Sheffield United - Review of Goals Conceded after 29 Games
After a fantastic 4-2 away win at Southend, we were looking unstoppable and our form suggested that this was likely to continue. We were (and still are) top of the league.
Fast forward to the next 3 games and we have P3, W0, D1, L2 - taking 1 point from 9 with 3 goals scored and 8 conceded, the second defeat being at home to in-form Fleetwood. Hopefully just a temporary blip? We’ve not become a bad team overnight have we.
It felt to me that we were conceding goals for fun recently, and bad goals at that; teams not really having to do much to score against us, and often from our own defensive mistakes.
So it got me thinking - I wanted to look at the evidence; look at HOW we have been conceding to see if my feelings were correct.
This doesn’t take away the fact that we are top of the league and are joint top scorers, I just wanted to settle my mind.
First the Stats #
Played: 29
Conceded: 34
Average per match: 1.17
Clean sheets: 8
So on average we have conceded a goal a game. Is that worrying? In comparison Scunthorpe and Bolton have conceded 26 and 19 respectively.
Now the Goals #
I’m going through each goal and highlighting the fairly obvious incidents which resulted in the goal. I’m then going to give my overall opinion if I think the goal was avoidable, or if it was just a good goal with nothing much else we could have done.
I’m not looking at the players involved or the formations, I just want to see how we have conceded the goals we have.
To summarise #
Having gone through the goals, in my opinion we have:
- Conceded 15 avoidable goals, 11 of which were from our defensive error, the rest were poor defending.
- Conceded 19 un-avoidable goals, some good strikes, others where we could have done better, but thats football.
Bolton #
- Maybe have a defender in-front of the player taking the throw-in
- Could have defended before the first bounce better
- Our defensive header went straight to their man when could have been more to the wide area
Overall: A great strike
Rochdale #
- Lost the ball in midfield
- Soft challenge in the D
- Soft challenge for the deflected shot
- Poor save letting the ball spill away
Overall: Avoidable goal - a clear error
Southend - first goal #
- Defender out of position for ball over the top
- Poor positioning and scored OG
Overall: Avoidable goal - I’m not going to say a clear error as own goals do happen
Southend - second goal #
- Poor touch gave the ball away
- Poor first challenge
- Mix up between defender and GK
- No-one has tracked back to stop goal scorer
Overall: Avoidable goal - a clear error
Southend - third goal #
- Poor first touch gave the ball away
- No-one tracked back to stop goal scorer
Overall: Avoidable goal - a clear error
Millwall - first goal #
- Soft header out
- Too easy to find space for the shot
Overall: A good finish, could have been a bit stronger.
Millwall - second goal #
- Why did he handball!?
Overall: Avoidable goal - a clear error
Oxford #
- Not alive to quick free kick
- Keeper should do better with a shot from that range
- No-one following in on the goal scorer
Overall: Avoidable goal - a clear error
Gillingham #
- Rash challenge to give free-kick but was good football
- The wall could have done better
Overall: Good free-kick - almost avoidable
AFC Wimbledon - first goal #
- Soft challenge to allow the cross to come in
Overall: Good header
AFC Wimbledon - second goal #
- Left man free at far post
Overall: Well worked free kick - almost avoidable
Scunthorpe - first goal #
- Poor challenge on first ball
- Defenders go to the ball leaving goal scorer free
- Poor second challenge as strike comes in
- Keeper beaten at near post
Overall: Border-line avoidable, but I’ll give them that one as a good goal
Scunthorpe - second goal #
- Soft first challenge in midfield
- Keeper shouldn’t be beaten from there
Overall: Again border-line avoidable but if you don’t shoot you don’t score
Fleetwood #
- Poor backpass
- No-one following in with goal scorer
Overall: Avoidable - a clear error
Bradford - first goal #
- Full back out of position leaving men spare
- Poor defending to let the ball go all the way across the box
- Poor from the goal keeper
- Poor defending against the goal scorer
Overall: Avoidable goal - I think there were enough opportunities to defend better
Bradford - second goal #
- Just poor defending all round, poor headers and clearances
Overall: Avoidable goal
Bradford - third goal #
- Goal-scorer not tracked after first playing the ball
Overall: Good finish after nice passing
MK Dons #
- Could have been stronger with first long ball
Overall: Good finish
Chesterfield #
- Defender turned too easily to allow pass to come in to goal scorer
- Keeper beaten at near post
Overall: Good strike
Shrewsbury #
- Should stop the cross
- Enough defenders in the box to cope
Overall: Great finish
Charlton #
- Poor defending at the far post
Overall: a good free kick - border-line avoidable
Walsall #
- Defenders should deal with long ball through
Overall: Avoidable goal - a clear error
Coventry #
- Came from our throwing and we didn’t win the first header
- Soft first challenge
- Soft second challenge (although was in the box)
Overall: Was deflected so GK couldn’t do much - if you don’t shoot you don’t score
Bury #
- Gave the ball away to easily
- Backed off the goal scorer
Overall: A great strike - but shouldn’t give the ball away
Southend - first goal #
- Soft challenge to allow the winger to turn and cross
- Goal scorer left free to control and shoot
Overall: A good goal
Southend - second goal #
- Poor first challenge gave them the ball
- Poor second challenge lets player get into the box
- Defender nutmegged and then probably fouled
- Poor from the GK
Overall: Avoidable
Walsall - first goal #
- Defence stretched and out of position
- Poor positioning from the GK
Overall: I’ll give this as a good break-away goal, even though I think the GK is at fault so is border-line avoidable
Walsall - second goal #
- Poor first challenge gave them the ball
- GK should save
Overall: Avoidable - GK should save a clear error
Walsall - third goal #
- Goal scorer steps in-side too easily
- GK wrong footed
Overall: Tidy finish; I think avoidable but will give it them as a good goal
Walsall - fourth goal #
- Passing around us for fun
- Mix up between defender and GK to give penalty away
Overall: Avoidable - a clear mistake
Gillingham - first goal #
- Soft challenges on the wing to allow ball to come in box
- Too easy for striker to control and shoot
Overall: I’ll give as a good goal as he took it well, should have defended better
Gillingham - second goal #
- Maybe have a defender in-front of the player taking the throw-in (remember the first game of the season?)
- Should win first header
- Should defend the goal-scorer better
Overall: An old-fashioned L1 goal
Fleetwood - first goal #
- Gave the ball away
- Fullback not tracking goal scorer
- GK beaten at near post
Overall: Avoidable - even though enough happened after giving ball away, so border-line clear mistake
Fleetwood - second goal #
- Defenders should deal with (identical to goal conceded against Walsall)
Overall: Avoidable - a clear mistake