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Post by fireboy0610 on Oct 15, 2024 22:28:02 GMT
Montenegro last two games at home to Iceland and Turkey. Currently on zero points. I think they can take points in the home games. Let's hope so, it will come in handy. |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Oct 15, 2024 23:01:31 GMT
4 games into Bellamy's reign, here are some interesting comparison stats looking at the final 4 competitive games under Page vs Bellamy's first 4 games. Have summarised the averages and included a breakdown of each game
PAGE AVERAGE
Possession: 42%
Pass accuracy: 79%
Shots (on target): 12 (5.5)
xG: 1.39
xG against: 1.00
BELLAMY AVERAGE
Possession: 60%
Pass accuracy: 85%
Shots (on target): 11.5 (3.75)
xG: 1.83
xG against: 1.04
*Page's final 4 games*
vs Armenia
Possession: 47%
Pass accuracy: 82%
Shots (on target): 12 (4)
xG: 0.84
xG against: 0.98
vs Turkey
Possession: 39%
Pass accuracy: 77%
Shots (on target): 10 (4)
xG: 0.77
xG against: 1.20
vs Finland
Possession: 41%
Pass accuracy: 83%
Shots (on target): 15 (10)
xG: 2.97
xG against: 1.31
vs Poland
Possession: 42%
Pass accuracy: 76%
Shots (on target): 12 (4)
xG: 0.99
xG against: 0.52
------------------
*Bellamy's first 4 games*
Wales vs Turkey
Possession: 67%
Pass accuracy: 87%
Shots (on target): 15 (1)
xG: 2.04
xG against: 0.61
Wales vs Montenegro
Possession: 49%
Pass accuracy: 81%
Shots (on target): 10 (3)
xG: 1.25
xG against: 2.12
Wales vs Iceland
Possession: 59%
Pass accuracy: 85%
Shots (on target): 8 (6)
xG: 2.23
xG against: 1.15
Wales vs Montenegro
Possession: 66%
Pass accuracy: 87%
Shots (on target): 13 (5)
xG: 1.83
xG against: 0.28
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Post by jbt95 on Nov 14, 2024 15:24:57 GMT
Harry Kane ""That is the most important thing, England comes before anything. It comes before club. It is the most important thing you play for as a professional footballer."
It is refreshing to see player say that to him international is most important. I wonder if Gareth Bale rubbed off on him at all?
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Post by allezlesrouges on Nov 14, 2024 16:51:07 GMT
Just noticed that if we come 2nd or 3rd in the Nations League that we are very likely to end up in a 4 team qualifying group for the World Cup. I didn't even know they did 4 team groups and that feels like very short campaign!
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Post by iot on Nov 14, 2024 17:43:33 GMT
Just noticed that if we come 2nd or 3rd in the Nations League that we are very likely to end up in a 4 team qualifying group for the World Cup. I didn't even know they did 4 team groups and that feels like very short campaign! I’m assuming there’s no difference between 4 and 5 team groups in that 2nd place goes through to a playoff regardless? |
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Post by jbt95 on Nov 14, 2024 17:55:17 GMT
Just noticed that if we come 2nd or 3rd in the Nations League that we are very likely to end up in a 4 team qualifying group for the World Cup. I didn't even know they did 4 team groups and that feels like very short campaign! I’m assuming there’s no difference between 4 and 5 team groups in that 2nd place goes through to a playoff regardless? Correct. |
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Post by saturn9 on Nov 14, 2024 20:02:47 GMT
Faroe Isles bt Armenia tonight😡
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Post by dai on Nov 15, 2024 21:35:40 GMT
Watching the Scot game on youtube, I think they pip the English for nauseating bias commentary.
