Looking at the season overall, we won only 2 of our first eleven matches and only 2 of our final thirteen. Both those runs included victories against Birmingham. With no intended reference to a radio show of the 1980s, the bit in the middle wasn’t so bad. We were awarded only one penalty all season. A shocking stat. 6 goals was enough to put you second in our goal scoring charts. That’s shocking too. 9 goals were scored by loanees. Another 6 by a player also highly likely not to be here next season. Hoedt’s goal yesterday meant he and Porteous contributed 6 goals this campaign. That’s very decent, but clearly as we all know it’s the lack of goals from those paid to actually score them that’s so glaringly apparent. We failed to score in 13 matches, while keeping 12 clean sheets ourselves.
We were not bang average, we were below average, every single stat including our final league position show that.
And yet there are Cardiff, in 12th, with 6 more points than us with -17 goal difference. So were they worse than us?
So, a 0 goal difference made up of 10 3-0 wins, 30 1-0 defeats, and six draws would see a team end the season on 36 points, solidly relegated but bang average? Talk about selective choice of stats!
A19tgg said "every single stat", but I pointed out that it's not. What the goal difference helps to illustrate is that, for example, of the 16 games we lost, only 5 of them were by more than one goal. Even in the games we lost they were typically very close and we were competitive. It's not as if we were regularly getting battered by teams who looked much better than us. It was only two games in the whole season when we were really put to the sword - away at Leeds, and the freak game vs Bristol City.
But it’s an irrelevant stat. As I said Cardiff finished 6 points ahead of us but on -17, should they be relegated? We were below average and had a below average season, it’s beyond incomprehensible why anyone would want to try and roll the hideous turd in glitter.
It was our lowest finish under Pozzo, and therefore a below average season in terms of our most recent history. I cannot see that can be denied.
Well that was a long day It really wasn't that good. We had spells of the ball but didn't do anything with it or look dangerous. Bachmaan nearly cost us with his feet, but also saved us once. His distribution is so poor & slow. Sierrialta really isn't that good, all over the place & couldn't pick out a pass at all. The number of times he was beaten by a simple 1-2 give & go was laughable. Martin's thankfully can go back to udinese. Contributed nothing & cost us a goal, simply for being too lazy to follow his man. If they need a new midfielder who just runs until tackled then I'm available next year I'm also slow & clumsy so a pretty good fit. We were done with the same pattern of play 4,5 or 20 times It was that easy for them There's a LOT of work to do over the summer. Wasn't good at all
The truth is that this is a season that won't live long in the memory, i don't need stats to tell me that!. A season of mid table noithingness that ended positively with the appointment of a manager that 100% knows the club. Looking forward to next season.
Wait, hold on a second here. Are you saying we have the Chuckles at the back and the front now? So the "to me to you" passing without any output has spread that far? Wow. Not good at all. I loved Chuckle Vision growing up and R.I.P to one of them, but if that becomes my football team as well we have serious problems.
Thanks Christ for Rotherham. Minus those two wins and I don't think our lot would have been up for a true relegation battle.
I don’t think every single stat shows we were below average. Taken in isolation having the 8th best away form gives a misleading representation that we were ok and there are lots of other stats that will indicate similar but all of which are meaningless in isolation. You’re right that 12th or 13th is the mid point position and we finished below. I still think that we were an average championship team who were never in real relegation trouble. I consider “average” could apply to a range of finishing positions somewhere in the middle of the table but just my opinion and appreciate some will think we were worse than this.
We were also lucky we beat Brum away on top of that. They had so many chances to score but a bit like us fluffed their lines. Even at Rotherham, who are a definition of 'not good enough for this level' had more than a few chances to level the scores after we took the lead. Deduct about 4 points and we really could of been in a relegation fight this season. As it turns out, the vast majority of the sides who finished below us had been pony from August onwards. It's still difficult to determine how we will do next season, but if our slide down the table has not rung a few alarm bells already for those at the top, a season of being a bottom five club surely must.
i don’t think anyone is trying to turn turd into glitter. Just pointing out that stats can be used selectively to illustrate different things. There’s not really that much difference in opinion between thinking we had an average season or a below average season. Its not totally incomprehensible or irreconcilable viewpoints.
