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Why we aren't scoring...


spudski

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2 hours ago, spudski said:

From research stats...

We believe that the coaches and managers may find the following result useful. Share of long passes in total passes and number of crosses played per game adversely affects goal scoring, but accuracy of long passes positively impact it. Technical perfection in long passes and passes in general is required, but strategically it is better to increase the number of shot passes played per long pass. This is what Johan Cruyff and his spiritual disciples in football strategy like Arsene Wenger or Pep Guardiola, have been saying for ages and we have seen great teams like Ajax (1971-74), Netherlands national team (1972-78), Barcelona (1992-94 and 2008 to present), Bayern Munich (2012 to present) and Arsenal (1997–2007) that successfully employed the strategy. In the season 2015-16 we have seen teams like Barcelona, Bayern, Dortmund, Manchester City, Arsenal, Paris Saint Germain etc. apply that strategy.

Number of crosses, per game, increases if a team tends to attack from the wide. While it is a might be a good strategy to employ full backs to go on occasional overlaps, playing from the wide reduces the goal scoring opportunity. When a team attacks from the wide, the centre backs of the opposition gets more time and can anticipate the crosses.

Basically... Share of long passes in total passes and crosses per game have significant negative impact.

So the more crosses you play into the box, you are less likely to score.

Our way of playing at the moment...is the least effective way to score in football. Stats back this up.

It’s all about “packing” these days Spud.  Ask Jens.

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13 hours ago, spudski said:

...imo...because we have become a team trying to score goals from crosses.

We are playing wider and wider when attacking...with Kelly and Elliason down the left, and either Pisano, Hunt and Weimann combining down the right, all trying to get a cross into the box.

More often than not Famara is in the box on his own...with Pato and Brownhill lurking on the edge.

Here's the rub...Stats prove 'Crossing' is the least effective strategy when trying to score.

Recent studies showed you score 1 goal from 64 crosses. With teams averaging approx. 19 crosses per game. So on average 1 goal scored from a cross per 3 games.

Crossing is difficult. There are many physical and technical abilities required to consistently cross accurate balls in the box. Speed, stamina, dribbling, precision, tempo, to name a few. The crosser and the receiver also need a lot of coordination between the two of them. Not easy.

In the five top European leagues (so it will be a lot less in the Championship), the average cross accuracy is 23.5% (the percentage of crosses actually delivered to a teammate). This means that more than 3 out of 4 crosses get lost (the ball is intercepted by an opponent, or goes out of the pitch).

Even when the ball is accurately crossed and directly goes to a teammate, the chances of scoring remain poor.

First of all, not every time a ball directly goes to a teammate, he is able to shoot. That happens slightly more than half of the times, 56% on average.

Secondly, as aforementioned, scoring from a cross is tough and entails outperforming the defence. The percentage of key passes from crossing becoming assists (i.e. a goal) is 11.9% on average. This is well below the total percentage of goals from key passes (14.1%).


Cross accuracy [23.5%]

x

Crosses translating into shots [56%]

x

Key passes from crosses becoming a goal [11.9%]

=

PROBABILITY OF SCORING A GOAL FROM A CROSS [1.6%].


This means that, on average, it takes 64 crosses to score a goal.

Obviously, from these stats you cannot take into account the number of times a goal is indirectly scored after a cross, like after a failed clearance by the opponents. However, does this really matter? The point is: should we really base our attacking strategy on exploiting the opponents’ defensive mistakes?

Is it no wonder our shots on target are so low using this ineffective strategy?

 

As much as it's nice to see interplay and crosses by Kelly and Elliason...and decent crosses from Pisano and Hunt...exciting to see them beat their opposite numbers....what's the point, when it's the lowest scoring strategy in football?

Easy to defend against...and even worse when you have an ineffective forward.

We've gone from being creative, and playing fast passing moves into and around the front of the box, making openings, leading to shots to a team reliant on crosses that wouldn't look out of place in the 80's.

 

You have been critical (overtly) of fans who suggested that Mr Johnson should have proceeded with that intent and progressed it last January via recruitment.

That crossing a football is a difficult means of scoring a goal needs no metrics to prove, or that it would be problematic for Bristol City will come as no surprise to many. 

