Cf

Minor case there but shows what we miss with Pope out. Simple pass back to Dubravka isn't on because he's not there to receive it. Could have caused us an issue that.

Fucking hell the state of that bench and starting defence.

Two mid table quality teams, home team will be favourite

I'm not a fan of the whole like a new signing thing but that's what it's going to feel like for so many of them just having our squad back.

Split him in half and sell the left side for 20m and his right side can go on a free.

Yeah, but my thinking is if we have enough options we have Gordon to cover if really needed. Or we get a cheaper backup striker to replace Wilson. But given the prices of good quality strikers, the need for CB/RW, and the limitations of FFP (especially if we don't sell Bruno or Isak) then I think our options might be limited.

Get this confirmed and have Isak and Bruno go on the record along with the club saying that they aren't going anywhere this summer and all of a sudden the summer window looks much brighter. At that point our main focus becomes RW/CB which hopefully we've got enough funds for. Get those sorted and I think our squad is fine for a non-CL season.

De Zerbi certainly can't be said to have done a bad job but it still seems to me that his main achievement is to consolidate what Potter had done - get them as a solid mid table team who can challenge for the European spots. Last season was job well done. This season there's time to achieve Europe still but very much hanging in the balance. I dunno. Just feels like he's talked about as if he's in the top tier yet at the same time it doesn't feel like he's had a transformative effect in the same way as Howe or Emery for instance. Different clubs, situations, etc, but I can't help but look at Brighton and think they'd be where they are or possibly higher if they still had Potter.

There is luck over a full season like. 38 games is enough to generally have you where you're "supposed" to be but it's still a relatively small sample statistically speaking. The top 3 have all had excellent seasons. Luck won't be the only factor in who ends up winning it but if they all continue as they are then it will end up being a big contributing factor. There's more to football than statistics and variance. But it's not an area to fully discount.

This is where I'm at. One of those games that can go either way as there's not too much between the teams. If we win then we become favourites for top 6. If we don't then we're still well in the hunt but the MU game becomes huge.

Can only assume people thinking Man Utd are a shoe in for 6th haven't watched them play this season. They're not a good team.

Like any stat it's not perfect and it's power comes from knowing how and when to use it. The thing I like about xG is there's no meaningful way to manipulate it. You get a higher xG by creating a larger number of good quality chances which is how you win games of football. And for the most part xG passes the eye test. There's flaws of course. Own goals as was mentioned above. The wood chance. Fernandes' chance on understat shows as 0.01 which as good a finish as it was isn't right. And whilst xPts can simulate based on chances created after the fact it can't take into account the effect of momentum on a game. But I overall like it. How can you not like the stats that understat currently have Man Utd as 15th in the table?

Understat have fractional xPts so whatever they do isn't as simple as higher xG = 3pts. 4th again for us on there. https://understat.com/league/EPL

That's an awful challenge.

Fuck off

Of course.

Watching the replay of the goal I can't help but wonder what would have happened had Longstaff been the one getting that chance.

Liverpool doing their best to keep man Utd in this.

How the fuck wasn't that a goal

This football just looks like someone has spilt loads of ink on it.

Against anyone other than man Utd that's a free kick for Liverpool there.

Man Utd turned up for a game of basketball again.

Lineker was suggesting something similar on MOTD yesterday. I'm not sure how a challenge system would work in practice though in terms of relaying that you wish to challenge in the right timeframes. The other issue is the subjective mess (that's an autocorrect for subjectiveness but I think it works) of the calls. Say a team rightly thinks they should have a penalty but VAR is like nah, you have a case but stick with on field decision. You've now lost your challenge and don't get to go for the stone wallers. Just bin the whole thing. I don't see how they can keep going like this. I'm still not sure what problem it was designed to solve.

The fundamental issue with VAR and ruling goals out is that it approaches the issue with the mindset of "I need to find a reason to disallow this goal". See us and Wolves today. Instead they should be looking for reasons why the goal should be allowed to stand and give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team and should only interject when there has been an obvious error. For a good example of this approach see our goal Vs Arsenal earlier in the season.

Their player jumps back into Burn. If anything he's the one that was fouled. Burn just pushes him away so he doesn't go over himself.