Season 2010-2011

[Fernandinho]

For all chat about the season gone.

Probably a good way to start things off:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/23/premier-league-season-in-numbers

[Craig_H]

It was ****.

Close thread.

[Fernandinho]

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/homerjs/anybody_care.wav

[Fernandinho]

failed sound cloud attempt just click the above link to hear it.

[dww]

Opta based review of the PL season

Number-crunching makes grim reading for Arsenal's defence

Opta's stats highlight Charlie Adam's impact, foul play by Kevin Davies and why you should let Steed Malbranque shoot

Paul Doyle
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 May 2011 08.00 BST



Arsenal defenders like Laurent Koscielny proved shoddy at dealing with set-pieces last season. Photograph: Simon Dawson/AP

Chants are one of the few things that Opta do not keep track of these days but no doubt their boffins chuckled to themselves when Thomas Vermaelen headed a corner clear against Fulham last Sunday and the Arsenal fans giddily started singing, to the tune of White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, "We defended a corner! We defended a corner!" That was an appropriately sarcastic condemnation of the team that conceded a higher proportion of goals from set-pieces (53.5%) this season than any other in the Premier League.

It may have been Vermaelen's clearance that triggered Sunday's celebration, but that does not mean Arsenal would have defended set-pieces better throughout the campaign if the Belgian had been fit: they let in exactly the same number of goals from set-pieces this season as they did last season (23), when Vermaelen regularly featured.

That toll is almost double the number that Arsenal conceded during the 2008‑09 campaign (12), so what happened in the summer of 2009 that suddenly caused their set-piece defending to deteriorate? Sol Campbell left long before that (in his last season, 2005‑06, Arsenal only conceded nine goals from set-pieces) so perhaps Kolo Touré's departure to Manchester City had a bigger effect than is generally supposed? The Ivorian managed more headed clearances in his last season in London than any other Arsenal player – and his tally for that term, 129, is also more than any Arsenal player managed this season.

Craven Cottage is home to the side that conceded the fewest goals from set-pieces this season (10). Perhaps Arsène Wenger should revive his interest in Brede Hangeland and Mark Schwarzer? Hangeland, indeed, made more clearances (424) than any other player this season, with the exception of Blackpool's Ian Evatt (430).

West Bromwich Albion were one of only three teams to concede more, in actual terms, from set-pieces than Arsenal, letting in 30 goals, followed by Aston Villa (27) and Sunderland (24).

Arsenal did do some things well, of course. They were the only team to average more than 60% possession in matches and, unsurprisingly, they completed the highest number of successful passes per game (444.8. Chelsea were second with 423.1) and the highest percentage of short passes (92.3%, ahead of Manchester City on 90.3%).

What is more, Opta's statistics also provide ammunition for Wenger's sob stories and conspiracy theories: Arsenal hit the woodwork more times than anyone else this season (22) and were also the victims of more straight red card offences than any other team (9). Mind you, Arsenal were no angels themselves, earning six red cards throughout the season, behind only West Brom (7). And Arsenal were not the most fouled team in quantitative terms – in fact, 12 teams suffered more fouls than Arsenal this season, Everton being the most wronged (victims of 525 fouls, followed by Newcastle with 509).

The most prolific foulers were Bolton Wanderers (513), followed by Blackburn Rovers and the not-so-innocent Everton (both 498). Bolton, of course, were led by the royally impenitent Kevin Davies, who was the most prolific individual fouler for the seventh time in the last eight seasons; even more impressively, his 123 fouls this term broke his own record for the highest number committed since Opta records began. Cheik Tioté was the next most persistent offender this season, with 79. And Charlie Adam showed that there is more to his game than passing (as Gareth Bale already knows) by committing 70.

Adam, in fairness, was also the league's second-most fouled player (after Aston Villa's Ashley Young, who was fouled 96 times, five more than Adam), all of which goes to show that the Scot tended to be in the thick of the action. Indeed, only one player touched the ball more times this season than Adam – Fulham's Danny Murphy – and only one player had more goal assists from open play (Joey Barton with five to Adam's four).

Blackpool's scored more goals than any other relegated team in the Premier League era. They were also involved in one of the matches of the season: their 4-3 victory over Bolton in the penultimate week of the campaign featured an amazing 49 shots. The game with the fewest shots was Newcastle-Blackburn, in which there were only 15.

Chelsea attempted more shots than any other team last season (563) but they lacked precision – their shooting accuracy rate of 43.34% was exceeded by nine teams, led by Arsenal (47.5%). The sharpest individual shooter was Samir Nasri, who hit the target with 65.4% of his efforts, making him more precise than Dirk Kuyt (62%) and Peter Lovenkrands (60%). Shooting on target is not, of course, the same as scoring goals – and that is exactly what you should tell Jermain Defoe if he ever mentions that he was more accurate this term (54.8%) than Javier Hernández (54.6%).

The Mexican averaged a goal every 114.3 minutes – bettered only by two people, Robin van Persie (98.2) and, yes, Dimitar Berbatov (110.5). Carlos Tevez (126.6) was the fifth most frequent scorer in terms of minutes played, sandwiched between Leon Best (125.3) and Marlon Harewood (132), no less.

