Dropped points from winning positions

[HelloCity]

Your analysis has a big flaw.

For the games we did not win from winning positions, as asked by the poster.
5 PL games Newcastle, Villa, Everton, Forest(away), and Man Utd(away).
1 CL game vs Dortmund (I don't count group stage because some were just dead rubber)

Grealish did not take part vs Newcastle and Villa.

Foden had clear opportunities to set up Halaand for 2-0 at 1-0 stage vs Newcastle and Forest but messed up. Halaand missed open goal vs Forest before the opposite scored. He missed a 1v1 defender chance again vs Dortmund and moment later Dortmund scored. It would be ridiculous to suggest any other players should be responsible for not making it 2-0 in these games.

Yes Grealish is not a big goal scorer. He has only 3 league goals this season. But so does Gundo, who plays more minutes and usually behind the striker which should be a better goal scoring position. And also Bernado Silva.

KDB has far more shots and usually plays as a second striker and he only has 4 goals.

What’s the flaw? He played in most of the games you listed…

Not getting in the position to score goals is worse than missing chances.

I also wasn’t blaming Grealish but using him as one example. I stated the team doesn’t score enough goals.

Back to the drawing board :)

 

[ChicagoBlue]

We scored 60 goals and conceded 24 this season. Rags scored 41 and conceded 28.

And I am very sure attacking without the worry of offsite because a fan sits in the VAR room is definitely a winning formula!

I see you used the “I have statistics to prove you wrong…about something you never claimed” approach. Bravo!

Now, getting back to the quicker attacking down the wings and through the channels that I discussed…

We have the best GD and don’t ship too many goals, so your stat, while obvious, is also irrelevant.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Appalling thread.

It exists because of flaws that are facts.

We have dropped those points from winning positions. We don’t seem to be able to grind out wins in tight games like we used to. The only ones I can think of all season are:

Leicester
Fulham
Chelsea

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

It exists because of flaws that are facts.

We have dropped those points from winning positions. We don’t seem to be able to grind out wins in tight games like we used to. The only ones I can think of all season are:

Leicester
Fulham
Chelsea

Yeah, as the original poster I must admit I was a bit shocked by that response. Dropping points from about a quarter of the games that you go ahead in, especially away from home, feels like a fairly obvious and immediate thing to fix when last season's success was built on being able to grind out results when you finally get the first goal. Fixing it is going to be the big difference between first or second.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

We seem to have a really sloppy spell in every match, usually in the second half and not just a few minutes but significantly long. Repeatedly giving really cheap balls away in our own half and just gifting the opposition momentum and losing control of the match. If we are a couple of goals or more up we get away with it (Villa the other week) and if we are one up we drop points because we seem to concede in every single one of these periods of play. Just looks like players losing concentration to me but I guess it could be fatigue, particularly with someone like Rodri who is usually flawless in possession but has started looking tired in recent weeks. Our game management under Pep has generally been incredible up until this season, with us controlling games at will. Definitely something he needs to get to the bottom of.

 

[mancity1]

After another couples of games where we were 1-0 up and cruising only for us to end up in a disappointing draw or defeat I thought I'd check the stats.

We are currently joint 13 in the league for the dropped points from winning positions. Palace, Forest, Everton, Wolves, Bournemouth, Leeds and Leicester are the only teams with a worse points total.

We've dropped 11 points from winning positions this season, with 21 leads resulting in 16 wins, 4 draws, and 1 defeat.

For context, we dropped points in one game from a winning position last season. A single draw.

I knew we'd been poor for it this season, but it's really eye opening how much we are struggling to either kill a match off or manage a tight game.

Conversely we have come back twice from 2 goal deficits for maximum points and once for a draw and got an injury time winner against Fulham but I get your sentiment.

What is most disappointing is that Everton , Viila and Forrest had one shot on target in each of those draws and a combined total of 10 shots on those games in short the only work Ederson had to do in effect was retrieve the ball from the onion bag.

