Not many left to play now,but if you were Malky would you still stick with the mantra of playing the same core 13 players for the rest of the campaign or would you be bold or carefree,depending on how you view our team selection and play fresh legs in the final games? I just checked some stats which for me makes it crystal clear that the latter option should seriously be considered or at least the full quota of subs brought on for the latter stages of games. Goals conceded: 0 - 15 3 16 - 30 4 31 - 45 7 46 - 60 9 61 - 75 11 76 - 90+ 16 Sorry I can't do a fancy graph but it looks worse when presented in that type of format. Now if I were an opposition Manager and going in at half time all square I would be saying to my lads save some for a final thrust in the final 15 because that is when they are at their most vulnerable. Is it really that simple for the opposition?
Covs manager said the same thing after the recent game. He told them to keep going because we've conceded the most in the last 10 mins...hey presto...they get an equalizer I think Macca being back will make a difference allowing Whitts to get forward more. We wont sit back as much (in theory) and teams wont push up as much (again, in theory). 7 important games to come so why not use the bench to the fullest. Enforced changes through injury cant be legislated for but putting that aside, we've got the fresh legs there so lets use them. The big question I guess is who the 4 subs should be? (Heaton being one) 3 strikers and no Conway v Brum seemed a little top heavy to me.
Interesting picture that paints ITIWRAN. What does the goals scored picture look like? I think one of the stats is that we've opened the scoring more times than anyone else in the league, which suggests we score earlier rather than later. That probably changed for the worse 6 games ago. We've also lost more points from a winning position than anyone else. That's probably got better in the last 6 games as we've not taken the lead (apart from coventry). I suppose the question is, should we stick with the team and formation that gets us the lead, or change the players / formation to defend the lead. MM seems to use his substitutions earlier in a game, where DJ put players on when they couldn't influence the game (never understood making a change in the 89th minute, it disrupts you as much as the opposition). However, he rarely seems to use his quota of replacements. Earlier in the season he seemed to use the same 11 for the whole game, or just 1 sub.
Just found this for the season to date [TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: left"] [TR] [TD][TABLE="class: grid, width: 626, align: left"] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD]Pld[/TD] [TD]W[/TD] [TD]D[/TD] [TD]L[/TD] [TD]F[/TD] [TD]A[/TD] [TD]GD[/TD] [TD]GFA[/TD] [TD]GAA[/TD] [TD]PpG[/TD] [TD]Pts[/TD] [TD]Rk[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Home Record[/TD] [TD]19[/TD] [TD]10[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]5[/TD] [TD]33[/TD] [TD]27[/TD] [TD]6[/TD] [TD]1.73[/TD] [TD]1.42[/TD] [TD]1.78[/TD] [TD]34[/TD] [TD]9[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Away Record[/TD] [TD]20[/TD] [TD]5[/TD] [TD]11[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]24[/TD] [TD]23[/TD] [TD]1[/TD] [TD]1.2[/TD] [TD]1.15[/TD] [TD]1.3[/TD] [TD]26[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Overall Record[/TD] [TD]39[/TD] [TD]15[/TD] [TD]15[/TD] [TD]9[/TD] [TD]57[/TD] [TD]50[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [TD]1.46[/TD] [TD]1.28[/TD] [TD]1.53[/TD] [TD]60[/TD] [TD]8[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="width: 500"] [TR] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] I think I read somewhere recently that if we hadn't thrown away games from winning positions (10 I think it said, cant remember), We'd be 10 pts clear at the top. But, we are where we are and still in with a shout for the PO's.
Maybe a bit of bravery will pay off , by that I mean changing a few players giving some a rest and using more subs during a game might pay dividends , it's a gamble though , was frustrated with the birmingham game as we had good possession but a real lack of cutting edge , my biggest worry is that teams have worked out whittingham and if the opposition man mark him then we lack a creative outlet ( my other big fear is him getting injured) . There is another stat that the team that scores first about 75% of the time goes on to win the game but that doesn't seem the same with us , really not too sure why . As this was meant to be a season for rebuilding and malky and the team have done us well so far ( IMO would have been happy to be midtable at the beginning of the season , so us knocking on the doors of the playoffs is a bonus ) think we should really go for it and change things up and see what happens , " he who dares wins Rodney "
conceded scored 0 - 15 3 5 16 - 30 4 8 31 - 45 7 11 46 - 60 9 9 61 - 75 11 14 76 - 90+ 16 10 Puting the two together, it's only the last 15 minutes we're worse off. Bizzarre Are the legs going, is the head going? 70 minutes looks like the time MM should be looking to change things.
Just to complete the stats [TABLE="class: grid, width: 300, align: left"] [TR] [TD][TABLE="class: grid, width: 378, align: left"] [TR] [TD="colspan: 2"]Points Gained[/TD] [TD="colspan: 2"]Points Lost[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Win When Losing[/TD] [TD]1[/TD] [TD]Lose When Winning[/TD] [TD]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Draw When Losing[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]Draw When Winning[/TD] [TD]8[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Points Gained[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [TD]Points Lost[/TD] [TD]25[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Rank[/TD] [TD]19[/TD] [TD]Rank[/TD] [TD]23[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD]...[/TD] [TD][TABLE="class: grid, width: 400, align: left"] [TR] [TD]Occurrence Stats[/TD] [TD]Occ[/TD] [TD]W[/TD] [TD]D[/TD] [TD]L[/TD] [TD]F:A[/TD] [TD]Rank[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Score First[/TD] [TD]25[/TD] [TD]15[/TD] [TD]8[/TD] [TD]2[/TD] [TD]49:29:00[/TD] [TD]15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Opp Scores First[/TD] [TD]10[/TD] [TD]0[/TD] [TD]3[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [TD]08:21[/TD] [TD]19[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Clean Sheet[/TD] [TD]11[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]0[/TD] [TD]11:00[/TD] [TD]20[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Fail To Score[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [TD]0[/TD] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]3[/TD] [TD]00:08[/TD] [TD]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
I'm not saying it's the reason for our recent dip in form but looking back to our 9 league games unbeaten around October/November two omisions from that winning formula are Kiss and Conway.We currently lack a physical presence in midfield and we lack width.
Agree with that I know Kiss has been ill recently but is back in training so may feature on Sat. Conway though, I have no idea whats going on there.
if i was playing with this team on fifa, pretty much a flat midfield 5 with miller isolated up front, even i would struggle. you need pace on the wings and either 2 up front or a midfielder who gets forwards once the ball is up front.....the midfield at the moment is too one dimensional, they are all too similar this should have been adressed earlier......
lol..you sound like my boy Swamp. We were talking about the Burnley game at half time and he said "When I play this team on FIFA they're much better... etc" I only had to look at him the once
It is incredible though that we have ended up with a team that always looks like it is running uphill. I imagine MM is already drawing up a summer shopping list with speed underlined. Did Burke leave because of a breakdown in contract talks? Obviously it had nothing to do with moving closer to his family. Did he ask for more cash? I feel with Burke we may be about 12 points better off. (Assuming he stayed fit). He is the one guy we never replaced at all.
Hiya Bob. Time to twist for me. The results since Wembley speak for themselves and with no real signs of sustained recovery, what's the harm of changing it about? At the moment we're going backwards, so why not take a risk or two?
