Liam Cullen

[ivoralljack]

Congratulations to Liam on his Wales international call-up. He may or may not get a game but the experience will do him a world of good and it won't hurt his confidence either. Well done, young man, hope this will be the start of a long and successful international career.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Makes it even harder for Martin not to start him.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

With Ben Davies out through injury this gives Cabango an opportunity.

 

[ivoralljack]

With Ben Davies out through injury this gives Cabango an opportunity.

Ben might pick up a few useful things in camp. Not from Page but from his fellow defenders. Unfortunately his biggest flaw is his lack of pace and no amount of advice will rectify that. BUT, he might learn how to improve his positioning, his reading of the game, which would help him mitigate it. Similarly, Liam should regard this as an opportunity to get schooled in aspects of the game that will benefit himself and us. Whatever, all our players in camp will be exposed to a different line of thought to what Martin drills into them. It is up to these players to take on board anything that will improve their game.

 

[CroJack]

Unfortunately his biggest flaw is his lack of pace and no amount of advice will rectify that.

If you can't catch them, foul them. It's always better to foul an opposing attacker than leave him one-on-one with your goalkeeper.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

If you can't catch them, foul them. It's always better to foul an opposing attacker than leave him one-on-one with your goalkeeper.

And when you're too slow to foul or the last man ???

I think we're too used to thinking of scenarios with Fisher in goal

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Putting it into stark relief … in the Championship

Cullen: played 705 minutes, 6 goals, 118 minutes per goal

Piroe: played 3085 minutes, 13 goals, 237 minutes per goal

And yet Cullen is rarely started.

Piroe now has 5 yellows. He’s not playing against Cardiff. Finally we get to see a lineup without Piroe, Cullen at #9, and hopefully an aggressive midfield of Cooper, Whitaker and Cundle.

 

[ivoralljack]

Just had a flat shock!! Using my new phone I accidentally swiped the wrong way and found myself staring at a brief football article about Liam. It quoted his stats saying that he's scored 9 goals plus 2 assists in 30 appearances and 1298 minutes ( a goal contribution every 118 minutes). The point was made that these figures were impressive given that many of his minutes were made as a substitute. And we know often as a very LATE substitute.

Anyway, the article went on to say that three teams have been closely monitoring him and the teams are, Celtic, Middlesborough and Sunderland. Looks like they appreciate Liam's potential more than Russell Martin does. If we want to keep Liam then Martin had better start showing more faith in him else he could be off to a better club.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Cullen is keeping his minutes per goal ratio at the same rate - one every 118 minutes - now almost twice as many minutes as when I posted my numbers a month ago … and lo’ and behold we are unbeaten in that streak . A consistent finisher despite not playing in a system that is geared to his strengths.

 

[ivoralljack]

WOL finally caught up with this story today and ran it. Hope Liam's head doesn't get turned but I suppose it all hinges on how he's treated by Martin. WOL say that Liam's conversion rate of 35% is the highest at the club. This implies that for every 3 chances he gets he scores once. That is far from shabby and indicates that Martin ought to play to his strengths and get more service to him in the box.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

I can't see Middlesboro or Sunderland being head turners. Nor Celtic for that matter. In any case, we're going to be starting next season away to City at the Ethiad.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

WOL finally caught up with this story today and ran it. Hope Liam's head doesn't get turned but I suppose it all hinges on how he's treated by Martin. WOL say that Liam's conversion rate of 35% is the highest at the club. This implies that for every 3 chances he gets he scores once. That is far from shabby and indicates that Martin ought to play to his strengths and get more service to him in the box.

Against Norwich, there were a number of plays where midfield specifically looked for Cullen. The red card incident being one. The toe-tip save earlier being another. Both over the top balls, where Cullen making a blind run was clean away. Perhaps, finally, the "data-driven" management team are actually having the data explained to them.

 

[CroJack]

We have to keep both Piroe and Cullen. They are developing a deadly partnership.

 

[ivoralljack]

Rather than start a new thread I'm posting here to say that WOL have stats people that say we have a 2% chance of making the top 6 this season. About right I reckon.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Rather than start a new thread I'm posting here to say that WOL have stats people that say we have a 2% chance of making the top 6 this season. About right I reckon.

Worth a few bob.

 

[ivoralljack]

There must be hundreds of jigsaw pieces that have to fall into place for us to achieve our miracle. First piece fitted tonight as Blackburn lost their game in hand to Burnley who became Champions and well done to ex-Swans Connor and Corky who'll get medals for their triumph.

 

[CroJack]

If there were two teams between us and the play-off places, then I would say ok it's possible. But seven teams either with more points or better goal difference? No way.

Coventry need three points to be out of our reach. Sunderland, Millwall and Blackburn need four points. Actually, Sunderland and Millwall need three points simply because they have a better goal difference.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

There's no fat lady yet. We've just gone 7 games unbeaten and only dropped 2 points of the maximum ... we would have thought that impossible on March 19 when we beat Bristol to start the streak.

We just need to win 2 more games - one against WBA. Other teams are playing each other too. It's going to be wild.

 

[CroJack]

Cullen is keeping his minutes per goal ratio at the same rate - one every 118 minutes - now almost twice as many minutes as when I posted my numbers a month ago … and lo’ and behold we are unbeaten in that streak . A consistent finisher despite not playing in a system that is geared to his strengths.

Last seven games

Cullen, 431 minutes, 3 goals = 144 minutes per goal
Piroe, 625 minutes, 5 goals = 125 minutes per goal

This year (2023)

Cullen, 1000 minutes, 5 goals = 200 minutes per goal
Piroe, 1844 minutes, 11 goals = 168 minutes per goal

This season (2022/23)

Cullen, 1295 minutes, 9 goals = 144 minutes per goal
Piroe, 3772 minutes, 19 goals = 199 minutes per goal

The four goals Cullen scored in the first half of the season, when he played only 295 minutes, have vastly inflated his minutes per goal ratio. The second part of the season, when he played much more is statistically more relevant in my opinion.

 

[ivoralljack]

And many of Cullen's minutes came when he was a late sub and had little chance of affecting the game.