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Is Poor Goalkeeper Distribution Still an Issue for City and the Ball Playing CBs


Coppello

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A common criticism of City’s keepers of the modern era has been their inability to accurately distribute the ball. Whilst Maenpaa has undoubtedly been a fantastic acquisition on a free, this is a problem which hasn’t improved significantly since his debut earlier in August. In the 2017/18 season, Fielding had an average pass completion of 54.8%. In Saturday’s game, Maenpaa’s pass completion percentage was 56.7% which admittedly at first glance looks reasonable but, when you consider the range of these passes, the room for improvement is highlighted (blue = successful pass, red = unsuccessful):

image.png.8e4b7259b49d6cb99902cfefa6207d43.png

Aside from two successful long balls to Diedhiou, 12 other attempts to pump the ball into the oppositions half resulted in a loss of possession. However, all passes in the defensive third allowed both Webster and Kalas to drive the team forward by playing the ball out of the back. Although the aforementioned lack of accuracy when distributing the ball long, when you have two CBs who are as comfortable on the ball as Webster and Kalas, this become less of a prominent issue. 

Kalas’ defensive partner, usually gets all of the plaudits for his ability to distribute the ball but the Czech showed a fantastic range of passing against Bolton: 

image.png.9e64650817643ac001870552216293a0.png

With 56 completions, Kalas completed the second highest number of passes of any player on the field. These were completed by commonly squaring the ball to Webster (13 times), spreading it wide to Hunt 10 times and by going short to Pack (10 times). 

Kalas was not only impressive with the ball, he also put in a fantastic defensive performance in the rare times Bolton carved out a chance. The Chelsea loanee intercepted the ball more times than any other City player (3) whilst also making the most defences clearances (5). Similarly, Kalas won 7 of 9 defensive aerial duels. Whilst Webster is receiving a lot of praise for recent performances with the ball, the Czech international has been excellent.   

The vast majority of City fans thought that any Aden Flint replacement would be far inferior, myself included. Whilst his goals from set pieces have not been replicated, Adam Webster offers a lot more. The game on Saturday was a perfect illustration of this with the former Ipswich man being influential at both ends of the field. 

A perfect example of this, is the influence chart (based on Opta data) which indicates that Webster was the most influential player on the field throughout the 90 minutes: image.png.cb43d25f0aaa6388ce691f8a2266916a.png

In fact, Webster completed more passes than any other player on the pitch (66). Whilst it may feel like a false statistic given that defenders often pass the ball laterally or backwards, two thirds of centre back’s passes were forward as he attempted to drive the team forward. 

image.png.2e44e48c55ee9f66227e9674042e39a6.png

He was a nuisance in the box too, hitting the bar early in the second half. He also knocked the ball down to Taylor who claimed the assist for Palmer’s winner. In summary, he won 4 of 5 attacking aerial duels, more than any other player in a red shirt. He also created more chances the second most chances of any City player (3), the same as the two wingers, Weimann and O’Dowda, combined. 

Defensively, he was just as efficient, recovering the ball for City 9 times. He was efficient in the air, winning 9 of 14 aerial duels; again more than any other player on the pitch. He also won two tackles. Another fantastic performance from what has to be the signing of the season.

So, does the fantastic partnership of Kalas and Webster negate the need for a keeper with better distribution? In my opinion, the two CBs and keeper situation is probably as good as I can remember in recent history. Given how modern football is changing, with goalkeepers consider to be the first attacker, the need for a keeper to be able to hit the ball long with great accuracy diminishes.  

Apologies for the low quality images, OTIB restricts the size of images uploaded! 

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Quality post @Coppello ?

One thing to consider for Maenpaa’s linger kicking accuracy is that this season we are aiming for one striker (Fam) rather than 2. 

I have no stats but I wonder how much ball we are regaining from the opposition CBs headers back towards us. The extra man in the middle might be helping us regain it quicker?

Re Webster, I posted elsewhere that now he’s broken his duck he might get a few more set piece goals....although waiting patiently for him to stride forward and spank one in from 35 yards too!

