Erikse

They also mentioned the manager, yes. They had more faith in Howe getting the best out of him than Rodgers to say the least. As allways, the opinions were a bit split. Some were waving him goodbye, and others were disappointed at not getting more for him. We knew they had to sell though, so it's hard to get like £50m for him then.

It was argued that his xA matched that of Almiron last summer. If you watch some of the assists that he provides here, you will notice that Almiron has barely made a single delivery like some of those Barnes made for Leicester in his entire Newcastle carreer. Does these chances give him a high xA? I'm seeing some good finishing, so maybe not. But the delivery and the vision for the assists in this video are impressive, regardless of how well they did to score. In this video I'm really not seeing a different player from his best games here so far. Now, I know that this is just a compilation video. So I went to check their forum. There were frustrations in the last season about him being too predictable and allways cutting in to shoot. They were also saying that he used to be so good at going on the outside to cross with his left, and was frustrated that he didn't do this anymore. Other than that, from earlier seasons, it was the goals and assists that they really appreciated him for. Yes, he wasn't praised for his general play outside og g/a, but I was really struggling to find criticism of his delivery or service, outside of that last season. After that season of 10 assists, some were arguing that he must be one of the best crossers and finishers there is with his weaker foot, because his crosses and finishing were so impressive with his left (grain of salt, easy to overexaggerate your own players a bit). People were also saying that his pace alone just provides them with g/a consistenly. Some were saying last year that he will get loads of goals and assists with us, because we have a better team and can create space for him to use his pace. What they criticised him for the most for was during the years was his consistency. That he would go missing in games. And something about mentality, because apparently you could tell he would have a bad day at the office pretty early on. Funnily enough if you go far enough back, the thing that they complained about the most was his finishing. Apparently he improved massively on that.

Good thing Isak is also a good finisher then. If the argument is that his assists were due to having a good striker converting his passes at Leicester. Almiron has played alongside Wilson and Isak, both really good finishers. You don't see Almiron getting 10 assists in a season.

When I saw him play for Leicester, I did not see a player who was all about goals and nothing else. Would be interesting to ask a Leicester fan about this. Whether his assists were justified or not. I don't believe xA stats tell the whole story at all.

For how many months has he actually been training with us?

People tried to tell you that his general play is better than you made it out to be (based on stats). And then, despite playing just a few games with his new team mates, he is showing just that. But I suppose that's just a coincidence. Maybe his long term injury magically transformed him?

It says "Based on this Barnes basically only scores goals." Are you still under this impression? All he does is score goals?

Looking at all the xA posts from last summer is funny now. Turns out you can't judge players based on xA number, and that actual assists may be a more accurate parameter after all? @Pata wasn't the only one btw, I just picked some. The narrative was that his assist stats was lying, and that he's really just a finisher. From what I've seen of him, the actual assist numbers seem to line up better with reality than his xA.

People keep asking themselves why Pep got rid, Pep has allways said that if a player wants to leave, then they will arrange it. I don't think Pep wanted him out. He probably just wanted to be a regular starter, and Pep couldn't give him that assurance before the season. It's understandable when they have players like de Bruyne, Silva and Foden.

If you listen to his recent interview, he seems to spend his energy feeling sorry for himself. Just doesn't have the mentality of a winner at all.

It looks like he just gives up, even at the start of the game. The moment something doesn't work for him, he just shuts off for the rest of the game.

I remember having this discussion with someone before the season, because I noticed he was top 3 assists for one season. I was told that he was just lucky because his xA wasn't telling the same story, so this wasn't really a part of his game at all.

I trust your opinion on this more than my own tbh haha. My sample size of watching them is not very big.

Well, to be fair, he needed that penalty goal so that his stats can mask how bad he is.. Actually quite incredible that he has 10 goals, but mainly because of the worst hat trick in PL history.

Exactly, and imagine if Palmer is 1 goal off at the end of the season.. Whatever they say, players do care about that stuff.

Honeslty Jackson should let Palmer take it, considering that he's competing for the golden boot? I'd assume that Palmer is supposed to be the taker. So Jackson tries to rob him of it to make him look better?

The run in for the golden boot is quite stacked atm, several players in the mix. Will be difficult for Isak to catch up.

Well done. I allways start Palmer, but somehow never trust him as cap. Which is kind of ironic, because I often put Haaland, but he keeps letting me down while Palmer hauls.

Yeah, this Palmer guy is not just a penalty merchant.

Palmer is the guy that you almost never cap, but you quite often regret not doing it.

Don't mind it. As long as we let Tino play when Tripps isn't in form, or when it suits us more tactially for some reason.

Wait, what? I said "atleast". Which even includes scenarios like staying with us for the rest of their carreers. You're twisting my words here. I was just saying that I don't see them going this summer or in january, I expressed no opinion one way or the other regarding their future here after january.

Not to mention the coverage in the midfield with suspension and injuries. Even Man City struggle without Rodri most of the time. I can only imagine if Bruno was out for a period of time..

I'm confident that both Isak and Bruno will stay for atleast 1 more season. Even if they were in doubt (probably not), the club would probably be able to convince them about staying for atleast 1 more year. Unless they get an astronomical bid that is, which is also not likely imo.

That's a striker that I would love to have here. I believe Cunha could do a job on the wing aswell when necessery. He would probably also be too expensive though. I hope we can find an exciting prospect for a decent price, because I'm not convinced that we should spend a large part of our budget on a striker when we have Isak, but that really depends on his injuries.