Holmes_and_Watson

Welcome back to TalkSport, with moments to go before the window SLAMS shut. I'm Jim White and I...one moment, over to St Mary's...where the Saints have signed...um...a Mr Rabbit....Well paw printed, if not signed. Some will no doubt question Mr Rabbit's small stature, dazed expression and ears that may give an unfair advantage when defending corners. Some may see this as a desperate move, despite the fetching hat Che Adams brings Mr Rabbit out in. But when has Saints' decision to follow their own path, despite the risk, ever gone wrong....oh...

Dream

Further into his speech is "Football forums create GMs." 🙂

Following Thiel's logic PayPal creates poverty, Facebook creates hate, tech companies destroy culture, and speaking engagements creates imbeciles. I don't know he faces each morning through the shame. 🙂

Firestarter

Singer

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Rescue

Caught 30 seconds of 606 with Savage and Sutton while making tea. Something very much like... "Oh yes, Wright and Bright. They were a great partnership." "Have you had any great partnerships, Chris?" "One or two" "Do you think we're a great partnership, Chris?" "It's not for us to say, Robbie. If we were to say we were great, then we'd sound like Nathan Jones."

Even based on a potential impact from our new signings, JWP being more attacking, and NJ's tactics continuing to bed in, you're a bit more confident on that one than me. 🙂

It means your keyboard is broken. 🙂

The Price of Football podcast covers various things like this regularly, giving an accessible perspective on how clubs creatively get round various rules. Mine too for a couple of decades. One day I'll actually take it down and use it to....oh, what's the word... 🙂

That LGBTQ+ shirt looks nicer every time I see it. It has horizontal stripes, but not hoops, and yet isn't the traditional stripes. A unifying contender for our next kit? Certainly no trouble picking out direct passes in the Jones style to other players, which could be a tiny bit helpful to its effectiveness (whew, back nearer the thread subject) 🙂

"I'm being paid by/ I'm setting up a company that sends random gifts to your partner, because you're too stupid to know how the calendar works. How much would you be prepared to be fleeced for?" The dissertation threads continue to be disappointing.

perhaps a quick word switch will reveal more... Well-oiled people acting like we're now a unit, rather than huff and puff merchants who ground out a win against terrible opposition. Aha! 🙂

Sadly, I didn't think there was any shortage of them. Very few of them even have coaching badges.

Unless the lord, well known for being a smarty pants because he's seen all football matches ever, was speaking through Nathan about how pleased He was that His plan worked out.

Seek

Thanks for the updates!

Christian Times, 13/01/22, Sports Supplement. Forum cheap shots on someone's beliefs will get double naughty points when judged at the pearly gates, whether they were predetermined by the structure of any deity's universe or not. 🙂

The good blocks and some good positions he took up, not all in the highlights bit above outweighed some rustiness, over strong passing and other bits and pieces. With our manager doing his usual biting his nails to the quick, no league win since he took over, their manager looking like a dead man walking in a brittle atmosphere of protest with both sets of fans desperate to get some points... he did okay. 🙂

It is a limited stat. The "very" varying over time as depth is added. The use of taggers and the gaps outlined in SaintlyAnd's posts show just how limited it is. And I'd agree it does have a place when used by those specialisng in coaching. Even using xG in isolation is to ignore all of the other stats being generated now. All of which, across a period of time (season/ seasons) add to the information available to the coaching staff specialising in it. But they do have a place. From simple things like determining that your forward keeps thumping it from a position unlikely to score, or that you concede from a lot of corners aimed at a certain area in the box, to using the data to develop styles of play to maximise your chances of using attributes that suit your team. Football hackers mentioned a German ex-player/journalist who trotted out “packing” as the new big thing. He went on about it so much, that it set the whole thing back. And we see that with xG and its numerous fellow figures. Trotted out to fill a graphic, and some air time by commentators and hacks. We point out their useless analysis on everything else, so it’s no surprise this wouldn’t be used well either. But there’s no doubt while the press were going on about Potter’s chances at Brighton, the analysis that they were doing was telling them just how much they were getting right/ to their plans. That helped, not all by itself, lead to long term consistency and a sustainable Premier League team (along with lots of other metrics they also work away at. Because they know it’s not just about one thing, even if some broadcasters/ bandwagon jumpers clearly don’t.)

