In reply to Furlock Bones

Furlock Bones said:

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Villa have been miles better than Newcastle.

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Yep. Ripped 'em apart

In reply to Furlock Bones They've been good since Emery came in

In reply to gougler08

gougler08 said:

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They've been good since Emery came in

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No doubt. But aggie2011 aptly described it as getting ripped apart and I'm a bit shocked at how one sided this has been.

Villa is a lock for next year's "dark horse" pick to finish in the top 6. Might even do it this season which is amazing considering where they were earlier in the year with Gerrard.

Brighton with the banger

Fly Hovians Fly

Bournemouth also lead at spurs. LFG.

Pulisic cokes out. Chelsea loses. Pretty standard.

In reply to Dre_00 Gerrard and Lampard both got fast coaching gigs because of their names instead of earning them by actually doing anything impressive as a manager. I'm not either of them actually know how to manage.

So spursy!

So I know Chelsea have been bad but I don't think I realized just how bad and that the rest of the season could actually get worse.

They are currently in 11th on 39 points but they haven't won a game in over a month. Their 3rd manager of the season is big on feels but short on talent which is a problem because their final 7 league games are:

Man United
Brentford
@ Arsenal
@ Bournemouth
Forest
@ Man City
Newcastle

They'll be favorites in what...2 of those games? And even those you wouldn't be surprised if they didn't win. If they had like 4 less points, I'd say they had a decent (like 25% chance) of relegation. As is, there's no real chance but my word that could easily finish around 15th. Last season it was Man United. This season it's Chelsea with the "what the hell is going on there?" season.

I think Leeds is really missing Adams. Their play style is always going to give up goals, but I think he covered a multitude of mistakes.

McKennie has been horrible today. Pretty much everyone with any defensive responsibility has been bad but he made primary mistakes on multiple goals.

Surely Jesse marsch was slightly better than this.

In reply to Mathguy64

Mathguy64 said:

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Gerrard and Lampard both got fast coaching gigs because of their names instead of earning them by actually doing anything impressive as a manager. I'm not either of them actually know how to manage.

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Seems a big central midfielder -> coach trend.
Lampard, Gerrard, Patrick Vieira and Arteta.

Liverpool's season continues to be weird. They've beaten teams by 9, 7 and 5...and have a -1 GD in all the other games.

In reply to Dre_00

Dre_00 said:

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McKennie has been horrible today. Pretty much everyone with any defensive responsibility has been bad but he made primary mistakes on multiple goals.

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He really isn't a defensive mid, and neither is Roca. They really miss Adams.

In reply to Aston94 Agree on all accounts but his mistakes didn't have much to do with being played in a sub-optimal position.

In reply to Dre_00

Dre_00 said:

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Liverpool's season continues to be weird. They've beaten teams by 9, 7 and 5...and have a -1 GD in all the other games.

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We're also winless in three games against teams that were dead last in the table at the time we played them.

In reply to Dre_00

Dre_00 said:

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Agree on all accounts but his mistakes didn't have much to do with being played in a sub-optimal position.

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The second goal (Salah's goal) was off McKennie being dispossessed on the other side of midfield because he was trying to move forward aggressively. If that's Adams he is not taking that chance. To me that was the epitome of an offensive midfielder not being careful when he is playing a defensive midfielder role.

I didn't see Leeds today and thus didn't see Weston's effort or any bad decisions or bad touches he might have had. …but Weston is an 8 or 10 who can make great defensive recoveries and tackles; he's not a 6.

In reply to Aston94 Agree but it wasn't a difficult ball to control and it should be well within his skillset as more of a box-to-box mid to do so. He probably shouldn't have been in that position but the fact that he was put him in a more familiar position, not less. He also failed to track the eventual goal scorer on at least one other Liverpool goal...which again should be a part of his skillset as a box-to-box.

In reply to Dre_00 Sometimes I think you just like to argue. I don't know that our tales are much different from each other. McKennie played poorly and would be better if Adams was out there with him.

In reply to Aston94 You're the one who quoted me? But yeah I probably do a bit though I prefer to call it discussing rather than arguing.

Anyway, your initial response led me to believe that you disagreed with my opinion that he played poorly. But if I got that wrong, then indeed we probably are saying the same thing. My bad!

In reply to Dre_00 No, I agree he played poorly, but I think a large part of the reason he played poorly is because he is being asked to be a 6, a position he is not terribly comfortable with.

I'm so happy to see Aston and Dre working out their differences…which they didn't have any to begin with.

Namaste

Not sure the veracity, but it's a pretty chart from the internet so it has to be correct.

In reply to Rudyjax Interesting idea, but I don't think it's meaningful at all using just transfer $$. It needs to examine annualized budget impact, i.e. the annual impact of someone's transfer fee + their salary.

Teams frequently sign good players for free, but then pay them huge wages. Or are loaded with existing good players with high wages and didn't have much turnover this year.

Or on the flip side, teams like Leeds or Forest needed turnover this year to help survive, so they spent a good deal on transfers this year. But they are getting players who are marginal EPL talent and therefore don't make a high salary. And if these teams drop and have to sell, these players can be sold, so it's not like the transfer fee is lost entirely… in fact some players likely gained value due to getting EPL match experience and shining (i.e. Adams).

Sorry - I'm a nerd so my brain can't help but pick simplistic stats apart.

All that said, I bet Chelsea would still be on the bottom because they not only spent a ton on fees but also in salary. In fact, I'm convinced the biggest reason Pulisic is still there is because he'd be forced to take much less wages at a place that would be willing to make him a starter. (Timo Werner supposedly makes half his Chelsea salary now, but he got a long-term contract because he's the face of the club, so it may pan out better for him in the long run).

Can someone remind me what happened to Joe Hart? England NT gave him a birthday shout out on Instagram yesterday and I was amazed that he's only like 36. He went from being the City/England #1 to riding the pine almost overnight.

In reply to ChipFTAC01 Lost his position as first choice keeper when Pep took over at City. Pep wanted a GK that could use his feet and act as more of a "keeper-sweeper." So Guardiola signed Claudio Bravo (which ironically did not work out for either party). He was loaned to Torino in Serie A before deciding he was happy to ride the bench at Tottenham. He is now 1st choice at Celtic

Don't know if we have a Serie A thread but Juve got their 15 points back at least for now. Back to 3rd in the table. Has big implications for the top 4 in that league.