Oaks Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 In Lambert's first season not one player, outside of the forwards, scored more than 3 league goals. In Lambert's second season one player, outside of the forwards, scored more than 3 league goals (Bacuna - and he hasn't started 1 league game this season!) This season, not even ONE player, outside of the forwards, has managed a goal for us. There in lies part of the problem. Indeed, it's like the team is 100% commuted to keeping its defensive shape and numbers behind the ball. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krisagg75 Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 that is depressing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 When your relying on a 30 odd year old, injury prone joe cole to offer the only bit bit of guile, you really have gone to hell in a handcart. The strikers are not good enough, but neither is the midfield, the defence, the squad, the manager, the owner. We've scored 6 goals, because from top to bottom were a complete shambles. Disagree - I think our defence is pretty good, our strikers are pretty good and our midfield is ok but lacks creativity badly. It's just the way we setup or, rather, don't press/push on up the pitch that is the major problem. The gap between our midfield and attack is huge. An absolute gulf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amsterdam_Neil_D Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 When your relying on a 30 odd year old, injury prone joe cole to offer the only bit bit of guile, you really have gone to hell in a handcart. The strikers are not good enough, but neither is the midfield, the defence, the squad, the manager, the owner. We've scored 6 goals, because from top to bottom were a complete shambles. Disagree - I think our defence is pretty good, our strikers are pretty good and our midfield is ok but lacks creativity badly. It's just the way we setup or, rather, don't press/push on up the pitch that is the major problem. The gap between our midfield and attack is huge. An absolute gulf. 100% agree that the gap is the problem. It was so obvious on TV the other day, the gap is 35% of the pitch at times. It's a sign of no confidence afaik in that the defence always know it's coming straight back at em and could also be impacted by formation. The goals and lack of seems to be down to us counter punching and relying on other teams to make a mistake. Teams don't do that with us as we don't have possession long enough to **** it up in the last 3rd, we give it away a long time before then. This would be fine years ago but the overall quality of teams at the bottom has increased recently and we have and are going backwards. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 When your relying on a 30 odd year old, injury prone joe cole to offer the only bit bit of guile, you really have gone to hell in a handcart. The strikers are not good enough, but neither is the midfield, the defence, the squad, the manager, the owner. We've scored 6 goals, because from top to bottom were a complete shambles. Disagree - I think our defence is pretty good, our strikers are pretty good and our midfield is ok but lacks creativity badly. It's just the way we setup or, rather, don't press/push on up the pitch that is the major problem. The gap between our midfield and attack is huge. An absolute gulf. I think our defence is only ok because we are so defensive minded. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 (edited) When your relying on a 30 odd year old, injury prone joe cole to offer the only bit bit of guile, you really have gone to hell in a handcart. The strikers are not good enough, but neither is the midfield, the defence, the squad, the manager, the owner. We've scored 6 goals, because from top to bottom were a complete shambles. Disagree - I think our defence is pretty good, our strikers are pretty good and our midfield is ok but lacks creativity badly. It's just the way we setup or, rather, don't press/push on up the pitch that is the major problem. The gap between our midfield and attack is huge. An absolute gulf. While I appreciate your point, I don't agree. This team has tried a number of different set-ups from gung-ho, ultra defensive to zero plan whatsoever. We very rarely win, score or keep clean sheets regardless of the set ups. Sometimes you have to accept that actually, the players are pretty woeful. There is very little evidence to argue against that IMO. Our midfield, since we lost petrov, has been (IMO) up there with the very worst premier league midfields ever. Edited November 29, 2014 by Woodytom 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 2 in 2 games! 3 in the last 4! What is there to complain about?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexicon Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I think/hope Benteke will be the death of this thread. If he gets sent off or injured against Palace, I'll **** cry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Lambert seems to have resulted to ensuring defensive stability, which kind of counteracts his pre-match statements where he says we'll have a go at teams. All I know is, as a fan and spectator, we always look like we make sure we get men back goal side as much as possible. I just wish that we'd play with a bit of reckless abandonment for a game or two just to see how that works, for a change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 2 in 2 games! 3 in the last 4! What is there to complain about?! Not sure if that's sarcasm or not. 3 goals in 4 games is an average of 0.75 goals a game. If we had that average over a season we'd end up with 28 goals. Which would easily be the lowest amount in the history of the club. At the moment our goals to game is much lower than 0.75 per game and we're very much on course to end the season with such a low amount. Hopefully benteke and Cole change this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Goal scoring record under Lambert: Overall record for all league games: 1.04 goals per game Last 20 league games: 0.6 goals per game This season: 0.54 goals per game Plenty of scope for improvement, then! let's hope this starts turning round tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Goal scoring record under Lambert: Overall record for all league games: 1.04 goals per game Last 20 league games: 0.6 goals per game This season: 0.54 goals per game Plenty of scope for improvement, then! let's hope this starts turning round tonight. Just awful stats. Shows our reliance on one man and the approach we take to most matches under Lambert. I've also read we haven't managed a goal in both