Yates shows he's actually on the pitch and makes it 2-0.
LUCKY LUKES DEBUT , FACUP V THE SHRIMPS
- Thread starter The Blobster
- Start date
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Lucky fucker. Did nothing all game but a hit and hope from outside the box.
He emerged from the hole he's been hiding in and the ball was in front of him so he hit it. Hope that doesn't get him in the team next week.
Cardiff down 0-4. Shame!
CroJack
Key Player
Shame it's not 5:0
Aye!!
CroJack
Key Player
But not a surprise. Wednesday are on fire under this young German manager Danny Rohl.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Williams work starts now . Let's hope he gets them up to speed for Brum next week .
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Gwion signed a short term contract with them last Wednesday
I was going to add that very point. It's not good news for us in the league if Wednesday are resurgent. Been counting on them to occupy a relegation spot. We'll have to fight to stay above them now so Williams had better get up to speed pretty quickly.
It's next Monday before the Wigan/ Man Utd game.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
So we will play Wigan then !
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Underwhelmed by the performance. We were sufficient, but at the tempo we played that’s not a compliment.
can’t help but think that our U-21 couldn’t have done just as well and played with more spark, vim and vigor.
Cullen misused yet again. Yates turned 80+ minutes of invisibility and shoddy first touch into contention for selection with a lucky hit and hope before being subbed. There were tea ladies the under stands that showed more this evening.
Clearly there are reasons for optimism with the kids but if we’d played like this against any other team in our league we’d have been spanked.
can’t help but think that our U-21 couldn’t have done just as well and played with more spark, vim and vigor.
Cullen misused yet again. Yates turned 80+ minutes of invisibility and shoddy first touch into contention for selection with a lucky hit and hope before being subbed. There were tea ladies the under stands that showed more this evening.
Clearly there are reasons for optimism with the kids but if we’d played like this against any other team in our league we’d have been spanked.
It was a poor performance against a team 49 places below us in the EFL system. That said we made eleven changes to the team that beat WBA and Williams was taking a look at what he's got to put on the field. But let's get one thing straight: someone has to disabuse him of the notion that Cullen should be played anywhere other than as the team's best finisher. Which he is! Some stats:
POSSESSION: 68-32 SHOTS: 8-2 OT: 3-0 CORNERS: 5-2 FOULS: 12-15 GOALS: 2-0
Eight, just eight attempts at goal against a team this lowly doesn't remotely cut it. And I'm sure that Williams knows it. If he doesn't then there are several thousand people who will let him know. Patience is the key for now. He'll need time to put his stamp on the team and he should be given it.
POSSESSION: 68-32 SHOTS: 8-2 OT: 3-0 CORNERS: 5-2 FOULS: 12-15 GOALS: 2-0
Eight, just eight attempts at goal against a team this lowly doesn't remotely cut it. And I'm sure that Williams knows it. If he doesn't then there are several thousand people who will let him know. Patience is the key for now. He'll need time to put his stamp on the team and he should be given it.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
I don’t share you patience … he comes in after Sheehan had been getting a tune out of the squad. He’d better continue the tune and sharpen it. We don’t need a Rooney
CroJack
Key Player
Notts County are 18th this season for shots per game. This is not a good read:
When it comes to shots per game, Sheehan is even worse. In his last six games Sheehan had an average of 9 shots per game. The Rotherham game was excluded from this count due to an early red card given to Rotherham.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
How well does spg correlate with league position
CroJack
Key Player
Teams with a high number of shots per game and a high number of shots on target per game tend to be at the top of the table. Of course, there are exceptions, such as Notts County, who are currently sixth with a low number of shots but a high number of shots on target. Mansfield and Wrexham are 2nd and 3rd respectively, and both have a high number of shots per game and a high number of shots on target per game.
Now the logical question is, how is it that Notts County have such a high number of shots on target? Well, they have one of the most potent attacking forces in League Two. It's not just Langstaff, it's also Crowley, McGoldrick and Jones. Any one of them would walk into our matchday squad.
That's why I think it is possible that the success of Williams at Notts County is largely due to the quality of his attackers and not his tactical nous.
After reviewing Notts County's statistics and watching all of their match highlights from this season, it is clear that Williams, like Martin in his first season with us, employs a three-at-the-back formation with two centre-backs pushed wide and high, and a very high defensive line. This was evident in the second half against Morecambe when we switched to a 3-4-3 formation. Wood played in the middle of the back three, while Humphreys and Naughton played out wide.
In Martins' first 18 months with us, his tactical approach resulted in conceding many goals. This was due to giving away the ball in dangerous areas through sloppy passing or being dispossessed. Additionally, our slow defenders were unable to match the speed of opposing attackers, leaving us vulnerable to counter-attacks.
This season, Notts County has conceded 9 penalties in 26 games, which indicates a panic in their defensive lines when facing counter-attacks.
They have conceded 47 goals in total:
- 7 penalties
- 11 goals conceded after giving the ball away in dangerous areas (sloppy passes and dispossessions)
- 9 goals from set pieces
- 5 from a cross and a header
- 5 from a low cross and a shot
- 1 from a failed offside trap
- the rest were goals conceded through the brilliance of the opposition.
So Williams is responsible for almost half of all their goals conceded (5 penalties given in panic, 11 after giving the ball away and around 5 after the back line has been exposed), which works out at almost a goal per game (0.8 to be exact). If we extrapolate these figures, Notts County would have conceded 37 goals over the course of a Championship season as a result of Williams' tactics. That is worse than Martin Ball.
It's true that Notts County's goalkeeper and defenders are not as good as Notts County's attackers, but without Williams' goals they would have had a pretty good defensive record, 5th or 6th in the league.
Here is a table comparing the attacking and defensive statistics of Williams (Notts County, Season 23/24), Martin (Swansea, Season 21/22) and Duff/Sheehan (Swansea, Season 23/24):
You can see that Williams' attacking game is superior to that of Martin and Duff/Sheehan, but his defensive game is even worse than Martin's in the 2021/22 season with the Swans, when we conceded a lot of goals.
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