TWar

JWP is so underrated on here. Excellent player. If Newcastle got him it would be a massive display of intent. They likely won't though as Football Insider make up things and are hopeless.

I find Owen to be a buffoon, albeit a funny one. Heres a list of his best quotes: 15) “To stay in the game, you have to stay in the game.” 14) “That’s a fantastic penalty, but he’ll be gutted it went wide.” 13) ”I doubt Everton are going to get anything out of this game.” (when 4-0 down against Liverpool in the dying minutes) 12) “What a feeling it is to be a manager and bring someone on.” 11) “It’s definitely hit Defoe’s hand as it’s gone in, but it’s not a handball for me.” 10) ‘Footballers these days often have to use their feet’ 9) ‘He looks like a footballer’ 8 ) ‘He’s elbowed him in the head, but there’s nothing in it for me’ 7) When speaking about the Belgian Toby Alderweireld, the Englishman spoke about his inclusion in the squad as if Spurs and Tottenham were different teams. 6) “That would’ve been a goal had it gone inside the post.” 5) ‘It’s hit the facial part of his head, there’ 4) ‘If there’s a bit of rain about, it makes the surface wet’ 3) ‘That’s completely unstoppable, but the keeper’s got to do better for me’ 2) ‘It’s a good run, but it’s a poor run if you know what I mean?’ 1) ‘When the ball is that still, it’s wobbling in the air’ Shamelessly stolen from - https://www.novibet.co.uk/blog/top-15-best-michael-owen-quotes-commentary/ - but Owen normally has a funny line or two in him. Also a big proponent of "he knows where the goal is" and "they just want it more" style of crap old school commentary with little insight!

Agreed. Give me the opinions of someone who has studied football tactics and statistics professionally over that of a buffoon like Michael Owen or Paul Scholes any day, despite the fact they were both incredible footballers. They are simply different skills. Anyone who doesn't get that should watch Owens commentary for 10 mins or so.

Kind of a silly concept, you don't have to be a professional chef to know something tastes bad and you don't have to be a pro footballer to know one is playing poorly. If the only people who could watch a football game and have opinions were good enough to actually replace the players on the pitch then it isn't really a spectator sport.

In fairness to MLG, echo exclusives are normally pretty on the money but they also have a bad habit of reposting others' exclusives who are less reputable. In this case they are not claiming it themselves they are reporting football insider has claimed it and FI are honestly one of the least reliable sources out there.

I, despite what others have said, think that Adam Armstrong is a decent finisher. He had good finishing stats in the championship comparable to other players who have done well in the prem in the past and he dispatched the goal against Everton well. You could argue Broja is better than Armstrong, which is fair, but I think you need one guy who can put chances away and one who can make them, unless you have especially creative attacking mids which we don't. I wouldn't mind Broja and Adams for the record but I think maybe Broja and Armstrong with our attacking mids would not lead to a huge number of shots on target purely due to the lack of creativity. We always need one more creative guy (Adams/Redmond) to balance with our pure finisher (Armstrong/Broja) imo.

I'm curious to see if Adam Armstrong can play behind the forwards. Something like Broja and Adams infront of both Armstrongs. If I remember correctly Leach was saying Armstrong was being signed to play across the front 4 rather than just as a forward.

Adams was poor against Chelsea imo and yeah was the definition of a tap in. However we have a massive issue making chances and Che is very good at turning hopeful balls over the top, pressures, and interceptions into goal scoring chances. He is a worse scorer than Broja but imo a much better second striker. Not sure Armstrong and Broja will suit each other up top in the same way but we shall see.

It is, Adams is our best creator outside of maybe Stuart Armstrong. Without him we will definitely make less chances. Broja is a better finisher but that means little if we don't have any chances to finish.

We look good at the moment! I'd play: McCarthy Tino Lyanco Salisu Perraud JWP Diallo S. Armstrong Elyounoussi Broja A. Armstrong I think Bednarek is probably better than Lyanco but we need to reward good play and he did well at Chelsea so he deserves it. Broja over Adams is also a tough one but Adams looked kinda sluggish against Chelsea and went off holding his thigh/hammy so I think could need a little longer to recover from injury.

Maybe, he wasn't that far out. Also Kepa is a pretty poor keeper, shots on target could force mistakes. But I very much agree with your second sentence, he did play well.

Well put.

I thought he was decent but he was offside a lot (which is a very Long thing to do) which gave them opportunities to get the ball back when we really needed to hold it. Also I feel if he had gone for goal with his header from Stu's freekick he could have had a very good chance against a pretty average keeper. May not have gone in but was better than what he went for in the end. Again, I thought he did well and was impressed, just saying "nothing" isn't quite accurate imo.

Erm...

One interesting thing it did show was that we could be resilient and effective in midfield without Romeu. Maybe a Diallo JWP midfield with Armstrong and Elyounoussi in front of them is the way to go in the future!

A lot more promise than I gave him credit for. Fair play. Salisu and him were very good tonight. One good game does not a good player make and I thought Long also looked good tonight for the record and Valery but he might have some potential. And we have one of the best managers for finding potential and improving players in the league imo so fingers crossed he proves me very wrong in the future.

Watching the game, Lyanco did have a good game. He had an atrocious game at sheffield united though so maybe a bit early to say he proved people wrong. Shows he atleast has a little promise though. With regards to the game, we played well against a very good side, maybe could have snatched it at the end with a couple of good corners or with Smallbones header. It's a shame Armstrong, Djenepo, Diallo, Che were all subbed off as they would probably have had it over Smallbone but can't blame the lad for it considering his situation, he was very positive after coming on and it was nice to see him back.

Would like to see Stu get a run out, hasn't played much football this season so would be good to get some minutes.

But why just the back end of last season rather than all of last season? Do you have a reason to select that as the day you start paying attention outside it makes your point the best?

Why not choose a significant number such as this season, or this season and last, or since Ralph took over? Do you think the 35 games was picked at random, and therefore is pretty arbitrary, or do you think it is picked to coincide with the beginning of a losing run, which is the very definition of cherry picking, ie the logic of selecting the test set is based on the desired outcome of the test rather than any non-bias methodology? If there is no reason for the set to be that then it is arbitrarily selected. If the reason is "well it makes my point best" then that is cherry picking.

So what, why do you care?

He beat Klopp that day, don't care if he comes out in a frilly dress afterwards and sings a little ditty. Weird you are so bothered tbh.

Its amazing how much a man crying bothers you. Maybe says more about you than the man.

Well yeah, why 35, not 36 or 34? It's not over a season, or any period in which a major change has happened like the duration of a new manager. There is no reason to pick that duration except it gives the most favourable statistic. It is the very definition of arbitrary and a good example of cherry picking. You may be mixing up arbitrary with insignificant.

Oh my bad! quick skim sorry!