Eh? How'd you work that one out? Anyway - don't particular want to argue about it. I do agree that simply lumping the ball into the box at corners/free kicks seems to have gone out of fashion and I expect there are rational reasons behind that (even though playing it short sometimes does perplex me). But 6/7 goals from crosses (I'm sticking with that figure) is certainly interesting and (I believe) not an anomaly. I don't expect that 6/7 goals in general come from crosses but it certainly hints at why people have, for a long time, considered crosses to be a particularly useful attacking tool.
I agree they are useful but not as useful as most pundits think. Davies saw Kane unmarked in the box and passed it to him. That's a lot different than say a corner where the opponents usually have approx twice as many players than you and one can use his hands
Fixed that for you! Sometimes crosses can be more considered and aimed at a particular individual, sometimes less so... (Although it's an interesting avenue to want to differentiate between crosses aimed at specific players and ones that are sent into a dangerous area or a melee of players. My first thought was "Well through balls and short, forward passes can also be less or more aimed towards a specific player...hang on - no they can't. You'd never play a through ball or a short pass without having a specific target in mind." So yeah - you certainly have identified something unique about crosses. Sometimes they're not aimed at specific individuals necessarily. Though I'd say that when they *are* aimed at specific individuals they are still crosses. For me a sideways pass from out wideish that's aimed towards a player or group of players that are in the box is a cross).
I tend to recall predicting that Janssen would be sold before the end of the summer. Got that slightly wrong but hey hum, you can't win em all.
Joey Barton hails Tottenham trio on his tweet (say what?). Dele,H and Christian. Things are looking up!
Having had a quick browse of Everton's squad following this game, it has lots of depth and yet still a few holes. They seem to have about a thousand attacking midfielders and basically no lone strikers at all. I think that they either need to have faith in Calvert-Lewin up front or risk pushing Rooney up there. It might be an idea to stick Klaassen into a central role too, as they've got lots of holding players, but not a lot of creativity. Just to illustrate my point, they could basically pick a whole side without their starters for their Europa League game: Start: Robles; Kelly, Holgate, Jagielka, Garbutt; Lookman, McCarthy, Besic, Mirallas; Davies; Calvert-Lewin. Subs: Stekelenburg, Vlasic, Lennon, Niasse. That's having left out all of their starters from our game, plus the injured Funes Mori, Coleman, Barkley and Tarashaj.