Summer purchases

[Chrono]

I'm pretty happy with the Henderson purchase as he looks a promising player and think there is more to come.

Adam has been alright and Downing has been dreadful.

[~LFCHistory~]

Buy quality players from abroad next month and we will start scoring for fun.

[Fosterbloke]

We need to buy someone like Muller from Bayern. Not a chance of signing him but that's the kind of player we need. Someone who drives forward with intelligence.

[Neil Young]

Great player.

A bit old now though.

[Mostar]

But other strikers never finished the chances these Downing and Henderson created either, the % of the chances the created that was converted was very low. Maybe the chances they create aren't actually that good.

Meireles had a higher chances created per minute rate than Adam.

Last season, Maxi and Kuyt were involved in the creation and scoring of 10 more goals than Downing and Henderson.

We did hit the woodwork 17 times so we did come close to converting some very good chances. If we did, we would have been, according to some stats I read recently, just few points behind Cityh.

That said, let's look at these 3 and chances they created this year compared to the last year.







If you look at "Minutes per chance" column, Adam and Downing are doing almost as good or better as they did when they were with their former clubs and Hendo is only exception there which is not surprise given his age and big difference to play for the club of our size.

We created the greatest number of chances but it is our conversion rate that's the worst by far and that is killing us (see the last table):

LFC - 262 chances/ 8% conversion rate
Arsenal - 226 chances/16% conversion rate
Chelsea - 257/14% conversion rate
Cityh - 252/21% conversion rate
MUFC - 223/21% conversion rate
Spurs - 242/14% conversion

Now let's look at our inability to score in front, which to me is the root of all evil.

Last season, we scored 59 goals from 434 shots, a conversion rate of 13.6%. This season 21 goals have come from 256 attempts at conversion rate of 8.2% thus far.

If we could have converted the same percentage this year as we did the last year we would have scored 34 goals by now and picked up way more points but it is our lack of clinical finisher that it is holding us back.

See this table that shows the production of top scorers for top 7 teams. 2 things to notice. Our boys are the worst bunch in terms of scoring and once again we created greatest number of chances but we just don't have a striker that can convert those and that has been our Achilles heal this season



I'm not saying our summer purchases were great coz I don't think they were but we cannot really put all the blame on their shoulders.

We need to get a player that can score as we are clearly creating tons of chances but just don't have anybody that can convert those with greater accuracy.

[RichC]

We did hit the woodwork 17 times so we did come close to converting some very good chances. If we did, we would have been, according to some stats I read recently, just few points behind Cityh.

That said, let's look at these 3 and chances they created this year compared to the last year.







If you look at "Minutes per chance" column, Adam and Downing are doing almost as good or better as they did when they were with their former clubs and Hendo is only exception there which is not surprise given his age and big difference to play for the club of our size.

We created the greatest number of chances but it is our conversion rate is the worst by far and that is killing us (see the last table):

LFC - 262 chances/ 8% conversion rate
Arsenal - 226 chances/16% conversion rate
Chelsea - 257/14% conversion rate
Cityh - 252/21% conversion rate
MUFC - 223/21% conversion rate
Spurs - 242/14 conversion

Now let's look at our inability to score in front, which to me is the root of all evil.

Last season, we scored 59 goals from 434 shots, a conversion rate of 13.6%. This season 21 goals have come from 256 attempts at conversion rate of 8.2% thus far.

If we could have converted the same percentage this year as we did the last year we would have scored 34 goals by now and picked up way more points but it is our lack of clinical finisher that it is holding us back.

See this table that shows the production of top scorers for top 7 teams. 2 things to notice. Our boys are the worst bunch in terms of scoring and once again we created greatest number of chances but we just don't have a striker that can convert those and that has been our Achilles heal this season

waits for "what was the quality of the chances" comment.

I think you're bang on here though Mos, we are not scoring enough from the chances created, thats a woeful conversion rate regardless of the woodwork.

All the guys in the side to score goals have to up their game and that for me includes Suarez who whilst is simply an amazing talent is not doing the most important bit for us and popping the ball in the back of the net.

[Exiled_red]

waits for "what was the quality of the chances" comment.

I think you're bang on here though Mos, we are not scoring enough from the chances created, thats a woeful conversion rate regardless of the woodwork.

All the guys in the side to score goals have to up their game and that for me includes Suarez who whilst is simply an amazing talent is not doing the most important bit for us and popping the ball in the back of the net.

[Mostar]

waits for "what was the quality of the chances" comment.

I think you're bang on here though Mos, we are not scoring enough from the chances created, thats a woeful conversion rate regardless of the woodwork.

All the guys in the side to score goals have to up their game and that for me includes Suarez who whilst is simply an amazing talent is not doing the most important bit for us and popping the ball in the back of the net.

Without the doubt.

See this graph that shows the probability of scoring the amount of goals stated or less given last year underlying conversion rate of 13.6%.

Our conversion rate is so poor that cannot be simply attributed to random variation or chance. We are just purely awful in front of the goal.

[Mattshark]

We did hit the woodwork 17 times so we did come close to converting some very good chances. If we did, we would have been, according to some stats I read recently, just few points behind Cityh.

Yes we hit the woodwork a lot, however, a lot of them are not easy chances either, Suarez lob v Villa and Henderson's v Fulham, Downing v Sunderland.

[danperkins]

Kenny bought the likes of Adam, Hendo and Downing to help us create more goal scoring chances, which is what they did.

Our problem is the lack of clinical finisher to put those away.

I think we can all see that the purchases of Henderson and particularly Downing haven't exactly worked out too well so far. Both players have cruised through this season with a whimper and haven't really created much in the way of anything clear cut, both of these lads really need to step their performances up and start producing some production. Adam has done well production wise but has been inconsistent.

I think the fact that people have brought stats out is proof enough of some mild desperation to prove that our signings are doing what we bought them for, you only have to watch the games to see how things are really going. We have been slightly unlucky but we only have ourselves to blame, we are full of excuses.

[Fredo]

We brought the likes of Downing/Hendo in to improve/increase production, thus far that has not being the case.

We're creating chances just not scoring them.

[Fredo]

both of these lads really need to step their performances up and start producing some production..

[Fivex]

Without the doubt.

See this graph that shows the probability of scoring the amount of goals stated or less given last year underlying conversion rate of 13.6%.

Our conversion rate is so poor that cannot be simply attributed to random variation or chance. We are just purely awful in front of the goal.

I completely agree with what you're saying but that graph looks like a load of crap to me.

[danperkins]

We're creating chances just not scoring them.

Certain players are, others are not.

[Mostar]

I think we can all see that the purchases of Henderson and particularly Downing haven't exactly worked out too well so far. Both players have cruised through this season with a whimper and haven't really created much in the way of anything clear cut, both of these lads really need to step their performances up and start producing some production. Adam has done well production wise but has been inconsistent.

I think the fact that people have brought stats out is proof enough of some mild desperation to prove that our signings are doing what we bought them for, you only have to watch the games to see how things are really going. We have been slightly unlucky but we only have ourselves to blame, we are full of excuses.

I don't think that is the case at all.

The opinion was expressed that we don't create enough chances and stats clearly demonstrate that is simply not true. In fact we created more than any club in PL and to me that says enough.

Those 3 need to improve and be more consistant no doubt about that but there is no denying that they created plenty of goal scoring chances that we just failed to convert.