If you have to let an opponent shoot, make sure that opponent is Steed Malbranque: he had far more shots without scoring than anyone else (44, Jack Rodwell was next, with 30).

Joe Hart had the highest shots-to-saves ratio (76.4%), though Ben Foster (75.5%) had to save more shots (169). One of the reasons Foster had to make so many saves was that Birmingham City won fewer tackles than anyone else (452. Wolves were the next flimsiest, with 482 tackles won). Birmingham were similarly impotent going forward: not only did they score just 37 goals from 38 games but they also completed fewer through-balls (14) than anyone else and won fewer corners (152).

And opponents were not keen to help Birmingham: Alex McLeish's team was the only one not to benefit from an own goal this term. So what were Birmingham good at? Well, they hit a higher proportion of their passes long (18.9%) than anyone else. Except Stoke, obviously (19.9%).

Stoke averaged less possession (38%) than anyone else but they did fling in by far the highest number of throw-ins – 550 (the next highest was Bolton with 288), from which they scored four goals. Preparing for those throw-ins is quite the palaver, of course, which is why there was less action in matches involving Stoke than any other team: the average amount of time that the ball was in play for Stoke games this season was 58.52 minutes. Manchester United offered the most action, 66.58 minutes on average.

At Premier League matches on average, the ball was in play for 62.39 minutes this season – more than in the much-vaunted Spanish and German top flights (61.48 minutes and 61.22 minutes respectively), but significantly less than in Serie A (65.15 minutes).

Liverpool's transformation under Kenny Dalglish is encapsulated by the fact that under the Scot they scored 35 goals in 18 league games, whereas under Roy Hodgson they mustered 24 in 20. The tendency to play more on the counterattack under Dalglish is reflected in the fact that they averaged more possession under Hodgson (53.2% to 50.6% under Dalglish) – part of the reason that this approach has been successful is that shooting accuracy has increased substantially under the Scot (rising from 43.2% to 51.4%). When Liverpool do not have the ball, Lucas Leiva is the man most likely to win it back: he won more tackles than any other player in this campaign (111, followed by David Vaughan with 104 and Scott Parker with 93).

Fernando Torres, as we know, has not been missed at Anfield. Assistant referees tend not to miss him either: he was flagged offside 30 times this season – only five strikers were caught out more frequently: Hugo Rodallega (32), Carlton Cole (34), Dimitar Berbatov (36), Peter Odemwingie (47) and the perpetually disoriented Darren Bent (67).

Wigan Athletic's Charles N'Zogbia again attempted more dribbles than any other player this season (301, way ahead of Jonas Gutiérrez on 219). In the past two seasons he has attempted almost 300 more than anyone else (554. The next is Gareth Bale with 258, followed by Torres with 239). One player who should perhaps stop trying is Stephen Hunt: the Wolves winger beat his opponent just three times from 36 attempts all season.

It has been a long, hard season. Particularly for Martin Skrtel and Leighton Baines, the only outfield players to have played every minute of it for their clubs. Baines was especially busy: he delivered more crosses from open play than anyone else (249, six more than Stewart Downing) – and his 11 assists were beaten only by Didier Drogba (13) and Nani (14).

This was not a good season for travellers. There were fewer away wins (90) during this campaign than in any other in the Premier League era. There seems to be a downward trend, as the previous worst was last season (91). Manchester United won fewer away points (25) than any other Premier League champions. In fact, only two teams in history have won a 20-team English top-flight with fewer away victories than United's five this term: Newcastle in 1907 (four away wins) and Sheffield Wednesday in 1929 (three).

[Fernandinho]

merge this with my thread maybe?

[dww]

merge this with my thread maybe?

Done

[dww]

In this more general context - there is an interesting article questioning how attractive the football Bolton played this season was on zonalmarking: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/05/...e-of-football/

[dww]

I think the point about us being more counter attacking under Kenny is interesting. We certainly spent less time pissing about with the ball, aimlessly passing between our 18 yard box and the half way line.

[Fernandinho]

Definetely agree with that. We attacked with pace, very different style to Benitez. Under RB we were more of a pass them into submission. With kenny its about kick passing give and go's and hitting them quick in general.

[dww]

A tactical review of the 2010-11 season
Posted by Jonathan Wilson Tuesday 7 June 2011 09.59 BST guardian.co.uk

This was a season in which club football asserted its primacy, and the false nine came from the periphery into the mainstream



Barcelona's Lionel Messi wears No10 but has spearheaded the tactical vogue for a false nine. Photograph: David Ramos/Associated Press

The closer you are, of course, the harder it is to step back and see the overall pattern. After Internazionale, cautious and canny and playing within themselves, had won the European Cup, and after a World Cup of a miserable lack of adventure, there seemed a possibility that football might be entering a new age of caution.

It wasn't. As in 2004, when José Mourinho's Porto had won the Champions League and Greece had lifted the European Championship, the lessons of the summer seemed to have been forgotten by the time the new season came around. Perhaps, as Jorge Valdano has suggested, it is simply that in the televisual age that clubs feel a barely expressed need to satisfy their audiences – which entails some combination of winning and entertaining.

