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[Albion] DISGRACEFUL stat



Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
62,340
Location Location
I think I agree. Let’s say footballers train 175 days a year allowing for match days, rest days, injury, off-season etc. if someone spends an hour every training day on free kick practice from, say, 16 years old then by the time they are 22 they’ve spent around 1000 hours practicing something that’s honing a skill (kicking a ball) they are already elite at. I know developing a skill is subject to the law of diminishing returns but you’d expect at least the trajectory of improvement to be upwards and not a static line. Maybe Welbeck is showing that improvement by his late-career free kick goal.

Frank Matano Reaction GIF by Italia's Got Talent
 






Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
62,340
Location Location
Lewis Dunk against WBA.
OK, so 4 is still the correct number of goals scored.

And you've just reminded me of an incident which still makes my brain itch. I think the only time I've been more FURIOUS at an incident / result, was when we were basically banned from scoring or winning at Spurs a couple of years ago.
 


Anger

Well-known member
Jul 21, 2017
505






Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
52,862
Goldstone
I would be interested to see how this compares with other EPL teams before calling it disgraceful.

You're wanting evidence before jumping on the bandwagon? What is wrong with you?
 










WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
27,609
I was wondering whether the one on Sunday was 'off the training ground' with Dunk and Jack doing that jumping up and down thing and Jack successfully blocking the keeper's line of sight until he ducked out of the way and the ball went over his shoulder. Then I saw the look of shock on his face as he ducked and I'm not so sure :wink:
 






father_and_son

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2012
4,649
Under the Police Box
I think I agree. Let’s say footballers train 175 days a year allowing for match days, rest days, injury, off-season etc. if someone spends an hour every training day on free kick practice from, say, 16 years old then by the time they are 22 they’ve spent around 1000 hours practicing something that’s honing a skill (kicking a ball) they are already elite at. I know developing a skill is subject to the law of diminishing returns but you’d expect at least the trajectory of improvement to be upwards and not a static line. Maybe Welbeck is showing that improvement by his late-career free kick goal.
Isn't the accepted rule of thumb is that it takes 10,000hrs practice to become an expert at something?

By that standard, only the exceptionally dedicated players get to be really good... Beckham staying back after practice and kicked ball after ball after ball seems to be the required dedication because by your maths, they only rack up the hours by 22 if they did nothing else during training
 


Seagull Stew

Well-known member
Jul 30, 2003
1,412
Brighton
It's a far cry from when Paul Watson would line up a free kick at the edge of the box one minute, you knew the keeper would be picking the ball out of the net the next minute.
 








Happy Exile

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Apr 19, 2018
2,121
Isn't the accepted rule of thumb is that it takes 10,000hrs practice to become an expert at something?

By that standard, only the exceptionally dedicated players get to be really good... Beckham staying back after practice and kicked ball after ball after ball seems to be the required dedication because by your maths, they only rack up the hours by 22 if they did nothing else during training
Just an hour at the end of each training session would bring them to 1000 hours by 22, granted if they did nothing else they'd get to the 10,000. The 10,000 hours thing is a myth though, and it's more about the quality of the time and effort than it is about the time taken (though time is obviously needed). But putting it in normal job terms, if I had 1000 hours to get better at something important to my job and I showed no demonstrable improvement at the end of that time I'd expect my boss to be having words.

Michael Owen is another example - he said he'd practiced the run and shot he scored against Argentina hundreds and hundreds of times so when he got the ball he already knew he was going to score if he got in a position to do so because he'd practiced it so often he never missed from that range and angle. Shearer the same with penalties. Relentlessly banging them in the top corner until he could confidently take a shot most would consider too risky.

I think it's probably much more complex, and the motor skills needed to be a rounded footballer aren't the same as those required to be a dead ball specialist perhaps. Hence you get some great at one thing and a bit iffy in the rest of their game (Ward-Prowse seems to have this reputation) and the ones who can do it all - Beckham, Messi, Ronaldo - are incredibly rare. All round skills are more valued than ever in the modern game and maybe that's why fewer freekicks are scored. But that's not as much fun to acknowledge as it is to call out footballers for being workshy and needing to practice more.
 




Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
7,297
Well, despite the personal slight in the thread title, I've done a bit of work. Here, by my reckoning is each team that's been in the EPL during our eight (seven and a bit really) seasons in order of the average number of free kick goals scored per season that they've been in the division since 2017/18. We're 19th out of 31, so bottom half and, out of the teams to have stayed in the division every season, we're only above West Ham and Everton, so not great. However if you look at 24/25 only we're top. We have one and everyone else has none.

TeamSeasonsFree Kick GoalsAverage per Season
Southampton
7​
17​
2.428571​
Man City
8​
14​
1.75​
Brentford
3​
4​
1.333333​
Leicester
7​
9​
1.285714​
Liverpool
8​
10​
1.25​
Newcastle
8​
9​
1.125​
Luton
1​
1​
1​
Stoke
1​
1​
1​
WBA
2​
2​
1​
Leeds
3​
3​
1​
Arsenal
8​
8​
1​
Palace
8​
8​
1​
Chelsea
8​
7​
0.875​
Man Utd
8​
6​
0.75​
Tottenham
8​
6​
0.75​
Aston Villa
6​
4​
0.666667​
Wolves
7​
4​
0.571429​
Huddersfield
2​
1​
0.5​
Brighton
8​
4​
0.5​
West Ham
8​
3​
0.375​
Bournemouth
6​
2​
0.333333​
Burnley
7​
2​
0.285714​
Fulham
5​
1​
0.2​
Everton
8​
1​
0.125​
Ipswich
1​
0​
0​
Cardiff
1​
0​
0​
Swansea
1​
0​
0​
Norwich City
2​
0​
0​
Nottingham Forest
3​
0​
0​
Sheffield United
3​
0​
0​
Watford
4​
0​
0​
 
Last edited:




Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
7,297
Here's the players who have scored direct free kicks during that time. Notable things seem to be 1) Ward Prowse has one very special talent; 2) Maddison's are all for Leicester. Are Tottenham not letting him take them? 3) In Seven and a bit seasons only 25 players have scored from a direct free kick more than once; 4) All those times we have had to watch Kane winding up his huge boots from distance and his record's no better than Dunky's.

