Erikse

Ah, yeah, I see now that it was actually 8-3-0 in the league with him starting at LW. Not 7-3-0. My OCD had to correct it.

I think my stats from last page was Premier League specific, the one you linked includes the cup. Nothing wrong with including the cup though, we met lots of PL teams in the EFL cup.

Was the perfect opportunity for players like Anderson and Tonali to make a name for themselves playing every week, though! Oh, wait..

Yeah I think the expectations before the season didn't end up being correct, but the Willock injuries were so annoying. I honestly think we would've had to deal with rumours of all the top clubs wanting him right now if he stayed fit. A bit extreme, but he was only 22 in that 22/23 season and he already had some very exciting abilities. The sky was the limit for him. I think Maddison would've been fantastic for us personally.

He might have had something to do with the Hall transfer. That's all the credit I'm willing to give him. Even that is hard to tell from the outside.

We hit really good form at the end of last season, went from ~16th to 10th in the away table. We were winning both home and away at that point. Before january 30th our away for was quite dreadful with just a couple of exceptions. I think the performances at Bournemouth, Wolves and Fulham alltogether gave us a bit of flashback to the first 2/3rds of last season, except from the fact that we actually beat Wolves.

Bend it like Joelinton

It was part of the reason that I was a bit surprised when we bought Barnes, like I kind of just accepted that we weren't going to play Joelinton that much at LW anymore. Thought it was because we needed him to cover CM for depth. Happy he's back and performing at LW like in 22/23. That said, do we how well he works at LW when Willock isn't there to interchange? Did we try that? I think his strengths are still best suited for the wing anyways.

I remember making a stat about it last year to argue that we simply did much better as a team when he started as a winger in the 22/23 season. I found it:

A bit of a different topic, but I think Lukaku is a good example of a player that got worse after building lots of muscle. He was actually pretty rapid when he was at Everton, and pace was a part of his game. All that pace disappeared when he became massive. I really think that hurt him overall. Maybe Isak can gain a bit of muscle, but I don't think it takes that much before it impacts his explosiveness. Which is one of his key traits.

I wish the bookies would let us bet on what his next injury will be. Would be a fun game.

Chelsea hasn't seemed that impressive as of late, after a cracking start to the season. Will be interesting to see how their season will develop. Inevitably Palmer will hit top form again..

Did we even get a free kick for that?

Yates getting love from their fans aswell today.

I miss Ten Hag already!

Apparently they had to play him in midfield due to injuries. Perfect replacement for Schär confirmed!

1 point behind 3rd going into the internationals. Would like to not have internationals with our current form, hopefully we can keep it going after the break.

His lack of strength really shows sometimes, but he easily makes up for it with all the other qualities he has. Building muscle would probably be a net negative imo, as it could hurt the things that makes him so good.

2 of our goals came after he was subbed on. Wouldn't say that this game proves that we are better of without him.. Whether he would have made us better as a starter over someone else today is a different question.

I didn't see enough replays of that. Fair enough.

Could Burn have had 2 yellows? Missed that.

Missed that one. Got a clip of that? I didn't miss the elbow on Livra from Yates (no free kick), Yates going studs into the knee (no free kick?), giving a faulty corner leading to their goal, giving free kick against Burn for taking the ball etc. Coincidentally, as far as I know, he made 0 mistakes to our benefit. They even wanted to find a way to take our equalizer away from some weird reason.

I feel like he should've started (due to the opposition), but can't really say with confidence that it was a bad decision after that result and performance.

His first assist for us today!