tajjuk

I'd counter that by saying we probably had the best chance of the whole game in the 2nd half, if Adam Armstrong gets a tiny bit luckier there or Kepa is a tiny bit slower getting out we probably score. I'd also reckon had our player tackled with a dangerous high foot like that he'd have got sent off, so overall I'd say if you are talking luck then Chelsea had a decent bit as well. Plus that is a Chelsea team that has had near £500 million spent on it in the last 6 months, mainly in attacking areas, if one attacker is misfiring they have multiple other quality players to bring on so they were always going to create chances, but in the end they didn't create that much. Also got to remember this is a team that last week lost whilst 1-0 up to a much worse and 10 man Wolves team, they were going to be nervous so a lot of credit has to be given to him for not only being brave with the way we played but also picking the players up from last weeks embarrassing defeat and getting them to show the courage and fight again because they must have been at a very low ebb last week. Don't think anyone is saying give him the full time job now, till the end of season seems fine and see if he can earn the permanent spot, but lots of positive signs there already after just one week and one game. To answer your last question I can only presume experience, he hasn't really managed a senior team, he's just been part of various coaching set ups.

No they had a lot of injuries under Bielsa as well from what I remember. Some clubs just seem to have poor luck with injuries, whether this is a something behind the scenes or just them having a lot of players who are more injury susceptible I don't know. Arsenal seemed to go through a long period of picking up lots and lots of injuries under various managers. The Man Utd 9-0 we had something like 9 out injured iirc. Thing is with a club our size or Leeds size, you are going to only have a handful of key players that elevate your squad, if they get injuries its going to harm you a lot more than the bigger boys who can often replace quality with quality or close enough quality. A lot of Leeds under Bielsa was built around Bamford and Phillips, Marsch hasn't had those players for most of his time in charge of the club through injury (and then sale of Phillips). Leeds also did what our board did in the summer, they had one striker, who was struggling for fitness and for some reason didn't really go out and buy another one. Plus the guy they brought in to replace Raphina, another key player last season, has had multiple injury issues and had only played 600 minutes this season.

That interview also highlights they had shedloads of injury issues at Leeds, they always seem to have a host of players out. Just checked now and they have eight out injured, amongst the highest in the league. Bamford has had loads of injuries, iirc Phillips was injured for most of last season and was injured when he moved to City (which is why it was baffling he went to the World Cup). Sinisterra who was one of their big summer signings has only managed 600 minutes, just 8 starts. Adds a caveat to his time at Leeds IMO.

To level of the game needs to set an example to the grass roots for once. Need better levels of respect because whilst top level refs are getting horrible verbal abuse, threats etc. lower down things are going even further and there are so many reports of violence against refs. Top level refs at least have some level of protection against that, there are police at games, fans won't be able to get near them but the average person on a sunday league pitch or kids pitch has nothing. If they started clamping down properly against ref abuse at the higher level it would be seen and set an example for the lower levels and hopefully you'd see a bit more respect given. End of the day the game needs people to be refs and want to do it, if they are getting torrents of abuse and in some cases actually physically attacked then they won't do it and games will stop. I know from my own experience helping running amateur teams sometimes getting refs for games was tough, there just aren't enough about.

Beggars can't be choosers to be honest. I mean if we get some Ralph ball at its best, some front foot football etc. and he doesn't alienate the players like Ralph seem to do, which seemed to be a large part of his downfall then it could work. I mean at our best playing aggressive pressing football we beat some of the best in the land. Yeh he 'failed' at Leeds but looking at the underlying numbers he seemed a tad unlucky, had his two best players sold in the summer and their main striker has been almost consistently injured, and like our board they didn't seem to rectify that obvious deficiency. Also had we appointed him in the summer or before he went to Leeds would people be questioning it? I think most people would have been quite excited by it. As others have also said, pretty much every manager has had some failures on his CV, I doubt West Ham fans were very enthusiastic about Moyes being appointed, I'd imagine there were lots of doubts about Howe at Newcastle etc. Hopefully he will be a good fit and will get something clicking early, I'd rather we acted quickly, we've dithered enough with Jones as it is and let so many winnable games pass by. Probably the best option to get right now, and we've clearly been tracking him for a while, even before SR he was on the radar so he's been clearly rated by many within the club and isn't a complete unknown. He also has some experience in the league and knows what to expect (and hopefully after Leeds what not to do and what he can do better) which you won't get with a foreign manager.

