maps

Well, football IQ is certainly a component of talent.
Now, I think it obviously depends on the person/player, but up to a certain point I think you can definitely teach someone young better football IQ, either directly or they can learn indirectly by playing with better players. It's certainly likelier to be possible than it is to "teach" someone that is already past 20 better technique and physical attributes.

Put differently, I think that the marginal product of trying to teach football IQ is much higher for the average player (past 19-20 years old) than is the marginal product of teaching them to run faster or be better dribblers or shooters because I believe those factors have limited scope for improvement past a certain point that most reach around 20 or even before that.

So this was a very tedious way to say that Memphis has ingredients that most don't because they are not really a function of practice, that is what I mean by super talented.
It is impossible to know at this point whether or not he has the mental capability to learn better football IQ and become a great player, but it's not really looking that good for him seeing as he is 21 and has already played at a pretty high level for some time now.

Football IQ, btw, probably does not have to coincide with intelligence. There are a lot of players with intelligent movement and decision-making that are probably dumber than a bucket of nails off the pitch.

What constitutes a key pass?

A pass that leads up to a goal
A pass that the receiving player attempts a shot on goal from

Neither of the above/both of the above/one of the above?

fat bloke in pub says mou's people have made contact with inter..

oh how the ****ey have fallen

opta

who scored

so yeah, the second one, although it seems like a shot attempt is enough and the receipient doesn't have to hit the target.

Key passes+assists combine for "chances created"

Cheers. Time to get Ozil in my FF team.

A key pass can be a square pass to a guy who shoots from 30 metres or an expert through ball to rooney who misses from 5 metres. Both have same value in that stat.

Because Levy ball and poor advice from the so called experts he employed - DimTim, SirLes and the naive Italian SirBaldini.

E.g DimTim told 'arry Suarez is too similar to VDV = do not buy

But Levy did buy Bale and Modric, so why did he employ these so called experts?

Levy Ball

Poch "I want Schierderlin from Soton"
Levy " but Soton only paid 7m for him 12 months ago and now want 20m"

Goes and buys Stambouli

Poch "I want Martial"
Levy "ok I'll offer Monaco €15m"
Monaco "we want €25m"
Levy "GTFO" and then goes and buys N'jie

Also "so much dross" but we're 40% to finish top 4 and have spent half a billion pounds less than ManU during the past 3 years.

made the same mistake with goatroud vs birdado back in the day

poor man's ox

I would have thought a sharp operator like Levy would have seen through these three planks and not bothered hiring them. Instead, he appointed one of them as manager, even after the Suarez advice.

Opta are getting silly. Measuring cum shots?

Apparently Anfield has been evacuated today after two fans "went missing" during a stadium tour.

With those chance creating maps, obviously you want to see those passes going into the box, that Eriksen one is more underwhelming than I would expect.

Özil and Payet, just wow.

Hazard pretty decent as well.

Rooney vs Ronaldo is a great example of strong natural football IQ vs a football IQ that needs developing.

2005 Rooney was getting picked every single game and already displaying a huge amount of tactical flexibility whereas converting Ronaldo's immense natural talent into something that would consistently benefit the team as a whole was a painstakingly long process, and probably Ferguson-Queiroz-Phelan-Meulensteen's greatest coaching achievement.

Tbf to Eriksen he's played less minutes than the rest.

We've created double the chances of United. It's not surprising since I've seen both teams play, but it feels weird to type out.

The Giroud/Theo rotation has worked really, really well so far. Neither is ever going to be Aguero, but both are better than Bony/Rooney and when we have Sanchez and Ozil, that might just be enough.

Payet/Ozil/Vardy probably the three best players so far this season.

Weren't those two bought by Damian Comolli?

what they steal?

Rooney also benefitted from having gone through puberty at the age of nine and being pretty much fully filled out at 20. It is an interesting point though, Ronaldo's development from a show pony with hair that could only be considered good on the continent to goalscoring stallion with a special helping of tricks on the side was impressive.

Payet has also scored four goals.

Yes, he was the sporting director at the time.

Levy went to Croatia to sign Modric before Euro2008.

too much Memphis hate, still a kid adjusting to tblitw and the LVG circus

think he will wear the 7 shirt and play on the left for many years with much success

Gary Neville once said that Ronaldo went to the "2006 World Cup a boy and came back a man".

The old UTD physio said that when Rooney and Ronaldo was at a similar skill set that Ronaldo went on the weights and finely tuned his body where as Rooney ignored the physio's advice and was still going out drinking in-season and smoking.

Add Rooney's diet since a child to the equation, and this is possibly another reason for his sudden regression.

He's legitimately atrocious for Holland as well.