I'm starting to warm towards Steffen

You can definitely see a top keeper in there. I think he's stopped 4 or possibly 5 certain goals in the last 2 games. Goals that you wouldn't really expect the keeper to save. Credit where it's due.
 
I was just reading the 'formation' thread and thinking to myself, is it all just a bit of luck and confidence?

Although we lost against Blackburn and only scored playing wingbacks we looked better late on, but still if it wasn't for Steffen we could have easily conceded four goals, without threatening much at the other end.

Again against Wigan, new formation, much improved and more confident, But still a couple of really good saves and they hit the bar (as did we I suppose).

I thought it was a pretty soft penalty award and also think Akpom was lucky to score it.

So with a few tiny differences we could have lost that 4-3 or drew 3-3 or something and be down in the dumps still.

We played well, more confident, Steffen was excellent again I think, he could have done more on their opener probably but the whole attempt at defending a corner was woeful to be fair. So did we just have a bit more luck that normal?

I honestly think we could and should have easily beaten Shef U, West Brom and Barnsley too.

Blackburn last we week we did more than enough for a point and on the second half efforts, with better decision making from a couple of players we would have won.

It is just those little percentages that seem to have gone against us more often not so far this season.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we're blameless and unlucky all the time, our defending has been horrendous schoolboy stuff in the main. But I do think there's a lot of points we've left on the table that it wouldn't have taken much more luck/ability/belief/effort for us to get them.

Hopefully we can go on a run of better performances, form and luck now and climb the table. So when it comes to attracting reinforcements in January we look like a viable option as a team on the up.

UTB
 
I was just reading the 'formation' thread and thinking to myself, is it all just a bit of luck and confidence?

Although we lost against Blackburn and only scored playing wingbacks we looked better late on, but still if it wasn't for Steffen we could have easily conceded four goals, without threatening much at the other end.

Again against Wigan, new formation, much improved and more confident, But still a couple of really good saves and they hit the bar (as did we I suppose).

I thought it was a pretty soft penalty award and also think Akpom was lucky to score it.

So with a few tiny differences we could have lost that 4-3 or drew 3-3 or something and be down in the dumps still.

We played well, more confident, Steffen was excellent again I think, he could have done more on their opener probably but the whole attempt at defending a corner was woeful to be fair. So did we just have a bit more luck that normal?

I honestly think we could and should have easily beaten Shef U, West Brom and Barnsley too.

Blackburn last we week we did more than enough for a point and on the second half efforts, with better decision making from a couple of players we would have won.

It is just those little percentages that seem to have gone against us more often not so far this season.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we're blameless and unlucky all the time, our defending has been horrendous schoolboy stuff in the main. But I do think there's a lot of points we've left on the table that it wouldn't have taken much more luck/ability/belief/effort for us to get them.

Hopefully we can go on a run of better performances, form and luck now and climb the table. So when it comes to attracting reinforcements in January we look like a viable option as a team on the up.

UTB

I think confidence is a huge part of it.

As a team, we played no better than we had all season in the first half last night, despite the change in formation, fell behind to another soft goal and then equalised right on the cusp of half time through a defensive error.

Going in to the second half, Watmore missed two big chances to give us the lead, as has happened many times this season, and usually we end up getting punished for that.
But this time his third attempt squirmed in and the team never looked back, could have had 6 in that second half as Wigan just imploded.
 
I was just reading the 'formation' thread and thinking to myself, is it all just a bit of luck and confidence?

Although we lost against Blackburn and only scored playing wingbacks we looked better late on, but still if it wasn't for Steffen we could have easily conceded four goals, without threatening much at the other end.

Again against Wigan, new formation, much improved and more confident, But still a couple of really good saves and they hit the bar (as did we I suppose).

I thought it was a pretty soft penalty award and also think Akpom was lucky to score it.

So with a few tiny differences we could have lost that 4-3 or drew 3-3 or something and be down in the dumps still.

We played well, more confident, Steffen was excellent again I think, he could have done more on their opener probably but the whole attempt at defending a corner was woeful to be fair. So did we just have a bit more luck that normal?

