Waking up every morning and checking this site has become a daily ritual. Having this open on one screen, Good Mythical Morning on the other and a full breakfast is the best way to get my day going, especially after a match day. And yet, today felt weirdly different. Waking up forgetting that we actually drew and thinking that we lost just says a lot about the reaction on this site. I think I'm right in saying 6 new threads were started post match criticising an element of the performance, some with such anger in them, anyone who didn't know the result would think we lost. In any case, I promised a post match analysis today so that's what I'm going to do, while discussing a few points I've seen in other threads that need discussion.
Player Analysis
So, lets start with the basic player ratings, then I'll go through why players were rated this way.
![](http://i.imgur.com/QyYXUel.png)
Front to back, Polter's rating is low because he only played one half.
Chery was our second highest rated player, brought about by his 4 key passes, leading directly to shots including one phenomenal through ball to El Khayati who didn't have the composure to put it away unfortunately. Obviously his goal had a huge effect on his rating as well, and what a great goal that was, around 30-35 yards, beautifully dipping and swerving into the top corner, no keeper in the world was going to save that. I can also safely say that this was his best free kick since his Loftus Road debut against Atalanta last preseason, where he hit the post.
Some more regarding Chery, no one had the ball at their feet more than he did and only Perch took more first touches of the ball than him all game. Only Henry on our side was more successful with his passing than Chery but again, Chery hit most of his passes into the final third, which suggests better quality of passing and more important passes. I wanted to bring up the fact that people said Chery doesn't get involved in the game much. Having 70 touches certainly disproves that and having 4 key passes from open play which lead directly to shots also suggests that he is a solid creative outlet in need of finishers. But you can see from his heatmap below just how desperate he was to get the ball, just based on his movement alone.
![](http://i.imgur.com/9kA610R.png)
You'll see he comes back so deep to get the ball and that's because of the positioning of our centre mids.
Now moving to the wingers, You'll probably be wondering how on earth el K and Shodipo are so close on the scores. Well the reasons are simple. Shodipo got booked, brought him down a tad. Shodipo only actually made one successful dribble of an opposition player while El K made two. Granted Shodipo made two tackles right in the dying moments of the match but that brought him up just a little due to the timing. Shodipo made 2 key passes and El K only made one, but El K attempted 8 crosses to shodipo's 7. Shodipo lost ground here as well because he attempted the same amount of dribbles as El K but was unsuccessful more. For me, what I saw was that El K did a lot in build up but had zero end product. Shodipo won us corners with his deliveries and got a couple in the box in the second half, which, had a target man been on the pitch, may have led to goals.
Moving back into the deep midfield duo of Henry and Cousins, the passing quality was there, with Cousins delivering 39 successful passes to Henry's 47, both much higher than Blackburn's midfield duo of Mulgrew and Akpan. Henry even got a key pass in, while cousins managed a dribble past an opposition player. Where we were sorely lacking in the midfield department was the aerial battles, with only Henry winning one aerial duel all game in that midfield. Luongo here would have made a difference because even despite his height, he wins 2.8 aerial duels a game, making him the most successful in the air of all defensive midfielders in this league. Back to the two who did play, Henry didn't manage to win any tackles while cousins won three. Both players intercepted once each, but again, this isn't really enough, especially considering how deep the two players were.
Now, I'm not one to throw around blame for a goal, but Henry really didn't do his job for that goal, totally getting lost for his man. Finally with these two, onto the key point and my biggest issue with playing Henry. You'll see below the average position of all our players. Number 20 is KH, number 8 is Cousins.
![](http://i.imgur.com/dCyLEO9.png)
Look at how close to the centre backs these two are. And look at the gap it creates between our attacking players and our defensive players. By comparison, Blackburn have a pretty good spread and certainly aren't as narrow as we are. That narrowness is brought about by the lack of link between midfield and attack, creating a desire for our wide players to come in to try and get the ball. Henry's lack of pace is his downfall here, as he knows he can't get much further upfield without risking his defensive duties. Similarly, Cousins can't get into the attacking positions he'd like to because he has to cover for Henry's lack of pace. We need to sort this out soon, and I feel Ariel will be the solution.
