I dunno why people talk only about United getting key decisions, it happens to plenty of other clubs too. It isn't even limited to 'big' clubs. Some teams just have a way with refs like Burnley and Stoke, I think it's something to do with their home grounds, though I've no idea what.
If we're taking it seriously, I'd say the reason Man U tend to get more pens than other sides is because they're fouled more. They're one of, if not the most attacking teams in the country. If you're attacking more and getting into the box more, even if you're fouled the same 5% of the time that other teams are then you're going to be fouled on more occassions and get more penalties. Likewise if you've got faster players it makes timing challenges more difficult so you're going to get fouled a greater % of the time. Man U tend to have fast players, Valencia, Young, Ronaldo, Giggs when he was younger, Kanchelskis, Sharpe.
this is exactly how i feel. I think every team gets the same amount. I think it's pathetic people going on about Webb and Man utd. Any neutral who watched the chelsea game should have seen that they should have had the first penalty in first half. And a red card for Cahill. Man u's second penalty was soft but in my opinion it's 50/50. They do get fouled more and they are in the box more than other teams, what do you expect? Other teams get lucky decisions but because they're not competing at the top, those decisions matter less. If you add up the fan bases of liverpool, man city, chelsea, arsenal and spurs you get a lot of people. These people can create a large consensus of negative opinion towards man u based on bias.
Am I being thick here? What's any of that got to do with prozone? Surely there's no secrecy surrounding refs giving penalties, it would be clear for anyone who keeps stats. You just...count them. Is there a link I've missed to prozone?
All prozone does is count things, anyone with access to the videofootage of the games and a spare few days could go through the various camera angles putting the information into a computer to create the stats. Most teams keep records of their players, I was playing on the popular joke that the referees often seem to be on their side to suggest that Man U were prozoning the referees and ranking them in the same way.
Brownie loved prozone didnt he, thats why he kept picking Marney because Marney is a prozone world champion
It's a dagerous game, I bet McLean is 10 times the player Koren is if you're using prozone. You'd compare him with someone like Geovanni, but even he used to track back a lot. I even remember against Man City he tracked Bellamy all the way back to our goalline and put a tackle in.
Prozone isn't just about running, it's just as much about pass completion, shooting accuracy, tackles won and every other concievable statistic. If Marney had such great prozone scores it's probably because he was better than we thought.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Brownie often used Prozone to try and justify his ****e team selections, it didn't work then, it won't work now. The fact is, that measuring how far someone runs, or how many passes they complete, tells you **** all about how good they are. As has been pointed out already, I bet that Koren's stats would be ****e, while McShane's would be great. If you run around a lot and complete loads of 3ft passes, then your stats will be great, if you amble around all game, but score a last minute winner, then your stats will still be ****e, but you'll still win us the game.
I think that ProZone would be great for reviewing games and players contributions to games and producing DVDs for players. If I was a manager I would review games for different parts of the pitch and make notes on a players effectiveness and what he did right and what he did wrong. I'd mark him up for a dangerous cross that was just missed by a striker and I'd ignore the irrelevant "ProZone passes" between team mates.
I agree, as with most measures of performance it will be useful when used properly. It just worries me when someone justifies decisions using just one set of measures.