Davefevs

I think it’s more a penalty than not a penalty, but it isn’t clear cut for me. The acid test for me is, would you have given a free-kick for it on the halfway line? If yes, it’s a penalty, if not, then fair enough. Where it happens is irrelevant. Contact is allowed.

Maybe just using it as a way to reinforce messages; - we were looking at loans in the summer (this one, maybe others) but they didn’t get done, so stop saying “I don’t like loans” - how an ex-PL team are further up the pecking order than us (not shit Sherlock) and recruitment isn’t a case of just getting who you want - any players we are contacting re potential loan in January, City might be a better option for you - about needing the odd “maverick” in your squad He was asked the Question re the Khadra sub / tactical change, and he answered it…and gave us some “nice” info in the process! I thought Khadra looked dangerous, and was quicker than Pring…but assume Nige must’ve heard Heckingbottom moaning about him not doing his yards in the other direction. It probably is a bit out of order some of the things said, but tame compared to the lack of class pretty much every week from Barton.

Was confirmed by Nige it was a clause in Martin’s favour, ie, if he made x appearances he could trigger an extra year. Nige said (even though he didn’t sign him) that it was something he quite liked, paraphrased, it’s a nice carrot for the player to push himself to get another year. Would imagine that is what Klose has in his “option”, e.g. if he makes x appearances he can trigger another year.

Yeah, not seen any stats per se. Re City, it’s clear from recent comments, Nige isn’t a back 3 man either, but he’s compromised because of the players he has. My big question is - how does he transition this squad to a back 4 system? My second biggest question is - how does that reflect on previous recruitment? My thoughts - why bring in wingbacks (Wilson)? Why recruit a ball-playing CB (Naismith) when you want a ball winner? My answer - he got what he could and adapted, and in an ideal world he’d have brought in different players. For pure speculation, had we signed Rinomhota (or similar) as our first signing, ie bringing in a ratty CM, might he have felt better about going with 2 CBs and using Rinomhota as the screen? The rest of recruitment might’ve revolved around whether he got Naismith or Rinomhota. Getting both wasn’t necessary / affordable. I’m intrigued where Khadra was gonna fit in….maybe it was as cover for someone leaving like Antoine?

I suspect you are the type of bloke who if a steward approached you and asked you to tone it down because there’d been a complaint, you’d respect that…and tone it down. I know I would.

Nobody is gonna take Chris Martin off our hands and pay him his current wage….it would cost us money to “mutually terminate” his contract. Even if we loaned him, nobody is gonna pay 100% of his wages, so it’s not gonna free much up, if anything at all. His contract renewal last season was because his appearances triggered an extra year. I’m guessing he won’t hit that trigger this season, and it will be “Viva La Vida” for Chris Martin in the summer. Because those radio commentators have little appreciation of what Chris Martin can and has done over his career, because they saw him for 10 games in 17/18 season, in what was a struggling Reading team. You only have to look back to last season and 19/20 season to see he can be effective at this level. He’s definitely over his peak, he’s 34 tomorrow, but hugely disrespectful for a guy who’s played well over 400 games at this level and scored over 100 goals. It might well be time to move on, but 6 months ago he was part of one of the best forward lines in this division, and he played a big part of that WSM.

It will change over time. Certain formations become en vogue, trying to mirror certain teams. We only have to go back to 66 and Alf’s 442 wingless wonders, and see how that changed how so many team played. And even within that, you have different styles. Re your 433 and how you’d play it, I see that as your “philosophy”, and if you were manager, you’d have a good idea of how you’d want to develop and recruit your squad to play that way. The squad you start with might be a million miles from it though, and that’s where the fun begins!