I honestly think we could and should have easily beaten Shef U, West Brom and Barnsley too.

Blackburn last we week we did more than enough for a point and on the second half efforts, with better decision making from a couple of players we would have won.

It is just those little percentages that seem to have gone against us more often not so far this season.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we're blameless and unlucky all the time, our defending has been horrendous schoolboy stuff in the main. But I do think there's a lot of points we've left on the table that it wouldn't have taken much more luck/ability/belief/effort for us to get them.

Hopefully we can go on a run of better performances, form and luck now and climb the table. So when it comes to attracting reinforcements in January we look like a viable option as a team on the up.

UTB
confidence, luck, fine margins. everyone gets upset at defeats and excited at wins but pretty much every game this season could have gone the other way.
 
You can definitely see a top keeper in there. I think he's stopped 4 or possibly 5 certain goals in the last 2 games. Goals that you wouldn't really expect the keeper to save. Credit where it's due.
That has been my issue with most of our keepers over the last few years particularly Lumley and Bettinelli. They never seemed to pull off unexpected saves. Always seemed like a half decent shot would end up in the back of the net. Good to see Steffen stepping up and making those important saves
 
Knew it would only take a few weeks to get the sharpness back and he would be this good, by far the best we have seen in a long time
 
I liked that he bollocked Giles when their fullback had the shot that he tipped on to the bar but then we conceded from the set piece seconds later which was disappointing.

In terms of how the team played as a whole last night; the first half was the same as usual. We played some decent stuff at times and Jones wasted a good chance by side footing it instead of putting his laces through it. He also wasted a few crossing positions doing the same thing. Conceded a sloppy goal, Watmore's running and the defender's mistake got us back in it. 2nd half once we took the lead (from another defensive mistake) we were great but Wigan helped us by being mostly dreadful, particularly at the back. We still missed some great chances, the penalty was a dive and Akpom's penalty was poor so I do agree there is a bit of luck there but as the saying goes "you make your own luck". We had loads of attacks/touches in the opposition box which increases the chances we make. When you are playing poorly you aren't making those chances, luckily or not.

One other thing last night showed is how the xG statistic isn't perfect. We had an xG of 3.15 last night but we scored an open goal, a 1 on 1 and a penalty which should all be high xG but we missed an open goal, 3 or 4 shots from within the 6 yard box that we definitely should have scored and that was on top of all the other low xG chances we also created. We techincally over-performed our xG but I think it is fair to say we still underperformed in front of goal.
 
We had an xG of 3.15 last night but we scored an open goal
We scored an open goal?

Also, I reckon the xG purely for the 4 goals we scored would have been no more than 2.0, probably about 1.7
I'm sure someone will have the actual stats to show how wrong I am with that guess :)
 
We scored an open goal?

Also, I reckon the xG purely for the 4 goals we scored would have been no more than 2.0, probably about 1.7
I'm sure someone will have the actual stats to show how wrong I am with that guess :)
Jones was essentially an open goal but yes I think you are right with that estimate. Hackney's is definitely low, Watmore was a tightish angle but if the xG is just for the shot and not from where he picked the ball up it should be fairly high, Akpom penalty is a standard 0.79. Jones was an open(ish) goal. I'll have a look...

Jones 0.53
Watmore 0.08
Hackney 0.04
Akpom 0.79

Total 1.44

Surprisingly low for Watmore if it is just for the shot. Seemed a fairly routine finish.
 
Jones was essentially an open goal but yes I think you are right with that estimate. Hackney's is definitely low, Watmore was a tightish angle but if the xG is just for the shot and not from where he picked the ball up it should be fairly high, Akpom penalty is a standard 0.79. Jones was an open(ish) goal. I'll have a look...

Jones 0.53
Watmore 0.08
Hackney 0.04
Akpom 0.79

Total 1.44

Surprisingly low for Watmore if it is just for the shot. Seemed a fairly routine finish.
Jones still had to place it beyond the keeper while surrounded by Wigan players. I think it is doing him a bit of a dis-service to call it an open-goal.

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