Bobbob is a big Kalas fan. I thought his early games were a mixed bag (still positive though) but now filly fit from his jaw break he is really looking the part. He doesn’t ever look like he’s gonna need to sprint. Good positionally and efficient in what he does. 

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Good work.

I'm surprised with the stats on Maenpaa as his distribution seemed to me to be a vast improvement on Fielding.

The long balls not hitting their target may be down to having just Diedhiou up top so only one to aim for.

He releases the ball quickly short.  He is a great sweeper keeper. Commands his penalty box.  Great shot stopper.  Really impressed with him.  With Webster so good at both passing and carrying the ball, I go short every time.

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6 minutes ago, RedSkin said:

Good work.

I'm surprised with the stats on Maenpaa as his distribution seemed to me to be a vast improvement on Fielding.

The long balls not hitting their target may be down to having just Diedhiou up top so only one to aim for.

He releases the ball quickly short.  He is a great sweeper keeper. Commands his penalty box.  Great shot stopper.  Really impressed with him.  With Webster so good at both passing and carrying the ball, I go short every time.

Think it because Niki does not aim for a head on the sides. He generally goes centrally with his long kicks. Most goal kicks last year Frank was asked to put the ball on Bryan or Flints head. 2-3 times out of 10 the ball would go out of play. This is more noticeable to fans than a long kick down the middle.

Frank did not have woeful distribution. Think Niki however is better. Also Niki is much quicker to get the ball out of his hands. Plus I think he throws a few more out as well. 

@Davefevs mentioned to a mate at the game that I wasn’t sure I’d seen Kalas sprint after he had to pick up the pace at one point in the second half. Very good on the ball but won’t bring it out or hit 40 yard balls very often. What he does do is pop it into people instead of a more lazy slow pass. Would be interesting to see BW next to Webster for a bit(not saying it should happen just interesting) to see how similar they are. Watching BW against Stoke and Huddersfield they look similar players. 

Webster is absolute class. Think opposition probably aim more towards him than Kalas but he always holds his own defensively and aerially. Also pops passes into people. Imo he has the best vision in the side. Also as two footed a player I have seen for awhile. What a talent and glad we have been keeping him fit. 

 

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21 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Quality post @Coppello ?

One thing to consider for Maenpaa’s linger kicking accuracy is that this season we are aiming for one striker (Fam) rather than 2. 

I have no stats but I wonder how much ball we are regaining from the opposition CBs headers back towards us. The extra man in the middle might be helping us regain it quicker?

Re Webster, I posted elsewhere that now he’s broken his duck he might get a few more set piece goals....although waiting patiently for him to stride forward and spank one in from 35 yards too!

Bobbob is a big Kalas fan. I thought his early games were a mixed bag (still positive though) but now filly fit from his jaw break he is really looking the part. He doesn’t ever look like he’s gonna need to sprint. Good positionally and efficient in what he does. 

Whilst I don't have stats on the regaining of possession I do have information on ball recovery which is where a player recovers the ball in a situation where neither team has possession or where the ball has been played directly to him by an opponent, thus securing possession for their team.

In the Bolton game, Pack playing CDM recovered the ball 9 times joint with Webster and more than any other player on the pitch. I've had a look back at the opening game of the season against Forest, where we played a 4-4-2 and we midfielder with the highest number of recoveries was Pack with 3. Similarly, in the Sheff Utd game a few weeks later, we played a 3-5-2 and our ability to recover the ball decreased significantly, with Pack collecting the ball 3 times and Brownhill top with 5. Whilst it's not a full sample, it is quite an interesting point made by you. 

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It's a great piece of analysis I must say!

