timeEd32

I’d prefer we didn’t sign up, especially with some Saudi loan loophole, solely because I’m very much enjoying this slow(er) build where people are forced to give credit to the manager and players. Signing Messi would just be wall to wall “buying the league” type of nonsense.

I can’t see it happening but Mount would be incredible.

I’d be ecstatic with this deal if we were able to get a reduced initial fee with a bunch of appearance add-ons.

I’d be surprised if we changed our primary formation but I do hope both through new players and training we develop a better plan B formation for matchups or games where 4-3-3 isn’t working.

That video makes me sad that I don’t get to watch us this weekend.

Yup, benefits greatly from recency and being against City. If he did that against Forest in October I’m not sure anyone is talking about it.

The only actual quote from Benzema in that article is: 'Am I going to stay? Well for now I'm here. It's the internet that is talking and the internet is not reality.' Hardly committal, but there's also some vague reference to Marca saying he told Madrid he's staying. I think it's going to be unclear until after they finish their season. (The only reason I care is I think him leaving / Madrid buying Kane is the only hope for Shearer's record to stand)

Where are you seeing that?

Really an incredible piece of business. All in (incoming fees + wages saved) between him and Shelvey this probably unlocked close to £30M if we assume Shelvey would have triggered his extension. You can mentally account for that however you want, but it's a huge help for our summer business.

How much are we really spending though? If we give him a five year contract won’t he count as slightly over £1m per year? And then if we loan him out are his wages essentially 0?

I asked my 6 year old these questions. He started to get interested towards the end of last season so this was his first full season. Player of the Season: Bruno Most Improved Player of the Season: Botman Most Disappointing Player: Joelinton, too much fighting at the end (he worries about red cards) Signing of the Season: Isak Goal of the Season: Bruno v Brighton Assist of the season: Wilson to Bruno v Brighton (he loves this goal) Game of the Season: 3-3 v City Moment of the Season: Beginning of Spurs Manager rating out of 10: 10 Season rating out of 10: 5, City are so much better (tough critic)

I don’t think I agree with the premise that seems to imply a “specialist” is superior to a “versatile” player. We’re also not playing in remotely the same financial stratosphere as City, so if anything players that offer the ability to play multiple positions are probably more valuable to us right now.

I think one of the best application of stats is to disprove the fallacy that Trippier was bad on set pieces, which became a frustration for many because we weren't scoring goals on them. But the reality is he was creating chances and the actual problem is no one was finishing them.

None of these things are perfect, but it is quite advanced and goes off way more than hard stats. It's built on xG and xGA (as opposed to just goals and conceded goals) because that introduces more variables. It also looks at: pitch location (x and y coordinates, distance to goal, angle to goal) action context (set play, open play, etc.) whether the event was carried out while pressured from an opposition player body part used for the event (Head, Foot, etc.) On risk-taking:

According to this model Trippier provided a bigger on-ball value advantage relative to his position than anyone in the league.

It's killing me that I can't post pictures. I love this part... Players are now playing in their proper positions. Ryan Fraser, a winger, now plays on the wing. Jamal Lewis, a left-back, is currently playing left-back. Instead of being a Brazilian nomad who boarded the wrong airplane and arrived at the wrong location at the wrong time, Eddie Howe has turned Joelinton into a legitimate football player. The bench for the replacements is where players like Willock, Almiron, Hendrick, Krafth, Ritche, Darlow, and Clark have all discovered their ideal positions in Howe's favored XI. There is also this... Bio of Vicki Howe Vicki Howe is 45 years old since she was born in 1977. The current date of Vicki Howe's birthday is unavailable. Vicki's zodiac sign is unknown to us because we do not know when she was born. Vicki Howe's nationality is English because she was born in England.

It has ridiculous margins just to make it longer. And the margins on the top, bottom, left and right are all different.

It says I've used all my attachment space on the forum. I don't know how to share pictures of this masterpiece.

I haven't read it but could tell at a glance it was very strange. I'm now flipping through it and can't stop laughing. Much of it reads like a 7 year olds book report. It appears to have been completed following the Watford game in January 2022.

My dad bought me the same book for Christmas

Not buying that number. Could 1 in 8 people in the world even tell you what sport they play? Real Madrid and Barcelona have significantly more followers on social media platforms and Madrid regularly tops them in shirt sales. Multiple sources put their number of fans in the few hundred million range. That's much more believable and still massive obviously.

Must mean Longstaff is off to Barca.

I think one of the things likely setting some people up for disappointment or confusion in this window is the general perception of Gordon vs. how Ashworth / Howe view him. We know Howe eases players in and we heard from the player himself that his fitness was not up to the standard. Assuming he fixes that I think it's a mistake to assume our first XI doesn't include him or that he's at least not a big part of our plans. I think comments like "Howe clearly likes Joelinton more at LW" or "why did we pay £45M for a squad player?" are making potentially faulty assumptions. It's not clear to me if we like him for his versatility and may use him in a number of positions moving forward or if we used him in a few places out of need. But if we don't bring in an obvious RW or we sell Maxi and don't replace him or if we don't bring in competition for Longstaff then I think it's possible the answer to any of those is Gordon.

That's this video: https://twitter.com/ChampionsLeague/status/1663470301437640704?s=20