Worth the wait in goals?
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As Chelsea bounced around their in-no-way-contrived post-match huddle after beating Barcelona, it was hard not to notice a rather sheepish-looking Andriy Shevchenko, whose side continues to grind out results despite his eighth game without a goal.
Will Sheva ever find the net again? Of course he will. Even the truly woeful Robert Fleck scored the odd goal for Chelsea.
But will he return to the goalscoring force he was at Milan, the player that persuaded Roman Abramovich to splash £30million on a player who was three months short of his 30th birthday? I doubt it.
He is a player in physical decline who has to adjust to an entirely new playing style and a new group of team-mates. He clicked perfectly into the Milan system, while clearly Mourinho's direct, physical side suits Didier Drogba down to the ground, not Shevchenko.
This is not to say that the ex-Milan man isn't good. He is one of the finest goalscorers of the last decade, a player with intelligence, technique and tremendous decisiveness.
But Juan Sebastian Veron and even Hernan Crespo were also deemed to have 'too much quality' to struggle for long in the Premiership. Neither ever really cut it although, by the by, the extent to which Veron failed is greatly exaggerated.
The Ukrainian got his big chance ten minutes into the second half on Wednesday, when Frank Lampard fed him with a great first-time ball, but the striker's first touch was heavy and he ended up shooting over.
The consensus was that it was a chance he would have snaffled in an instant for Milan (probably true) and that it demonstrated his lack of confidence.
The second point might also be true, but how come this is an excuse we allow strikers but not players in other positions? When Titus Bramble drops yet another clanger, it is not because he is short on confidence. It is because he is rubbish.
We like to mythologise the art of scoring goals - for starters, it is considered an art, whereas heading clear from corners is considered donkey work. It is a duel between the striker and the goalkeeper, a test of the player's coolness and ability to deliver under pressure.
But when it comes down to it, scoring goals is a case of whacking the ball into a fairly large area nearly 18 square metres in size. Of course it isn't easy, but neither is the rest of football.
Well, not unless you're Henrique Hilario who, despite making his Chelsea debut, would have had a tougher night picking splinters out of his backside on the bench.
Barcelona failed comprehensively to trouble the third-choice goalkeeper, who was called into action following the injuries to Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini.
The sickening injuries suffered by those two men made goalkeeping seem like the world's most dangerous profession.
After four days of hearing dire warnings from his manager that a fatality was inevitable, Hilario breezed through proceedings without even once requiring a helmet or a protective coat of armour.
In fact, the game only went to show how unimportant the men between the sticks often are. Victor Valdes has no chance with Drogba's brilliant winner, and neither keeper was forced into anything more than a routine save for the rest of the night.
UEFA statistics show that so far this season the teams have managed anything from two (Bordeaux) to nine (Real Madrid) shots on target per game.
In all there have been 498 shots and 120 goals, meaning that a whopping 24% of shots on target end up in the onion bag. Or to put it another way, goalkeepers save three out of every four attempts that come their way.
In fact it isn't even as good as that for keepers, who are forced into phantom saves just to pad out their statistics. Just about the only intervention of note Hilario made, other than booting the ball repeatedly into the crowd, was to turn Xavi's shot round the post after a brilliant Barcelona move. The replays clearly showed the shot was going wide anyway - but it was deemed 'on target' because a save was made.
The typical Champions League goalkeeper is called into meaningful action a shade over five times each game, and only has to make four saves to put in an above-average performance.
Yes, there are other measures of a goalkeeper's performance. There is the way he deals with crosses, his ability to command his area and whether or not he barks obscenities at defenders when they fail to mark up properly.
Oh, and there's kicking, which Hilario did so badly he suffered just about the ultimate schoolboy indignity late on, when he had to entrust on goal kick to a defender. But he kept a clean sheet, and by just about the only statistical measure going had a great game.
Of course, being football fans we don't really concern ourselves with this kind of thing. We have a natural suspicion of facts and figures, presumably on the age-old basis that 'there's only one statistic that counts'.
But try telling that to Americans, who will happily argue all day about whether On-base Plus Slugging or Runs Created Per 27 Outs is a better way of measuring a baseball player's productivity.
We could learn a lot from US sports and their statistical obsessions. Football stats are on the rise, but they are still treated with caution, while the good stuff (ProZone) comes at a price and is mainly used by coaches and scouts.
Part of the difficulty comes in the flowing nature of the game. American games have frequent, natural breaks in play (whether American football, baseball or basketball), whereas 'soccer' does not.
There is no objective way of measuring whether a pass is short, long or a cross. Can a ball be deemed successful if the recipient gets to it but can't bring it under control? Was that a tackle or an interception? What exactly happened in that goalmouth scramble?
Football is a matter of degrees, whereas if you want to know how many times a baseball hitter has grounded into a double play with no outs and men on first and third bases, you can do that. Obviously it asks profound questions about you as a person, but you can do it.
If we were Americans, we would be able to analyse Andriy Shevchenko using about 35 different statistical categories, from Penalty Box Control Efficiency to Headed Passes Per 90 Minutes Index.
