It took about 5 years for MOTD to show xG and we still have idiots crying about it. We're a bit way off starting to adopt xA yet.
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It took about 5 years for MOTD to show xG and we still have idiots crying about it. We're a bit way off starting to adopt xA yet.
Mainly because it's used by people who have got nothing interesting to say about football.
I wonder if the introduction of shots and possession stats saw the same backlash or if it's just a sign of the age of misinformation we now find ourselves in.
Jesus, this Arsenal game is not watchable, they should paint every pitch like this to kill off streaming.
That those use xG have got nothing interesting to say about football, and those that say interesting things about football don't use xG.
Isn't that a manc Sean quote?
Like all stats in the freeform game of soccer it is Buzz T. Killington, but if we're going to have stats we might as well use good ones.
He told some Simons off with it in the Lawrence Arms.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
What's going on with Sam's boys? Not like him having defensively inept teams.
Bottom 6 all with English managers. Can we get a passport check on Dean Smith, please.
These NY party stories of footballers breaking restrictions are disgusting[ly funny]. We're all out here saving lives and we've got Benjamin Mendy phoning round a modelling agency asking for tick tings.
:drool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Waffdon
Kind of true tbf. It is incredibly dull. Working with football data every day has made it quite hard to view football through any other lens. Not sure the red pill was worth it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewis
As I said somewhere else, baseball is miles ahead (both in advancement and years) of all the other sports in statistical optimisation, and what it leads to is an existential CRISIS about how to make the game more exciting again - the dynamism of base stealing/base running has more or less gone out of the game as they've realised that the optimal strategy in most cases is basically to swing as hard as possible for power, which makes it an optimised game but a very one-dimensional game.
The football equivalents we are already starting to see I think - at a guess, I would say people are being told not to take defenders on on the outside as there is probably a much lesser goal percentage from those areas of the pitch than there is from inside. Dribbling is basically dead, and I wouldn't be surprised to see long range shooting get outlawed from upstairs reasonably soon, as you're just giving them the ball back. Nothing is a better example than the optimised goal kicks that go sideways to miss the press.
I think corner kicks are a real pre-historic area. I don't think teams have clocked on to the fact they can reap the rewards of the practice of teams overcomitting to attacking corners yet. Those late corners in games are such a goldmine for goals on the counter and given teams still like to send both CBs up for standard corners, there's great scope for defending teams to send a few attackers upas the corner is being taken to capitalise on the break.
The thing I don't get from these optimisation trends is the vast number of goals that seem to stem directly from faffing around with the ball at the back (and not beating the press) [in open defiance of the much maligned conventional wisdom] - which is surely one of the major factors behind the no possession movement which is gaining serious traction at the moment. Letting an average team have the ball in their own half is actually quite a good attacking strategy.
Football is a much less one dimensional game that baseball, so I don't really see how a one size (Fitz Hall) master strategy can exist. Like when Jupp Heynkes Blitzkreig wrecked the edifice of tiki taka. Constant adaptation is needed. Or just having better players.
The end-point of all this will be going back to long ball stuff. Not Big Samball, but proper olden days, aimless kick and rush rubbish. You will need a fancier term for 'in the mixer' but the logic is there.
Hoofball.
Call it "Route Eins" and have it be championed by some neurotic sex pest German. Guaranteed winner.
Every morning at 3:30 am an alarm goes off in the immaculate, tastefully-decorated house owned by Adolf Nonce. Its sole purpose is to remind him to re-watch the 1984 FA Cup final. 'In Germany Graham Taylor is respected as the pre-eminent tactician of the sport', he tells me. 'He did that Aldi advert!'
Since being appointed by FC Grafeneck four years ago 'The Gasmen' have won three successive domestic titles utilising a revolutionary approach prioritising territorial advantage over possession. This 'Spielraum' (loosely translated as 'play[ing]-space') is, according to their charismatic manager...
THE ATHLETIC
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That is superb 👏
:D
That is good.
Another scintillating spectacle of shape here.
The discipline of the Longstaff brothers in midfield, this is why they tune in around the world.
I wonder whether the lack of a crowd has allowed managers to better organise their players (into shape!) in both terms of being able to be heard, and not having players getting overexcited by the rush of the crowd?
