YouUnastanFren

21 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

This is a top of the table clash according to Robbie Savage. Words apparently don't mean anything anymore.

He meant top of the tables. Villa are looking to go top of the regular table and Leeds are miles clear at the top of the 'Amount of pundit's spunk received' table.

2 minutes ago, Rino8 said:

Yeah, and I think there are bigger priorities if we're looking at threats from your side.

Nobody is saying that Grealish isn't a bigger threat, just that Watkins is a bigger threat than zero.

3 minutes ago, Rino8 said:

I haven't said Watkins is just an expensive Troy Deeney, his biggest strengths aren't something that come down to an individual battle compared to Grealish.

But you know, read this and decide for yourself what I've actually typed

Not for me to decide, you typed that you have "no reason to fear anything from Watkins" and brought up how he isn't Kane and Lewandowski as if to imply that anyone here thinks he is.

That's very different from the point about him being less of a threat than Grealish that you're now making

2 minutes ago, Rino8 said:

Dunno. That was more to do with your team performance.

Even the second one where he had Gomez's pants around his ankles before knocking it in the corner?

6 minutes ago, Rino8 said:

He's not suddenly Lewandowski don't get carried away

Nobody is suggesting he is but there are some levels in between strikers you have nothing to fear from and the uncrowned Ballon D'Or winner. He's one of them I reckon

34 minutes ago, icouldtelltheworld said:

Trezeguet, the Egyptian winger, is the team’s unsung hero. As he’s one of only a few players not to have access to his own private garden, he was allowed to exercise alone on the practice pitches during the shutdown months when others trained at home. 

Rumour has it that he was training at home until @samjp26 complained to the front desk about the lunatic on the floor above doing box jumps 6 days a week

6 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

I guess we will see, but surely Smith will have idea in how to address this and our lads themselves have come on massively in the fitness area.

Oh yeah I'm not disagreeing, I think Smith and his team will have a plan to maximise our goal scoring chances and minimise theirs.

It's not that I think their fitness will help them beat us, just that they run **** loads and it will make the game hard work.

1 minute ago, Dave-R said:

But that doesnt always mean fitness does it?

No you're right it doesn't but Smith did also state that Leeds are the fittest team in the league in the same press conference. I probably should have included that 

The reason I highlighted that other teams all had to put their best numbers up against them was to address the point that the game will already be cardio heavy and probably too much so to have enough left to run them ragged.

6 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

I dont think Leeds have the fitness some of our players have, McGinn, Barkley, Luiz, Grealish and Watkins will run them rugged.

Leeds are being heralded as many things they are not, but if there's one thing they are it's fit.

I think Smith mentioned in his press conference that every team that has played Leeds so far has recorded their highest total distance run of the season in that game.

1 minute ago, TRO said:

sorry, I don't remember it, what year was that.

75 I think. I don't remember it either, I just have a Leeds supporting mate who isn't fond of Bayern 

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

I am not sure which game you are refering

They played Bayern in the European cup final and got absolutely robbed blind.

Champions of Europe, they almost sang that. 

This image sums up my memory of the tactical innovation used to stop Grealish last time

He can't figuratively break your ankles if you've already literally broken his

Just now, TheMelvillan said:

nah, I still call it dirty

Especially as in that instance the season ended with us promoted and them not. Can't chalk it up to winner's mentality if you end up as an also ran. You're just a dirty loser

24 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I think the odds give a good sense of the expectation, but not really of the achievement. A lot of Smith’s hard work over the past few months is priced into the odds now.

Oh yeah, I completely agree. I was just trying to give some context to the likelihood of each happening before they started.

You're dead on with regards to his great work being priced in as well. The day before that Derby game in 2019 you'd have got way longer odds on us winning 5 in a row in the PL at the start of the 20/21 season than 1,100/1.

The job he has done since then is almost incomprehensible.

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

I dont think controversial to say this but if we beat Leeds then 5 Premier League wins in a row tops the Championship 10 in a row

Historical bookies odds of us winning both runs of fixtures

First 5 this season: 188/1

The 10 in a row: 1,100/1

I think it needs a few more to match it in terms of odds. Maybe 7 total.

3 minutes ago, PaulC said:

If Bielsa's record is anything to go by they need to get off to a flyer because they will run out of steam by Easter. I think they were helped by the Covid break last season. 

Agreed, although if Bielsa's record is anything to go by he won't last until the end of his 3rd season in the same job.

2 minutes ago, PaulC said:

To be fair one of those draws were against Man City 

I'm not suggesting it wasn't a good result, just that it was a vulnerable looking City that had just been boot stomped 5-2 by Leicester so not overly surprising

3 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

You'd think they were top of the league with tweets like this.

They're mid table because they've beaten the two worst teams in the league. They're doing about as well as expected

Amusingly out of everyone I think Leeds' results most closely reflect the position of the teams they've played. Lost to 3rd and 6th, drew with 11th and beat 19th and 20th.

They're the unsurprising package so far this season

39 minutes ago, Rino8 said:

We have one fit CB for Friday currently 

That's what Leicester said too, turns out they were fibbing and Evans was fine, the young CB Fofana who made his debut was their MOTM as well.

I'd bet something similar will happen on Friday

13 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

Imagine going on a 9-10 game winning streak. 

A ten game winning streak?! Unthinkable, what manager could do such a thing?

4 minutes ago, White_Wall said:

But you are surely getting way ahead of yourselves thinking about the title.

We're not actually expecting to win the title.

Having said that it is nice that we've come in from whatever the standard no chance odds the bookies give these days (not 5,000 - 1 anymore since Leicester, more like 750 - 1) right into 66 - 1 after just 4 games.

12 hours ago, TreeVillan said:

I'll be wearing my poppy. 

I sort all of my recycling into the correct bins 

4 minutes ago, nepal_villan said:

Can we claim it before the round of matches are over?  

Generally no but I reckon the fact we've got a game in hand means that a point would give us a legit WATOTL

The answer depends entirely on injuries but assuming we don't have any and after the insane start we've had I'd love us to get 60 points this season which is just under 1.6ppg.

If we can average over that for every 5 game stretch this season we'll absolutely smash 60 points.

That would mean we'd require 8 or more points from these 5 games but after our first four games even if we reverted to the expected mean a bit and only got 6-8 we'd still be on track.

That's one more thing I hope he can coach into our CBs. He won a lot of games with those goals

27 minutes ago, Rightdm00 said:

I think Bielsa is spot on. Leeds fluffed their chances in the 1st half and allowed Wolves to find their footing. 

Wolves looked dire in the first half. I know they are trying this new 3-5-2 out but man it is definitely not clicking yet. The xG chart from the game shows leeds had the lion share of chances in the 1st half. What's funny is that this was Leed's main issue all of last year in the championship. Can't put away chances. 

Even on that chart they only had 0.45 xG at half time. That's absolutely **** all really 

You can't claim to have "done enough to create a lead" after accruing 0.45xG.

The only good chance they had all game I can remember was when it fell to that midget (that I forget the name of) on the six yard box near the end and his shot was blocked. Presumably that was where the chart went from 0.6 to 1.1.

On the balance of the game the chart would suggest they were unlucky to lose which I would tend to agree with but they weren't particularly unlucky to not be leading at half time.

Edit - I think Bielsa might've just had his view warped about how many good chances you need to score a goal, they scored 3 against Liverpool off 0.27xG. Probably thinks they should've had 5 from 0.45xG 

The probabilities table from five thirty eight has finally got us as over a 1% chance of winning the league. Might just be me but I feel like that is oddly satisfying. With 4 games left last season we were at a 93% chance of getting relegated

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/