Coventry vs Boro 1-2 (Hall, Saville)

[Old Codger 3,064]

Like most of us, I would also like to see more positive football, but there are a couple of things I would like to know..  

How long is a long ball.. 10 yards, 20 yards ?

Is there anywhere I can find if any particular player has much larger percentage than others or is it fairly even?

who paid for the beer?

 

[Neverbefore 10,941]

10 minutes ago, Old Codger said:

Like most of us, I would also like to see more positive football, but there are a couple of things I would like to know..  

How long is a long ball.. 10 yards, 20 yards ?

Is there anywhere I can find if any particular player has much larger percentage than others or is it fairly even?

who paid for the beer?

 

Who scored has everything but the beer!

Just had a brief look at the individuals stats, don't have time to go in depth and a couple of things stood out - bettinelli has the worst pass success rate in the entire league, akpom and Johnson are also in the top 30 for that unwanted stat. Akpom is also 8th for least amount of passes made per 90.

[Brunners 7,982]

38 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

Who scored has everything but the beer!

Just had a brief look at the individuals stats, don't have time to go in depth and a couple of things stood out - bettinelli has the worst pass success rate in the entire league, akpom and Johnson are also in the top 30 for that unwanted stat. Akpom is also 8th for least amount of passes made per 90.

That's because almost half his kicks go straight out of play.

[LinoJo3 3,191]

Every team will play long balls, even city. I think what gets to some people (myself included) is we set up to do it, focus on it and make it our first option.

To me that’s just not football, I know the ‘PoSeSsIoN dOeSnT mEaN rEsUlTs’ types will all pipe up here and yes it doesn’t always mean results but it does help you control a game. 
 

Id just like to see more thought to our game rather than just really primitive looking kick and rush. We DO put the odd good move together at times and for 5 minutes last night we did play a bit so we can do it. We have Kebano, Bolasie, Howson, Tav in the team who are all good on the ball so let’s use them more!

[RiseAgainst 3,793]

And yet Bettinelli retains his place, game after game. It's illogical that we've gone from Randolph to him so quickly, without any sign of the club recognising the vertiginous drop in quality. 

How bad must our reserve keepers be, or what does Bettinelli have over Warnock, to justify his ongoing presence with such dire stats and the clear lack of confidence he disseminates to his defence?

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

1 minute ago, LinoJo3 said:

We have Kebano, Bolasie, Howson, Tav in the team who are all good on the ball so let’s use them more!

That's what will often frustrate a lot of people, having players who are better with the ball at their feet and never giving it to them there. When we do, we look relatively dangerous.

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

1 minute ago, RiseAgainst said:

And yet Bettinelli retains his place, game after game. It's illogical that we've gone from Randolph to him so quickly, without any sign of the club recognising the vertiginous drop in quality. 

How bad must our reserve keepers be, or what does Bettinelli have over Warnock, to justify his ongoing presence with such dire stats and the clear lack of confidence he disseminates to his defence?

As has been mentioned a few times, Warnock seems to like him because he organises the defence. To give him his dues it's not like we've been a defensive mess all season so maybe there's some truth to that. It's just a shame that when that falls apart, we're flipping a coin as to how well he'll deal with it as a goalkeeper.

[SmogDane 4,055]

Do you think we would be in top 2 if we had Randolph all season?

[Changing Times 12,347]

15 hours ago, Redcar Rioja said:

From memory both he and Watmore played against Wednesday, against Birmingham he was taken off for Watmore (I think). It's obviously more complex than just him not playing, the ones who have played in his place haven't delivered the same or better which is more of a problem. Watmore early days looked like he was going to be special but he has tailed off. Meanwhile Warnock has removed something and replaced it with a lesser alternative.

I was referring to the games where Johnson wasn't selected, it seemed to me that Watmore was in his place.  I think the first game was way back against Derby wasn't it?

[BoroSmoggie 2,710]

4 minutes ago, SmogDane said:

Do you think we would be in top 2 if we had Randolph all season?

Not a chance top 2. We don’t score nearly enough to achieve that. Top 6? Probably. I remember when we had Randolph and he was making 2/3 unbelievable world class saves every game. Ones where you’d be like, “how has he even saved that”. By far the best keeper in the league when we had him.

It’s also probably more a reason why Betenelli looks poor. We had got used to Randolph being between the sticks for the few years before him. However, I still believe Betenelli is a pretty poor keeper, specifically at the ‘basics’, such as parrying the ball away from danger. He is capable of a worldie save though. 

[BoroSmoggie 2,710]

We have got 13 points from our last 6 away league games. Above the 2 points per game, and ultimately top 2 form. Our home advantage is killing us. If we fix that, then there’s no reason we can’t make a push for the top 6.

[SmogDane 4,055]

And we have 2 points a game for the last 5 games home and away

[Changing Times 12,347]

6 minutes ago, SmogDane said:

And we have 2 points a game for the last 5 games home and away

3 points per game for the last 1 game!!!

[Downsouth 6,327]

12 minutes ago, BoroSmoggie said:

We have got 13 points from our last 6 away league games. Above the 2 points per game, and ultimately top 2 form. Our home advantage is killing us. If we fix that, then there’s no reason we can’t make a push for the top 6.

Am content with our away form but let us all be honest no-one was expecting this drastic collapse of our home form since the New Year but the issues have been identical in nearly every game where we have lost, tactics lack of subs and playing bloody head tennis.

I am sure we were a lot more positive and more on the floor pre New Year

[AnglianRed 6,320]

5 hours ago, Borodane said:

We simply play to shithouse the other team. There is not much else to it. And there is only one man to blame for it. I've accepted that's the reality but I don't like it. I see no reason to try and explain why we play like we do. It's certainly not because of the opposition. We play like we do because that's the way Warnock sets us up. Even though we don't have striker to play that way. If that doesn't tell you something about the limits of Warnocks tactical knowhow, then I'd argue you are refusing to see it. Warnock IS the definition of hoofball. The only difference from him and Pulis is that he plays actual full backs and wingers. But the gameplay is just as dire.

The frustrating thing is that now and again we DO play good football. We show we can retain possession, pass the ball around nicely and even create the occasional fast, flowing attack.

Of course they usually come to naught because we still can't find a telling pass / cross to save our lives.

But the thing is we DO have players capable of playing attractive attacking football. But for whatever reason, we simply don't show it most of the time...be it at the manager's behest, or the opposition simply not giving us chance to.

I don't know about anyone else, but some games I do see glimpses of what could be, if only our players were utilised in a different way.

For the record I do appreciate sometimes you have to play hoofball out of necessity, but you have to admit it is pretty grim when it becomes the norm.