TWar

Thomas Frank was promoted internally, maybe the new owners are leaving their mark. Could be cool to have Ralph teach someone everything he knows and then to pass over the reins.

We're not Burnley. This person was discussing us in matchweek 17. In matchweek 17 we had played 17 games, the season before on matchweek 17 we had played 17 games. Therefore saying "on matchweek 17" and "after 17 games" means exactly the same thing. For people who call MLG out on being pedantic this is a super weird thing to be pointlessly pedantic about.

They mean the same thing.

This season feels more sustainable. Last season we had a good 11, this year we have a good squad.

When I say "basically yeah" I mean as a basic rule shooting from 25+ yards is a bad idea, there may be mitigating circumstances (see Che vs City when the keeper was out of position) but it is mostly a pretty poor idea. The occassional drive or two from 25 yards when there is nothing else on to keep the keeper on his toes isn't the worse thing although will very very rarely lead to anything, but shooting from 25+ yards regularly is statistically very inefficient. This isn't to say it never works, it does, you will see a load of goals go in from that range. That is what happens if you do an unlikely thing a lot of times - it will come off occassionally, that doesn't make it an efficient way to play though.

If there is nothing else on then why not, but basically yeah. Here is a good article on it: https://the18.com/en/soccer-entertainment/long-shot-decline-modern-football Regarding free kicks, yeah it's different calculus. The issue with an FK is that the other team has time to prepare for them, get behind the ball, and mark up. Add to that a deadball is easier to strike, you have 10 yards space, and you have all the time to pick your spot. In the modern game there is no way the chances of scoring vs passing from a 25 yard fk havent been calculated and inform their decisions. If CR had such quality as to regularly accumulate double his xG he'd be the best finisher in the world by a good margin. Actually he is underperforming xG by about 25% (one of the biggest in the league for players who regularly shoot, he is having an awful season statistically) so absolutely not, he'd have a 1/26 chance. I think you are wildly overrating xG vs G variation amongst players. The biggest overperformer among players is Vardy and he is still only doing so by ~30%. Among top players, they basically perform on or very close to xG. Some players routinely overperform xG (Messi, Son, Ings) but normally not more than by about ~25%. This is why you will often here football experts say that finishing ability is mostly less important than getting in good spots.

Not sure how to answer in general/philophically to be honest

Dunno, I remember two or three times on the weekend. Didn't keep much of a count but it certainly felt like a good number of promising attacks ended with him blazing it high, wide, or both. Armstrong had an xG of 0.24 with 4 shots. Meaning he had about 0.06 xG per shot, which isn't exactly awful but does represent that each shot had about a 1/20 chance of going in. This is somewhat brought up by one shot that had an xG of 0.09 which was definitely worth taking. He had two others at 0.03 and 0.04 which probably weren't. This doesn't measure whether other better options were on, but having watched it I think they often were. I wanted to play him because I thought he looked good there vs united. This "look at me" thing is entirely projection. No, I think shooting from range when better options are on is always a bad idea, it is less likely to lead to success. The fact it sometimes works doesn't change that.

That's the issue with the argument. Anecdotally, Vincent Kompany scored a 40 yard belter against Leicester to win the premier league. Does that mean we should do away with midfielders and strikers and just instruct our CBs to smash it from 40 yards every attack? No. If a player has a better option on and they blaze it over the bar from range that is a bad thing, it's a waste. If a player continually does it that's an issue. Saying "oh, but what if it had gone in". Well if it had gone in I would have been happy, if he had passed and it had lead to a move which resulted in a goal I'd have been happy. The latter is more likely, hence the criticism.

I'd have been happy if he'd scored, obviously. That doesn't mean shooting was the right choice. I'd be happy if Romeu scored a 40 yard screamer, that doesn't mean I would want him to take on 40 yard belters rather than passing as it is less likely to lead to a goal. Armstrong kept having a go when there were better options. I know he is confident, but hitting it on sight when there are better options is wasteful.

I'm sure he did, that doesn't make it the right thing to do when someone else is better placed.

Can't always spell perfectly

He did well with Ings too, who now looks lost at Villa. Maybe the role of the support striker is being drastically underrated... Armstrong is a fine player. He showed he can do well in the championship and needs a bit of confidence in this league and a run of games, just like Adams did. Adams should be proof that having a tricky first season in the prem (playing on the wing for newcastle as a teenager for like 3 games not withstanding) is not a good reason to write a lad off.

Getting the best out of your strike partner is a great ability...

Christ.

KWP was class in that role. I'm happy to see him have another go.

Gerrard 1 win in 7. New manager bounce over? I don't blame him, personally, Villa job is hard because of how wildly overrated their squad is. Stupid fans and pundits thinking a midtable at best squad is europe level and getting surprised when it performs to a midtable standard. Digne and Coutinho were both cracking signings but they need more than that to match up to this "top 6 challenger" delusion so many in the football world seem to have.

The shooting wasn't what bothered me, per say, it was the decision to shoot. He almost always had a better option on. Also I don't think he covered defensively as well as usual.

He does have an uncanny way of leading to wins. Maybe we can sub him on in the second half to counteract the curse.

I thought he made the wrong decision and took uncharacteristically weak shots a few times when attacks looked promising and also he didn't cover for his fullback as much as usual. He gave the ball away a few times too.

Thought KWP looked good in front of Tino. Maybe Elyounoussi and KWP as 10s, Stu had a poor game yesterday imo and Tino is one of our best and brightest players. Stephens in for Bednarek whether he is injured or not and aside from that unchanged.

Why do you think you know better about player fatigue than all the players and managers who deal with it and complain about it?

1. Individuals having a good step up in form (romeu, Salisu, Broja, Adams, KWP, Forster), 2. We have class squad depth so we are fairing reasonably well after a congested winter period when we normally don't 3. We have a class manager and a decent squad, previously we had a class manager and an average squad but now all the summer signings have bedded in we can compete squadwise with top half sides.

Europe? We have already played united, city, and spurs twice. Is it too late to make a run at it? Also, a lot of talk about our fullbacks and strikers but JWP Romeu might be top 5 best midfields in the league. The list of top midfields they have dominated is growing.

I'm using it to mean "worn out", "very tired", or "fatigued" in this context.