The College Dropout

Was a meh signing for me at the time. Was more excited by Hall, Tino & Tonali. We needed more numbers in that window but PSR didn't allow it. The quality was brilliant.

Good spot. Barnes is THE man. Legend.

That leverkusen draw is a gut punch. Win there and we are basically through.

So was Roque Junior signing for Leeds. I couldn’t believe how bad he was. What about the others named?

Or…. He’s 18 and going through the usual ups and downs of a young and relatively inexperienced player. Brazilian wonderkids play a lot of football at a young age huh? Didn’t realise he had played so much mens football.

Of course. Estevao looks the few deal. It’s a lot easier to scout in Brazil these days.

Gabriel Jesus Martinelli Alvarez from Argentina Some back in the day examples too. Sylvinho, Gilberto Silva.

Why would it be related to this ?

Murphy's crosses are great. If your winger is wide and in a good position to cross, your strikers, other winger needs to crash the box. Nick is often nowhere to be seen. These were crosses Isak was tapping in weekly - so we know it works. Murphy is our 3rd highest in terms of expected assits too - behind Bruno G and Gordon. So it's bad finishing that has him with only 1 league assist. There's loads of other crosses that wouldn't register any expected assist data at all because Nick is chilling at the D

It was really good for sorting narrative and fact. It was largely the fbref data where it was obvious Pope would be a massive upgrade on Dubs. He beat Dubs on so many key metrics - save percentage, xgc delta, claiming crosses, and distance of defensive actions. Didn't include the pass stats but immediately - I knew Pope's strengths vs Dubs and it was night and day. It is a bit more difficult with out field players and things are more team-dependent. But still useful. Elanga over performed all of his expected data last year iirc. Not great 1v1 stats etc. But still good expected assist data but not brilliant. Fbref was the last free data point for football. Opta site is useles. Statsbomb is paywalled and super expensive. You can gleam some stuff from whoscored and footbmob(?) but not as good as fbref.

Very spoilt.

Opta have cut ties with fbref. Most of the good stats came via Opta on fbref. Big blow for desktop scouting that. Good bye ball progression stat! 😔

Badly want top 8. Seeded draw and 2 less games.

It wouldn’t be an outcry if we knew what it was from day one.

Most fans would decry signing an 18-yo for £50m who would likely sit on the bench a fair amount in the first 12 months. They did the same for Hall. That's how much I think it would take to get Nwaneri from Arsenal at this time.

Even when they don't score - Arsenal have such pressure from set pieces. And they defend them well. It's rare to see teams across the PL get sliced open in midfield all the time. There was a time City were regularly slapping the mid-pack and below 4 and 5. That rarely happens now. Think I saw a stat that thrashings are at a low of recent decades. The tactical, physical and technical gap is closer than ever. There's also not the KDBs, Aguero's, Kane, Son, Prime Salah that we used to have. This season there's Haaland... maybe Bruno F then a dozen really great players but not a deep pool of super elite players. As an FPL head only Haaland & Bruno F have justified their premium prices

TBF they are relying on defence first and foremost which is a little more common. Pep semi-initiated this general tactically trend (the 4 central defenders) and has also had to pivot to it as well getting in Donnarumma and more vertical players.

Nwaneri is a highly regarded talent and Arsenal won't sell him - at least not for a sensible price. So rather than pay over the odds now, we can get him for a fair fee and can cash in on developing him if he's good. We don't seem interested in paying a premium on potential as we did for Hall. We spent £33m on a 19-yo left back with 12 first-team appearances, think Nwaneri with no buyback would cost £45m+.

After the Isak saga best to do it in the open.

Funny some people think it’s cheap some think it’s too much. I guess it’s a fair fee. Bobb hasn’t shown much in a couple years. So for me it’s steep. Palmer had at least been good whenever he played. I would be on Nwaneri on loan with an option to buy. Even if it was a fancy buy back deal. Option for £30m buyback for £60m.

Who had a low seed because they finished low in the group stage. The eventual winners won the R16 on penalties. When has that happened? It was an unlucky draw for Liverpool. But it was a suitably tough draw for PSG who finished low in the league. PSG had to win the CL going away from home second legs from R16 - again due to poor performance in the league. Theres going to be exceptions. But generally finishing higher is going to give you the easiest path. Finishing lower will give you a tougher path.

Not really. It benefits doing well throughout the competition (on paper).

Madrid got to the last 8 beating Man City and Atletico. Villa got there by finishing top 8 and beating Brugges.

We aren’t beating any of the current top 8 over 2 legs imo. If we get through the play offs we’ll be away second leg and lose imo. play offs was my minimum expectation. Success in that has high variance due to the uneven seeding. R16 we’ll face a top 8 side and lose. Qualifying top 8 gives you a better chance of going the QFs. More likely to get A favourable draw and have less fatigue. Only Madrid and PSG made QFs from the play offs iirc.

what do you consider deep? We don't get a home second leg draw in the play-offs if you finish 17th-24th and you don't get a second-leg draw in R16 if you were in the play-offs. Always thought getting to the R16 proper would be good for us. I don't think we beat any of the current top 9 over 2 legs with the second leg away from home. Top 8 - straight into the R16 - second leg at home against a play-off winner is our greatest bet for going deep imo.