Stats from tonight

[RobTheRover]

Mjdgreg,  you are Watford Anne and I claim my £5

How many more aliases are going to be attributed to me? Hope you get your fiver (but don't come looking for me for it).

Bugger!  I was looking forward to a lengthy debate on abortion clinics and thimbles.  See you at the AGM on saturday, then?

[Mr1Croft]

They played Barcelona twice, and lost none so shouldn't that be 48? Seems to me there is a bit of a contradiction there in your argument.   


Now in all seriousness mdjgreg I am usually a fan of the possession game, I prefer it to any other type of football and it is a joy to watch (most of the time), however tonight I am in pure disagreement because that much possession did not win us the game alone, it can be a factor but what happened in 08/09? For half of that season we dominated possession and lost the majority of games in the first half of the season.


While I cannot argue about Spain being the best team in the world I disagree with Barcelona because it is Chelsea that is going to represent Europe in the FIFA World Club Cup.

OK. I'll take 48 instead of 49. See, I can give ground occasionally. I also agree with you that 'possession' is only a factor in what makes a winning team. However I do think it is the fundamental first part of any strategy to be successful. You also need to be able to convert possession into attempts on goal and ultimately wins. No argument from me on that one.

Now to your last point. I think it is only you and Chelsea fans who would say that Chelsea are a better team than Barcelona. You are just plain wrong on that one.

Possibly Barcelona are better, but Chelsea have a good chance of lifting the Fifa World Club Cup in the winter, officially making them the no.1 team in the world, which is what I base my argument on, after all Mick you can't argue with stats.

[RoversAlias]

Stop harping on about Chelsea cos mentalmick can bring 'luck' into it. Last night Everton beat Man Utd 1-0 despite never having more possession (or coming close) and they deserved that victory 100%. There was no luck about it at all.

[GM-MarkB]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJbv8HNZK4E" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJbv8HNZK4E</a>

[mjdgreg]

Stop harping on about Chelsea cos mjdgreg can bring 'luck' into it. Last night Everton beat Man Utd 1-0 despite never having more possession (or coming close) and they deserved that victory 100%. There was no luck about it at all.

Glad you agree Chelsea were lucky. Look, I don't think possession is the be all and end all. It needs to be combined with attempts on goal. Everton won by having less possession but more attempts on goal. 16 to 12 to be exact.

I can live with less possession occasionally as long as the attempts on goal stat is superior. Where I have a problem is if both theses stats are constantly less than the opposition. This is the situation we found ourselves in last season and we all know what happened.

[mjdgreg]

Bugger!  I was looking forward to a lengthy debate on abortion clinics and thimbles.  See you at the AGM on saturday, then?

Are you sure you're posting in the correct thread? Maybe this is where you need to be:

http://www.thewi.org.uk/

[Wellred]

Bugger!  I was looking forward to a lengthy debate on abortion clinics and thimbles.  See you at the AGM on saturday, then?

Are you sure you're posting in the correct thread? Maybe this is where you need to be:

http://www.thewi.org.uk/

After all this time I've sussed it. It's not Mick after all. It's his alter ego Michelle :-)

[vaya]

Stop harping on about Chelsea cos mjdgreg can bring 'luck' into it. Last night Everton beat Man Utd 1-0 despite never having more possession (or coming close) and they deserved that victory 100%. There was no luck about it at all.

Glad you agree Chelsea were lucky. Look, I don't think possession is the be all and end all. It needs to be combined with attempts on goal. Everton won by having less possession but more attempts on goal. 16 to 12 to be exact.

I can live with less possession occasionally as long as the attempts on goal stat is superior. Where I have a problem is if both theses stats are constantly less than the opposition. This is the situation we found ourselves in last season and we all know what happened.

What happens if we have more possession and more shots on goal than the opposition, but we still don't score - do we still get the points?

[mjdgreg]

What happens if we have more possession and more shots on goal than the opposition, but we still don't score - do we still get the points?

If it's 0-0 we get one point but if we get beaten it's no points. You must be new to this football lark. if you need any more of the rules explaining please let me know. I'll be glad to help.

Also there is another benefit to having more possession and attempts on goal than the opposition that most of you have probably missed. The fans will enjoy the game more and be more likely to return and bring their mates and children etc. with them! You can tell I've got a Marketing degree can't you.

[ravenrover]

50% success rate shots on target
3 points
Enough said..........please.

[vaya]

What happens if we have more possession and more shots on goal than the opposition, but we still don't score - do we still get the points?

If it's 0-0 we get one point but if we get beaten it's no points. You must be new to this football lark. if you need any more of the rules explaining please let me know. I'll be glad to help.

Also there is another benefit to having more possession and attempts on goal than the opposition that most of you have probably missed. The fans will enjoy the game more and be more likely to return and bring their mates and children etc. with them! You can tell I've got a Marketing degree can't you.

Capital 'I' at that start of a sentence.

If you need any of the rules of grammar explaining, please let me know.

What happens if we have more possession and more shots on goal than the opposition, but we still don't score - do we still get the points?

If it's 0-0 we get one point but if we get beaten it's no points. You must be new to this football lark. if you need any more of the rules explaining please let me know. I'll be glad to help.