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Post by insertname on Nov 15, 2024 23:44:38 GMT
4 games into Bellamy's reign, here are some interesting comparison stats looking at the final 4 competitive games under Page vs Bellamy's first 4 games. Have summarised the averages and included a breakdown of each game PAGE AVERAGE Possession: 42% Pass accuracy: 79% Shots (on target): 12 (5.5) xG: 1.39 xG against: 1.00 BELLAMY AVERAGE Possession: 60% Pass accuracy: 85% Shots (on target): 11.5 (3.75) xG: 1.83 xG against: 1.04 *Page's final 4 games* vs Armenia Possession: 47% Pass accuracy: 82% Shots (on target): 12 (4) xG: 0.84 xG against: 0.98 vs Turkey Possession: 39% Pass accuracy: 77% Shots (on target): 10 (4) xG: 0.77 xG against: 1.20 vs Finland Possession: 41% Pass accuracy: 83% Shots (on target): 15 (10) xG: 2.97 xG against: 1.31 vs Poland Possession: 42% Pass accuracy: 76% Shots (on target): 12 (4) xG: 0.99 xG against: 0.52 ------------------ *Bellamy's first 4 games* Wales vs Turkey Possession: 67% Pass accuracy: 87% Shots (on target): 15 (1) xG: 2.04 xG against: 0.61 Wales vs Montenegro Possession: 49% Pass accuracy: 81% Shots (on target): 10 (3) xG: 1.25 xG against: 2.12 Wales vs Iceland Possession: 59% Pass accuracy: 85% Shots (on target): 8 (6) xG: 2.23 xG against: 1.15 Wales vs Montenegro Possession: 66% Pass accuracy: 87% Shots (on target): 13 (5) xG: 1.83 xG against: 0.28 That’s really interesting. I’m somewhat surprised that possession based football under Bellamy which is very much defensive in nature (as per Spain and Guardiola possession is used in those two contexts as much to restrict opponent opportunities to score as to create opportunities to score) has resulted in a slightly greater xG for the opponent. Maybe that will iron out and decrease over the longer term. We’ve obviously got a higher xG to complement it but are we seeing more goals on average than under Page? I don’t think we are. We seem to be about as “free-scoring” as we’ve ever been 😂 Sort of feels to me that whilst it looks good on the pitch on paper the transition from Page to Bellamy has been something akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, thanks in part to a problem that we knew was there under Page and is still there under Bellamy: nobody can put the ball in the ****ing net when they get a presentable chance. |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Nov 16, 2024 0:40:26 GMT
insertname important to note that big changes take time. I think it will take a bit longer for it all to come together but we're getting there. Consistently executing the plan over 90 mins was achieved against Montenegro at home. Now needs to be done against better opposition. The defensive improvement will come
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Post by insertname on Nov 16, 2024 4:06:12 GMT
insertname important to note that big changes take time. I think it will take a bit longer for it all to come together but we're getting there. Consistently executing the plan over 90 mins was achieved against Montenegro at home. Now needs to be done against better opposition. The defensive improvement will come Do we need to be better defensively? If you look at Page's stats on the whole defence was our strength. We conceded hardly any goals over 19 home games under Page IIRC. Bellamy if anything should be improving our goal scoring and that is my concern and leads to an "emperor´s new clothes"-esque suspicion that this new style might be easier on the eye but in actual output remains no different because it ultimately doesn't solve the core problem that we don't take an adequate percentage of our chances to win games and that problem was writ large against Turkey at home where we had so many chances and yet ended up on paper with the same sort of result I would expect of Page. Scoring two against Iceland and Montenegro away in and of itself is okay, good progress of a sort but would I think Page was over achieving by scoring four and taking 4 points from those games? I´d probably be disappointed and I'd expect this forum to be disappointed with that return too. I think we're tempering our expectations at the moment because Bellamy talks a good game and he's new in the role, fair enough, but really in terms of output it's not really a whole lot different. I'll change my tune depending on the result in Turkey. The fact we have a common opponent we can so clearly use to compare is very handy. FWIW I expect a similar outcome and Bellamy may not even get a somewhat harsh red card to cling to to mitigate failure. If he gets a draw or a win I'll definitely be more inclined to feel that things may be different. It´s a particularly difficult place to go so for me it seems reasonable that a lot of opinion rests on what we do under Bellamy there vs what we got under Page |
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Post by iot on Nov 16, 2024 9:06:01 GMT