On the Maenpaa thing, and while it is undoubtedly a useful tool to have, given we have 2 ball playing CB's- Webster I would say more expansive and driving forward with his passing, and Kalas safer would it be fair to say, but still technically good, with Pack also in the midfield, isn't the logical progression here shorter passing out from the back, Maenpaa to CB's, CB's to Pack in a 4-1-4-1/4-3-3 hybrid and through the thirds like this. Maenpaa did very well with his pass forward Saturday but hopefully as confidence and understanding grow, the shorter passing from Maenpaa onwards will become increasingly prevalent. Kalas, Webster and Pack has potential to be an excellent passing triangle.

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Maenpaa's kicking needs to take into account how under control the kicks are, is he being closed down by an opposing player and put under pressure? It decreases accuracy for the sake of safety. Goal kicks, when a keeper goes long essentially its a 50/50 chance of completing the kick with the grouped players, this will also decrease his completion rate. The fair way to assess him would be to look at his completion rate from open play when not under pressure. The other part of analysing a keepers pass completion rate is to look at the second balls from the long kicks, Diedhiou (or whoever) may have failed to get the touch/header but has one of our players picked up the second ball so the team retains possession? 

Did a mini project that looked into the effectiveness of goalkeeper distribution. 

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23 minutes ago, AirlieBeachRed said:

I don't see as many kicks going straight out for throw ins as I did with Fielding, maybe I am imagining this. I think Maenpaa's kicking is far more controlled and accurate 

FF was told to kick out wide rather than kicking straight up field as a tactic to try and retain possession. Other teams tried it as well but now it’s largely abandoned.

Not something we see much of this season,

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We are far better playing out short to the CB's, or a deep midfielder, than pumping the ball up to Famara.

Hence Hunt and Kelly coming wide at goal kicks, to make space or receive, and drag the opposition in....creating more space.

The chances of Famara winning the ball from a GK are very remote, regardless of accuracy.

It's a 50/50 ball, with his back to goal, a defender on him, and no one to flick a won header onto.

He's actually better at concentrating on unsettling the defender, into making a poor defensive block/header, and our advancing midfielders looking to block or intercept the second ball. Or even looking for a free kick.

The chances of him winning a clean header back to a midfielder are very remote, regardless of the goalkeepers accuracy.

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7 hours ago, Coppello said:

A common criticism of City’s keepers of the modern era has been their inability to accurately distribute the ball. Whilst Maenpaa has undoubtedly been a fantastic acquisition on a free, this is a problem which hasn’t improved significantly since his debut earlier in August. In the 2017/18 season, Fielding had an average pass completion of 54.8%. In Saturday’s game, Maenpaa’s pass completion percentage was 56.7% which admittedly at first glance looks reasonable but, when you consider the range of these passes, the room for improvement is highlighted (blue = successful pass, red = unsuccessful):

image.png.8e4b7259b49d6cb99902cfefa6207d43.png

Aside from two successful long balls to Diedhiou, 12 other attempts to pump the ball into the oppositions half resulted in a loss of possession. However, all passes in the defensive third allowed both Webster and Kalas to drive the team forward by playing the ball out of the back. Although the aforementioned lack of accuracy when distributing the ball long, when you have two CBs who are as comfortable on the ball as Webster and Kalas, this become less of a prominent issue. 

Kalas’ defensive partner, usually gets all of the plaudits for his ability to distribute the ball but the Czech showed a fantastic range of passing against Bolton: 

image.png.9e64650817643ac001870552216293a0.png

With 56 completions, Kalas completed the second highest number of passes of any player on the field. These were completed by commonly squaring the ball to Webster (13 times), spreading it wide to Hunt 10 times and by going short to Pack (10 times). 

Kalas was not only impressive with the ball, he also put in a fantastic defensive performance in the rare times Bolton carved out a chance. The Chelsea loanee intercepted the ball more times than any other City player (3) whilst also making the most defences clearances (5). Similarly, Kalas won 7 of 9 defensive aerial duels. Whilst Webster is receiving a lot of praise for recent performances with the ball, the Czech international has been excellent.   

The vast majority of City fans thought that any Aden Flint replacement would be far inferior, myself included. Whilst his goals from set pieces have not been replicated, Adam Webster offers a lot more. The game on Saturday was a perfect illustration of this with the former Ipswich man being influential at both ends of the field. 