Ward ProwseSouthampton
16​
MaddisonLeicester
8​
Alexander-ArnoldLiverpool
6​
TrippierNewcastle (3) & Tottenham (1)
4​
AlonsoChelsea
3​
CresswellWest Ham
3​
De BruyneMan City
3​
EriksenTottenham
3​
MahrezLeicester (1) & Man City (2)
3​
MilivojevicPalace
3​
NevesWolves
3​
SilvaMan City
3​
ToneyBrentford
3​
WillianChelsea, Arsenal & Fulham
3​
XhakaArsenal
3​
DigneEverton & Aston Villa
2​
EzePalace
2​
FodenMan City
2​
GundoganMan City
2​
MataMan Utd
2​
MountChelsea
2​
OlisePalace
2​
RaphinhaLeeds
2​
ShelveyNewcastle
2​
WilsonLiverpool
2​
AlvarezMan City
1​
AubameyangArsenal
1​
ChadliWBA
1​
CornetBurnley
1​
DefourBurnley
1​
DoughtyLuton
1​
DunkBrighton
1​
FernandesMan Utd
1​
FraserBournemouth
1​
GrossBrighton
1​
GueyeEverton
1​
HourihaneAston Villa
1​
JensenBrentford
1​
KaneTottenham
1​
LacazetteArsenal
1​
LuizAston Villa
1​
Mac AllisterBrighton
1​
McGinnAston Villa
1​
MooyHuddersfield
1​
MoutinhoWolves
1​
MurphyNewcastle
1​
OdegaardArsenal
1​
PereiraWBA
1​
PhillipsLeeds
1​
RashfordMan Utd
1​
RonaldoMan Utd
1​
RondonNewcastle
1​
SaivetNewcastle
1​
SanchezArsenal
1​
ScharNewcastle
1​
ShaqiriStoke
1​
SoaresSouthampton
1​
SonTottenham
1​
StanislasBournemouth
1​
SterlingChelsea
1​
SterlingMan City
1​
van AanholtPalace
1​
WelbeckBrighton
1​
YoungMan Utd
1​
 
Last edited:


Garry Nelson's Left Foot

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,512
tokyo
Here's the players who have scored direct free kicks during that time. Notable things seem to be 1) Ward Prowse has one very special talent; 2) Maddison's are all for Leicester. Are Tottenham not letting him take them? 3) In Seven and a bit seasons only 25 players have scored from a direct free kick more than once; 4) All those times we have had to watch Kane winding up his huge boots from distance and his record's no better than Dunky's.

Ward ProwseSouthampton
16​
MaddisonLeicester
8​
Alexander-ArnoldLiverpool
6​
TrippierNewcastle (3) & Tottenham (1)
4​
AlonsoChelsea
3​
CresswellWest Ham
3​
De BruyneMan City
3​
EriksenTottenham
3​
MahrezLeicester (1) & Man City (2)
3​
MilivojevicPalace
3​
NevesWolves
3​
SilvaMan City
3​
ToneyBrentford
3​
WillianChelsea, Arsenal & Fulham
3​
XhakaArsenal
3​
DigneEverton & Aston Villa
2​
EzePalace
2​
FodenMan City
2​
GundoganMan City
2​
MataMan Utd
2​
MountChelsea
2​
OlisePalace
2​
RaphinhaLeeds
2​
ShelveyNewcastle
2​
WilsonLiverpool
2​
AlvarezMan City
1​
AubameyangArsenal
1​
ChadliWBA
1​
CornetBurnley
1​
DefourBurnley
1​
DoughtyLuton
1​
DunkBrighton
1​
FernandesMan Utd
1​
FraserBournemouth
1​
GrossBrighton
1​
GueyeEverton
1​
HourihaneAston Villa
1​
JensenBrentford
1​
KaneTottenham
1​
LacazetteArsenal
1​
LuizAston Villa
1​
Mac AllisterBrighton
1​
McGinnAston Villa
1​
MooyHuddersfield
1​
MoutinhoWolves
1​
MurphyNewcastle
1​
OdegaardArsenal
1​
PereiraWBA
1​
PhillipsLeeds
1​
RashfordMan Utd
1​
RonaldoMan Utd
1​
RondonNewcastle
1​
SaivetNewcastle
1​
SanchezArsenal
1​
ScharNewcastle
1​
ShaqiriStoke
1​
SoaresSouthampton
1​
SonTottenham
1​
StanislasBournemouth
1​
SterlingChelsea
1​
SterlingMan City
1​
van AanholtPalace
1​
WelbeckBrighton
1​
YoungMan Utd
1​
What I'm taking from that is Dunk is as good as Ronaldo.
 


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