tajjuk

I do find it ironic that one of the people who has taken over the club is probably one of the most successful and earliest adopters of using statistics in football, at a time when on this forum we seem to have more and more ignorant anti-stats people.

VAR is not the issue, some teething problems with the tech and sorting out margin of errors for the offside lines etc. But ultimately the issue is the Refs themselves and the fact they are also running VAR. VAR needs to be run by an independent panel, with at least 3-4 like ex-pros or something running it who have nothing to do with the teams involved. The other issue being the vast majority of English professional referees are really really bad. I watch a lot of the Bundesliga highlights and they seem to have less issue with VAR and less controversy.

Personally I think we are getting better and more solid, barring another horrible injury period (which we have more depth to cope with) and reckon we'll be nearer 50 points or so

Shocking pen decision, Jota just flops himself into the keeper and was nowhere near the ball. Very very lucky Liverpool. Jota, Mane and Salah have to be the 'diviest' forward line in league by far.

Sale of very good players is almost inevitable, even a giant club like Dortmund with 80k fans turning up every week can't hold onto to their best players. Key though is to avoid the problem we caused for ourselves in 2015/16-17 by selling too many in a short period. We need to follow a more Leicester like model who pretty much let one a season go and then re-invest that money into 2-3 new quality players.

Hopefully the club will tie him down with a new contract soon, should be a little more wiggle room in the wage budget.

Le Tiss's was amazing and encapsulated his genius, only a handful of players in the history of the game would have thought of doing that, let alone pulling it off. But that Roberto Carlos freekick was something else, one of the purest hits ever seen, I remember trying replicate for years hoping you'd just one time get that sweet swerve.

To be fair Van DIjk IIRC was 24 when he joined us and had already played like 190 senior games, including multiple games in the Champions league. He is also European and been in the British culture (well Scotland but similar physical league) for like 2 seasons as well. Salisu is still 22, he's only played so far just over 100 career games and 40 of those were B team football in the Spanish 3rd division, having moved from Africa, to then Spain and now England, and having arrived here he was ill and injured. He's had a lot more to deal with and cope with in his career than Van Dijk had before joining us and has a lot less experience as well. Now I am not saying he is going to be as good as Van Dijk, but considering he's only had 60 odd top flight games in two different countries, and had issues when he first arrived, his improvement has been rapid and seems to be getting better and better. On this sort of upward curve at 24-25 he could easily be as good as Van Dijk was at the same age.

I agree. If there is evidence that he ignored this having been directly told about it or covered it up then IMO it over rules anything he ever did for the club, that is football, its a sport, it doesn't compare to these people's lives which have been destroyed by this evil man. If they do take the statue down than I would trust that the club are only doing that because they have such information and agree it would the only right course of action.

What is best for this country is a stable, well led, progressive Labour government sitting on a comfortable majority so they can enact change and policies that fix the mess and damage this government has done (and the ones previously). Hopefully including some electoral reform so that it's harder for the Tories to get back in, considering this government was voted for by a minority of the electorate. Putting up with another 6 months or so of Johnson would be a relatively small price to pay for that IMO.

Yeh we don't want someone else in, what's best for Labour and the country as whole now is Boris stays in for as long as possible so people don't forget his incompetence, the scandals, the lying, the eff ups etc. and he is pretty much guaranteed continued incompetence and more scandals will come out. A new leader, who will be equally awful and incompetent, will just act like it's a clean slate and move on, even though they are involved in it. You do also have to wonder what these 'red wall' MPs were really expecting, they are in their jobs because of Johnson, no one would have voted for them without, so you have wonder what really they were expecting? It's not like Johnson wasn't a proven liar and complete incompetent before he got anywhere near the job, why did anyone expect him to be any different? I mean I listed to the MP who defected going on about the government failing to do stuff for his constituents, what was he really expecting? A tory government, especially a Johnson one was never going to improve anything for working class voters in places like Bury and Sunderland etc. I mean did he even promise anything in 2019, from what I can remember of that election campaign all he did was appear in various costumes repeating 'Get Brexit done' and 'Over ready deal' over and over, I don't remember any actual policies that would improve the lives of ordinary people. SO these MPs went out and campaigned on the same meaningless spiel, for a guy they must have known was a complete bullshitter, but now they act like he has let them down? Seems a bit rich to me. What those voters voted for is also baffling, I remember a radio phone him from a guy from Sunderland who was basically in tears baffled that his community had voted for these clowns. I mean those people are basically responsible for what is happening, all this crap and incompetence was inevitable and on them. I wish Starmer wasn't so weak, he should be hammering them a lot more than he is and getting out what he can do better, he's kind of winning by default because he's not Boris. It's like trump and Biden

Well if that unlikely event happened I reckon he'd build a front two around Lukaku and Werner, getting both to fire.

