Laughable Chimp

Don't know where to mention this so I'll mention this here. Just found out we have the youngest squad on average in the league.

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I don't think it has anything to do with Luiz. Sanson and Luiz has never come on for each other, they straight up don't play the same roles in our midfield. He'll be competing with Ramsey in that midfield especially if we don't purchase Barkley and time will tell if he wins that battle. But I could easily see a scenario where he continues to play only in a bit part manner, not being able to get in for Mcginn, Ramsey or any other midfielder we choose to purchase.

He doesn't come on often because Smith tends to sub wingers and midfielders and he's naturally going to favour other wingers and midfielders to sub in for them. This is particularly true when we're winning as Smith prefers to keep the shape of the team. Hence why Davis never plays in these games because he'd have to come on for Watkins who like Mcginn and Grealish Smith never subs off. He's a final resort imo not because he's rated worse than Barkley, Trezeguet etc, but because playing him would require changing the shape of the team to keep Watkins on the pitch. Put it another way, if we were playing 4-4-2 instead, and we had another starting striker who isn't as unsubbable as Watkins, I think Davis would have played a lot more.

He plays on the right though.

Oh great. Looks like its fine to say you rate Davis again. The lad has great potential and I think Smith sees it which is why he's being kept around. Too bad he's never really going to play much as long as Watkins is here.

I don't blame Smith for the performance at all. I think the game was done the moment they got a red card. They put every man in their box and there was just no breaking through that at all no matter what Smith did. Our crosses and deliveries were poor but various times it felt like even if the Villa player somehow got to the ball he would be surrounded by so many Sheffield players that all he could do was rely on a bit of luck. They may be bottom of the table, but Sheffield exuded the air of a disciplined team. They defended very very well in that last 30 mins and earned that victory.

Thought he was decent tbh.

I don't think we're playing badly at all. They got a goal against the run of play but we've clearly had the better chances and more numerous chances. We've been the better side. As much as I rag on Smith for not using subs earlier, this is not going to be one of those times. If things continue the way they are, we should eventually get our equalizer.

The way some people go on about that first half West Ham performance you'd think he was giving the ball straight to the opposition with every touch and pass, scored a hatrick of own goals and got himself sent off all in the space of 45 minutes. I don't even remember El Ghazi's performance that game. It was probably bad and ineffective. But no where near to the absolute horrific standards some people make it out to be.

Excluding keepers who've played less than 1000 minutes, he's about 7th or 8th place out of a total of 21 keepers. If you took that 4.4 saves per 90 minutes figure however, he'd be number 1 in the table.

Ask and you shall receive. If its just saves per game you're concerned about he's made 4.4 saves per game since the covid break. 3.3 saves per game before the covid break.(not including the first 2 matches where Barkley wasn't at the club yet). Remarkably similar ratio when you're comparing between games Barkley played and Barkley didn't play. Counting the first Brighton game as a game he did not play in considering he hobbled off after 5 minutes. 4.4 saves per game in games Barkley played. 3.2 saves per game in games Barkley didn't play.(including both pre and post covid and matches where Barkley was not at the club yet).

Nakamba actually had a high percentage of successful middle length passes last season (defined as passes between 15 and 30 yards). He just didn't attempt a lot of these passes and a lot of them were sideways or backwards. If anything, it was his short passing stats that seemed the worst. I think Nakamba is adequate at passing when given time and space. But he struggles badly when pressured, which tends to be immediately after he wins the ball and ends up passing it straight to the opposition too much as he's looking for the nearest teammate to lay the ball off too.

And also if he were like, 15 cm taller. But hey if he had those attributes, he wouldn;t be with us.

I get the sentiment, but I feel like for that kind of money we'd be better off improving elsewhere first. Plus I don't see either playing staying at the club for very long if they end up with an extended spell outside the first team, they're young players who want to be playing a lot at this point in their careers and should probably have loads of suitors for them. It'll be 30m for a right back backup for a couple of years at best.

How many of the teams around us do you think actually have a lot of good alternatives? I don't follow the other teams enough but I feel like if you ask their fanbases, they'd say the same thing about they don't have many good alternatives to play either. I think having a squad with lots of quality backups all over the team is actually very rare.

Definitely agree that the term sitter is overused. if we assume any missed chance that has at least 0.5xG is a missed sitter, then according to understat the only missed "sitter" he's had in the league is the penalty miss. Hitting the bar at Liverpool is only counted as 0.39xG. The next highest rated chance that he missed is the header at Palace that hit the bar.(0.48xG). Its at 52 seconds in the video below. You can judge yourself whether you'd consider that a sitter.

Assuming Nakamba continues to play well, I don't see him getting into the starting 11 again. I don't see Ramsey losing his place to Luiz, its far more likely Barkley or Sanson will come in place of him. In the recent games, Ramsey has only ever subbed on in place of Barkley. Same for Sanson so I think those 3 are pretty much competing for the same position. Don't see Luiz getting much game time in that role when those players seem more fit for it. I think ideally, it was gonna be Luiz>Nakamba Mcginn>Sanson Barkley>Ramsey. Sanson was bought because they spied a good deal that they felt they shouldn't refuse. But I don't think Smith was ever going to drop Mcginn for Sanson, he trusts him too much. Which is why even his sub appearances have been limited. Notice Mcginn is almost never subbed off nor rested. So the only place Sanson can come on for is in that Barkley position which he's also competing with Ramsey. Luiz>Nakamba Mcginn Barkley>Ramsey/Sanson I don't think Smith really rotates his team. I don't believe that Luiz was "rested" a couple of games ago. If anyone, Mcginn was the one that needed more of a rest. I think they just noticed problems with the midfield and were tinkering with and so Luix was dropped. With Nakamba putting in another good performance and this time helping us to a win, I think Smith and co will stick with this midfield if it continues to perform. I'll even put money on the fact that the central midfield will be the exact same for next game if I could. The current preference ordering for the midfield is Nakamba>Luiz Mcginn Ramsey>Sanson>Barkley

At 0.75 goals/90 minutes atm. 3rd place right now in the PL. Only Salah and Diogo Jota have a higher ratio.

Traore was never pulled off. El Ghazi went of 88 minutes

6 according to whoscored

Was looking through fbref and they recorded Barkley as having a very high amount of shot creating actions, but a low amount of goal creating actions. Meaning he's involved in creating a lot of shots for us, but a very high amount of those shots don't translate into goals. Wonder what explains that discrepancy. You don't see the same discrepancy in Grealish's and Traore's stats.

Quick someone check the fantasy teams.

Since someone mentioned xGA, I'd like to make a point on that as well. Because the change in form looking at this stat is even more startling. Prior to the covid break we conceded the third least xGA with only City and Chelsea conceding less xGA with the same number of games. After the covid break, we conceded more xGA than anyone else per game aside from Spurs and Southampton. In other words, if we assume xGA can be a measure for the quality of our defence. We went from the third best defence in the league to the third worst. That change is staggering.

Could just admit that Barkley hasn't been performing as well as they'd hoped but they're working to change that or something along those lines. It doesn't have to be putting the player on blast but it doesn't have to be blind defense either.