Stats with and without Gylfi

[Snowball]

I think he is a FABULOUS player and will be missed, but though he's fantastic,
he's also associated with our great run last year.

And we had to adjust our more-usual set-up to accommodate him.


So CAN we do without him?

We actually did BETTER overall (statistically) when he didn't play.

His debut was 53 matches ago, and he played 43 of that 53 (40 starts, subbed 4 times, came on as sub 3 times)

P10 W05 D02 L03 17-15 1.700 points per game GD +.200 per game Gylfi NOT playing
P43 W17 D13 L13 71-63 1.488 points per game GD +.186 per game Gylfi playing



We can obsess about one player, but it's clear last season we did OK when he didn't play
and this season, if we now get in a CB, a dominant MF and maybe a striker we can still make the play-offs

[papereyes]

So he was shit all along.

That didn't take long. Almost a relief.

[RobRoyal]

Snowball, do you mind posting what the opposition and scores were for those 10 games he didn't play?

[Terminal Boardom]

Any chance of breaking this down to take into account:

1. BR as manager
2. BMc as manager
3. Gylfi on the wing
4. Gylfi in the middle

Thanks

[floyd__streete]

Any chance of breaking this down to take into account:

1. BR as manager
2. BMc as manager
3. Gylfi on the wing
4. Gylfi in the middle

Thanks

and if you plot 'number of animals abused' against 'what makes people cruel' versus 'intelligence of either party', the pattern is so unreadable that you might as well just draw a chain of fox heads on sticks. And if you do that, an interesting thing happens: the word 'cruel' starts flashing

[Big Foot]

Any chance of breaking this down to take into account:

1. BR as manager
2. BMc as manager
3. Gylfi on the wing
4. Gylfi in the middle

Thanks

and if you plot 'number of animals abused' against 'what makes people cruel' versus 'intelligence of either party', the pattern is so unreadable that you might as well just draw a chain of fox heads on sticks. And if you do that, an interesting thing happens: the word 'cruel' starts flashing

I can show you a graph of "people" vs "time" and where does the line go?

[ZacNaloen]

tbf, this was my instinctual feeling anyway.

From what I recall of the games where Gylfi did miss out we didn't have a significant drop in form, but I put it down to that just being the roll we were on.

[Millsy]

Gylfi was rubbish.

Glad he's gone.

[URZZ]

Gylfi was rubbish.

Glad he's gone.

True, Long is better.

[Schards#2]

Gylfi was rubbish.

Glad he's gone.

True, Long is better.

I'm sure Snowball can statistically demonstrate this fact better than my eyeballs can.

[Wax Jacket]

I like him and everything but take away the goals (admittedly hugely key ) and I don't think he did a huge amount. if the goals dried up there'd be plenty of moaning at him.

hope it works out for him at hoffenheim - seems like a decent club to be joining, certainly wouldn't ge tthe bigh club weight of pressure

[Snowball]

Starts,
DNS (did not start, came on as sub)
NPS = Non-Playing Sub
OUT = not picked

One thing in particular is that Sygi scored some CRUCIAL goals
like the last-breath equaliser at Liverpool, the winner v West Brom

Great player, undoubtedly, good enough to end up in the English Prem top six
or the equivalent elsewhere, but facts are facts.

We can lose when he plays (13 times) and won only 39.5% of his appearances. That's against 50% wins when he didn't feature.



WHY? He's clearly OUTSTANDING at our level, but we had to change the team to suit him
and we didn't have a striker who could really play the single CF holding-up role (like, say, Jason Scotland)

We have very decent strikers suited to 4-4-2, not so sure about any of them in 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1

We have developed two VG wingers who like to bang it into the box (Doyle would
have LOVED the service from Kebe and Mcanuff, but how many times have crosses
gone into space for there to be just one CF desperately trying to make it?

Gylfi is brilliant, no doubt about it, but how many goals from open play?

His record has a few penalties and (brilliant free-kicks in there)


THIS SEASON

Start H Scunthorpe LOST 1-2 (Scored)
OUT A Torquay WON 1-0
Start A Portsmouth Drew 1-1
Start H Forest Drew 1-1
OUT H Northampton Drew 3-3 (lost on pens)
Start A Leicester WON 2-1 (Scored)


LAST SEASON (Mac) (Latest Games first)

