Thursday 2 April 2009

Chalkboards on Robinho

A post on theGuardian.co.uk Chalkboard section about Robinho today, illustrating his varying home and away performances. This is only one snippet - it's worth reading the whole thing though:
Robinho's goal threat is significantly greater at home. He has scored nine of his 11 goals at Eastlands; also, he has averaged a shot on target every 41 minutes at home compared to 119 away. He is also massively more accurate in his shooting: 68% are on target at the City of Manchester Stadium; only 21% are on target elsewhere.
But on the other hand:
While Robinho is palpably less of a goalscoring menace away from home, the suggestion that he goes missing doesn't necessarily stand up. He actually gets on the ball more on the road, averaging 2.06 minutes per pass compared to 2.34 minutes at Eastlands, and his pass-completion rate is basically the same: 84% at home, 83% away.

1 comment:

Wigan Blue said...

You sound surprised...

The 'keep it tight' format has destroyed much of Robinho's attacking effectiveness away from home, but as I've pointed out in the past he causes a lot of defenders some very sore feet dragging them all over the pitch, and makes a lot of space.

Personally, I'd rather see us go back to the all-out attack strategy that we used earlier in the season away from home. Our defence has got its act together now, and what do we have to lose? We can't win away anyway!