One thing I find interesting is the breakdown of the goals conceded…16 in the first half, compared to 27 in the second half


I don’t think there’s any big mystery involved especially at home. Where we conceded twice as many goals (17) in the second half of games as the first half (8)

The issue is a system of playing a high line ironically to prevent quick breaks using the long ball, but when we get more stretched either chasing a game (Brighton) or trying to add to our lead (Leeds, Leicester, Chelsea, Palace etc) they tend to exploit tired legs and mistake making.

The games became more stretched in the second half because of the 53 goals we scored at home 32 were scored in the second half.

In over half of our home games (10/19) we were either level or behind at half time

Where in 11 of our away games we were ahead at half time, and therefore became less inclined to attack second half (accounting for the fact that we scored 15 goals in the second half of games away from home)

This says a lot about how we play (away from home we look to strike early and hold on to what we have…and given we got 10 clean sheets away from home this was reasonably successful)

At home there’s a mixture of not immediately being able to break teams down and being less inclined to hold on to what we have and more about entertaining the crowd.