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Who deserves to be top of the Championship


ollywhyte

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Interesting article - in my opinion the team who is top will always deserve to be there but still nice to see a different view.

Has us standing pretty strong amongst the others, but listed as one of the biggest underachievers in terms of expected goals, perhaps tells us the missing link is indeed a striker!

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11546482/who-deserves-to-be-top-of-the-sky-bet-championship

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1 hour ago, ollywhyte said:

Has us standing pretty strong amongst the others, but listed as one of the biggest underachievers in terms of expected goals, perhaps tells us the missing link is indeed a striker!

We have capable strikers but not even Thierry Henry or Alan Shearer would score many without decent service.........It’s a tired comment but our midfield simply lacks creativity - we all can see it but it seems LJ doesn’t see it. Hopefully he’ll prove me wrong in the winter window.

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49 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Our two best victories 3-0 and 4-1 perhaps should’ve been 1-1 and 2-1?

Or there's even an argument that QPR should have won 1-0. I was at that game and yes we were atrocious in the first half, and QPR missed an almost open goal in the second (the spike in their line at around 63 minutes), so it's no surprise that when compared to the xG we rather got away with it. At the time I recall thinking 3-1 was flattering to us. I think what the stats show, if anything, is that if we are to win matches playing as we now play then the thing that needs improvement is our finishing. 

Something common across all four graphs on this thread is that our "steps" are small, but many.  What that suggests is that although we might generate a lot of shots and chances....they don't tend to be particularly good. Therefore for us to convert those chances we will need strikers with good finishing talent.

We have a high xG because we create many chances of low quality (was it 21 shots vs Reading?). Lots of those add up, and over a season enough will come off to keep us safe.  However, to seriously start scoring (and winning) we need to either:

a) create better chances that our poor strikers have a chance of finishing; or

b) find someone (maybe Eisa, maybe a new January signing) who is capable of making the most of crap service.

I think that is what we can draw out form this xG malarkey.

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2 hours ago, ollywhyte said:

 Interesting article - in my opinion the team who is top will always deserve to be there but still nice to see a different view.

Has us standing pretty strong amongst the others, but listed as one of the biggest underachievers in terms of expected  goals, perhaps tells us the missing link is indeed a striker!

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11546482/who-deserves-to-be-top-of-the-sky-bet-championship   

…...hmm, I think I've been blinded by bull shite! ...…  oops, I mean science. :dunno: 

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4 hours ago, OddBallJim said:

What all of these graphs and xG statistics show is that football often does not go the way you want it to, or the way it should do. It simply goes to whoever scores more goals!

Ultimately true yes, but the challenge also is to improve the finishing- hit the woodwork 11 times in 16 games and you're swimming against the tide hugely.

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On ‎07‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 23:25, Mr Popodopolous said:

Ultimately true yes, but the challenge also is to improve the finishing- hit the woodwork 11 times in 16 games and you're swimming against the tide hugely.

I see what you're saying, but football is a sport that varies game to game. I don't think it's necessarily as simple as 'improving the finishing' - there is so many variables that account for why a goal either is or isn't scored. For example, the keeper may have a blinder because all week in training he worked on saving the type of shots that our players are most likely to take. Or, he may make an absolute howler because he was sleep-deprived from being up until 3am the night before the game because his new-born child wouldn't stop crying! The same applies for the other 10 players that make up a team. 

The thing is, whilst the xG statistic is a nifty piece of statistical work it simply can't account for all the variables that take place in a game of football. Sure, we can say that in certain situations a goal is 'likely' to be scored, but as those Christmas blooper DVDs show there are always instances when a goal is a certainty and somehow the striker contrives to miss. 

Ultimately, what really matters is the points on the board and your actual position in the table. xG-based tables (for me) do nothing other than to lend credence to pub arguments about the football league being upside down! :) 

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