477 minutes without an away goal

[Buck]

Once you have mastered not conceding goals away to thus get a draw the scoring of them will come. This was how George Graham set up Arsenal and to quote Tony Adams if we dont concede we have got a point if we score 1 we might win, but we know if we score 2 away we will win.

Absolutely irrelevant comparing us to what was probably the best defensive unit in the modern era of English football. We will concede goals, that is obvious. But if we don't score at least 1 goal in 50% of away games we are unlikely to make the play offs and we will lose most away games.

 

[BensGrandad]

Why is it irrelevant to compare us with Arsenal defensive record. Is that not one of Gus's aims to make us a better defensive unit and be consistently so and as such this is the inspiration and level we should aspire to..

 

[Ernest]

Heard some bollocks in my time but to go up with not scoring an away goal is the best, 22 away games left so say we get 15 0-0 draws to be generous which is 15 points so we then need 75 points at home to get to 90 points and promotion. So 25 home wins we need out of 23 home fixtures , I smell a slight problem there

 

[Buck]

Why is it irrelevant to compare us with Arsenal defensive record. Is that not one of Gus's aims to make us a better defensive unit and be consistently so and as such this is the inspiration and level we should aspire to..

Because our defenders are not as good as those of Arsenal! Therefore, we will concede goals. So to suggest we don't need to score away from home is, quite frankly, ridiculous!

 

[Mr Burns]

Heard some bollocks in my time but to go up with not scoring an away goal is the best, 22 away games left so say we get 15 0-0 draws to be generous which is 15 points so we then need 75 points at home to get to 90 points and promotion. So 25 home wins we need out of 23 home fixtures , I smell a slight problem there

TUt. How can one be so foolish. It's simple. We'll have to play our double point "Joker" in two of the games. It's easy really.

 

[BensGrandad]

If we draw away games others must drop points at home. We will sore the odd goal away and get a win the important thing is don't concede and don't lose.

 

[Buck]

Heard some bollocks in my time but to go up with not scoring an away goal is the best, 22 away games left so say we get 15 0-0 draws to be generous which is 15 points so we then need 75 points at home to get to 90 points and promotion. So 25 home wins we need out of 23 home fixtures , I smell a slight problem there

 

[Foolg]

If we draw away games others must drop points at home. We will sore the odd goal away and get a win the important thing is don't concede and don't lose.

It's just been pointed out to you above. Draw away games gives us 22 points away from home, so you need 60 odd points at home minimum.

That's 20 wins, 3 defeats. Not a single team in the division will get anywhere near that this season. Bonkers.

 

[BensGrandad]

Because our defenders are not as good as those of Arsenal! Therefore, we will concede goals. So to suggest we don't need to score away from home is, quite frankly, ridiculous!

Granted but this must be the aim of the players to reach those levels which came about by the coaching of Don Howe as they were nearly all low grade players when Arsenal bought them, so why cant Tanno do the same.

 

[Mowgli]

That's what I'm doiong, as apart from fitness and sharpness, pre-season games mean f*** all. I can't remember the last time we got three points for winning a pre-season match.

I wasn't at Hull, one of the first games I've missed this year, and it was encourging to hear the feedback, but we still lost and now its 3 wins in 24 away from home.

18 shots and just 4 on target, would suggest we are having trouble breaking a side down, and that is the route of my moans. You knock the ball around the defence, you allow the other side to put 11 men behind the ball, and there's not many teams around, that can break that sort of defence down. We certainly can't! And however you want to look at it, and try and put it down to moaners on NSC or being negative, our shots on target and goal ratio does appear to back that up!

Please stop talking and judging then. CMS hit the bar, Barnes Noone and Dicker all went so close that on another day we would have scored 4 or 5 easily and if we carry on playing in away games like we did yesterday (I went to Hull) then we WILL pick up a lot more point son the road than last season. This season is only 90 minutes old FFS give it a rest.

 

[Ernest]

Granted but this must be the aim of the players to reach those levels which came about by the coaching of Don Howe as they were nearly all low grade players when Arsenal bought them, so why cant Tanno do the same.

Football has changed since the days of George Graham

 

[Acker79]

That's what I'm doiong, as apart from fitness and sharpness, pre-season games mean f*** all. I can't remember the last time we got three points for winning a pre-season match.

I wasn't at Hull, one of the first games I've missed this year, and it was encourging to hear the feedback, but we still lost and now its 3 wins in 24 away from home.

18 shots and just 4 on target, would suggest we are having trouble breaking a side down, and that is the route of my moans. You knock the ball around the defence, you allow the other side to put 11 men behind the ball, and there's not many teams around, that can break that sort of defence down. We certainly can't! And however you want to look at it, and try and put it down to moaners on NSC or being negative, our shots on target and goal ratio does appear to back that up!

Aren't those stats? I thought you didn't do stats?