A perfect example of this, is the influence chart (based on Opta data) which indicates that Webster was the most influential player on the field throughout the 90 minutes: image.png.cb43d25f0aaa6388ce691f8a2266916a.png

In fact, Webster completed more passes than any other player on the pitch (66). Whilst it may feel like a false statistic given that defenders often pass the ball laterally or backwards, two thirds of centre back’s passes were forward as he attempted to drive the team forward. 

image.png.2e44e48c55ee9f66227e9674042e39a6.png

He was a nuisance in the box too, hitting the bar early in the second half. He also knocked the ball down to Taylor who claimed the assist for Palmer’s winner. In summary, he won 4 of 5 attacking aerial duels, more than any other player in a red shirt. He also created more chances the second most chances of any City player (3), the same as the two wingers, Weimann and O’Dowda, combined. 

Defensively, he was just as efficient, recovering the ball for City 9 times. He was efficient in the air, winning 9 of 14 aerial duels; again more than any other player on the pitch. He also won two tackles. Another fantastic performance from what has to be the signing of the season.

So, does the fantastic partnership of Kalas and Webster negate the need for a keeper with better distribution? In my opinion, the two CBs and keeper situation is probably as good as I can remember in recent history. Given how modern football is changing, with goalkeepers consider to be the first attacker, the need for a keeper to be able to hit the ball long with great accuracy diminishes.  

Apologies for the low quality images, OTIB restricts the size of images uploaded! 

First off very interesting post.

I posted last season Fielding should be replaced and a footballing CB should also be brought in to progress the potential City already had in the squad.

Last time I looked at Maenpaa's season passing accuracy it was 10% higher. I have read your post several times and it appears you may be comparing one game to Fieldings average over a season. There is also no reference to length of pass Premieship Keepers, even the best drop below a 20% accuracy when exceeding fifty metres. 

So, does the fantastic partnership of Kalas and Webster negate the need for a keeper with better distribution? No not all depending on intent. It can increase the need because the intent can easily be the Keeper thus becomes a pivot, a means to continually reset possession. A Keeper can in that instance become a defensive tool where possession is retained as a means of defending. 

Maenpaa allows City two CB's to play higher and to step out with the ball because he is prepared and comfortable to control space outside of the box - His positioning is higher and its higher in the box. Collectively the Keeper and team plays differently so Aden Flints primary skill and its need in City's current team has diminished. Put Fielding back in goal and the teams tactical flexibility diminishes the team will have to adjust and the need for first ball winners returns and Kalas is on loan - Flint actually has not been replaced.

Maenpaa is highlighting where City can be improved further. 

 

 

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Interesting post @Coppello Thanks for posting

 

re Maenappa passing stats only

The Irony in all this is that our first goal on Sat came from a Maenappa ball back into the edge of the penalty area , the initial challenge, which we lost (And is shown as a inaccurate ball) 

Thought he actually influenced the events massively, if he had left the ball to an outfield player to retrieve , Bolton have a chance to reorganise and reset

NM pumps a long ball back before they can reorganise , we lose the initial challenge but the ball eventually breaks to MT .....and .....

Theres a lot to be said for putting balls back like that , controlled possession not always the best option

As for the stats - for me the second ball stats , (on anything other than a short straightforward pass,) as Spudski alluded towards,  , are probably the important ones

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8 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

It's a great piece of analysis I must say!

On the Maenpaa thing, and while it is undoubtedly a useful tool to have, given we have 2 ball playing CB's- Webster I would say more expansive and driving forward with his passing, and Kalas safer would it be fair to say, but still technically good, with Pack also in the midfield, isn't the logical progression here shorter passing out from the back, Maenpaa to CB's, CB's to Pack in a 4-1-4-1/4-3-3 hybrid and through the thirds like this. Maenpaa did very well with his pass forward Saturday but hopefully as confidence and understanding grow, the shorter passing from Maenpaa onwards will become increasingly prevalent. Kalas, Webster and Pack has potential to be an excellent passing triangle.

