This is not a reaction to yesterday’s defeat. It was disappointing, but you can’t win ‘em all. It’s a serious question about lies, damn lies and statistics. Taken from BBC Home TeamReadingAway TeamBarnsley Possession Home38%Away62% Shots Home7Away23 Shots on TargetHome4Away6 Corners Home2Away4 Fouls Home 11 Away 15 Once again we dominated in all the important areas as we have been doing week in, week out for much of the season. This time we lost 0 - 2, in other games we’ve had narrow wins, but the dominance has never really shown in the score line. Who’s responsible for the coaching on finishing? Is coaching the problem? Is it quality up front? I’m truly baffled that we are in the relegation zone on these performances.
Just watched the extended highlights on iFollow and any neutral watching that would be truly baffled by the scoreline.
Off day for Cauley. Could have bagged a hat trick on another day, but for 2 good saves & a good block by their defenders & a couple of poor shots wide. More worrying is Chaplin, who seems to have been off the boil for a while. I'd hoped the goal he got versus Middlesbro would get him to kick on, after a bit of a drought, but it hasn't happened. Certainly looked a decent performance first half, but a calamitous goal conceded left us chasing the game & their second was a very well taken goal. Need a reaction on Saturday vs Cardiff. We have to make the most of the 3 home games in March. Blackburn will be a tough one, as they are looking very good for a playoff place.
We shoot when we have very little chance of scoring (no chance if we're honest) which boosts our shot stats, but they're not reflective of the chances we create. We don't create good chances and even when in good positions often choose the wrong option. We pass the ball for passing's sake, with no attempt to create, we simply keep possession. Pundits will argue you can't concede if you're in possession of the ball but we've proved time and again that we can and it's often when we're most vulnerable. The stats are pretty meaningless as they don't provide a picture of how the game develops, they're almost arbitrary.
To be fair, we had possession by passing it around defence and midfield without actually going forward. We had two really good chances, once inches wide, it goes in an it's a different game. Their first came from a dubious free-kick (OK we had plenty of time to defend and didn't) but if that doesn't go in, they don't score the second either which was a counter attack as you'd naturally expect. That's football.
If one or two of the chances we had did go in, then you'd get laughed off this board if you tried to point out that the statistics showing our possession dominance and shot count were irrelevant. Their first goal was a joke. Their second was in part perhaps because Aapo couldn't block their striker without getting a 2 game ban. Our own attempts on goal were awful. Our "conversion" rate - another statistic - is chronic. My own eyes tell me that though.
Imho we only have a couple of players who can shoot effectively too. Brown, Bahre, Thomas, Riztmaier all poor.
Last season we were scoring for fun. Don't know if that is a reflection of the opposition but when you're top then luck plays a big part, everything seems to run for you. With the opposite on view this season we've seen so many shots flying high wide and not very handsome, starting in the early days when McGeehan, who was a reliable scorer last year for example, was one of the main culprits. A lot of it this season then becomes bad luck, we have double the possession, shots, corners etc but we can't score for toffee. It would help if we had some decent strikers as I still think we are so very lightweight. Also look at Mowatt, some of his goals last year were fantastic. This time he looks dreadful (but isn't really). Leeds yesterday started off with a flukey goal. We don't seem to get those. We see our conversion rate is poor every game, so it doesn't surprise me the stats back it up.
The ten minutes of highlights on Sky Football showed we dominated but we never looked like scoring with how many dreadful long distance attempts we had. Our best chance was Woodrow straight at the goalie who saved it in a way that made the attempt look better than it was.
Well it’s patently important that the final score is what creates the league table. Its obvious that other statistics can be very informative (otherwise there’d be no point in any statistical analysis, and that’s patently untrue).
Every paper I have looked at today shows their keeper being the MOM through the number of points awarded. The report in the Mirror says that if hadn't have been for Brazilian keeper Rafael Cabral we could easily have scored three or four times. Strubers observation was that having recorded three wins in ten days, tiredness had taken its toll saying " the battery was low, we were not ready for the fight."
The stats are pretty meaningless on this occasion. We were very poor. Passing was atrocious, and several key players were below par. How Ritzmaier is keeping Dougall on the bench I can’t fathom.
I barely noticed Ritzmaier to be honest. Definitely a case of Struber wanting to shoe horn his signing into the team. He may well improve but in our current situation we haven’t got time to wait. Not a starter for me at the moment.
When I look at our stats all I ever think of is the Liverpool & Arsenal teams that continuously out scored every team with their stats except scoring goals. Both were cited as trying to over complicate it by trying to pass the ball into the net instead of sometimes shooting. We are of course the opposite where we shoot from all angles. Last season I thought it was a deliberate policy due to quality of most keepers, but that can’t be same again surely.
I noticed him give the ball away about the first six times he touched it! All this thread proves to me is the veracity of the phrase about 'lies, damned lies and statistics'. At no point did I feel we were in the game with a chance of winning it, it felt more like Reading were coasting and almost got caught with their pants down at 1-0. What was most worrying to be honest, given the number of big physical sides we still have to play, is how easily, other than Mowatt (who burgled a lot of ball from them but it wasn't used well or he shot wildly), our midfielders were all brushed aside in tackles like taking candy off babies.
i certainly agree, regarding the physicality of the performance i doubt reading have had an easier day this season. As for the stats they mask a very poor performance.