And now further Back, to our Full backs first. Bidwell was rated our best player, making two goal line clearances to bring him up to that level. But when you look at which one did more defensively and offensively, that has to go to Perchy, who had a pretty good game yesterday. 5 interceptions, 4 aerial duel wins, 1 dribble, 33 successful passes, 77 first touches of the ball and almost scored a rocket of a shot early on. He really surprised me with how well he played yesterday. Bidwell got his rating because of the two clearances, but he didn't have a bad game by any stretch, making 2 tackles and 3 blocks.
Into centre back, Ned and Hall were solid if nothing more. Both made a tackle each, though hall didn't win anything in the air or make any interceptions (Ned made 1 of each). But I recall Hall coming in for a solid last ditch challenge after a ball made it into the box. They both looked comfortable but for the goal, were caught the wrong side of the players they were marking and you can bet that if the player who did end up scoring didn't get near the ball, one of them would have scored anyway.
Smithies as usual put in a solid display, good long range kicking, maybe should have done better for the goal but it's not easy to deal with at all. Made a great save from an outside of the box volley.
Team Analysis
Once again, we did really well in attacking set pieces, our game was focused on the right hand side but we were rather narrow. We took more shots than Blackburn and, contrary to popular opinion on here, most of our chances came from open play. Once we took Polter off though, I didn't know where we'd get a goal from, because our other attacking players lacked the composure in front of goal that was necessary (apart from Chery) to get the goals. Around half of our attacks came down the right hand side and what I liked seeing was the constant interchange between our wingers, which made the match uncomfortable for the opposition full backs.
All in all, my opinion of the performance was that we weren't bad at all, the issue it seems is that we didn't do enough of the good things to be anything better than average yesterday. We got unlucky with our chances and I don't think 442 is the solution at all because we barely create much as it is. The solution comes from one of those centre mids and getting in the right wingers. Hopefully with Luongo, Yeni and Wsolek coming in, we'll see more directness.
Player Analysis
So, lets start with the basic player ratings, then I'll go through why players were rated this way.
![](http://i.imgur.com/QyYXUel.png)
Front to back, Polter's rating is low because he only played one half.
Chery was our second highest rated player, brought about by his 4 key passes, leading directly to shots including one phenomenal through ball to El Khayati who didn't have the composure to put it away unfortunately. Obviously his goal had a huge effect on his rating as well, and what a great goal that was, around 30-35 yards, beautifully dipping and swerving into the top corner, no keeper in the world was going to save that. I can also safely say that this was his best free kick since his Loftus Road debut against Atalanta last preseason, where he hit the post.
Some more regarding Chery, no one had the ball at their feet more than he did and only Perch took more first touches of the ball than him all game. Only Henry on our side was more successful with his passing than Chery but again, Chery hit most of his passes into the final third, which suggests better quality of passing and more important passes. I wanted to bring up the fact that people said Chery doesn't get involved in the game much. Having 70 touches certainly disproves that and having 4 key passes from open play which lead directly to shots also suggests that he is a solid creative outlet in need of finishers. But you can see from his heatmap below just how desperate he was to get the ball, just based on his movement alone.
![](http://i.imgur.com/9kA610R.png)
You'll see he comes back so deep to get the ball and that's because of the positioning of our centre mids.
