I think that I may have used this analogy before in which case I apologise,but it is like a hole in one in golf.A good golfer will consistently put a three par hole on the green from the tee,but going in the hole is luck. There was a player for,I think Sheffield United back in the 70's and he was a university graduate,which was very rare.He did a thesis on something like "The role of luck in the life of a professional footballer" I can't recall his name but I think he had something to do with the PFA later.Anyone remember who it was?
Going back to defence/attack... To go one further we're 8th in the table for clean sheets (home and away): http://stats.football365.co.uk/dom/ENG/PR/clsht.html Looking who is above us in that table, all you would usually expect, only Liverpool are below us out of the top teams... And we have clean sheets against: Southampton - H Stoke - A Cardiff - H Crystal P. - H West Brom - A Sunderland - A Hull - H i.e. all the bottom teams (plus Southampton), with a 4-3 split for clean sheets H-A. Meaning we leak a lot of goals but only against the top teams. As CT has said GD only counts as 1 point if you're on equal points... We need to score more...
Good point, and agreed. It might seem odd, but despite this I still feel we need to improve the defence. Why? Because we put ourselves under too much pressure at the moment, which exacerbates problems. If we were able to relieve pressure starting at the back, it would create space and time up front, which is what is need most.
Under Lambert in the PL, City had 3 clean sheets for the whole season (a big cause for complaint back then, but few seem to remember that!). City have 8 clean sheets already this season.
I remember it well and recall posting that it didnt matter a jot as long as we got the results.Now under Hughton people complain that we are not adventurous enough.Can't win 'em all can you? Well apparently not any.
I actually think if we sort the attack out (maybe as simple as bringing in an AM) and be slightly more positive in that respect our defensive record will also improve in terms of goals conceded rather then just clean sheets. Against lots of the better sides our defence is put under too much pressure as we don't attack or keep possession enough. Saying that you can always improve the defence as well, but currently I would not have that as a priority.
http://www.whoscored.com/Articles/dTA4FhQor02gkerXswH1Og Some interesting observations made here focusing on Snodgrass (with a smattering of stats that could do with further explanation). One of the more key points reads as follows: "With 6 assists in 2012/13, he (Snodgrass) created twice as many goals as any other Norwich player, setting up 14.6% of his side's goals, a proportion only 6 players in the whole league bettered. Furthermore, the strikers then were certainly part of the reason that he was restricted to just six. Only Leighton Baines (22) laid on more clear-cut goalscoring opportunities in the whole Premier League than Snodgrass (16), who did so on average every 2.25 games. This season, he has managed just 2 in 15 appearances; one every 7.5 games. While last season Norwich as a team ranked 9th in the Premier League for clear-cut chance creation (1.3 per game), this season they are last in this regard (0.6 per game). Perhaps if Van Wolfswinkel and Hooper were provided with the calibre of chances that Snodgrass was laying on last season, their goal tallies would be greater and the Dutchman would not be considered the expensive flop he currently is."
I assume it's only people out side the club that have written RvW off as a flop. As for what they say, it's been clear that Snodgrass hasn't been nearly close to his form of last year and that has had a detriment to our chances created. But he can't be expected to be making all the chances. Our general approach play needs work in the speed and accuracy of passing and crossing. We never seem to get balls in behind opposition defences either. There are plenty of times where a wide man or a striker are looking to make that run behind but they either stop and drop back or the ball never comes. I'm not saying every ball should be dropped over the defence but it so infrequent it just makes us all too predictable.
Ah, but don't you remember Rick, it was all gung-ho, hell-for-leather, 90 minutes of excitement with kitchen sinks being thrown all over the place when Lambert was in charge. It was brilliant, never ever a dull moment and the complete opposite of the absolutely awful anti-football we play now where every single player in a yellow shirt is scared of the ball and doesn't know how to pass it forwards. I thought everyone knew that, no?
As sarcastic as your note is Tony, that is exactly how some / many of our fellow Canaries see it. Talk about rose-coloured spectacles! Some will not give CH any credit at all and I really cannot understand why.
[SUB][/SUB] I know mate, bloody frustrating isn't it!! I've actually read a few comments in the past couple of days moaning about the win on Saturday because "we left it so late" and asking "why do we always make it hard for ourselves?". However when we were coming from behind to win and scoring injury time winners/equalisers under Lambert those exact same people would have been loving all the excitement and drama!! Honestly, if we somehow managed to win a cup under Hootun I guarantee there would be folk complaining about something or other or trying to be-little the achievement. I don't care what anyone says, nobody will convince me that a certain section of our fanbase doesn't have an agenda against Hootun and have done pretty much since he came. I'm not mentioning any names and I'm not necessarily saying its anyone on here, but they definitely do exist and I personally think it's nothing short of pathetic.
I can fully understand the annoyance of people who had gotten used to the balls to the wall style of football that Lambert brought but it was never a sustainable model and those expecting us to keep it up were foolish. CH did the right thing in my opinion last season. Obviously the football could be nicer to watch but he has kept us pretty steadily above the relegation zone for most of the time he's been here. And while I would love to see us challenging in the top half it is not very realistic. Think of all the other teams in and around us like Fulham, Sunderland and WBA. All have been in the league longer than us, have bigger grounds, more money and better squads yet they are struggling just like us. Some fans seem to think we shouldn't be anywhere near the relegation zone but if anything we are still over achieving compared to many in this league.
Had a little check of this. We have had 59 rounds of premier league football under Hughton, of which only 7 of them have we, as "relegation candidates" pretty much throughout, spent in the relegation zone. Incidentally, we've never been bottom of the league.
Rob, it is only meaningless if you look for a meaning it doesn't have. To use a betting analogy: the stat doesn't have anything to say about which team is the favourite to win a particular match; it is an answer to the question "How often does the favourite win the match?".
