Ya Bezzer! Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 In Craigens previous three games, which all came in the space of 2 weeks i think, we shipped 8 goals. 6 against St Mirren in two games, 2 to Accies. Interestingly the Hearts game which came in the middle of these we kept a clean sheet. Guess what? Craigen didnt play that day. As for your stats by my reckoning Craigen has been in a team has shipped 11 league goals (not including the 3 we lost in the cup to St Mirren) in 7 games. As you included the games he was subbed in your stats then so i have. This changes Craigens stat to 1.57 goals conceded per game. If you include the cup then it becomes 1.75 goals per game. Also of the six clean sheets we have kept this season Craigen was involved in only two of them. I forgot to add in yesterday's goals to Craigan's total but basically after all that my point still stands. Our three most experienced defenders have the best records in terms of conceding fewer goals and when we've played Hammell, Reynolds and Craigan in the same team we've kept two out of three clean sheets. (league) Hammell - 19 from 13 1.46 Craigan - 11 from 7 1.57 Reynolds - 28 from 17 1.64 Saunders - 26 from 15 1.73 Moutaouakil - 23 from 13 1.76 Hutchinson - 9 from 4 2.25 (league + domestic cup) Hammell - 21 from 14 1.50 Reynolds - 32 from 19 1.68 Craigan - 14 from 8 1.75 Saunders - 31 from 17 1.82 Moutaouakil - 28 from 15 1.86 Hutchinson - 12 from 5 2.40 Personally I think it's unfair to include cup matches because some players played against 1st Division opposition and some didn't. We should be concerned with SPL opposition because that's the league we play in. I'm not saying for a minute our defensive record is fantastic with Craigan in the team, it's not, but it is better overall. Now is a time for experienced heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purestate Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 I'm not saying for a minute our defensive record is fantastic with Craigan in the team, it's not, but it is better overall. Now is a time for experienced heads. echo this. craigan on right reynolds on left seems to be our most solid centre pairing. saunders on right reynolds on left seems to be way forward for passing game/greater mobility. playing craigan, reynolds and saunders (at right back) out of position other than when absolutely necessary doesn't make for either stability or longer term progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Grew Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 The problem of shipping goals did not just begin this season. Lets remember that our so-called experienced defenders have consistently shipped goals since Terry Butcher was here. If he's going to arrest the present slump, then IMO Gannon will need to for the time being, abandon his 'play football' philosophy and begin to make us hard to break down. Now that might mean either playing 5 at the back or 5 in the midfield to strangle games but he must get a few more points on the board and quickly. The next batch of games (Hamilton (H), Kilmarnock (A), St Mirren (H) Falkirk (A) are all against clubs that are in the bottom half of the SPL and if the slump is not arrested by the time we have to go to Falkirk then we could be right in the shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jk2205 Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 The problem of shipping goals did not just begin this season. Lets remember that our so-called experienced defenders have consistently shipped goals since Terry Butcher was here. Spot on. Infact throughout the McGhee era we were desperate for another centre back, because despite our league placing we conceded needless goals with so called experience players along the back line. Which led to the John Kennedy...Andy...Webster...Anyone with two legs debacle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milo Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 The next batch of games (Hamilton (H), Kilmarnock (A), St Mirren (H) Falkirk (A) are all against clubs that are in the bottom half of the SPL and if the slump is not arrested by the time we have to go to Falkirk then we could be right in the shit We really need to be winning 3 out of those 4 games but you know we won't. I will take no pleasure in saying "I told you so", but I fully expect by the time we come to play Falkirk, they will know going into the game that a victory for them will take them above us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweed Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 Thoroughly deserved to lose yesterday as it was a poor poor performance from start to end. On the flip side whether St Johnstone actually deserved to win is another story. Whilst some folk were deeply concerned over the last three weeks I kept on saying I'd be worried when we lose to St Johnstone. Even the best Motherwell teams frequently lost at Easter Road and against the Old Firm. Well now that its come to pass I am worried. We had a poor return of points from what we deserved in the first three and a half months of the season and now that the form has dropped from us its very hard to see us picking much up. I think everyone accepted we'd have a run of really poor performances this season just due to the lack of numbers and general quality within our squad and yesterday was part of that. But the best teams win when they deserve to, and don't always lose when they are mince. My biggest concern is a lack of experience and match awareness means we are doing neither of these things and are therefore we will end up in a