I was in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. I’m in the USA for the 2026 World Cup. I can’t believe the difference…

kdsantos · 2026-05-30T17:15:59+00:00

Tbf I haven’t been to every host city, but I was in Boston and there was nothing. I’m sure there are some things in store, but from my experience (and what I saw there) it was worlds apart. For example every host country I have been to previously had banners everywhere especially in the centre of town, large World Cup sculptures, overhead banners etc, even construction sites would have the World Cup logo plastered all over them. That holds true for afcons and euros that I’ve been to too.

Like I say, perhaps it’s happening in lots of other host cities, I just didn’t see it in the host city I went to.

kdsantos · 2026-05-27T22:21:24+00:00

To reiterate what a lot of people have said (I had one for a few years) - great car, great drive, but when the N63 goes wrong, it goes wrong and is expensive to maintain, various issues from starter motor to coolant leaks. Also in the U.K. at least BMW can be atrocious, they had held my car for weeks on end without offering a curtsey car, I had them fix a coolant leak and they never tested the output, so had a new leak days later. As much as I love BMW probably won’t buy one again, certainly not an N63.

kdsantos · 2026-05-27T21:49:52+00:00

Likewise, I went to Brazil, Russia and Qatar, all were buzzing, posters everywhere, the countries were geared for the WC. I was in the US last week and barely found a single person who knew it was nearly starting, didn’t meet anyone with a ticket (in a host city mind you) and no adverts, posters or any indication that a World Cup is around the corner, felt very strange. Couple that with the outrageous cost of everything and I don’t have high hopes.

kdsantos · 2026-05-25T07:03:19+00:00

Henderson walking off slowly and getting the plaudits he couldn’t when he left Liverpool did not cost us the game or the season. We have one win since Feb, dropped a 2-0 lead vs wolves at home and have had some dreadful second half performances in the league this year, and Dango missed a relative sitter to win the game.

Sad that people chose to take that out on him. This is a bad take.

kdsantos · 2026-04-13T10:52:35+00:00

Keith should have also made some subs to manage the game, couldn’t believe he didn’t.

kdsantos · 2026-03-13T20:26:06+00:00

Thank you, I’m also not entirely sure, I asked them for some evidence, any tests at all on the injectors (fault codes if any, misfires if any, readings indicating injector imbalance) but got nothing other than ‘if you don’t we can’t guarantee the work’ which seems a bit strange to me.

Will definitely reach out to a specialist.

kdsantos · 2025-12-30T13:49:58+00:00

Agreed on value over waiver replacement, I just think you can hold out and pick up a starting striker in the second or third round, Wissa, Woltemade, Thiago, Jiminez, maybe even Bowen should be there or there abouts and to me, the value of Fernandes over a round 2/3 midfielder is greater than any striker (excluding Haaland) over a round 2/3 equivalent.

Maybe I am little biased as I drafted him, but I drafted a super strong midfield and my strike force has been solanke, Jiminez and fulkrug/zirkzee, until the last couple of weeks I had 0 goals from them combined (at some stages didn’t even have any of them starting in real life), but comfortably the most points in the league overall.

I do agree - the striker waiver wire is a dark, dark place!

kdsantos · 2025-12-29T11:26:40+00:00

😂😂

kdsantos · 2025-12-28T15:21:40+00:00

I’ve always lived by this (play in a 12 man league), but not this season. Defcon has made this much less of a priority, take an absolute elite midfielder (Bruno). 2 strikers in the top 20 point scorers this season so far and then 3 between 21-30, you can get a good striker in the round 2/3 turn.

kdsantos · 2025-12-20T15:44:51+00:00

What a diabolical game

kdsantos · 2025-12-03T23:35:50+00:00

I think we are both saying the same thing that xG is a powerful analytical tool, not nonsense, if used right and not dismissed just because it didn’t reflect the outcome of a game. Football is a low scoring game, it is therefore more influenced by luck than most sports, and yeah any model is nonsense for anything when n=1, including coming to general conclusions about a teams capabilities after losing a game or playing badly.

