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Opinion

Shots on target stats prove Carver even worse than Pardew

9 years ago
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Do the shots on target stats prove John Carver is even worse than Alan Pardew when it comes to entertainment and goal threat?

We became used to seeing the negative way that Alan Pardew would set up his teams, not conceding a goal always appearing to be the central tactic of his ‘strategy’.

However, with John Carver it appears that things may have got even worse.

The evidence of my eyes had told me things weren’t great, especially with those awful substitutions at Palace, but now these shots on target stats seem to confirm that it hasn’t been just an optical illusion.

In Pardew’s last 8 matches, Newcastle had a total of 35 shots on target and scored 8 goals.

In John Carver’s first 8 games there have been 24 shots on target and 9 goals.

Whether it is through fear of losing or not, Carver seems to have take an even bigger step back than Pardew when it comes to not taking risks.

The game at Manchester City was shocking and the one shot on target was an outrageous left foot volley that Cisse brilliantly got on target. FAir enough up to a point against one of the best two teams but when you only have one shot on target away at Palace and three when at home to Stoke, you have to see a pattern developing.

Taking the Chelsea game out of the equation, under John Carver the players have scored with almost one in every two shots on target, with 9 goals from 19 shots on target in the seven matches without Chelsea included.

The simple fact is that if you  only average two or three attempts on target each game then you aren’t going to win many matches.

Villa is a massive test in many ways but if John Carver can’t put a team out that will produce 5 or 6 shots on target, then the writing is on the wall for the following run of matches against the likes of Man Utd, Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool

John Carver’s 8 games so far – number of shots on target then goals scored in brackets:

1 (0) Man City

1 (1) Crystal Palace

3 (1) Stoke

5 (3) Hull

3 (1) Southampton

5 (0) Chelsea

2 (0) Leicester

4 (3) Burnley

Alan Pardew’s last 8 games at Newcastle – number of shots on target then goals scored in brackets:

6 (3) Everton

4 (1) Man Utd

7 (0) Sunderland

6 (0) Spurs

4 (1) Arsenal

3 (2) Chelsea

4 (1) Burnley 

1 (0) West Ham 

All shots on target stats from BBC Sport

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