blaaklint

surely it'll be ricardo inverting from the left?

i did a short research project developing a basic xG model while i was at uni. stuff like not distinguishing headers, players between ball and goal, goalkeeper set position etc can make a huge difference. opta also does some clever stuff with how they deal with chances in quick succession which probably makes a difference.

i really think gareth ainsworth looks like denethor from lord of the rings

i think he could have probably done better with the first one, second was pretty decent. I do like that he kept his head for both and made sure he put them both on target rather than blasting them over.

xG only counts if you get the shot away. Vardy was inches away from connecting for a tap in, and KDH and Wilf both squared when they could have shot for high value chances.

I think this has been our best game in terms of creating chances and our worst in terms of finishing them

I'd say Blackburn had a decent try at it

not sure how they've chosen him on the basis of potential when mads has been performing better and is actually a few months younger

Pedantic but a knight can't pin another piece

I think the mental component is possibly more important even. Simply, it's depressing to be the team without the ball for a whole game, even if that's your game plan. You win the ball, clear it and then it just comes straight back at you over and over again.

Found it interesting that in the first half Ricardo inverted higher up the pitch, with Winks essentially as a single pivot at times? Not sure if that was deliberate or a consequence of how passive Preston were.

its been found that wage bill and league position are highly correlated. ofc, its not clear which drives the other - do clubs finish high bc they pay the highest wages, or is it the other way around? but either way, there's certainly a case to be made that, generally speaking, sustainability (if taken to mean low wage budgets) is the enemy of success. there's outliers, but richer clubs are better than poorer ones. unfortunately, players are just bags of money really.

i was in a1 and heard the away support far more than our own

yellow cards only count for the competitions in which they are recieved.

idk i've not watched any of their games and been all that impressed. think most of them could have gone either way tbh

derby in the fa cup

tbh i'm convinced youri's body has given up on him. sure, he's only 26 but he's played over 500 games for club and country. many players won't play that much in their entire career

proper jumped into a challenge chasing from behind/to the side. both feet off the ground

some lovely footwork and hit the post. lucky to stay on the pitch at the end tho imo

you must have loads of hair if it takes that long

He fled Shakhtar when Russia annexed Donbas and played in amateur leagues in Moscow. After his Shakhtar contact expired, he signed for Ufa. Came to Man City at 20. He's had a more interesting path than most pro footballers.

I thought it might be Hazard vs Arsenal or Son vs Burnley but they're both 12 (as far as i can tell). Payet vs Boro is 11.

Better to have plan A working as you want before worrying about plan Bs. If your plan A is good enough, you shouldn't need anything else. Remains to be seen whether we'll ever get to that point though.

The better models (or at least Opta and Statsbomb) do in fact take into account defender positioning.

football has priced out a lot of sections of society. then if you consider how difficult it is to get a season ticket if you dont already have one, its no surprise