Solitude20

Even though he is pretty tall, he does not seem like he is good with headers. That’s fine, a 19 year old can learn a lot. Even CR7 was a skinny 19 year old teenager who couldn’t score headers.

Do you know who else scored double his xG? Hugo Ekitike ? It seems Eddie likes those stats lol.

I disagree with saying xG is pretty useless. xG is the probability that a shot will be converted to a goal based on the characteristics of that shot and by comparing it to the outcome of thousands of similar shots. So xG is the number of goals the average player would have scored if he was provided with those particular chances (since it calculates the probability based on average). If Nunez scored double his xG, it means he scored double what the average striker would have scored if both were given similar chances. That’s a pretty big deal. however, I agree with you on saying the xG of a single season could be misleading, as that small sample could simply be an outlier and not a true representation of his skills. I can’t argue with that, and we won’t know unless we see how he performs in the next couple of years.

Watching his goals, I wouldn’t personally call it luck in anyway. I see your point though as one season is too small of a sample size to guarantee his success.

this clip shows he has a bad first touch. But we knew that already, his weakest points are his first touch and passing. On the other hand, his scored goals are double his expected goals. This shows his exquisite finishing skills. His stats in dribbling and progressive carries are world class as well. Howe knows this very well, and if he decides to sign him despite his weak passing and first touch, then he must think that shouldn’t affect how he plans to play him. Besides, he can still improve there since he is just 22.

That’s what I said about him in the other thread. His passing stats are much less than what is expected from a Premier League midfielder. I trust Howe if he sees a chance of improving his passing since he is still new in this position, but how much can he improve taking his age into account?

Joelinton is quick and strong, and his ball winning stats are impressive, but his passing stats are shockingly bad! His progressive passing is at the 10th percentile for example. Passing and ball control is the core skill of midfielders, not pace or physicality. There are numerous world-class midfielders who are slow and small, and that’s because of their great passing, vision, and ball control. You will never find a top team with a midfielder who is bad at passing, even their box to box midfielders must have great passing skills as a minimum. If Eddie wants to play possession-based tactics, then we must get a trio in midfield who can do that. Joe can be good if we play counter attack based tactics. the type of players we should get all depends on how Eddie intends to play.

Howe has always preferred 4-4-1-1 or 4-4-2. The fact that he has been insisting on getting Ekitike since January somehow implies he wants to go back to this formation, and that means we will only have 2 midfielders? Just wondering.

If we are spending 250m, we better get a better striker than Wilson.

The thing I like about your example is how I always found Bruno to be very similar to Iniesta in terms of role and versatility . While Iniesta is widely considered one or the best midfielders of all time and Bruno is far from that, they both can attack and defend, they both can create and score. They both are complete midfielders as they can fill up in any role in the middle of the park. They both have great versatility, work ethics, ball control, dribbling, passing, tackling, anticipation, intelligence, work rate, movement, and stamina (again, Iniesta is on a much higher level on those attributes, but you get the point). It is not very common to find players who are both hardworking and technically gifted. Bruno can still learn and improve as midfielders usually peak at 28 years old, and I fear if we don’t qualify for UCL soon he might leave us for a better club.

I reckon we still need half a point to be safe ..

Yeah but quickness isn’t a key attribute for all positions, especially for central positions. He almost never plays wide where a quick player would add to the game.

It’s possible the bottom 3 won’t even reach 30 points, crazy season.

Darwin Nunez has just scored a beautiful hat trick, and he’s averaging about a goal per game this season. he should absolutely be our number one target next summer.

Next season starts on the 6th of August. That means we have to be quick in our negotiations in the summer window. waiting for the last day means losing at least 5 games.

Why does he have to be mobile at all? The other two midfielders should be mobile. Who says all midfielders should be mobile?

Yes. Bruno mentioned a couple of times that we will try to get a Champions league spot next season, and that’s how the owners convinced him to join. So it is more like being in the top 4 next season instead of top 6. A world class goalscorer is a must to achieve that. Wilson has scored like a 100 goal in his entire career, and he’s 30. We should get a better striker.