Now moving to the wingers, You'll probably be wondering how on earth el K and Shodipo are so close on the scores. Well the reasons are simple. Shodipo got booked, brought him down a tad. Shodipo only actually made one successful dribble of an opposition player while El K made two. Granted Shodipo made two tackles right in the dying moments of the match but that brought him up just a little due to the timing. Shodipo made 2 key passes and El K only made one, but El K attempted 8 crosses to shodipo's 7. Shodipo lost ground here as well because he attempted the same amount of dribbles as El K but was unsuccessful more. For me, what I saw was that El K did a lot in build up but had zero end product. Shodipo won us corners with his deliveries and got a couple in the box in the second half, which, had a target man been on the pitch, may have led to goals.
Moving back into the deep midfield duo of Henry and Cousins, the passing quality was there, with Cousins delivering 39 successful passes to Henry's 47, both much higher than Blackburn's midfield duo of Mulgrew and Akpan. Henry even got a key pass in, while cousins managed a dribble past an opposition player. Where we were sorely lacking in the midfield department was the aerial battles, with only Henry winning one aerial duel all game in that midfield. Luongo here would have made a difference because even despite his height, he wins 2.8 aerial duels a game, making him the most successful in the air of all defensive midfielders in this league. Back to the two who did play, Henry didn't manage to win any tackles while cousins won three. Both players intercepted once each, but again, this isn't really enough, especially considering how deep the two players were.
Now, I'm not one to throw around blame for a goal, but Henry really didn't do his job for that goal, totally getting lost for his man. Finally with these two, onto the key point and my biggest issue with playing Henry. You'll see below the average position of all our players. Number 20 is KH, number 8 is Cousins.
![](http://i.imgur.com/dCyLEO9.png)
Look at how close to the centre backs these two are. And look at the gap it creates between our attacking players and our defensive players. By comparison, Blackburn have a pretty good spread and certainly aren't as narrow as we are. That narrowness is brought about by the lack of link between midfield and attack, creating a desire for our wide players to come in to try and get the ball. Henry's lack of pace is his downfall here, as he knows he can't get much further upfield without risking his defensive duties. Similarly, Cousins can't get into the attacking positions he'd like to because he has to cover for Henry's lack of pace. We need to sort this out soon, and I feel Ariel will be the solution.
And now further Back, to our Full backs first. Bidwell was rated our best player, making two goal line clearances to bring him up to that level. But when you look at which one did more defensively and offensively, that has to go to Perchy, who had a pretty good game yesterday. 5 interceptions, 4 aerial duel wins, 1 dribble, 33 successful passes, 77 first touches of the ball and almost scored a rocket of a shot early on. He really surprised me with how well he played yesterday. Bidwell got his rating because of the two clearances, but he didn't have a bad game by any stretch, making 2 tackles and 3 blocks.
Into centre back, Ned and Hall were solid if nothing more. Both made a tackle each, though hall didn't win anything in the air or make any interceptions (Ned made 1 of each). But I recall Hall coming in for a solid last ditch challenge after a ball made it into the box. They both looked comfortable but for the goal, were caught the wrong side of the players they were marking and you can bet that if the player who did end up scoring didn't get near the ball, one of them would have scored anyway.
Smithies as usual put in a solid display, good long range kicking, maybe should have done better for the goal but it's not easy to deal with at all. Made a great save from an outside of the box volley.
Team Analysis
Once again, we did really well in attacking set pieces, our game was focused on the right hand side but we were rather narrow. We took more shots than Blackburn and, contrary to popular opinion on here, most of our chances came from open play. Once we took Polter off though, I didn't know where we'd get a goal from, because our other attacking players lacked the composure in front of goal that was necessary (apart from Chery) to get the goals. Around half of our attacks came down the right hand side and what I liked seeing was the constant interchange between our wingers, which made the match uncomfortable for the opposition full backs.
All in all, my opinion of the performance was that we weren't bad at all, the issue it seems is that we didn't do enough of the good things to be anything better than average yesterday. We got unlucky with our chances and I don't think 442 is the solution at all because we barely create much as it is. The solution comes from one of those centre mids and getting in the right wingers. Hopefully with Luongo, Yeni and Wsolek coming in, we'll see more directness.
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