Boro V Brighton & Hove Albion

[Uwe 3,545]

Mourinho's Prodige's aren't having a good weekend!!!

 

Brendan Rogers isn't doing too bad :)

[Boro Scot 75]

I think you're looking too hard....the stats don't lie - we've conceded the 5th highest number of goals in the league and scored the (joint) 5th highest. All we really need to do is to reduce goals against and our points total will rise.

 

No, I'm just looking at games, in particular at home, where we can't score more than once. That isn't good enough and is entirely the reason that we have only won three times at home this season despite the total number of goals. Stats lie all the time as it happens. Here's a perfect example of it:

 

So far this season we've played 20 games, scored 30 goals and conceded 18.

 

Lets change things a bit and say that we won 3 games 10-0 and then lost 17 games 1-0. I know how extreme that is! Our record is now 20 games played, 30 goals scored and 17 conceded. There is hardly any difference at all and yet in terms of results we'd only have 9 points and we'd have failed to score 17 times. The context makes all the difference.

 

It's an extreme example but it's not a million miles away from what has happened this season where we've scored over a third of our goals in only three games. If our attack wasn't a problem then we'd have been able to score more goals in the games I've already mentioned. The fact that we can't puts huge pressure on our defence because unless we can keep a clean sheet then we simply can't win the game. We shouldn't have to keep clean sheets to win but at the moment that is the situation we are in.

 

Again, I'm not saying that the attack is to blame, just that on balance it's both areas that are the problem. There may even be a split between home and away with defensive issues more of a problem away from home (as you'd expect I suppose) and attacking issues more of a problem at home. Of course I would like to see us keeping more clean sheets but likewise I'd also like to go into games with the expectation that we can score more than one goal. Karanka has his hands full that's for sure :(

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And with that I shall say no more!

 

We've conceded 31, not 18.

[Guest Changing Times]

Sorry mate of course you're right, god knows what I was looking at there, think I mixed up our home goals with our goals conceded somehow. Change the example to 2 goals conceded then in each game and it's still the same scenario. 30 for and 31 against as it is in reality would become 30 for and 34 against. Not a massive difference just looking at those figures in isolation but in terms of results it would be completely different. Cheers.

[Boro Scot 75]

Sorry mate of course you're right, god knows what I was looking at there, think I mixed up our home goals with our goals conceded somehow. Change the example to 2 goals conceded then in each game and it's still the same scenario. 30 for and 31 against as it is in reality would become 30 for and 34 against. Not a massive difference just looking at those figures in isolation but in terms of results it would be completely different. Cheers.

I know what you're getting at and there is something in it....I'd just prefer to see us lose fewer goals :)

[Guest Changing Times]

Mate, I couldn't agree more. The thing that is really annoying to me and I suspect to most people is conceding similar goals every week. I would take a series of gritty uninspiring 1-0 wins right now if they were on offer. Whatever it takes to get us away from the bottom three.

[2plus2 290]

I think you're looking too hard....the stats don't lie - we've conceded the 5th highest number of goals in the league and scored the (joint) 5th highest. All we really need to do is to reduce goals against and our points total will rise.

 

^