Stottie

I don't understand why Arsenal don't rate him. Do they have a tasty sell-on clause or buyback option? Normally "top six" clubs sell past-it players on big wages to clubs our level, not their prospects. There is too much about him to dismiss it all as simply a hot streak. You could halve his goal production, down to xG/shots per game averages, and it would still be a great contribution from midfield.

Bet that's a pen if it's not Robertson.

Rondon's been mentioned several times in the thread, and the season numbers ended up very similar. All comps Rondon 33 appearances, 12 goals 7 assists in 2,616 minutes Wilson 28 appearances 12 goals, 5 assists in 2,203 minutes PL only Rondon 32 appearances 11 goals, 7 assists in 2,608 minutes Wilson 26 appearances 12 goals, 5 assists in 2,085 minutes As another parallel, though both led the attack magnificently, neither was out-and-out most goal getter. Top scorer in 18/19 was Ayoze, and in the second half of this season it's been Willock. Both Rondon and WIlson also came from relegated clubs.

I hate Ashley, but he got market price or more for Sissoko and Gini. Gini was good but very inconsistent when we sold him. Did he ever score in an away game? Sissoko was a degree of revenge on Spurs for all of the good players they poached from us for buttons. Based on the prices of those two when we had just been relegated, ASM will not be given away. If he goes, we would likely hold out for decent money. Joelinton has proved money can be easily frittered away on prospects, and any big fee for ASM could easily be pissed away too. Some wheeler dealery speculation could be made about how to get Willock, e.g., selling Almiron, but with Covid-19 it's hard to know what money each club has to spend. This also assumes a sudden burst of ambition we have seen little of over 14 years.

Just for anyone who said we defended terribly, but Understat said the expected goals of Man CIty was 1.48. Ours was 2.18, because pens are about 0.7 each. I'm not a big fan of xG but I think it demonstrates something in terms of actual efforts there. People who defend badly against Man City are waltzed around before Sterling or someone taps it in in acres at the far post. That didn't happen once. They scored with a deflection, a crazy highlight-reel spin flick, and then two completely lethal "name your favourite moocher" (Micky Quinn for me) finishes, the first off a what looked like a just-whack-it-in cross. The keep ball was embarrassing and the commentator should be smacked for suggesting even "Newcastle fans would be giving it oles", but on the whole it wasn't too bad. I love Dubs, but this was one of the games where nobs would give him stick because there weren't many shots and they all went in. Normally it would take nine or ten good efforts on goal to put four past him. Just in case anyone thinks I'm defending Bruce, it was still Man City B without KDB etc., and some of their replacements were very generous, giving away pens and faiiling to save a Krafth header that looked very central. The poor defending in the game was mostly by them.

Hat-trick of the season, this.

Beg Jow buries it like Shearer!

https://www.worldfootball.net/schedule/eng-premier-league-2015-2016-spieltag/34/ Sunderland were already out of the bottom three and had scored 42 goals in 34 matches. Fulham are a long way off either of them. They're going to have to magically start scoring goals, with no evidence to suggest they are capable of it.

VAR’s main job should be to stop the clear errors, like triple yellow cards, the Thierry Henry handball, Stuart Attwell giving a goal for a shot that missed the goal, and sly punches that weren't spotted. VAR also has a valuable and possibly expandable role in stopping diving for penalties. It shouldn't give offsides, or at least till we get AI good enough to tell the lino in real time. Stop-start in cricket allows it to take an umpires' decision and correct it only when a certain margin of error has been exceeded. For an offside, you cannot take a correctable decision because it would mean stopping the game, hence the current situation where the game continues even if the lino thinks its offside. It may not have been a bad idea to do it this way, but in practice, seeing a goal chalked off for a marginal, computer-driven decision made with lines of questionable accuracy takes forever, is poor viewing, and ends up as the main talking point of the game. Whatever the rules are, the officials should always be in the background. People turn up or tune in to see football, not decisions. The previous way, a questionable but mostly correct offside decision made in real time, was better. The handball rules are stupid and will be regardless of whether VAR is used.

No, I remember it being mentioned at the time. I only really watch Toon matches and wouldn't know it from another teams' games. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/jordan-pickford-newcastle-everton-penalty-15948894

I've missed the post game on tv, but if I understand the rules, a push in the back on someone clean through isn't just a penalty, it's a red card as well. It's DOGSO with no genuine attempt on the ball. The no double punishment rule only applies when there is a geniune attempt on the ball. We should all know this from the Pickford incident when he was mistakenly allowed to stay on and saved the penalty, before committing various hilarious howlers. I'm not actually against VAR, just the plonkers in charge of it.The only VAR I systematically dislike is marginal offsides.

Extra happy that that Fabinho deflected it in. Serves the cheating twat right for taking out ASM with a pretty high block.

Hope someone keeps them out of the Champions League, divine righter ESL twats.

He was being pushed from behind. Use VAR for the fucking penalty.

CUNTS

That video needs them getting trolled by Barton before losing a four goal lead against us. Tiote RIP.

Fulham's goals scored column is a bigger problem for them than their goals against. Against a very poor Arsenal, they were gifted a pen but otherwise managed 0.08 expected goals. Worse than us in the second Brighton game. Conceding a late goal can always happen but it doesn't matter if you are 2-0 up.

All came from an unnecessary corner. All the defender needed was a shout for him to leave it.

He's scored more Premier League goals for us than for Arsenal (3 vs. 1), in half the minutes. https://www.transfermarkt.com/joe-willock/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/340329/plus/0?saison=&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=GB1&pos=&trainer_id=

Pretty much zero now, and the concern switches to next season given who may well be in charge. No team with ASM, Callum Wilson, and a Rafa defence should be anywhere near.

One moment of class from Ritchie (we all know he has the delivery) and another from Willock.

Littel Jow > Beg Jow

ASM Beast mode!

Fulham have scored four times in their last eight games, and seven in their last twelve. Not what you want from a team needing to win games. Seasonwise, it looks like the XG stat loves them, so maybe they are where they are due to shit finishing. If Wilson, Miggy and ASM play much in the remaining games, I think we'll be okay.

RIght result in the end, but that VAR decision is so fucked. I don't think the drawn lines are accurate enough to give something that close. One idea might be for linos to let the play go, but also have a button they press for an on-field decision that can be used as a tiebreaker like in cricket. If the video review comes down to 10cm (15cm?) or less on video, the decision goes with the linesman's button pressed in real time. This keeps what we had before, judgements by linos, but overrules them when they are clearly wrong. You can't have a straight "umpire's call" in football because that would mean linos stopping the game, sometimes by mistake. All VAR needs to do is overrule clearly bad decisions. Letting it dominate in the current way is very unsatisfying.