I don’t think it’s so much hate: I agree with you, he worked his socks off and won some excellent fouls. But he has a habit of not releasing the pass on time and it’s not quite working.
The other thing that I think is a bit harsh is that we had to play on a Friday after playing mid-week when the other team didn’t play for a whole week. Fine if one of the matches were a cup game or we had games in hand, but I really don’t get the fixture schedule here. No excuses, of course: the players should be fit enough. But it is a bit weird.
I don't hate Cantwell. I think he's a good young player, but he's not as good as he thinks he is. He worked really hard tonight. But look at the stats and you'll see our problem 37 touches in th opposition box compared to Swansea's 14. More possession. Substancially more passes. But very little final product. This for me is why we lack goals and I think Cantwell eptimisses this problem more than any other player. How many goals has he scored this season ? With Buendia out he had the chance to step up and show he had what in takes to justify the hype. Despite plenty of effort he failed, that's not to say he won't succeed at some point in the future.
I believe Zogean King fancied a crack? Anyway, it's been a hoot but my time has come. I hereby handeth over the MDT baton
I not convinced Swansea will be in the mix at the end of the season unless they can avoid injuries to most of their starting 11. I don't think they have much strength in depth. Brentford on the other hand will.
Brentford is 19 games without a loss in the league going back to October, and Toney has 20 goals in 26 league games. Somebody has to turn them over a few times and knock them off track. We get a chance to do it at Carrow Road March 3rd.
Having seen what Cantwell could do in the Premier League, he was meant to be our "Grealish" this season - a player too good for the Championship, dragging the team to the summit. But whilst he can look great on the ball, his final product just hasn't been there. And unlike last season, it feels like he needs the rest of the team to be playing well around him to perform.
Whatever DF says, in contrast to Buendia, I don't think Cantwell has his head back in the right place. At the moment he's still playing too much for himself, not the team. We desperately need Stiepermann back at 10.
The cumulative total xG for a match doesn't tell the whole story; it's important to look at how that total is made up. Swansea's total includes the two best chances of the game, 0.23 and 0.18 respectively. Our best chance was Hernandez (70 min) rated at 0.12. Pukki's 2 best chances were both rated 0.06. Does the fact that Pukki failed to convert either chance mean that, last night, his finishing was poor?
Yes, that’s exactly the sort of thing we’ve been telling you every time you’ve cracked out the xG stats. And yes, by Pukki’s standards I do think his finishing was poor. I don’t need a statto to confirm that for me. After all, Hourihan’s goal was apparently 3% and he made it look easy.
My theory is the stars went out of alignment when Cromer lost the FA cup game and played on . We have been awful since then. Onwards and upwards. Still top so not much to complain about. We are expecting great things Zogean_king Sir
"Poor finishing" is failing to convert big chances, not failing to convert 0.06 chances. You say Pukki's finishing was poor "by Pukki's standards", but what exactly do you think Pukki's standards are? The C Ronaldos and Lewandowskis of the world aren't "the best strikers" because they regularly convert low quality chances; it's because they regularly put away big chances and play in teams which create lots of big chances for them.
Re. Hourihane, he has now scored six times in his last seven matches against us. His goal last night was typical, both of the type of goals he scores and of how we fail to learn lessons.