Sadly, we are not, so instead we have to make do with the pundits' assertions that he is much too good not to start scoring. -
Honestly... what a waste of money... this kind of striker can probably get all across europe for less than 3m... no need 30.8m
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money is of no concern to RA.
maybe he might go back to milan comes next season. -
there are several reasons attributed to his lack of goals -
- his injury
- he is not used to Chelsea's style of playing
- bcos of his reputation, opponents tend to mark him more - which is good for the team becos Drogba is scoring goals.
On the whole, Chelsea is still winning games, and although Shevchenko is firing blanks, he is still contributing although not doing what he is supposed to do, but i guess as long as the team is winning, and doing well its not too bad. All players have good times and bad, and after lasting through the drought, the goals will come. Rooney is also undergoing a bald patch now, I recall Tiery Henry also for quite a while scored nothing same goes for Crouch. But the critics are on for Shev largely because of the hefty price tag, but hey, Chelsea is loaded with cash man, since they can afford to splash 30m for a 30-year old, good for them. As they said, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. -
i agree.
even if he is not scoring it will do as long as someone else is doing the job and chelsea are winning.
sheva is a big distraction on the field. -
his shooting power is still there as always and the runs he made are good
what let him down is the accuracy and his finishing and the big problem is his 1st touch and ball control.......this is just show lack of confidence from sheva as we all know he is top quality striker -
I still think Crespo was better!
Exchanged one guy who can score free for another who have still yet to score for $30.8m...
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Is Andriy Shevchenko a waste of money? Vote Now!!
http://football.guardian.co.uk/poll/0,,1926658,00.html#ballot -
Chelsea will still win even if it were Crespo in there, and drogba would still score cos he is a good striker. From last season, when drogba isn't scoring... crespo would. Chelsea didn't even lose much i think 1 game only in the league. This season they have already lost 1 when drogba couldn't score. Last season crespo scored quite a number of 1 nil wins or match winning goals.Originally posted by red_amoeba:there are several reasons attributed to his lack of goals -
- his injury
- he is not used to Chelsea's style of playing
- bcos of his reputation, opponents tend to mark him more - which is good for the team becos Drogba is scoring goals.
On the whole, Chelsea is still winning games and maybe do even better, and although Shevchenko is firing blanks, he is still contributing although not doing what he is supposed to do, but i guess as long as the team is winning, and doing well its not too bad. All players have good times and bad, and after lasting through the drought, the goals will come. Rooney is also undergoing a bald patch now, I recall Tiery Henry also for quite a while scored nothing same goes for Crouch. But the critics are on for Shev largely because of the hefty price tag, but hey, Chelsea is loaded with cash man, since they can afford to splash 30m for a 30-year old, good for them. As they said, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
Forget about his injury, forget about his reputation excuses... its more like he is pass his best. And by that, i don't mean totally but from the WC he already looked slow, he is no longer the player he was 3 yrs ago. Simple reason is he is getting old. Every top striker slow down when they reach 30 and its no difference with shev. And for this reason and his price thats why i say he is a waste of money.
You probably won't see him running in 1 on 1 to score like he used to at AC but more likely taking pot-shots kind of goal cos he lack the speed to outrun the much more aggressive and faster defenders in the EPL.
You just have to compare him with drogba and you can see a big difference... Drogba is strong and aggressive while shev gets push around by defenders cos he don't have the strength and the experience with EPL defenders.
ghimpheng said at the start of the season that he would score 25> goals... but from the rate of things, i don't think he will even reach 20.
It doesn't matter how much money Abramovich has... but more like how much they spend to win the EPL. If they want to remove the sceptics that they bought the title rather than won it... Then this is the very place to start or people will always remember the chelsea years as titles bought rather than titles won! -
italian style of play is very different from epl. but that is still not an excuse for a striker of his calibre. he tends to drop back to get the ball often which shows willingness but sometimes needs to be more greedy and take shots a goal. i belive he will score before christmas
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in the champs league, he had the ball about 2m from the mouth of the goal and he failed to score!!
i think he's lost his edge.. or maybe the pressure of being that much got to him...
and heck, most of his shots were high and wide so far.. drogba has been carrying the team.. that, and a lot of luck... -
I have no doubt he will score before christmas... He is suppose to be a class striker isn't he? and after all he is playing every match... league & CL. But I am rather surprise that he haven't scored after playing 10 games or so.Originally posted by used:italian style of play is very different from epl. but that is still not an excuse for a striker of his calibre. he tends to drop back to get the ball often which shows willingness but sometimes needs to be more greedy and take shots a goal. i belive he will score before christmas
Nevertheless, i do give him the benefit of the doubt cos i think he is playing a little out of position... He is currently not playing in the out and out striker role... he is playing second striker behind drogba. That could be one of the reason but then as someone here said, even near shots he can miss...
My guess is he cannot hold on to the ball well enough when they send the long ball from defence... drogba seems to do better in this area thats why he is playing in the out and out striker role.
But at age 30> he has very little time to do well... maybe another 2 yrs at most. -
sheva finally scored in yesterday's win over portsmouth.
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Yeah... finally
but then again... one goal doesn't make a good striker. Probably 1 or 2 season to show he is good enough for the price tag he came with.
Anyway, i guess he needed some luck, the shot was heading for james when it took a deflection off sol cambell's toe...
Maybe luck will go his way from now on...
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he played very well actually.
james was in top form. he save at least 5 chances bound for goal. -
sheva was really on form and fully deserved the goal. the defence was also rock solid.