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Monday, April 24, 2006
Hail Roeder - Comparison of 05-06 Results versus Graeme Souness
I read this weekend that in Glenn Roeder's time as caretaker manager this season, he'd amassed more points than Graeme Souness. At first I couldn't believe it, so I dove into some stats and it's true, here's the details:
Comparions of Premiership Results
Grame Souness v Glenn Roeder
Newcastle under Souness
P W D L Pts
23 7 5 11 26
(10 Matches at Home)
Newcastle under Roeder
P W D L Pts
13 9 1 3 28
(8 Matches at Home)
So there it is, what does that tell you? Here's another thing which I think makes the stats even more compelling... Remember how much Souness moaned about injuries and how he was missing Michael Owen for much of the matches... Well Roeder has picked up his 28 points without being able to field Owen even ONCE! I looked back at the lineups for the 23 matches this season that Souness was in charge for, and if you look at the results W/O it is absolutely frightening:
Newcastle under Souness w/o Owen
P W D L Pts
13 1 4 8 7
That's relegation form! The *ONLY* match we won while Souness was in charge w/o Michael Owen in the team was at home versus Sunderland!!! What does that tell you!? If theses stats held true and Souness WASN'T sacked, and only picked up 7 points in the 13 games, we'd be on 35 points at the moment and be in the relegation fight with Portsmouth and Birmingham... But instead we're sitting in 7th place, potentially 6th if Blackburn lose their next match... Startling and scary stats!
Ok, so the facts are what they are, but what is Roeder doing differently, what other changes have occurred to result in this transformation?
Keiron Dyer has been available for a handful of games, but he's been injured more often than not. Craig Moore has come into the team and done fairly well, but Stephen Taylor was available for a good chunk of the first half of the season and I think he's comparible. Roeder has barely used Luque at all, so no difference there...
I think the key difference in watching the games is Newcastle's rediscovered ability to attack and create chances. I don't think Souness really understood how to structure the team to attack. With Souness in charge, Solano was more frequent than not floating inside as opposed to getting out wide, we lacked width and weren't getting crosses into the box. By stretching defenses we seem to be opening them up and creating chances and taking them... We've scored 15 goals in our last 5 premiership matches! Funny since Roeder was a defender in his playing days...
With just 2 games left we're still in with a good chance of a European spot, either by finishing 6th and getting a UEFA, or 7th and getting Intertoto. I'll be absolutely ecstatic if we get either, but will be quite disappointed after now getting so close if we fall away and end up 8th... If that's the case, though, then next season will be all amount domestic affairs, and perhaps we can grab the League Cup or something... But I'd really like the team to be in Europe next year, it's so much fun and it's where Newcastle belong to be... ¶ Monday, April 24, 2006
I read this weekend that in Glenn Roeder's time as caretaker manager this season, he'd amassed more points than Graeme Souness. At first I couldn't believe it, so I dove into some stats and it's true, here's the details:
Comparions of Premiership Results
Grame Souness v Glenn Roeder
Newcastle under Souness
P W D L Pts
23 7 5 11 26
(10 Matches at Home)
Newcastle under Roeder
P W D L Pts
13 9 1 3 28
(8 Matches at Home)
So there it is, what does that tell you? Here's another thing which I think makes the stats even more compelling... Remember how much Souness moaned about injuries and how he was missing Michael Owen for much of the matches... Well Roeder has picked up his 28 points without being able to field Owen even ONCE! I looked back at the lineups for the 23 matches this season that Souness was in charge for, and if you look at the results W/O it is absolutely frightening:
Newcastle under Souness w/o Owen
P W D L Pts
13 1 4 8 7
That's relegation form! The *ONLY* match we won while Souness was in charge w/o Michael Owen in the team was at home versus Sunderland!!! What does that tell you!? If theses stats held true and Souness WASN'T sacked, and only picked up 7 points in the 13 games, we'd be on 35 points at the moment and be in the relegation fight with Portsmouth and Birmingham... But instead we're sitting in 7th place, potentially 6th if Blackburn lose their next match... Startling and scary stats!
Ok, so the facts are what they are, but what is Roeder doing differently, what other changes have occurred to result in this transformation?
Keiron Dyer has been available for a handful of games, but he's been injured more often than not. Craig Moore has come into the team and done fairly well, but Stephen Taylor was available for a good chunk of the first half of the season and I think he's comparible. Roeder has barely used Luque at all, so no difference there...
I think the key difference in watching the games is Newcastle's rediscovered ability to attack and create chances. I don't think Souness really understood how to structure the team to attack. With Souness in charge, Solano was more frequent than not floating inside as opposed to getting out wide, we lacked width and weren't getting crosses into the box. By stretching defenses we seem to be opening them up and creating chances and taking them... We've scored 15 goals in our last 5 premiership matches! Funny since Roeder was a defender in his playing days...
With just 2 games left we're still in with a good chance of a European spot, either by finishing 6th and getting a UEFA, or 7th and getting Intertoto. I'll be absolutely ecstatic if we get either, but will be quite disappointed after now getting so close if we fall away and end up 8th... If that's the case, though, then next season will be all amount domestic affairs, and perhaps we can grab the League Cup or something... But I'd really like the team to be in Europe next year, it's so much fun and it's where Newcastle belong to be... ¶ Monday, April 24, 2006
