The Europeometer™ (2023/24)

[The College Dropout]

23 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

My point is Emery hasn't really had his hand forced (at all) this season. Will be interesting to see how they perform when the adversity inevitably hits

 

Edit to add that I do agree with you they're good, but is it sustainable, I think that remains to be seen

 

 

 

The conference league doesn't get difficult until the end and Villa have a good squad.

 

I don't expect them to maintain 2.1+ points a game myself. But I expect them to end the season somewhere 1.7-1.9ppg which will put them in the mix. So they've got room to fall back.. a little.

 

We need to improve our ppg to end up in the mix. I love our team and Howe. But there's a lot of things stacked in Villa's favour. Good squad depth, easiest European competition, the main striker is rarely injured, great manager and catching teams (well at least Spurs) at the right time, great start.

[Froggy]

1 hour ago, Matt1892 said:

they just have struggled to create a great deal with Rashford out of form, who carried them at times last season.

 

Rashford has never carried us. He scored an amount that was to be expected with the most creative player in the league supplying him.

 

17 in 35 isn't some spectacular total either. He was still very wasteful and he should have scored a lot more. Martial had more goals and assists per 90 than he did last season. 

 

He's quite lucky with the fact that despite spending nearly £200m in that area, our wingers are shite. He might find himself on the bench when Amad is fit or if Ten Hag starts trusting Pellistri a bit more. 

[Matt1892]

2 hours ago, Froggy said:

 

Rashford has never carried us. He scored an amount that was to be expected with the most creative player in the league supplying him.

 

17 in 35 isn't some spectacular total either. He was still very wasteful and he should have scored a lot more. Martial had more goals and assists per 90 than he did last season. 

 

He's quite lucky with the fact that despite spending nearly £200m in that area, our wingers are shite. He might find himself on the bench when Amad is fit or if Ten Hag starts trusting Pellistri a bit more. 

Rashford played wide left for the most part and quite often you played without any sort of tactics, looking for Rashford to create some magic on his own.

[cubaricho]

5 hours ago, Froggy said:

He scored an amount that was to be expected with the most creative player in the league supplying him.

Froggy you are the best WUM on here dude.  

[Ketsbaia]

Someone needs to stop Villa, like. This is going on far too long.

 

Also... how the hell are Man United not like 11th or 12th?!?! 

[brummie]

42 minutes ago, Ketsbaia said:

Someone needs to stop Villa, like. This is going on far too long.

 

Don't let @toon25 see this. He's fully converted now.

[Froggy]

1 hour ago, cubaricho said:

Froggy you are the best WUM on here dude.  

 

I wish. Bruno Fernandes was literally the most creative player in the league last season. 

[Froggy]

1 hour ago, Ketsbaia said:

Also... how the hell are Man United not like 11th or 12th?!?! 

 

Because we've won 8 games. 

[nemtizz]

1 hour ago, Ketsbaia said:

Someone needs to stop Villa, like. This is going on far too long.

 

Also... how the hell are Man United not like 11th or 12th?!?! 

 

Because aside from City they've been playing relegation candidates.

[Jagten]

13 minutes ago, Froggy said:

 

Because we've won 8 games. 

Because biggest xG over-performance in the league 

[Froggy]

2 hours ago, Jagten said:

Because biggest xG over-performance in the league 

 

I used the "expected" statistic as to why Bruno Fernandes was the best player in the league last year and was laughed at. 

 

Can't pick and choose when you want to use it. 

[Froggy]

2 hours ago, nemtizz said:

 

Because aside from City they've been playing relegation candidates.

 

Weird to omit the team that is literally top of the league. 

[McDog]

Just now, Froggy said:

 

Weird to omit the team that is literally top of the league. 

 

 

Fair point.

[Froggy]

3 minutes ago, McDog said:

Fair point.

 

I try my best. 

 

Also worth noting that this clearly wonky line is why we didn't come away from the Emirates with three points:

 

[Jagten]

15 minutes ago, Froggy said:

 

I used the "expected" statistic as to why Bruno Fernandes was the best player in the league last year and was laughed at. 

 

Can't pick and choose when you want to use it. 

Ah, I'm a sympathiser. Elite players will generally outperform their expected goals fwiw. 

[Froggy]

3 minutes ago, Jagten said:

Ah, I'm a sympathiser.

 

Thank you, appreciate it. 

 

Anyway, enjoy hammering us on Saturday and then we'll see where we both end up in May. It's a long season. 

[cubaricho]

1 hour ago, Froggy said:

 

I used the "expected" statistic as to why Bruno Fernandes was the best player in the league last year and was laughed at. 

 

Can't pick and choose when you want to use it. 

I don’t believe xG is a useful stat personally so maybe that’s why I also don’t believe Fernandes was “the most creative player in the league” last season either.  

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by cubaricho

[Rod]

7 hours ago, Froggy said:

 

Because we've won 8 games. 

Yes but how?

[Abacus]

Villa are an interesting one - very good team and wouldn't be surprised if they finished in or near the top 4.  I do think though that the pressure will be on now.

 

Probably I expected them to finish as part of the chasing pack, like a lot of others. But now they look a genuine threat a lot more teams will be looking at them much more seriously and that's when it starts to count.

 

Long old season and when we made it last season we became pretty relentless. Not saying they can't do that as well, but this is where the real test for them starts.

[r0cafella]

Villa will be right up there, very good side with a very good manager. 

[Optimistic Nut]

1 minute ago, r0cafella said:

Villa will be right up there, very good side with a very good manager. 

 

They'll have a spell like Spurs have had at some point, we just need to stay within sort of 6-7 points while we have these injuries and capitalise when they do. 

[r0cafella]

10 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

They'll have a spell like Spurs have had at some point, we just need to stay within sort of 6-7 points while we have these injuries and capitalise when they do. 

Absolutely couldn’t agree more but I’m sure we will too. Wouldn’t be surprised if we both finished top 5 personally. 
 

both ourselves and Villa are better than we get credit for. 

[Geogaddi]

Villa also got demolished by us and Liverpool , winning at Spurs was impressive but I am interested to see how they do at home to the other good teams as they have only played Brighton so far out of the top 8 at home .

[gbandit]

They’ll clearly give everyone a game. The issue as has already been mentioned is what happens if they go on a run of three-four bad results. They’re playing with huge confidence which works well with their high risk strategy of a high line. However, if confidence dropped it could easily lead to some drubbings or clangers. I personally think they’ll finish top six but probably no higher than sixth 

[r0cafella]

2 minutes ago, gbandit said:

They’ll clearly give everyone a game. The issue as has already been mentioned is what happens if they go on a run of three-four bad results. They’re playing with huge confidence which works well with their high risk strategy of a high line. However, if confidence dropped it could easily lead to some drubbings or clangers. I personally think they’ll finish top six but probably no higher than sixth 

They will be fine, I think the thing they have to watch out for is keeping Watkins fit. If he gets injured things could really slide for them.