I was going to post about timing as well, but went to the shops while Weston was posting. 🙂 Looking at the table and upcoming fixtures, when Jones was appointed, I think it was perfectly reasonable to want the club to bringing in someone who could make quick adjustments to get points out of those games. Momentum gained from those points, would hopefully be enough to stay up when tougher fixtures arrived. If you bring in someone with a proven record of dealing with such a position, then there's less risk than bringing in someone of Jones' experience. Perfectly reasonable to be concerned about Jones, following the announcement. No one wants to get relegated (well nearly, as I know some prefer the winning, and entertainment of the lower divisions). So, when results have not gone our way, it's also perfectly reasonable to raise concerns about the above. Added to that was the failure to get a striker in over the summer, which cost Ralph, and won’t have helped Jones' start. Romeu’s departure was costly too, despite good work done elsewhere. That still hasn’t been addressed, and the club are putting pressure on a second manager now, in no small part because of this. The dismal end of last season, and the fine margin defeats of this, run by striker-less Ralph, who no longer had the same level of autonomy, and possibly buy in, were also concerns. Jones has come into a lot of that flak aimed at owners and form. Jones called out that he wasn’t a miracle worker. That was criticised as some thought they’d get, and wanted, that proven record manager to get that early bounce. People are right to be concerned that there might be a transition for an undetermined length of time. We’d very possible find no way back, by the time it kicked in. No surprise that concerns are raised over Rasmus employing a philosophy based less on proven, long term footballing success, to one where he thinks is smarter than the perceived wisdom. Any number of industries are littered with hangers-on, desperately trying to show their genius to the gullible. Lots of people who wanted to give Jones a chance saw that games where we’d been losing by fine margins, were still being lost, and certainly in Forest, by much wider margins in those fixtures we were hoping to get points from. Perfectly reasonable to raise concerns here too, regardless of where you started off in support of the new manager. There’s definitely as lots of different levels on how that concern is voiced. From sticking by a new appointment so early on regardless, through some disillusionment that it didn’t seem to be working, to ridiculous and embarrassing personal attacks on those involved as people. The other side of all of the above is that we’ve got owners who have spent money over the summer, trying to improve a number of areas. We had a lot to improve, so the money had to be spread a bit. We have strengthened in some areas, not up front where it really counted. And form posts here, it would seem that the club were not very happy with some individuals regarding that. Rasmus has previous with Brentford, and we’re cutting our cloth in a similar way to maximise our resources. It’s not going to work with every club. His particular methods might not even work outside Brentford. He can look to the underlying data to support his decisions. Although the date itself is incomplete and only part of the picture. They haven’t made knee jerk decisions. Jones was scouted over a prolonged period. If anything, they could, and despite best intentions should, have parted earlier with Ralph. Ralph could have gone at any number of moments since their take over, but they stuck by him, knowing the good work he’d done previously. But also because that good work (found out or not) matched a number of the things they know they want in a manager. From his press conferences, there’s no doubt Jones is prickly, determined, passionate, driven (and not necessarily in a healthy way). It would be fair to say he adds very human drivers to the data. Ralph’s system arguably left us with a squad of unquestioning automatons, working with low confidence in broken or shored up systems. While we all wanted a quick bounce, it’s fair to firstly admit there are some cracks that just can’t be papered over and secondly expect that it can just take time to get larger changes across. In early games, you could see the change in approach, even if it wasn’t clicking. By Forest, it looked as though the it wasn’t only not clicking, but that the squad had given up on the changes too. It was telling that while we had a lot of posts about Jones’ level and his direct style, there were later suggestions that the players were finding the changes a bit complicated. I remember a departing player saying that RalphBall meant giving up a lot of ingrained ideas about playing. I imagine that it can be tough switching back too. We’ve had a very good week. But we’re still bottom and the cups may be a distraction and a drain on the squad (my league-first hat on). We’re also not going to become world beaters overnight, and there will be plenty of bumps along the way. We can only hope that the hard work put in by staff and players is enough to keep us up, along with that new striker. As above, there’s lots of different levels on how that praise can be voiced. From giving credit where it’s due, through some re-engagement after a shaky start and all the horrid form before it, to digging up every match comment and the people who had perfectly legitimate concerns, and lumping them in with those that lobbed personal abuse.

