The pitch IS narrower...

[Calculus]

Am always a bit suspicious about crossing statistics. Well do I remember the dog days that were the Pulis era - he used to regularly claim that we made 30 or 40 crosses in a single match. Of course, he was counting anything hoofed high into the box from just about anywhere. As far as crosses go the debate should always be about quality not just dumb quantity. On a good day Joe and Patto can both provide quality, and judging by Eliasson's YouTube clips so can he. O'Dowda on the other hand...

[Sixtyseconds]

On 8/10/2017 at 16:13, bearded_red said:

Whilst I understand people's concerns about potential reasoning behind narrowing the pitch and get how it may lead people to assume that we're doing it to play some horrible, negative defensive football, on the small amount of evidence I've witnessed this season (one friendly, one league game against poor opposition and a cup tie against a much changed lower league team) I don't think it is fair. 

It is of course true that playing on as narrow a pitch as possible would be the first and most obvious decision if you wanted to play Pulis anti-football, I remember thinking the whole thing was incredibly embarrassing the other year when Stoke were in the Europa League and they clearly had two different sets of pitch markings as the minimum size pitch in European competition was larger than in the Premier League. 

On the other hand, and of course people may disagree, but I have enjoyed watching Spurs in the last two seasons more than any other Premier League team and something that helps them play their high energy, aggressive pressing game and enables them to pin teams into their own half is that White Hart Lane had one of the smallest playing areas in the PL. In fact part of their struggles in the Champions League last season was that they found playing such a press much more difficult on a larger pitch and allowed (admittedly higher quality) opposition to play around them. In fact by all accounts in preparation for playing all their games at Wembley this season Pochettino had made sure all the pitches at their training ground have been made bigger so that they get used to playing their high press on a larger surface.

Now, and I again admit this is a rather small sample, but what I have been liked about our play in the three homes games this season is our high energy and in particular Reid, Brownhill and Paterson pressing right from the front. A smaller pitch, although not quite as small as it was against Twente, will enable that press to be more successful. In fact if the rumours are true about City actually getting the ball rolling in regards to selling Flint then a desire to play with a higher press which then leads to playing a higher back line does make that more believable as such a high line would expose Flint's weaknesses. The way we finished last season and have started this with Brownhill and Paterson out 'wide' in what is nominaly a 442 means any space down the flanks could be exposed by teams and an easy way of getting past our initial press.

As for the point about width/wingers I think we all find an Adomah like player highly entertaining, but there is always arguments about lack of end product. In fact in the Premier League teams average 18 crosses per match and on average a goal is scored once in 92 crosses. So roughly a cross leads to a goal once every five games. That of course doesn't mean never cross the ball and by looking at Diedhou's goals for Angers it would significantly decrease his goal scoring opportunities if we were to never cross the ball. It does however mean that crossing is a much smaller part of scoring goals than maybe us fans think and you need to be a lot more selective as to when to cross the ball then simply just flinging it in at every opportunity.

In possession we should of course be looking to make the pitch as wide as possible, but that width will come from the fullbacks rather than wingers. We have all seen teams with much more talented players than us become incredibly easy to defend against by only using the middle eighteen yards of the field so it is obvious we still need to move the ball out wide, it's just that it may not mean smashing out to an Albert/Murray and hoping they beat three men on their own.

Having said all of that I am always slightly cynical when I see things said such as 'way we play' as I can't help thinking a team like ours is never more than two defeats (and not even that many judging Johnson on last season) of completely ripping it up and playing in an entirely different manner. I must admit that during the pre-season to 2014/15 I openly doubted people confidently saying 'we will play 352 this season' and being the cynic I am and couldn't help thinking 'yeah until we lose a game'. Thankfully of course I was proven utterly wrong in those doubts and I hope this season that we actually do have an identity in our play and a style that we can say 'that's what a City team looks like', too often the only remaining characteristics from a City team from one week to the next is that they're pretty ******* terrible.

If I am in any way correct that the smaller pitch is designed to in one way or another replicate how Spurs have gone about things in the last couple of years and we're looking to press teams high up and in attempt to pin them in their own half then I look forward to watching us play this season. Me being me however I'll qualify that by saying that maybe next time we go to Ashton Gate the smaller pitch will be used so we can defend our eighteen yard box all afternoon and smash balls aimlessly at Đurić..

Own up.

You got a subscription to 4-4-2 magazine and the numbers game in paper back for Christmas didn't you?

[bearded_red]

19 minutes ago, Sixtyseconds said:

Own up.

You got a subscription to 4-4-2 magazine and the numbers game in paper back for Christmas didn't you?

Yeah the crossing stat is absolutely stolen from 442. Unfortunately I haven't even heard of the numbers game so I'm innocent on that one.

[Sixtyseconds]

2 hours ago, bearded_red said:

Yeah the crossing stat is absolutely stolen from 442. Unfortunately I haven't even heard of the numbers game so I'm innocent on that one.

Numbers game.

Might interest.

Full of league points and possession and effect of substitutions on score deficits graphs and stats.

Including this corners are only worth 0.022 goals = one goal every ten games in the EPL.

Aden Flint might be worth a few more bob than we think ..