Interesting on Sat was that with Bolton content to get behind the ball Pack rarely came and got the ball on the edge of our own area. We were much higher up the pitch and consequently Bolton rarely retained possession for more than 2 passss. 

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34 minutes ago, spudski said:

The chances of Famara winning the ball from a GK are very remote, regardless of accuracy.

It's a 50/50 ball, with his back to goal, a defender on him, and no one to flick a won header onto.

He's actually better at concentrating on unsettling the defender, into making a poor defensive block/header, and our advancing midfielders looking to block or intercept the second ball. Or even looking for a free kick.

The chances of him winning a clean header back to a midfielder are very remote, regardless of the goalkeepers accuracy.

I’m assuming that’s why other teams and City of course wanted the keeper to kick the ball out wide but we haven’t seen that particular tactic from any team at AG this season - at least not that I can remember.

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15 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Interesting on Sat was that with Bolton content to get behind the ball Pack rarely came and got the ball on the edge of our own area. We were much higher up the pitch and consequently Bolton rarely retained possession for more than 2 passss. 

120 odd completed passes in whole game :blink:

3 were kick offs 

Thats not much more than one completed pass per minute !

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31 minutes ago, Antman said:

Excellent and interesting post. Just a question, where is this data coming from?

 

22 minutes ago, RedDave said:

@Coppello Where do you get the data from?  I cannot find a website that tracks such a thing but would love to know one! 

There's an app called Statszone, you have to pay £10 a year to subscribe to it. The data is driven from an Opta feed so it's about as good as it gets. I only came across it this week but it is really excellent. 

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3 hours ago, AirlieBeachRed said:

I don't see as many kicks going straight out for throw ins as I did with Fielding, maybe I am imagining this. I think Maenpaa's kicking is far more controlled and accurate 

I agree 100%. When Maenpaa receives the ball to feet he looks much more comfortable than Fielding and he can pass long and short. Fielding is a decent goalkeeper but so poor with his feet, every time the ball comes back to him I look away. Considering he was a free signing, Maenpaa's been brilliant. First few games there was a lack of communication between him and his centre halves (understandable - playing in a new team) and he wasn't in control of his area but now he's looking like a top signing for us.

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11 hours ago, Coppello said:

In Saturday’s game, Maenpaa’s pass completion percentage was 56.7% which admittedly at first glance looks reasonable but, when you consider the range of these passes, the room for improvement is highlighted (blue = successful pass, red = unsuccessful):

image.png.8e4b7259b49d6cb99902cfefa6207d43.png

I'm not sure if you would know this but assume an unsuccessful pass is where an opposition player touches the ball rather than one of our players? 

I wonder how many of these unsuccessful passes resulted in us winning the next ball or playing the percentages saw us gain the ball in a more attacking part of the pitch? 

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One thing he does struggle on is early kicks out of hand to a striker.Rarely puts it in the direction the striker is moving. Been quite a few for Paterson from corners that haven't hit the target area.

I'd like to see more long throws of his though, they are an excellent weapon when counter attacking.

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10 hours ago, RedDave said:

@Coppello Where do you get the data from?  I cannot find a website that tracks such a thing but would love to know one! 

and for those of us too cheap to pay , here's one that @Davefevs put me onto.

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1288909/Live/England-Championship-2018-2019-Bristol-City-Bolton

Screenshot 2019-01-15 at 20.07.54.png

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On 15/01/2019 at 08:54, BobBobSuperBob said:

120 odd completed passes in whole game :blink:

3 were kick offs 

Thats not much more than one completed pass per minute !

Without wanting to be pedantic, the amount of time the ball is in play would make this stat much more fathomable

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10 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Stats can be misleading. Although there some interesting one there, Fielding had Flint on the right wing to kick to. How much easier is it for a goalie to kick to a player that wins about 95% of his headers. Yet Frankie would still not manage to find his man often by over hitting those balls.