insertname important to note that big changes take time. I think it will take a bit longer for it all to come together but we're getting there. Consistently executing the plan over 90 mins was achieved against Montenegro at home. Now needs to be done against better opposition. The defensive improvement will come Do we need to be better defensively? If you look at Page's stats on the whole defence was our strength. We conceded hardly any goals over 19 home games under Page IIRC. Bellamy if anything should be improving our goal scoring and that is my concern and leads to an "emperor´s new clothes"-esque suspicion that this new style might be easier on the eye but in actual output remains no different because it ultimately doesn't solve the core problem that we don't take an adequate percentage of our chances to win games and that problem was writ large against Turkey at home where we had so many chances and yet ended up on paper with the same sort of result I would expect of Page. Scoring two against Iceland and Montenegro away in and of itself is okay, good progress of a sort but would I think Page was over achieving by scoring four and taking 4 points from those games? I´d probably be disappointed and I'd expect this forum to be disappointed with that return too. I think we're tempering our expectations at the moment because Bellamy talks a good game and he's new in the role, fair enough, but really in terms of output it's not really a whole lot different. I'll change my tune depending on the result in Turkey. The fact we have a common opponent we can so clearly use to compare is very handy. FWIW I expect a similar outcome and Bellamy may not even get a somewhat harsh red card to cling to to mitigate failure. If he gets a draw or a win I'll definitely be more inclined to feel that things may be different. It´s a particularly difficult place to go so for me it seems reasonable that a lot of opinion rests on what we do under Bellamy there vs what we got under Page I think you're being far too critical borne out of your cynicism of the new identity we're adopting, and probably because you saw it implemented very poorly at your club if I've understood correctly from your previous posts? You're stripping out massive amounts of context and putting an overly negative spin to align with the cynicism you had before a ball was kicked. We have 8 points from 4 games. We have used 26 different players in those 4 games with Bellamy clearly experimenting and using these games as an opportunity to give everyone a chance before the qualifiers. We clearly dominated a side that reached the Euro 24 quarter finals and have some fantastic young players, and created more than enough chances to win that game. We had mixed performances in the away games, but the pitch conditions, turnover in personnel, and players getting to grips with a completely new style all needs to be taken into account. I don't think we can read much into Montenegro away but the second half in Iceland is by far the biggest disappointment for me - although from what Bellamy was saying (whether you believe him or not), he was almost prepared to sacrifice the result and witheld from making earlier changes to give the players a chance to work it out themselves. Bellamy suggested that he found their failure to do so almost more beneficial than the alternative because it gave the coaching staff material to go through with the players and show what they should have done. It goes back to the broader point that Bellamy's used these games to bed in his new style and focused more on learning and development than results. He's basically treated them as a pre-season to the WC qualifiers. Our win against Montenegro home was impressive in that it was mostly 2nd or even 3rd choice players and we still dominated and deserved the win. So all in all, I think it's a very positive start and people would be very pleased with the results/performances under Page - although I do agree that with Page a certain section (which grew more and more over time) would have just honed in on the negatives to bash him with. I'm a fairly pessimistic person so I'm not hopeful about our chances tonight - I think Turkey are a better side now than they were a year ago with some of their young players really kicking on. But I felt like that before the first game, so hopefully I'm in for another pleasant surprise! |
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Post by winsumluzsum on Nov 16, 2024 11:26:48 GMT
I fear Ampadu will be a big miss tonight. We need JJ to really step up, which is expecting a bit much - but he has shown his capabilities. Does Allen start? I suspect he may be used off the bench with Sheehan starting. Well though he did against Montenegro tonight is a big step up for him. Objectively Turkiye should be too strong - but then I thought that prior to the Cardiff game, where we were so much superior. Given that we no longer have the element of surprise in our favour this will be an excellent test of how far we've come in a short space of time.
