Definitely will - apologies if you thought I was disagreeing, what I was trying to say is I dont think they will fall off a cliff
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Definitely will - apologies if you thought I was disagreeing, what I was trying to say is I dont think they will fall off a cliff
UptheTofees
Player Valuation: £20m
Also
Our set piece scoring is so good. We will always be in any game even when not playing our best football, as was the case on Saturday with a Liverpool coming out for blood after an embarrassing loss.
James taking corners and free kicks to DCL, Keane, Mina, etc is just so lethal.
The set pieces will give us points we will have normally lost and will add to our consistency
Our set piece scoring is so good. We will always be in any game even when not playing our best football, as was the case on Saturday with a Liverpool coming out for blood after an embarrassing loss.
James taking corners and free kicks to DCL, Keane, Mina, etc is just so lethal.
The set pieces will give us points we will have normally lost and will add to our consistency
Toffe3m4n
Player Valuation: £80m
That's one of the things I'm most happy about with this season so far. The quality of James in those dead ball situations makes us a big, big threat when both Keane and Mina are being aimed at in the six yard box. Dom too.
thing is, as soon as you start conceding stupid goalls it knocks the confidence of the whole team and so you don't score as many. I reckon they will have a fight for top 4 this season, they are shocking in central defence. The anfield derby will be a dogfight as to who gets it i reckon.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
In all fairness I am also a bit susceptible to using data in such a way! I can never really understand theirs though. So it's either bady explained or calibrated.
I think mid 80's is going to be very closefor the title mind. This season already has the feel of quite a wild season to me, and could be the most open in a generation. It just has that feel to it.
ForeverBlue92
Player Valuation: £80m
Does Doucoure get in the box for corners or does he stay outside? Never noticed before but you would think he would attack a set piece with his size.
As I said in another post
Compressed season with more games in a shorter timespan
European travel leading to Covid concerns (Celtic ,Ronaldo ,The Scum)
No fans at the games
Already most goals per game that any of the last 10,and that all over Europe even Italy
Only 1 nil all draw so far this season
ITS going to be another asterisk PL season with a few crazy results along the way
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
I think there's 2 things happening concurrently. Firstly the chaos of Covid is having an equalising effect on the league. Secondly, the wider trend is for the league to become more balanced. 4 of the top 6 had already fallen way, City looked to be shaking last season and Liverpool are now joining them. Like lots of big orgs, over time you spend money less well, and then you are often more hit by turbulence. I think they are massivdly panicked by the no fans thing.
Anyway it's worth pointing these out, as many of the "experts" on football not only didn't see either coming, but when it was put to them rejected the entire premise that this could feasibly even happen, with a completely unwarranted disdain. To them the "top 6" (but actually 1-4, 6 and 9th in the league would be more apt) wiuld just magically take their place again. It's worth noting that, when they try and re-assert their idiocy again.
A lot of people see us as not even being ble to compete for the top 4. I see the opposite. Aston Villa could win the league this season. It sounds mad, as it probably id when people said Leicester could, but Aston Villa could do it. I'm not saying they will but they could. If they could, so could we.
None of those top teams have got into any kind of firm going into European football, which is going to exacerbate problems for them.
It feels like it did when Leicester won it. The top 6 went out and appointed Conte, Mourinho, Pep and Klopp to arrest that decline. They were all a big upgrade on te previous managers. I don't think such upgrades exist now. A top manager, a Pep or a Klopp is not leaving their job to go to United or Chelsea. I am not sure Ancelotti would go either.
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
Behave.
Toffeelover
Player Valuation: £80m
bitter-no-better
Player Valuation: £25m
Remember watching us under Silva defending set pieces! every time the opposition got a free or kick or corner you just knew a goal was coming. How things have changed. Italian organisation.
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
he was weirdly first to Rodriguez after his assist in the derby which makes me think he was waiting outside the box. Godfrey looks another aerial threat though which is good. It’s been a while since we’ve had a tall team that can intimidate opponents in both boxes.
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
There are certain similarities to the Leicester season which mean there could be a surprise top 4 or league winner. One being as you said the dearth of managerial quality in half the top 6. Lampard Solskjaer and Arteta are not top managers (yet). Lampard has already dropped at least 4 points that any top manager would not have dropped from winning positions. City and Liverpool are certainly weaker although I see both comfortably in the top 4. Injuries will also play a part, if Liverpool lost Mane for a long period they’d be right back into challenging for 4th. City won’t win the league if De Bruyne got crocked again as they don’t have Kompany Silva and younger Fernandinho and Aguero this time round to compensate.
The big thing for Everton and what makes us a complete outlier for any media predictions on my view is James Rodriguez. He is a genuine world class player that maybe lots in the media haven’t yet caught on to. Not just ‘class’ like the expressions thrown around about Fernandes, Bernardo, Coutinho etc. I’m talking about the level above that, a level that only a handful of players on the planet are at. He can literally win games by himself. He didn’t even play well in the derby yet opened up Liverpool’s defence with 3 or 4 passes that you might not see from any other player again this season! Seriously his through ball to DCL should have had a highlight reel of its own, a team splitting ball that didn’t even leave the deck from the right back area of the pitch! He put it on a plate for Richy on the back post, the assist to Keane, the ball into Digne for the goal, the cross field ball to Digne for the DCL chance. We could have scored 4 and he didn’t even play well!
A bit like Kante at Leicester and Suarez at Liverpool, world class players can drag average teams to high positions, they make everyone look better, and the rest of this team isn’t average by a long way. Digne is probably up there with the best left backs in world football at this moment, Richarlison would walk into any side in the world (including Liverpool, City, Madrid, Barcelona). Calvert Lewin is probably second to Lewandowski Benzema and Kane as the best target man striker in Europe. Allan is also a top level operator. Other areas of the team are weaker but if this team stays fit there is no reason we can’t make top 4 because we have 3 or 4 world class players being managed by a world class manager.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Yes good post.
No they are not. I suppose what distinguishes this from 5 years ago is 1- the damage those managers do, and 2) the chance of then attracting a top class manager. I think United, Arsenal and Chelsea are probably a bit further away from being the teams they were 5 years ago. I think Arteta stands a chance with Arsenal, but will take time, but the other two are out of their depth and continue to drag those teams backwards. Fernande solved a lot of problems for United last season, but even he looks a marked man. I think the league is wide open currently.
You are right about James. I was very open to signing him and said as much as early as March/April last year. I remember saying he would be our best player, by some distance. What always struck me, was he seemed to raise his game for Columbia, Monaco and Porto, which is sort of the level we are at now. He play well in teams where it's built entirely around him. You look at his stats, and he is De Bruyne esque. That was the quality of player we got. People wrote him off though, because he is 29.
You are right to say, what you do with class players, of whatever bracket gives a lot away. That final season under Martinez we had Barkley, Lukaku and Deulofeu all flying, none as good as James but really flying but we didn't have a manager who new how to develop a system to allow all 3 to develop. We ended up playing lads like Lennon and Cleverley to cover for defensive weaknesses further back, rather than just make the team solid. Ancelotti will not make those elementary mistakes. He has a front 3 who are all top class and the rest of the team will have to fit in around accomodating them.
I have to be clear, I'm not saying I think we will win the league. However, given the open nature of the league there is a roadmap to it. We need to keep winning games, but there's a path for us. I see we are linked with a top Ukranian player come January too. If we are top 1/2 in January we spend big again in the forward positions of that I am sure.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Realisticlly you commit 4 or 5 off corners. For us the 2 cb's, Godfrey, Richarlinson and DCl are likely those players.
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