Lies, damned lies and frustrating statistics

[gloryglory]

I thought it quite interesting in the Chelsea vs Arsenal game how the commentators referred to the fact that Drogba only has one hat-trick in the EPL.

That might be true... but what Drogba offers is regular goals rather than the Feast/Famine we seem to be getting at the moment.

Consistency is key and currently our strikers for whatever reason don't seem to be able to score on a regular basis.

What is hurting us most though is still the lack of goals from midfield at the moment.

Again as a comparison, how many goals do Lampard, Gerrard, Fabregas get a season?!

Lennon is the one player I feel we have missed the most... and whilst Bentley is taking his chance well, we need goals as well as performances from himself and any of the other 3 playing across the middle.

R.

Drogba is an interesting comparison, because he goes on season-long scoring sprees, but also has near-season-long droughts. On form I will hold that he is more effective than Torres (and hence the most difficult striker to play against in the world), but off form he is bizarrely leaden and lacks basic ball control, which he then compounds by falling over and sulking even more than usual.

Torres is the only striker who hasn't had a run of bad form in front of goal. Most other strikers score in bursts. Keane always used to have half a season of almost a goal a game, and there are plenty of others who have done stunning half-seasons followed by prolonged droughts - for us, Mido was another, while Rooney has tended to follow that model in the past, or Anelka, and Viduka was another prime cuplrit, genius or disaster depending what day you caught him.

Defoe is just another striker who blows hot and cold. Our problem now is we are too dependent on him. Just as Keane might have been worth a run ...

 

[Ryan]

Unfortunately/fortunately he's just the same old Defoe.

 

[DC_Boy]

As stats go what about 6 points from 15 in 2010 or 3 goals in 5 league games this year? Wasteful in attack and increasingly predictable is how I see us at the moment.

When we should now have left Liverpool and co well behind we are now possibly going to drop to 6th after citeeh play. I think we have missed our chance to finish 4th and the recent transfer window movements did nothing to convince me otherwise.

good post

 

[dannythomas]

We need goals from our midfield and frankly the midfielders most likely to chip in are Kranjcar Lennon and Jenas. Hudd just never looks like scoring and in the absence of Lennon it makes it all the more important that Kranjcar and Jenas are included. While Lennon is out a midfield of Kranjcar- Jenas- WP- Modric makes the most sense to me. If Hudd is preferred to Jenas he should be told to get further up the pitch and let WP do the defending. We cant rely on Defoe to do all the scoring.
Up front I am sorry but Crouch is the problem not Defoe. His scoring record is very poor - I remember when he first joined Liverpool he took forever to get his first goal. Put Defoe next to either Pav or Eidur and I am convinced we would do better against these packed defences. Crouch just slows everything down and allows defences to regroup. Let's not forget that in spite of all the criticism of the Keane- Defoe combo we had a brilliant start to the season when they played together and Gudjohnsen is at least as good as Keane.

 

[Boony]

I would consider Eidur, in PL terms, as a 50-60k per week striker at best

Ive heard we pay £30k a week of his wages

 

[DefoeFan]

Defoe and crouch out for one game. Eidur & PAV in,,What can we lose, Another 2 points, So what, That happens every week.

 

[Gilzeanking]

The goals per shots on target stats just confirm what many were already frustrated about: that too many of our shots are too close to the keeper or straight at him, especially in the last couple of months. So we get the matches like Stoke and Hull, where the keepers seem to have "a game of his life", when in fact if at least some of the shots were a little further away from the keeper and/or had more power, they would not have kept a clean sheet.

This is exactly right .Many of the 'miracle saves' were miracles because our forward should have scored..but didn't , it gets called a 'save' because the ball hit the keeper , the forward not placing his shot properly .

 

[Etrilad]

It could be argued that the reason Defoe is so often 'off-side' is that he is very qucik off the blocks and I would be interested to know how many times the assistants have got it wrong . I'm sure this info is buried somewhere very deep at Referree Headquarters (if such a place exists)

 

[kicked]

Manuuu have Rooney, Chelsea have Drogba(and Anelka), ARSEnal have van Persie(when not injured) Liverpool have Torres (when not injured) (and also Kuyt who seems to have not too bad a goal rate) This is why these guys are constantly top 4. You don't give them too many chances in the box. If you do they will eventually punish you.
We have Defoe....he is a good striker and that is it. He needs more chances to get success and that is why England are always trying to find someone better to link up with Rooney. Maybe this is why Eider has been signed. Hoping that, as we are having loads of shots, we may have someone who will more regularly shoot away from the goalkeeper rather than at him!
Against the likes of Stoke, Wolves and Hull where we are having endless supply of chances you needed someone like Defoe to make sure they count. I understand Birmingham, Villa and Everton. They were tougher games but there have been games when a 'worldclass' striker like Defoe believes he is should have been the difference.
We should be enjoying ourselves mixing it up with the top 3 rather than currently losing our way struggling for 4th!

 

[jonnyrotten]

By the way, according to the Premier League stats website Jermain Defoe has a higher goals to shots ratio than Rooney or Drogba this season. I wouldn't have expected that.

 

[millsey]

By the way, according to the Premier League stats website Jermain Defoe has a higher goals to shots ratio than Rooney or Drogba this season. I wouldn't have expected that.

is this someone speaking some factual sense on this website!first time for everything!!