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Post by insertname on Nov 16, 2024 11:33:43 GMT
Do we need to be better defensively? If you look at Page's stats on the whole defence was our strength. We conceded hardly any goals over 19 home games under Page IIRC. Bellamy if anything should be improving our goal scoring and that is my concern and leads to an "emperor´s new clothes"-esque suspicion that this new style might be easier on the eye but in actual output remains no different because it ultimately doesn't solve the core problem that we don't take an adequate percentage of our chances to win games and that problem was writ large against Turkey at home where we had so many chances and yet ended up on paper with the same sort of result I would expect of Page. Scoring two against Iceland and Montenegro away in and of itself is okay, good progress of a sort but would I think Page was over achieving by scoring four and taking 4 points from those games? I´d probably be disappointed and I'd expect this forum to be disappointed with that return too. I think we're tempering our expectations at the moment because Bellamy talks a good game and he's new in the role, fair enough, but really in terms of output it's not really a whole lot different. I'll change my tune depending on the result in Turkey. The fact we have a common opponent we can so clearly use to compare is very handy. FWIW I expect a similar outcome and Bellamy may not even get a somewhat harsh red card to cling to to mitigate failure. If he gets a draw or a win I'll definitely be more inclined to feel that things may be different. It´s a particularly difficult place to go so for me it seems reasonable that a lot of opinion rests on what we do under Bellamy there vs what we got under Page I think you're being far too critical borne out of your cynicism of the new identity we're adopting, and probably because you saw it implemented very poorly at your club if I've understood correctly from your previous posts? You're stripping out massive amounts of context and putting an overly negative spin to align with the cynicism you had before a ball was kicked. We have 8 points from 4 games. We have used 26 different players in those 4 games with Bellamy clearly experimenting and using these games as an opportunity to give everyone a chance before the qualifiers. We clearly dominated a side that reached the Euro 24 quarter finals and have some fantastic young players, and created more than enough chances to win that game. We had mixed performances in the away games, but the pitch conditions, turnover in personnel, and players getting to grips with a completely new style all needs to be taken into account. I don't think we can read much into Montenegro away but the second half in Iceland is by far the biggest disappointment for me - although from what Bellamy was saying (whether you believe him or not), he was almost prepared to sacrifice the result and witheld from making earlier changes to give the players a chance to work it out themselves. Bellamy suggested that he found their failure to do so almost more beneficial than the alternative because it gave the coaching staff material to go through with the players and show what they should have done. It goes back to the broader point that Bellamy's used these games to bed in his new style and focused more on learning and development than results. He's basically treated them as a pre-season to the WC qualifiers. Our win against Montenegro home was impressive in that it was mostly 2nd or even 3rd choice players and we still dominated and deserved the win. So all in all, I think it's a very positive start and people would be very pleased with the results/performances under Page - although I do agree that with Page a certain section (which grew more and more over time) would have just honed in on the negatives to bash him with. I'm a fairly pessimistic person so I'm not hopeful about our chances tonight - I think Turkey are a better side now than they were a year ago with some of their young players really kicking on. But I felt like that before the first game, so hopefully I'm in for another pleasant surprise! Yeah fair point that that there is a “hidden” positive not immediately identifiable on paper: that we won in Montenegro whilst being very much injury stricken. And yes I do admit that I am cynical partly from what I’ve seen at club level trying to get less than stellar calibre players to dominate the opposition but my point here is more that, according to allez’s stats, while we might be able to see a difference with our eyes on paper and on the scoresheet we aren’t necessarily getting anything different in terms of outcomes. It is early days yes and maybe it improves over the longer term. As I say the big problem for years with Wales has been how to unearth/cope without a proper striker and given how we’ve had a lot of possession and chances two draws against Turkey and Iceland is perhaps proof that for Page and Bellamy the problem is the same and Bellamy for all our possession hasn’t yet managed to crack that problem meaning that the visible changes we can see on the pitch ultimately aren’t getting us beyond what Page achieved. For that reason it feels like this is a big game today, quite apart from the potential boon of play off places etc. We need to start taking our chances and if I’m cynical then I’m especially cynical about that. We can change the manager and style of play but it’s tough as old boots to suddenly get misfiring players under Page to be more clinical under Bellamy as the stats seem to suggest. But we shall see. Like you I just don’t see us getting anything today, perhaps it’s a bit too early in the Bellamy revolution to have a fixture like this. My expectation is we will be under the cosh a bit in a hostile atmosphere but if we end up drawing after dominating possession and missing a hat full of chances then I will be referring to this post 😂 |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Nov 16, 2024 11:35:06 GMT
