Harry

8 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

But then Grealish was instrumental in them winning the historic treble so

Bizarrely I think Pep allows Doku to play more like Grealish than he allows Grealish to. 

This is correct. 
Grealish was excellent in their treble winning season. The disrespect he gets is mental. He’s one of the most technically gifted footballers this country has ever produced. 
 

This season started slowly for him due to injury and I think he’s only started 10 premier league games. 
When you actually compare stats side by side with Doku, Grealish actually compares favourably. 
 

The way they are allowed to play is different. Doku has more freedom and is allowed to be more individualistic whereas Pep seems to want Jack to be more disciplined. 

This season, based on the minutes they’ve played (of which Doku is 50% more than Jack) Grealish has more passes per 90, more successful passes per 90 and more key passes per 90. Grealish also gets 50% of his shots on target and scores every 3.3 shots whilst Doku gets 54% of his shots on target but only scores every 10.3 shots. 
Why is this? Is he just shooting when a pass is a better option??? 
 

Jack completed 2.4 dribbles per 90 vs Doku at 8.19 dribbles per 90. 

Goals conceded. Grealish 0.81 per 90, Doku 1.02 per 90. 
Clean sheets, 40% Jack, 34% Doku. 
 

Basically Man City are more likely to keep a clean sheet with Grealish playing. It’s quite clear from the stats that Grealish is expected to play in a more controlled and disciplined way whilst Doku is allowed free rein to dribble and shoot. 
 

In summary, Jack is stifled, but yet still creates more chances. 
 

As for Doku in the cup final. No one has praised Wan Bissaka (except Scott Minto on Talksport, he’s the only one who has pointed this out). Bissaka is a superb 1v1 defender. Doku tried to run at him all day and Bissaka only got beaten by him once. The only times Doku created something was when Garnacho came back to cover and he cut inside and wrong footed Garnacho. This was where the goal came from (that the keeper should save by the way). 

I thought Bissaka deserved MoM for his defensive display. Yet he hardly even got a mention. 
 

Ultimately though, Doku vs Grealish is a bad comparison to attempt because Man City play a completely different way when Doku plays. 

27 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Leeds loanees returning this summer!

Saints thoroughly deserved the win today.

Right…on with the window!

I think the transfer business by both Leeds and Southampton this season was quite interesting. 
Leeds sold about £30m of players and brought in about £30m of players. 
Southampton sold about £160m of players and only brought in about £20m of players. 

Although Saints relied more on loans (Bellis, Downes, Brooks, Fraser, Rothwell). 

Leicester spent £40m and sold £100m  

I know it’s easy to say that the relegated teams should go back up, but Southampton definitely had the tougher task of the 3 of them, with the players they lost and the amount spent on incomings. 

37 minutes ago, petehinton said:

He’s only 18!!

Yeah, that’s kinda my point though mate. 
The commentators hype him up so much but he isn’t yet at that level that they hype him up to be. 
He is a good player and he WILL be a very good player, but at the moment he’s only 18 and isn’t consistent enough nor experienced enough at this level. As evidenced by the goal today. 
Don’t get me wrong, I like him and he’s a good player, but he is massively overhyped at the moment 

The much hyped Archie Gray was actually the 5th best right back to play at Wembley this weekend. 
Wan-Bissaka was immense for Man U yesterday. You’ve then got Walker. Kyle Walker-Peters next. And Dalot too. 
As said earlier i like Gray but he isn’t yet at the level the comms hype him up to be. 
 

And the goal was his fault as he was 5 yards behind his Cb’s 

Leeds

1 minute ago, RoystonFoote'snephew said:

Over 86,000 at Wembley today, 2000 more than yesterday's Manchester Cup final. 

86,703 when we were there v Hull 

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I sense a red card coming up…no idea for which team though.

I’ve no idea how Junior Firpo hasn’t even got a yellow yet. He’s pulled his man back 3 times now. Usually it’s a yellow if your man is past you and you pull him back. He’s done 3 without any consequence so far 

And Archie Gray does a foul throw

11 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Spot on.

Remember Victor Wanyama? Absolute top quality player.

The way out of poverty in Kenya is usually middle distance running but as he showed, the talent exists that would make the grade in high level football.

Wanyama was lucky enough to go to a County school, which has government funding. Many school have no funding and rely on ‘harambee’, as described earlier in this thread. The kids from the harambee schools have no chance of getting into a properly organised football team

Oh, and the massive Leeds bias in the comms is hilarious. 
 

22 minutes ago, petehinton said:

We need to find a way to keep Archie Gray playing for England, give him a senior cap asap please sir Gareth 

I particularly enjoyed how the commentators had just waxed lyrical about him for 5 minutes and then 10 seconds later he’s sleeping 5 yards behind the rest of his defence playing Armstrong onside for the goal. 
But, because they’d just been singing his praises for 5 minutes they couldn’t bring themselves to blame him and so blamed Ampadu instead

Personally I think Archie Gray will be a good player in the future but I think that in the here and now he’s very very overrated. He’s good, and WILL be very good, but right now he’s not as good as he’s hyped up to be. 
Funny also when he fluffed an easy pass for a 4 on 2 counter attack and they someone managed to say how unlucky he was with it. 

 

15 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Think we did better than "stifle" from memory. It was mostly his attitude towards the journo if I'm honest. No need for it - same with Klopp, show some respect!

Managers get prickly when their teams don’t perform. 
 

6 hours ago, Aaron-Bcfc said:

Kenya’s national team is very, very poor.

If anything it will knock a bit of value off his price tag. Flying halfway across the globe for international duty and potentially missing a month of a season through AFCON.

Kenya’s team is indeed poor but I can confirm that having spent some time over there volunteering in some schools and indeed playing football against some of the kids, there is a huge amount of untapped potential. 
There is a huge class divide over there. 
 

