Lush Vlad

The ref was shit. But those fouls get given 99/100. I think I commented about how annoying it is in the football pet hates thread. Dangerous area, possibly in behind, minimal contact. Better give a foul. just to be on the safe side.

Endo has done well for Liverpool here. They’ve tightened up a bit since he’s come on.

Well worth that. Imagine teams will be queuing up in the summer.

Cunha is fucking class. Must be worth an absolute bomb now. No idea what level of clubs will be in for him. As not many play with an out and out 10 these days. But he is superb.

Jota is 100% winning a penalty with a dive when we play them at Anfield. Same as last season.

Stay on your feet and score?!

Massive dive from the diving rat. I’m shocked.

Wolves have so many good passers and players comfortable on the ball. Their movement always looks good and they have pace and dynamism across the team. Yet they seem really wasteful in the final third and soft at the back. They’re easy on the eye. But they just lose more often than not.

Agree on both points. I’m not pinning it all on Gordon. As it feels like some games, he is instructed to stay high. Sometimes closer to Isak and more narrow. Less often he is back to where I think he is best. Tracking back and supporting the full back on a regular basis. Getting up and down more in the style of an old fashioned winger. So it does change week to week. I just can’t put my finger on it with him. I’m sure I’m in the minority and it does sound ridiculous typing it out. But I have gone off him a bit as a player this season. Compared to what he offered and how involved he was last season. It’s like night and day. Even though his numbers are still decent enough. For what I’m assuming he is paid and how he is seemingly now untouchable from being moved from that left hand side. I feel like he could offer more. Not to bring back the ‘body language’ stuff again. But he always looks like he’s in a huff and pouting when he plays. Not like an angry guard dog going after an intruder, like last season.

Agricultural Agbadou indeed

He is fairly agricultural with how he plays. But I really like that Agbadou who Wolves signed in January. Big old unit and fucking rapid. Looks like he just loves defending. They have some really tidy players, Wolves. Andre Gomes is decent, Cunha is class, Ait Nouri is a threat. They shouldn’t be in a relegation scrap.

Of course I’d imagine he is referencing the home games where we were heavy favourites and got beat. Not City away FFS.

I agree with most of that. But even as one of Willock’s biggest fans. I think he has been pretty poor all season bar a couple of games where he was great. I know he’s not played much. But he just looks miles off it most the while and not sure we can be carrying performances like what he’s churning out. In the hope he rediscovers his old form. Whereas in comparison. Miley has been shining in his cameos, has had far less chances but has done more with them. He has been our MOTM and one of our better performers in his two starts.

Ipswich away was great. Felt like a more old school away end and recognised some regulars. Chelsea was a bit crap. Score and how the game is going plays a big part, of course. Possibly romanticising a bit. I don’t go home or away much these days. But most atmospheres seem shit. Even compared to what they were when I went up and down the country regularly as recently as 10-15 years ago.

There isn’t one. I’m more on the side of xG here if you bothered to read other posts replying to bobbydazzla. I can also see the other side of the argument when people use it in isolation. It can be quite jarring.

100%. The Arsenal away game recently is a good example. They supposedly had more than 3 xG. Yet the only ones I remember were the Timber header from a corner. He should score, but you see missed free headers from corners every week where you say the same. The Martinelli chance is nowhere as easy as everyone made out and yes we got a bit lucky. But he only had that small part of the goal to aim for. Then the Havertz one was an absolute sitter. But it’s Havertz nowt new there. If you presented that game purely with xG and the stats from the match. Then you’d think Arsenal were robbed. Yet we were actually just clinical and defended very well for the most part and they didn’t have many answers. Game state has to be factored in, as well. We were sitting on a 2 goal lead and also Arsenal were at home and are a superior team. So you’d expect them to have a higher xG than us. I’d rather just score and win and not worry about winning the xG battle

If you say so Again the fact it offends people so much is weird as fuck. Obviously if it is the only thing people used to analyse a game in isolation. That would be weird as fuck, also. But nobody does that, do they? You just seem to have an alarm that goes off every time xG is mentioned on here. So you can come storming in to tell everyone it’s a load of nonsense and doesn’t mean anything. Which is equally as weird.