I fear Ampadu will be a big miss tonight. We need JJ to really step up, which is expecting a bit much - but he has shown his capabilities. Does Allen start? I suspect he may be used off the bench with Sheehan starting. Well though he did against Montenegro tonight is a big step up for him. Objectively Turkiye should be too strong - but then I thought that prior to the Cardiff game, where we were so much superior. Given that we no longer have the element of surprise in our favour this will be an excellent test of how far we've come in a short space of time. It's quite possible that Ampadu is our most important player now. So I am very interested to see how we cope without him in this type of game You may well be right, although I like to hope that Bellamy isn't hinging his system on the availability of one player, and that we can adapt I'd be surprised to see Allen start but it would be great to see from a fans perspective. Wouldn't expect more than 45 mins from him tho, at an absolute max. Without Ampadu & Cooper we will definitely have to call upon JJ & Sheehan for these games. Good tests for them |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Nov 16, 2024 11:46:52 GMT
insertname I think you're slightly misunderstanding the stats. The fact our xG is higher under Bellamy just tells us we're creating a higher quality of chance more regularly than under Page The fact that we haven't scored more under Bellamy yet is likely just variance/luck. The only other way of interpreting the stats would be to say that our strikers have become worse finishers under Bellamy than Page, which I think you will agree doesn't really make sense all things considered What will likely happen is that we'll start scoring more if we keep creating these high quality chances. The fact that we don't have a great/clinical striker just means that we're much better off in a system like Bellamy's, because if a striker is a worse finisher you need to create more chances for them, rather than rely on low xG opportunities as Page was In other words, the finishing ability of our striker matters less under Bellamy than under Page
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Post by insertname on Nov 16, 2024 12:34:26 GMT
insertname I think you're slightly misunderstanding the stats. The fact our xG is higher under Bellamy just tells us we're creating a higher quality of chance more regularly than under Page The fact that we haven't scored more under Bellamy yet is likely just variance/luck. The only other way of interpreting the stats would be to say that our strikers have become worse finishers under Bellamy than Page, which I think you will agree doesn't really make sense all things considered What will likely happen is that we'll start scoring more if we keep creating these high quality chances. The fact that we don't have a great/clinical striker just means that we're much better off in a system like Bellamy's, because if a striker is a worse finisher you need to create more chances for them, rather than rely on low xG opportunities as Page was In other words, the finishing ability of our striker matters less under Bellamy than under Page Yes we are creating better quality chances, which is good but my point is if our players aren’t very good at scoring goals (which has been something of a constant problem across managers, alleviated slightly by Bale) then an uptick in xG is positive but ultimately useless as it’s not reflected in the score, therefore we get the same outcome as Page but it’s just nicer to look at. But maybe you’re right and over the longer term an improvement in xG almost always results in better outcomes, I don’t know the trends with that stat in that much detail to know what it implies over the longer term and whether it pretty much guarantees greater success. It feels intuitively like it should do at least at club level as you can identify that you are creating chances and need better strikers but at international level we don’t have a transfer market so it seems logical to me that we can develop a high xG and yet over the long term get poor results because our players just can’t out-score what the defence concedes |
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Post by winsumluzsum on Nov 16, 2024 12:46:11 GMT
