Lies, damned lies, and statistics

[Ragatino]

After the Palace Presser and Eddie's 'spikey' response to Lee 'Barely functioning Alki' Ryder of the Chronical's question regarding lack of a 'Plan B' & the use of the word 'Onslaught' from Burnley I thought I'd take a look back at the stats of the match.

I watched the match. First 15 mins were electric, 2 goals, scared the life out of Burnley and got the job done, so it seemed.



The momentum chart above shows the ebb and flow of the game.

2nd half the home team were dominant and from memory passing and control from the lads wasn't good enough and time after time the ball was turned over to the home team and once again NUFC found themselves on the back foot chasing the game.

From a fan's perspective, getting a big lead. Dominating the ball for the best part of half and hour to then see the team drop deeper and deeper, concentration in transition and combination passing, leading to more pressure causes huge frustration. With recent results like Chelsea seeing the team drop points from winning positions (13 in the prem) the fanbase get the feeling it's all gonna happen again.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/l...94t#MatchStats

The match stats in general show that it was a game where Newcastle were the better side. Very few of the important metrics were won by the home team.

My thoughts...

The win = confidence. Confidence = better control of the ball from the players. Better control = better performances.
Better Performances + the horrible scrappy win should deliver the consistency required to take advantage of compacted league and jump up to challenge for 4th / 5th spots who are 4 / 5 points head of the team as it stands after 19 games.

- What does everyone else think about this current debate?
- Is Eddie Too 'one dimensional'?
- Is his point about 'Doing Plan 'A' better negates the need for a Plan 'B'?
- Considering the midfield are more or less the same as last season, can there really be a 'lack of creativity' when last season there was plenty of goal scoring opportunities 'created' by the same players?
- Is it more a case of an inconsistent defensive group due to the injuries to Hall, Tino, Burn & Botman across the first half of the season coinciding with he likes of Gordon, Murphy & Tonali all being totally 'out of form' at the same time and the introduction of players like Woltemade who plays a different style the perfect cocktail of our current underachievement?

Nice one lads and lasses.

[toonviking]

I think Woltemade too often is involved in work that a midfielder should do. And when he is deep, it makes us slower in the buildup. Wich used to be super fast. It also makes us more vulnerable, with the slower build up.

[toptoon]

Im pleased to see your analysis, Raga because I think the description of a battering we took is exagerated. Schar cleared off the line (but so did they from Thiaws header), a difficult back post headed chance for them, one off the bar and one foot save by Purp.
We were sh*te I dont deny but it was hardly a slaughter.

[toptoon]

I think Woltemade too often is involved in work that a midfielder should do. And when he is deep, it makes us slower in the buildup. Wich used to be super fast. It also makes us more vulnerable, with the slower build up.

I dont have a problem with Wolt deep because his passing/lay offs are very good when we break. The problem is with our wide front players who must make the runs to be effective and, Imo, theyre not enough.

[Ragatino]

Im pleased to see your analysis, Raga because I think the description of a battering we took is exagerated. Schar cleared off the line (but so did they from Thiaws header), a difficult back post headed chance for them, one off the bar and one foot save by Purp.
We were sh*te I dont deny but it was hardly a slaughter.

It wasn't a great performance but it was a win on the road. 2nd of the season. As horrible as we've been on the road it's a step in the right direction.

We stank the house out for parts of the 2nd half of the Burnley match. Couldn't string 3 passes together. Still won. But it wasn't an onslaught.

Burnley had 4 shots on target. An onslaught would be 20 shots on target, taking a battering and getting ran over, clinging on for dear life.

They stank worse than we did, that's the reason they're 19th.

It's not the way we move forward, performances need to improve. That starts with confidence being build of tough wins on the road.

[toonviking]

I dont have a problem with Wolt deep because his passing/lay offs are very good when we break. The problem is with our wide front players who must make the runs to be effective and, Imo, theyre not enough.

Its been a while since I saw a good pass or lay off. For the last 5 or 6 games hes been losing the ball in those situations.

[Ragatino]

There's been one or two patterns of play in the away game v Burnley but over 90 mins that is woefully poor numbers.

When it clicks things all the negative noises will evaporate.