People who don’t understand xG properly. Getting so bent out of shape about it all will never not be funny Roy Keane and Souness types all over the gaff. It’s not the be all and end all and I think some context is required. But it is a good metric to use. Especially to try and back up any argument about team’s being lucky or unlucky in a game. Or whether a team is over-achieving and in a false position off a run of form. Things like that. There’s a reason why pro teams all use stats like this and advanced analytics. Whether it is boring or not is a different argument entirely…….

I wonder if they’ll play their 3-4-1-2 again here? Done it the last two league games and Brighton didn’t have a clue what to do with it. Elanga’s pace would cause problems in that system. Along with Gibbs-White in that gap between our defence and midfield. I suppose we could also cause big issues for them wide and overload their wing backs and pull their CB’s wide. The underlapping Longstaff run could work well. Hoping Isak and Gordon are more involved. I really don’t think they offer much when the tactics seem to be for them to stay high. We’re not good enough in the build up to even get the ball to them.

I don’t mind their style. They’re more enjoyable to watch than plenty of teams who play the supposed ‘right way.’

Always been one of his bigger fans on here. But with the PSR world we are forced to live in. I think he might get moved on. As others have said. He seems to play his way into form and takes a while to get up to speed. He isn’t going to get that here. As he doesn’t get in our best XI and must now be behind Miley in the pecking order, or at least about to be bypassed based on performances across the season in centre midfield. I’ve always found him a bit positionless. He’s not your usual CM type with his attributes, he isn’t really a winger, he isn’t good enough with his passing to play attacking mid. Great in games that are stretched and when he has room to use his pace. Yet annoyingly doesn’t seem to work as an impact sub. That hybrid role he played on the left with Joelinton was amazing. But we seemed to have moved past that now, Gordon seems untouchable/won’t be played on the right and Joelinton is injured, anyway. For what he is worth, the likely wages, his injury record etc. Like one or two others. This summer might be the last chance to get a reasonable fee for him.

He looked decent in a crap Southampton side. I didn’t realise he had moved outside of Europe and was playing in South America.

Not sure he did though? Looked like we were stuck halfway between both. Yet we neither pressed high with any success or conviction. Then when it got to our half. We just stood off with no pressure on the ball and committing no men on the counter. So either the players were massively caught off guard with how much better you were on the day compared to performances of late and/or Howe got his team selection and tactics wrong. I remember Arsenal away in Howe’s first full season. We genuinely did go for the all out high press. Intense as fuck for 20 minutes. They took the absolute piss and bypassed it with ease. So we ended up sitting in and defending like dogs of war for a 0-0. Much to the frustration of Lego Head and their mental fans. I didn’t see either yesterday. It was like we were caught between two systems and did neither. Trippier tucking inside to make a 5 at times didn’t work at all, either. Throw in costly individual mistakes and some crap goalkeeping and it was the perfect storm for a hammering.

I agree with the wider point you’re making. But Tino was on the bench and patchy form or not, he was surely the better option today? Pope is a better keeper than Dubravka and we were always going to be relying more on actual goalkeeping away at City. Passing it about at the back and being good with your feet not as important. Pope is (was) our number one and hardly a massive weakness. So why not play him? Debatable on Miley in place of Willock. But plenty are wanting him to get more minutes and he has a lot of potential. Willock deserved his chance after Birmingham but didn’t take it at all. Howe bringing Miley and Tino on and seeing us play a bit better is one positive from today. They’ll be in from the start for the foreseeable if we play 4-3-3, I reckon.

2nd goal? Typical shit dive to his right. Unless he went walkabout for the third. I can’t remember. I didn’t think he was at fault, despite it being up the middle. Was fairly close and he blasted it. 1st he just froze and 2nd he should save IMO.