TWar

It's funny because those aren't actually things, hurr hurr. Mate, even your sense of humour is that of a complete idiot.

It's good to know that for every complete buffoon like Duckhunter there are sensible fans like you who can actually interpret what is going on.

The only difference is one was a 4-1 loss from a team that just spent 100s of millions and has some of the best players in the world and the other is a 2-1 loss where the manager is barely backed and was clearly due to goalkeeping errors. Goalkeeper cost us points, obviously. Neither should have gone in, what is the manager supposed to do? Save them himself? There is no way you can blame a manager for that unless you are thick as pig shit, so here you are to do so.

Maybe the situation is different at united and southampton. It isn't always the same answer for every club all the time, dipshit.

Forster is no better.

Oh, I guess he just pull a good keeper out his arse? Macca is shit, Forster is shit. "Why doesn't he just pick a good keeper" is an unbelievably stupid take even by your pathetic standards.

That's what happens when your keeper is shit. The bucks stops with the manager is a stupid view from a stupid poster. The buck stops with the keeper, obviously, and I can't be bothered to explain why that is to someone as thick as you.

xG has nothing to do with playstation. "the real game does not work like that" is meaningless. We should have won but the keeper let in two goals he shouldn't have. Stats confirm that.

KWP was very effective against Villa, Watford, and Leeds. Feels a bit harsh to say this based off this game, which we basically lost because the keeper shat the bed.

The point of the xG is they didn't have that many chances. We didn't make enough to be comfortable but Macca let two in he shouldn't have.

0.43 - 1.13 xG. McCarthy cost us that one. Should have saved both for another 1-0 win for us. Would be nice if we had better attacking mids to make it safer but with Redmond, Stu, and Djenepo out, its tricky.

Shame really, bad day at the office and two big errors. Bounce back for next week.

Two massive goalkeeping errors cost us today

These are fair points, fair enough. The sample sizes are small admittedly. The stats are interesting but it's worth see how they develop as the season runs on. I personally think from my observations Che is stronger and better in the air, but as you rightly point out, this can't be accurately statistically proven until we have more data. Will be an interesting topic to revisit at the end of the season when I put together that stat thing I normally do.

Or we signed Livramento and Salisu got fit and no longer was needed out of position at LB, whilst our best DM got over a broken ankle... Could be the manager suddenly learned how to coach a defence, more likely we got better defenders. People really give too much credit/criticism to managers as if the world revolves around them. The second half of last season we had a back 7 of Macca, KWP, Vestergaard, Bednarek, Bertrand/Salisu, JWP, Armstrong and it has become Macca Livra, Salisu, Bednarek, KWP, JWP, and Romeu. No wonder we have gotten more solid. Salisu >>> Vestergaard Livramento >>> Bertrand Romeu >>> Armstrong (defensively at least)

Scoring goals from headers is a useful skill (not one either have proved yet imo) but that's not 100% of strength in the air. If there is a ball dropping from height onto Che and a CB then I rate Che a lot more than I rate Broja to win that ball. This gives us an outball when under pressure, creates multiple chances, and unsettles defenders creating room for his strike partner. Che's ability to make chances by winning second balls/challenges is really valuable.

Incredible improvement in our defensive abilities from last season

He's not bigger, faster or better in the air than Che, nor has he got a better first touch? Che is well ahead in all those metrics. He's taller but he has no where near the muscle of Che so he doesn't win as much in the air. Che wins 32% of aerial duels to Broja's 23%. Che ran half the pitch leaving two defenders behind him against Villa, twice, both times he broke out of pressure and got us moving forward. Che has a 37% dribble success rate to Broja's 28%. I think some of the rating of Broja is a case of him making a very good first impression against a tired West Ham. Since then, however, he hasn't really been any better than Che/Armstrong and that's why they started against Villa.

I think we'll make an offer of £15m if he keeps playing the way he has at the end of the season and I'd imagine Chelsea will accept. If he goes nuts and takes a starting spot off one of Adams and Armstrong he might cost a little more, if he falls flat going forward we might lose interest.

I don't think Broja can be recalled tbh, I think he only could if he was below a certain number of minutes. Could be misremembering though. Regarding Chelsea, they have three competent forwards which Broja is miles behind in Lukaku, Havertz and Werner, and they have a couple of players who can play out of position in that role like Pulisic and Ziyech. I doubt they will struggle for options tbh. It's a similar number of options up front to Liverpool (Firmino, Jota, Origi and out of position) or United (Ronaldo, Cavani, Greenwood or out of position). I wouldn't worry too much about a recall on the basis of a couple of goals against weak opposition when they have spent a combined ~£240m on three players who can play up top (Lukaku, Havertz, Werner). Also, regarding putting himself around physically, I see that as much more of a Che attribute, I don't remember Broja ever bullying a player off the ball like Che normally does a couple of times a game.

It's an early in the pipeline acquisition. He isn't at a level to play for us or the big boys yet but they suspect in 3-4 years he will be a very fine player and they want those 3-4 years to be spent in their academy learning their style rather than staying with us and them having to pay through the nose post development.

Broja most distinctly does not have everything. He does a few things well, finishing, and first touch primarily. But hasn't shown nearly enough in build up, support play, chance creation, strength, or dribbling to be on Che's level.

Lukaku is up top for Chelsea and since they just spent £100m+ on him I doubt Broja will be starting up there. After Lukaku, Havertz plays well in the false 9. I think Broja is good but definitely wouldn't rule out us permanently signing him. He's a decent player but to be honest I think the way Dman is talking about him is pretty OTT. He is definitely our 3rd choice as it stands. If we offered a swap I don't think we'd be laughed off the phone at all actually. I think we bought Che for £15m and I think if we offered £15m for Broja Chelsea would probably accept. Right now Che is probably worth closer to £25m so is worth more imo. I doubt Chelsea would want Che as he isn't up to their standard and is old enough that his resell would be mediocre.

To be fair, I also big up the defence. The fact they can score worldies and also get a lot of chances is positive. The simple finishes will come in time.

Both benefitted from considerably better attacking mids imo. Raphinha and Grealish are on a different level to what we have. Neither has performed nearly as well this season, albeit Bamford has been injured a lot.