In other threads months ago you failed to point out this flaw in Mr Johnsons plan, supported his tweaks, state Lee Johnson is using these changes to develop the players, and despite stating you finally now have doubts about recruitment, and that Mr Johnson is not a good man manager or motivator or tactician (recently) argue passionately that nobody can get more out of this squad than Mr Johnson.

Nobody …?

 

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22 minutes ago, Cowshed said:

You have been critical (overtly) of fans who suggested that Mr Johnson should have proceeded with that intent and progressed it last January via recruitment.

That crossing a football is a difficult means of scoring a goal needs no metrics to prove, or that it would be problematic for Bristol City will come as no surprise to many. 

In other threads months ago you failed to point out this flaw in Mr Johnsons plan, supported his tweaks, state Lee Johnson is using these changes to develop the players, and despite stating you finally now have doubts about recruitment, and that Mr Johnson is not a good man manager or motivator or tactician (recently) argue passionately that nobody can get more out of this squad than Mr Johnson.

Nobody …?

 

We weren't playing like this months ago....it's been a more recent transition to rely so much on attacking from wide.

LJ has recruited...(or shall I say MA) to cover many bases it seems. To have 'Clubs' for every eventuality.

I don't know whether LJ has planned to play this way...or it has happened due to players either being injured or out of form.

Imo...we would still be playing with Pack and Smith centrally...and most likely Brownhill and Odowda wide of them, with Wiemann/Taylor and either Pato or Famara up front. Playing to a similar style to what we are used too.

Smith injured...imo has had a massive effect on how we've put teams out. Walsh wasn't deemed ready initially...and when played, proved he had some ability. Now injured long term...LJ is back to square one again trying to find a way to play with players he feels he can trust and are up to form.

I honestly don't believe LJ is playing our present way as his first choice of system. I believe he's trying to adapt ( unsuccessfully ).

You can argue the toss as to recruitment...we won't fully know until it's in black and white...but from what I've been told recently, and I've no reason to disbelieve, is MA has far more influence in recruitment than we think.

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4 minutes ago, spudski said:

You can argue the toss as to recruitment...we won't fully know until it's in black and white...but from what I've been told recently, and I've no reason to disbelieve, is MA has far more influence in recruitment than we think.

So why has LJ publicly stated that he has the final say in transfer dealings.....or has he been told to say it?

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5 minutes ago, CityCiderEd said:

So why has LJ publicly stated that he has the final say in transfer dealings.....or has he been told to say it?

Who knows...but imo, he has less total say in who comes in, than we are led to believe.

Also take into account...when the board discussed sacking LJ last season, MA was 'alleged' to have voted to sack LJ.

Imo...a strong united front is being shown with our recruitment, but I think it's less than rosy behind closed doors.

Based on things I've been told...and I have no reason to disbelieve them. Just my opinion...us the public will never know fully unless it gets exposed openly.

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Spudski, interesting question and take on things. The farce of 20 plus quality crosses fired in by Eliasson with no-one on the end has probably made you focus on that aspect of the game?

For me, its not as simple as an over-reliance on crosses. There were zero crosses from the right until COD came on. The lack of goals come from basic formation (too defensive), players not given licence to express themselves, little going through the mid, midfield lethargy, no hold-up number 9 from which a decent 10 can play off, centre backs laboured and too sideways in the initial build-up, square pegs in round holes (Weinmann is not a winger) and refusal to drop out of form players (Pack looks shattered) etc etc etc

We all watch Norwich, Sheffield U, Leeds, WBA, MiddB and Villa with some envy at the moment. There is a completely different look and feel to their game, their tempo, the collective press and play down the middle. Yes, they also ping balls in from wide but their attacking play in and around the box makes us look like poverty. That's why they score goals and we dont 

 

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" Our findings showed that most goals were scored when the type of feed was from a cross (43.7%). Griffiths  found that France, who was at that time considered the best international team in the World, created significantly more crosses than their opponents"

Taken from

 https://thesportjournal.org/article/analysis-of-goal-scoring-patterns-in-the-2012-european-football-championship/

which seems to contradict the OP's  statistical analysis.