Time wasting in the first half of a home game that you aren't even winning is all-time low stuff.
What happened when Newcastle played Burnley? Did they both just stay in their own halves and look at the ball sitting on the centre spot for 90 minutes?
On the assumption that Turbo Timo isn't a complete write-off that looks to be the best front three/team Chelsea can put out (is James suspended?).
He was meant to get surgery and then started the Arsenal game without training so I presume he’s still injured.
Be interesting to see Werner finally through the middle with the two best players either side of him. Could have a field day if City play with a high line
Are City playing with no striker?
Was that backup goalkeeper for Man City 52 million quid?
Edit - ah, £5.2m. Sign of the times that I wasn’t overly surprised if it was 52.
I always thought Raheem Sterling as a 'false nine' was the obvious Sergio Aguero succession plan, but I don't know now they're shit. It might be overdoing it 'Pep' 2011/12 style (the birth of 'Pep' Watch).
Saint-Maximin was electric and destroyed them. Finished 3-1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
That was coming - after about 15 minutes of every game we stop playing and start chasing shadows for ten minutes. Literally don't think we touched the ball for at least five minutes before that other than goal kicks. Happened against Arsenal, happened against West Ham but fortunately they were too shit to take advantage.
Edit: still haven't touched it up to the second goal. They should easily get a third now too.
Surely he doesn’t survive much longer. City look like they can score when they want here
That’s extremely poor.
Lampard :harold:
If United were 8th after buying a whole team in the summer Ole would be getting absolutely savaged.
Chelsea have looked absolutely rancid everytime I've seen them since starting to watch football again.
Looks like the sort of clueless shit Frank himself was subjected to by many of his managers during his time with England.
Foden on Zouma there :D
Still waiting for the first specific criticism of Lampard, rather than 'he is useless'. Not seen one in any outlet all season. I can't even see one myself, we are just a generally careless team.
And that goal was just four consecutively hugely lucky breaks in about 20 seconds in between Sterling making a mess of it.
You’ve beaten one team in the top ten all season and that was West Ham.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
His teams are absolutely dreadful defensively apart from a small period where Mendy looked like the second coming of Jesus. Losing 3 goals to these City and Arsenal sides is horrific
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Kante was on his own which fucked you last season also when Martinelli scored from his own half. Should never leave it to a one on one foot race
What you should be asking yourself is just what the sweet fuck he's adding. My mum selecting XI players out of a hat would arguably do better than what Lampard is achieving. It was clear since day he had no coaching nor tactical ability but he's the epitome of how substance is irrelevant.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
These are wrong outcomes, not wrong processes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waffdon
Yeah, how do you specifically criticize a a manager? Chelsea look poorly set-up, can't defend, and play with precious little ambition against anyone half-decent. He has no idea what his best team is (perhaps excusable) or how he wants them to play. In many ways, cultivating a young team was a much better way forward for him, even if those specific players weren't going to make it at the toppest most top level. All that said, bringing in half a team and expecting it to work absolutely never works unless the league is ridiculously unbalanced/uncompetitive.
He's left Kante as the sole defender. It's the most basic of coaching fails akin to Man Utd at Istanbul.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Same thing happened against West Ham the other week too but it was Haller through on goal and not Sterling so he was caught up within seconds
The issue defensively is generally that we're not very good on the transition when we lose the ball and are hugely vulnerable through the middle, which is generally because whichever one of Jorginho/Kovacic is playing might as well not exist, meaning that Kante has to cover the entire pitch. We also tend to over-commit our full backs given that fact, although they have created a large number of our attacking threats so you win some you lose some.
I would think we probably need some extra steel in midfield and it's down to Lampard to organise that, but at the same time had this been Conte or Mourinho or our other recent managers (who all had far worse seasons than this) there would not be this long queue to USELESS him.
Your Essex bumboy wouldn't have been able emulate half the success of Sarri, don't bring their name into comparisons with this joke.
Before United signed him I said Chelsea should go for David Moyes, and now why not?
I'm not watching the game, but from I've read it sounds pretty incredible that not only was a back-pass given for the first time in years, but the referee seemingly randomly picked a spot to give the free kick from.