Stats seem to back up that assessment, Leeds on expected points should be 11th and should have been 12th last year.

This kind of reminds of the 'he gets on base' bit of moneyball where all the old scouts are dismissing a player but the stats guy and Billy Beane are getting him because he does plays that will ultimately help the team win more. Like he might have the most high level of assists and goals, the base old school assessment of a winger/wide attacker, but clearly if you delve deeper into the numbers the guy causes constant problems to opposition defences, which in turn will create more opportunities for us, more space for others, more freekicks round the box etc. etc. This is our stats based approach, let's hope it works!

Might be just because of him attempting more and how he plays, the piece on him was saying how in Denmark they set up to get him lots of 1v1s. Mbappe is more of a striker and is more about running in behind. Messi doesn't dribble as much these days, doesn't really have the explosiveness anymore, he's shifted to more of a playmaker type role.

The Newcastle media love in is a bit sick IMO, for a start no club deserves anything anyway, but they are club just buying their way to the top with blood money, not really something that should be celebrated IMO. You'd also think considering the amount of players from the older big clubs they would dislike them, because they already dislike City, Chelsea etc. for buying their way into the top table. Be interesting to see if once the shine wears off a bit and they are knocking the Arsenal's, Utds, Liverpools etc. out of Champs League spots whether more hate will come their way. I mean the whole super league thing was basically to stop more City and PSGs happening.

I disagree, not only do not have/have not had much height in the team generally, but the few we do have never particularly attack the ball aggressively. John Terry wasn't the tallest but he used to try to head through a brick wall basically, always trying to get onto the end of things, I think JWP's set pieces are often let down by poor movement and not enough aggressiveness to get on the end of things. I think this guy will fix that, not only is he huge and strong, but he's also a striker so will have more about movement wise in the box, whereas previously we are basically relying on our centre-backs to score because most of our midfield and forward line are sub 6'. I reckon this guy will score 3-4 from set pieces at least.

7, should be an 8 IMO, but a point off for leaving everything so late. I feel like we could have got these players in earlier, especially considering the World Cup break and we might have a few more points on the board had we done that.

It is, but its probably above average for most 'target man' type players. Seems to suggest that despite his size he is still decently mobile for runs in behind etc. if not the quickest off the mark. I mean basically end of the day FM attributes will be an assessment of player by a fan of that club who has watched them often, probably adjusted to the relative league they are in. So suggests that he is probably decently quick for his size but obviously not rapid like say Adam Armstrong or the other new guy we signed.

Bit of a Pelle feel to it? Good goalscoring record at a lesser European league, big physical player hold up type player, bit of a late bloomer and coming in a bit later in his career compared to most of signings. Add in they have basically brought a 'Mane' type which is apparently what we have been looking for, are we trying to recreate 15/16 Saints under Koeman? We can only hope I suppose. Jones has asked for more pace and power, he's got more pace and power, let's see if he can do something with it. At the very least we should be more effective on set pieces, both ends, having the tallest player in the league who is also not built like Crouch and seems pretty good at headers. He looks like he could be a complete pain against defenders to be honest if we use him well.

Also imagine the panic going on at Everton right now, didn't get anyone on deadline day, sold Gordon and most of their relegation rivals made signings. Further bonkers stat, Chelsea have spent more in this window than all Ligu 1, Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga clubs combined.

Don't basically this guy, Orsic, Djenepo and Edozie all want to play in the same position? Right footed, cutting in from the left. Seems a slight miss we didn't sign a left footer to play on the right. We've also signed a 6' 7" striker, but don't really have many people who cross the ball.

Well that is about a £127 million spend so far this season and around £121 million net. Can't say they haven't put their money in.

Can't see it happening but if we do and then we go down would be a level of irony to have one of our biggest spends in years, something the fans have been demanding, to then fail....

Yep them too, all of which means you have more footballers, more coaches, who all need more of the support staff, more admin, more physios, it all just needs more and more space. Plus you have new technology like hydrotherapy pools, cryo chambers etc. which again needs more space and more infrastructure.