Based on his tweets, after match interviews etc. he seems very happy here and is enjoying life playing for us. Maybe he just wants to keep that going. Some players just click with a manager and club, and produce their best form, maybe he sees playing regularly here for like 3 seasons or so at a club he likes, with players he likes, in a style that suits him is going to be better for his long term career than just another loan with us and then hoping something happens at Chelsea or he might get a move to another big club. 3 seasons scoring like 15+ for us and a big club will probably step up and want to make him their main man. Also people worrying about what Tuchel said about him, I wouldn't be too bothered by that, firstly doubt he has much say in that anyway but I reckon he'll be sacked before long if they keep up this crappy form. Yeh he's won them the Champs league and got to two domestic cup finals, but their league form is patchy, saw a stat that said their PL form under Tuchel across a whole season would work out at about 71 points, 1 more than Lampard managed with a transfer ban. Abramovich doesn't have much sentiment for managers, he sacked Mourinho and Conte like less than 9 months after they won the league and ditched Di Matteo pretty quick when he'd steered them to the Champs league. Keep this stuttering league form up and not getting the best out of a £100 million pound striker he'll be gone I reckon, definitely think they'll get rid off Tuchel before they get rid of Lukaku.

Presume Broja is going to get a buff in the winter patch? Is JWP going to get one?, would be nice to see Saints as his favourite club (unless I have missed that) and I reckon he should be a model professional, he is talked about a lot from various sources about what a good trainer he is, what a good influence he is and it can then be seen in his performances and constant availability how well he looks after himself. Stats wise not sure he needs much, but he has to be playing some of the best stuff of his career so a small CA buff or like 4-5 might be in order, plus maybe some better hidden stats like consistency, pressure etc. His penalty ability probably needs to be a little higher like 16 at least. Other one would obviously be Tino getting a buff.

They are one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world, they dominated the football picture for fans of clubs in England for nearly 20 years under Fergie, so seeing them fail despite their huge wealth I'd imagine is quite funny and interesting for most neutral fans.

I'd agree with TWar there, Phillips to me is an out and out DM. I feel like his passing/playmaking ability seems a little over rated from what I have seen. He builds up Leeds play and is obviously important to them, but I feel like a lot of that reputation came from the championship more than the PL, I mean since they have been promoted he has scored one goal and got two assists. Defensively maybe he is better than JWP, but I am not sure he is as a good as a link player and he tends to sit for Leeds whereas JWP is box to box for us and more on the front foot intercepting and pressing. England for me with Rice and Phillips are too defensive with both in midfield, asking Phillips to push forward is making him do something he doesn't really do for his club. I'd personally say those two should be competing for the same spot and JWP should be competing with Bellingham and Henderson. The former is an amazing young talent but I think JWP should have gone to the Euros instead of the injured Henderson and I think he should take his spot for the World Cup if JWP keeps up his form. Henderson will be approaching 33 and has not been in form this year, plus seems to pick up a lot of injuries. Plus games in a short space of time, in likely a lot of heat, taking arguably the fittest and most consistently hard working centre-mid in the country seems to be a no brainer to me. But I reckon Southgate will stick with his favourites and JWP will need injuries to get in. Though with Phillips and Henderson's injury record over the last 18 months it's likely they could be out, especially as everyone will be playing right up to the tournament, no gap to get fit.

Yeh over a whole season I think he'd be far more valuable to them than Pogba ever has been and would probably be on half the wages. Aside from size he is basically a better McTominay, and also has world class set pieces. But I think 'big name player' is the issue, you have to wonder whether shirts sold and appeal in asia plays a role in their recruiting process at times, because the Glazers seem happy to just have a club that makes lots of money, not a successful one. I don't think we are going to sell him anytime soon, certainly not this summer, I am more interested whether he is going to push his way into the England team.

