before the Liverpool game so after that and Man U game the average will have dropped.
Lies , lies and damn statistics. With my eyes I saw differently. I just can't believe the hype. A decent player that does some things very well but has limits which I cannot ignore.
Well you can use statistics to prove anything, but I have watched Mark Gower for far too long, to know that while he can make a very good pass, he can also throw in a howler, that can seriously cost us, did they input his blunder stats risk!................. please log in to view this image
Gower has played every game except the first 4 games of this season , the very 4 games that no goals were scored . He's played all minutes since Agustien went late in that 4th game of the season . We;ve scored 12 goals from the 5th game to now , with 3 of them goals from the spot . That leaves 9 goals from open play with only a sprinkle of 7 assists to divvy out to the players from them 9 goals . Gower has 3 of those assists , 3 times more that any other player on the team . Not bad for a adapting player whose job in midfield could change at the drop of a fellow midfielder . His mid to long range passes are our plan " B " when we get a bit confined & the short pass isn't clicking . Versatile & healthy , Gower's played a part in almost 120 out of 150 games these past 4 successful seasons , a little respect is well overdue from a few in the peanut gallery
Breezy your a star, thought I could touch your Gower sensibilities, I know how you rate him, and in fairness I'm kind of coming around to the guy before he retires!......................... please log in to view this image
I think it's just he's willing to take a risk and try the slightly more "Hollywood" pass. If Leon tried those and missed a couple of big ones, he'd be picked up on it too, but that's not his job. Only the top, top players put it on someones foot every time from 30+ yards, and Gower is doing a very good job for us at the moment. I still wish Bodde was fit though...
