Possibly. Alternatively, the midfielders are crap!
I think I've seen just about every minute of our league games so far this season and, to be honest, I don't remember us missing many sitters. Piquionne missed from six yards out against Wigan. Cole had a shot turned on to the post from point blank range against Birmingham. Piquionne has headed a couple over the bar. Boa put a reasonable chance wide against somebody. Barrera sliced one wide (against Blackpool perhaps?). Have I missed any? Nothing to compare with Harewood's and Balotelli's misses against us! McCarthy's air shot doesn't count because no shot on goal resulted.
So where does this high shots on goal stat come from? Simple: Obinna, Barrera and Scott Parker. All three are guilty of tunnel vision when the goal is in range. How many times have you been able to predict a Parker shot before he has even reached the ball? No matter how far out he is, no matter how many players there are between him and the goal, no matter the positioning and availability of team mates, Parker sees a red mist and has only one thing in mind. Yes he has pulled it off a couple of times but the majority have blazed high and wide.
Then there is Obinna. He makes very bad choices too. One day he will hit a shot cleanly from outside the box but how many will he miss beforehand? He is summed up by his very first shot in Claret and Blue - it nearly hit the corner flag!
And the worst offender is Barrera. This guy really is an idiot. Time and again, when he should be looking to pass, he takes a pot shot that screams wide.
Is it a shoot on sight policy instigated by Grant, or is this symptomatic of a bunch of players who are not playing as a team? When do we pass? When do we build up play? When do we cross? When do we CREATE chances?
Look at the Stanislas goal at Blackburn. Parker was in his red mist, blind to the positioning of team mates. He only had one thought, to try to dribble through on his own, to score a wonder goal. The ball broke to the superbly positioned Stanislas, but Parker didn't see him. How could he? He was running head down, focused on the ball, utterly unaware of the bigger picture.
Look at the team without Noble. Parker runs with the ball. Spector runs with the ball. Barrera runs with the ball. Dyer runs with the ball. Obinna runs with the ball. Behrami runs with the ball. Nobody passes. Nobody builds the play. It's like watching a team of under tens! It's like watching Beckham all those years ago when he thought he was playing Greece on his own. He finished the game as a hero because of that screaming last minute free kick but, that apart, he played like a headless chicken.
And we have a whole team of headless chickens!
16 comments:
I agree with you about Obinna and Barrera but they are all guilty of it. Even Piq did it in the last game when he came in from the right, did brilliantly to beat two players, had team mates square but fired over, wasting all the good work.
It's like they don't trust each other or want all the glory. Or they have some ludicrous bonus in their contracts for scoring which means that any time they get within seeing distance of the opposition keeper they try to shoot.
These things need to be worked on at the training ground. The players need to know we are not going to go anywhere trying to be heroes individually. Need to build that team spirit.
As for Barrera; the guy is beginning to seem like he seriously lacks in footballing intelligence. 9 times out of 10 he makes the wrong choice. We could have easily had someone like Eagles instead of him. Unfortunately we have imbeciles making the clubs footballing decisions.
stani once and for all will you admit we need mark noble i think thats part of ehat HF was saying in his post
Really? Do we need him?
Is that what you are saying HF?
Yes we do. And yes it is in part. That's why I say, "Look at the team without Noble".
In the home game v Chelsea Piquonni hit the bar from what must have been 2 yards with Petre Czech lying stranded at the other side of the goas!! Ok it was 3-0 at the time but the bottom line was he would still have missed it if it had been 0-0! It wa s1 of the worst misses I have witnessed in 40 years of watching football!!
Really? Why have I forgotten that? Maybe I had my head in my hands at that point!
OK then Fred.
We have played a total of 22 games and scored 26 goals in all competitions this season. 15 of those games WITH Noble in the team have brought 13 goals. Less than a goal a game.
That means the remainder 7 games WITHOUT Noble in the team have also brought 13 goals. Almost two goals a game. WE SCORE TWICE AS MANY WITHOUT NOBLE IN THE TEAM!!!
Thanks for pushing me to go find that stat Fred. I could almost kiss you!
This is a clear demonstration of the fact that you judge him on things other than football ability. Without any evidence you made the comment above and it has unequivocally been proven wrong. Now will you finally accept?
Maybe the post should be titled 'Blame Noble' !!!
Bloody hell, I've just read my match report and you are spot on. I'm going senile! Here's how I saw it at the time:
"Mind you, this being Groundhog Day, we still needed another moment of hilarious incompetence so step forward Piquionne. Surely that is the miss of the season. He was a FOOT out, there was nobody protecting the goal, the net was gaping wide, how could he miss? He hit the bloody bar. If you haven't seen it yet, watch Match of the Day and gasp."
