Leeds v Norwich

[Bill Johnson]

I would absolutely love Weeds to cease to exist. If Kim doobryfurkin could see his way clear to testing one of his ICBMs on the place id be very happy.
As long as it took out Look North and Calender.

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

All this fawning praise for Norwich and talk of them pulling away at the top is more than a little puzzling. The stats from the Leeds game don't suggest they are likely to walk away with this league, and anyone who watched that game must have considered they had some luck surely! OK - they worked their butts off to close Leeds down and stop their momentum, but they had significantly fewer shots and only 37% possession. We got a point down their place and weren't at our best by any means.
If Leeds had got the 1st goal, or equalised when they were all over Norwich like a rash, then it probably would have been a very different game. Objectivity is difficult for football fans; I accept that, but yet again Blades fans demonstrate their anxieties and natural pessimism. Not long ago fans on this forum had written off the top two as out-of-reach for us and were whittling about managing a playoff place.
SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE RIDE FOLKS!

 

[I should coco]

Personally if it ended up as us Norwich and you going up i would like that. 3 sides who havent spent the earth, 3 sides who play nice football, be decent that.

Sorry mate but one of that 3 would be DirtyLeeds and no self respecting Yorkshireman who supports another team, can want that.

The whole Revie cheating/dirty 70s team/Clough sacking/seatsmasher fans has left you with massive negative goodwill in God's own county. Thanks for coming on here and posting sensible stuff in an intelligent and reasoned way, but I can only hope you go out of business tomorrow.

 

[8lade]

I agree with that, don't really care (in a positive way) for anybody other than the Blades but there are teams I dislike and ideally leeds would end up 7th, Norwich wouldn't go up either. Not bothered who else in the mix gets promoted except for geographical reasons.

 

[Dkc]

Living outside the UK, some of my best mates were Leeds fans. They were sound, a lot like us (but a bit more arrogant)

Saying that, I'd love to see them fuck it up spectacularly this year.

 

[BushBlade]

All this fawning praise for Norwich and talk of them pulling away at the top is more than a little puzzling. The stats from the Leeds game don't suggest they are likely to walk away with this league, and anyone who watched that game must have considered they had some luck surely! OK - they worked their butts off to close Leeds down and stop their momentum, but they had significantly fewer shots and only 37% possession. We got a point down their place and weren't at our best by any means.
If Leeds had got the 1st goal, or equalised when they were all over Norwich like a rash, then it probably would have been a very different game. Objectivity is difficult for football fans; I accept that, but yet again Blades fans demonstrate their anxieties and natural pessimism. Not long ago fans on this forum had written off the top two as out-of-reach for us and were whittling about managing a playoff place.
SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE RIDE FOLKS!

They’re not key stats though really. Possession is irrelevant, what were Leicester’s possession stats when they won the league?
Number of shots is less relevant than shots on target which in turn are less relevant than XGs.

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

They’re not key stats though really. Possession is irrelevant, what were Leicester’s possession stats when they won the league?
Number of shots is less relevant than shots on target which in turn are less relevant than XGs.

Possession is NOT irrelevant - far from it. If it was then the Blades would be screwed as they seem to be very good at it. The Leicester City model of success is hardly a template that many teams are ever going to try to emulate; a bit of a "flash-in-the-pan" wasn't it?
Norwich played very well, but the scoreline flattered them. They will not walk away with the Championship Title. All this talk about certain teams having X number of games v top 6 teams or Y number of games v bottom teams would be relevant in the Prem - but this is the Championship, and we all know there's no such thing as a sure thing in any game in this division.

 

[Dkc]

Possession is NOT irrelevant - far from it. If it was then the Blades would be screwed as they seem to be very good at it. .

No one's saying possession is an irrelevant stat but often teams take the lead then invite the opposition to come at them, hoping to catch them on the break. Thus the losing team often has far more possession.

 

[Cjay]

If I had the choice of 3 teams to go up I’d probably pick us, Norwich and Leeds too. LU via the nerve racking play-offs ha ha.

Part of me would like to see LU return to the top flight after such a long spell out. You’re potentially a massive club and any neutral would want a club like LU there, will be interesting to see if LU think big and do a Wolves, finish top half or do a Huddersfield struggling near the bottom if you go up.

However another part of me (the bad side ha ha) would find it so funny if LU miss out. I remember over the years meeting several LU fans in the early 90’s and I can honestly say I’ve not met a more arrogant obnocious set of fans, virtually none from Leeds itself, bragging about your hooligan behaviour & saying how LU are one of the biggest clubs in the world and nearest rival to Man Utd. I’m guessing that most LU fans are now quite humble but I’m confident if and when you’re back in the PL the fan arrogance and media bias will all return. You can bet many of your fans will be expecting LU to challenge for a Champions League place in 2 or 3 years.

No no we suck at Playoffs, no playoffs please

I was a little kid in the early 90s, cant remember them. Its funny you mention the media bias, Leeds fans see it totally opposite and think the world is against us, interesting how people can view things.