Post Match Press Conference He still isn't keen on counting that Liverpool game. "Naivity or bravery" is how he's describing that one. Maybe he didn;t contemplate the subsequent defeats, and that first one being added to the stats of winless games. I'd have been disapointed had he not wanted to have got stuck in. It wouldn't have been like him, by all accounts, and would have set the wrong tone of a manager looking after his record, rather than the club. He did the right, and it wasn't a rubbish performance. It's the ones after that, he got stick for (and the varaious levels of feeling regarding the appointm,ent in general) Describes JWP's attitude as world class. It's mean, but part of the comments on the appointment were that NJ simply hasn't had the exposure to what world calss really is. It can be harder to make the transaition to higher levels of even basic requirements across a squad, if you've not had experience at those levels. Not that it can't be overcome, and there are any number of examples where it has. But I do undesrstand the point. NJ's methods do seem to involve analysis that can be tailored for various levels, which matched SR approach too. JWP to be playing in the Premiership for a few years yet. Quiet confidence of us staying up from the manager? Or an early warning JWP is on his way, should we go down? I'm sure it was intended as the first (although I'd not begrudge him a move, should the worst happen). Gives himself credit for "brave decision" on Alcaraz being on, and is open about not necessarily wanting to have had him on for so long, but that a change was needed. There was risk in it, but something was needed. Keen to assess Alcaraz as "not pulling up trees" with performance, but explains why that was and what's to come really well. Orsic not coming on questioned. Up to manager, I'd have thought. No questions asked about any of the others. No one has a right to go straight into the first team on arrival. Not least because there are plenty of things to learn. Diallo got booked and AMN had to come on. Shows we're a bit light in that midfield 3. Just think what an even more motivated Romeu would have been like under NJ >sigh< He's very open about players in his answers. He's kept all of these with positive outcomes, so he knows what he's doing there. Despite being forthright, he's not throwing anyone under the bus here. Accepts some of the criticism was fair, and honest in calling some of it ridiculous. Which is right enough. Good assessment over trying to pressure them regarding their home support (and protesting). Fair in how that worked out, and how they tried to get that back following the opener. Good interaction with the press. Answers the questions asked, and takes them on board. Talks about impact of cup on squad. Nice distraction, but still a distraction. I'm more about the league, so it would be dispointing if the cup knocked morale or gave us injury worries, in such a tough time in the league. Nice to see Ely get some credit. He has worked really hard across lots of positions. Nice to see that being called out. NJ open about the players asking him to change tactic. He didn't. He was a little caught trying to explain that he's the boss being paid to make the tough choices, while also being open to player input. Got there in the end, espeically when he said he'd explained that there was soemthign else he was going to that would be better supported by the 5. No tough questions after a win, so no real sign of his prickly moments. determination, aggression and passion are keywords. He's well aware of the league position, and will hopefully beign working very hard to not let standards drop. Consistency is not only nice to have, but as we still prop up the (admiteedly close) table, is still a necessity.

That could have been a smoother end of the game. But we were so keyed up, we didn;t take any advantage of breakaways, with Everton pushing up. We worked tirelessly for that win. Seeing AA race across the park, closing opponents down, closing that space, makes things a lot easier. Adams did a lot of good hold up play. He's not a finisher though, and the club are now nearly half way through the window, and we still really need a recognised (and very capable) striker. JWP looks to have clicked with NJ, and has been the key factor in us getting this win. He won;t be able to do that every week, and we need someone who can take the chances that hopefully our other new signings will begin to create. A super week though. But still bottom, and they ahve to know that it's now required every week, as there's no room for any complacency in our position. Good to see NJ break the league duck, and hopefully that win will give everyone some belief, in the way that the lighter pressures of the cup ties did.