saintwbu

I’d take him again on loan, i’d hope we aren’t looking to spend any money on him

Doesn’t seem much of a coincidence to me when it’s the same shit group of players that have struggled for years

In the first 28 minutes, Ralph’s tactics had us dominating the game and creating 3 or 4 great chances that should’ve been scored. Then some poor individual defending and goalkeeping results in two quick goals in a couple of minutes. Which part of that is Ralphs fault?

When I opened this thread I was really hoping to find a deep analysis of whether Wesley Hoedt was signed to keep Virgil Van Dijk happy. Thankfully my prayers were answered.

Their squad isn’t bad at all. Trossard, Webster and Maupay cost over £60mil combined, former England internationals Welbeck and Lallana, Ben White who’s been touted at over £30mil and Lamptey (albeit injured a lot) who’s been linked to Bayern Munich, as well as numerous other internationals in their squad. The ‘hipsters favourite team’ means the sort of team that people watch once, see they can pass it about a bit and say ‘Potter’s doing a great job there’ when the numbers simply don’t back it up. They’re average at best, Potter has done an average job at best.

They’ve dropped the most points from winning positions of any team this season, more than even us. It’s definitely not just strikers that are their problem, they sometimes end the game with 6 or 7 defenders on the pitch but still can’t hold onto a lead. He’s the hipsters favourite, they’re the hipsters favourite team at the moment, they play ‘such great football’ but don’t score goals and don’t win many games, and haven’t done for two seasons now.

Fair point!

Maybe for once the club has realised that not every single signing you make can be made with a view to what you’ll sell them for in a few years. Jonny Evans, Gary Cahill, Craig Dawson, all have signed for similar size clubs to us in recent years with no future value but adding immense value in the immediate term. Resell value doesn’t mean much if you get relegated 👍🏻.

Josh Sims was the last player to get me on the edge of my seat who’s come through our academy. Can’t remember who his debut was against, I want to say home to Everton? But he was electric that night, and some other games too.

I’m hoping that Bednarek’s disastrous form since January has made people realise that there really isn’t much between him and Stephens. Both on their day can be great, both are prone to lapses. Personally for me, Stephens has never had a run of form as bad as Jan has been on this year, and Stephens is more of a leader/fighter, so he’d be my preference to be honest. Bednarek gets away with murder on here imo.

That was really interesting, thanks.

Sad to see him go, I was very underwhelmed when we signed him to replace Shaw in that summer of upheaval. He’s gone onto be one of my favourite players of this Premier League era, definitely could’ve played for a bigger club at his peak but always seemed happy here. Good luck to him, likely to get a move to one of the big boys now even if just as a deputy. Shame he can’t get a proper send off.

Maybe so, but to follow it with ‘definitely a penalty, clumsy from Redmond’ whilst simultaneously basically saying that Zaha dived/cheated seemed somewhat contradictory. Benteke was decent in the first half. But as players on the losing team never get MOTM, and his opposing striker scored twice, whilst his partner scored one and assisted one, i’m not sure he was even close to being MOTM, personally.

Haha that’s literally the line I had in my head when I typed that!! It was in the FA Cup replay against Derby at St Mary’s, couldn’t believe my ears.

Normally like Ekoku on commentary, was a little bit annoying last night as seemed to be impressed by Zaha’s initiation of contact for the penalty, and almost gave Benteke MOTM somehow! But normally he’s good, feels like he actually watches teams like us and knows about us. Most other pundits just seem to make generalisations about any team outside the top 6 based on the actual game they’re commentating on.

I’ve fairly confident they would have watched the player too, yes. But to say stats are not a factor is obviously just silly - a look at stats would tell you that Watkins and Bamford have outscored Ings this season. They must be better, get them on the plane to the Euro’s! But they’ve played a third more games, so stats do matter, whether you like them or not. FWIW I don’t really care much for the xG stat, but it clearly has some relevance as a lot of people (in the game) place a lot of importance on it nowadays.

Ralph’s MO is to not play a player who is leaving. So do we take any solace from the fact that Ings is still starting? Or is Ralph just having to make an exception in this case because he knows we won’t win a game without him?

Unfortunately xG didn’t come in handy for signing their goalkeeper, who cost them the final.

Hasn’t served Brentford too badly, given those are the sort of stats they operate off when they buy players. They’ve signed Maupay, Watkins and Benrahma cheap and turned them into £75million, and replaced them with Ivan Toney for £12mil who’s just broken the Championship goal record.

I don’t think that xG stat was used to suggest that Adams is a world class finisher, more to show that other players aren’t doing as well as they may seem. If you’d watched Bamford or Watkins, you’d know that they miss hatfuls of chances, and if Ings was playing in either side he’d probably be on 30 goals this season! We miss a Tadic/Lallana-esque creator, we have done for years - it wouldn’t make Adams a deadly finisher over night, but he’d probably have bagged a fair few more than he has.

The whole situation is starting to confuse me tbh. Club seem adamant he’s going to be here, every other signal says he’s off. Club said he’s out for the season with that recent injury, headlines straight away say he’ll be back soon, and obviously that was the case. I’ve assumed for a while that he’s off, but not sure whether to get my hopes up with the noises coming from the club! Really hope we can see another season, into double figures in such a stop/start season for him is quite impressive - last season definitely wasn’t a one off.

I really like Adams, always have. I obviously agree that he should be more efficient in front of goal with his chances. I do think he has very good vision, you can tell he played in midfield earlier in his life, he has spotted a number of great passes in his time here and got some really lovely assists. He’s improved a lot since he arrived, hopefully that continues, would love to have another Adams/Ings season, however unlikely that may be!

He’ll get a good club, he’s a good player, despite what people on here pretend. The same people that love Bednarek and loved Hojbjerg.

Think Theo was always expected to be an option off the bench this season. The injuries and shit form of the competition has meant he’s played a lot more, and despite what you read on here, he has had some good games. I’d rather have him than have no one, and any alternative is going to cost £10mil+ which we can’t afford if their purpose is to just ‘be an option’. It’s low risk and his influence around the team is a positive one, we can afford it, and he’s another body on the bench.

Would love Lookman, has looked great for Fulham, he’s still only 23 and relatively inexperienced in football terms with this being his best season in terms of appearances in the Prem. There’s a few in that Fulham team that would be worth looking at, but not sure if we will. Antonee Robinson at LB, Loftus-Cheek, Andersen at CB. Few of their good players are on loan there anyway.