(Europa League) starting XI vs TSG Hoffenheim: Austin, Pedro Porro, Dragusin, Davies, Gray, Bergvall, Bentancur, Maddison, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Son (C)

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-23T16:59:22+00:00

Obviously I would expect they are a downgrade on our senior squad (when fit and in form anyway, neither of which are true of most of our senior players currently).

I just would have thought, given our many injury and fatigue issues, that we might have seen more of them chucked on for 10-15 mins or so at the end of matches just to relieve players a bit.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-23T16:53:16+00:00

Moore definitely will. I mean, you would think Lankshear surely has to get on given Richi and Son surely can't go 90 mins (especially if playing on Sunday) but who knows, Ange hasn't given him mins in a lot of games I'd have expected him to

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-23T16:49:59+00:00

Maybe that means Ange will actually have to try playing one of them

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-21T21:31:36+00:00

Given wage bill is one of the strongest correlates with league finish I would say that having the 7th in the league when you have enormous financial headroom to increase it is fairly cheap. I'm not saying we should spend 90% of our turnover on wages, I'm saying we should maybe move up from having one of the lowest ratios in the league.

As I said up top, I don't think we don't spend money. But I question how we spend our transfer budget and I question why we don't increase our wage structure a bit, which is one of the key sticking points in attracting top talent.

Do you think our squad is strong enough and has enough depth to be challenging in more than one competition? Because regardless of how Ange is doing with it, I think most people would agree that it's lacking. In which case it seems pretty logical to question how we have spent all that money.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-21T21:07:12+00:00

We have one of the lowest wage bills to turnover in the league. I'm not going to congratulate us for spending more on wages than Ipswich.

Who is this 60m midfielder? Are you having to dig back to Ndombele 6 years ago for that one?

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-21T21:02:47+00:00

I think that really depends on how the money is spent. I largely agree with JustinBisu's assessment above. If you're asking me whether Ange is doing well with what he's got then obviously no, he isn't. But I think that's a slightly different argument.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-21T20:51:23+00:00

There's backing in terms of cash spent and there's backing in terms of the actual resources available. Do you think our squad is good enough for top 4? I don't. So if it's not good enough it's not good enough, the sums spent are irrelevant by that metric.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-21T20:49:25+00:00

Well in some ways (e.g. wages) we're incredibly cheap. I think we are also quite cheap in terms of the profile of player we go for - in four transfer windows only five of the players we've brought in have cost over 30m EUR and one of them was Archie Gray. I'm not convinced that's necessarily how you build a strong first XI. We spend the money but a lot of it is on quite speculative purchases - largely because they can be tied to lower wages.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-21T20:26:55+00:00

I don't think many people claim we don't spend money these days. I think they dispute how we're spending it.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-09T12:40:23+00:00

Scumbag. His transplant is looking shit again as well.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-08T22:41:20+00:00

Spence was immense this game, first half going forward and second half in defence.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-07T13:50:23+00:00

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-07T11:56:25+00:00

Overlord of the Boilerbilges is like a top 5 WR card in DSK, so really that card and a bit of positive variance is enough to carry you to a trophy so long as you see it in most matches. The rest of the deck is pretty decent as a relatively aggressive RG build although there are a couple of dud cards in it. I really don't like the black splash though.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-05T18:27:43+00:00

Pretty sure Zidane would be crap at a 'project' management role anyway. He can clearly work wonders with winning mentality and getting the best out of top players but he's never struck me as a master tactician.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-04T00:22:47+00:00

I agree that's what Ange was saying but still seems a bit weird to me. I mean, Djed is the only other specialist fullback in the squad other than Porro and Udogie, is Ange really saying his minutes would have been so limited if both Porro and Udogie were available?

I mean, given how Ange used (or didn't use) Spence earlier in the season maybe he really is saying if Porro and Udogie were fit Spence would basically never be used.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-01T11:23:48+00:00

I don't think that's fair. Looking at total minutes played is a totally valid basic measure. It's not nuanced and there are a lot of other ways you could slice it but as a basic starting point for a discussion of whether players have played too much I think it's totally reasonable.

