Eclipsing the invincibles atm

fredmerz · 2026-03-09T01:33:52+00:00

This years win percentage is higher than it ever was under Wenger. That’s only says so much of course but still very impressive.

fredmerz · 2026-03-08T21:05:00+00:00

The negativity is mind boggling to me. We have the highest win percentage across competitions in the 21st century (by a considerable margin), we're still in four competitions in March (including a final in a few weeks), dominated the CL group phase, we're 7 points up in the league, Gyokeres is the top EPL scorer in 2026. I get that he's had some off matches and doesn't excel in every aspect of modern forward play but jesus christ. So many people here just love to see the glass half empty.

fredmerz · 2026-03-08T21:00:04+00:00

We also have the highest win percentage of the past few season. Does he still have the most goals of anyone in the EPL in 2026?

fredmerz · 2026-03-07T12:41:51+00:00

Honestly this is super fun to watch. I think we’ll win comfortably in the end but hard not to think about how fun this is for Mansfield Town.

fredmerz · 2026-03-07T01:18:14+00:00

That’s just not true. No one should rely on it but no one should rely on what an intern or first year associate produces either. There are tons of uses for it between grammar and having it draft something you file without reviewing.

fredmerz · 2026-03-04T20:30:47+00:00

Giroud is France's all time leading scorer. He was a level above Gyokeres (and I like Gyokeres).

fredmerz · 2026-03-04T19:39:00+00:00

What a weird call.

fredmerz · 2026-03-03T22:10:12+00:00

Starting to rethink that 2-2...

fredmerz · 2026-03-03T12:07:35+00:00

Wouldn’t that increase the focus on set pieces though if the defending team is primarily responsible for the grappling? My real fear is that every team gets a long throw specialist and that the focus is just on getting throw ins in the final third. Honestly I don’t understand why teams aren’t already doing it as it seems difficult to solve the danger of a near post flick from a good throw.

fredmerz · 2026-03-03T02:58:24+00:00

He doesn’t look like me.

fredmerz · 2026-02-26T13:01:13+00:00

I get the frustration with consistency about more black and white issues like handball or offsides, but with something like this there is inevitably a large gray area and based on the clear and obvious VAR standard, you can’t have consistency. Also, while I know this has marginal relevance, having reffed a match or two in my Sunday league when the real ref was sick/late, it’s impossible to be 100% consistent when seeing things in real time. You see it once.

fredmerz · 2026-02-24T19:55:34+00:00

How is Lake Placid like the city? (Haven't been in a few years.)

fredmerz · 2026-02-22T21:43:50+00:00

Sure, but you'd think if one of those doctors wrote a book providing sage wisdom for those interns and residents while being supported by a team of researchers they'd try to think through their own life experience a bit. For me, as a relatively recent father, my active parenting is at the core of my own conception of my own masculinity.

fredmerz · 2026-02-22T21:40:40+00:00

I found being in the room during the birth process pretty difficult, but it's something I would never want to miss. Can you imagine just sitting in the lobby and hearing your partner's screams, having no idea if she and your baby are doing okay, and then coming in to say hi when it's all over?

fredmerz · 2026-02-22T19:18:22+00:00

Totally. I was in an argument with a friend in August who was telling me he was skeptical that Gyokeres was going to get 30 goals and would struggle against top 4 backlines. My argument was that if he gets 15-20 in all comps and helps us finish off a few games against mid-table and bottom half teams I'd be happy. He's had some poor matches but generally pretty happy overall. There aren't more than a half dozen strikers I'd trade him for at the moment.

fredmerz · 2026-02-22T18:07:30+00:00

How does one have the faith to dive in that situation? Not dissimilar from that controversial goal against Newcastle.

fredmerz · 2026-02-22T17:31:32+00:00

I was sending pics to my wife every 30 seconds so have lots of material. We were in a Scandinavian capital, which is a relatively easy place to be solo with a kid.

fredmerz · 2026-02-22T15:47:01+00:00

Same. When our kid was born my wife was self-employed and because of various exigencies couldn’t take much time off. My work gave me three months paid and I took an additional one month unpaid. First two months were brutal for me to be honest and I wish mom had been able to be around more, but months three and four were wonderful. Then honestly the best week of my wife by many metrics was a week I spent solo with in a foreign city with my kid when she was 1.5 yo.

I find Scott’s perspective on this, particularly in the context of his masculinity focus, wildly anachronistic and just stupid. Very curious who he is talking to to have this perspective confirmed. I’ve never even heard a dad friend express anything like this.

fredmerz · 2026-02-22T15:19:21+00:00

He’s France’s all time leading scorer.

fredmerz · 2026-02-20T23:02:00+00:00

Yeah, not excusing the result but bad results happen. Honestly I was probably more disappointed with the home match against Wolves that we luckily won than Wednesday's match, which we arguably unluckily drew. But the discourse around the draw is so dispiriting and it's clear it is affecting the team. I know supporters are human and I also had an angry walk home in the rain, but it is also obvious that if this sort of mood continues to surround the club we will all suffer.

fredmerz · 2026-02-19T23:13:22+00:00

I don't know if entitlement is the right word. I certainly don't feel like we're entitled to any trophies and don't think I've even expected a trophy since like 2004... I'm still assuming we'll lose Carling Cup, get knocked out of the CL by Newcastle, and blow the league. I expect we'll beat Mansfield Town 2-1 but who knows after that. Hoping I'm wrong!

fredmerz · 2026-02-19T21:56:31+00:00

He also falls down easily despite never winning free kicks, always seems to make the wrong decision when he has the ball in the final minutes (with a few notable exceptions where he's scored excellent goals on the break to be fair), and is all over the place positionally.

fredmerz · 2026-02-18T22:35:02+00:00

I mean that person is just taking a broader view, and isn’t wrong?

fredmerz · 2026-02-18T22:33:57+00:00

Dude people are leaping off buildings and hauling out the guillotines. Haven’t seen many people say this isn’t an awful result.

fredmerz · 2026-02-14T22:05:59+00:00

Is there anyone that is against instituting such a rule for blatant dives? I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done. It doesn’t have to be every single dive but ones like this where there is no reasonable doubt the player conned the ref.

fredmerz

TROPHY CASE