And the new guy at Rangers has turned them around.
I don't believe our squad is crap, I believe selections and tactics are crap.
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Manager Thomas Frank
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I don't believe our squad is crap, I believe selections and tactics are crap.
I don't believe it's the form , results last season were as bad as they are now no doubt, worse during the last quarter. But the football wasn't quite as dull and cowardly
Our total XG last season after 38 games = 59.49
Total XG so far this season after 21 games = 21.4
But on a positive Frank only needs 5 more wins to beat last season's win count which he should achieve
You'd have to look at how much xG we've lost through not having our top 4 scorers from last season, mind.
xG isn't really a marker of attractive football, just quality of shots on goal.
Our 'shot creating actions' was 23.3/90 last season and is 17.71 this season
Our 'goal creating actions' was 2.79/90 last season and is 2.14 this season
So even though the impression is that we were playing more attractive, attacking football last season, we weren't.
And that is also bearing in mind that we were suffering from CB/GK injuries, which shouldn't have had a massive impact on that figure, but certainly will with the types of injuries we've had this season
Exactly. There were hundreds of complaints on here last season that our attacking was a pile of rubbish.
Sorry if I'm being dumb, but surely the above stats suggest that we were playing more attractive, attacking football last season don't they? Or am I misunderstanding the stats (or your interpretation of them)?
He's going nowhere... Get used to it
1. We won't want to pay the compensation to him and his staff.
2. The board won't want to admit they got it wrong yet again and will drag their feet as long as they can.
3. Franks not had his best eleven fit all season due to long-term injuries and I suspect he's been granted some dispensation for this by the board who as I mentioned in a post elsewhere look to have pretty much written this season off. Of course they won't say that part out loud , but the lack of activity in the window speaks volumes.
4. There is nobody out there that would want to come here. If United are struggling to get a full time manager and going with a stop gap it's indicative that it's a bit barren.
5. The board have indicated they want to give a manager time.
So we are just going to have to suck it up or stop watching for a while until it gets better, or it doesn't and he eventually goes. Probably end of the season at the absolute earliest.
1. We won't want to pay the compensation to him and his staff.
2. The board won't want to admit they got it wrong yet again and will drag their feet as long as they can.
3. Franks not had his best eleven fit all season due to long-term injuries and I suspect he's been granted some dispensation for this by the board who as I mentioned in a post elsewhere look to have pretty much written this season off. Of course they won't say that part out loud , but the lack of activity in the window speaks volumes.
4. There is nobody out there that would want to come here. If United are struggling to get a full time manager and going with a stop gap it's indicative that it's a bit barren.
5. The board have indicated they want to give a manager time.
So we are just going to have to suck it up or stop watching for a while until it gets better, or it doesn't and he eventually goes. Probably end of the season at the absolute earliest.
So would you say xG is a reasonably good marker of playing 'effective attacking football', i.e. football that regularly gets you in a position to have high-quality goal chances (or lots of lower quality ones), thereby giving a relatively high probability of scoring more goals?
Tbf the squads at Rangers and Celtic are already the two best squads in that league. They were considerably under-performing relative to talent.
Spurs are... not... anywhere near that level.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJrZ4nr86m0
Tel goal - solo effort - not a team/attacking coherence kind of thing. A bit of improvisation from Xavi to set him away, no real support for him on the left so he went for it on his own, beat a man and shot through 5/6 players. I was pleased to see 2 others in the box and 3 on the edge of the box, so think that there was more support generally, but this didnt at all feel like "attacking play" to me
Evanilson goal - excellent cross and header. At the point he scores we have 7 outfield players in the box, 10 behind the ball - and no one pressuring the crosser. We consistently seem to get back, but not actually "defend". Its like taking positions to clear the ball is how we try to do it. Also Sensei is completely unmarked in Porros area, so if the cross didnt go to Evanilson he could have been a real danger, we are passive and not at all proactive.
Kroupi goal - barely any pressure on the cross. When it comes in we have 7 in our box again. Yet they have players completely unmarked again (I think its Semenyo is standing on our penalty spot and has a free swing at the ball but misses). Its just a mess.
Richarlison hits the post - Corner situation. Something we are genuinely strong at, and clearly put work into.
VDV Penalty claim - look at the video at 1:08 - He runs it from a CB position, and at the point he enters the box he has 4 Bournemouth players on him - and we have only Richarlison in the box. No one else near. He out paces Spence, Xavi and Odobert while carrying the ball by some distance while Tel is holding width on the left. What initially bothered me was the idea that a CB would just go for it to try and make something happen, but what bothers me more now is that when he does - no one goes with him!
