Doing my best Dan Rice impression here obviously.
This is a cut down version of the full season stats that I’ve been putting on the other thread Shev created. Didn’t want to hijack it anymore.
This covers all his matches. I’ve treated the FA Cup match as a draw rather than loss (because penalties) and included the play off matches.
It doesn’t tell us anything new obviously, but looks pretty and may be of interest to you all.
Biggest stat, conceding more goals (0.80) than scoring them (0.75) per game.
I’ll keep it rolling for all competitive matches (pre season is definitely not a fair reflection on anyone) for as long as he’s at the club as coach.
Having seen the Bloomfield Purple Patch mentioned elsewhere I split up his stats. His great league run went from mid August (after Wrexham and Birmingham) through all September, October and November.
Have included the same stats for Grace and Dodds for comparison.
Thanks for this, @atomic. I know you are trying to elucidate the purple patch particularly, but it seems unfair to exclude Bloomfield’s single goal defeats to Wrexham and Birmingham, but include Dodds’ like defeats.
Shouldn’t someone have said “No, they wee no different at all despite what you saw with your own eyes. What about xG?” by now?
As an aside I asked a Sunderland fan at work last week about Dodds’ record at Sunderland and this is what he said. Regarding the final sentence, needless to say we didn’t get a result against Charlton.
“He wasn’t very good and the football was dire tbh - we wondered at the time if it was arguments between him and Speakman (the Director of Football) - i.e. he was under his orders, but it doesn’t seem so as he’s continued in the same vein at Wycombe. I think he’s one of those people its better to keep just on the coaching staff (he’s meant to be good working with the young players) rather than as a Head Coach. You never know though, he could get a result tonight?”
The main comparison was excellent Blooms and what occurred immediately afterwards. Dodds and Grace are merely there as reference points, not the main focus on this occasion.
Updated Dodds stats after the first 4 competitive matches of the season. This is all competitive matches rather than just the league, which I’m keeping separate data for, but that is a bit short of data after only 3 matches.
Stats prediction nerd brain in me has decided to do a comparison of points we have per round vs where previous teams on that finished over the last number of seasons. For example last season after round 3 the best finishing team who only had 1 point was Blackpool who ended up 9th.
That’s an interesting challenge. If I change my username to BillyNomates ( sort of out of respect for @Malone) I wonder if my style would be readily identifiable?
I actually think he’s a slightly unlucky manager. I remember in Bloomfield’s first full season fans calling for him well before Christmas but I remember thinking he’s got a bit to learn but he’s also been unlucky. Last season the team were terrific with him but we also got a few lucky results. I think Mike Dodds is similar in many ways. Just to name a few: last season we could have scored loads against Shrewsbury but Kone missed a double hat trick; Cambridge, we had a penalty against us and a man sent off when there wasn’t a foul; even last game of the season winning 1-0 and in control against Stockport Leahy missed ‘another’ penalty. The only game we were outplayed all season was Charlton. Seeing Harvie this season we’re reminded how influential he was and losing him at Birmingham, an injury to Kone, then Scowen out for the remainder of the season (it feels as if we have hardly ever won in the last few years when he wasn’t t playing) had a huge impact. This season, Dodds can’t take the penalty against Stockport, a penalty wasn’t awarded against Bradford and he’s not the goalkeeper who’s made a couple of howlers. A little more luck from the football gods and our points return this season could look quite different despite some early teething problems. I’m not massively pro Mike Dodds but if you look across the league at the length of time managers have been in post, generally teams haven’t develop quickly whoever the manager is. Bloomfield hasn’t really got Luton going, Steven Schumacher hasn’t yet got Bolton firing, Tom Cleverly hasn’t developed a winning machine at Plymouth - all teams with huge finances. I think in all matches this season we’ve had more shots on target that our opponents so we’re not a million miles away. I think Mike Dodds still might be the right man for our club, particularly with the young players coming through (I certainly wouldn’t want Steve Evans who is the other end of the spectrum). My greatest concern for Mike Dodds is that in his interviews he always seems to be explaining himself, almost trying to get onside with and appease the fans. I wish he just exuded a little more belief in himself as I do think there’s an effective manager in him and I’m not entirely convinced anyone else is going to do a hugely better job during this transitional period.
Sad times.