halves of a match since January and we haven't scored a 2nd half goal for the last 12 games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNeeUs Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Anyone have any stats as to our comparisons on goals conceded? Have we conceded more or less? Ive felt defensively we've been OK this season. Just utterly useless at scoring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 2, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted December 2, 2014 I assume we've conceded less. At the start of the season I siad we'd made a visible shift to a more defensive set up. I assume it was an attempt by Lambert to stem the flow of goals conceded that we've suffered with in past seasons and therefore struggled to win games as a result. It seemed to be working at first, even though we were way way less attacking, the early defensive displays meant we were picking up points. But we seem to have gone too much in that direction. We're not scoring any goals which is basically the opposite our problem previously (not that we were particularly blessed with loads of goals before, but you know what I mean) Lambert needs to find the balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Conceding less. Our average per game is similar to what mcleish had for the year. I'd imagine it will be over 50 goals by the end of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itdoesntmatterwhatthissay Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Some really good posts in here, hopefully we can get some games out of Cole and stay in the final third a little more. I have a question for your wise minds, seeing as Weimann is our most productive forward player and Benteke is back, would anyone favour dropping Gabby for Weimann and playing the two up top with Cole supporting. I always thought Weimann would turn good but he looks more Championship than Premiership. I do think he's far superior when he plays up top, the boy knows where the goal is, but his touch and passing don't seem good enough. Gabby is an enigma who can only be an attacking threat for a half, he's brilliant in so many ways but can ruin moves with a 30 yard sprint, with or without the ball. Thank god we still have Benteke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Some really good posts in here, hopefully we can get some games out of Cole and stay in the final third a little more. I have a question for your wise minds, seeing as Weimann is our most productive forward player and Benteke is back, would anyone favour dropping Gabby for Weimann and playing the two up top with Cole supporting. I always thought Weimann would turn good but he looks more Championship than Premiership. I do think he's far superior when he plays up top, the boy knows where the goal is, but his touch and passing don't seem good enough. Gabby is an enigma who can only be an attacking threat for a half, he's brilliant in so many ways but can ruin moves with a 30 yard sprint, with or without the ball. Thank god we still have Benteke. r.e: Cole with 2 up top; in short - yes. Agbonlahor, Benteke and Weimann are all forwards. None of them are wingers. We seem intent on playing wide men in a position that should be filled by... genuine wide players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itdoesntmatterwhatthissay Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 (edited) I assume we've conceded less. At the start of the season I siad we'd made a visible shift to a more defensive set up. I assume it was an attempt by Lambert to stem the flow of goals conceded that we've suffered with in past seasons and therefore struggled to win games as a result. It seemed to be working at first, even though we were way way less attacking, the early defensive displays meant we were picking up points. But we seem to have gone too much in that direction. We're not scoring any goals which is basically the opposite our problem previously (not that we were particularly blessed with loads of goals before, but you know what I mean) Lambert needs to find the balance. Definitely, but I will play devils advocate. We had that balance with MON; Milner and Young running the attacking counter, Gabby supporting and getting chances, Barry and Petrov spreading passes and keeping the ball and a pretty solid defence even when new names came in. (I'm aware Milner wasn't our main right back, or that I've chosen the most suited tactic, I just thought I'd example player quality) We just had much better players for the job, they gave us balance for the tactic we played, I think we often overlook that fact....we still didn't finish higher than 6th. Player for player we're not that far away, but in midfield and wide the past is a haunting reminder of how we've slid....oh btw Carew 07/08 only got 13 goals, in those days we came forward as an attacking unit. Ooops I missed Delph, I think I'm resigned to us losing him....when he plays we definitely look better. Edited December 2, 2014 by itdoesntmatterwhatthissay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Anyone have any stats as to our comparisons on goals conceded? Have we conceded more or less? Ive felt defensively we've been OK this season. Just utterly useless at scoring. Goals conceded under Lambert:Overall record for all league games: 1.66 goals per gameLast 20 league games: 1.65 goals per gameThis season: 1.38 goals per game So, yes, the defence has been tightened up this season. If you look at the difference between average goals scored and goals conceded, it is: overall -0.62; last 20 matches -1.05; this season -0.74. Conclusion: the defence this season is definitely performing better than during our terrible run towards the end of last season, but we are scoring far fewer goals, so our goal difference is seriously still deficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 2, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted December 2, 2014 (edited) Conceding less. Our average per game is similar to what mcleish had for the year. I'd imagine it will be over 50 goals by the end of the season. I would say, and I know pointing out our fixtures isn't looked on favourably by a lot of people, that our average so far this season is probably slightly skewed given the teams we've played. I'd expect (or hope) that average to go down over the next few weeks as you wouldn't expect teams like Palace, Leicester etc to put 3 past us like Chelsea/Arsenal/Everton etc Probably won't make much difference, but again I'd hope it would drop slightly in the near future. Edited December 2, 2014 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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