BaTmAn
Well-Known Member
A couple of years ago I had the choice of doing a masters in Performance/Data Analysis in Sport and decided, for better or worse, to become a high school teacher instead. But in the months leading up to this decision (as well as the many years working in football coaching) I read as much as I could about what data can tell us about football; things like which type of corner most often resulted in goals (it’s an in-swinger to the near post if you’re interested) etc etc
One thing that struck me hugely is the highly inefficient tactic, used for decades, of crossing the ball from a wide area into the penalty box. According to the data only 1 in 91.92 crosses leads to a goal.
With teams that play 4-3-3, as we do, their crossing will come from the fullback area, meaning these wide forwards can overload the box and give a greater chance of getting on the end of things. Most of the time though chances are created through quick passing and moving between the front three.
In a 4-4-2 formation crossing would come from both full backs (usually overlapping) and both wide forwards. You’d sacrifice midfield superiority for an extra man in the box attempting to get on the end of crosses coming from one or two wide men.
My biggest concern with Gerrard, as much as I love the guy still, isn’t the Worrall/Katic conundrum (which is utterly baffling) it’s that we continuously pump balls into the box, from open play, to one striker (usually the diminutive Morelos). We aren’t playing a fluid 4-3-3 but nor are we playing 4-4-2. We seem to play a very inefficient mix of both. And this isn't just a today problem, this has been the case since the beginning of the season.
We are a great counter attacking team (and a great backs against the wall team, hence the Europa run) but in the SPL we can't counter against teams that have little interest in attacking.
Today Tavernier, Candeias, Middleton, Halliday and Barisic threw cross after cross into the box to absolutely no effect whatsoever. The ball would be passed from centre half to full back, full back to wide forward who would cross either to a Dundee head or their keeper would catch it. It was soul destroying to watch.
Our central midfield area would usually be by-passed, we would very rarely play the ball into Lafferty’s feet and instead we played into their hands (and Livingston’s, Kilmarnock’s, Motherwell’s, Celtic’s etc). Even Hearts last week we got lucky. We made a painfully average centre half in Berra look decent purely because we gave him so much to head away.
It’s a long post and I’m sure there will be those that disagree but………surely Gerrard must realise this right? Do we really think that a new No10 is going to change it all?
One thing that struck me hugely is the highly inefficient tactic, used for decades, of crossing the ball from a wide area into the penalty box. According to the data only 1 in 91.92 crosses leads to a goal.
With teams that play 4-3-3, as we do, their crossing will come from the fullback area, meaning these wide forwards can overload the box and give a greater chance of getting on the end of things. Most of the time though chances are created through quick passing and moving between the front three.
In a 4-4-2 formation crossing would come from both full backs (usually overlapping) and both wide forwards. You’d sacrifice midfield superiority for an extra man in the box attempting to get on the end of crosses coming from one or two wide men.
My biggest concern with Gerrard, as much as I love the guy still, isn’t the Worrall/Katic conundrum (which is utterly baffling) it’s that we continuously pump balls into the box, from open play, to one striker (usually the diminutive Morelos). We aren’t playing a fluid 4-3-3 but nor are we playing 4-4-2. We seem to play a very inefficient mix of both. And this isn't just a today problem, this has been the case since the beginning of the season.
We are a great counter attacking team (and a great backs against the wall team, hence the Europa run) but in the SPL we can't counter against teams that have little interest in attacking.
Today Tavernier, Candeias, Middleton, Halliday and Barisic threw cross after cross into the box to absolutely no effect whatsoever. The ball would be passed from centre half to full back, full back to wide forward who would cross either to a Dundee head or their keeper would catch it. It was soul destroying to watch.
Our central midfield area would usually be by-passed, we would very rarely play the ball into Lafferty’s feet and instead we played into their hands (and Livingston’s, Kilmarnock’s, Motherwell’s, Celtic’s etc). Even Hearts last week we got lucky. We made a painfully average centre half in Berra look decent purely because we gave him so much to head away.
It’s a long post and I’m sure there will be those that disagree but………surely Gerrard must realise this right? Do we really think that a new No10 is going to change it all?