I struggle to believe that players, who've been kicking a ball around the organized game since they were 8 to 10 years old, have suddenly become so risk averse that they prefer a pass backwards to defenders rather than crossing the ball in the final third.
Actually, we were all wrong when it comes to crossing. Against Blackburn Swansea had 31 crosses, which is second-most so far in the Championship.
WBA against Watford 42 crosses !
Swansea against Blackburn 31 crosses.
Preston against Hull 31 crosses.
So, we have massively improved when it comes to attempted crossing but not when it comes to cross accuracy. Apart from Paterson crosses, we are pretty crap in that department. Also, we can't blame Martin for Fulton's mistake, for the fact that Wood was out-muscled for Blackburn second, and that Fisher conceded at the near post from a tight angle for Blackburn's third. Not to mention that Obafemi was awful both against Rotherham and Blackburn, that some of our players don't attack empty areas in the middle of the opposition half but rather immediatelly pass the ball back etc.
I created spider charts for both Rotherham and Blackburn games to illustrate better what I am talking about. Please, ask me if you don't understand something.
This is the only place where you will find quality shots as a metric. Quality shots is an important metric and it shows us how good one team's attackers are.
Just to remind you what
quality shots are:
- all shots goals are scored from, apart from lucky deflected shots off target
- all shots on target that require goalkeeper save or an active block from opposition player
These shots
are not quality shots:
- shots off target
- shots on target that are easily saved (weak shots)
- blocked shots on target that don't require an active block from a defender
As you can imagine,
I don't give a shit about shots and shots on target stats if they are not quality shots.
Also, my definition of
through ball is more extensive then what you can find on the football stats sites. I define through ball as any pass that bypasses opposition lines. Actually, through balls in my world are
progressive direct passes that bypass opposition lines.
Here is one example:
This direct pass from Grimes to Ntcham is a through ball because it goes through enemy lines.
With one direct pass Grimes bypasses 5 Blackburn players.
Unfortunatelly Ntcham immediatelly passes the ball back to Grimes, he should instead attack the empty area in the middle of the pitch
and with another through ball send Piroe one-on-one with Blackburn keeper. But it's easier to pass the ball back, isn't it?
Rotherham (light blue) v Swansea (pink)
Swansea (pink) v Blackburn (light blue)
Rotherham beat us at both shots on target and quality shots, and Blackburn beat us at quality shots stats. What does this tell you? Our players have been poor a) against Rotherham when it comes to scoring from chances, as well as for allowing Rotherham to create high number of high quality chances, and b) against Blackburn when our strikrrs didn't attack many crosses and our defenders made crucial mistakes. I hope Allen and Cabango will improve our defensive part of the game, and Obafemi pull his shit together.
Tomorrow I'll create spider charts for the defensive part.
