Half-term report

[Jabbawolf]

Rui - would imagine, with the Newcastle debacle, that he is in deficit with points won
Semedo - dare I say it but might as well have had Doc
Boly - been below his best, but offers a real presence from set pieces
Coady - much better in a 5
Saiss - one of our best players this season
Kilman - only see him as back up
Marcal - shame he’s not fit more often - solid on left
RAN - good going forward, naive other way
Neves - one of few players to perform better with 4 behind him
Moutinho - time waits for no man - on the wane
Donk - gets in some great positions but conversion rate woeful
Traore - showing something like the old Traore lately but needs to do it in right places
Neto - matured so much - makes you sit on the edge of your seat
Otasowie - knock the rough edges and could be a real box-to-box dynamo
Vitinha - some good cameos but needs more time on the pitch
Silva - way more expected from him than planned - give him a couple of years and he will be a player but not a starter right now
Podence - a real live-wire - a few less flash touches would make him more effective
Cutrone - should eat carrots not pizza and pasta
Raul - often out of sorts but often scored and always occupies the central defenders

Nuno - think we planned to start with a ‘better’ 5, but happened upon a 4, and it has delivered a soft defence - obviously affected by pandemic

Conclusion - more negatives than positives, hence us being much lower than we want.

 

[Nando]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1350411143311974400

That doesn't make particularly good reading for Rui so far this season.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Going through the goals:

City: Think he rushed out too rashly and left the tap-in far too easy on the one. But it's not like it was just his fault
West Ham: No blame at all (in fact kept the score down)
Newcastle: Yes, should save
Leicester: A penalty (and he saved another one)
Southampton: Semedo switching off, nothing to do with the keeper
Arsenal: Us not defending a cross, not a hope he can come for it
Liverpool: None of them his fault
Villa: A penalty
Chelsea: Not stopping a cross then Boly going with the wrong leg. Pot luck whether he saves that or not
Burnley: Don't think either of these were his fault. Comprehensive defensive failure and it's not as easy as saying "the keeper should claim that", watch them and I don't think he can
Spurs: Yes, his fault (also we shouldn't be leaving people in 15 yards of space on the edge of the box)
United: Deflected shot, no chance
Brighton: Possibly partially at fault for the first but there are bigger issues in front of him. Nothing he could do on the second or third
Everton: Deflected shot and a header in the top corner. No chance
West Brom: Two penalties and a header he's never getting near

Struggling to see how they've worked that out in all honesty as there'll be games where he's made key saves and we conceded 0 or 1, so surely the net impact needs balancing out.

I don't think he's been quite at his best but not like he's been throwing them in.

 

[redvictor]

I think Rui is suffering from the rest of the team being totally out of confidence. It's trickling down to him too. The ball needs to go through 10 players before it gets to him in fairness, but I do think he needs to up his game on crosses and corners. Ruddy is far superior in that dept, and in setting up attacks too.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Would strongly disagree on Ruddy, it's not like he's a bald Peter Schmeichel.

Plus he has played two games this season, one where he made a complete ricket for the only goal of the game, one where he had exactly 0 saves to make, so there is no sample size at all.

 

[Nando]

Going through the goals:

City: Think he rushed out too rashly and left the tap-in far too easy on the one. But it's not like it was just his fault
West Ham: No blame at all (in fact kept the score down)
Newcastle: Yes, should save
Leicester: A penalty (and he saved another one)
Southampton: Semedo switching off, nothing to do with the keeper
Arsenal: Us not defending a cross, not a hope he can come for it
Liverpool: None of them his fault
Villa: A penalty
Chelsea: Not stopping a cross then Boly going with the wrong leg. Pot luck whether he saves that or not
Burnley: Don't think either of these were his fault. Comprehensive defensive failure and it's not as easy as saying "the keeper should claim that", watch them and I don't think he can
Spurs: Yes, his fault (also we shouldn't be leaving people in 15 yards of space on the edge of the box)
United: Deflected shot, no chance
Brighton: Possibly partially at fault for the first but there are bigger issues in front of him. Nothing he could do on the second or third
Everton: Deflected shot and a header in the top corner. No chance
West Brom: Two penalties and a header he's never getting near

Struggling to see how they've worked that out in all honesty as there'll be games where he's made key saves and we conceded 0 or 1, so surely the net impact needs balancing out.

I don't think he's been quite at his best but not like he's been throwing them in.

I agree with you entirely. To be expected really when the defensive side of our game has fallen to pieces.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Would strongly disagree on Ruddy, it's not like he's a bald Peter Schmeichel.

Plus he has played two games this season, one where he made a complete ricket for the only goal of the game, one where he had exactly 0 saves to make, so there is no sample size at all.

In fairness you also said Pope was a lower premier league standard keeper which is clearly contradicted by the available statistics.
Ruddy commands his box and is more vocal . Rui was the better shot stopper. If we play with a 5 then Rui is more confident. With a four Ruddy looked better although it was only one game.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

In fairness you also said Pope was a lower premier league standard keeper which is clearly contradicted by the available statistics.
Ruddy commands his box and is more vocal . Rui was the better shot stopper. If we play with a 5 then Rui is more confident. With a four Ruddy looked better although it was only one game.

