Number 6

Sure. And if we stay up with shocking xG data then I won't be complaining! It has been well proven to be a good indicator of future performance though. Having said that I don't think anyone at our club looks at it. If they had they'd have seen the worrying data from 21/22 and sacked Rodgers in the summer.

There's already some worrying signs in the data which sort of back up what everyone can see. We've taken a defensive approach and this, over the 4 games so far, means we have 4 teams who have conceded more xG than us: Southampton, Ipswich, West Ham, and Everton. So probably the teams we expect to be our peers. Note that two of these teams have already played Man City though so data will be skewed with the small sample. Attacking wise it's looking pretty bleak. Only Ipswich have created less xG over their games, and they've played both Liverpool and Man City. The sacrifice isn't giving us much of a benefit defensively and is completely neutering our attacking potential. This is also ignoring game state. Fairly sure the xG we have generated has mostly been once we're a goal or two down. We've also lost on xG in each of the 4 league games. I know some don't like this data, but it's backing up all the subjective frustrations and showing some really worrying signs.

Huge huge game. Particularly with Ipswich Vs Southampton being on at the same time. Wouldn't go as far as saying any game is a must win at this stage of the season, but we really do need to be looking at getting our first win on the board.

Bournemouth should be winning this. Hopefully they don't come to regret it.

This throws up some interesting consequences. One being that I suspect those in a relegation battle come Jan may spend heavily if they think it gives them a good chance of staying up. Think the only way the PL stop this is to join with EFL in committing to points deductions happening the season after, whichever league you're in. Think the moaners are missing a few bits on this too. Admittedly I did expect us to get punished but it seemed sensible that it would happen given recency of the offence. If the Prem could just punish you when you come back up you could be talking 10+ years between the offence and the punishment, which would seem daft. Again this the solution is that the points deduction is applied in the EFL, but not our fault they haven't sorted their shit out.

I think Justin could be deployed as a more up and down full back than Ricardo could. Admittedly I don't know how well his knee would hold up but he's more athletic than Ricky. I think this is where the JJ at LB and Ricardo and RB calls are coming from. It does seem as huge oversight to not even try the inverted full back though. We played it reasonably well for a while season, had the best defence in the league, and had a player perfect for the role.

Yeh he's definitely not suited to the Kristiansen role, I guess it's whether he can sit narrow and defend better than Justin, which I'm sure many would make a case for. I don't think either are the ideal Ricardo position. Cooper seems to be moving towards more athleticism and physical attributes in our team across the whole pitch too, which I think is counting against Ricardo.

Nothing to do with opposition, in my opinion Ricardo isn't as well suited to the full back roles we're currently asking Kristiansen and Justin to do, even if he is technically a better footballer.

If he'd come in from behind and got player and ball then I think a foul would be been fair. But it was a really clean tackle, completely took the ball. Never a foul.

I actually can understand why he's not currently been playing - I'm not sure he's the full length of the pitch full back he once was. As a RB he'd have to be more like Simpson was for us and pretty much stop at the half way line. Also don't see him as a make shift CB so can again see that logic. It's a fair criticism of the current system that we're not looking to fit in one of our better players though. The big argument for using an inverted full back is that is suits Ricardo so well, but he's also shown that he can be decent as an 8 too. With the current set up the only way I see him being used would be in the middle alongside Winks but not sure he'd be selected there ahead of Skipp.

You think he'd be sacked if he was on 5 points from our first 5 games?

10 games will be the sensible point for fair assessment. At that time we'll have played Everton, Southampton, Ipswich, Forest, and Palace. We need to be on at least 10 points there for me, and Cooper will need to be more attacking, but I think it'll be fair to see where we are then.

That is the 4 team mini league we need to win. I reckon we've got enough to. Won't be fun a lot of the time as I think us 4 are by far the worst teams in the division, but if we win that mini league then who cares.

This for me too. He was kind of just there.

Haaland has scored more goals than any other Prem team so far this season.