After two wins and a draw in our last three games we find ourselves back somewhere familiar, on the end of another disappointing Premier League result. I’ve not seen the game so I’m not going to get into the ins and outs of why we lost, but the stats quite clearly show we’re just not taking our chances. The woodwork was struck another couple of times, it feels like we've hit the post/crossbar more times than we’ve hit the back of the net this season!!
A breakdown of the goal attempts stats from our last couple of home games is interesting. Against Aston Villa and West Brom combined we have had 49 attempts at goal versus only 14 from our opponents, 17 on target against only 7 from the opposition. Breaking it down to shots per point is scary, it has taken us 49 attempts to earn one solitary point, but to earn a point against us it takes a mere 3.5 goal attempts. At this rate it would take us 147 shots in one game to actually achieve a win!! As much as that would be an entertaining match I don’t really see it happening. Stats like these are not totally representative of how a game (or in this case two games) has gone but they do spell out the blindingly obvious – if you don’t score your own chances and you allow your opponents to score when they get the opportunity you simply won’t win.
Another glance at the records (some people are either very dedicated or have nothing else to do) shows the extent of our woodwork fetish this season. 30, that's our number. The closest team to us in this stat is Man City, they've managed to hit the post or the crossbar a total of 21 times in the league this term. That basically means it's happened to us half as many times again as it has to the second placed team in this table. City have hit the woodwork 21 times and managed 87 goals, we've hit it 30 times and managed only 40 goals. The difference between us and a good deal more points is a matter of inches. Not that this can be used as an excuse. In football if you don't score you have to simply keep going until you do. It's almost as if the players expect to come close now rather than actually score and that's not good.
There's only four league games left this season now and it's too late to turn things around. We need good results in those four games to restore some confidence and give the players, owners and, most importantly, the fans the chance to look forward to next season with optimism otherwise it's going to be a very bleak summer. We have the talent within our ranks to get good results but we need the mentality to go alongside that. The senior players have a duty to step up to the mark and help push us over the finish line as respectably as possible, the summer is a time for evaluation and action but we need a few more positives to consider to help keep any changes to a minimum.
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