At least 2 and probably 3 this season

Arsenal though.

The mickey mouse cup finalists will both have a double game week at some stage in the season as well.

I spend more time than is healthy thinking about the future ev of a lower-mid-table premier league side. It's pretty obviously not, a priori, an interesting conversation topic at all for supporters of other teams.

And I'm semi-firmly signed up to Baids'-theorem.

But I've come/am coming around to being sold on the idea that being interested in PulisGOAT (and you can substitute FatSamGOAT if you prefer) being a thing is actually not just variance.

I feel for Klopp when he said long-ball-set-piece-moan-moan because that's exactly how I felt every time WBA played against PulisStjoke. But that just confirms the story.

This post is triggered by the xG table that showed WBA with 19th xG (albeit comfortably 15th in +/-xG).

So do Pulis (et al) just run phenomenally good? Or is there a better explanation?

The edge they win by practising a lot of set pieces > the edge they lose by not practising other stuff.
Good enough for 13th place finish.

i dont think pulis' results imply an either-or of edge/incredible rungood, i mean why is finishing with 40ish pts every year for 8 years straight so remarkable.

composite wigan manager did that for about 8 years too, with fewer resources.

and we binked a cup.

pulis is just the homeless man's david moyes and will be relegated sooner or later unless he gets a job with a mid table budget or better, which he obviously wont because fans of those teams would riot.

What if he got a hair transplant

if he got a mid table budget he'd blow it. guy is not good with the monies. where is that pulis-stoke graphic about spend?

he's a special case.

most managers try to cultivate a reputation for stylish, trendy and modern football by looking as stylish as possible while pushing the pressing slider all the way to the right, and everyone knows this starts with great hair.

but with pulis, the uglier and ****tier his team looks the more potent his supposed guru powers according to joe bloggs. stands to reason that he should seek to make himself look as ugly and ****ty as possible.

no transplant, more nude changing room rampages would be my advice.

The long and short of it is some coaches have consistently outperformed xG. A lot of it has to do with how they play defense and xG being unable to account for defender location (pass origin and situation can artificially account for defender removal in some case). Teams that play bunker defense and are good at blocking shots or only allowing shots from bad locations tend to outperform their xG. Pulis is the king of having bad shot numbers and meh xG but outperforming it.

Pulis should ditch those sparkling clean, perfectly white trainers. Maybe grab a pair of those old Velcro monstrosities that Wenger always wears.

Augusto Fernandez at Celta is very good. Or at least his passing is. I think his defending is good too but havent paid enough attention to it. Atletico seem like they want him this winter to fill in for Tiago, but he would be an Arsenal type player (for good and bad maybe) too.

Toulalan would also make some sense if he's still going strong. He's only 32.

Don't even play/pay attention to fantasy this year, but all it takes is like an inch of snow to fall in England and you've got your double gameweek

Maybe the xG model isn't as great as a lot of people think.





I don't think there was any Premier League games postponed because of the weather last season, and we had plenty of snow.

Toulalan seemed pretty aidsy vs us last week and he was playing at CB.

I think we might be able to get some great DM that's not cup-tied for UCL and if not, who cares cos we have like 4% equity in the UCL anyway but relatively big equity in the PL, so definitely we should strengthen our midfield cos of all the injuries.

I like William Carvalho, but he's prolly cup-tied for UCL cos of the UCL qualifying games.

I can see William Carvalho being very good for Arsenal because he is a beast and just gives so much security to those that play in front of him.
He is also not so overrated as he was last summer, so it's a good time to buy.

For a cheaper option with better passing skills, Ruben Neves. Not so good at defending but can definitely learn.
For a poor man's William: Danilo Pereira
Warning: everyone looks good at Porto and then you get stuck with the likes of Mangala and Fernando.

James and (Pre-monaco) Falcao tho

also, I wouldn't say that Mangala is fo sho terrible, he's really young and could be quite good at some stage

Does anybody know anything about Yacine Brahimi? Heard he's putting up some obscene dribbling numbers.

Nothing wrong in the offensive midfield. They sold very good players in last years, imo. Hulk, Falcao, James, Moutinho. I actually love Jackson and I just don't understand how he isn't bossing in Madrid.
I rated Anderson very highly at the time, but you guys from Manchester know better than me how he performed.
On defense, the only player I think was sold for the correct price is Alex Sandro. Ricardo Carvalho back in the day maybe?
Overpayed: Danilo, Pepe, Fernando, Mangala.

God, I hate how good they are at making money...

I have mixed feelings about Brahimi. Some games like Chelsea at home he is capable of dominating the wing (I know I know, Ivanovic...). Others like Benfica he just gets dominated by the new right back and couldn't even get a cross in.
I can see promising things from him going forward, but he has to improve his work rate in defense and pressing after losing the ball. Also seems to struggle with motivation vs week opponents.

It seems almost cruel to fire Mourinho before Allardici can out-tactic him on saturday.

last time might have been a top 5 moment of his life:

def don't fire Mourinho. I enjoy the freefall too much and when you thought they hit rock bottom, BANG there is another defeat right around the corner.

What's the news on Hazard? Reading a lot about him not wanting to play rather than being injured, but seems like just clickbait and the story being made up after the Mourinho reaction post-game, but this season...you never know

Don't fire him before we get a game plz Roman.

To be fair, Chelsea are probably saying the same about Van Gaal. It would be a shame if either club pulled the trigger before the 28th as it could be a massive lolfest and provide some awesome entertainment for the thread. Both should be retained until the 1st January - the spirit of goodwill to all men and that.

Sadly it looks like some of the inmates aren't happy with how the Carrington asylum is being run: Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!