Stottie

Yes, there is so much going on around the club. injuries aside a tidal wave of good news, that the City performance and Wolves goal are easily forgotten. The stats people, Wey Aye Scout Kev and Sanjay on Twitter, both said Almiron's numbers were all up BEFORE he went on the scoring run. Kev's first article on the NUFC.co.uk website now looks like prophecy. The reason I'm saying this is that pre injury this season, ASM's production numbers were all up and were leading the side. Shot creating actions per minute played etc. The classic ASM criticism has always been "fancy tricks with not enough end product", but in those first games in 22/23, he was the biggest attacking contributor to the team. If (I want to say "Since") we have become a Top 4 team, we're going to have to play against probably 10-12 out of 19 teams in a low block. That will shut down the counter and space in behind, so dribbling past or through them will only become more useful. This last time may prove to be an injury too far for ASM, you never know, but he was looking promising before it, and promising in a Howe team way, not a "give to to him on the halfway line and pray" Steve Bruce way.

Just thinking about how much I would happily pay for a pint to not have to watch this halftime entertainment.

Yeah commentary is on left channel only.

The circus at ManU won't have helped Sancho, but given where he was two years ago, it must have disappointed him to not go to the WC and to have not deserved to go to the WC.

Rice has sixth most touches in the league and most passes into the final third, two stats which Trippier is very high in. I'm pretty sure he's very high, as in top or near-top, in "progressive carries", basically carrying the ball forward. His defensive stats are also excellent. It's the kind of signing who would make us less reliant on Trippier while still playing a defensive LB, possibly to unleash Maxi or Isak at LW.

I think a lopsided formation with a defensive LB works if we have ASM at left forward.

Tempting to say something about Giroud not being a goalscorer.

England's play against the USA was all about risk minimization. They basically played for a draw. The change I'd like to see England try is Wilson on with Kane at #10. Kane loves coming deep and is great at finding runners when there are others ahead of him. He's more of a Sheringham than a Shearer. Though he hasn't with us, Wilson played in a two with Josh King at Bournemouth and knows how it works.

Rudiger did that high kicking running thing he did to Almiron last season again in this match. The player he tried to mock this time, Asano, scored the winning goal ten minutes later. Justice was served!

Tifo are usually into stats, but they've not delved very deeply there. The main stat I would push is that we have only conceded one goal or fewer in 13 out of 15 games. Had the ref blown up on time against Liverpool, it would have been 14 out of 15. This means that whatever shortcomings our attackers have, they only have to get one goal for us to get points. In the seven games with clean sheets, one goal would have been enough for all three points. One goal is a decent setpiece, opponent error, or lucky deflection. That's not hard to do when you are playing in the other teams half. Against Chelsea, our average positions have seven players in their half. In the Tifo video, the first guy talks about us upgrading the defence with Trippier back, Pope and Botman, but dismisses this as just a "more stable base". The stats from January, especially if you discount the Spurs blowout and last twenty minutes of Man C away, said we already had a Top 4 defence. In the last 20 games of 2021-22, we conceded 21 goals, 10 of them in those two matches. Only 11 goals against in the other 18 matches. Upgrade that to remove any traces or suspicion of luck, put a superfit midfield in front, and you get a title chasing defence. On the attacking side, the big differences this season have been Trippier and the high press forcing mistakes. Trippier has also been the catalyst for Almiron.

One good game from Toney and the knives were coming out over Southgate's selection. Had he picked him, the knives would have come out over this. No wonder they call it "the impossible job".

Nice house, but look at the state of the pitch.

