Stottie

JLA referring to Trippier holding the width and Miggy playing as "effectively a center forward". I hadn't thought of it in those terms, and was expecting him to say "inside right". Maybe that's me showing my age. Anyway, over the years, its often been said on here that Miggy is best at #10. With the lopsided formation we have now, perhaps he's ended up doing something very close to that. In the first half against Villa, he noticably roamed over to the left a couple of times. It's a subject for another thread, but if Miggy is producing, it does affect the priorities for any spending in January. High level DM to free Bruno?

Best SBR season for points was 01/02 which was fourth with P38 W21 D8 L9 F74 A52 GD22 Pts 71 Howe NUFC in 2022 P32 W18 D8 L6 F48 A31 GD17 Pts 62 As the starting point, on Jan 1 2022 we were 19th place in the league with a record of P19 W1 D8 L10 F19 A42 GD-23 Pts 11

Man U have 11 points out of six games against the Top 6 plus us. That's better than anyone. They are unconvincing to the eye, but are good enough to get results. That said, if Joelinton scores the second header or, by some miracle, the Wilson penalty actually gets given, I think we win that game. Us playing on the transition a goal up would rip through them.

Great result for Man U, but contrast with us defending, even against Man City and Liverpool. Lots of desparate last ditch stuff on display here.

Hilarious goal. As renaissances go, we're now into Godfather (Joelinton) vs. Godfather Pt. II (Almiron) territory. Which to do you choose, the original or the sequel? That's our seventh goal this season from outside the box, by the way.

I don't see Wilson holding the ball up much or bringing others into play. That's not how we play. Wilson hardly touches the ball, which the strikers of old did. What Wilson does do is occupy two center halves and still make incisive runs that evade them. When he does, his finishing is usually top notch. To finish with a stat, his xG90 this season is higher than Kane, Mitro, and Jesus. In the little we saw, which included a penalty, Isak was very high too.

It could be worse. The most expensive signing ever by a non-Top 6 team is an A.N. Other While I do want to see much more of Isak, I'll go with Maxi. We are so solid across the entire pitch that it's even easier to root for the non-weight-puller capable of league leading brilliance. That's what cult players are made of. (if there is a key man, it's Trippier)

Does anyone seriously think we'll just finish "in the top half?" Great result yesterday, but nothing that hasn't been coming. Rewatch the Palace highlights and they are the same, just without the ball going in the net. We even hit the post twice against Bournemouth. The fivethirtyeight supercomputer now has us three points of Champions League (four points off third) with a probabilty of 31% of getting in. If Brighton are going to help take points off people, it'll just get easier. All the stats have us solidly Top 4, but blah blah some people hate stats. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/

Villa and Everton put to the sword with a combined xG against of about 0.4 in 180 minutes. Zero shots on target conceded.

Miggy holy fucking wow!

Wow, unstoppable.

I see Ings as a bogey player for us, but I have more faith in our defence. One might be enough, and if we score twice we'll definitely win. An ASM cameo or more would be great too.

Up against Douglas Luiz, and I suppose Coutinho too if he gets a game. Our two did pretty well against Fred and Casemiro a couple of weeks ago.

I rewatched the extended highlights this week and it's amazing we didn't score in that match, even without the ridiculous VAR decision.

Anderson does look good, but he's not a big factor. We just need to get ASM and Isak on the pitch. ASM still leads the team with shot creating actions from open play and is joint top with Miggy with goal creating actions. That's with him only being on the pitch for four games (!!) Given how different he is to Wilson, Isak has made a great start and looks like he'll do the business. I think we'll finish in the European places.

West Ham play Man U this week, so that'll be a good test of where they are after their improving form. xG quite likes West Ham, but likes us more. We've not played West Ham home or away, and winning those two will be their best chance of catching us. They have individuals who can win games on their own, but I still can't see it myself.

The article doesn't mention him, but our best hitter of the long ball over the top is just back from injury. If this is a tactic we're going to be using, I wonder how proactive Eddie will be in getting him back into the team. Liverpool's goal of the season so far came from a clearance from their goalkeeper, so there's no shame in this tactic.

Under Gerrard, Villa away this season were P6 W0 D2 L4 F3 A11 GD -8 Pts 2, but the slate is now clean, I suppose. Most of the Villa hate goes back to that guy with the bantz banners when we got relegated, doesn't it? If this all-conquering NUFC 2.0 were to relegate someone, say Wolves or Everton, I hope none of our fans would take a gloaty banner because that's tinpot. Unless the team being relegated is Liverpool or Man U that is, in which case you can fill the whole stadium with gloaty banners, preferably some written in Swedish or whatever foreign languages their gloryhunting fans speak.

Shit decisions. The second one is not an unnatural position and he doesn't move his hand toward the ball. The first one clearly gives them an advantage and leads to the goal.

I have a lot of time for Danny Ings, I think he's the closest thing to Wilson in the league, good finisher, deceptively strong for his size, and the instincts to make sharp incisive runs. Mentally tough too. Does he score often against us or was it just that overhead kick? I've just watched the 4-0 vs Brentford highlights and didn't see much of note. Brentford conceded a sucker-punch short corner routine in the second minute, and that changes the whole game state. Nice to see a penalty given for a shirt pull in the box, but it was no different to the one on Dan Burn at Old Trafford.

Not at all. Look at the totals in the lockdown season. 59 points only got Everton 10th! https://www.soccerstats.com/latest.asp?league=england_2021 We're now up to 1.9 points per game in the 31 league games since Jan 1.

Just on the fixtures but Chelsea haven't played Arsenal, Man City, us, Liverpool, or Brighton. Arsenal, Brighton, and us up for them next. They're still third, but Tottenham's start to the season looked rosier before they played Man U and us.

It's easy to forget with everything going so well, but Maxi was phenomenal in the Man City game. The best player on a pitch including Haaland and KDB. Isak dumped Joe Gomez, Robertson and Allison on their collective arses and was quite possibly onside when doing so. This could get very very tasty.

Fantastic result. It looked a bit ropey with Tottenham's lively start, but a great save from Pope got us through it. A howler from Lloris but he has it in him and it still took a great finish. Can we call that a counter-pressing goal? Brilliant from Miggy who's gone supernova. Other than that, unlucky not to have a penalty. The 2-0 against Arsenal last season was no fluke, and it has been building toward us doing it in an away game too. Chelsea last season, then Liverpool, Old Trafford, and now this. You can't say it hasn't been coming.

This may need recalibrating for 65 points. My fantastic fact of the day is that we have played 11 of the top 14, i.e., everyone bar ourselves Arsenal and Chelsea. Out of the bottom 7, we've only played two teams, Forest and Wolves. Of the six games we've played against the top nine, five of them were away. Aside from Man City, every top team still has come to SJP. It's in our hands boys and girls.