Land of the Giants

[GuangzhouBlade]

Before we will have a chance to sign anyone in January, we will play all of Burnley, Brighton, Southampton who are perhaps three of the biggest sides in the league.

Brighton at present are playing with four centre halves (4 of White 6ft2, Dunk 6ft3, Veltman 6ft2 and Burn 6ft7 Webster 6ft3) throw that in with Wood, Barnes, Mee and Tarkowski at Burnley and it does leave me worrying about our aerial frailties. We only have Egan who you would describe as aerially dominant and without starting WW3 again McBurnie defensively is good . This week's Blades pod mentioned how if you were a team looking at us at present you would say plenty of long balls down that lefthand side and you will cause problems.

Are we likely to see Jagielka played at LCB, his old England position, just to give us a hand with the physical battle against these teams. It's not as if were getting a great deal of overlapping at present. As good a footballer as Ampadu is he's barely 6ft and still looks as if hes got some filling out to do. Does anyone know if we can bring in foreign loan players and change the 25 man squad before January? Could it be the return of Jamal Blackman to come out an collect anything within 15 yards of his goal-line?

 

[derfblade.3]

No problem. Mcburnie will be skipping around the big guys and smashing the ball home.

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

No problem. Mcburnie will be skipping around the big guys and smashing the ball home.

No skipping it's his running "style" thats the problem...

 

[Bruce Wayne]

No problem. Mcburnie will be skipping around the big guys and smashing the ball home.

And I have just shit a gold bar.

 

[Roygbiv]

 

[Roygbiv]

Have to admit I was surprised to see the above stat

 

[Houston_Blade]

Have to admit I was surprised to see the above stat

It’s all the club tweets about nowadays, we don’t score or win so ‘aerial duels’ is the new ‘winning games’.

 

[Jon Bon II]

No problem. Mcburnie will be skipping around the big guys and smashing the ball home.

Why, does he live on Row Z?

 

[Working Class Hero]

We're very thin on the ground for players who are good in the air, and last season we had the third worst record in the league for scoring from set pieces. Yet every single week I hear at least one pundit say we're dangerous from set pieces.

 

[Rodley]

Big worry for us - how many headed goals have we conceded this season? Feels like a lot!

 

[PittsburghBlade]

Glad someone posted the stat because that genuinely is one area we DO NOT struggle in.

 

[JohnDenver]

View attachment 96410

It’s a fact bomb.

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

View attachment 96410

Be useful perhaps to see this stat separated out into offensive and defensive headers. I hate to mention him again but, you yourself said a couple of weeks ago on the pod that, McBurnie does seem to an awful lot of headers which come to nothing. This would perhaps inflate these stats?

No suprise to see Burnley up there but Brighton bottom wow!

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

Glad someone posted the stat because that genuinely is one area we DO NOT struggle in.

Other than most of the goals we've conceded thus far this season ?

 

[Roygbiv]

Be useful perhaps to see this stat separated out into offensive and defensive headers as I hate to mention him again, but you yourself said a couple of weeks ago on the pod that McBurnie does win lot of headers but many seem to come to nothing which would inflate these stats?

No suprise to see Burnley up there but Brighton bottom wow!

I'm surprised to see us so high and like you say it likely doesn't tell the whole story.

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

I'm surprised to see us so high and like you say it likely doesn't tell the whole story.

I vacillate between wanting deeper more "niche" stats such as aerial duels in defensive third (if that exists)?
And then sometimes I think its a game played by humans not robots you can't try to quantify everything leave
that to the experts.


Seems like we've nothing to worry about against Brighton, who to their credit do knock the ball about well, but just can't seem to kill teams off.

 

[CornwallBlade]

I'm surprised to see us so high and like you say it likely doesn't tell the whole story.

These stats are, to my mind BS. They’re indicative of the American influence. Pass completions is another one. I could probably make a decent % if I stood still and tapped it 3 yards every time. As GB says McBurnie does get in a lot of headers but so what? we ain’t scoring and we’re conceding headed goals. I could argue that Brighton is low because teams reckon there’s no point lobbing balls into their box as they’ll deal with it easily. It’s all bollocks, the only stats that really matter are goals for and goals against, everything else is just fodder for the pundits and nerds. Bah!
UTB

 

[Grappler]

For all you older viewers out there.......

 

[CornwallBlade]

For all you older viewers out there.......

View attachment 96416

Superb show, I loved it! Typical 60’s campness all round. I remember the chubby bloke in the front row, always doing the dirty on the others and ending up snivelling for forgiveness.

 

[PittsburghBlade]

Other than most of the goals we've conceded thus far this season ?

That's not because of our ability to win headers, we've not conceded many contested ones its our marking and too many crossed coming in the box without pressure on the ball

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

These stats are, to my mind BS. They’re indicative of the American influence. Pass completions is another one. I could probably make a decent % if I stood still and tapped it 3 yards every time. As GB says McBurnie does get in a lot of headers but so what? we ain’t scoring and we’re conceding headed goals. I could argue that Brighton is low because teams reckon there’s no point lobbing balls into their box as they’ll deal with it easily. It’s all bollocks, the only stats that really matter are goals for and goals against, everything else is just fodder for the pundits and nerds. Bah!
UTB

I'd not considered that angle with regards to Brighton. Like you say, as the stats are absolute numbers not percentage of duels won teams could quickly lose 9 out of 10 duels early on and then just not bother playing long balls for Brighton to mop up easily.

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

That's not because of our ability to win headers, we've not conceded many contested ones its our marking and too many crossed coming in the box without pressure on the ball

Fair point actually,

I still wonder if a more "traditional" centre half is likely to be positionally more aware than Stevens and Osborn are trying to work out who should be marking who and when to pass players on?

 

[CornwallBlade]

Before we will have a chance to sign anyone in January, we will play all of Burnley, Brighton, Southampton who are perhaps three of the biggest sides in the league.

Brighton at present are playing with four centre halves (4 of White 6ft2, Dunk 6ft3, Veltman 6ft2 and Burn 6ft7 Webster 6ft3) throw that in with Wood, Barnes, Mee and Tarkowski at Burnley and it does leave me worrying about our aerial frailties. We only have Egan who you would describe as aerially dominant and without starting WW3 again McBurnie defensively is good . This week's Blades pod mentioned how if you were a team looking at us at present you would say plenty of long balls down that lefthand side and you will cause problems.

Are we likely to see Jagielka played at LCB, his old England position, just to give us a hand with the physical battle against these teams. It's not as if were getting a great deal of overlapping at present. As good a footballer as Ampadu is he's barely 6ft and still looks as if hes got some filling out to do. Does anyone know if we can bring in foreign loan players and change the 25 man squad before January? Could it be the return of Jamal Blackman to come out an collect anything within 15 yards of his goal-line?

Gotta admit, when first read the opening sentence I thought “Whaaat!” Sorry GB

 

[Working Class Hero]

That stat means nothing unless it's shown with a percentage of headers won. It's blatantly obvious that teams who play the long ball more, will have won more aerial duels. They will also probably have lost more aerial duels..... because there are more aerial duels.

 

[Grappler]

Superb show, I loved it! Typical 60’s campness all round. I remember the chubby bloke in the front row, always doing the dirty on the others and ending up snivelling for forgiveness.

Alexander Fitzhugh!!

 

[blademark]

Big worry for us - how many headed goals have we conceded this season? Feels like a lot!

Quite a few, but as the attacker is invariably unmarked, it doesn't go down as a 'duel. ?