In the league - this is the amount of minutes we've been winning a game. Doesn't even count stoppage time..... Blackburn lead 15 minutes Norwich lead 14 minutes Birmingham 42 minutes with a 2 goal lead. 71 minutes out of 900 league minutes in the lead to date. Not good enough. Not even a combined 90 minutes which indicates perhaps we don't deserve to have won a single game yet to date. We've taken the lead, in 3 of 10 games. First off, we need to take the lead more than 30%. The first goal is key to football. Second, we need to hang onto a lead and get 3 points on the board!!! Must improve this.
We had a two goal lead for 7 minutes. Birmingham put in the best performance (I didn't see the Brentford match) that we have come up against so far. If we play like we did yesterday every week we will win games.
We were in the lead for 42 minutes. A 2 goal lead for 7 minutes, a lead for 42. Must do better. They smacked the frame of the goal and had a few other good chances to score. We're all over the shop at the back.
The defence also fought off an onslaught - we were not all over the shop at the back at all, no-one was holding up the ball and we didn't keep possession, which invited pressure against a good attacking side.
Westy save your energy, you must have realised by now that you're trying to have a constructive discussion with someone who has the IQ of a banana.
Just watching Cardiff v Burnley. Cardiff should have had a pen, hit the post, had a chance cleared off the line. Those Burnley defenders wouldn't do for Town would they Westy? As for the Man United defence yesterday for West Ham's third goal. It was a shambles. We wouldn't want them at Town would we? Only Ramos and Varane will do for us.
A worrying stat, but I think if Hurst sticks with the same system and roughly the same line-up for the next couple of matches, we’ll keep scoring and, in theory, end up winning games. With the amount of changes made over the summer, it was always gong to be time before the new players adapted, particularly as we offloaded our five top goalscorers last season. Jackson and Nolan have scored their first league goals over the past fortnight, so hopefully they’ll be more confident in front of goal. The stats do not like lie though, we looked vulnerable and invited pressure on all three occasions we have taken the lead, particularly against Norwich and Birmingham. The more worrying aspect about our play is the apparent inability to kill teams off. The recent home match against ten-men Bolton really underlined that worry, for me, as it was arguably our best chance of getting all three points (on paper). Hopefully we give Middlesbrough some troubles and grab a win. This will mean reduced pressure going into the away match at Swansea.
Since you love your stats, here's one for you. Our defence have conceded the same number of goals as West Brom in 1st. What a shambles.
And they’ve scored more league goals in their last three games then we have across our entire season.
Yes, and I have been critical of our forward play all season, that's where the problem lies - AND with our lack of possession reducing the number of openings we create and inviting teams onto us, not with the defence, who can improve further, but that's not where the focus needs to be right now.
Simple side foot passes that go astray and put us under pressure are happening all too frequently, if we are going to get this side functioning as a team we have to get the basics right before we can progress, I really hope we are able to achieve this but I see no prospect of it yet.
It's not any worse than it was under the previous incumbent though and as you say we need to improve. The difference is just chance creation and finishing.
With Pennington out, the defence for boro picks itself - donacien (hopefully over Spence), Chambers, Nsiala, Knudsen. However, when everyone is available, I don’t want to see Pennington playing rb. Square peg in a round hole. I would rather keep donacien in and then drop 1 of the 3 cb’s (chambers would be my choice) goalkeeping position is interesting. Gerken had done ok until Saturday but he did make mistakes and doesn’t seem to have command of his area - time to bring back Bart?
They've score 25........ we've scored 8................ We've scored the joint 22nd least goals in the league....................
I see you cannot even call McCarthy by his name. Alright, if we're going to be trivial, that ' incumbent ' won games..................... This ............. has won 0%.
Evening Westlake, you haven't really talked about the attack, all your criticism of yesterday's game is about the defence, who it would appear have not done all that badly.
Alright lets discuss the attack. Played 10, scored 8. Scored 25% of our season total yesterday. Scored 2 for the 2nd time of the season. What do you want me to say?
This is the concern and I have been saying the same about it since the Blackburn match when we actually scored twice, but it was a much more positive performance and Hurst and the team need to keep working to improve the weaknesses and progressing. What I don't like is only focussing in on the tiny negatives. Hurst and the players will be watching back the video - their job is only to keep progressing (and sometimes that will be one step back before three steps forward) - but if we don't look at the positives and all the things are players are doing well then we'll soon be dead and buried.