HiddenGem7

More "big" teams means more teams that will have an expectation of doing well, which they cannot all do, plus more chance of them all taking points off each other. Its more or less guaranteed that one or more of these teams will under-perform, resulting in sacked managers and even more turmoil. We need to put ourselves in a position to take advantage if that happens. I certainly don't see one team dominating the league.

Allianz is really good and Munich a fabulous city not on many peoples radar in my experience. Worth trying to get a game against a team that can give Bayern a game though (CL or top Bundesliga) as games against weaker teams or end of season dead rubbers can be quite dull.

Pearson has, over the period of a year or more, trained local journalists to become better at their own jobs using Pavlov's techniques to punish poor questions and reward good ones.

And this highlights the other issue with xG - it takes no account of the players ability. A chance would get the same xG regardless if it fell to Haaland or Jay DaSilva (no disrespect intended to JD but he isn't a great finisher). Clearly one would have a greater likelihood of scoring any given chance than the other but the xG system simply ignores it.

They played a few different formations. Yes in some games they played 3 at the back with a midfield four with Wilson on the right, and in other games they played a back four with Wilson at FB, just as I said. I didn't say he exclusively played in a four.

Pearson has said a few times in interview that he likes a back four but hasn't had the personnel - presumably his recruitment may be to remedy that. Wilson played in a back four last season. Agree with you about Dasilva - maybe that's where Naismith will play?

I suspect Nige is looking to play a 4-2-3-1 at some point in the future, something like: Bentley Wilson Klose Naismith Dasilva James Williams Weimann Scott Semenyo Martin Sykes taking Semenyo's place while he is injured.

I feel like ticket price are cheaper today relative to average income than they were 30 years ago - i seem to recall (and I may be wrong) that at my first game in 1993, my dad paid £18 for his ticket in the Grandstand. That would be a much larger chunk of the average weekly pay pay packet than £40 odd quid would be today.

I'd like to see retrospective 3 match bans for clear diving i.e. no contact made at all. Also not a rule as such but really liked when Lee Johnson wrote to all the clubs in our league saying we wouldn't kick the ball out if their players go down - that seemed to make a big difference to time-wasting.

I'm sure he is doing a great job, but the German scientist reminds me of the Human Centipede movie.

It's relevant because this whole argument revolves around whether moving from Chelsea Women to FGR men is a step up or a step down, which is a valid discussion point and is not being helped by some people immediately jumping on others with accusations of sexism and bigotry for expressing an opinion on that point. I for one hope she is given the opportunity and does a great job, for me the move would be a step down in terms of club history/acheivements etc but a step up in quality of players, speed and power of the game and so on.

You can't have listened to Pearson's interviews very much if you think he would ever give that sort of assurance. He has said multiple times that he doesn't care about players being upset about not being selected or what position that they would "prefer" to play.

Player chopping up mushrooms - "what are you making?" - "Oreo cheesecake"

It seems clear that the advent of data analytics is starting to drive perverse behaviours on the pitch, with some players clearly more concerned with preserving their Pass Completion %age than making progressive passes. Liam Walsh is one that always seemed to me to be doing this, and that may have been down to LJ's belief in stats. Pearson seems less interested in data than previous managers, but its clearly still important and is discussed in group sessions.

Pearson would be mad to renew COD's contract imo. He has very very rarely contributed effectively, and his stats back it up - 9 goals in 155 apps is absolutely woeful for an advanced player, and his assist stats are almost as bad. If we need a left sided attacking player, we need to look elsewhere, simple as.