3 goals or more let in at home

[Interpol Shrimper]

Now there's nothing left to speculate on in terms of stats I thought I'd take a look back at one of the huge issues that have cost us this season, namely the fact that we let in 3 goals or more in 9 home league games, which by any stretch of the imagination is a totally shocking statistic as it's almost half of our home programme.

They were: -
Barnsley 1-3
Birmingham 0-4
Cardiff 0-3
Col U 0-3
Coventry 2-3
Hull 2-3
Ipswich 1-3
Luton 1-3
Norwich 3-3

Now for arguments sake, say we had managed to adopt a fortress Roots Hall Mentality like we did for the majority of the two promotion seasons and imagine that instead of conceding 3+ goals in each of these games, we only let in one (and in the Birmingham case 2). How many more points would that give us?

Barnsley 1-1 = 1(+1)
Birmingham 0-2 = 0(=)
Cardiff 0-1 = 0(=)
Col U 0-1 = 0(=)
Coventry 2-1 = 3(+3)
Hull 2-1 = 3(+3)
Ipswich 1-1 = 1(+1)
Luton 1-1 = 1(+1)
Norwich 3-1 = 3 (+2)

Therefore restating our points total we'd have 53 which would have put us in Ipswich & Norwich territory and with that it's obvious safety.

If I was Tilly & Brush, our scarily patchy home form is something I would seriously need to focus on. OK, we sometimes blame the fairweather fans who come out for the bigger games and expect 3 easy points and then moan at the first misplaced pass or shot high & wide over the North Bank but I cannot believe this is the entire root cause of the problem.

Thoughts?

 

[fbm]

It's not just at home. On my match report thread for the Col U match, here

http://www.shrimperzone.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26500

I mention that we had conceded 3 goals or more in all competitions on 15 occasions up to that match. Thanks to the debacles against Barnsley and Luton we can now make that 17 and I fear after Sunday it will be 18.

Take out the Spurs FA Cup match and that is 35% of our league games where we need to score 4 goals to win.

Whilst the home form is poor, it is a general defensive malaise that we have that enables us to ship goals at will. Unless this tightens up we won't do anything next year.

 

[Jam_Man]

Unless this tightens up we won't do anything next year.

Well the fact we will not be playing Championship teams next season will have a huge impact on the amount of goals we concede.

My concern is that we are ending one season on a complete low and in terrible form, just hope that even with lesser competition we dont start next season with low morale etc.

 

[Southend_Lady]

Well the fact we will not be playing Championship teams next season will have a huge impact on the amount of goals we concede.

My concern is that we are ending one season on a complete low and in terrible form, just hope that even with lesser competition we dont start next season with low morale etc.

Yes exactly - even more worrying when it was the "lesser" competition that we couldnt beat this year.

 

[Rayleigh boy]

it could be the case that the back four were being left exposed by a midfield withpout the energy to get back

 

[SARF]

Can you get stats for Goals conceded from Corners and set pieces..? I think that would make pretty grim reading..

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

Can you get stats for Goals conceded from Corners and set pieces..? I think that would make pretty grim reading..

What's the Championship version of Opta?
Won't their website have that info?

I checked Football.365 Stats and they don't go into that kind of detail (although it confirm we were worst of all 24 teams in matches against the lower half of the table!)

 

[Dustybin]

I don't think it will be a problem next year. The difference between this season and last season was not so much the defence but the opposition.

Our defence made just as many mistakes last year but because the opposition was not as good we were never punished. There were many occasions where we were caught short at the back but got away with it.

However as soon as we moved up a division our mistakes proved costly.

If anything, this season has taught our squad a lot so as long as we keep the vast majority of the team we should come back stronger (hopefully...)

 

[duncan bulgaria]

It is indeed worrying that we seem to ship a lot of goals in at home, but this is where T+B have been somewhat nieve, If we would of set out our team against not to get beat instead of trying to beat every team we came up against then i feel we might of survived this season.

I'm all for attacking football but sometimes you have to play to frustate teams and not go too gun-ho early doors in games.

The hull , leicester Barnsley palace and norwich games stick in my mind as being games that if only we'd held out at 0-0 for a bit longer then being the home side with the crowd behind us , we could have nicked a goal in the latter stages of the game.

I know it is all hindsight , but its something i think needs addressing by the management team.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

it could be the case that the back four were being left exposed by a midfield withpout the energy to get back

I think the reason we conceded so many goals this season was a lack of physicality, both in terms of legs in midfield and height throughout the team.

The team that got us out of the 4th division was far more of a pressing team. Tilly tried to turn us into a better passing team, but in doing so he sacrificed the best athletes in the team.