Pope is a lower end PL keeper, as much as you evidently love him.

How did Ruddy look "better" when he had by definition nothing to do? And he doesn't particularly command his box either.

 

[jd1981]

Biggest criticism I have is trying to change to much to quickly and then go back and forth again.
At the moment playing with the 3 probably gets the best out of Boly, Coady, Saiss as it does with RAN, Semedo and consequently Rui.
People were moaning last season that we didn’t kick on until the second half in games the fact is we stayed solid and drowns teams down in the end.
Need to get back to that level of resilience if some games are frustrating and end 0-0 so be it. At this time it’s about getting some points on the board and fast.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Struggling to see how they've worked that out in all honesty as there'll be games where he's made key saves and we conceded 0 or 1, so surely the net impact needs balancing out.

I don't think he's been quite at his best but not like he's been throwing them in.

Basically means we are conceding everytime someone shoots on target.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Basically means we are conceding everytime someone shoots on target.

Don't think that particularly bears itself out in reality - plus what do they want Rui to do in a game like the Everton one where they don't have any real shots of note other than the two that he hasn't got a prayer with? Generate his own?

 

[redvictor]

Biggest criticism I have is trying to change to much to quickly and then go back and forth again.
At the moment playing with the 3 probably gets the best out of Boly, Coady, Saiss as it does with RAN, Semedo and consequently Rui.
People were moaning last season that we didn’t kick on until the second half in games the fact is we stayed solid and drowns teams down in the end.
Need to get back to that level of resilience if some games are frustrating and end 0-0 so be it. At this time it’s about getting some points on the board and fast.

Solid is the watchword. We are as solid as an unset jelly currently.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Don't think that particularly bears itself out in reality - plus what do they want Rui to do in a game like the Everton one where they don't have any real shots of note other than the two that he hasn't got a prayer with? Generate his own?

Not saying it’s his fault, just saying that’s how the statistic has been generated.

For example, Villa - nothing to do, let’s in a penalty. That’s -0.25 on xG already.

Everton, let’s in 2, nothing to do with an xG of 0.3. -1.7

Brighton, nothing to do, let’s in 3 (guess xG was low again).

 

[PuntsWolf]

Basically we’re conceding from set pieces and second phases which are statically low quality chances but they are going in and giving up nothing else for him to stat pad.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I get you.

This is why keeper stats are shit sometimes, David Marshall had unbelievable numbers for Cardiff. Because the defence stopped absolutely nothing and so he had to make tons of saves a game. Didn't mean he was any good.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Same as when Hennessey was top of the saves charts for us by about 50% on the next guy. Made 10 saves but still threw one in.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Which leads on to the point that going to 5 at the back doesn’t solve our problems. We aren’t conceding goals because of how many people are in a line, it soft as shit defending from set plays, second phases and giving away neededless pens.

It’s the how we play not the what we play.

Jonny and YW have articulated it very well. We’re trying to suggest we’re playing a more progressive way, more possession, more attacking players etc. But we’re playing a half way house where we’re not maximising being defensively solid with a low block and we’re not pressing or playing high enough to look threatening in the final third with a 4. Everyone’s just too far away from each other.

So the only way the 5 works is with the low block and counter. But personally I’d just play the 4 better.

We’re making it too easy for bad teams to score. Burnley, Albion, Brighton can’t create fuck all. So stop letting them get a free ride into the final third where unlucky things can happen (penalties, deflections, set pieces, refereeing decisions, hopeful crosses). It’s not like we’ve been done on the counter once off memory (maybe Liverpool).

Need to make a decision where we want to go. Park the bus and defend in numbers and steal 0-0 / 1-0 (I don’t think this will work with the players we have), or try and press higher and play in the oppositions half. It probably needs a horses for course approach but at the moment we are doing neither.

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

Before the Albion Game - doing IK
After The Albion game holy fuck. Shit close to the sack fucking useless

 

[Dennisons Wrong Foot]

I haven't read the match or verdict threads for todays game, so maybe this has been covered elsewhere. Since Nuno arrived Coady has always been the first name on the team sheet, and the general consensus has always been that he can only play in the centre of a back 3, that he is not suited to a 4. So we switched to a 4 and Coady did "okay", but we are leaking too many goals and he is not a centre-half. His positioning has to be different, his responsibilities are different - he is learning on the job. And he can be bullied by big centre forwards.
Obviously his influence on those around him cannot be ignored, but are we witnessing the end of the Coady era? Boly and Saiss are more natural defenders, in a 2 or a 3, and Saiss can play in the middle of a 3.
I am not advocating one way or the other, but it could be argued that Coady is not good enough to play in a back 4 - that we should either stick with a 3, not play him, or move him into midfield.

Also we have been very unlucky with deflections - just half an inch could have been enough to turn a shot round the post instead of into the corner.

 

[Tony Towner]

I don't think 4 at the back would be an issue if we had the personnel. I don't think we do. There's not one defender with the exception of the injured Jonny or Marcal who I'd think would look as comfortable in a 4 as a 5.