Sorry to keep banging on about our "strikeforce" . But they really are the beginning and end of our issues . Rotherham away for example . Any decent striker would be looking to fill his boots against the divisions whipping boys . It needed a worldie from Asprilla to save our blushes that day . Bayo enthusiasts say " well, he presses well " . Which means he does his best work out of possession. If your goal threat works best without the ball when we are out of possession then .... Houston ....we have a problem.....
Healy was crap overall, Bayo has been awful on an goals ratio and the only reason Rajovic gets a slight pass is due to his first season with us he scored a fair few times, but that doesn't cover the fact the rest of his game is below par. I honestly cannot remember us having a decent front two since Deeney and Iggy. When we went up under Xisco we had Pedro and Sarr scoring most of the goals but even they found the step up to the PL a struggle. Gifton Noel-Willams would probably score some of those misses Bayo has had over the last two seasons. But even then we have had Manaj would is scoring for fun in the other league, Davis who was a total waste of a shirt everytime he was on the pitch and we know about Andre' Gray. I know we have no money and strikers can be very expensive but perhaps we can look at the lower divisions for a change. Surely we can coax a good League One striker who is out of contract for a reasonable fee to make a step up to the Championship? Scoring goals wins games, and there is a stark reason most of our goals are scored from midfielders.
Or at the very least someone who can hold the ball up in the final third and bring others into play. The bare minimum expected of a striker
The number of draws we had was above average. Our away form was above average. That said, it was overall a depressing season where the team barely got you out of your seat. More of the same to come I fear. Although, as an optimist, I have a suspicion that Rajovic, having played nearly 2 seasons without rest and no experience in England or full professional football, with rest, may be much better next season. I know, I should be slapped to bring me to my senses!
Perhaps it's not surprising that Rajovic, not unlike Richarlison, got off to a great start as he was already match-fit from playing through the summer, but then faded as the lack of a break caught up with him. Would still very much like a new striker, but hopefully he does kick on next season like Richarlison did for Everton
Of course, we can't rule anything out, but in total fairness he got off to a great start solely in inexplicably scoring goals. Every other aspect of his play was always utterly woeful, which to me makes it seem rather less likely that his trajectory will be analogous to Richarlison's.
Euros and Olympics maybe, but don’t rate our chances at Wimbledon. May get a couple of decent Udinese players if they’re relegated, otherwise we’re not splashing the cash. Fully support Tom, the best honest analytical understandable coherent post match comments of any manager/coach in the Pozzo era, but he’s got a lot to learn still and I’m not sure he’ll have the tools to do the job that Pozzo demands, ie fighting for top 6. Nevertheless Tom Cleverley’s progress with this lot is the one thing I’m looking forward to next season. That, and @Teide1 ’s excellent score prediction competition. Thankyou @Teide1 for all your hard work for this, and I wish nothing but the best for Tom next season. Come on u Orns..
Absolutely. He was awful and looked like a competition winner from day one, even as he scored 2 goals away at Coventry. Personally would rate his chances of returning a changed player in August after a couple of weeks sun as very low.
I was mildly encouraged by a couple of Rajovic’s substitute appearances recently, hoping there were signs that he could be coached into becoming a half-decent centre-forward. Then I saw that awful missed chance at Middlesbrough when he couldn’t have looked less like a striker. The only way he could possibly be an asset to the team would be if we were constantly raining crosses into the box for him from both wings, but we just don’t play like that.
Well I certainly don't think he'll be scoring scissor kicks at the World Cup! I think he did have a hot streak in front of goal, of mostly easy goals which fell into his lap, which I don't think will happen again, although his overall game has improved of late. Think we'll keep him as a late substitute option, hopefully he'll prove useful enough to nick a few late goals like up at Blackburn, and help us to see results out like at QPR and Hull
In fairness to him, we don't have a defined style of play, for all we know we might keep Sema, buy a similar right-sided player and play a type of 4-3-3
