We are conceding an average of one goal every 3 games at the moment and scoring just shy of 2 per game. What's frightening is that City have the same conceded but are scoring more than a goal a game more than us. Any other season you'd say we've a cracking chance of winning the league but we're up against possibly the best league side ever!
I've always thought "He has a mistake in him" is a bit of a silly phrase because it applies to every defender on the planet but it applies to Van Dijk a bit more than the commentary on him would have you believe.Theres quite a few clangers in there since he arrived.Obviously the fact he's the best CB in the league gives him more of a pass than less talented players and I'm not complaining about that but it makes you wonder if we were more forgiving with lesser players would it make their job a bit easier?
Mistakes that lead to goals are analysed 10 times more than those that don't. I really think it's a simple as that.
They are but I don't think it's as simple as that. It's always been a thing in football where sometimes fans hold players they rate less to higher standards than the ones they rate more.And pundits and commentators are as guilty of confirmation bias as anybody else. Somebody even mentioned it in the match thread about a commentator focusing on Lovren for a mistake that was clearly Van Dijks. Matip also had a long honeymoon period where his mistakes were kind of ignored or went unnoticed which did piss me off a bit because that was putting far too much on Lovren who is imo the better player, but it doesn't bother me with Van Dijk. The mistakes are much fewer and further between,that air of invincibility around him is good for everybody and his partners at CB benefit hugely from playing with him.It was just something I noticed.
VVD got away with a massive one last Season at Palace when Benteke fluffed his lines. I thought the one against City in the CL was a foul. That was the only major ones I could think of from last season. Seems to be a few more errors this season, however got away with them. The problem with some players is that once they make an error, it affects their game totally and perhaps their form for a run of games. It also helps if you look comfortable on the ball and it gives and air of confidence taking the ball out. Over last 10/15 years the likes of Sami, Agger, Matip and VVD looked very assured no matter what. Then you have the likes of Carra, Skrtel, Sakho Toure, Klavan and Lovren who at times dont want the ball anywhere near them and can look like a mistake waiting to happen if a team presses them. If they make a mistake, its confirms people view that they look error prone. VVD seems to brush it off once makes a mistake and come sauntering out for the next ball like he is Baresi in his prime. Thought myself Lovren had a solid game against a very physical Huddlerfield team. Some of their lads are pure units.
Dejan Lovren could've cost Liverpool all 3 points vs Huddersfield with his two mistakes. Bailed out once again aft… https://t.co/XTkVolv0Uc This tit is so desperate to push an anti Lovren agenda,he's cut the actual mistake out of the gif.
I don't understand a lot of XG stats but those who do are saying Alisson is conceding 1 goal for every 2 he's expected to and making 6.3 saves for every goal he concedes.
It's always the way with great keepers, same as great defenders! If you're in the right place it looks so easy.
Finding it hard to remember last Game at home in the league we have conceded XGA ( expected goals against)is 6.53 shows how good we’ve been as a defensive unit But GA ( goals against )is only 3 , that’s a huge difference of 3.53 . Alisson has been a huge success so far .
What's all this about expected goals? Is there some new stats going on for the league now, this is very like the NFL stats that I see but hadn't seen them before in the oul "soccer".
No idea ? Keep seeing it everywhere so had a look . As far as I see it They analyze each game and work out what we should have conceded based on various stats So they worked out we should have conceded 6.53 goals but in reality we have only conceded 3
XG is pretty simple, it basically measures the likelyhood of a shot from a position's % chance of being scored. ie: a tap from one yard with the goalkeeper stranded would have a 100% XG (you couldn't miss) and a shot from 35 yards might have a 5% XG as in one in twenty will go in. The sum of these percentages essentially add's up to a teams XG for a game. If the team are scoring more than XG they are finishing well or playing against poor Goalkeepers and vice versa. There are a few different methodologies, some which discount rebounds from penalties etc.
Clubs have been using them for quite a while now. I'm still not sure how it's worked out but it makes sense to use stats like that. People who say the only stats that matter are how many you score and how many you concede are correct in one simplistic way,but I'd say wrong if you take these type of stats in the context they're supposed to be used. Results are the most important thing but ignoring the underlying factors around those results won't cut it any more at the top level.
I think this is the first season ever where I've come into this thread thinking ... do we actually need to defend our defence, or have we finally got a fairly decent defence. Great feeling, albeit we could still improve (defensively) in one or two positions across the backline.
No we don't have a decent defence, in my opinion we have an outstanding defence. Which are the one or two positions that you could improve in the backline? I think we've the best centre half in the PL in VVD - Lovren and Gomez beside him both look better than anyone else in the league, Robertson looks close to nailed on the best fullback in the country and TAA is a smashing player. If we can keep that back 5 together for a long time we'll be one of the stingiest teams in the league for years to come.
I suppose there's different ways of looking at it in terms of current performance capabilities v talent and potential and come up with different opinions but I wouldn't swap what we currently have for anything else. For me we can't improve on Van Dijk,Allison or Robertson and can't buy anybody that will be as good as Gomez and TAA are going to be. You definitely couldn't pick another defensive unit in world football that would make us a better team and buying somebody who's currently better than Gomez and TAA would be a very poor way of investing in this team.
Ed, There's a difference between having what we consider great players, and having players who are great defenders. Let's see how we finish up this season, in terms of goals conceded and how we compare to the others in the Top 4. We may end up with the least goals conceded, or we may end up with the forth best defensive record, who knows. If you ask me where I think we can improve on what we have defensively, I look at TAA and Lovern and think, there are better defenders out there. That brings in the point that Babbs is making I suppose and he's right when we consider what players may be best for our club and the style of football we currently play etc. but that's a different point to the one about better defenders imho. Also, there are players elsewhere, besides the PL, so when you think about who might be a better defensive player, don't just think in terms of PL