Being creative with your stats there of course Stani. Noble has played against Man Utd's first team AWAY, Liverpool AWAY, Chelsea at home, Tottenham at home, and Arsenal away. Let's look at how many goals we scored in those games last season under Zola. That would be a total of two! Hardly surprising, therefore that the goal return from those games, with or without Noble in the team, is poor. In fact, just as last season, we have managed to score twice!
Noble has also missed Oxford (of the old Fourth Division) at home, Wigan (bottom 5) at home, Birmingham (bottom five) away and Blackburn (who have shipped 28 goals this season) away. He also missed the game against newly promoted West Brom who had lost their last three before the game at Upton Park! West Brom have conceded 29 goals this season!
We were struggling at home to Stoke until Noble came on and changed the game. That is the only time this season, apart from Wigan, that we have scored three - except when we played Man Utd's reserves! You telling Fred that Spector is a better midfield player than Parker because we have scored more goals per game with him in the team than with Parker in the side?
How many more would we have scored against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Man Utd away without Noble in the side Stani? You use of stats is crude in the extreme and it is that sort of elementary and crass misuse of stats that provoked this article in the first place!
love this blog the arguments are so quality and you ge tt osee stani be proved wrong about stuff
Take a look at the game v Chelsea HF. From memory it was about 75/80 mins. I havent seen it again since but it was an absolute howler! Perhaps you could inform me if it was as bad a miss as I seem to remember!
See above mate! It was! I've quoted from my match report!
Hahaha! Me be creative with the stats? I stated them in their simplest form. YOU are the one who has been creative, who HAD TO BE creative to HIDE the facts! It's typically Machiavellian of you.
I have said on many occasions in the past how you deliberately try to fool certain people on this site. Here you have done it again. And like night follows day, there comes Fred, headlong right into it.
I don't blame you though HF. You must have had a heart attack when you saw those stats. Immediately had to go investigate.
And who is talking about last season under Zola? There is no need to even mention it when we are comparing the stats from this season when Noble has been in and out of the side. They show clearly we score less with him in it. It is a 100% difference. How can you even attempt to offer excuses for that? 100%!!!
Noble missed the Oxford game? School boy error or deliberate LIE! He played the whole game. What is left of that point of yours now? Did you try to fool Fred there? It worked!
And your other point about him missing games against teams that concede a lot is flawed. He played against Blackpool who have conceded 29, Bolton 25, Newcastle 26, Wolves 30 and Villa who have conceded 28. Why was Noble not influential in us scoring loads if your point applies? If it has any credibility?
If that logic applies, why didn't we score loads when Noble WAS playing against weaker teams like Oxford? Surely if the effect is in one direction, it will show in the other direction too? But there was not glut of goals with Noble against those weaker teams, so your point is flawed.
And I am not saying player X did better than Noble. All I have said is that we score more goals without Noble. This is a FACT.
Man utds reserves? Really? It was well acknowledged that it was a very strong Man U team. In fact, this was a specific talking point on BBC Highlights. Added to this, our team had as many or more changes than them and we still did excellent without Noble so I'm not sure what your point is. You were the one showing off after the result how such a weak west ham side beat man U!Yes, whooops!!! Change things to suit your argument hey HF?
" Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful.... and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. " That is you HF.
Fred, you've been mugged off again. I do hope that you are not this easily hoodwinked in everyday life.
And how about actually debating too. You can't have HF hold your hand all the time. Try it, you'll learn from it. How to form arguments...the conclusions, and supporting reasons behind them.
When you get to college, make sure you do an AS-Level at least in the subject of Critical Thinking. It will help you.
mate i have more a life then pulling out major stats and twisting them like you stani we may have scored more without noble but take out the top 4 and we have conceded more take west brom scored 2 let in 2 true may have been pen but how do you know boa morte wudve been playing if noble was there and then blackpool which was 0-0 and they beat liverpool and scored twice at anfield i believe we went to anfield and got stuffed 3-0 and i believe noble was left to carry the team and was the the only tryer although HF i do believe to stay up we need to retain Parker and sell cole instead parkers value my drop but at least he runs his heart out and i noticed him and noble were working well togther
I was giving you serious advice Fred.
And it's not about 'having a life' mate, it's about being able to back yourself up in a debate. I didn't even know those stats about Noble. My opinion of him before this was formed through watching him, so I'm actually glad you made me go find them.
And it literally took 5 minutes. I used soccerbase.com. it's a good site which I'm sure HF will find useful too if he's not already using it.
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