Clinical Blades

[Selly]

Apologies mate busy week!

first season under wilder we had outstanding set piece moves and big units such as Jack and EEL attacking them. In terms of direct FKs, i honestly (except Vas) can't remember us having that much goal threat from direct fks in so long! Norwood's technique is of the highest level, top ball striker and therefore we might just see some goals from them now on!

Michael Brown got a few in 02-03 - quite why he didn`t take the FK right at the end of the Liverpool semi is a mystery to me...

 

[Silent Blade]

Michael Brown got a few in 02-03 - quite why he didn`t take the FK right at the end of the Liverpool semi is a mystery to me...

That is because Tommy Mooney was pestering to take the free kick after he had just come on as sub, he had only just joined us on loan. The twat!

 

[Blades Analytics]

Our pass completion in the first half would be a good stat. As would the number of times we dispossessed them.

Pass completion in 1st half was 80%

Actually dispossed them 11 times overall in the game but in terms of pressuring them to lose the ball we caused 18 "pressure losses" as its termed.

 

[Blades Analytics]

Well, having watched O'Connell last season I have seen a fair number of missed headers! (his expected goals was 4 better than actual, I recall. He's a good bet to "regress to the mean" and get a few more IMHO).

Depends on which xG model you look for mate, my model had Jack as only 3.28 xG for season so in essence he should have scored between 3-4 goals but 3 being more realistic.

Obviously a lot more than what he did get! but it was still a very low xG compared to season before. Fully expect him and Egan to be in much better scoring positions with much better delivery this season as we have seen.

 

[Selly]

That is because Tommy Mooney was pestering to take the free kick after he had just come on as sub, he had only just joined us on loan. The twat!

Well yes I know that.

Perhaps I should have said I don't know why we gave into him!!!

 

[Silent Blade]

Well yes I know that.

Perhaps I should have said I don't know why we gave into him!!!

Our captain should have stepped in to tell Mooney to "get lost"

 

[The Tea Lady]

Duffy's shot bit of a weird one though

Possibly because it was deflected*?

I didn't think so at the time - it didn't even occur to me - but on the highlights it looks like the ball might change orientation after it passes the defender. It's all a bit blurry, and I thought I was imagining things, but I watched the full first half again last night, and Kevin Gage mentioned it on radio commentary at the time, though he wasn't sure either.

To be clear, I'm not saying that it was deflected, just that it might be worth considering.


*Or "Dufflected".......

 

[oldblade]

Michael Brown got a few in 02-03 - quite why he didn`t take the FK right at the end of the Liverpool semi is a mystery to me...

And with my red, black and white spectacles on, I thought that free kick should really have been a penalty and Kirkland should have been sent off. If it had been Liverpool on the attack and us defending in similar circumstances I am sure that is what would have happened.

 

[The Tea Lady]

It's simply because it was a Header, over the shots i watched back and many other xG models headers from even simple distances are missed more frequently because they are less controllable. You're right, to the eye i completley agree, but honestly when i watched back 5000 efforts at goal you honestly see some outstanding misses from headers from that distance! 50p head doesn't even begin to explain it!

I think this is key. I sometimes trawl through the highlights from the Championship, L1 and L2 to see what the opposition are up to and what ex- and loan players are up to, and there are plenty of glaring misses (headers and shots) every week.

Of course it's nothing like a decent sample, but it really set me thinking, for instance, exactly how likely is a goal from the position Leon was in at Middlesbrough.

 

[bromtom]

Possibly because it was deflected*?

I didn't think so at the time - it didn't even occur to me - but on the highlights it looks like the ball might change orientation after it passes the defender. It's all a bit blurry, and I thought I was imagining things, but I watched the full first half again last night, and Kevin Gage mentioned it on radio commentary at the time, though he wasn't sure either.

To be clear, I'm not saying that it was deflected, just that it might be worth considering.


*Or "Dufflected".......

Can't see a dufflection haha, I think he just puts a lot of backspin on in, when it landed it went up in the air higher than you'd expect and slowed slightly. Think it was enough to put the keeper off when you add in that it was on his bad side.

 

[The Tea Lady]

The keeper should have saved Duffy's shot imho.

I am surprised O'Connell's goal has a lower xg than Sharps. O'Connell was standing on the 6 yard box unchallenged (credit to Norwood for the cross and to him for getting there); Sharp was marked and had his back to goal when he received the ball. It's mere percentage points but the Sharp chance was harder when he received the ball I think.

Billy's forward play for that goal was out of this world. It was pretty good the way he worked space for the winner against Norwich too, with their defender ending up in the net as well as the ball.

With regard to JOC's header, just to add a bit to Blades Analytics response up thread Goal Cam, particularly, on slow motion, shows, I think, a lot of technique went into that header.

Again, it's a bit blurry so it's hard to see exactly, but it looks to me like he's leaning back, and he has to work really hard to take enough pace off the ball for it not to fly over. That might well be a much better goal than it looked like at the time.

