Coffee_Johnny

He was born in France and grew up in Paris suburbs I think. So the Chancel Mbemba add ten years crack isn’t relevant; suspect France’s record keeping is as good as ours.

Can you really see him advocating a mass clear out? I can’t and it would be a mad strategy; hoping a load of newbies gel and improve what we already have. If more of the same amounts to letting him make football decisions in his way, strategy/style/tactics wise then I think it is pretty much nailed on that ‘more of the same’ will be exactly what he proposes.

This aged badly 😉

Just had a look at his highlights reel from last season, mainly because when we signed him I thought it was a bit meh/underwhelming and others had thought it showed his real quality. 10 of the goals were inside the six yard box. 5 of these were tap ins (in right place ball broke to him). 4 were instinctive one touch finishes (two headers, one from corner one from a bobble; one lovely swivel shot, one with right foot from a cross). The other was a right footed effort where he took a touch first. The other nine included four where he ran with the ball into the box (a nice right footed chip, three other right footed finishes). Two strikes with his left foot; a good header; another right footed chip and a right footed deflected goal. 19 goals is a great tally. There’s not much in the nature of the goals though, even from by far the best season of his career, to suggest we are likely to see him terrorising defences and creating much for himself.

I was one of the really excited minority when we signed Gordon. Really backed him to have a great second season; which he did. I still rate him—he’s ’too much’ to quote Mourinho, as in unplayable at times—and am still pleased to have him. Thing is as someone who talks so much about sports psychology and backs himself as being a ‘mentality monster’, that is twice now when he has gone off early and it has seemed to be as much mental as physical. I mean, I can’t prove that but I just can’t shake the idea.

More of a pound shop Gavin Peacock to me.

Apologies if I have the wrong end of the stick, but are you suggesting we are struggling because Howe (senior…) has an unusual amount of control over transfers and he picks bad players? Assuming that is true, what if he had got ‘his’ first choices? Say Ekitike, Trafford, Guehi, Mbuemo, and going back a bit Szoboszlai as examples of our (reported) first port of call for striker (Woltemade instead), keeper (Ramsdale), centre back (Thiaw), right winger (Elanga), centre mid (Tonali). Now two of the replacements have turned out very well (the others still may do). Would you be concerned about the ‘too much say’ idea if he’d got his first choices? Even if he does have too much/an unusual amount of influence (and I really don’t know) that is obviously just about who we go for, he can not possibly be held to account/be in control of who wants to come. Or for that matter, regarding you know who, guaranteeing they want to stay. P.S. dawns on me I don’t know where Ramsey sat on our preferred list. Don’t recall a lot of leaks/noise prior to that transfer.

Gameweek 25 Leeds 2-2 Forest Man United 3-1 Spurs Arsenal 2-0 Sunderland Bournemouth 3-2 Villa Burnley 2-2 West Ham Fulham 1-1 Everton Wolves 0-2 Chelsea Newcastle 2-2 Brentford Brighton 2-1 Palace Liverpool 2-1 Man City

Not everything is fixable/controllable by any manager though. Sometimes you just have to ride the disappointment and keep short-term frustration from clouding a long-term overview.

I was hopeful but not convinced (by his highlights/what I had seen of him in games). Brentford seem to create a lot of chances, fast breaks and interchanging forward movement; particularly when they had Mbeumo. Never imagined to was going to be an Ekitike (or Scouse Voldemort) equivalent creating his own chances and terrorising teams. I’m sure he’ll bed in more and improve.

Reijnders Is the kind of player we are crying out for. So positive running with the ball, mind we have him plenty of space to run into. Probably missed Bruno in there.

Quite freakish goals too. All three of their goals ‘set up’ by one of our defenders (two for Burn one for Trippier). If it wasn’t for bad luck… .

He’s not shit, but he came off an unusually good season scoring 19 (lots of tap ins). Prior three seasons he had 12, 7, and 7. Though think he might have been playing wide for Brentford when Toney was there. He is turning out to be what he looked like when we signed him, a journeyman mid prem striker.

With no Tino, Bruno, Joelinton, or the option of Miley an already unlikely victory was going to be even less likely. That said they’ve made a decent fist of it second half. Not often we have 12 shots at Etihad (5 on target).

Trafford having a cracking game (sheep-shagging bastard).

Good header Sven. Penalty??

Hall nearly made it four 😐

No goals. Three assists. 🤷‍♂️

No goals, but we’ve got two assists.

Will always have a welcome here.

Farewell sweet prince.

Not much fun in here like. Offski.

Oof! Unlucky Gordon. Good play BDB.

No surprise to see that at end of January they are still well above (12 pts) their average PL season, only one point away from their best ever season, and an astonishing 27 points higher than their worst ever season.

End of January update. The chart shows a preseason predicted trajectory towards 62 points, which is the average required for sixth place in PL era. The expected points per month takes account of how the games fall, in terms of strength of opposition and whether home or away. The formula has been pretty accurate last four seasons. We are six points behind the predicted/expected January total. And even falling behind the 7th place expectation. We only managed 7 points from the 15 available in January. The sixth place formula predicted 9 points. Time's ticking away if we are going to make up the deficit.