22-01-2021, 04:12 PM
(22-01-2021, 10:20 AM)Salvatore Matrecano Wrote: Ive just come across an excellent analysis on Twitter which made me think this is worth its own topic.
Both of our fullbacks are getting a lot of criticism this season so helpful to see some facts behind it. Myself I take some of these analyses with a pinch of salt but they are useful in gaining some perspective when a lot of fans have a habit of naming player x as either brilliant or S**t.
There are a number of points here. Firstly Christie’s stats look pretty decent. In terms of sheer number of crosses he is outstanding and accuracy isnt that bad, maybe we need to focus more on why our forwards arent getting on the end of them. Defensively Christie does OK too.
Ribeiro on the other hand I had thought had gone backwards this season and the stats bear that out, it is most alarming to look at his defence contribution vs average. Possibly the rumours of his departure this summer affected his form or maybe Hughtons style of play doesnt suit him as well as Lamouchi’s. Whichever if Bong does well in the next 3 games he is going to struggle to get back in.
The final thought is how do the fullbacks for this season compare to last when both were excellent. This is slightly unfair because Lamouchi relied very heavily on his fullbacks breaking and getting forward quickly, it helped that in Cash he unexpectedly discovered a player born for that role. Hughton doesn’t rely on fullbacks attacking as much but you could argue that is because they are less effective than last season and is also a reason why our overall performance is worse.
Thoughts?
At face value the stats support how it feels watching this season. Not great defensively (both) ok going forward (Christie). But if you were to discount Christie's first few games I imagine he would be quite good obviously you can't discount them, but lately he's been fairly good.
Ribs is having a tough time no doubt. Last season he was targeted and mostly came out on top defensively. One on one he was good, going forward he was dangerous. This year not so much. Form is temporary so hopefully he will come back stronger.
Scouse scums full backs are misfiring too, TAA is posting some spectacular stats. One game he gave away possession more than 30 times (even Knockeart hasn't managed that). Last night sky said he had a record number of crosses non completed.
Like the Scouse scum, its obviously not all on the full backs, but it isnt helping us much either.