Man Utd don't particularly worry me either, they are all over the place and I can't see him going there to be honest. I feel JWP is quite switched on and would only move for a very top notch manager and pretty much guaranteed trophies. That to me says Man City, maybe Utd if they managed to sort the mess out and got someone like Poch in, but even then not so sure, Liverpool would be another obviously, but I don't think they are going to pay the fee, they have contracts to worry about so I don't think they have like the £70 million it would need. Personally I reckon now he has signed a new deal and he's clearly people are noticing that he's a very good player I think his value is probably the highest it has been. I think the club would be expecting Maguire levels of money. English, good age, captain, world class set piece taker, exemplary fitness levels. no history of injuries.

Have to credit for him scoring probably the best goal of his life and he just turned round and ran back to halfway line to get the game going again to try and get something out of the game. And yeh if JWP played for a team the level of Man Utd when Beckham was playing he'd easily have the record I think by now. Arguably best free kick taker in the world, and certainly top 3 with maybe Messi being better than him.

Werner is a strange one, I think another case of Chelsea buying a player who has done very well in a team playing a certain way and then not using him in the same role. (similar to Lukaku failing to live up to expectations) I mean he was better than 1 in 2 in the Bundesliga for Leipzig and is close to 1 in 2 for Germany so there is a very good player there, but just hasn't worked out at Chelsea. I mean if Chelsea wanted to get rid of him and cut their losses, a player I think would do really well in our system and excelled under Ralph previously but wages/fee might be prohibitive.

I think Wolves are having one of those Pardew Newcastle seasons, bang average but getting lucky, it's a false position and they'll drop down to like 14th next year IMO, you can't score that few goals, rely on dodgy pens, mistakes and scoring with your only shots. To be honest bit like Newcastle were last year and under Rafa as well. No way they deserved to win that or the home game against us, but they have, just the way football is sometimes.

James and Mount got their opportunities because of Lampard and the transfer ban. Chalabah has broken through, but mainly because of injuries and covid etc. Plus he's 22, he's been there for like 6 years and has only got an opportunity this year. Tomori was home grown and doing well, he got shoved out on loan and they got a 36 year old in. Gimour had some great performances and they shoved him out on loan. Connor Gallacher has proven himself a good player but got shoved out on loan, so two good young centre-mids they decided to not use but than got Saul in on loan, who plays centre-mid. They were forced to use young players because of the transfer ban, when they have had good players knocking on the door most of the time they have gone out and bought someone and sent those players on loan.

Whilst it may not work out for us here, I think generally the big clubs youngster hoovering and in particular Chelsea's loan farming is coming back to bite them, it only took a few trail blazers like Sancho and more recently Tino to show pretty much every young player playing U23s football and getting the odd cup appearance that the grass is actual greener and their careers are better off moving to lower clubs than doing nothing at these big clubs. Whereas back in the years we had Ox, Bale, Walcott, Shaw etc. it seemed any youngster who came through wanted to move with barely a season under their belt, nice to see the players wanting to play not just take the biggest wage they can get. Plus it's very hard for a club like Chelsea to show they are going to give chances to these players when they spend £100 million, £50 million, etc. on players every year. I mean half the Chelsea youngsters they are using now are only in the team because they got their chance when they had a transfer ban or are getting chances now because they have covid/injury issues.

I'd say the family comment hints at a loan extension more than anything, still struggling to see Chelsea sell. But clearly the family have seen him be very happy here and improve a lot, and are worried about him just wasting away in the reserves becoming another Lewis Baker or similar, lots of Chelsea youngsters have signed big contracts had hype, had good loan spells and have just faded away over the years through lack of opportunities. Another year would leave the striker situation sorted out for next season allowing us to work on other areas that need improving, gives the scouting team another year to find a striker gem we can get permanently, plus you never know we keep progressing and he might really push to stay.

Thing I think about Bednerak is that he's a jack of all trades, master of none centre-back, he doesn't everything ok but doesn't really stand out in anything which then means he gets beaten by people who are strong in those areas. Like he's decent in the air but not dominant so people who are strong in the air will out do him, he's not slow but hardly rapid so people with good pace out pace him, he's ok on the ball but not brilliant, he's quite committed but doesn't block everything etc. Definitely one we can upgrade I reckon.