The only kids who get the opportunities to play for one of the ‘big’ teams or to even get an chance to showcase themselves at the academies and tournaments are those from a more ‘well off’ background (well, as ‘well off’ as you can be in Kenya). 
The kids I met over there were from the slums of Nairobi and trust me when I say that some of these lads were the most skilful and intelligent footballers I’ve ever played against. 
Their problem is that they will just never ever get given the opportunity to get into a pro club. They can’t even get a trial or a place in a tournament unless they have money. 
One lad I met was playing against us in a pair of boots that were knackered and 2 sizes too small for him and yet he was, in my opinion, at least capable of National League football, possibly even higher. His brain, his skills, his football intelligence, his technique, his awareness was all superb. But the poor kid will never ever ever be given an opportunity. 
I said it when I was out there and I still maintain the opinion now - if a pro club from Europe spent some time out there in the poor neighbourhoods and gave some of these kids an opportunity, they would without a doubt cultivate a successful platform. There is huge untapped potential in the country if you look outside of the ‘paid-for’ academies and tournaments. 

11 minutes ago, petehinton said:

It’s literally always, always about him. Coming out by himself without his squad to clap fans before the teams come out, and always making sure he’s the last one at FT left on his own taking in applause without his team too. 
 

Maybe he just appreciates the fans and realises he’s in a privileged position as the custodian of their club. 

21 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Post-match interview after the game at St Mary's he gave us no credit for what I thought was a decent first half performance, but then also had a pop at the Southampton-based journo, who was just doing his job, which for me is poor form. 

Maybe I'm judging him unfairly. I have subsequently listened to a couple of his pressers (after wins!) where he comes across fine. 

 Not sure why we’d want opposition managers to be complimentary about us. 
Why should he give a fluck that we managed to keep them to 0-0 in the first half. He’s focussed on what his team are doing. 
For me, that almost shows an arrogance on OUR part, not in his, wanting him to give us recognition because we stifled his side for 45 minutes. 

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Arrogant. Rarely gives credit to opposition / says his team were best type stuff.  I get that most managers don’t but he does it in a way that really bugs me. So there!

Yep. Was gonna say, what manager doesn’t. But you quantified that bit yourself. 
So it’s just a personal ‘impression’ kinda thing? 
From what I gather, he’s actually quite a lovely and generous bloke. 
I just don’t understand the hate for him 

3 hours ago, Swede said:

I meant to add that Farke is respectful whereas Martin is a grade A dick.

A lot of folks seem to have a real hatred for Russell Martin. 
Can anyone explain why? 
I quite like him personally so it would be good to understand where the dislike for him derives. 

59 minutes ago, CodeRed said:

GJ probably will appoint Lee, he won't be able to resist - but given LJ has been sacked at his last 4 jobs and in relatively short order in the last 3 - it's going to be very embarrassing when Gary has to sack him. 

He’s had 3 jobs in 3 years. Which isn’t all that unusual in football really. If you take Chris Wilder as just 1 example, he’s onto his 4th club in less time than LJ had 3. 
I’d also politely note that after he left Hibs and Fleetwood, they both didn’t get any better. In fact Fleetwood were doing better under LJ than anything Adam came up with (only surpassed LJ’s wins ratio with 2 victories after they’d already got relegated) and of Fleetwoods 3 managers last season, LJ had the best record and was the only one who didn’t get a transfer window. 
And looks how crap Hibs are now!  And LJ’s replacement has already been sacked! Bad bad club! 

Not saying he’s a great manager, but the Hibs and Fleetwood jobs had a helluva lot more behind them and both are worse without him. 
I’m actually convinced Fleetwood stay up if they let him have the Jan window. He was about to sign Joe Taylor who ended up doing well at Lincoln. Just that 1 transfer alone would’ve vastly improved their chances. 
 

Will he end up at Cheltenham. Doubt it.

14 hours ago, BanburyRed said:

I think Bristol Live have a typo in the headline there.....

Welease Wodewick

1 hour ago, BCFCGav said:

It’s utterly out of control 

I was saying a couple of weeks ago that it was a quite unusual season in the Prem for managerial changes. 
Only 3 clubs sacked managers during the season - Sheff Utd, Forest & Palace. 
Thats a very low number. Compared to the championship this season which I think was 14 clubs changing manager - some more than once. 
 

I felt that it likely meant a very busy summer for management changes. 

5 hours ago, Glen hump said:

Listened to that on talk sport earlier’ the blokes now trying to say he done it on purpose’

Which he very clearly did. 
Was a perfect set up. 
 

and for anyone who has been on the moon for a decade and never heard it, here you go. It’s a classic. 
 

21 minutes ago, TammyAB said:

Probably a joke because Dykes, Conway and Adams aren't actually Scottish...

Oh apologies, please let me know where I said it's because Shankland is based in Scotland.

I assumed when you said “non-Scottish” in your first post that you were referring to them not playing in Scotland. 
Hadn’t realised it was in reference to their ancestry. 

3 minutes ago, TammyAB said:

Tommy was never getting in ahead of Adams or Dykes and I guess they couldn't have 3 non-Scottish strikers so Shankland got the nod.

It’s not because Shankland is based in Scotland. It’s because Shankland is the top scorer in Scotland. By some distance (6 goals clear this season). And has 48 league goals in 74 league games in the last 2 seasons. 

As I said a few months back. Which one of Adams, Dykes & Shankland was Tommy going to get in front of? 
Those 3 were ALWAYS the 3 that were going. 
Forrest and Doak are more classed as wingers so their inclusion is nothing related to TC. 

But he was never getting in above those 3 players. 

I hadn’t realised he was back on Twitter. 
Does this mean we’re in the Premier League?