Les-TA-Jon

Because going down to only Daka as a recognised striker, who then has to play 90+ mins of every remaining game, helps us…how?

Not at changes are players being dropped though are they? It can be for fitness, rotation or tactical reasons

Choudhury was much better than Ricardo on Tues night

You seem to think I’ve put some sort of agenda or opinion into the stats I’ve presented? in fact, they’re simply an objective presentation of a few different PPG projections. Not sure why it’s seemingly riled you up seeing some numbers but hey ho.

again, another pointless truism. Of course real life results are ‘better’ or more important than any sort of prediction or projection. In other news: water is wet.

It helps your argument when you crop out the players that are €50m+... 25/26 24/25 23/24 22/23 21/22 10 players €50m+ each over the last 5 seasons Vs 16 players over the same period that were less than €50m each (and 7 of those cost more than Skipp anyhow)

Wasn't it Albrighton who also recently said that when we went down in 2023, the following pre-season had a weird buzz of excitement - like the squad was excited to 'put it right' (and sure Enzo's strength of character would have been a big help here), but this time around, it's clear everyone was like "we don't want to be in the Championship again"

Most of Man City's signings are £50-60m+?

Well sure. That’s such a truism it hardly seems worth mentioning…

Always prefer this format as a way of comparing fixtures Projections:

Yes I think obviously season long PPG captures all the crap, Last 10 form captures end of Marti's tenure, King debacle and Rowett's first few tough fixtures. And Last 5 also contains those draws in tough games. Potentially none are reflective of where we are 'currently'

Projections: Oxford unlikely to maintain 'Last 5 form' but looking good regardless. Quite close to call between us, Blackburn and Portsmouth. The Run In: And how we performed in reverse fixture of remaining games:

So you're saying Sheffield Utd, Preston, Norwich, Stoke, Charlton and QPR could all potentially go down? They have to take close to 0 points over the next 9 or 10 games to do so.

Everyone above Portsmouth are basically safe. They’re not going to take 0-3 points out of 27 are they.

Really? Struggle to see anyone towards the bottom getting 50 or so. so it’s the bottom 6 I guess. Portsmouth with a game in hand though

One ‘advantage’ is that there’s 5 teams involved now

2 goals this season. Back in Nov vs Stoke and Sheff Utd. 19 games since then. (But scored vs Cheltenham in FA cup game in Jan)

a 20+ streak of games without clean sheets in 3 out of the last 4 seasons...

I think Monga has been drastically worse and ineffectual than Mavididi and Fatawu. Not his fault - he's only 16! Just don't think chucking a 16 year old into a relegation scrap is the answer.

I guess this is what I mean - they're both crap - those stats don't make for good reading for either of them. If Daka was playing instead, he'd have been in that picture but would he be in the right position to receive a pass? Even if he was, would he control it? Daka = pace, but terrible touch and positioning - killing a lot of attacks Ayew = touch, but no legs, so comes too deep and can't rejoin play - killing a lot of attacks It's a catch 22 and Rowett has no real choice but to keep rotating the pair of them. So it's largely moot anyhow.

Mavididi had 2 great chances from open play - one saved and another hit the post. Granted, Reid and Ayew weren't really involved in either. For Fatawu's goal, would Daka have reliably controlled the ball and done the bounce pass back to Skipp (as Ayew did) in the build up? Again, I'm interested if the stats can tell a different story as I feel I may have blinkers on for Daka (in the same way you do for Ayew) but I think had we started Daka instead, we would have lost the ball a lot more in Bristol's half and come under more pressure on transition because of it. Daka's good for coming on when he did - 30 mins to go and already 2-0 up, he can use the space that appears when the opposition are chasing the game. Just not sure he'd have been massively useful at 0-0

Difficult, since Skipp just had his best ever game for us...

We attacked better and scored the actual goals of the game with Ayew and Reid on the pitch. Obviously hard to divorce that from the way the match played out (i.e when we're 2-0 up with 30 mins to go the whole match has a different complexion). But I don't remember us having better play or attacks after Daka came on. I'd be interested in the respective stats of Ayew and Daka last night because based on the 'eyeball test' I remember Ayew controlling it in tight areas multiple times, which allowed attacks to continue (thinking that Daka would have never controlled it in the same way) and can't really remember any contribution of note from Daka. He had that terrible shot from 25 yards which dribbled slowly into the keeper's hands. Edit: for clarity - I think Daka and Ayew are both really poor in their respective ways, so I'm not passionate on one being better than the other or that one should/shouldn't be getting minutes. But think Ayew was much better suited to last night's game than Daka, especially in the first 60 mins. That was clearly Rowett's plan and it worked too.

Millwall are 3rd. Hull are 5th. We're close to the bottom. There's no 'easy' games.

A 16 year old was a bad fit for a game of last night's magnitude, similarly for an 18 year old with no skin in the game.