Also there is another benefit to having more possession and attempts on goal than the opposition that most of you have probably missed. The fans will enjoy the game more and be more likely to return and bring their mates and children etc. with them! You can tell I've got a Marketing degree can't you.

Capital ‘I’ at the start of a sentence. If you need any of the rules of grammar explaining, please let me know.

[mjdgreg]

What happens if we have more possession and more shots on goal than the opposition, but we still don't score - do we still get the points?

If it's 0-0 we get one point but if we get beaten it's no points. You must be new to this football lark. if you need any more of the rules explaining please let me know. I'll be glad to help.

Also there is another benefit to having more possession and attempts on goal than the opposition that most of you have probably missed. The fans will enjoy the game more and be more likely to return and bring their mates and children etc. with them! You can tell I've got a Marketing degree can't you.

Capital 'I' at that start of a sentence.

If you need any of the rules of grammar explaining, please let me know.

What happens if we have more possession and more shots on goal than the opposition, but we still don't score - do we still get the points?

If it's 0-0 we get one point but if we get beaten it's no points. You must be new to this football lark. if you need any more of the rules explaining please let me know. I'll be glad to help.

Also there is another benefit to having more possession and attempts on goal than the opposition that most of you have probably missed. The fans will enjoy the game more and be more likely to return and bring their mates and children etc. with them! You can tell I've got a Marketing degree can't you.

Capital ‘I’ at the start of a sentence. If you need any of the rules of grammar explaining, please let me know.

Making you point once would have been enough. You are obviously unaware that I am laying 'grammatical error' traps for grammar policeman BST. Or has he recruited you to the force? Word of warning though. I think you'll find my grammer is much better than your's, so in a grammer war you would come off second best.

[Filo]

A word of warning, if this thread goes the same way as the other stats thread, it will be locked, it`s getting boring and just ruining the forum!

[mjdgreg]

50% success rate shots on target
3 points
Enough said..........please.

In the previous game it was:

75% success rate shots on target
3 points

So thanks to me you can all see how lucky we've been so far. We currently have a 62.5% success rate from shots on target which is unbelievably high. I hope Saunders bears in mind this good luck when in the future he moans about any bad luck we'll be having. If he could occasionally take some of the blame in future for when things don't go right then that would be nice as well.

So to summarise. We're not getting enough shots on target and it needs to change. Don't be fooled by the fact that we've got 6 points so far. Luckily for everyone I am around to provide expert statistical analysis which will keep all of your feet on the ground.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I really don't know which alternative I find the more disturbing.

The possibility that Mick thinks these threads are hilarious?

Or the possibility that he is taking himself seriously.

Either way, it's rather scary.

[FuzzyDuck]

Love the way quoting % possession and attempts on goal is called a stats thread 

If you really want to get into the statistics of football, there is a lot to be gained.  It goes much deeper than this though.

Have you calculated our efficiency in converting possesion into goal-scoring opportunities? You need to compare that with the opponents possesion efficiency.  This gives an objective measure of how good a team is with/without the ball.  You can do something similar on shooting.  % Shooting opportunies on target, % On target resulting in goals, % resulting in saved (a very good stat for evaluating a goalkeeper dispassionately). 

All of them when used correctly can reveal interesting and useful stuff but these two measures?  Its not even scratching the surface.

[mjdgreg]

Fuzzyduck, you would be very welcome to post your statistics. I'm sure we would all find them very interesting. I'm too busy running my 3 businesses to more than  post the basic stats.

[bobjimwilly]

can i suggest everyone just ignores this looney tune ^ and he will eventually go away... 

[Dutch Uncle]

Mjdgreg -have you ever heard of Charles Reep? He would seem to be a kindred spirit of yours.

He wrote theories of how to play football based on stats (approximately along the lines of: more attacks = more shots = more goals; so play more direct). Scarily he shaped the tactics of a national team (Norway) before he was discredited. His followers have included the likes of John Beck and to a lesser extent Graham Taylor in his Watford days.

Google him, or even better read the truly excellent book 'Inverting the Pyramid' by Jonathan Wilson.

[mjdgreg]

Mjdgreg -have you ever heard of Charles Reep? He would seem to be a kindred spirit of yours.

He wrote theories of how to play football based on stats (approximately along the lines of: more attacks = more shots = more goals; so play more direct). Scarily he shaped the tactics of a national team (Norway) before he was discredited. His followers have included the likes of John Beck and to a lesser extent Graham Taylor in his Watford days.

Google him, or even better read the truly excellent book 'Inverting the Pyramid' by Jonathan Wilson.

I've heard of him but wouldn't describe myself as a kindred spirit. My theory would be similar to his but would differ in the key aspect  'so play more direct.' A crucial difference. My theory would replace this phrase with 'so retain possession.' One day I may get around to writing a book to shake up the football world and educate the masses. Finding the time is difficult though when you are a serial entrepreneur.

That Jonathan Wilson bloke sounds interesting though and I will give his book a read just to make sure I haven't missed anything. You obviously sound very knowledgeable just like me and I would be very interested to know what your views are on the tactics Saunders applies.

[drfcdrfc]

Why in gods name are any of you even replying to him?