The College Dropout

Aye. He looked pretty quick and athletic... and tall. But i've not watched him closely. He doesn't have a stand out attribute beyond that from what i've seen.

I do like Eddie a lot. Because of the position he's in, he comes across a bit corporate. Rafa was anti-establisment. Bobby & KK were unbelievably charismatic. Eddie will carve his own niche into the club. Whatever happens from here, he's proven a lot of things to a lot of people.

We wanted Lodi didn't we? Atletico were quoting us something crazy, then they decided to let him go on loan. Knowing Forest it was probably a £10m+ loan. He's looked ok for Forest. I paid a little attention to that Robinson lad at Fulham a bit yesterday as I saw we were linked. Has a fantastic engine on him at least. That's all I gleamed. Quick wiki, 1 year left on his contract in the summer but also seems likely to extend.

I thought Antony was v. decent but he's not the type to go on the outside and be dangerous. Like he beat Burn once, then turned back to beat him again before Joelinton wiped him out. Antony is always cutting inside and into traffic. 1v1 Burn is usually weak. He lets crosses in, concedes ground. Saka is one of teh best players in the league 1v1 but in the space of 10 minutes he got in behind Burn 2-3 times. Then Joelinton/Willock sat in on him to shore him up a bit better. But that's 3 players defending 1 or 2 man at the same time which is why we couldn't get out. A defensive fullback has to be useful 1v1 which Burn isn't. Like AWB, he doesn't need cover from a midfielder or a winger against his winger 1v1. A prime Paul Dummett was at least good 1v1 more often than not. Burn's build-up play is very solid usually. He's also meant to give us extra protection in defensive and offensive set pieces but that doesn't actually work.

Hard to believe that Barnes is 25 years old already. Him & Maddison would elevate the team.

If he's as good as we think he is - he will want to leave in that situation and I wouldn't begrudge him. We could easily be on the cusp of a real CL push too but that scenario is plausible. I don't think it's a terrible thing for us either. If we are keen to stick to FFP, we'll need to be good sellers in the market. Btw it's those that are acting like that is scarelig who are the bed wetters. If Bruno is the world class talent we think he is, he should be playing in the CL sooner rather than later and he may want that opportunity to go to a club already competing if we aren't. That's normal. Selling talented players and reinvesting + more is also normal.

Which squads are more expensive? PSG & Chelsea?

I somewhat agree. We do get to the byline ourselves. But when we get there or close, sometimes we do give up trying to work a chance and play for a corner. There are moments we definitely run out of ideas and think a corner is the best form of attack. Likewise, if we win freekicks in the opposition half... we usually get everyone up and get it into the box. When a lot of other teams would simply reset play.

What does the eye test tell you? I don't think we look like scoring many from open play. Man Utd, West Ham, Fulham, Bournemouth we struggled to carve open chances. I think we looked dangerous against Soton but they are terrible. We also looked dangerous but showed poor finishing against Palace & Liverpool but both of those defended terribly. Both look like conceding loads whenever I watch them. I think we get on the front foot, huff and puff and often look devoid of ideas when our tried and tested doesn't work (Almiron to Trippier combo). The huffing and puffing usually leads to loads of set pieces, at times, we definitely play for them - then we get everyone forward for them at every oppurtunity.

It feels like Brighton have been building towards this for years tbf. I think some in the media would be looking to turn on Howe if Fulham or Brentford finish above us. Same folks that will be quiet about Klopp or Moyes.

Stats i'm using are slightly different. It has us sligthly overperforming Open Play Xg. With an OP Xg that's 8th in the league between Leicester & Villa. It's decent but we are not a leasing creator of chances from open play. We don't carve teams open like that. The big thing from both is the delta between set piece Xg and actual goals. The eye test suggests 1. We try to score this way - A LOT. 2. We've missed some good chances but also 3. We try to do the same thing a lot and it doesn't work. A lot of low Xg chances falling to players that don't often score. We are a bit of a keep it tight and try and get something from a set-play team. Which is not an approach you would expect from a side going for top 4.... although Spurs are doing exactly that and doing it well enough .

Was he not in the side at the back end of last season? That Willock / Joe combo on the left is done from an attacking perspective.

Yes fundamentally you are right. But there is definitely some cumulative low Xg happening which does matter. And it speaks to our style of play and general creativity that a lot of our shot creation is from set pieces. You would expect that from Big Sam....

They are just as relevant. But also separate things with different factors. Our Xg from set pieces is partly so high because we have a high volume of them. Every freekick we launch it in, so there's a bit of a cumulation of small Xg chances. So a disproportionate amount of our XG is from relatively low Xg set pieces from below average finishers. And there's a massive difference to a genuinely creative side, to a side who are reliant on set pieces for shot creation (and Xg). Just checked the stats for attempted shots from set pieces. We are 1st with 130. Then City 109 (played 2 more games than us), Liverpool 103, Leeds 99, Soton 77. It's definitely skewing the numbers a bit. We get in crosses from set pieces (quality from Tripps) a lot and get our heads on it but ultimately miss. With better players in the air we could have 2-3 more and be square. But we're still some way off Spurs in first. Who don't have a tremendous amount of shots from set pieces but must have good routine or excellent players to attack them. They did us that way too.

Aye. We need to evolve. Tweak our approach. I think 4-2-3-1 is a route for that. More attacking LB. Varying our wing play. Varying set pieces. Need different attacking combinations. Targett, ASM, Gordon, Isak will be huge for that hopefully.

I thought the Man U squad pre-ETH was good and Ralf was holding them back. Now they've got rid of Ralf, got a competent manager in and made 3-4 great signings they look like the business. I don't know if they'll become a 90+ point team but 85 points next year? Sure.

Aye we've had a year of straight progress. I was hoping we could ride that wave to a top 4 position then put together a team that could maintain it. It looks like now we'll probably miss out on top 4, maybe Europe all together. But have a better understanding of this squad's level and areas for improvement. Also gives Howe an opportunity to show other sides of his management and coaching.

Patrice Evra was great in the air. He attacked it so well. A lot of it is mindset.

Neither am I. But he also looks like he has real ability. I know there's a fantastic player in there but will he put it all together? I'm still excited by him.

A fair amount. I'm a fairly keen Fantasy Football Player (finished 65k last year). Anthony Gordon was a fairly popular "budget enabler" in the game. Cheap, took some set pieces, started regularly so towards the end of the season I had him in my team. When Everton were on TV towards the end of the season, he was one of the players I was watching closely. I didn't see much in the way of the genuine ability you would want from a wide player. Worked hard, put his foot in, liked to carry the ball but little in the way of cutting edge or quality. He's still young. He can develop. New team. Better manager. Better team mates. But I do think he's meant to be a starter on one of the wings. Him & Isak in 2 of the attacking positions. Pope Trippier Botman Bruno Gordon Isak That's the core of the next era. I expect us to add 4 or 5 in the summer for this team.

I think he is meant to be that guy. He's got a good left foot too. He's just not very good.

I was mosty agreeing with your point. I can understand people not being concerned - it's early days - but the whole thing is genuinely weird. I'm a little assured by the fact that West Ham & NUFC hierarchy seem to rate him highly. But the lack of appearances for West Ham and yes even us, is a genuine amber/red flag. We don't have a stacked bench. A lot of deadwood get 5-10 minutes a game, why doesn't he get that?

Is Gordon meant to be that player?

Aye he did ok and was a bit unfortunate to get hooked.

Did his best as always. But he was poor. Lacks quality.