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Post Match FAC Barnsley (A) 4-1 January 12th 19:45

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Barnsley had 9 shots, 4 on target, at Anfield. Arsenal's average shots on target in the Premiership is 5 per game.

It people want to site stats and all to defend what was largely another drab, flat, boring as fuck performance.
 
Halmeister said:
What was the xG of Dom's goal? Frimpong? Wirtz? It's a useful barometer... But it doesn't show the pattern of play. Barnsley got in behind us a fair few times, and with more quality, would have done more damage. That was a competitive match and we don't look right in creating chances and we look vulnerable at the back.
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xG doesn't show the details that can/could be important, true. But it IS a useful barometer and as Irish pointed out, 0.8 likely came from their goal. Which means they offered little to no threat despite some nice wing play from Clearly.

So your "could have scored more goals" isn't even close to the reality. No, they couldn't, and if they had had 'more quality' then we have an Aunt/Uncle scenario.
 
Halmeister said:
Can we stop using xG like it's gospel? It's a useful indicator, but it's not the be all and end all. I don't need xG to tell me that we're creatively bereft, can't press, tactically subpar and the defending is all over the place at times. We didn't play well for the majority of the game, and haven't for the majority of the season.
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Its a useful indicator to tell you that you’re wrong but that’s not a reason to not use it.

10 goals from 2,34 and 10 shots on target is quite something. Even people who don’t like it will raise their eyebrows.

Both City and ourselves with 21 shots in total btw.
 
mark1975 said:
Barnsley had 9 shots, 4 on target, at Anfield. Arsenal's average shots on target in the Premiership is 5 per game.

It people want to site stats and all to defend what was largely another drab, flat, boring as fuck performance.
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Portsmouth had 13 shots against Arsenal btw. 5 on target. 1 more than Arsenal.

Siting stats is always useful.
 
mark1975 said:
They nearly scored in the first 30 seconds and then were kept out by the keeper later in the first half, their right winger ran seasoned internationals inside out for much of the game. It was competitive alright. I agree that Szobo's brainfart kept them in the game, but Szobo's moment of magic also gave us a goal our play didn't really deserve.

Ekitike and Wirtz showed their class when they came on, but for much of the game we were flat and we made them look better than they are. Same as many games this season against inferior opposition.
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It was only competitive in that the match wasn't truly over until we got the 3rd. Sitting with 10 men behind the ball doesn't make it competitive per se, almost always just a matter of time, and no matter how much they ran they didn't create anything. Which is what 1st Division, 2nd Division teams do well. Run & pass well, the difference is almost always in the two boxes where the difference in class tells.

Barnsley were far away from being awful but we were always in control (after that first 30 secs - it can happen). Nearly all teams will get a shot or two on target during the course of a match, no matter which division they play in. Too much is being made of the very few and very remote chances they had.

Note I'm still not saying we played well. It was a 5/10 maybe a 6/10 performance.
 
Yeah and my issue is that it was another 5/10 performance.

If anyone can watch that performance against a struggling League One side and be okay with it in light of what we've been served up this season, then, well, that's on them. I expect better from the club, the manager and the players on the pitch.
 
Hansern said:
Portsmouth had 13 shots against Arsenal btw. 5 on target. 1 more than Arsenal.

Siting stats is always useful.
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We're not talking about Arsenal though are we? And the difference between us and Arsenal is that they sit top of the league, while we've been below par nearly all season.

Portsmouth's shots against wasn't the norm for Arsenal, so in an FA Cup game they will probably take that on the chin, because they know in the next match they will be back to full strength and shutting teams out.

We haven't done that at any level this season, bar a couple of games and we can't really realistically predict that we will be better on Saturday, because it's exactly the sort of game where we've dropped point this season, whereas Arsenal haven't and would probably expect to win a similar tie, the only points they have dropped at home have been against us and City. So Arsenal conceding more shots against Portsmouth than they normally would is irrelevant, their backline against Portsmouth was less experienced than ours for starters and they didn't have any of their first choice midfield.

Arsenal's home games this season:

Leeds - W 5-0
Forrest - W 3-0
City - D 1-1
West Ham - W 2-0
Palace - W 1-0
Spurs - W 4-1
Brentford - W 2-0
Wolves - W 2-1
Liverpool - D 0-0

4 pts dropped, 3 goals conceded

Our home games this season:

Bournemouth - W 4-2
Arsenal - W 1-0
Everton - W 2-1
United - L 1-2
Villa - W 2-0
Forrest - L 0-3
Sunderland - D 1-1
Brighton - W 2-0
Wolves - W 2-1
Leeds - D 0-0

10pts dropped, 10 goals conceded
 
I'm not talking about anyone in particular here, but the mentality of "well, we won, what more do you want? Stop moaning" just papers over the cracks and leads us to where we are now. There were signs last season that a big drop off was coming, but it was brushed under the carpet by some.

The same is happening now. Yeah, we're on the least impressive unbeaten run ever, but we still look largely shite. It's not sustainable long term and something has to change.
 
I don't think it was a great performance but we could have twatted them 7-0 easily. Wirtz missed a tap in. We gave them their goal. I mean we weren't very good but just because Ally McCoist was going on about a plucky display from a load of shite doesn't mean that we didn't batter them, because we did.
 
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