Member 113277
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To put things into perspective, let's look at some numbers (with the usual caveats about lies, damn lies etc.). The tables below are based on completing 31 games.
If you want to be challenging for the title, this is the benchmark - Liverpool are top because they are less leaky than city and still score freely.
Lets look at how we are comparing in the table below - in the first half of the season, the goals conceded was way too high, but it improves in the second half to be on a par with the best. We are toe to toe with Liverpool, but they have maintained this for the whole season and that gives them superiority over the free scoring City team.
There are a raft of potential reasons for the improvement, including a poor midfield combo until Fred started performing and formed a relationship with McTominay, the resurgence of Matic, Bruno's arrival putting pressure on the opposition and no doubt other factors I've missed.
The conclusion from the numbers is that we need to have a solid Matic replacement, the defence is basically fit for (defensive) purpose, but we don't score enough goals. Even post Bruno, 1.7 per game is not good enough to win a title.
It will be interesting to see what the table below looks like, when we've played all 38 games. Even yesterday (and 3-0 is a solid win), I felt we should have scored another couple if we were ruthless enough in attack. Look at how City dealt with Burnley and Liverpool put Palace away - that's the difference, for me.
Team | Goals for | Average per game | Goals against | Average per game |
Liverpool | 70 | 2.3 | 21 | 0.7 |
City | 76 | 2.5 | 31 | 1.0 |
If you want to be challenging for the title, this is the benchmark - Liverpool are top because they are less leaky than city and still score freely.
Lets look at how we are comparing in the table below - in the first half of the season, the goals conceded was way too high, but it improves in the second half to be on a par with the best. We are toe to toe with Liverpool, but they have maintained this for the whole season and that gives them superiority over the free scoring City team.
There are a raft of potential reasons for the improvement, including a poor midfield combo until Fred started performing and formed a relationship with McTominay, the resurgence of Matic, Bruno's arrival putting pressure on the opposition and no doubt other factors I've missed.
The conclusion from the numbers is that we need to have a solid Matic replacement, the defence is basically fit for (defensive) purpose, but we don't score enough goals. Even post Bruno, 1.7 per game is not good enough to win a title.
It will be interesting to see what the table below looks like, when we've played all 38 games. Even yesterday (and 3-0 is a solid win), I felt we should have scored another couple if we were ruthless enough in attack. Look at how City dealt with Burnley and Liverpool put Palace away - that's the difference, for me.
Games | Goals for | Average per game | Goals against | Average per game |
1-19 (first half of season) | 30 | 1.6 | 23 | 1.2 |
20-31 (second half of season, 12 games) | 16 | 1.3 | 8 | 0.7 |
25-31 (since Bruno joined) | 12 | 1.7 | 3 | 0.4 |