Rightdm00

Yep. Also just want to add lukaku easily weighs 225 pounds. No one besides, Mings or Konsa, had any hope of bringing him down once he got up to full speed.

Under Steven's system almost all the quality crosses have to come from the full backs. Big reason our xG has been pretty abysmal since his arrival. As you stated not near enough quality there. Liverpool have 2 world class FBs. Trying to put that level of responsibility on our FBs will only lead to failure.

Been a fullback for all of 3 years now. Committing mistakes like yesterday are all part of the learning process.

Ollie has looked poor all season. He has spent the majority of his playing time as the sole striker so don't think his position has much to do with the quality of play.

The common refrain is that competition for places is always a good thing. How is that any different for Ollie? I don't think his downturn has anything to do with Ings. Last year he had the best chance creator in the PL playing with him and this year he doesn't. Ollie looks like a striker who is feeding on scraps.

Worrying trend of lackluster creative output is starting to surface. xG of .4 this time versus Chelsea. 5th game under Steven where we failed to break an xG of 1. Still early days but you hope we start creating a bit more. Otherwise that puts a lot of pressure on our defense to keep a clean sheet everytime out.

That's the only reason. City could probably beat Newcastle with an U21 team. Hardly a statement to not play Grealish or Foden versus them.

Pep was so unhappy he still named them in the match day squad versus Newcastle. Grealish has always been the media's whipping boy. At least he is getting 300k a week to make it worthwhile.

My thoughts exactly. Like the Benteke thread a while back. Spoiler, he ends up at Liverpool.

People really slating him for wanting to play in Europe. Isn't that also the clubs ambition. What should he say? "I'm huge on finishing mid table in the PL. That's my life's dream."

Against Norwich we produced our highest xG of the season (1.96). Which honestly is not that impressive given Norwich's place in the table. We are desperately missing our injured attacking talent because I don't see us turning over the better teams in this division without the more creative elements in our squad.

Last 6 Ballon d'Or winners were all in their 30s. I can't with this guy sometimes.

It's summer in Australia. Covid cases, like the flu, peaks during the winter. Its a double whammy that omicron showed up during the northern hemisphere winter period so alot is working against us here.

This is a bad, completely uninformed take. 29 is the athletic prime for most sports outside of maybe American football. Even their you have athlete's who are performing at a high level well into their late 30s. Now it's true as you enter your late 20s your body needs a little more care. Gotta cut out the late night ragers and fast food. You do that and you can absolutely perform at high level well into your 30s.

At least for the winter months. Cancelling games like this all piecemeal is just going to lead to massive confusion and accusations of unfairness.

Football reference has a slightly different stat called SCA( Shot Creating Action) which Buendia is also #3 for our team even with his limited minutes for the season.

My son's are currently moving through the soccer development process. I always have to stress to my oldest who is pretty conservative in his play that it's called a chance because you have to take certain amount of risk for it to come off. If you don't take the risk, whether it's a run, attempting to dribble past an opponent or difficult pass you will never get the opportunity to score/create a goal. Now you can argue Buendia takes too great a risk for our chances to come off. That's fair. The only issue is with our current available lineup if he doesn't then it's a big zero for alternatives. At that point we might as well bring out the Cash long throw.

@DCJonah exactly what I was getting at. No one else from our squad is on this list.

6'5 with the twinkle toes, gotta love it.

Name him? Luiz does great work from deep. McGinn same as Douglas but a bit closer to goal. High for assist in a PL season is 5. So a little but not much. What player am I missing? If Steven has to name the Liverpool lineup then bet the 0-0.

If we see ourselves as a club challenging for Europe then you need another quality 11 in the squad. Otherwise you pull a Burnley and finish just above relegation due to the stress of a European campaign. I'm with you. I would have preferred a cheaper options but after losing Grealish we needed some proven PL quality to call upon. The fee was on the low side and contract length is right (3 years) so I can accept the higher than average wages.

After the Liverpool game loads of post on here on how we need him to start since we created absolutely nothing that game. If Buendia misses the Burnley match then get ready for an aggressively dull affair. He is currently our only creative fulcrum in the team.

Sadly don't think we are. If he performs at this level for this season and next he would be on line for a massive payday as a free transfer.

Ings substitution threw the whole team out of wack. Ramsey and Buendia looked lost the entire time.

The only negative was that it was a tad bit boring. Steven has quickly turned us into a side that is hard to break down. Pretty impressive.