Is it acceptable

[Harryboy]

Gutted I've lost to Tarbie, the taste of defeat is really hard to swallow

That was Linda Lovelace's famous words

[QPRActon]

Yes good post.....

[nasser95]

IMO stats don't make a player or performance. Think most of it is based on quantity than quality. Look at Joe Allen, I bet his stats are incredible. But he is pony, he passes sideways most of the time, little 5-10 yard balls.. Not very risky or entertaining.

I know your a big fan of Onouha but for me, he was dreadful early on in the season, but he was ranked as one of the best defenders. He has sorted himself out and I think him and Hall are building a great partnership.

Just don't believe stats tell the whole story.

Never said they tell the whole story, and you have to combine them with what you see. But disregarding stats because they are stats is wrong IMO mate. I saw Onuoha at the start of the season getting a lot of hate and I saw a stat which stood out as his Interceptions. He made the most of any player in the league this season. I looked at that and decided to focus in on it and see him in game doing it so I watched the matches on player and when I came to the stadium and he made a huge amount of crucial interceptions that midfield should have positioned themselves better for. It became so clear to me that the midfield duo was the problem initially yet a lot of people wanted to blame them and Onuoha for the defensive problems. So again, I went to the matches looking to focus on those areas and you could see that the issues were very much there. Look at those first few matches where the duo was Henry and Faurlin/Luongo and the fact that we were conceding two goals a game as a result. If you review it all on Player, you can see a lack of cover from the midfield was allowing more to go through to the defence. Onuoha had to make more interceptions because there was more play around him. Then look at the Huddersfield game and all it took was one change to the midfield and the inclusion of Hall to get a clean sheet. Simply bringing the faster Doughty into the middle of the park over Henry allowed more cover -> Less work for Onuoha and Hall -> Higher proportion of chances stopped. Then Sandro came in and again, the effects are obvious. If you limit the supply of the opposition passing into the final third to the bare minimum from the midfield, logically, there is less for the defence to do and chances are, they'll do it much better as a result. Then look again at the match against Wolves on saturday. 103 passes were allowed to get into the final third, beyond the midfield. Look at the same match away from home where we conceded two and we allowed 118 of those passes to come through. That's about 15% more forward ground passes into the final third by Wolves and look at the difference in the midfield partnership. This saturday it was Luongo and Henry, away from home it was Faurlin and Henry. Key difference there was pace. Replace Henry with Faurlin and expect even fewer passes to get through. Replace him with Sandro and you'll see even fewer get through but then you lose penetration into their final third.

So focussing on Onuoha as a negative early in the season for me was harsh because he had so much more to do back then, eventually a mistake was going to be made. Pique could be playing with the Cambridge United youth squad and get criticised for making more mistakes than usual because of how much he has to do. That to me is why stats are useful in helping build a bigger picture of everything.

[nasser95]

IMO stats don't make a player or performance. Think most of it is based on quantity than quality. Look at Joe Allen, I bet his stats are incredible. But he is pony, he passes sideways most of the time, little 5-10 yard balls.. Not very risky or entertaining.

I know your a big fan of Onouha but for me, he was dreadful early on in the season, but he was ranked as one of the best defenders. He has sorted himself out and I think him and Hall are building a great partnership.

Just don't believe stats tell the whole story.

Also, they have filters for all sorts of passes, including those seemingly useless sideways passes and hence, Joe Allen had tended to get a low rating average since joining liverpool haha.

[nasser95]

Would just like to say that as predicted above, a midfield duo of Faurlin and Luongo were capable of aiding in the keeping of a clean sheet against a team who have scored in all but two of their home matches this season. Away from home, we limited them to 100 forward passes into the final third and hence, there was much less to deal with for our centre backs. Having a midfield duo who can work well together will be key in defensive success. Add on the fact that Faurlin is able to create more and allow others around him to create (13 key passes played) and you can see that our early season woes weren't really down to Onuoha as much as the duo in front of him.

[acricketer]

Another damp squab tonite!

[72bus]

Would just like to say that as predicted above, a midfield duo of Faurlin and Luongo were capable of aiding in the keeping of a clean sheet against a team who have scored in all but two of their home matches this season. Away from home, we limited them to 100 forward passes into the final third and hence, there was much less to deal with for our centre backs. Having a midfield duo who can work well together will be key in defensive success. Add on the fact that Faurlin is able to create more and allow others around him to create (13 key passes played) and you can see that our early season woes weren't really down to Onuoha as much as the duo in front of him.

don't blame it on the sunshine , don't blame it on the moonlight , don't blame it on the good times blame it on the front two

[upperloft]

Would just like to say that as predicted above, a midfield duo of Faurlin and Luongo were capable of aiding in the keeping of a clean sheet against a team who have scored in all but two of their home matches this season. Away from home, we limited them to 100 forward passes into the final third and hence, there was much less to deal with for our centre backs. Having a midfield duo who can work well together will be key in defensive success. Add on the fact that Faurlin is able to create more and allow others around him to create (13 key passes played) and you can see that our early season woes weren't really down to Onuoha as much as the duo in front of him.

To be honest Nas, since Hall came back in he has steadied the ship. A lot of the goals I saw early on in the season NO was out of position, where is the stat for that?? It wasn't just Onouha but I expected more from him being our 'best defender', one of the clubs top earners and Captain.

Warnock and JFH play a very cautious and defensive game, we will not concede a lot of goals but were suffering at the other end. This has got to give??

[Ginger Ninja]

Another damp squab tonite!

You don't think that was a good result?

[CroydonCaptainJack]

Another damp squab tonite!

Unbeaten in thirteen now Forest, that was a decent point.

[acricketer]

The pun was too tempting! Good point against an in form team.

[nasser95]

To be honest Nas, since Hall came back in he has steadied the ship. A lot of the goals I saw early on in the season NO was out of position, where is the stat for that?? It wasn't just Onouha but I expected more from him being our 'best defender', one of the clubs top earners and Captain.

Warnock and JFH play a very cautious and defensive game, we will not concede a lot of goals but were suffering at the other end. This has got to give??

They actually take into account goals caused by his poor positioning and those affect his score on whoscored.com More so, I think only 2 goals were down to Ned more than anyone else and those were Blackburn and one other I can't remember. Irrespective, the point I was making was that he was bound to make a mistake given that he was dealing with 10% more of the ball than he should be.

[Tarbie]

Unbeaten in thirteen now Forest, that was a decent point.

Yeah, decent point against a form side to be fair.

Obviously we still need to improve and we need to find some goals from somewhere but I think we'll be ok................not that I want to count my chickens or anything! ;-)