Seriously, I disagree with your conclusion from the stats. Getting 18 shots shows a massive improvement on last season when we averaged fractionally over 8 shots per game. In fact, 18 equals the most shots we had in any league game last season (Burnley). (Last season, burnley had the highest shots average of any team in our division 12.35 - no one else averaged over 12).

Surely that sort of shots counts, coupled with the positive views of people who actually watched the match (I am not one of them), seem to suggest we didn't have a problem with them getting eleven men behind the ball and forcing us to do the impossible to break them down. We were getting the shots in.

The problem with yesterday's game was the finishing. According to espnsoccernet, CMS had 5 shots and got one on target, and while barnes did better with 2 on target from 4 shots, but those on target shots of barnes lacked any power or bite (according to the radio commentator).

When the problem is finishing and one of the two biggest culprits has been out injured for the past 9 games and the other has been moved around (in pre-season he was used on the left and up front, apparently, and v swindon he was on the right (not sure where he played yesterday)) I think people need a little bit more perspective.

When last season's problem was creating chances, and we seem to have rectified that (albeit on the little evidence of one league game) I don't think people need to be worried just yet.

If we maintain the same same shots to goals ratio as last season, and continue to get as many shots we did yesterday, we can look forward to an average of 2.46 goals per game. Southampton topped the goals per game average last season with 1.85*.


(*That was not a serious point, I don't expect us to average that many shots per game, and I don't know if the ration will be the same this year, I was just enjoying looking through my stats, but would be cool if it worked out that way, I'm sure everyone would agree)

 

[BensGrandad]

For he mathematicians if we did that only 1 team could get more than 1 point of us. Hull City, we would get 4 off of 21 teams plus 3 off Hull so that would be 87 which would probably get us promoted if this scenario happened.

 

[Acker79]

Dicker hasn't had a goal or an assist in god knows how long. Surely you don't consider him an attacking player? He never gets forward, lacks the pace to do so, he's a sitting midfield player, much like Bridcutt but without the fight.

According to my records, Dicker has played in 28 competitive games since his last goal (v rochdale 2011)

 

[Foolg]

For he mathematicians if we did that only 1 team could get more than 1 point of us. Hull City, we would get 4 off of 21 teams plus 3 off Hull so that would be 87 which would probably get us promoted if this scenario happened.

Yes. Presuming we win every bloody home game, which is not going to happen, is it.

 

[Mr Burns]

Please stop talking and judging then. CMS hit the bar, Barnes Noone and Dicker all went so close that on another day we would have scored 4 or 5 easily and if we carry on playing in away games like we did yesterday (I went to Hull) then we WILL pick up a lot more point son the road than last season. This season is only 90 minutes old FFS give it a rest.

I know. And thatis why i said it was encourging you f***ing plank. Lets silence everyone who never went to Hull yesterday, and ban those who are not season ticket holders.

I've missed about 3 games since the end of 2011, so I'll pass what judgement I want thanks. 18 shots and 4 on target, suggests things haven't changed or are you saying we never knocked the ball around and gave Hull a chance to get 11 men behind the ball most of the time?

And and by the way the season is 180 minutes old. I know if hard to you to accept a 3-0 to Swindon, but it did actually happen, so trying to ignore it won't help.

 

[Foolg]

According to my records, Dicker has played in 28 competitive games since his last goal (v rochdale 2011)

Exactly. Which is why i'm so puzzled why on earth we are getting rid of Sparrow. Dicker doesn' get assists, he doesn't get goals, and he doesn't battle anywhere near as well as Bridcutt. Sparrow is a fighter, full of energy, and at least he'll score a few.

Puzzled.

 

[Buck]

Granted but this must be the aim of the players to reach those levels which came about by the coaching of Don Howe as they were nearly all low grade players when Arsenal bought them, so why cant Tanno do the same.

You are now moving from ridiculous to laughable! Give it up. We are not Arsenal and Tanno is not Don Howe.

Your original point was if we don't concede goals then we don't need to score any. That is total bollocks and is more likely to secure relegation, not promotion. If you can't see that then I really think you should have a lie down.

 

[Acker79]

14 teams scored more goals than us.

Only 7 conceded less than us.

But that doesn't factor in number of shots. When an attack is reliant on supply, if you judge the attack you have to put goals score into perspective of shots taken.

On a goals per shot basis, brighton were 7th best last season.


In a similar vain, for goals conceded per shot, brighton were 4th best.

How on earth did we not get promoted?!

 

[Acker79]

You are now moving from ridiculous to laughable! Give it up. We are not Arsenal and Tanno is not Don Howe.

Your original point was if we don't concede goals then we don't need to score any. That is total bollocks and is more likely to secure relegation, not promotion. If you can't see that then I really think you should have a lie down.

I believe his original point was that failing to score goals isn't as big an issue as long as you don't concede any. Don't concede and worst case scenario is you draw, and away from home that is an acceptable return.