Jagten

Disagree. I think Anderson is a decent ball carrier but I don't see much else, or any other attribute that can be at our desired level.

https://twitter.com/OptaAnalyst/status/1734694147490288110 That should be it for the bald freak, but glad it won't be

Tonali was/is seen as one of Howe's hybrid 8s, where we valued, above anything, his out-of-possession talent. I think he was the wrong ID personally, and he's not in any way a Bruno replacement.

Maybe, but they've over-performed underlying expectations. Built a good squad though, and a joint XI might be uncomfortable for us.

Opta has them at 1.42 vs your 1.23 FWIW. Close, either way

I think the median talent of our midfield is lower than those around us, and the selection is too heavily skewed toward players who progress via pressing and ball carrying. Without Bruno, it looks bad. We could do with more technicians.

With one elite player.

Levels between us. Phenomenal stuff.

Ah, I'm a sympathiser. Elite players will generally outperform their expected goals fwiw.

Because biggest xG over-performance in the league

I think we'd be much better placed if we had a functioning data department to better approximate stress, but we don't

I think what you're saying is true re the guys being tired, but that meant out out-of-possession game didn't work. When that doesn't work we're generally bad and we're more likely to face a compact block, which is our greatest weakness (esp. without a Bruno).

He’s not. None of his numbers suggest that.

Slightly disagree. Whilst injuries are very bad, today was, in part, what happens when you take our only progressive passer out of the team. Over the summer, we added no supplement, and today we created nothing (I do not see Tonali as a progressive passer).

One of the worst attacking displays by any team this season this.

0.08 expected goals (Opta). Only another expected 11.5 halfs until we score. Good shit.

We are a different animal without Bruno

Which forward does Gordon replace?

Bruno the only person we can't really replace

Agreed. With Hall on a booking I wouldn't waste any time on the swap.

A CB injury away from Paul Dummett. Let's fucking go.

I actually don't think it's obvious, adjusted for transfer spend, he's improved anything. Man Utd's underlying numbers were not a radical improvement on 20-22, and they were likely fortunate to in the top four last year. His talent ID is not great and he's a known weirdo, which is why Spurs passed. He's obviously good at some stuff, but a lack of tactical evolution and/or flexibility is killing him.

We are actually ~1st in most expected points tables.

this is an unintentionally perfect capture of mental health stigma

Time for MBS to start sending his phishing links again to Milan management.