Saint Matty 76

Armstrong, Mara and Djenepo are not PL standard. Orsic doesn't appear to be either but I don't want to write him off this quickly. The fact that none of them are remotely shining against L2 opposition is incredible.

Has to be a penalty for Grimsby.

Strange game so far. Looks like we pick them apart the second we do anything with any quality. Which is a little rare with the quality of the attackers on the pitch currently.

Not remotely convincing from Mara through on goal, again...

Painful how close we were to signing him as well. The exact player we've been crying out for over the last few years.

Well, glad to see Orsic and Alcaraz. Not sure why we're risking Lavia in this game, and I would've preferred Edozie to Djenepo. Shame that the two new guys aren't involved whatsoever to give them a preferable setting to kick start their moves.

Yeah. Lincoln fans seemed up for it too but that whole game was horribly flat as well. The club haven’t helped themselves with the pricing for this one though, again. Thinking 15,000 at a push? With over 4,000 of that being Grimsby.

Said it already but the only thing I want from the line-up is Onuachu starting to try and get him his first goal in England, could end up being important. I'd probably include Sulemana and Orsic in that too, as at least we don't know for definite yet if these lot are as shit as the others we've watched for years and are well aware about. In reality it'll probably be Walcott, Djenepo, A. Armstrong and Mara, which would make it a boring game to even watch on TV. I slightly feel for the Grimsby fans who'll make the effort to get down here for what'll be just a drab atmosphere.

I imagine that could be an exact copy and paste from their forum as well.

I'd feel far more worried about Chelsea picking up the other, better midfielder we currently posses. I think they'll be looking for a more defensive minded player to take some of that stress away from Enzo. I don't think that's unfair at all, although Liverpool's midfield is a bit of a mess and I can quite comfortably see him being Henderson's successor. Similarly think he'd be a very strong upgrade on Longstaff at Newcastle. I've never been JWP's biggest fan but I do think he's come on a lot these past two seasons and could be part of a much better team.

Don't think there's any chance he'd stay. I think he'd have a good shot at getting a Newcastle, Liverpool or Tottenham move. Anything lower than that would be a bit depressing.

All done, best of luck. Hope you go a little less crazy than I did during this stage.

Yeah, this in particular isn't some crazy damning stat as ones such as Forest he didn't really have a hope in preventing - 1-2 vs Wolves, 2 shots on target faced 0-1 vs Forest, 1 shot on target faced 1-2 vs Fulham, 2 shots on target faced 1-4 vs Newcastle, 4 shots on target faced I just can't help but feel like that is not normal though.

I believe it's due to the 4 own goals we've scored this season, which don't get included as they're technically not a shot.

Don't disagree re: Bazunu's level, but I definitely was a little surprised to see how little our defence gives up on a whole in terms of chances/shots on goal. We're surrounded by all the teams at the top of league, whilst sitting in 20th ourselves. Just really emphasises how bad it is, and like I believe @Saint_clark mentioned, shows how easily we could have been out of this mess even with somebody like Forster.

Just a quick disclaimer that a few people are going to moan about this post so if you're one of them, please just don't read it. Nobody cares if you think it's nonsense or you can't/don't want to understand it, it's not meant for you. It is just a further indication of quite how bad Bazunu has been this season. The best way to judge keepers statistically is post-shot expected goals, as it actually takes into account the level of the shot being taken. If a player scores from 40 yards from a shot of 0.01 xG, it doesn't reflect properly on the fact that a keeper has a far larger chance than 0.01 of saving it. Bazunu has a PSxG of -11.1, which means statistically he's conceded 41 goals where the expectation is just 25.9. The most interesting thing about that to me is the fact that 25.9 is actually the 6th lowest in the league, behind just Newcastle, City, Arsenal, Brighton and United. 5 times who are a million miles further up the league than we are. This indicates that we haven't been terrible defensively this season, we've just been drastically let down by a goalkeepers underperformance. For comparison to the rest of the league, the next worst is Leeds (Meslier) at -5.8. It's actually statistically the worst season by a goalkeeper in Premier League history. Bazunu has also made 54 saves in the league, with only Arsenal, Brighton and City's keepers making less. This has him at a 55% save rate, meaning he's now almost conceding a goal for any save he has to make. We have had 92 shots on target against us, which again is within the top 5 of the league. The argument here could be that our defenders are constantly leaving him in situations where he's not able to make the saves, but that's why the PSxG number above disproves that point. TLDR - statistically we are within the top 5 fewest chances and shots on target faced each game, but Bazunu's underperformance is both the worst in the league by almost double, and the worst the PL has seen.

Che always played better with a good partner, albeit there are little to no similarities between Ings and Onuachu. Che is also quite strangely our most creative player this season in terms of chances created, so I do feel there's a chance he'd bring a little more out of Onuachu moving forward. It all depends on the system for me, if we're sticking with what we're currently playing then I'd go with the following - McCarthy KWP - ABK - DCC/Salisu - Perraud Lavia - JWP Alcaraz - Sulemana Onuachu - Che However, I do think we are more suited to a 4-3-3, and if we're going down I can't help but feel like I'd like to see us go for it a little more with some exciting, direct players on the pitch who do at least possess that upside - McCarthy KWP - ABK - DCC/Salisu - Perraud JWP - Lavia - Alcaraz Edozie - Onuachu - Sulemana Edozie has flattered to deceive on quite a lot of occasions, so I'd completely understand any argument which suggests he's better off the bench. That position could go to about 5 different players, although I'd imagine we all know who it'll be. Unfortunately Bazunu is going to be the main culprit in our relegation, he's statistically the worst performing goalkeeper in Premier League history. McCarthy, whilst also shit, has at least had a history in keeping us in the league. Couldn't pick between DCC or Salisu, both alright players.

I still enjoy the day/build-up to kick-off too much to consider getting rid of my ST, as it's the only time I see the particular group of people I go with. I missed Chelsea at home this season, so I'm now approaching 11 months without seeing us win a league game. My expectations are unquestionably far lower now though, so I don't think how drab we are has the same impact it has previously on me. Whilst I don't think everything is as done and dusted as most, my main hope for this season is now a Wembley day out via the FA Cup semis.

This stat in particular is pretty disgusting.

Or that it'll be disallowed in about 2-3 minutes!

I'd probably focus on getting Sulemana and Onuachu some more minutes/a good performance under their belts. It's not like we've been running them into the ground seeing as they're typically coming off at around the 60th minute each week. Caballero Lyanco - DCC - Salisu - KWP Alcaraz - Diallo - Aribo Edozie - Onuachu - Sulemana Shame that Bree is cup-tied, and the concussion comes at a bad time for Orsic who needed this game massively. Hopefully Ballard/Dibling get a spot on the bench as well.

I actually think Onuachu has looked pretty good with his feet and general hold-up play, we're just massively under-utilising his height because players like Perraud have absolutely no crossing ability. Not to mention the absolute lack of creativity of the two players behind him as well. I think we'd probably benefit from putting Che up next to him and dropping Sulemana back, or having two wingers either side of him instead. You can pick positives out of pretty much every signing we've made, other than probably Aribo and Orsic so far. Players like Mara and Larios who've been essentially irrelevant would likely have a good role to play in the Championship etc. Bazunu being the worst performer by a country mile.

Definitely isn’t working. Think he should either play as one of the 10s if we’re sticking with this system, or we should have him & somebody like Edozie either side of Onuachu.

Spot on. The selection for Chelsea should not have been the same for Leeds.

We haven't even laid a glove on them in injury time, sums it up. The state of the team that is finishing this game is not a Premier League side.