Premier League Thread 2019/20

[WigstonWanderer]

What do people think about this latest study on the effects of heading a football on dementia? I well remember that photo of Jeff Astle heading a ball and it wrapping around his forehead, when it first came out, Daily Mail IIR.

 

I wonder if the study is effectively out of date as most of the results would have been based on players who would have been heading the old style balls. If they were anything like the ones we had at school they were usually full of water and weighed a ton, not to mention the laces leaving an imprint on your forehead. Modern balls as I understand are much lighter and waterproof, hopefully less dangerous.

Edited 22 October 2019 by WigstonWanderer

[reynard]

5 minutes ago, WigstonWanderer said:

What do people think about this latest study on the effects of heading a football on dementia? I well remember that photo of Jeff Astle heading a ball and it wrapping around his forehead, when it first came out, Daily Mail IIR.

 

I wonder if the study is effectively out of date as most of the results would have been based on players who would have been heading the old style balls. If they were anything like the ones we had at school they were usually full of water and weighed a ton, not to mention the laces leaving an imprint on your forehead. Modern balls as I understand are much lighter and waterproof, hopefully less dangerous.

You could claim that but I think that would be unfair. It is important to remember that dementia usually, I respect the fact that there can be early onset dementia, develops slowly over time so the effects of the modern ball will not be known for some time yet. As I understand it the study is completely appropriate to those of a certain age who may be showing the development of dementia.

It probably isn't just about the weight of the ball but also about the frequency of heading it, the velocity at which the ball is travelling etc. If you are a defender consistently heading away, for eg, goal kicks coming at you from a greater height, then is the danger more significant than if you are say a winger who just heads the ball from time to time and when the ball is generally travelling at a lesser speed or from a lesser height. Logic would suggest the risk to be less but the facts might not back this up.

I think it is a very important study. I'm glad football is taking it seriously and it is about time boxing did similar studies about the potential long term effects of continuoisly being hit in the head.

[StanSP]

8 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

Eye opening from Evra, saying they let Moyes down and players started turning against him 

Wonder if they were called snakes at the time... 

[Ric Flair]

Wilder is class but people are right, his no nonsense attitude and hammering his players in public if they lose would be very precarious to do if he were at a bigger club. You need that buy in from the players, staff and fans etc but how many times before have we seen managers struggle at a bigger club because they aren't accepted?

 

There's an art to man management and he has done well everywhere he's been but he's also had little expectation on him and not had to win people over that much. I'd love him to replace Southgate but could envisage he'd be hounded out eventually.

[KrefelderFox666]

3 hours ago, Koke said:

 

I know we are currently 3rd.

 

But I see Spurs as a threat. They are bad now but they're still a good side and can put together a crazy tun. We just need to create as big of a gap as we can now.

 

Arsenal are really average. If we dont beat them at home I will be so dissatisfied. We should finish 5th at the very least.

Good post, a lot of people are getting a little carried away.

 

We have been fairly average as well to be fair, been quite lucky to pick up as many points as we have.

 

Man City and Liverpool are obviously runaway teams. I think Chelsea will be decent taking 3rd. Arsenal are good enough to grab 4th and should, even if it is really close.

 

You'd expect Spurs to do something at some point but could the bad start cost them?

 

We are certainly more than capable of being the best of the rest so 5th/6th is very realistic if we can continue to win/pick up points at home and those games that we are "expected" to. So far so good, but 29 games to go. I think New Year will be a good indicator as to what is possible. It's positive!

[Stevosevic]

8 hours ago, treer said:

which teams are you thinking are in top 4 race at the moment?

I just think it's early days for us so don't want to get my hopes up just yet 

[weller54]

I think we'll finish 4th behind Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea. 

Spuds 5th 

Arse 6th. 

[treer]

28 minutes ago, KrefelderFox666 said:

Good post, a lot of people are getting a little carried away.

 

Couldn't disagree more, I think a lot of people are underestimating how much potential their is.

Champions League quali is imperative, gives us a lot better chance of keeping squad together, and also attracting new players.