Palinha goal - amazing solo effort - corner situation again, where we are competitive as usual, but he makes something out of nothing there.
VDV header - another corner situation
Semenyo winner - 7 in the box, marking nobody, we're just shielding in front of the box letting them play - not really actively hunting the ball or pressuring them. Semenyo gets it, no real pressure and all the time he wants to pick his spot
Ive seen the argument around "if we got that penalty" "if richies header goes in" " we had enough shots to win..."
And yes, ifs buts and maybes, I can see the thinking. We conceivably did enough to win/get a point
The problem I have with that, is that for me - its not really reflective of performance. We might have had more shots, but I dont feel we were particularly good attacking at all. Goals would have glossed over that.
When we get into attacking positions it is clear we are untrained, players have no idea where to be - or where to expect others to be. So while we're going for it a bit more - while I applaud the intent - I dont feel likes its actual progress...
And defensively, we get bodies back, but we really dont actually defend that well. If anything we drop too deep and allow teams far too much freedom in front of our box - while simultaneously not defending our box well as well. We consistently allow teams to have the ball in absolute danger zones. They can play through and around us in comfort.
We do very little with possession, at best its a bit of hot-potato that actually works occassionally. More often its sideways and backwards. WIth an infuriating tendency to go back to Vicario even when forward passes are on.
Players arent performing, Im not saying they are. But the greater issues here, for me, are structural. I dont think the players buy into how Frank wants them to play, and to be honest I dont blame them - I suspect they can see its faults as obviously as we can...
I don't think it is, in terms of what fans would say.
You could play low-block and counter against a strong pressing side like Liverpool and get good xG that way, but people would tend to not see it as 'effective attacking football' if it was a smash and grab.
It's mostly why stats don't really work in football, despite people trying to force it all the time. It's far much nuanced that way.
Fans are quite fickle though and will have contradictory metrics on what makes a game 'attractive' or 'attacking', because you could have AVB style football where you don't let the opponent get the ball and yet also barely get a shot on goal because the other team has 11 behind the ball. People would say it's not effective or attacking, even if 99% of the match is in the opponents half.
Equally, you could be the team on the other side of that, who spend 1% of the match - a mere 30 seconds per counter - and score two goals with an xG of 2. Watching 89 mins of defending would probably not qualify either
Just playing devil's advocate here, but there is a counter-argument to most of those points:
1. We won't want to pay the compensation to him and his staff.
True, but we've done it many times before so it wouldn't exactly be a shock.
2. The board won't want to admit they got it wrong yet again and will drag their feet as long as they can.
As above - and in many ways, this one feels a bit like Nuno, and if we had a high-calibre manager available that we liked, then Frank might already have gone...
3. Franks not had his best eleven fit all season due to long-term injuries and I suspect he's been granted some dispensation for this by the board who as I mentioned in a post elsewhere look to have pretty much written this season off. Of course they won't say that part out loud , but the lack of activity in the window speaks volumes.
I expect you're right, but it could equally be that they don't want to bring in any players now if they recognise that they might have to sack Frank in the next week or so.
4. There is nobody out there that would want to come here. If United are struggling to get a full time manager and going with a stop gap it's indicative that it's a bit barren.
Or have United decided who they want and need to wait for the summer to get them?
5. The board have indicated they want to give a manager time.
Don't all boards always say that, pretty much up until the day the manager is fired?
Not saying I necessarily agree with your analysis, but there is another plausible way of looking at each of those points...
Why has this mop head not been sacked yet
Courtesy BJK
This was the match squad of Conte's first league game in charge, the guy who got 105 points from 56 league games.
105 / 56 = 1.88
1.88 x 38 = 71.5
I see a quite ordinary group of players except the obvious two in Kane and Son.
Frank's tactics suck.
But he didn't get 105 points with that same line up
We have some very good players and I believe Frank is not getting the best out of them.
Why was Berg on the wing last night when Oddjob was fit?
Yeah I see that get brought up a lot. Frank had access all season to Johnson who scored 20 goals under ange S1.
Don't think solanke, kulu or son would offer anything under this Frank team that the replacements haven't
Really, tactics just not set up for it.
Would Ange get more goals and assist out of xavi, muani, Kudus .....I'm gonna say most likely
View: https://youtu.be/sFQV-10bcAo?si=1utbJ5V9agTE6nBU
Lots of good points from Simon Jordan as usual.
Excellent post mate
I'm just honestly amazed that we managed to get worse after sacking Poch. Not points wise but just general feel around the club.
Truly outstanding work ENIC.
Truly outstanding work ENIC.