insertname I think you're slightly misunderstanding the stats. The fact our xG is higher under Bellamy just tells us we're creating a higher quality of chance more regularly than under Page The fact that we haven't scored more under Bellamy yet is likely just variance/luck. The only other way of interpreting the stats would be to say that our strikers have become worse finishers under Bellamy than Page, which I think you will agree doesn't really make sense all things considered What will likely happen is that we'll start scoring more if we keep creating these high quality chances. The fact that we don't have a great/clinical striker just means that we're much better off in a system like Bellamy's, because if a striker is a worse finisher you need to create more chances for them, rather than rely on low xG opportunities as Page was In other words, the finishing ability of our striker matters less under Bellamy than under Page Very much agreed. To be fair how many of our gilt-edged opportunities so far have fallen to our strikers? Not many. Moore scored away to Montenegro, although he should have got a second. In the Turkiye game Ramsey missed that header he would normally score from, the clear opportunity for Rodon fell to a player with a terrible goalscoring record, and the disallowed Sorba goal was fractionally offside. Wilson came very close with a superb effort from outside the box, but in general has been very clinical. Create enough chances and we will score regardless of the quality of our strikers. I think there is a tendency amongst some to apply a one size fits all approach to possession football. You see this with Swansea fans who assume the ultra slow Russell Martin approach is representative of all possession football. Nothing could be further from the truth. Take Bielsa. His teams dominate possession but get the ball forwards very quickly, arguably recklessly at times. But his teams are exhilarating to watch. I would suggest that under Bellamy we will be far closer to Bielsa than Martin. |
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Post by insertname on Nov 16, 2024 13:37:12 GMT
insertname I think you're slightly misunderstanding the stats. The fact our xG is higher under Bellamy just tells us we're creating a higher quality of chance more regularly than under Page The fact that we haven't scored more under Bellamy yet is likely just variance/luck. The only other way of interpreting the stats would be to say that our strikers have become worse finishers under Bellamy than Page, which I think you will agree doesn't really make sense all things considered What will likely happen is that we'll start scoring more if we keep creating these high quality chances. The fact that we don't have a great/clinical striker just means that we're much better off in a system like Bellamy's, because if a striker is a worse finisher you need to create more chances for them, rather than rely on low xG opportunities as Page was In other words, the finishing ability of our striker matters less under Bellamy than under Page Very much agreed. To be fair how many of our gilt-edged opportunities so far have fallen to our strikers? Not many. Moore scored away to Montenegro, although he should have got a second. In the Turkiye game Ramsey missed that header he would normally score from, the clear opportunity for Rodon fell to a player with a terrible goalscoring record, and the disallowed Sorba goal was fractionally offside. Wilson came very close with a superb effort from outside the box, but in general has been very clinical. Create enough chances and we will score regardless of the quality of our strikers. I think there is a tendency amongst some to apply a one size fits all approach to possession football. You see this with Swansea fans who assume the ultra slow Russell Martin approach is representative of all possession football. Nothing could be further from the truth. Take Bielsa. His teams dominate possession but get the ball forwards very quickly, arguably recklessly at times. But his teams are exhilarating to watch. I would suggest that under Bellamy we will be far closer to Bielsa than Martin. What are the characteristics of a team that gets the ball forward quickly and still dominates possession? They sound like opposing contexts as having the ball in the opponent’s third will result in a shot or losing possession sooner rather than later. Indeed I watched Bielsa’s Uruguay last night and the intent was to get the ball forward quickly and create chances, possession neither here nor there (as borne out by the stats where they only had 50% possession so not dominant). To my mind the only team that successfully monopolises possession for long periods in the final third is Man City and they play a totally slow and dull brand of risk-free football that eventually wears the opposition down but is as exciting as paint drying as a spectacle. |
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Post by insertname on Nov 17, 2024 1:49:01 GMT
4 games into Bellamy's reign, here are some interesting comparison stats looking at the final 4 competitive games under Page vs Bellamy's first 4 games. Have summarised the averages and included a breakdown of each game PAGE AVERAGE Possession: 42% Pass accuracy: 79% Shots (on target): 12 (5.5) xG: 1.39 xG against: 1.00 BELLAMY AVERAGE Possession: 60% Pass accuracy: 85% Shots (on target): 11.5 (3.75) xG: 1.83 xG against: 1.04 *Page's final 4 games* vs Armenia Possession: 47% Pass accuracy: 82% Shots (on target): 12 (4) xG: 0.84 xG against: 0.98 vs Turkey Possession: 39% Pass accuracy: 77% Shots (on target): 10 (4) xG: 0.77 xG against: 1.20 vs Finland Possession: 41% Pass accuracy: 83% Shots (on target): 15 (10) xG: 2.97 xG against: 1.31 vs Poland Possession: 42% Pass accuracy: 76% Shots (on target): 12 (4) xG: 0.99 xG against: 0.52 ------------------ *Bellamy's first 4 games* Wales vs Turkey Possession: 67% Pass accuracy: 87% Shots (on target): 15 (1) xG: 2.04 xG against: 0.61 Wales vs Montenegro Possession: 49% Pass accuracy: 81% Shots (on target): 10 (3) xG: 1.25 xG against: 2.12 Wales vs Iceland Possession: 59% Pass accuracy: 85% Shots (on target): 8 (6) xG: 2.23 xG against: 1.15 Wales vs Montenegro Possession: 66% Pass accuracy: 87% Shots (on target): 13 (5) xG: 1.83 xG against: 0.28 Can you update following Turkey away. Interested to see how the low shots on goal affects the xG. My intuition based on my reading of the stats prior to Turkey tells me that Bellamy’s stats will dip hard after taking Turkey into account and the vested interests will be scrambling and covering arses to explain how on paper Bellamys record is superior to Pages. |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Nov 17, 2024 8:38:17 GMT
