Be Braver

This plays into the xG again; opponents are scoring past us from half chances, often nothing more. Gillingham’s xG is a classic example; 0.89. They scored twice from chances that, on average, should lead to fewer than a single goal per game. These weren’t clear-cut efforts, not even the sort we have been gifting, they were defendable chances that shouldn’t have gone in. In fact, over our last three matches, we’ve conceded six goals and actually faced xG of just 2.99; we’ve basically conceded three goals more than we should have done (that also includes 0.75 from Doncaster which was the penalty). Remember, if we play a bad backpass and the striker goes one-on-one, that’s high xG, so we’re not talking about errors leading to clear-cut chances, we’re talking about defendable chances. That, in my opinion, is really worrying.

I’ve seen players turning their back on shots instead of fronting them up and blocking them. I’ve seen goals since Christmas where one opposition player has beaten two or three of ours in the air and now, we’ve seen a bad decision from Josh Griffiths, which has been very rare. I recall at least two occasions this season where an opponent has scored and left one of our players on the turf receiving treatment, not having been fouled, just having been bullied. One or two seem to have gone a bit soft, and that’s not acceptable. Credit Ted Bishop in the Bolton game; he fronted up a shot, took one for the team and got on with it, but later in the game, we conceded with two players in front of the driven shot; when we drive shots at goal 99 times out of 100 a body is put on the line.

Taking out the Wycombe game, a handful of players have not put their bodies on the line and that, for me, is unacceptable.