Apart from poor ref at Anfield media would have us in the mix for top spot

The decision to penalise Perez and deny Vardy a one on one in the 85 min was worse than than the Watford non penalty against the bottlers. It just wasn't on tv

[UniFox21]

2 minutes ago, treer said:

Couldn't disagree more, I think a lot of people are underestimating how much potential their is.

Champions League quali is imperative, gives us a lot better chance of keeping squad together, and also attracting new players.

Apart from poor ref at Anfield media would have us in the mix for top spot

The decision to penalise Perez and deny Vardy a one on one in the 85 min was worse than than the Watford non penalty against the bottlers. It just wasn't on tv

We're not even 10 games into the season. It's a great start but we have a long long way to go. Wait till Christmas before anyone gets carried away.

[foxfanazer]

5 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

We're not even 10 games into the season. It's a great start but we have a long long way to go. Wait till Christmas before anyone gets carried away.

Absolutely. There are positives for sure but I don't actually think we've hit anywhere near top gear yet which is encouraging if we can get there. We've added a bit of grit which is good to see. I'd say we're profiting from a lot of clubs being in dreadful form whilst we are looking steady

 

I don't feel like the expectation should be top 4 but it certainly is achievable this season if we continue in the same vain

Edited 22 October 2019 by foxfanazer

[Dahnsouff]

8 minutes ago, treer said:

Couldn't disagree more, I think a lot of people are underestimating how much potential their is.

Champions League quali is imperative, gives us a lot better chance of keeping squad together, and also attracting new players.

Apart from poor ref at Anfield media would have us in the mix for top spot

The decision to penalise Perez and deny Vardy a one on one in the 85 min was worse than than the Watford non penalty against the bottlers. It just wasn't on tv

Be careful with that word!

Balance, focus, pragmatism coupled with quiet optimism is whats needed.

[HighPeakFox]

I think we need a new thread entitled 'Potential '...

[UniFox21]

9 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Absolutely. There are positives for sure but I don't actually think we've hit anywhere near top gear yet which is encouraging if we can get there. We've added a bit of grit which is good to see. I'd say we're profiting from a lot of clubs being in dreadful form whilst we are looking steady

 

I don't feel like the expectation should be top 4 but it certainly is achievable this season if we continue in the same vain

Huge positives to take, but also some negatives to take on board and things we can and need to improve on.

We can definitely get better, but so can a large number of other teams. I agree we are benefiting from others being poor early on. 

 

I'm hoping for a European place, and that's what we need to achieve to continue developing as a club. 

[rachhere]

If we follow the same rate of points accumulation during the rest of the season, we are currently on track for 71/72 points, which last year would have got Top 4. Man U are currently on track for 42 points . 

 

Not sure if this person is on here, but I saw these really interesting stats this morning:

 

 

[ScouseFox]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Wilder is class but people are right, his no nonsense attitude and hammering his players in public if they lose would be very precarious to do if he were at a bigger club. You need that buy in from the players, staff and fans etc but how many times before have we seen managers struggle at a bigger club because they aren't accepted?

 

There's an art to man management and he has done well everywhere he's been but he's also had little expectation on him and not had to win people over that much. I'd love him to replace Southgate but could envisage he'd be hounded out eventually.

yeah, he's very nigel pearson. and even when we had players who weren't any good, just thought they were, pearson had to just get rid of them all and nearly turned the fans against him.

 

let's not pretend that if somehow a top 6 club gave someone like wilder a job, the first time he called someone like dele alli out in an interview for playing badly he'd just say sound i'm leaving you little midget. 

[FoxFossil]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

I think we need a new thread entitled 'Potential '...

Or one called 40 points first please.

[Guest Fktf]

1 hour ago, rachhere said:

 

 

 

This is why people are getting excited. We've had quite a tough opening, and here we are in third place. But, we've always had a good points return from games against the big sides. I take the games like Southampton as an indicator of whether we'll manage to push for European spots - top teams consistently take 3 points against the weaker sides in the league. 

Edited 22 October 2019 by Fktf

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, Fktf said:

This is why people are getting excited. We've had quite a tough opening, and here we are in third place. But, we've always had a good points return from games against the big sides. I take the games like Southampton as an indicator of whether we'll manage to push for European spots - top teams consistently take 3 points against the weaker sides in the league. 