The whole hooligan thing has always baffled me, maybe its generational but i think its pathetic. I went on the Millwall forum in the buildup to the Everton game and there was an Everton fan on there talking about the "proper lads gonna come down" and the Millwall fans responding in kind like Green Street, very odd.

I'm well aware we arent a "big club" now, we like other historically bigger sides like Forest have been down in the lower leagues to long to still qualify as a "big club".

But potentially and historically i think we are, we get huge viewing figures on Sky and what have you only comparable to the big Prem sides. There is definitely a rivalry with Man Utd, only have to look at there forum to see that and i do get a bit of satisfaction from seeing a 50+ page Leeds thread on the Manchester City forum to, nice to still be relevant to the big sides now i suppose.

You got to hope, i dont want us to be promoted just to be one of the pack, dont expect it to happen over night but be nice to get back to the level i grew up during, O'Leary years, top 4, Champions League etc, one day.

 

[Cjay]

Sorry mate but one of that 3 would be DirtyLeeds and no self respecting Yorkshireman who supports another team, can want that.

The whole Revie cheating/dirty 70s team/Clough sacking/seatsmasher fans has left you with massive negative goodwill in God's own county. Thanks for coming on here and posting sensible stuff in an intelligent and reasoned way, but I can only hope you go out of business tomorrow.

Haha thats fine mate, i hear that quite a bit on other forums,no worries.

I wasnt born then, i cant comment on them, i cant comment on the fans or whatever because i just dont know. Respect my teams history but since i have no first hand knowledge from then i cant start defending them or whatever. There are Leeds fans who were around then who can, isnt my place.

Very nearly did go out of business.

 

[BushBlade]

No one's saying possession is an irrelevant stat but often teams take the lead then invite the opposition to come at them, hoping to catch them on the break. Thus the losing team often has far more possession.

No, I did say that. But thanks for adding the context that I assumed was implicit.

 

[1066blade]

One things for sure, whichever three gonupmthis year, Impredict they'll all come straight back down. Not one team has shown anything like the quality or consistency of last years Fulham, let alone Wolves, and Fulham will be coming back down to prove the point.

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

No one's saying possession is an irrelevant stat but often teams take the lead then invite the opposition to come at them, hoping to catch them on the break. Thus the losing team often has far more possession.

Actually - BushBlade had said that possession was irrelevant, and I was responding to that specific statement, which quite clearly is nonsense. Now - to the statement that the losing team often has far more possession, that also does not hold up as fact. I'm not going to waste my time trawling through stats to prove that in the vast majority of cases the teams having the most possession win more games than the teams that end up with, say, around 37% possession (as in the case of Norwich City) as that surely is self-evident.
I would have thought that the Norwich game last season would have educated enough Blades fans to the principle of playing the game to the strengths of possession of the football, rather than snatching a goal and then conceding the ball to the opposition (and wedding yourself to the principle of trying to play effectively without it). The Wendy managed a point at the Lane playing that way as we all know, but is that going to be successful long term?

 

[BushBlade]

Actually - BushBlade had said that possession was irrelevant, and I was responding to that specific statement, which quite clearly is nonsense. Now - to the statement that the losing team often has far more possession, that also does not hold up as fact. I'm not going to waste my time trawling through stats to prove that in the vast majority of cases the teams having the most possession win more games than the teams that end up with, say, around 37% possession (as in the case of Norwich City) as that surely is self-evident.
I would have thought that the Norwich game last season would have educated enough Blades fans to the principle of playing the game to the strengths of possession of the football, rather than snatching a goal and then conceding the ball to the opposition (and wedding yourself to the principle of trying to play effectively without it). The Wendy managed a point at the Lane playing that way as we all know, but is that going to be successful long term?

On Saturday there were 11 championship games. Two were drawn. Of the others, the following winners had these possession stats:

Brum 47.3
Bristol C 42.6
Hull 39.7
Pigs 48.8
Boro 32.6
Wigan 43.9

So, six out of nine winners had less possession than their opponents.

 

[penthouseblade]

But potentially and historically i think we are, we get huge viewing figures on Sky and what have you only comparable to the big Prem sides. There is definitely a rivalry with Man Utd, only have to look at there forum to see that and i do get a bit of satisfaction from seeing a 50+ page Leeds thread on the Manchester City forum to, nice to still be relevant to the big sides now i suppose.

What is it with you and Manchester City? I was aware of 91 other clubs dislike of Leeds, but not Man City....

 

[Cjay]

What is it with you and Manchester City? I was aware of 91 other clubs dislike of Leeds, but not Man City....

Not a clue.

The Chelsea thread on there only has a few more pages to it, no idea what we have done to Manchester City to deserve such attention, nice though.

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

On Saturday there were 11 championship games. Two were drawn. Of the others, the following winners had these possession stats:

Brum 47.3
Bristol C 42.6
Hull 39.7
Pigs 48.8
Boro 32.6
Wigan 43.9

So, six out of nine winners had less possession than their opponents.

So - (conclusion) - two thirds of matches won are won by teams having less possession. OK - I get that, and have to bow to your superior statistical analysis. Trouble is - as you increase the sample size, your stats hit the buffers.