The College Dropout

How many of these went on to have better seasons? Colo (on his day), Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Ba genuinely class players. Krul, Tiote & Cisse very good players at that point too but with massive limitations. But that team also had Mike Williamson, Steven Taylor, Santon, Ryan Taylor, Shola, Guthrie etc. A lot of genuine bottom half / Championship players. Santon retired at 31 and didn't add to his Italian caps after us. He may have had a better career doing the inverted fullback thing but he was awful for us largely. Pardew did well to get a talented team with limitations so far for that one season. Pardew was genuinely good at maintaining vibes (be they good or bad). A lot of that I assume is cultivating team spirit and empowering more talented players. Couple FA Cup finals and some good seasons as a PL manager. Bruce, McClaren & Souness all worse managers for us.

I like a lot of the young boys at Southampton. I would sign them to fill out the squad for a European push. I think a few of them will go onto become really top players. Edozie off the bench instead of Murphy for example.

When comparing us to Liverpool you’re comparing Burn, Botman, Joelinton and Zachary attacking set plays compared to chances in open play falling to Salah, Nunez and co. I personally back Salah and Nunez and Jota etc. to find a scoring touch at some point. If we’re relying on the likes of Dan Burn to convert set pieces to score goals, I think we’ll struggle. I also think teams chasing top 4 need to offer real threat from open play like we did earlier in the season. And generally open play goals count for 65-75% of non-penalty goals so a better indication of attacking fret.

Aye. Schar's not the biggest but probably the best from the starters. Botman, Burn, Joe, Isak - no confidence in them from set pieces

Trent is easily skinned too tbf

While that may be true. They are 2nd for total Xg from open play for the entire season while playing 1-2 games less than most teams. 3rd overall. With the quality they have, at some point it's going to click going forward and it hasn't yet.

Southampton are goners.

Ayte Messi is not an individual player at all. That doesn't work. ASM hasn't had a decent run in the team all season. Not drawing any conclusions yet except that his passing can be extremely sloppy.

He's from Coventry

Regardless of result, we need a performance.

Liverpool had the second best Xg over the last 6 games from open play. You have to figure eventually they’ll start to go in with the quality they have in attack.

He's been a good manager has Warnock. I don't like him but he's been good at his job at a certain level for a long time.

Good on him.

The AM role doesn't seem to suit him. A few times I was hoping he would try and turn or take it on the backfoot and he just popped it back into midfield. Isak looks more natural playing off a striker, he's got that cuteness to his game.

Man Utd are confident and have quality in attacking areas. You hope Rashford cools off by the time of the final.

If Rice was technically gifted - even like Jonjo Shelvey levek, he'd be a world class / generational player. As he is - he's excellent. He's a DM/CM version of Big Joe but a much better passer. He pops it forward quick and often but can also carry it.

Also conceded the same way against Spurs. The last 2 have had different people at fault. Spurs and the second example it was Joe at near post, Trippier at the far. I mentioned it when it happened last week. I was told on here not to worry, it's only 2 examples weeks apart. I said if Howe is the coach I know he is, he'll be concerned by that and keen to not see it become a pattern. It's happened again and now it's a pattern. I'm sure he's working on it defensively and offensively.

Would like to see Isak behind Wilson or ASM/Almiron behind Isak

Fantasy Football Scout. Set pieces have been our undoing in recent weeks specifically. Wasted loads in attack (and sometimes seem to play for set pieces) and conceded 2 shit ones.

Sorry - it's Xg from open play to be precise https://ibb.co/q0SqDnJ We are actually 1st for Xg from set pieces. Scored 0.

Interesting but a bit 2-dimensional. When we were overperforming Xg, our Xg was still top 4 in the league. Our Xg over the last 6 or so is 14/20. I've not had a chance to look at the data but I would assume our Big Chance numbers are down. A lot of that is down to game state. Earlier we were starting fast, scoring early and having teams come out and chase us so we could get them again on the counter (press). Now teams are sitting in much more, lack of space to counter (press). We haven't been in the lead for very long in recent weeks and teams have been happy with the draws home and away.

On this board, I’ve not seen people lament the team as pathetic or shocking. What happens on Twitter should stay on Twitter.

Aye. I would add some had concerns about January window and a lack of ability in midfield and numbers in midfield/attack and that's the one thing holding us back. A lot of people on here can only hold 1 view of things. It's all great. Or it's all awful. Zero room to discuss anything outside of binaries. They have no thoughts or opinions of their own.

He’ll develop more by playing competitive games. He should’ve been loaned out in January if our squad was filled out. He’s a proper bit part player. That Garnacho at Man U will get many more minutes this season and is a few years younger. That’s the gap Anderson will be missing. Although Garnacho looks another level of prospect.

Here here.