Spot on. Most teams raise it a bit against historic top sides, but outside the so called "big 6", there are 13 other teams we play, so thats a total of 78 points available.

These are the teams that often sit deep, but these are your bread and butter, and where your Euro places comes from.

[rachhere]

7 minutes ago, Fktf said:

This is why people are getting excited. We've had quite a tough opening, and here we are in third place. But, we've always had a good points return from games against the big sides. I take the games like Southampton as an indicator of whether we'll manage to push for European spots - top teams consistently take 3 points against the weaker sides in the league. 

I get that. I more meant to emphasise that our competitors seem to be struggling this year. I honestly think Man City are in a right mess with their CB shortage, and that once the fixture list gets more intense over Christmas, they will be dropping even more points (by mess I mean that in contrast to how they were last season when the media were discussing whether they would get through the year without losing a single game). 

 

I am confident we will do well at Southampton. The real bench mark for me will be Crystal Palace - we have had such a terrible time against them in recent years, so it will be interesting to see whether we can restore the balance. 

[surrifox]

great time to be a City fan and I agree that we are well positioned in the table despite not really hitting top form yet. In 2015-16 we had some pretty dire performances and hugely frustrating outcomes against the likes of Bournemouth, arsenal  and west Ham not to mention the cup competitions so the omens are quite good. 

I don't expect Chelsea to sustain their challenge as I'm not sure there is real quality in the side and the lampard bounce will only take them so far and don't think that Spurs can regain their past "glory" until there is some major surgery at the club. You can't rule out Everton or even west ham putting a run together once they agree that being crap is not the best way forward

[mozartfox]

3 hours ago, KrefelderFox666 said:

Good post, a lot of people are getting a little carried away.

 

We have been fairly average as well to be fair, been quite lucky to pick up as many points as we have.

 

Man City and Liverpool are obviously runaway teams. I think Chelsea will be decent taking 3rd. Arsenal are good enough to grab 4th and should, even if it is really close.

 

You'd expect Spurs to do something at some point but could the bad start cost them?

 

We are certainly more than capable of being the best of the rest so 5th/6th is very realistic if we can continue to win/pick up points at home and those games that we are "expected" to. So far so good, but 29 games to go. I think New Year will be a good indicator as to what is possible. It's positive!

Some fair comments, but do you not think Liverpool have had some luck?  Against us and the Blades comes to mind.

 

We have only played really well in half our games - true. Hopefully we step up a gear soon, plus we have had a difficult run of games bar 2 or 3, although all games are difficult in the EPL.

[Ric Flair]

40 minutes ago, Fktf said:

This is why people are getting excited. We've had quite a tough opening, and here we are in third place. But, we've always had a good points return from games against the big sides. I take the games like Southampton as an indicator of whether we'll manage to push for European spots - top teams consistently take 3 points against the weaker sides in the league. 

I suppose the reason to be excited is that we've only won 1 of the 4 games against the top teams and it's been our form against our supposed weakness, the crap teams that has propelled us in to the top 3. If we continue to negotiate stubborn defences and improve our away form then we have every chance of a top 6 finish this season.

[Nicolo Barella]

Spurs are having an absolutely torrid start and they're still 7th lol. Bit depressing. 

[Dan]

7 hours ago, Koke said:

 

Eddie Howe came up with Bournemouth with a bunch of lower league players (many of them still there) and he has stayed up comfortably ever since whilst playing much better football than Sheffield United.

 

I like Wilder but they are hard to watch. I hope he doesn't become another Sean Dyche in this league. 

Their defensive record is superb. I think Dyche comparisons are unfair as Burnley ship more than you'd think, contrary to most I actually think they're better going forward than given credit for even if it's functional rather than anything too intricate. Sheffield United are genuinely shutting teams like Arsenal and Everton out with one of the poorest man for man squads this league's had in years. That isn't normal. Yesterday wasn't a smash and grab they genuinely at no point looked under any threat.

[Blue ROI]

11 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Spurs are having an absolutely torrid start and they're still 7th lol. Bit depressing. 

They don't have an easy run of games from here to January though.

 

Might get through Champions League group but 2 losses could erode confidence further.