If we can’t beat Luton at home then we really are in bother. A solid 3-0 win would be nice like.
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toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
I used that in the context of explaining why there's no revisionism in terms of saying performances before Brentford were good. The stats say that, at least in terms of performance, there have been two equally good ones.
Yes, results are all that matter, but in the longer term performances will usually mean better results.
Chewbacca
Player Valuation: £30m
No-one was injured, the club made some money and players and fans face Luton with more confidence. Shut up you miseryarse.
Much better the last 2 games.
Onana and Branthwaite growing better with every game.
Please don't do something stupid and lose to Luton
Onana and Branthwaite growing better with every game.
Please don't do something stupid and lose to Luton
…I’m not sure I get that correlation. Even if we lose against Luton, we might well have lost regardless of the team selection last night.
Doucoure, Gueye, McNeil and Young are regular starters who were left out last night, Harrison almost certainly benefited from a run and Dyche seemed measured in bringing DCL, Onana and Harrison off at specific times. He was able to see Onana in partnership with Gana as well as knowing he has an alternative defensive shape if required.
Seems like it was a calculated approach where the benefits far outweighed throwing the 2nd X1 in.
I think he got it right regardless of Luton.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
We just beat Brentofrd away - why would we be needing a confidence boost to play Luton at home...
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
Well you believe Mykolenko to have hobbled off at HT, so that could conceivably have a big impact on who and how we play.
efcfanwirral
Player Valuation: £25m
In a game where we should be attacking and keeping the ball he's not a player I want to see on the pitch this weekend!
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
We attacked well enough v Brentford.
Any win is fine, I'd like us to win to nil, we need a clean sheet.
Luton will come to frustrate, if we score early we should be able to get 2/3. If it's still 0-0 60/70mins everyone will start to worry a little, same tactic as Fulham/Wolves had, stay in the game and our fans get impatient.
Paul Rideout
Player Valuation: £40m
For me, xG is an indication of how well a team rides it’s luck…
Paul Rideout
Player Valuation: £40m
Mmm dunno about that. Finishing 16th and winning the BS cup would be acceptable. Just cannot lose to any more ‘bottom 6’ teams home or away IMO
toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
Pretty much
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that last night plays out EXACTLY as it did, with two major exceptions
1) instead of scoring, Garner skews his shot wide of the near post
2) instead of scoring, DCL hits the post with that near post finish
That's two kicks of a football, but we end up losing the game - however, everything else has gone exactly the same. We've still been the better side, but we've lost - I guarantee you that everyone here would be back to "Dyche out" today on the strength of those two kicks of a football not quite going ojr way, rather than the acceptance today that we played well
It's mad - a football game can be won our lost on tiny margins, but xG is an indication (not the only one) of how the game panned out. It's never as simple as saying that you played well if you win and you didn't if you lose, as per the example above.
We've played equally as well this season and lost, that's the bit I keep coming back to. The law of averages said that if we put in a number of performances like the one against Fulham or the one against Sheff Utd, we'd win our fair share of points.
smileychap
Player Valuation: £8m
Our bad start was a combination of three things:
The second issue - We've now got DCL, Beto, McNeil, and Danjuma, Harrison, Garner, Myko et al coming good. We have a threat, and they're putting a shift in. You can create you're own luck in sport. Work and do the right thing often enough and the chips will fall your way sometimes too.
Crucially this improved effort and team shape has yielded a couple of better results, so for the first time in ages we can actually go into a game with expectation (i.e. pressure!!) and confidence being a little more balanced.
The Fulham sucker punch really drained us of that, we'd played well. But it really exposed the team for what it was. I respect the way Sean and the squad are starting to turn that around and they now have a really good couple of games before next break to put that to the test.
- - poor prep (that's on Sean and the whole club)
- - not having key players available (bit of bad luck, plus the above)
- - mentality
The second issue - We've now got DCL, Beto, McNeil, and Danjuma, Harrison, Garner, Myko et al coming good. We have a threat, and they're putting a shift in. You can create you're own luck in sport. Work and do the right thing often enough and the chips will fall your way sometimes too.
Crucially this improved effort and team shape has yielded a couple of better results, so for the first time in ages we can actually go into a game with expectation (i.e. pressure!!) and confidence being a little more balanced.
The Fulham sucker punch really drained us of that, we'd played well. But it really exposed the team for what it was. I respect the way Sean and the squad are starting to turn that around and they now have a really good couple of games before next break to put that to the test.
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