Houlston Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Its true the defence is better than this time last year but the conceded 46 to 34 paints a much prettier picture when you don't take into account 13 of those goals came in 2 games. But why wouldn't you take those 2 games into account? Perhaps I've not put that very well, I'm just saying that if you look at the improvement of 12 goals its a very dramatic change but when 13 of those goals came in 2 games the consistent improvement form game to game cant be much better? I guess a nerdy scientist may consider those games as an anomaly if it were a science experiment for example. I'm not saying we haven't improved, but in a football sense I don't think that the difference on the pitch is as great as that 12 goal swing could suggest. But if you took out our two highest games this season in terms of goals conceded we'd be on 27 goals (I think... 34 minus 4 minus 3?) so the improvement would look fine again. Anomalies or not, those games happened. The fact that we haven't had any results like that this season can't really be spun into a negative, it's testament to the defence improving that we've avoided those results. I see what you are saying but I'm honestly not trying spin a negative. When I watch us I see a slight improvement over last year but at times we are still as bad. I just don't see as big an improvement on the pitch as that goal swing suggests and I think that's largely due to those two games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted February 3, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted February 3, 2014 Yeah, but again the fact that you can pick out those 2 games as anomalies shows improvement in itself, because we haven't had them this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 The stat I find really worrying against Everton was that we averaged 2 passes before giving the ball away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwan Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We can play better than that. It's the instructions that were wrong. It's hard to play passes together when Baker can't pass and he's the swivel on the back 5 and the only options are to hoof it up to the two target men or a dangerous pass backwards to our defenders in the box. Dumb formation 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 I'm afraid I think Lambert has shown more than once that he is a master at snatching tactical relapses out of any hint that we are gathering momentum or running into form. After the way we played against Liverpool and West Brom, what the hell was all that 3-5-2 defence in depth all about? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 When has 5 at the back ever been a good formation for us? The midfield is shite enough as it is, and I really don't understand why we reverted to such a poor formation after playing so well against Liverpool and West Brazil Albion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Surprised it was that low having watched the game, but we were very poor on the ball (as per). I'm not annoyed at losing to a team in 5th. I am annoyed about surrendering and inviting them to come and score goals past us. Watched it with my mate who is a Pool fan who said to me "I've watched you against Utd, us and Everton this season, why are you happy lying down to them but will take us on?". I couldn't answer him, but did vent that we won't win many games playing like this: We need to go at teams a bit more, which Lambert has said in the past that's what he wants to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwan Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 It's stupid to play that defensively when we CAN take it to teams. It might have been two world class goals to undo us but it was coming. When you let on that many chances and have to run and chase for most of the game, then you WILL concede especially with the defenders outside of Vlaar and Bertrand. It's simple math at that point. We have to get forward, support Benteke so he's not alone. Let Delph and our fullbacks push into the opposing third. This nonsense 532 is going to kill us if we ever use it again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SikhInTrinity Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 When has 5 at the back ever been a good formation for us? The midfield is shite enough as it is, and I really don't understand why we reverted to such a poor formation after playing so well against Liverpool and West Brazil Albion. It's the last time we won a trophy, so I'd say it was a pretty good formation but we didn't actually sit back and try and defend back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 28% possession laughable really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 When has 5 at the back ever been a good formation for us? The midfield is shite enough as it is, and I really don't understand why we reverted to such a poor formation after playing so well against Liverpool and West Brazil Albion. It's the last time we won a trophy, so I'd say it was a pretty good formation but we didn't actually sit back and try and defend back then. Fair point, but it took exactly 6 months after the league cup win in 1996 for teams to work out how to completely negate the tactic, and we had a much better manager and group of players back then! Anybody who saw the 4-0 home defeat to Blackburn under Sir Brian will have that burned into their memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHV Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 28% possession laughable really Its **** embarrassing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We had less possession at Southampton and won. Only had a tiny bit more in our win against City. We came close to getting something here as well. What matters is what you do with the possession. Obviously we didn't do enough with it on this occasion but we have done in the past. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasoncb Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Can't believe he chooses such a defensive formation and then sticks Westwood in front the 3 centre backs. All he did was watch the ball get passed around him, not enough awareness of what's going around him to play as a defensive midfielder in this division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHV Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We had less possession at Southampton and won. Only had a tiny bit more in our win against City. We came close to getting something here as well. What matters is what you do with the possession. Obviously we didn't do enough with it on this occasion but we have done in the past. If you are going to play with only 28% possession then you cant play Holt up top, you just cannot replace Gabby with Grant Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumstopdogs Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We had less possession at Southampton and won. Only had a tiny bit more in our win against City. We came close to getting something here as well. What matters is what you do with the possession. Obviously we didn't do enough with it on this occasion but we have done in the past. We fluked it in both games and were dire and didn't deserve to win either game. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We had less possession at Southampton and won. Only had a tiny bit more in our win against City. We came close to getting something here as well. What matters is what you do with the possession. Obviously we didn't do enough with it on this occasion but we have done in the past. We fluked it in both games and were dire and didn't deserve to win either game. You make your own luck. We had a tactic in both games and it worked. Unfortunately it wasn't the case this time but Lambert's reaction (or lack of) to Everton's changes at half time is a far bigger problem than the possession stats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwan Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We did win those games but it would be sticking your head in the sand to not realize our huge slice of fortune against both teams, more notably City. We simply cannot continue to play like thay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumstopdogs Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 That's one way to look at it or sometimes you just get more than you deserve out of games. Horrible to watch us being completely outplayed by teams though. It doesn't have to be like this though when we're set up right we can give other teams some real problems as we have seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Clearly the only way we were going to win that game was to hope for a Delph long range effort or a Bacuna free kick Shame we couldn't even get into their half to even test the keeper... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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