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+----- Thread: Gary Caldwell's Attractive Brand of Football (/showthread.php?tid=5270)
Gary Caldwell's Attractive Brand of Football - Devongone - 24-04-2017
As Chesterfield fans are being asked to believe that our "new" manager is committed to an attractive brand of football I decided to examine the evidence:-
Playing record
Winning tends to be attractive to fans, but our record is:-
Played 18 Won 2 Drawn 6 Lost 10 Points 12
Goals scored in 18 games - 13 Goals conceded in 18 games - 30
Extrapolated to a season that equals 30 points from 46 games with 33 goals for and 75 against. (50 points are required for survival in our division.) 30 points is last place.
Possession Stats
Surprisingly good, but still poor. In 18 games in terms of possession our record is 5-2-11. So if possession equalled points in a complete season we'd have gained 43 points - better, but still relegation form.
Shots
You would expect an attractive side to shoot quite a lot. Our record in 18 games is 145 shots for and 261 against.
We are therefore getting in only 8 shots a game and the opposition have 14 / 15.
Fouls
You would expect even a losing attractive side to be no more dirty than the opposition, but in terms of fouls we have committed 213 against 189. Over a long period of time we are the dirtier side.
Corners
Teams with an attractive outlook tend to win corners. Over 18 games we stand 72 - 105 down.
Discipline
An attractive brand of football would suggest the darker side of the game would be a stranger. BUT in terms of red cards in these 18 games only one opponent has been dismissed, but 4 Spireites were sent off. (Over a season this would get us 10 sendings-off, taking suspensions for bookings into account it would be quite a rare Saturday for such a team not to have a player suspended.)
My conclusion
Chesterfield are currently dirtier and more ill-disciplined than most of their opponents.
They can be capable of achieving a modest amount of possession, but are unable to convert this into shots on goal and even corners are often in short supply.
They are conceding goals at a rate which creates relegation certainties and scoring so few that winning at all is difficult. If crowds come to see goals, Chesterfield fans' best hope is at the other end. To become attractive to our own fans, it is obvious we have to shoot more and stop the opposition shooting so much.
Though many of the statistics are merely part of the process of losing, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that the Spireites are playing an attractive, but losing brand of football. The evidence seems to be that they are losing most weeks and doing it NOT very nicely at all.
RE: Gary Caldwell's Attractive Brand of Football - bluepooch - 26-04-2017
Good post Dev and a lot of research put into it but I will just counter it by saying he does want to play an attractive type of football but he does not have the calibre or type of player to carry it out effectively so all these stats are quite irrelevant .Id prefer to measure the stats in the first ten games of next season.
RE: Gary Caldwell's Attractive Brand of Football - Devongone - 28-04-2017
I'd only say GC is unlikely to find Messi, Iniesta and David Silva available on free transfers. The aim of football is simply to score goals and to stop the opposition scoring goals. You can't do that by dreaming of ways to play that are way beyond your players. If your defence comes under huge pressure, or your attack hardly ever receives any promising ball you know yourself your team's usually buggered.