The target is to finish in top 6 in the league next season. If we were to achieve that, I definitely don’t see Wilson as the main striker (do you honestly think Wilson could secure a starting position in teams like Arsenal or Spurs?). The same goes for a few other positions, including the right winger and the central and attacking midfielders.

Howe has been playing so far based on the tools that he currently has. He seems to like possession-type attacking football, but our current team does not have the tools to play anything like that, hence you see how we relied heavily on crossing. The vast majority of our goals since December has been from set pieces. We just don’t have the players to score in different ways. Let’s look at the 2009-2012 Barca team as the prime example of a possession-type football. You have a trio midfielders who can pass the ball around all day with their eyes closed (Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets). All what matters here is passing, vision, off the ball movement, positioning, decision making, first touch, and dribbling. You can never play a high possession football if your trio midfielders lack any of those. Unfortunately, Willock and Joelinton don’t offer those skills. They are good at offering physicality in midfield, but that is not near enough to be competitive in modern football. They might be good enough if you want to be a mid table team, but we want more. Actually, the Barca trio lacked the physical presence, but that didn’t matter since they were superb technically. Pep had to drop Mascherani from DM even though he was a beast when it comes to physical prowess, but he lacked the technical skills that are needed from a DM to play the way Pep envisioned. Bruno is the only one who offer that (don’t mean he is on the same level as Barca’s trio of course). We must sign two more world class midfielders who are technically gifted to achieve our ambitions of reaching top 4. Now, midfield alone won’t give you that high level of possession, Barca had a false nine who is an all-time great with legendary dribbling, first touch, passing, and vision. We don’t need a false nine of that level of course, but the point is our main striker should have the technical skills to receive the ball under stress, pass it to others, open spaces, and of course score goals. We are stuck with Wood who can pretty much offer nothing other than headers. Getting a proper striker who can add to play buildup is our first priority next summer. As for wingers, Fraser is very hardworking, but again, he is not technically gifted to be a top 4 level. Dribbling, decision making, crossing, off the ball movement, and first touch are a must here. I am not even sure about ASM. He is an amazing dribbler, but man he lacks the brain to be that productive. There is a reason why never gets called for the national team, and I don’t see him as a starter in Man City or Liverpool (our future competitors). He can still start for a few more seasons, then we should replace him. then comes the defenders, a central defender who can pass forward is very integral to play possession-type football. Botman should join in summer. Burn is good for a season or two before we can upgrade. That’s perfect as he will be in his thirties by then. The board has made their goals clear to Howe, we should reach top 6 in 2 seasons, top 4 in 3-4 seasons, and win the league in 10. With Howe and the amount of cash we can pour in, we might do it sooner. But one thing for sure is that Bruno and Trippier are the only ones who will still be starting 3 -4 seasons from now, but Trippier will be too old by then.

Having him and Bruno play together will definitely improve our possession, and that is something we missed yesterday. Joelinton and Willock don’t have the technical skills for a possession-type play. Before you jump on me, see Willock’s stats here: https://editfootball.co.uk/wyayescout-player-analysis-joe-willock-20-21/#:~:text=Compared to other central midfielders,shots on target (57.1%). he is better at shooting and defending, poor at passing. Once Shelvey is back, playing him with Bruno and Joelinton will definitely improve our command of midfield instead of the blind crossing we saw yesterday.

What I really enjoyed was his off the ball movement. Shows how well he reads the game.

Okay, what’s going on with ASM?

As I understood, those 81 executions belong to sentences of crimes that have been accumulated since 2016, but the the execution was just approved now. It’s not like they execute 81 lives every day or even every year. Even by scale, that is not far from the US.

This guy knows football.

Folks, our midfield had worse performances with Joe in the field against teams that are worse than Saints. Southhampton has just lost a single home game in the entire season. We could not keep possession at all last time against Brighton with Joe in the field.