How does it allow for teams that set up not to concede, rather than score. Us for example
Fourth best striker in the division in 19/20 under Flynn in terms of aerial duels won.
Interesting to see that stat not as high when playing for the more possession based FGR, but still pretty respectable.
From the eye test, he certainly seems to be more than adequate in terms of both holding off defenders and winning initial flick ons.
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Nope, everything was incorrect, but all you are going to do is wriggle and backslide - so we move on…
I’ve already given my thoughts on the Colchester game.
Generally speaking, I was very happy when Flynn was appointed. I hoped he would arrest our decline, get us a cup run, and I knew we would be set up as difficult to beat, and probably quite ugly to watch. All of that has come to pass, absolutely fine. The loss of Danny Johnson, who is literally the type of striker that will score goals feeding off scraps in an ugly defensive set-up like ours is MASSIVE. There were some very blase posts on here about how we wouldn’t miss him etc etc. Flynn’s got a huge problem to solve to get goals out of this team, we need a huge improvement in set-piece delivery, and we need better - or should that be some - service and support for the strikers from both the wing-backs and midfield as I described further up the thread. Watching the likes of Low hump 70 yard diagonal punts into opposition no mans land, in the hope that Knowles might just be somewhere in the vicinity, is simply going to result in many more perfomances and results like the ones of late. And that’s been the biggest problem with Flynn so far. 12 months in, and I still have no idea what the style or plan is.
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No surprise he won more playing for Flynn’s Newport compared to Mark Coopers FGR….I haven’t looked but I wonder where he was with % of header won?
There you go. It wasn’t that hard even if you don’t really do much detail, and I wouldn’t even disagree with much of what you’ve said. Happy days.
No the detail around the dates or the season wasn’t accurate, but I did t think it was relevant to the point I was making (so I didn’t go back and check them), which in case you forget was simply that in football the performance levels sometimes don’t alter that much despite the fact that the outcomes (ie results) over the course of a season, do.
But as you say, we move on….in terms of your thoughts on Walsalls performances / strategy I think we probably agree to a degree.
Irrespective of that it still shows that he’s decent in the air though, as he’s capable of winning a significant number of aerial duels throughout the course of a season.
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Possibly yes….I’m not saying he didn’t but if he won 100 headers but his % won was 15% that makes him worse in the air than someone who won 50 headers at 80% but he was just in a team that produced more headed duels….
From what I’ve seen I don’t think Matt is particularly good in the air considering his size and height.
lots of headed goals in his highlights reels.
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No it doesn’t.
Likewise the conversion rate nonsense which you backed up with a whole load of incorrect information.
If you go back to the simple fact that football is all about scoring more goals than the opposition.
If someone scores 30 goals from 100 efforts on goal, and someone else scored 15 goals from 30 efforts on goal, by your definition the latter is the better striker. But this is of course nonsense, as a striker scoring twice as many goals as his partner is clearly making a much greater contribution to the cause of winning games. Ultimately someone that has more efforts and scores more goals, could and most probably would be down to the fact that they put themselves in goal scoring positions more often, take responsibility for having attempts more often etc etc. Its exactly the same with the nonsense of passing stats. Someone that stands in the middle making pointless tippy tappy 3 yard passes might have a wonderful completion rate compared to someone that actually takes risks by passing 20 yards forwards, but goals arn’t scored - and hence games won - by making hundreds of pointless passes, but they can and often are won by someone making a “brave” forward pass during an attack which may be cut out by good defending, or fall short because of slightly inaccurate execution of a more difficult skill.
Ultimately the only stat that matters in football is the goals for and against when the ref blows for time.
Gobbledygook v gobbledygook even better than reading essays from two English Literature lecturers discussing a certain gentlemen’s ‘plays’.
Give it rest guys!
It’s 4th Division footy, played by blokes not quite good enough to ‘make it’, some teams have players just that bit better that score goals, end of.
Yeah, doing what millions of kids dream of doing for a living, playing in front of thousands of paying customers every week, with most earning several multiples of the average salary is complete failure in life 
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The constant drip drip of baseless negativity no matter what is actually transpiring 
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Not sure stats do heading ability any justice, those good in the air will always be closely marked or marked by numerous players.
Teams will set up differently, to limit chances to get clean headers or even get a run on their man etc etc.
But what it does do is offer a threat that defenders are not comfortable with, and certainly tires them down as minutes tick on.
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Does it matter , personally I prefer to see with my own eyes .
I always feel stats and figures can be manipulated and used to suit people’s opinions, especially on here!!
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Well in this instance that’s exactly what I’m saying. So far I’m not seeing a player that’s exceptional in the air. In fact so far it’s been quite poor.
He’s a real handful isn’t he? We could have a monster on our hands if we can play to his strengths, would love to see him and Doug Taylor up top for a run of games.
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Yes it does
No I didn’t. The conversion rate argument is a valid one. If a team create 5 chances a game and one season the forward converts 2/5 and the following season he converts 1/5 it’ll have an impact on results despite team performance remaining pretty constant.
Yep. But I’ve said I agree with you twice now and you continue to dig around for pointless arguments so I’m not sure if theres any point in me doing it again.
No I didn’t say that, I said that would mean he has a better conversion rate. For an intelligent guy you’re really struggling with this for some reason.
Possibly. But I’ve already discussed the nuances of football but you insisted it was binary. It’s possible that the excess goals are coming in game that are already won. 2 goals in the dying minutes of a 5-0 win when the game was won having missed several chances compared to the guy who scored the opening goal with his one and only chance….
Andy Cole was criticized his entire career for needing too many chances to score and despite scoring many more goals than others ended up with far fewer England caps than strikers who needed less chances to score a goal.
Again, possibly. They could also be in teams that simply create more chances. Whilst it’s simple to look at who scores the most and say they are the best it’s not always that binary. Sometimes a striker who misses least is the better striker and if as I know is true, you go up the levels, scoring goals becomes harder because there are less chances to score. Defenders are better and make less mistakes and so the more clinical striker who has a better finishing ratio is required. That is what will define the best.
You only have to look at the strikers that scored more goals for England than Jimmy Greaves. Rooney and Charlton scored more goals than Greaves but it took them double the amount of games to do it….does their total make them the better strikers?
DJ was feeding off scraps. He barely missed a chance but he wasn’t top scorer in the league.If some of the players with more goals had played for us, do you think they’d have scored the same amount of goals as DJ did? Does them having more goals mean simply that they are better than him?
Completely agree. See I’ve done it again. Be interested to see how you argue with me on this? However I’m sure you’ll try because we (the fan) only see the basic stats of pass completion which I agree are meaningless. However the top clubs will analyse where those passes were made from and to, how many metres were gained by playing it (progressive passing), the risk involved, the pressure they were under from defenders, the chance creation % of those passes, whether it retained possession or progressed possession or if it lead to an assist……which in turn is linked to the xG or the xA or xCC (chance creation).
Agree with it or not it’s the way top clubs work in an effort to gain marginal differences on a game decided by tiny margins. The data all goes towards trying to put yourself in a better position to do the one thing you say it’s about which is score more than you concede to win more than you lose.
It’s proven to work which is why more and more clubs are going deeper and deeper into it. Brighton and Brentford are run successfully by men who made their money gambling…they don’t gamble like we gamble they gamble on things where the data stacks the odds in favour of a win.
Anybody else bored with this drivel
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