Need to remember it's just not the first team, all the academy stuff happens there, all age groups going on so they need multiple pitches at the same time all year round. I'd imagine that is the issue because I have a mate who's son regularly attends there and says they have been trying to fit more pitches in, plus they need more space for like parents to park etc. I think it was also mentioned they wanted more 3g pitches and more indoor space because of weather issues.

Doesn't seem like a terrible idea, especially for the state Everton are in, basically a giant reset on the club. They have a squad of bloated first team players, a lot of them older, that have consistently failed and will be on huge wages. If they don't fix it, they will be in a similar position next year even if they stay up, relegation might shove a lot of these players away and allow them to rebuild. With the parachute payments and making sure you have wage drops etc. and sensible signings, relegation is not the end of the world like the media like to predict because you drop out of the 'hallowed land' of the PL. I mean look at Burnley, looking likely to bounce straight back up, new manager, completely changed their style of play.

It's all just money, it's not even a game anymore just a business or a billionaires plaything or a marketing opportunity for a totalitarian regime to sportswash. If Newcastle fans are turning into this, based on dirty oil money with blood on its hands then we can all hope they just turn into another Everton, that would be a healthy dose of karma.

Yeh until they don't get into the Champions League and their income drops. Some of the wages they are paying is absurd, Koulibally is on £300k a week and will be until he is 35, most of these young players they are bringing in on these 7 year contracts are on well over £100k a week, so if they don't work out they are stuck with them for 7 years paying wages other clubs won't pick up. Sterling is on £350k a week I think and will be 33 by the time his contract runs out, and it's clear he won't leave on that amount because no one will pay him that and it's clear that he is declining a little bit, showing the issue of someone who has played 100s and 100s of games at the top level since he was 17. Cucurella is a defensive liability, they paid like £50 million for him, whilst already having Chilwell and they already have a promising left back in their academy. They are paying left backs like a combined £350k a week. They are still paying a lot of Lukakus wages, after shelling out £95 million for him and Inter can't afford to buy him. Aubameyang was given a 3 year contract hilariously when he's already 33 and was so bad for Arsenal they literally terminated his contract. They might be spreading out the fees but the wages are huge and if they don't work out then they are stuck with these players for years and years. It's the same issue we had (but on a much lower scale) with the likes of Hoedt, Carrillo, Lemina etc. Same issue Everton are having, you give these players big wages, long contracts, buy them for big fees but if they don't work out then they are drain on your squad without offering anything which then cripples your ability to replace them.

They seem to be just buying football manager wonderkids. You have to wonder what is going on behind the scenes, whether this is a clear plan or whether it's just someone basically playing fantasy football. They have done this before and stagnated a load of young talents, Salah and De Bruyne being examples that went on to be excellent elsewhere, where are all these players going to play? Plus we know they have good academy players, every young player in there is going to look at all these signings and think they will get nowhere that squad. They seem to have a first team squad of 34, I know they have injuries but still, Mudryk, Sterling, Mount, Pulisic, Ziyech, Fofana, Madueke all can play the two wide positions. Then they have Mount, Kante, Kovacic Jorginho, Santos, Loftus-Cheek, Gallagher, Havertz, Zakaria for midfield positions and 6 potential centre-backs. Yet they haven't got a reliable striker with the past Aubemeyang, Havertz is pretty ineffective and Broja is injured. Then they have 20 people out on loan, with the likes of Lukaku, Colwill, Sarr and Hudson-Odoi could easily be in that first team squad. Mental, hope we are looking at promising players in their development squad because it's a pretty easy sell to those players that they have no pathway to the first team squad. It's funny that probably their most successful period in the league was whilst they had a transfer ban where they had to use their good youth players.

Villa supposedly looking at signing Moussa Dembele, who I am pretty sure we were looking at in the summer, only has 6 months left on his contract. Probably further confirms Ings is on his way out then considering they also signed that striker from the MLS. Still think he's probably our best option for what we need now but seemingly going to West Ham.

Genuinely do not understand how Spurs are this bad, in addition to having two of the worlds best attackers in Kane and Son, they spent £150 million this summer, £90 million last season, £100 million the season before that and £130 million the season before that. You are talking £450 million spend over 4 seasons, whilst again literally having a world class attack. Bonkers.