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2 minutes ago, Abraham Romanovich said:

" Our findings showed that most goals were scored when the type of feed was from a cross (43.7%). Griffiths  found that France, who was at that time considered the best international team in the World, created significantly more crosses than their opponents"

Taken from

 https://thesportjournal.org/article/analysis-of-goal-scoring-patterns-in-the-2012-european-football-championship/

which seems to contradict the OP's  statistical analysis.

76 goals from 31 games analysed from the polish and Ukrainian league in 2012!!!!! Really? ???

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47 minutes ago, spudski said:

76 goals from 31 games analysed from the polish and Ukrainian league in 2012!!!!! Really? ???

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to investigate the factors associated with goal scoring in top class football matches. Methods: 76 goals analyzed from 31 matches from the European football Championship in Poland-Ukraine in 2012.

Admittedly 2012 but far from the Polish/Ukrainian league and a detailed study indicating that the most succesful team scored most of their goals from crosses..

 

 

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Regardless of whose stats you believe anyone can see that we have a problem scoring,  even when we're dominating teams - and we do seem over-reliant on the one means of getting the ball into the box.

Just mix it up a bit lads, would be the message to take from this discussion. 

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The other thing to mention- and I agree with decent chunks of the OP and crossing from further out being not too effective and particularly Sunday given Millwall were quite narrow in and around the box, have quite physical defenders- played to their strengths a bit. Now crossing as in low drilled crosses along the ground can cause real uncertainty and particularly as @Davefevs said a few days ago, width of the penalty area- then crossing can become quite a different weapon IMO.

You want to know why else we've had issues scoring though? Woodwork hit 12 times in 20 games, and while it's only once in the last 4 games, it has surely cost us points over the season. Hard to tell if that's luck or wastefulness really- maybe both.

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6 hours ago, spudski said:

We weren't playing like this months ago....it's been a more recent transition to rely so much on attacking from wide.

LJ has recruited...(or shall I say MA) to cover many bases it seems. To have 'Clubs' for every eventuality.

I don't know whether LJ has planned to play this way...or it has happened due to players either being injured or out of form.

Imo...we would still be playing with Pack and Smith centrally...and most likely Brownhill and Odowda wide of them, with Wiemann/Taylor and either Pato or Famara up front. Playing to a similar style to what we are used too.

Smith injured...imo has had a massive effect on how we've put teams out. Walsh wasn't deemed ready initially...and when played, proved he had some ability. Now injured long term...LJ is back to square one again trying to find a way to play with players he feels he can trust and are up to form.

I honestly don't believe LJ is playing our present way as his first choice of system. I believe he's trying to adapt ( unsuccessfully ).

You can argue the toss as to recruitment...we won't fully know until it's in black and white...but from what I've been told recently, and I've no reason to disbelieve, is MA has far more influence in recruitment than we think.

Wide players were bought before the season started. They have played as have long standing squad members having similar roles. It is inconceivable that training and planning does not reflect this.

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1 hour ago, Cowshed said:

Wide players were bought before the season started. They have played as have long standing squad members having similar roles. It is inconceivable that training and planning does not reflect this.

Wide players were brought in to the squad...like I said...to cover all bases. LJ has said this when players brought in.

Do you honestly believe we would be playing as we are now if Smith was fit and playing?

Of course we are training a certain way...that's a given.

You totally ignore the rest of my post and it's sentiment.

Sick of sentences being taken out of paragraphs and misconstrued.

For what it's worth...if everyone was fit and available and in form,  we would be playing totally differently imo.

Goalkeeper and back four would be pretty much the same.

Midfield would be Brownhill, Pack, Smith, Odowda

Front from Pato, Weimann, Taylor, Famara

We'd play far more like last season...more narrow.

We are trying to find a way of playing that could be effective, with players that are on form, fit and in LJ's mind reliable.

I don't personally think it will work and be effective...the January window will be telling imo.

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10 minutes ago, spudski said:

Wide players were brought in to the squad...like I said...to cover all bases. LJ has said this when players brought in.

Do you honestly believe we would be playing as we are now if Smith was fit and playing?

Of course we are training a certain way...that's a given.

You totally ignore the rest of my post and it's sentiment.

Sick of sentences being taken out of paragraphs and misconstrued.