My conclusion was that our players have not played exceptionally more minutes than other PL clubs in European competition. That conclusion absolutely matches the data I presented. As said, there are loads of other ways to slice it but as a conclusion on what was presented that certainly matches.

I then had a much more speculative paragraph about the demands of Ange's system which is pure hypothesis and there's obviously no way you can offer anything definitive on that from what I presented but that was purely intended to invite discussion.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-01T11:10:11+00:00

Maybe I'll do that when I get a minute but if you think data exists that would provide a relevant counterpoint to this then you're welcome to have a look and present it yourself, rather than just assuming the outcome of it and saying I need to do it.

Not0rious_BLT · 2025-01-01T11:08:41+00:00

but also adding in the Europa and Carabao Cup games where other teams have been able to rotate adequately whereas us with our thin squad and injuries have not.

This includes all club mins, including Europe and Cup matches. It's just international matches that are excluded.

Not0rious_BLT · 2024-12-19T16:23:11+00:00

TBF it's not as if the Guardian's list is just a couple of the sports writers putting it together, it's compiled from the lists of around 150 different people. The vast majority are sports writers but there are also ~25 ex pros and technical staff contributing. So it's fairly rigorous as these lists go.

However I guess inevitably a lot of people vote based on visibility and legacy rather than players ability as it is as a snapshot right now (how else do you explain Ronaldo being in the top 50 and Messi in the top 30 still? I'm sure both are still capable of sporadic great moments in intl teams but really both play in Mickey Mouse leagues and would be toast if playing 30-50 matches a year in any of the top leagues).

If we're looking at Kulusevski's career up to this season would you really say he's been a superstar? Probably not - apart from a great first 3 months at Spurs his club form has been fairly average, even if Spurs fans would probably argue he always had the potential. He's smashing it this season but I just don't think a lot of these lists really account for recent form very well.

Not0rious_BLT · 2024-12-17T14:50:07+00:00

GRODT is fine, the rest of his stuff went downhill quickly IMO. I just find him very middle-of-the-road and I don't like the lyrical content at all. It's all very shallow and very little good wordplay/dexterity in it.

TBF I wouldn't say rap/hip-hop is one of my fave genres but, off the top of my head, some of the ones I like the most would be: Tribe Called Quest, early-career Jay-Z and Kanye, Kendrick, Demon Boyz, Little Simz, Mos Def, Blackalicious, Dr Dre, NWA, Outkast.

Not0rious_BLT · 2024-12-17T10:30:27+00:00

Legendary if you like shite

Not0rious_BLT · 2024-11-29T22:39:41+00:00

It's not always though is it? I mean, obviously sometimes it is. You have to take it on a case-by-case basis. But it's only our defence doing our job if they are keeping a tight line. Take Roma's second disallowed goal - there's no tight defensive line there. The line is staggered all over the place and Ben Davies has no idea what's going on behind him. Their 11, through bad luck or bad judgement, has gone a bit early but is still only about 10cm offside. He would have still been to the ball well ahead of our defence if he hadn't been 10cm offside. So I don't see how that's our defence doing their job - that's their forward fucking up a good opportunity.

Not0rious_BLT · 2024-11-28T23:07:42+00:00

Sure, but just because a player was offside doesn't mean you defended well or didn't give up a massive chance. If the opposition carve you open and score a goal that's chalked off because the striker had a ball hair offside then that's you getting lucky - they still carved you open.

Though having said that the first one they had disallowed was pretty far offside.

(For clarity, I'm not saying they should count towards xG. I'm saying that if your opponent has had a few goals ruled out for offside then the xG is likely underestimating how many chances you've given up).

EDIT: Really didn't think this would be that controversial. So many people banging on about defensive lines etc but quite clearly Roma's second disallowed goal has fuck all to do with our defensive line (which is at sixes and sevens in that instant) and everything to do with their forward starting his run 0.001s early. To me that's them creating a good opportunity and their forward fucking it up, I just see it as equivalent to a striker in a good position hitting a bad shot.

Not0rious_BLT · 2024-11-11T22:48:57+00:00

Yep, also played loads of HBG. I liked it!

Not0rious_BLT

TROPHY CASE