We've lost a lot of height, pace and energy. Players like Wayne Gray and Mark Bentley might not be the most gifted with the ball, but they are terrific athletes who haven't been adequately replaced. Pettefer might be small, but he never stands still and is someone who really could have done a job for us this season when McCormack was injured/suspended or Gutts sulking. Barrett and Clarke might be better on the ball than Prior and Sodje but they lack their physical attributes.

When the team lined up on Saturday for the minute's applause, our tallest player by some distance was our right-back. Someone posted a picture up here of a couple of players out with a fan, the fan towered above them. and we wonder why we get slaughtered at set plays!

I commend Tilly for trying to play football, but he must realise that before we can play football we need to bully teams, rather than be bullied. We need to be bigger, stronger, quicker and longer-running next season before we can play teams off the park with our football.

 

[SARF]

I think we can 'play' more next season as teams will be less skillfull.. At championship level they are big 'and' skillful..

 

[duncan bulgaria]

I think the reason we conceded so many goals this season was a lack of physicality, both in terms of legs in midfield and height throughout the team.

The team that got us out of the 4th division was far more of a pressing team. Tilly tried to turn us into a better passing team, but in doing so he sacrificed the best athletes in the team.

We've lost a lot of height, pace and energy. Players like Wayne Gray and Mark Bentley might not be the most gifted with the ball, but they are terrific athletes who haven't been adequately replaced. Pettefer might be small, but he never stands still and is someone who really could have done a job for us this season when McCormack was injured/suspended or Gutts sulking. Barrett and Clarke might be better on the ball than Prior and Sodje but they lack their physical attributes.

When the team lined up on Saturday for the minute's applause, our tallest player by some distance was our right-back. Someone posted a picture up here of a couple of players out with a fan, the fan towered above them. and we wonder why we get slaughtered at set plays!

I commend Tilly for trying to play football, but he must realise that before we can play football we need to bully teams, rather than be bullied. We need to be bigger, stronger, quicker and longer-running next season before we can play teams off the park with our football.

Well said sir

Many times this season we have looked like boys playing against men

Prime example was Barry Hayles just shrugging off our CB's to score our winner.

Darren Moore won every header , second ball and third ball against us

And dion dublin just bullied our centre half's all game at carrow rd

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

And dion dublin just bullied our centre half's all game at carrow rd

But perversely we still kept a clean sheet!

 

[duncan bulgaria]

But perversely we still kept a clean sheet!

Your right and to be fair that was one of the best defencive performance's we produced all season, but i was just stating the notibale physical difference's between us and opposing teams this season.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

Your right and to be fair that was one of the best defencive performance's we produced all season, but i was just stating the notibale physical difference's between us and opposing teams this season.

Yeah I know, I wasn't having a go!
(see your rep list!)

 

[fbm]

The hull , leicester Barnsley palace and norwich games stick in my mind as being games that if only we'd held out at 0-0 for a bit longer then being the home side with the crowd behind us , we could have nicked a goal in the latter stages of the game.

But we took the lead against Hull and Norwich. Surely we should have gone on from there and won (especially against Hull where we were 2-1 up and then at 2-2 they were down to 10 men).

 

[duncan bulgaria]

But we took the lead against Hull and Norwich. Surely we should have gone on from there and won (especially against Hull where we were 2-1 up and then at 2-2 they were down to 10 men).

Thats exactly what i mean , when we were ahead against Hull it was such a 6 pointer even at that stage of the campaign , that we should of just shut up shop instead of continuing to attack.

It made the game wide open and we paid the price for it, as for Norwich it was a great game ,but yet again the game was so wide open that it was crying for the bench to calm us down and take control of the game.

Hindsight again , but i feel these were times when Tilly showed some lack of experience at this level.

 

[fbm]

Thats exactly what i mean , when we were ahead against Hull it was such a 6 pointer even at that stage of the campaign , that we should of just shut up shop instead of continuing to attack.

It made the game wide open and we paid the price for it, as for Norwich it was a great game ,but yet again the game was so wide open that it was crying for the bench to calm us down and take control of the game.

Hindsight again , but i feel these were times when Tilly showed some lack of experience at this level.

Ok... the way your original post was worded it made it sound as though we should have held out for 0-0 on these games for longer.

Of course, you're correct... the fact that we were ahead makes it worse...

 

[gazzacat42]

We also defend deeper than any other team.
This puts undue pressure on us, and gives the opposition the upper hand.
Stating the obvious i know, but it is rarely mentioned.

 

[* ORM *]

I find it very hard to believe that we conceded 3 goals in any game where Lord Adam Barrett was playing :p

Surely with him giving 100% in every game, having blue blood and willing to die for the cause our back 4 should have been invincible.