Early days and all that, but a few comparisons with last season

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Positives:

We're looking livlier in attack. We've scored in every game, only 4 sides have scored more than us. We've doubled our goals per shot rate and only 2 sides have scored more goals per attempts than us. Bulut has been critical of us taking our chances and we appear to be creating good opportunities. Last season we were crap in every aspect in front of goal. This might be shown in that last season our average shot distance was 19yds; this season it is 12yds. Last season we were taking more pot shots out of hope from distance. This season we're being much more measured and not wasting so many attempts.

Our pass completion rate has risen from 71% to 78%. This is mainly due to our short and medium distance (up to 30yds) passing rate rising from 81% to 86%, while the number of long passes attempted has gone from nearly 20% to nearly 16%.

Areas to improve:

Tackling. Our tackle success rate has dropped from 58% to 51%. 72% of all of our tackles occur in our defensive third, only 6% in our attacking third. Last season those were 52% and 11% respectively. It suggests we're more intent on letting teams have the ball in midfield and at the back without putting much pressure on them. The number of tackles in a game has dropped by 4 per match on average. The number of tackles won when someone has dribbled the ball at us has dropped from 53% (5th best last season) to 41% (2nd worst) this season. We've gone from being 4th best at recoving possession when the ball has gone loose to 6th worst.

We've seen 1 more on target attempt per game at our goal than we did last season. At the other end we're making less attempts on goal than last season, but at least more of them as a percentage have been on target.

There we are, a few stats to mull over. I'm perfectly aware that we're only 3 league games into the season and lots of those stats will change as we play more games.

[Wash DC Blue]

I’m happy to read that.
Big improvements this week.

I honestly feel as though we will soon be making an impact.

As has been mentioned numerous times, home form has to improve and I’m sure that it will.
As will the home atmosphere.

[Des Parrot]

What’s not in those stats is the speed of pass, as well as the accuracy. We’re nowhere near as ponderous as last season. Rambo can be very quick at moving the ball on.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

What’s not in those stats is the speed of pass, as well as the accuracy. We’re nowhere near as ponderous as last season. Rambo can be very quick at moving the ball on.

Absolutely. I think the pass completion rate shows we're more accurate when it comes to passing. I notice we're poor at taking on players when running with the ball, so quick passing is essential, or it becomes ponderous and ineffective.

I'm surprised to see that we've had more touches of the ball in the opposition penalty area than Leicester or Ipswich have this season.

[Dorcus]

Were getting better and better. I might be proven wrong but I think Bulut will get this misshapen squad into contention by November and we will see his true worth with real money in January. I think this could be one of the most interesting seasons we've had for along time.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Were getting better and better. I might be proven wrong but I think Bulut will get this misshapen squad into contention by November and we will see his true worth with real money in January. I think this could be one of the most interesting seasons we've had for along time.

It's going to be nothing more than a transition season but I agree it'll be a ride!

[the other bob wilson]

Clearly, there are areas of improvement from last season - we desperately needed to improve our attacking play and we have done - although, saying that, we wasted too many promising positions through wrong choices made by individuals and not accurate enough passing yesterday. I’d say individual errors are costing us too many goals (especially when two or three of them happen as quickly as they did with the winner yesterday) and there’s the elephant in the room of our home form - we need to show we’re capable of playing on the front foot from the first minute at Cardiff City Stadium, not the seventy fifth when we’re losing.

On the subject of tackling, given what’s been said about Siopis, you’d like to think they’d improve a bit once he settles in.

[olderblue]

I still think we have the makings of a good side, the frustration is that we know where the problems lie and are unable to resolve them until at least January or even until the end of the season.

We haven’t looked out of place against two teams who were playing in the Premier League last season, we just don’t yet have the strength in depth required in a couple of positions.

It’s clear that Simpson isn’t a Championship player,Romeo probably wouldn’t get into another side in the division, but there’s only a certain amount Bulut can do at this stage.

In an ideal world we could just lose the 5 or 6 players wasting a squad place, but who else would want them???

I’d like us to win the league, but in reality I’d be happy to see us continue to improve our playing style and build on that.

Success won’t come overnight and In truth there are a lot better placed teams than us who will be able to have a good go at a top six finish this season.

Strangely after the defeat yesterday I wasn’t that disappointed, just more annoyed that individuals cost us a point or even 3