They were the results that I thought we definitely blew wins.

KDB should have fouled and stopped the Brentford breakaway and we would have secured a point even though I thought Brentford had the better of us that day as much as it pains me to say it.

We have to learn that the game is played over 100 minutes sometime more and we are somewhat fortunate that Chelsea , Liverpool have imploded to date , Spurs are as unreliable as a supermodel picking from the 20 dates she can have on a whim and Newcastle have punched above their weight IMO to date.

As for Manure I suspect they will finish below Arsenal this season so that leaves us to finish ahead of them.

 

[kaz7]

It is obvious to all of us the teams at the bottom will defend then make loads of subs and go all out at the end to nick one , pep hasnt noticed the trend , has he ?

 

[Gray]

After another couples of games where we were 1-0 up and cruising only for us to end up in a disappointing draw or defeat I thought I'd check the stats.

We are currently joint 13 in the league for the dropped points from winning positions. Palace, Forest, Everton, Wolves, Bournemouth, Leeds and Leicester are the only teams with a worse points total.

We've dropped 11 points from winning positions this season, with 21 leads resulting in 16 wins, 4 draws, and 1 defeat.

For context, we dropped points in one game from a winning position last season. A single draw.

I knew we'd been poor for it this season, but it's really eye opening how much we are struggling to either kill a match off or manage a tight game.

Yet all the happy clappers on here think things will improve overnight.

 

[mancity1]

Pep likes to say he hates the notion of tiki-taka as possession for possessions sake, but that’s what it has become for City!

We seem afraid to try an opportunity that isn’t a 100% dead cert goal that is not the culmination of 4 short passes inside the box! Slight hyperbole, but it illustrates the point!

We can be devastating on the attack, but rarely anymore. Foden’s whiff at Forest was a disgrace. Shoot OR pass, but do SOMETHING!

Haaland scores about 1 in 3 or 4 attempts, but he’s not getting the 4+ halfway decent attempts he needs, and we are ignoring about 70% of the traits that made he what he was when we bought him!

We don’t have a single specialist winger, with the closest thing to a winger who gets down the line to hit a cross being Kyle Walker! Mahrez wants to come inside. Grealish wants to come inside. Foden wants to play the ball backwards because he’s afraid to take on his man and lose the ball now that he’s lost his swagger.

So, where Haaland is going to get the ball from is anyone’s guess, and WE are making Sunday League center backs look like worldies with the service he does get!

Look across town, and you see a team that is quickly figuring out that attacking down the wings and the channels with willing runners is a winning formula!

I wouldn’t swap a single defensive player for anyone they have, but they’re keeping clean sheets with far greater frequency than we are, and starting to run up the numbers in games by never stopping attacking opponents…and using substitutions to great effect!!!

We are playing some fantastic training ground football, but goals win games and 2 goals win a lot more games than 1, with 3 winning even more than that!! With our current willingness to give up a goal, 3 feels like a minimum ask these days…and that is not a good situation for us against most teams right now!

I think you nailed it with Haaland and only KDB again leading the premier league with assists 4 more than the next and without maximum game time lacking the confidence to play him into his strengths currently.

Haaland must be getting very frustrated.

I don't think Manure are that good , nor Arsenal but we are not getting the best of what we are capable of that is pretty obvious.

Two of the likely top three finishers this season are playing in the Thursday League and we have 4 still in the Chumps League so to speak.

We are crying out for a Silva , a Yaya and a winger with fizz to further exploit Haalands strengths but we don't have them but despite all that if we had 2 fit centre backs from the 4 we have each week we would likely be ahead of Arsenal right now.

 

[Bluearmy]

many of sterling's goals were tap ins after the overlap down either wing. That tactic seems to have dried up, as even Jack couldn't have missed many of those chances.

Not sure Jack gets there like sterling did. It seemed an easy finish and he missed some sitters but he got there that much he contributed significantly. Thats a skill in itself