Start H Preston WON 4-1 (Scored)
Start A Watford LOST 0-3
Start A Scunthorpe Drew 2-2 (Scored)
Start H Peterboro Won 6-0 (Scored)
Start H Newcastle Lost 1-2
Start A Cardiff Drew 0-0
OUT H Coventry WON 3-0
Start A Ipswich Lost 1-2 (Scored)
Start H WBA Drew 1-1 (Scored)
Start A Leicester WON 2-1 (Scored)
Start A Middlesbro Drew 1-1
Start H QPR WON 1-0 (Scored)
Start H Bristol C WON 2-1 (Scored) (2)
Start H Derby WON 4-1
Start H Villa LOST 2-4
Start H Wednesday WON 5-0
Start H WBA WON 3-2 (Scored)
Start A Blackpool LOST 0-2 (sub after 32 mins)
Start A Palace WON 3-1 (subbed at 77)
OUT A WBA Drew 2-2
OUT H Plymouth WON 2-1
OUT A Doncaster WON 2-1
Start H Barnsley WON 1-0
Start A Sheff Utd LOST 0-3 Missed Penalty
Start H Burnley WON 1-0 (Scored)
OUT A Forest LOST 1-2
Start A Liverpool WON 2-1 (Scored)
Start H Liverpool Drew 1-1
Start A Plymouth LOST 1-4 (Scored)
Start A Swansea Drew 1-1 (Scored)
Start A Bristol C Drew 1-1


Last Season Rodgers

Start H Scunthorpe Drew 1-1
DNS H Palace LOST 2-4 On in 68th Minute
Start A Wednesday WON 2-0 subbed at 65
Start A Derby LOST 1-2 (Scored)
Start H Blackpool WON 2-1 (Scored)
Start H Ipswich Drew 1-1
Start A Coventry WON 3-1
Start H Leicester LOST 0-1 (subbed on 65)
DNS A QPR LOST 1-4 Played second half (1-2)
OUT A WBA LOST 1-3 (Edit, had it down as 0-3)
DNS H Middlesboro LOST 0-2 Came on 58th min
NPS A Preston WON 2-1
Start H Watford Drew 1-1
Start A Peterboro LOST 2-3 (Scored)
Start H Cardiff LOST 0-1
Start H Doncaster Drew 0-0
Start A Barnsley WON 3-1
NPS H Barnsely LOST 1-2
Start H Sheff Utd LOST 1-3

[Upper West Ginger]

Alll of which serves to remind me precisely why I used to have Snowball as the only person on my "foes" list.

[RobRoyal]

Thanks Snowball, interesting to see.

[Jackson Corner]

Snowball you need to get out more. You can put all the stats up you like. Sig was the fulcrum of the team everything good we did went through him name me another Reading player who would have scored that goal on Saturday? Or can bang a goal in from 20 yards like he did WBA in the cup last season. It is a massive lose irreplacable and that is a FACT!

[Kingsley's Kousin]

Where did my post go? I genuinely want Snowball to oxf*rd off.

[PremAddict]

Snowball, you should be working for a major league club; they're stats whores.

I think you have an interesting start but you need to add some factoring for opposition strength (e.g. final position, defense position, etc.) to weight the matches properly. Additionally, you cannot take a sample of 10 matches and compare against a more subtantial sample of 40 matches without any additional factoring.

Please have the report ready by the end of the day. Regards.

[Snowball]

He's a great, great player, but to accommodate him we played a system
that to a great extent used our available strikers in less efficient ways.

We were always going to pay some version with one up front because

(a) Gylfi wasn't quite that classy playing centre mid

(b) Gylfi was "OK" but not great out on the wing


If we play 4-4-2 I suspect Long, Church, Hunt (whichever two play) will get more goals

True we won't have Gylfi's genius, but we'll have one more hard-runner/good header of the ball

and probably an extra body in the box when those (currently often wasted) crosses come in.

And we'll have someone else to knock in the penalties.

And it looks like we are about to sign someone who got 18 goals last year from full-back

[Arthur Pint]

It will be interesting to see which formation we now play.

If we are indeed going to switch to 4-4-2 then surely we need another striker? 3 strikers going for 2 places, especially when all of those 3 have had knocks already this season will leave us a bit thin on the ground. Unless McD is happy to let HRK or Bignall have a go should we get depserate??

Other than that we need to find someone who can play the Sig's position in our usual formation, I really can't see any natural attacking midfielders out there, is Andy Hughes available at all??

[Snowball]

IF we don't bring one more in


Maybe Kish as defensive midfield in front of Pearce-Mills and Tabb/Karakan - Howard in front of him and Kebs/Mac on wings? Long or Hunt as the one.


But I would fancy Hunt-Long as a reasonable pairing in a 4-4-2


Not as good a pair (way back when) as Hunt-Doyle, but it wasn't that bad... and the service is better now.