More sinisterly – at least if you're a country that has just committed to a vast programme of infrastructure development to host a World Cup – there is a clear gulf both in quality and entertainment value between club and international football (even if, for now, TV viewing figures remain much higher for international than club football). Football these days is highly systematised; it's not about individuals. That means players must have a mutual understanding, must know that if they go forward somebody else will cover, must know who is likely to move where and when. It is that understanding that gives them the fraction of a second advantage that allows them to break highly coherent defences.

At international level, there simply isn't the time to generate that level of understanding. Coaches – unless they are Marcelo Bielsa – become more cautious. Sticking men behind the ball is relatively easy; far harder to work out how to cover if some of those players are to make forward runs. The result is the "broken teams" that characterised the World Cup – six or seven players whose prime job was to sit deep; four or three who played high up the field, with very little in between. Only Spain transcended that, largely because their personnel and style is so heavily based upon Barcelona, and even they, faced with massed defences, failed to thrill.

After the World Cup, there was something almost refreshing about the early weeks of the domestic season, not least – in England – because even the promoted sides were largely committed to attacking. This has been a growing trend – the total goals scored by the relegated clubs from 2005 reads 85, 95, 107, 104, 110 and then 135 this season – but Blackpool were still a revelation: to quibble, as many have, that their defence wasn't good enough ( and 78 goals is a lot to have conceded) is rather to miss the point.

Blackpool's 4-3-3, with Charlie Adam spraying long diagonal passes from deep, was highly effective. It caught teams by surprise and earned Blackpool a raft of points early in the season that even they probably didn't expect. No team in the Premier League era has been relegated scoring as many as 55 goals (Middlesbrough in 1992-93 are the only other side to have broken the half-century, and they had four more games to do it in), and a goal difference of -23 is nothing to be ashamed of – in 2009-10, six teams had a worse record than that.

Later on, as opponents became wise to it, and injuries and suspensions bit into the Premier League's shallowest squad, Blackpool struggled, but they still ended up with twice as many points as most predicted. Ian Holloway's approach was unorthodox and unexpected and it very nearly worked. Just because he reasoned his best chance was to play open, attacking football rather than following the paradigm of the promoted manager by looking to keep things tight and nick the odd 1-0 here and there doesn't make it any less of a tactical achievement, and hopefully his example – and that of Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion, who both began the season with similarly positive intent – will inspire other newly promoted sides not to retreat into their shell as a first reaction.

At the other end of the scale, this season has confirmed the effectiveness of the false nine. Lionel Messi has been majestic in the role, dropping off from a natural striking role to link with the midfield, vacating space for others to break into. Carlos Tevez has interpreted it in a slightly different way at Manchester City, linking two halves of a broken team, at least until Yaya Touré became more expansive later on in the season.

Perhaps it's significant that the two prime exponents of the art are Argentinian (although Alexander Kerzhakov performed the role superbly for Zenit St Petersburg last season). It's tempting to believe that so intense is the desire in Argentina to preserve the pibe tradition and protect the role of el diez, that they're prepared to sacrifice el nueve to do so. Boca Juniors, of course, continue to try to keep both alive, but watching the 32-year-old Juan Román Riquelme sparkling fitfully behind the lumbering 37-year-old, Martín Palermo, makes it feel a bit like the Bombonera has been taken over by the Sealed Knot.

Alongside the false nine goes inverted wingers; players who begin wide and look to cut into the space left by the backward movement of the centre-forward. They had become a trend anyway; André Villas-Boas's use of Hulk, a player commonly used as a centre-forward in the past, cutting in from the right flank, is an example of the inverted winger being played with a more orthodox centre-forward. Long term, though, they seem a more natural fit with the false nine, offering in-built fluidity as they instinctively cut into the space the central player has created by dropping deep.

The other eye-catching tactical shift this season, in England at least, has been Wayne Rooney's redeployment as a second striker. He perhaps could have become a false nine himself – he has the ability and the instinct to fall back from the front line – but instead he's evolved a unique role, and by so doing may have shown a way that 4-4-2 can survive as a formation at the highest level (essentially by becoming 4-4-1-1 where the second striker is almost a reverse libero, given licence to drop off the front and go hunting the ball and space, rather than stepping out from the back). It remains to be seen whether other players can ape him, or whether Rooney is sui generis, but the use of the second striker as the midfield tackler feels like a logical development of the use of wide forwards as primarily blocking players.

This season has also seen Liverpool and Sunderland experiment with three at the back in specific circumstances – evidence of the Premier League's growing tactical flexibility, while Napoli showed how effective wing-backs can be against opponents who insist on playing narrow, as so many teams in Italy do. Inter's humiliation at the hands of Schalke 04 in the Champions League, when the two full-backs, Atsuto Uchida and Hans Sarpei ran riot, will perhaps jolt Serie A into looking to the future rather than looking constantly back 15 years.

At the very highest level, though, this was a season in which club football asserted its primacy, and the false nine came from the periphery into the mainstream.