Kid Icarus

I love Chiesa, as I've said many times, he was my ideal signing when the takeover happened, but if we're looking for players that can handle the toll that Howe's system has on players, he's the last player I'd be going for now unfortunately. His injury record is about as bad as it gets.

Speaking of which just because it's fresh in my mind, here's a good example actually. If you watched this match you'd know 0-3 actually flattered Man United and you'd expect the xG to at least reflect the actual scoreline.

I can't think of any specific examples but it's definitely happened plenty of times in my experience just with Newcastle alone. It's why I don't think it's worth taking as gospel, or really investing in that much beyond looking at larger overall patterns, with a player's FBRef stats or seeing the sustainability of a team's style for example.

Neh. Like I say, you and others take it too seriously and have now started absorbing it into your personality. I'll concede that people using it as gospel, beyond what their eyes are telling them, is perversion though.

Personally think the performative hatred and deliberate misrepresentation of how people use it is the nonce shit tbh. It's just another stat that doesn't need to be taken that seriously.

Well, putting everything aside for a moment, I think the most important thing is that you haven't let any of this get to you. We went 1-0 up, it should have been 2 up. We then went backs to the wall in the 2nd half for reasons other people have mentioned and did it very well. PSG should have scored a few times. Then in the 98th minute with the game over, PSG got a shockingly bad decision that handed them a draw, at that point we should have won and didn't - not because of our mistakes or PSG's brilliance - but because of a decision so bad that most neutral, unbiased viewers agreed we were robbed of a hard fought victory. Context, non-mutual exclusivity and linear time. Next week: rocket science. And get it right, it's "Man United should have lost by more than the 3-0 that they lost by because Solanke shouldn't have been offside."

PSG obviously shouldn't be there like, everyone knows it. I hope they get smashed by whoever they face. Well done Dortmund.

A, B, then C. B's a non-starter, A much more likely and plausible than all of them I think.

A very well-made version of all the ideas we came up with on here in 2021. I love it tbh. I like that the options all feel possible as well, or at least they don't feel really far-fetched. Even option B is only not possible because of the right to light for Leazes iirc.

@Yorkie At the moment based on overall average PPG it's Livramento, cumulatively it's Bruno with Gordon 0.5 behind him, then Schär, Trippier, Isak. It's also in that same order for average PPG for players who've played more than 2/3rds of the games.

I dunno about that mind. Rondon was really good for us and with hindsight he was right about Joselu.

Heh

For posterity. Dubravka: 6 Murphy: 6.5 Krafth: 7 Schär: 8.5 Burn: 7 Bruno: 7.5 Anderson: 8 Longstaff: 6.5 Gordon: 9 Isak: 9 Barnes: 7.5

His transfer record was good anyway but even his flops have come good in one way or another and made his record even better. Loved him when he was here. Although they were completely different and would have been a disaster if combined, it was Rafa and Ben Arfa that made the Ashley years bearable for the time they were here.

The upside down C irks me far too much for me to ever think of it as good.

I've defended Southgate for picking Maguire, Pickford and up until recently Henderson solely on the basis that regardless of club form they've mostly been good for England and the alternatives aren't spectacularly better. However, there's clearly no consistency as he's dropped Sterling, who's always performed for England, and persists with Rashford whose record and worth ethic are absolute trash, despite the much better alternatives being available.

Arsenal love doubling down on a bottle job so I could see Chelsea getting something there.

Obviously I don't think it's undue. I love this team and always try to cut them slack, but I said as much at half time that we were being too complacent and it would bite us in the arse if we weren't careful. I wouldn't have said that if I didn't believe it and I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I've been critical of them since Howe came in. Last season we were so solid and could do it no problem, but it's a bit different when you're conceding 2 goals a game on average, or whatever it was at the time.

If that's right then that's 2 out of 13, which seems high like.

Everton are surely getting a red in this.

The pen merchant strikes again.

I thought we were complacent and I'm not going to complain that we didn't win because the wrong decision wasn't made for us. Sorry if briefly mentioning that annoys you but that's your burden to bear. Either way I would hope you realise that the debate around whether VAR is spoiling things - when it actually gets decisions right without taking an age - is far more tedious than VAR itself.

I wonder how often perfect hattricks happen. They feel more frequent than you would expect considering how specific they need to be.

It was literally the correct decision but I think we've exhausted the whole VAR thing now like Yorkie

Looks mad seeing someone in plain black boots.