Problem with that is that Flint was standing exactly on the touch line, margin for error is far greater if he over kicks just a little. Maenpaa isn't aiming for the touchline when he kicks and therefore over kicking isn't such a problem as he's kicking into a crowd of grouped players where a player can move in any direction to get onto the ball.

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5 hours ago, hodge said:

Problem with that is that Flint was standing exactly on the touch line, margin for error is far greater if he over kicks just a little. Maenpaa isn't aiming for the touchline when he kicks and therefore over kicking isn't such a problem as he's kicking into a crowd of grouped players where a player can move in any direction to get onto the ball.

And if frank Fielding underhit it the consequence is a team out of shape to defend the football. Its better the ball flies off the pitch and the throw in is contested.

4 hours ago, JonDolman said:

True. But then it could be argued when Maenpaa is hitting it long to Diedhiou, Diedhiou can only be expected to win less than 50% of the balls with defenders often all over him. And also a long ball by a goalkeeper or any other player can be a good one even if it doesn't find our player. Forcing a throw in opposition territory or winning a second ball from balls that are put into good areas are sometimes better than a long ball that finds it's man. This is why we can't really go on just stats.

With City's formation second balls in theory can be contested with an overload. One up top means one more player to contest the second ball. A progression can be the CB's splitting pulling opposition players out of position and then going long and the overload v second ball is again (theoretically) in place. 

Stats can be used to inform ideas such as the above. Playing long to one can be more beneficial than two and the ball driven off the pitch really can be less negative than not. 

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Given that Fielding started in goal yesterday, I thought it would be worth revisiting this thread to see how we compared. Of course, nothing is conclusive comparing two games, but the results are quite interesting. Baker came in for the injured Webster who is probably the most comfortable defender on the ball to ever play in a City backline. 
What is clear is that Fielding tended to go long as opposed to playing it out from the back: 
 
image.png.c9e80549bdac338e2bf2dc0975158135.png

This resulted in a pass completion of just 24% compared with Maenpaa's 54% last week. Watching the game yesterday, I recall a number of instances where our fullbacks were marked at goal kicks, forcing Fielding to hit a hopeful ball forward towards Diedhiou. The lone frontman actually had more success in the air, winning 43.5% of aerial duels on Saturday, compared with 3 from 8 against Bolton last week (green denotes success and orange means duel lost):


image.png.745fa580c2599c039855cab1cb4aa9a6.png
A couple of points to note from this. Of course, not all of these duels were as a result of kicks directly from Fielding but the area between the halfway line and the final third are those received from the keeper. In addition to this, Diedhiou was a lot busier than compared with last week. For example, he was involved in 23 duels compared with 10 during against Bolton. 

Last Saturday, as discussed in my opening post, Webster and Kalas completed more passes than any other players on the pitch. What is evident, and perhaps expected, is that Kalas and Baker are not quite on the same wavelength yet. Baker completed less passes than any other outfield player with just 14. He attempted to play the ball 26 times and therefore had a pass completion of just 53.8%:

image.png.ea09f005527bf789860f3663ba1dafaf.png

Another point which is quite interesting from this, is that he only attempted to pass to Kalas three times (the three lateral balls at the edge of our defensive third. It was quite a contrast to Webster who passed to Kalas 18 times last week. 

The Czech Republic international was as efficient as ever with the ball at his feet, completing 32 (76.2%) of his 42 passes:

image.png.a452172abc727160feab5ced9c770f09.png

Against Bolton, he shifted the ball left to Webster on 13 occasions which only comes with trust and experience of playing alongside each other. This week, it was a slightly different story, only passing to his fellow centre back on two occasions, whilst instead opting to pass the ball to Pack on 7 occasions, hitting the ball longer to Diedhiou 6 times and spreading it wide to Pisano on 5 instances. 

Whilst you cannot infer too much from a comparison of a single game against another, the data is quite interesting. One stat which is most important and cannot be denied though is the clean sheet. Another fantastic defensive performance, highlighting the excellent depth in the squad with four changes to the back 5.  
 