 

[The Tea Lady]

Duffy's shot

Watched it full screen on 0.25 speed, starting at 0:37. The ball is travelling as you'd expect before it gets to the defender, then starts a kind of slow knuckleball rotation after it gets past the defender. I'm going for a deflection.

 

[bromtom]

Billy's forward play for that goal was out of this world. It was pretty good the way he worked space for the winner against Norwich too, with their defender ending up in the net as well as the ball.

With regard to JOC's header, just to add a bit to Blades Analytics response up thread Goal Cam, particularly, on slow motion, shows, I think, a lot of technique went into that header.

Again, it's a bit blurry so it's hard to see exactly, but it looks to me like he's leaning back, and he has to work really hard to take enough pace off the ball for it not to fly over. That might well be a much better goal than it looked like at the time.

14.15 onwards on this video has some tasty slow mo of JOCs header.

 

[The Tea Lady]

Great pickup! i noticed this too. Small sample size perhaps but this is exactly what an opposition analyst would be looking at

Do they go into this sort of detail? (Genuine question)

It makes sense, but I just wonder how many clubs take it on board (and have the resources).

McGoldrick's shot after his run was also low to the keeper's left. There are a couple of points about this: in a way it was the natural angle, so he'd be aiming there anyway, but, given Duffy's run, it was probably the percentage play to put him in.

I wonder if the stats played a part in that piece of "decision-making" ie DM shot based on intel rather than passing based on instinct. Just a thought.

 

[The Tea Lady]

14.15 onwards on this video has some tasty slow mo of JOCs header.

Bloody hell, that's great footage. And I think the header looks even better. It's nothing like a natural angle. Jack O'Connell is magic.

 

[bromtom]

Bloody hell, that's great footage. And I think the header looks even better. It's nothing like a natural angle. Jack O'Connell is magic.

Yeah it's great. I might figure out what camera it is and send a suggestion to United. Think it's a Sony, they have 240fps and 960fps cameras.

Great header obviously.

 

[Selly]

And with my red, black and white spectacles on, I thought that free kick should really have been a penalty and Kirkland should have been sent off. If it had been Liverpool on the attack and us defending in similar circumstances I am sure that is what would have happened.

Penalty and sent off for what? Handling the ball outside the area?

 

[Wandsworth Blade]

It's simply because it was a Header, over the shots i watched back and many other xG models headers from even simple distances are missed more frequently because they are less controllable. You're right, to the eye i completley agree, but honestly when i watched back 5000 efforts at goal you honestly see some outstanding misses from headers from that distance! 50p head doesn't even begin to explain it!

I think you have spent too much time watching Conor Sammon and he's skewed your figures.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

14.15 onwards on this video has some tasty slow mo of JOCs header.

I quite like the stuff by those Villa lads. There’s some excellent DIY coverage by supporters these days. It really shows up how uninformed a lot of official / corporate media is about football outside the prem.

 

[The Tea Lady]

Yeah it's great. I might figure out what camera it is and send a suggestion to United. Think it's a Sony, they have 240fps and 960fps cameras.

Great header obviously.

Almost zero knowledge of this stuff but isn't it resolution as well? That's what really struck me about the JOC footage: the clarity of the image. Although of course frame rate means you can get even more forensic.

I think Goal Cam is across the League rather than Blades-specific.

(Googled "Goal Cam" (top result Portsmouth-Oxford for some reason ) and it looks like it is.)

 

[bromtom]

Almost zero knowledge of this stuff but isn't it resolution as well? That's what really struck me about the JOC footage: the clarity of the image. Although of course frame rate means you can get even more forensic.

I think Goal Cam is across the League rather than Blades-specific.

(Googled "Goal Cam" (top result Portsmouth-Oxford for some reason ) and it looks like it is.)

The goalcam cameras are GoPros (or GoPro knockoffs) so they're probably capable of the same resolution as the Villa lads' video (1080p) but they're on for 105 minutes at least so they probably knock the resolution down to 720p to increase the recording time.

So resolution comes into it but the reason that video looks so good is mainly the slowmo and the lens. GoPros have wide angle fish eye lenses so they can get the whole net in, the Villa lads' camera has I think a 50mm lens on it, which is what you use for portraits and stuff, so it has a really nice sharp focus and nice depth of field. Makes everything look Hollywood.

It'd be great to have some people dotted around filming stuff in such high quality though because iFollow is still the one camera (even though I heard rumours of it being 4 camera this season).

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Sharp was flagged offside, which is perhaps why it doesn't register.

Ah ok hadn't realised that

 

[oldblade]

Penalty and sent off for what? Handling the ball outside the area?

It looked to me like he also fouled Wayne Allison and the foul started inside the box.
Time after time on MOTD you hear the premier league pundits calling it a penalty because there was the slightest bit of contact in the box. To my one eyed, tunnel vision Kirkland made more than just slight contact with Allison before sliding out of the box and handling.