Laughable Chimp

When did Smith say this?

I would agree with that. Aside from that dribble and one or two bright spots, I don't think he did much. Certainly far below the level of his previous games.

I mean, they would just be able to say that he isn't actually the most fouled player last season and that he only gets "fouled" so much because he falls over so much and deceives the refs.

If there's one thing I can criticize about Smith, its that I don't think he's a very flexible manager. He seems to me the type that optimizes the team to its best capabilities, and then puts them on the pitch. He doesn't really optimize his team against the particular capabilties of the opposing team and his in game management responding to issues can be suspect and incredibly formulaic.

Subpar today in several of his stats

I expect his goalscoring to slow down a lot in the future tbh. Statistically he's generally been more of an assister than a goalscorer in the past, and particularly with Chelsea. Or, he could just have a permanent change in playing style. Who knows.

Yeah, we really were saved by the lockdown. I think this proves that our problems in defence weren't the players we had, it was how we were playing. Credit to the staff, they really worked out how to make the team to be able to defend. I don't think our complete change in defense would've happened had the lockdown not happened.

Whatever we pay for him, its going to depend a whole lot on how well he performs for us this season. Which is kind of really hard to speculate after only 2 games.

Wesley was kind of a weird player. I agree I didn't think he was in the box anywhere near enough and as a result he didn't get that many shots for a striker. But when he did get shots they disproportinately happened to be in the 6 yard box or close to it tap ins that were often harder to miss.

He'll turn 26 in 2 months and has played more than 100 games in the PL and Ligue 1 combined. I don't think Guilbert can be considered a young prospect anymore who just needs more experience to develop.

Some people have been crawing about having depth and now that we've actually gotten depth in one position for once people seem okay with getting rid of that depth. Guilbert is a decent right back and more than capable of being backup to Cash. If he wants to leave, then okay sure lets cash in. But as long as he's willing to stay and try and fight for his spot, I think moving him on for anything less a good amount of money to be a terrible idea.

I'm expecting anywhere from 16th to 9th. If we're looking at another relegation battle near the end of the season and finishing lower than 16th I think its fair to call for Smith out.

Tbf, its only been 3 games. If you look at last season he's attempted tackles rate is one of the lowest in the league for his the Attacking central midfielder and left wing position.

Please don't use whoscored's strengths and weaknesses of a player. They can be a bit odd. You'd be much better off doing the grunt work and sifting through the stats yourself.

Well yeah, but younger players are, are all things remaining equal, more expensive than older alternatives. Of course if possible we all would like to get young up and coming players, but we don't have infinite money. And to a certain extent, the higher return you can get from selling improved players in the future is also balanced by said higher fee you have to pay for them. Which ideally shouldn't be too much of a problem, but the thing with buying young players is not all of them actually improve with you. So you might just as well make a loss on them.

I have doubts on some of the statistics in here. They're considerably different to some other sources of these statistics. And stuff like the average goals scored and assists(either per 90 or per game, its not clear at all) by a winger from all top 5 leagues being 0.1 and 0.0 respectively just seem obviously wrong. Unless I'm reading the graphic wrongly. Edit: I have this sinking feeling that he meant averages across all players from all top 5 leagues, not just wingers, which could help make sense of some of the statistics. Which if is the case makes the graphic incredibly misleading.

Some people just like messing with others. Its not big mystery, and lying about knowing something about a transfer is extremely low effort to do.

Ollie's at the wheel.

I mean, Trezeguet isn't exactly much competition if Rashica were to come here. But I do agree that I don't think we're that interested in him anymore. Paying that much money for both Traore and Rashica is a bit odd when you can only really start one of them at one time. Yes depth is good, but Trezeguet is capable as cover and I'd think other positions would be of more importance to focus on.

I mean, as great as a player is, football is a team game. For example, despite having Jack with us we survived relegation by the skin of our teeth last season.

Now this is more like the Villatalk i'm used to

So, looking through Barkley's stats last season, this is what popped out. These stats are relative to the CM position. Rate refers to per 90 minutes. So for example, a high rate of inaccurate crosses means that in an average 90 minutes, there is a high number of inaccurate crosses. Weaknesses Low number of successful tackles Low number of attempted tackles Low rate of Interceptions Low rate of clearances Low rate of crosses blocked Low rate of passes blocked High rate of being disposessed High rate of inaccurate crosses High rate of unsuccessful corners Strengths Low number of times dribbled past. Low foul rate-Can be a good thing or bad thing, depending on the circumstances, but I'll count it as a marginal strength. Low card rate-Didn't get a single yellow or red card last season. High succesful long passes rate Low inaccurate long passes rate High successful short passes rate Low inaccurate short passes rate High total key passes rate High short key passes rate High throughball key passes rate High throughball assists rate. Summary Barkley's weaknesses seem to be largely in his defensive contribution with low defensive stats in pretty much across the board and does not score highly in any defensive statistic aside from low number of times dribbled past. He also seems to lack aggresiveness according to his low card and foul rate which could have contributed to some of his lower defensive stats. His strengths however seem to be largely in his passing, with some of his passing stats being one of the highest in the league. In particular, Barkley had the highest throughball assists rate of any CM in the league last season who at least played 3 matches. I've read somewhere that people have compared him to a Mcginn type but his stats, at least last season seem to point towards a player who is less defensive oriented and more passing oriented. So he might be closer to mould in Hourihane or possibly Luiz than Mcginn. Yes I have too much time on my hands. Edit: Removed low goalscoring rate from the weaknesses list. That was a mistake.

My god this has been a glorious transfer window.

Tbf, Sancho is 5 years younger and has had 2 seasons in the Bundesliga notching 20+ goals and assists together. Not saying he is necessarily a lot better than Jack, but its pretty obvious why people rate Sancho as highly as they do.

Currently number 3 in whoscored's average rating system for all players in the PL. In other words, he is the third best performing PL player right now according to their standards, only behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison. We have another player in the top 10 with Konsa being at number 8. Both Konsa and Mings are in whoscored's team of the season so far. I'm fully aware its only been 2 games, but at the very least its been a very impressive start for both of our CBs.