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1 hour ago, Coppello said:

Given that Fielding started in goal yesterday, I thought it would be worth revisiting this thread to see how we compared. Of course, nothing is conclusive comparing two games, but the results are quite interesting. Baker came in for the injured Webster who is probably the most comfortable defender on the ball to ever play in a City backline. 
What is clear is that Fielding tended to go long as opposed to playing it out from the back: 
 
image.png.c9e80549bdac338e2bf2dc0975158135.png

This resulted in a pass completion of just 24% compared with Maenpaa's 54% last week. Watching the game yesterday, I recall a number of instances where our fullbacks were marked at goal kicks, forcing Fielding to hit a hopeful ball forward towards Diedhiou. The lone frontman actually had more success in the air, winning 43.5% of aerial duels on Saturday, compared with 3 from 8 against Bolton last week (green denotes success and orange means duel lost):


image.png.745fa580c2599c039855cab1cb4aa9a6.png
A couple of points to note from this. Of course, not all of these duels were as a result of kicks directly from Fielding but the area between the halfway line and the final third are those received from the keeper. In addition to this, Diedhiou was a lot busier than compared with last week. For example, he was involved in 23 duels compared with 10 during against Bolton. 

Last Saturday, as discussed in my opening post, Webster and Kalas completed more passes than any other players on the pitch. What is evident, and perhaps expected, is that Kalas and Baker are not quite on the same wavelength yet. Baker completed less passes than any other outfield player with just 14. He attempted to play the ball 26 times and therefore had a pass completion of just 53.8%:

image.png.ea09f005527bf789860f3663ba1dafaf.png

Another point which is quite interesting from this, is that he only attempted to pass to Kalas three times (the three lateral balls at the edge of our defensive third. It was quite a contrast to Webster who passed to Kalas 18 times last week. 

The Czech Republic international was as efficient as ever with the ball at his feet, completing 32 (76.2%) of his 42 passes:

image.png.a452172abc727160feab5ced9c770f09.png

Against Bolton, he shifted the ball left to Webster on 13 occasions which only comes with trust and experience of playing alongside each other. This week, it was a slightly different story, only passing to his fellow centre back on two occasions, whilst instead opting to pass the ball to Pack on 7 occasions, hitting the ball longer to Diedhiou 6 times and spreading it wide to Pisano on 5 instances. 

Whilst you cannot infer too much from a comparison of a single game against another, the data is quite interesting. One stat which is most important and cannot be denied though is the clean sheet. Another fantastic defensive performance, highlighting the excellent depth in the squad with four changes to the back 5.  
 

Definitely agree with this (fantastic) analysis, but I think playing against Forest's 2 up front vs playing against Bolton's 0 up front probably made it more difficult to pass sideways between our centre backs. 

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1 hour ago, Pugofwar said:

Definitely agree with this (fantastic) analysis, but I think playing against Forest's 2 up front vs playing against Bolton's 0 up front probably made it more difficult to pass sideways between our centre backs. 

Another brilliant analysis by @Coppello

2 up front vs effectively striker less formation can work both ways. It can make it harder to do the slow buildup between Kalas and Webster but that's why Kalas as he is effective on the ball should have a little more license than he currently does IMO. Webster is expansive with his passing then Kalas is sound if more simple with his- Fielding replacing Maenpaa also affected this because you can create a triangle stage 1 with Kalas-Webster-Maenpaa more readily than Kalas-Webster-Fielding and definitely more so than Kalas-Baker-Fielding. Then you bring Pack as the first '1' in the 4-1-4-1 into play and suddenly you can beat the press quite well and then you're away a bit, outnumbering Forest in midfield to take this example-  that is with the preferred Kalas-Webster-Maenpaa option and possibly to an extent Kalas-Baker-Maenpaa. 

Kalas-Webster-Maenpaa, bringing as it does then options with 2 technicaly good CB's and then Pack as the first '1'- undoubtedly our best ball playing combination in respect of goalie to midfield of the current squad and those who are fit.

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