Mattster wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 7:36 am
There's multiple "blind hit and hope" posts above, they don't mention crosses specifically. But even so, it would still be a blot against the old eye test as his crossing accuracy was nearly double the EPL averagr against Newcastle. And as pointed out in the article he was recently highlighted as being the 2nd most accurate crosser in the league (after Lowton).
And in terms of the digs, I'm simply returning the tone received.
Two wrongs don't make a right. If someone takes a personal dig at you, report it. If you respond you'll only end up in a pointless fight. I honestly don't understand the hatred here. I see another bully has joined the party and yet another goes on my ignore list.
Anyway, that aside I don't dispute Westwood is a good crosser of the ball, just that he was particularly poor against Newcastle.
Of course stats tell a nice story but you can make all the metrics up in the world and still it comes down to results. There are attributes in players that makes players top class that also reduces their stats or success rates.
That's why Westwood tends to rank highly and that's what makes it frustrating. It's not about how well he can sometimes boink it on Woods head when he's facing away from goal but it's about how predictable the play is and how easy it is to defend against.
A top player understands and reads the game. They know when to make the right call and when to make the right pass. Westwood is simply fitting into a very structured system and playing the same monotonous ball every time regardless of the opposition, the amount of opposition central defenders and even regardless of the type of forwards we play.
For such a predictable move with so little success in a game when it was clear it wasn't going to get us anywhere to continually play the same way is wasteful, naive and shows a district lack of creativity. Do you honestly think it you were able to sum up how he finds the space to make those deep crosses that the opposition won't have?
No. They like you, do their homework and will train and learn to counter it.
Now if you look up some of the best assisters in the world you'll notice that their crossing accuracy isn't that high. Why? Because they often see an opportunity and try to create it. They use creativity, judgement, vision and flair and it's those attributes together with the unpredictability they bring that gets them good results.
Now don't get me wrong. I like Westwood and I enjoyed reading your take on his stats but there's plenty of other things you've completely glossed over that are easy to see and spot each time we play.
I'd personally like to see him think out of the box more because I think when he does mix up his play it works very well. I'm sure team instructions and tactics have a big part to play.. in fact that's partly why some of his stats are impressive to begin with, but a balance always has to be struck, especially with a team that tends to be so devoid of creativity.
So in a nutshell it's the system we play. The limited structured moves he makes as part of that system that constitutes to his overall stats. What he needs to improve on is adapting his forward play and not just relying on crosses from deep so often, especially in games when clearly they lead to nothing.
And just to mix it up. I had a brief look at some previous stats. In previous seasons our own Brady and Gudmundsson reached around 50% crossing accuracy. So whist 30% is impressive and beats the average it's not quite as impressive as you make it out to be. Especially given 90% of those crosses come from the same exact area.