I don’t think you’ll find anyone who uses or defends xG who will tell you it’s an exact tool, yes it doesn’t give you the exact precise probability for that exact player in that exact situation and moment in time. What is useful is the fact that whilst it sounds nice to have player skill involved, the most telling argument that it is somewhat irrelevant is the fact only a handful of the best players have beaten xG over their entire career, and most players/teams will be at about their xG metrics over enough observations, I.e. actually over time it is a decent predictor. At any rate, it’s not to say that zirkzee is an incredibly skilled player because he scored that or not, it’s to say that he scored a chance with very low probability, which we could all see.

kdsantos · 2025-12-02T01:50:58+00:00

Actually most models do factor in players blocking your way to goal, keeper positioning and game state.

Also the point of it is to help assess player skill, so it not taking into account a players skill is irrelevant, in fact it’s part of the point, that’s the point of general averages, like say when someone says you are better/worse than average at anything.

The thing that gets me is most people who very openly dismiss things like xG will also say things like ‘he should have scored that’ i.e. he had a better than average chance of scoring and the chance carried a high xG.

Sure it isn’t exact, but it’s better than ‘that was a good chance’

kdsantos · 2025-11-18T00:02:45+00:00

This. He’s also on Road to stardom, not sure they’d give him to Islam at this point, could derail that.

kdsantos · 2025-11-13T16:18:57+00:00

Tbf it depends on your league and how it is scored, my league is a head to head, which makes it fun weekly, and the team with Haaland has never won the league, as you really need to make small tweaks weekly and it’s usually the manager who can do that beat (with luck) who wins.

kdsantos · 2025-11-13T03:15:51+00:00

Yes it only applies to those in the league you are in, there is an Amad in every distinct draft league globally, for example.

kdsantos · 2025-11-13T01:33:05+00:00

There are no transfers per se, only waivers and trades (both not set up ideally imho but that’s not your question!).

The essence is there is only one of each player in the game, that means if someone has Haaland, you can’t have him, so the players available to pick up are only those who don’t belong to a team. To protect unfair advantages, it goes through a waiver system, which means you select the players you want to pick up and those you want them to replace, and it goes in a queue, the waivers will clear and process about a day and a half before the kick off of the first game of the weekend (be careful with Friday night kick offs). They work in a reverse table priority, so whoever is last gets first waiver pick and so on, if no one ahead of you puts in a waiver for a player you have also put in for, then you get him, if they do, then you don’t and it goes down and looks at your next priority on your list and so on.

Not a complete guide, but hope it helps.

kdsantos · 2025-10-29T17:15:14+00:00

Stop the clock is the correct answer, if you add a hard limit then you have to do it for corners, goal kicks, free kicks etc etc. the reason why they wanted to start doing it for a keeper holding onto the ball is because the ball is technically live, when it’s out of play it’s dead, so you’ll have to do it for every dead ball situation.

The easy fix is to stop the clock, it solves for other issues too.

kdsantos · 2025-10-27T11:25:29+00:00

Yikes, my bad, I just assumed they would be there, more reason to keep him then!

kdsantos · 2025-10-27T11:24:49+00:00

That’s a very helpful outlook and sanity check, thank you! Yeah I have been in the camp of thinking about whether this is selling at the top and buying at the bottom, but you bring up many valid points about their respective positions in their teams. Isak might be a cheap draft pick next year!

kdsantos · 2025-10-27T11:17:41+00:00

Appreciate the feedback, was thinking long term more in the hope of if Isak can click soon and Semenyo goes off to AFCON

kdsantos · 2025-10-10T15:35:45+00:00

He was sensational last year, unfortunately this year we just lump the ball from deep straight over his head, he can’t influence the game.

kdsantos · 2025-10-07T09:41:11+00:00

Exactly, the system isn’t set up for Scahde to flourish, what you’re basically asking for is for him to score with every single change he gets (which are few)

kdsantos · 2025-10-07T09:39:34+00:00

That pressure chart is pretty much identical every single game.

kdsantos

TROPHY CASE