falsely low position for the quality we have in the squad. I think our other problem is that the team has been tinkered with too much. No partnership (especially in defence) is being allowed to develop. I think we maybe need to accept that we need to suffer some short term pain to get some long term gain there. From the actual game yesterday our right back's poor positioning was clearly noticed by Derek McInnes and therefore every ball St Johnstone played in was aimed at exploiting that weakness. Though his crossing was much better yesterday. There was not any attacking threat in the centre of midfield yesterday. Generally Jennings, Lasley and Hately were too deep to provide any support to Sutton and Jutkiewitz who were like two lost boys up top. I think the shape of the midfield is too inviting for other teams to come on to us and to me that is our biggest worry. What also worried me was that the moment St Johnstone equalised all the belief we had sapped out of us. Confidence is at a low ebb at the moment and the gaffer has some work to do to reinstill that. And publicly slating them is not helpful (however true his comments are). He needs to protect the players and whilst the tirade on Alan Muir was a pointless battle to get involved in it did offer them protection. His comments yesterday about a young team can only hinder. Now is definitely a time for concern but it is also a time to support the team and for the manager and fans to be calm. We are a young team who exceeded expectations until the end of November and now shit and fan have had a collision we need to remember we are not Brazil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jk2205 Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 We've also lost to St Johnstone, Falkirk, St Mirren, Hamilton, Kilmarnock on numerous occasions. Last season we lost 16 games..we've currently lost 5 and almost half a season through. We were cruising against St Johnstone first half...we have the ability to win games..its there, right now the confidence is not there, aided by Gannon's needless tinkering. We've done exceptionally well so far this season and exceded expectations. Unfortunatly the last two days on this board is the ensuing result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcol Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 Looking at the Sunday Post today tells alot. If the games had finished at half time we would be 3rd in the league. We seem to constantly blow it in the second half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WellTiliDie Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 That was fucking awful yesterday. First half wasn't too bad yesterday although they had a few chances to score through shite defending. Second half performance was abysmal. If we were to lose Ruddy and Jutkiewicz in January then we will be in a relegation battle. Put a fiver on us the other day to get relegated at 40/1 now we're down to 25/1. Obviously i am wanting the bookies to keep my money but at the moment the way we have played in last 3 months has been very worrying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underboyleheating Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 Looking at the Sunday Post today I hope you're at least 65 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordy Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 That was fucking awful yesterday. First half wasn't too bad yesterday although they had a few chances to score through shite defending. Second half performance was abysmal. If we were to lose Ruddy and Jutkiewicz in January then we will be in a relegation battle. Put a fiver on us the other day to get relegated at 40/1 now we're down to 25/1. Obviously i am wanting the bookies to keep my money but at the moment the way we have played in last 3 months has been very worrying. The drinks are on you at the end of May, maybe April, the way we are playing. If anyone disagrees, please feel free to try and convince me that our gaffer has got a clue whay he is doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwellhighland Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 I forgot to add in yesterday's goals to Craigan's total but basically after all that my point still stands. Our three most experienced defenders have the best records in terms of conceding fewer goals and when we've played Hammell, Reynolds and Craigan in the same team we've kept two out of three clean sheets. (league) Hammell - 19 from 13 1.46 Craigan - 11 from 7 1.57 Reynolds - 28 from 17 1.64 Saunders - 26 from 15 1.73 Moutaouakil - 23 from 13 1.76 Hutchinson - 9 from 4 2.25 (league + domestic cup) Hammell - 21 from 14 1.50 Reynolds - 32 from 19 1.68 Craigan - 14 from 8 1.75 Saunders - 31 from 17 1.82 Moutaouakil - 28 from 15 1.86 Hutchinson - 12 from 5 2.40 Personally I think it's unfair to include cup matches because some players played against 1st Division opposition and some didn't. We should be concerned with SPL opposition because that's the league we play in. I'm not saying for a minute our defensive record is fantastic with Craigan in the team, it's not, but it is better overall. Now is a time for experienced heads. I think the Ibrox result will skew the results a bit! Take away that one game and it's a different story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcalf Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 That was fucking awful yesterday. First half wasn't too bad yesterday And that's in the same sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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