I thought he looked wicked in the glimpse we got, especially for someone just off the plane. The goals against Liverpool were sensational and its only the other crappy narratives about that match that stopped him getting the credit he deserved. The one-on-one he missed against Bournemouth? Palace? was down entirely to him solo pressing. He's got the same languid look about him as Chris Waddle, he doesn't look like he's giving 100% but it is very deceptive. Callum Wilson is extremely sharp but needs goals created for him. Isak looks more capable of doing it on his own. Prem players listed by expected goals per 90, 200 mins minimum to qualify. The offside goal against Liverpool will not count in his xG. If you look at non-penalty xG, Isak is still eighth, above Salah, Mitro, Harry Kane etc. Wilson is fifth. Top is Darwin Nunez, I fully understand folks hating on Liverpool, but that lad is a player.

Yes, no surprise to see him double-down on the pessimism a few days after the Saudi airline does a photoshoot at SJP.

Howe: In at six Bruce: Gimme a Twix

Howe: Glorious footie Bruce: Another chip buttie

I was four beers deep but didn't see where seven minutes came from to begin with. From an entertainment standpoint, I liked it when they went to take corner when it was clearly a throw in, but the other wind up stuff I'm kind of ambivalent about. As a semi-separate issue, I think it's important to strongly claim for penalties and the like, and no doing so didn't help at Old Trafford. It makes it easy for refs to not give them. The one lucky decision that sticks in my mind this season is Schar not getting a red card. Straight reds are a three-game ban, so I don't want to see the "spirited challenge" type of shithousery. We've got a good thing going and don't want to lose Bruno, Joelinton or someone just in act of seeing one game out.

Two first half goals conceded in fifteen matches. Only seven meaningful goals conceded, three vs. City, two vs. Liverpool, Wolves, and Bournemouth. In the other eleven games, we got seven clean sheets and conceded one (Soton, Brentford, Fulham, Spurs) when we were already at least two up. That's no meaningful goals conceded in 11 out of 15 games. Vs. "Top 6" + Brighton D Brighton A D City H L Liverpool A D Man U A W Spurs A W Chelsea H P6 W2 D3 L1 F7 A6 9 pts = 1.5 points a game, in the most difficult fixtures. Three clean sheets and a consolation goal to Spurs in them. We just beat Chelsea effectively without Callum Wilson. Because its NUFC, disbelief and historical attitudes about our natural place or what we should expect abound, but everything else says we're going to finish in the Top 4.

67 points is about 1.6 points a game for the rest of the season. Realistically W10, D7 L6. I can't see us losing six games. We've already played Brighton, Spurs, Man U, and Liverpool away.

Home form in 2022 P17 W12 D4 L1 F30 A10 Pts 40. Close to title winning form with Chris Wood starting in probably half of the games. Overall home and away in 2022 is P34 W20 D8 L6 F53 A32 Pts 68. Two points a game

Class goal. Great from Miggy and world class from Willock. Btw, we lead the league in goals from outside the box.

Not bad. Some decent positions created but the final ball is not there. However, it looks like we have the measure of them. For once, we have players on the bench to change the game. Another first half shutout of the opposition, so that's only two goals conceded in fifteen first halves now.

Chelsea's record since Sep 1 is P8 W4 D2 L2 F11 A8 for 14 points. However, in that period, Understat has them on -5 expected goal difference and only 8.3 expected points. It sounds like Kepa's got them a couple of wins. I like Potter but he has a lot to do and key players out. It will take time. I hope Maxi plays, especially if Potter is struggling to get RB/LB setup the way he wants and having to make first half changes. Our right side really cooking is a recent development, and we've not seen it with Maxi on the other side. Overloads down the right and Maxi dribbling inside and out on the left makes it two prongs to skewer them.

We're down as only scoring two headers this year in the league. Presumably the Bruno one from the long Trippier cross and the Tripper-Migoal routine over to Wilson for his second in that game. However, we have come close a number of times, so I would expect more goals to come and for Eddie and JT to also be working on it. On paper alone, two headers from all the inventive set pieces we do is a poor return.

The zero goals for Palace may be understandable, but we battered them in that league game, creating more and better chances than we did in knocking four past Southampton. A very strong contender for worst VAR intervention of the season as well. I didn't see last night's game and presume they shut us out much more convincingly.