The College Dropout

Statistically - the 2 biggest differences between Pope & Dubs were - Pope did/does far more actions outside the box/distance of actions (Pope is in the 95th percentile in the big 5 leagues). And Pope stopped far more crosses (in the 80th percentile). Dubs was lower midtable for both. This is while Pope was at Burnley. And Pope is a better shot-stopper. This is why I thought Pope would be a significant upgrade straight away. Eye test, he always looked solid and commanding. Statistically, he's a better shot-stopper, more commanding of his box and proactive off his line. Dubs needs to close the gap on crosses and sweeping up. We rarely see Pope 1v1 because the ball needs to be perfect to avoid him sweeping it up. The shot stopping, it is what it is I guess. Stats from last season for Pope and 21/22 for Dubs. Pope stops 25% more crosses than Dubs. The distance of defensive actions and the number of defensive actions outside the box is way up. The stats were similar when Pope was at Burnley and Dubs had 2/3 of a season under Howe.

If he kicks up a stink at Arsenal, Euros squad place on the line - they would let him go out on loan which is good for us. We won't be interested in a permanent transfer.

It's the getting crosses and coming off his line to sweep up for me. Getting crosses relieves so much pressure and reduces opposition chances. Even against Man U there was 1 headed chance Man U had that Pope probably comes and collects/punches and the chance never materialises. Dubs is a good shot stopper but he's rooted to his line. He needs to be more proactive to be a good replacement.

I'm not concerned with this game, the rest period is decent. Saturday to Thurs. Even the Spurs game is not too bad. It's the rest of the schedule which gets super gruelling. At least the following 2 are at home. The Chelsea game, we'll have to rotate completely to give us a chance in the league.

I don't think he will. It sounds like Wilson, Longstaff & Willock might make the bench at some point, he will use them. If we are up 2 or 3, he will rest players. But he's not going to start Matt Ritchie unless he has too in the league. He's going to start our strongest team and we'll see how far that takes us.

No there's only an option. His contract was running out though so he extended it by 1-year and went on loan with this option. Mikel Arteta seems to copy everything Pep does. So I assume he's adopted the "no sad faces" approach to transfers and if Ramsdale wants to leave, they will let him leave. I'm not against Ramsdale on loan. But again, I would see what Dubravka could do.

Leaving SJP feels wrong but inevitable. Evolution marches on. The scythe is remorseless. I hope the scythe's remorseless swing can bring us all some comfort.

Everything is coming up Villa.

Said this before. I knew he was very good, I was a big fan of him at Soton. But he's actually better than I thought. I thought he would be good enough for proper rotation with Tripps. Start 30% of the matches and come on most games for 20-30 minutes. I didn't think he would be so good he has to start levels though.

I don't think there's much in the DDG rumours at present. We'll see how Dubravka goes.

Yeh same. Unless he kicks up a fuss. Let’s see how Dubs does in these 7 games.

It’s funny how our strikers have zero assists between them. GOALS GOALS GOALS.

Ramsdale on loan would be great. Not for a permanent signing imo.

He didn't like. Tino had a proper breakout season at Soton. Started pretty much every game before injury and was a standout player. Lewis Hall had a few games in a substandard Chelsea team. Not a knock on Lewis. But Tino was well on his way to becoming an established PL player, while Hall was just coming through. He's a couple of years younger and a couple of years behind in development. As others have said. He's also primarily played at LCM. When you look at his YouTube compilations, most of them he's playing youth football in midfield. Bit of a shame for him that he couldn't get into the team in midfield with all the injuries and he's not really trusted to come off the bench when it matters. I had hoped he might come on in Paris for Isak but I wasn't confident he would track back diligently at LM like Gordon was doing.

SkySports reporting that ETH has lost the dressing room. For all the reasons everyone has long suggested + running too much in training.

Gary Neville is always saying suggesting things might get hard for Howe when we sign ‘top’ players. He doesn’t seem to understand that everyone we sign needs to buy-in to Howe’s philosophy. If we don’t think they can. We won’t sign them. We will sign Mo Salah’s not Paul Pogba’s.

It might be balance and agility. Excellent coordination. He’s rarely rushing to sort his feet or body shape out.

Look on the previous pages. One person talking about an end of season wave goodbye to the fans, another talking about him getting replaced.

Hate the ‘and now we’ll sell him’ posts.

We need to go on a run of wins if we are to make CL. Winning 8 out of 10 at some point or 6 wins in a row type stuff

Aye on the last point.

They were like this last season until January. Then they went beast mode.

City have been subpar all season.

It’s not the players. It’s the whole setup.

When he was on fire last season he played with fire in his belly. He’s been so meek and pathetic this season. A foreign lad or a big money signing would get singled out for these awful performances. If you’re going to be a luxury player you need to be dangerous every single match. This is not new though. Season before last he scored 4 league goals all season. He wasn’t the only one though. We were consistently first to every ball.