Supertom, you're contradicting yourself a little bit here. In one breath you say that had Andi scored the golden chances he has had this season we'd be in the top 6 and then in the next you're saying the reason we're midtable is that we don't create enough chances.Does anyone have a source for these chance statistics? I keep seeing references on here to us not having enough chances but I can't say I've seen them anywhere else. Also, only analysing simplistic measures of on/off target you can end up drawing the wrong conclusions (Benteke's header yesterday which beat the keeper but came back off the bar - ie off target - was a much better chance than a crap trickler that runs through to the keeper but is on target - likewise, Andi's through on goal chance when Morrison pulled him down was a better chance than Jo Cole's angled shot which Guzan saved).The football analysts talk about the quality of chances, rather than them being on or off target. I have absolutely nothing to back this up other than watching every home game and the highlights of away matches on MOTD but I'd suggest we have a greater number of high quality chances than the majority of teams.
I'm still completely behind Lambert and still have faith in this plan. Its not going to happen overnight.
That's not really a contradiction that was merely playing the IF game. I appreciate that it only takes one chance to win a football game of course, but you better your chances of scoring by creating more chances. If we start averaging over 5 shots ON target instead of just under 3, then we'll more than likely score more. My point on Andy is that he's not scoring. He's fluffing his lines. He's really struggling but he's still playing. Now Lambert needs to address this. He's shown he's not frightened of dropping players, as Lowton and Westwood can testify. I also think it's for Weimanns benefit too. He needs to sit things out. Watch the games from the sidelines and just get himself champing at the bit to come back at full force.
Quote from: Ian J on November 03, 2013, 12:42:32 PMI'm still completely behind Lambert and still have faith in this plan. Its not going to happen overnight.How long do you give him? Surely even his most ardent supporters have some kind of cut off point?
Quote from: supertom on November 03, 2013, 12:41:07 PMThat's not really a contradiction that was merely playing the IF game. I appreciate that it only takes one chance to win a football game of course, but you better your chances of scoring by creating more chances. If we start averaging over 5 shots ON target instead of just under 3, then we'll more than likely score more. My point on Andy is that he's not scoring. He's fluffing his lines. He's really struggling but he's still playing. Now Lambert needs to address this. He's shown he's not frightened of dropping players, as Lowton and Westwood can testify. I also think it's for Weimanns benefit too. He needs to sit things out. Watch the games from the sidelines and just get himself champing at the bit to come back at full force.Scoring goals is part ability, part form, and part confidence. Andi's got the ability - he's shown it in the past. He's obviously off form as he'd have scored more this season if he was on form. But if you drop him now what does that do to his confidence? He's still getting the chances - sooner or later they will start going in.Aaron Ramsey was getting absolutely slaughtered by Arsenal fans not so long ago. Look at him now. Last night on MOTD they asked him what had changed to mean he was suddenly scoring all these goals - his response, confidence.Maybe it's because I've seen this all before that I can have more patience with the players and the manager but tinkering with everything, whether that's the players, the formation, the manager, whatever, isn't the way to bring about consistency.
Quote from: saunders_heroes on November 03, 2013, 12:47:51 PMQuote from: Ian J on November 03, 2013, 12:42:32 PMI'm still completely behind Lambert and still have faith in this plan. Its not going to happen overnight.How long do you give him? Surely even his most ardent supporters have some kind of cut off point?I'm not one his most ardent supporters but even I'd give him more than 2 seasons. I know this comparison gets rolled out more often than it probably should but Moyes got 10 years at Everton. He certainly didn't fix things in his first two years. While he won nothing, over the course of those years he built a very solid and deep squad. Somebody mentioned on the match thread yesterday about Martinez and the job he was doing. His starting point was so much different to Lambert's and significantly better. And in that time Moyes was at Everton he made numerous bad purchases in amongst his various good ones. And in that time Everton spent many first half of seasons in the bottom half, and on occasion in the bottom three. I know the football has been poor at times but it's much more organised and resolute. What we need to see improve is the quality of our passing and ball retention and start to take the chances we have created. Amd ironically Everton last week was a perfect example of how not taking chances at the PL seperates teams. We're struggling in an area we were good at last season while improving in an area we were terrible at.
We've been in transition, alright. In the last four years we've transitioned from being a good team to a bad one. In all seriousness, there is improvement. PL got pelters for our dire defensive form last year and brought in a defensive coach. That to me illustrates he is big enough and honest enough to admit he doesn't have all the answers. What works at one club won't automatically carry over into another. Many older managers take the viewpoint that "this has worked for me in the past, I'll stick to it." Karsa and Culverhouse have followed him to his last two clubs, but PL strikes me as ruthless enough to get shot of either if he doesn't get the type of player or style of play he's looking for. It won't (hopefully) just be a case of jobs for his mates, regardless of performance. If there are concerns about our ball retention now, that's Culverhouse's remit. Of course, Lambert is ultimately responsible. But he seems to be the traditional manager (in some respects), someone who oversees the whole thing, rather than a hands on tracksuit manager/coach taking training drills.