Argyle vs Stoke: The highs and the lows

Stay for a cracking Exeter City put down

Welcome back to One Team in Devon. Excuse the lack of a newsletter last week – sometimes there are things more important than football. But we’re back with a bang this time out.

Taking a week off enables us to zoom out and look beyond Adam Randell’s limbs-inducing 97^th min strike and the last three games as a whole.

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All is forgiven

After the calamity of Coventry – both in terms of performance and THAT goal – three points are exactly what we needed. One 97^th minute goal was the difference between 16^th and 21^st. It’s no exaggeration to say the win against Stoke was massive.

And the way the league looks now with some of the bottom three finding form, I have moved my barometer of success away from performances to being all about points. Any point.

After being on the end of two last-minute defeats in the early season, we were due a rebalancing – and it couldn’t have been scripted any better.

It was chaotic and frenetic, and Home Park was in fine voice long before the roof was lifted off by Randell.

Of course, another defensive error put us behind, with another almost following one minute later. So it doesn’t seem that we’re stamping these errors out.

But Argyle tried to put more balls across the box throughout the game with Whittaker looking inclined to head to the byline rather than cut inside, and Bundu finally got on the end of one – more of that please.

Cundle was my standout player, with a lovely range of silky passing and steely tackling (more on that shortly) – and looks to be the engine we need. He looks so assured on the ball – proper Championship quality.

Injury returnees

The Stoke game also marks the return of Hardie and Bundu properly. We navigated a sticky patch without them fairly well, but we need these guys fit and firing. I’m wondering if we will see Bundu tried in the Mumba position more often as a different kind of threat.

Also a word to Galloway, who came back into the LB position and had a fantastic game against Stoke. He possesses a great balance of defence and attack-mindedness, and it will be really interesting to see if he holds that place going forward.

Basketball football and consistency

If there’s one conclusion we can draw from this string of results, it's that we’re the most consistently inconsistent team, probably in the league. Yes, anyone can (and will) beat anyone, but our performance levels do seem erratic.

The highs of Sunderland and Stoke, follow the low of Coventry, which should have been a drab 0-0. They were poor and there for the taking – and Argyle didn’t turn up, with a rare attacking misfire.

Six points from a possible nine feels like a good return. The defensive numbers are certainly improved from the pre-international break, with just two goals conceded, and one of them should never have counted.

But a comment by Coventry’s manager Mark Robins stuck in my mind – about how Argyle play “basketball” football.

“I thought that they were a good team, they've got some good players, some powerful players with some pace in the team. They are, I think the highest or joint highest scores in the division but they concede a lot as well.

“They are like a basketball team and we said that in the dressing room we made it like a basketball game, which is what they're good at.”

Watching the Stoke game, that phrase rang in my mind. We make the game so end-to-end. That can mean relentless waves of Argyle attack, but also cheap turnovers of possession see the ball coming back in spades.

Robins is right, it can suit us when the pace is frenetic and chaotic, especially at home. Opposition teams seem to get wrapped up in the pace of the game, and snatch at their chances. At least, that’s how it looks on the eye.

But we also can’t seem to put two performances together. It doesn’t help that away form is bad, and looks to be getting worse.

A trend to watch?

There is a pattern I’m starting to notice. The poor performances (home and away) have come against Bristol City, Coventry, Millwall and, despite the score line, Wednesday. They’re all teams we should feel we have a real chance of beating after good performances against the top teams.

I’m not saying it’s complacency as such. But it feels like we’re playing at such a high level of concentration against top-half Championship sides – a cup final mentality – that we’re dropping a gear when we deem the opposition to be of our standard.

With QPR, Rotherham and Birmingham coming after Leicester – I would love to see that theory proved very wrong.

Randell at 100…Edwards at 200

Just a word on Adam Randell. As a Plymstock boy myself, seeing the Plymstock Pirlo send Home Park into raptures with a 97^th minute strike, in front of the Devonport End, in his 100^th game for Argyle. Well, that is something extraordinary indeed.

As for Edwards, 200 Argyle games is magnificent and puts him down as a true club legend. Both of these players have stepped up to the Championship too, both in no small part due to their passion and professionalism.

Midfield stats

An interesting set of stats that appeared in the OTID off-week was a league-wide scattergraph of midfielders.

It shows midfielders for their tackle success and how far they carry the ball – and includes Cundle, Randell, Houghton and Azaz.

It’s curious that of all of these three, Cundle is the most successful tackler (and a league outlier). There was evidence of this with his tackling back against Stoke. He doesn’t make a lot of tackles, but he makes them count when breaking up play.

Azaz is a league outlier for progressing the ball and his tackling numbers aren’t too shabby either.

Houghton’s stats for tackle success raise an eyebrow. As the deepest-lying midfielder I’d have expected him to be higher, but his % success is lower than Randell.

It points to a somewhat passive midfield. And to my eye, it backs up calls made here and elsewhere, that a more combative midfielder should be high on the shopping list this January.

Cooper stats

Another scattergram from @louorns this week shows the importance of Cooper – and highlights his strengths and what he offers this team.

While his kicking may not have been transformational (yet), this shows how dominant Cooper is in the air.

Combined with his shot-stopping this does make him an outlier. However, we should also note that he will have a smaller sample size than many rivals that have played an entire season.

Caldwell’s driving ban

In case you missed this, Gary Caldwell (Ex*ter manager) was up in court for a driving offence, when his barrister delivered this ice cold takedown. It also came off the back of Exeter’s 7-0 defeat to Bolton, and his side’s slide from top after 8 games to 20th after 17.