insertname yes, to do that and make it fair & balanced we'd also have to include the next chronological Page result in there too, which is when we beat Croatia 2-1 at home Wales vs Turkey Possession: 37% Pass accuracy: 76% Shots (on target): 4 (1) xG: 0.24 xG against: 2.78 Wales vs Croatia Possession: 27% Pass accuracy: 73% Shots (on target): 10 (5) xG: 1.06 xG against: 1.44 Updated averages: PAGE AVERAGE Possession: 39% Pass accuracy: 78% Shots (on target): 11.8 (5.4) xG: 1.33 xG against: 1.09 BELLAMY AVERAGE Possession: 56% Pass accuracy: 83% Shots (on target): 10 (3.2) xG: 1.52 xG against: 1.39 Bellamy is +17% for possession, +5% for pass accuracy, -1.8 for shots, -2.2 for shots on target, +0.19 for xG, and -0.30 for xG against Important context to note: - 4/5 of Page's game in this run were at home, compared to 2/5 for Bellamy - The average squad under Page was stronger at the time, i.e less injuries than Bellamy has had to deal with - To be having less shots and less shots on target and still have a higher xG is indicative of a clear style change, i.e we're creating higher quality chances than under Page
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Post by eppingblue1 on Nov 18, 2024 17:36:08 GMT
If Scotland win tonight and Croatia lose at home to Portugal then will Scotland end up in Pot 1 for the world cup draw ? I seemed to remember reading that the first eight seeds would come from the nations league A - top 2 in each group. Now I cant find anything about it and there's no mention of it in the few articles on Scotland that I've looked at. To me that seems as much of a prize as staying up.
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Post by bolter on Nov 18, 2024 17:47:30 GMT
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Post by winsumluzsum on Nov 18, 2024 18:40:24 GMT
Croatia will finish above Scotland regardless of results - thanks to their superior head to head results.
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Post by jbt95 on Nov 18, 2024 18:47:50 GMT
Croatia will finish above Scotland regardless of results - thanks to their superior head to head results. I initially thought this too, but it seems like it's not the case as they both took 3 pts off each and other and have GD of 0. There has to be a three goal swing though. |
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Post by jbt95 on Nov 18, 2024 18:55:18 GMT
If Scotland win tonight and Croatia lose at home to Portugal then will Scotland end up in Pot 1 for the world cup draw ? I seemed to remember reading that the first eight seeds would come from the nations league A - top 2 in each group. Now I cant find anything about it and there's no mention of it in the few articles on Scotland that I've looked at. To me that seems as much of a prize as staying up. Yes top two of each League A group will be pot 1 for the WCQs, along with the best next four UEFA teams in the FIFA World Rankings, they have to be because of scheduling. |
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Post by jbt95 on Nov 18, 2024 19:03:37 GMT
If we end up in the League A play-off -
Hungary and Belgium are confirmed in,
One of Croatia/Scotland/Poland,
Either Denmark or Serbia.
Other than Scotland, we've faced all of these in the past decade and had some pretty big matches against them all!
Bit of a grudge match whoever we would face!
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Post by winsumluzsum on Nov 18, 2024 20:34:52 GMT
Terrific game between Scotland and Poland. How the score is still one nil I don't know. Scotland have hit bar and post, but Poland have squandered at least 3 excellent chances.
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Post by hooky on Nov 18, 2024 20:50:20 GMT
Good on Scotland - solid squad but not exceptional and yet when they are competitive they seem to swing it with teams that we seem to fold against.
Horrible reminder of our timid paly off game against Poland. Likes of Brennan doing little for us and yet an 18 year old kid showing Scotland the way and potentially leading them to top seed WC status! Seriously that game against a bang average Poland at home was such an opportunity lost
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Post by barneycat1 on Nov 18, 2024 20:54:15 GMT
Good on Scotland - solid squad but not exceptional and yet when they are competitive they seem to swing it with teams that we seem to fold against. Horrible reminder of our timid paly off game against Poland. Likes of Brennan doing little for us and yet an 18 year old kid showing Scotland the way and potentially leading them to top seed WC status! Seriously that game against a bang average Poland at home was such an opportunity lost Page cost us big time. |
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