For what it's worth...if everyone was fit and available and in form,  we would be playing totally differently imo.

Goalkeeper and back four would be pretty much the same.

Midfield would be Brownhill, Pack, Smith, Odowda

Front from Pato, Weimann, Taylor, Famara

We'd play far more like last season...more narrow.

We are trying to find a way of playing that could be effective, with players that are on form, fit and in LJ's mind reliable.

I don't personally think it will work and be effective...the January window will be telling imo.

 

Spudski you've just named a typical line up from this season with the exception of Smith (Elliason, who has improved enormously, being more or less a direct swap for O'Dowda) and said if that was the line up we'd be playing very differently.

If the way in which Smith plays is so important, surely one of the 47 purchases should have been capable of stepping into his role?

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45 minutes ago, NickJ said:

Spudski you've just named a typical line up from this season with the exception of Smith (Elliason, who has improved enormously, being more or less a direct swap for O'Dowda) and said if that was the line up we'd be playing very differently.

If the way in which Smith plays is so important, surely one of the 47 purchases should have been capable of stepping into his role?

Odowda plays nothing like Eliasson.

Odowda plays more central and narrower.

When was the last time you saw Odowda hugging the touch line and overlapping with the full back and whipping in crosses?

He doesn't.

A line up and how we play are totally different.

On paper it can be 442...but that can be played either narrow or wide...all depends.

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1 hour ago, spudski said:

Odowda plays nothing like Eliasson.

Odowda plays more central and narrower.

When was the last time you saw Odowda hugging the touch line and overlapping with the full back and whipping in crosses?

He doesn't.

A line up and how we play are totally different.

On paper it can be 442...but that can be played either narrow or wide...all depends.

O’Dowda is far more experienced and accomplished. He can play in a variety of positions including pure winger - yes running past players and whipping balls in. Johnson just won’t play him as he is refusing to sign a new deal. It’s the worst kept secret in the club. 

You haven’t seen Callum hugging the touch line recently as he hasn’t been playing you melt

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6 minutes ago, Jack Bailey said:

O’Dowda is far more experienced and accomplished. He can play in a variety of positions including pure winger - yes running past players and whipping balls in. Johnson just won’t play him as he is refusing to sign a new deal. It’s the worst kept secret in the club. 

You haven’t seen Callum hugging the touch line recently as he hasn’t been playing you melt

When in his Bristol City career have you seen Odowda playing as a pure winger and whipping balls in? You haven't...or has the 'melt' blinded you?

We all know about the situation....another Nicky Hunt poster...?

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3 hours ago, spudski said:

Wide players were brought in to the squad...like I said...to cover all bases. LJ has said this when players brought in.

Do you honestly believe we would be playing as we are now if Smith was fit and playing?

Of course we are training a certain way...that's a given.

You totally ignore the rest of my post and it's sentiment.

Sick of sentences being taken out of paragraphs and misconstrued.

For what it's worth...if everyone was fit and available and in form,  we would be playing totally differently imo.

Goalkeeper and back four would be pretty much the same.

Midfield would be Brownhill, Pack, Smith, Odowda

Front from Pato, Weimann, Taylor, Famara

We'd play far more like last season...more narrow.

We are trying to find a way of playing that could be effective, with players that are on form, fit and in LJ's mind reliable.

I don't personally think it will work and be effective...the January window will be telling imo.

Yes I totally ignored the rest of your post due to the relevance of two of the first three sentences. 

In another thread you have stated Mr Johnson has not totally changed the style from last season and its been gradual change. Now you mention totally different.

Your posts are a morass of thoughts. 

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11 minutes ago, Cowshed said:

Yes I totally ignored the rest of your post due to the relevance of two of the first three sentences. 

In another thread you have stated Mr Johnson has not totally changed the style from last season and its been gradual change. Now you mention totally different.

Your posts are a morass of thoughts. 

Look at my posts over a period of months...now look at our present football.

Our recent way of playing doesn't even remotely look like a month ago.

Football changes weekly...opinions change accordingly.

You can't quote many comments from the past as they are irrelevant presently.

Unfortunately you stick to one thought and stick to it...even if situations change.

Your constant quoting is rather tiring when your own thoughts are way out of date.

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