It is what it is, it’s better than infogol, but not as good as Statsbomb. There is also a difference between “understanding” and then “using” any stats. If a successful pass is counted purely because the next contact is by our player, you can have a player who gets a tick on the box even though it’s a hospital pass. Nagy was a good example of high pass success, but the pass receiver was sometimes played into trouble. That’s difficult to quantify by stats. In my head there’s a model that needs to show “what happens next” and then link that back, e.g. Nagy passes to 5 players with 90% success, but each of those 5 players have varying stats for retaining the ball. Does that highlight Nagy giving hospital passes, or does it highlight the receiving player deficiency. I’m a big believer in player pairings, combos, e.g. how does the RWB link with the CM and the RCB3. I digress. Football is far too fluid a game (as you state) to rely solely on stats, the eyes are still way more important. I like stats to be the “backing up” of what the eyes saw. And sometimes you’re surprised, although we shouldn’t be. In the main, us fans are “ball watchers”, we aren’t looking at off the ball stuff, shape changes etc. You can of course use stats for trends. You are right, there is great opportunity to use stats to streamline the search for new players. Take Joe Ward at Peterborough for example. We are looking for a creative RWB. Just knocking up a set of scatter diagrams shows that he does a lot of (x axis): - passes to the pen area - through passes - crosses (Ignore free-kicks / corners) compared to all Lg1 FBs/WBs But, how accurate (y-axis) is he: - average success for passes - slightly above average for through passes - average for crosses You can obviously repeat this for many other “stats”….I have an additional 17 (plus the 4 above) of these that help me build a data picture of a player, both with and without ball. I’d still have lots of Qs, like: - how much of his volume is because of the team he plays for and their style of play So, can help you fine tune, but it can’t tell me everything, and nor do I ever start by looking at data…unless someone asks me - “who is the best ball winner in Lg1/2 who can pass well”. You’d still caveat it massively!

Hereford home to Portsmouth on Friday night, assume it’s the televised game….???

Ta, he didn’t stop it for long enough then ?

How does he do it then!

Yes, he stood his ground and Scott ran into the back of him.

WTF

Was that when Scott ran into the back of him?

When we got our first VCR (VHS I’ll have you know too!) we went to the local video rental store, my bruv hired the Who “Kids are alright”, and I hired a compilation of the 1972 FA Cup run. Must’ve been early 80s. That goal was on it.

I can disagree (have a different opinion to you) on some of your points, but I can also see why you take the side of the fence you do in the examples you give. Re Finances, pretty confident Nige doesn’t get involved with contracts, so I see why you could say RG has the harder job….but Nige is the one who has to put up with the outcome. And he seems to understand his position, the situation and get on with it. He will try to put together the best squad he can with the resources he has. Those resources are pretty thin. Whether he gets beyond the summer window, who knows, but at that point it’s his squad. Every player with the exception of Joe Williams will either have been signed by him, contract extended by him or come through academy. The make up of that squad will tell us a lot about where the club stand, ie have we been able to re contract the OOC players he wants to keep on agreeable terms or we’ve met the go and he’s brought in new players. We can judge whether it looks like progress. He will’ve been in job for 2y6m at that point (slightly less as permie manager)…but that shows how long it can take to build foundations and start to embed progress. Of course the financial situation could mean we are still nowhere near to where we’d want to be. We can continue to judge all the way through. Re a replacement in future, if we want a younger type, then we have to provide the experience elsewhere in the structure to support them, not like with Holden…although you could argue Simpson and Downing were the solution there…personally I think it was the link between him and the board that had the glaring hole.

It was in one of the interviews, I heard it.

Out of interest, how does the 4th official “tot-up” the time to be added. I’m led to believe it’s 30s for each goal and each batch of subs, e.g. 2 goals and 6 batches of subs equals +4m. But what about injuries, time wasting (even if by crowd not throwing ball back), etc? Does he keep a tally? I appreciate normal ball going out of play and retrieved isn’t added.

I think some love a good whinge! ? I don’t mind having an opposite view to anybody on here. You can still have a good discussion on it Joe and learn from others…sometimes it can be as simple as seeing from a different seat at the ground. On OSIB tonight Stanley thought the sub of Semenyo for Sykes and swapping Weimann was the momentum changer. I agree, more than the Martin for Wells sub. I think the point I’m trying to make is only some of the players fall into that category, the whole squad is not mid-table imho. One of our ever-presents is “league one at best” ? and he isn’t being paid top ten!

Wyscout was BC 1.32 v SU 0.62

But Sharp was involved in play.

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2022/08/english-championship-stats-2022-23/

There are stats, and you can see basic crossing volumes versus crossing success in the FBRef data. But if you want the level of detail you’re after, then it’s beyond the money you and I can justify spending, ie. You’re in the domain of pro clubs. My personal view is that too often we take the first chance to cross / create, rather than wait for the optimal opportunity. We don’t probe for the right time to play the killer ball, like Man City do for example. We are a bit rushed in our approach when we get into the final third. Did we really need to put in some of those “percentage” crosses last night, or showed a bit of patience to work a better opening. when I say this, I’m talking about when we are in controlled possession, rather than on the counter attack. When on the counter you are trying to use your attack in a different way, and time / speed is of the essence.

Book him for the foul, then book him again. Off you go. That’s the answer.

You’ve just won the whole internet ??????