Premier League 2022/23 Thread

[filbertway]

You do have to be really bad to be relegated from this league with a squad that's been competing at the top end of the table for 2/3 seasons.

 

The only difference between this season so far and last season is that Rodgers isn't getting the luck, I don't actually understand why people have jumped from in to out as nothing has really changed aside from the luck. It's like people base their footballing judgements on results rather than process and performance.

 

I still think this squad's too good to go down and will bail out Rodgers awful tactics, like it has been doing for the majority of the past 18 months. Couple of wins and draws against the run of play and the same people will be scampering back over the fence quicker than you can say "I never doubted you and your little black notebook".

[AjcW]

4 minutes ago, filbertway said:

You do have to be really bad to be relegated from this league with a squad that's been competing at the top end of the table for 2/3 seasons.

 

The only difference between this season so far and last season is that Rodgers isn't getting the luck, I don't actually understand why people have jumped from in to out as nothing has really changed aside from the luck. It's like people base their footballing judgements on results rather than process and performance.

 

I still think this squad's too good to go down and will bail out Rodgers awful tactics, like it has been doing for the majority of the past 18 months. Couple of wins and draws against the run of play and the same people will be scampering back over the fence quicker than you can say "I never doubted you and your little black notebook".

Think we are well beyond that!

 

Also where have we not had luck this season?

 

We were lucky to be 2-0 against Brentford

Insanely lucky to be 1-0 against Saints

 

We were given those opportunities, that's 6 points we threw away that we would have stolen.

Edited 26 August 2022 by AjcW

[Happy Fox]

10 minutes ago, filbertway said:

You do have to be really bad to be relegated from this league with a squad that's been competing at the top end of the table for 2/3 seasons.

 

The only difference between this season so far and last season is that Rodgers isn't getting the luck, I don't actually understand why people have jumped from in to out as nothing has really changed aside from the luck. It's like people base their footballing judgements on results rather than process and performance.

 

I still think this squad's too good to go down and will bail out Rodgers awful tactics, like it has been doing for the majority of the past 18 months. Couple of wins and draws against the run of play and the same people will be scampering back over the fence quicker than you can say "I never doubted you and your little black notebook".

I don’t think luck has anything to do with it, it’s tactics. Rodgers tactics and way of football has the players playing with shackles on.

[Saxondale]

Props to the Forest transfer strategy of signing 200 players and banking on a couple of them coming good.

 

They’re shafted when they go down and they’ve got an enormous wage bill.

[ARTY_FOX]

On 23/08/2022 at 12:11, Bazly said:

The relegation zone is looking strange three games gone, bottom West Ham, 19th Leicester City, 18th Wolves, 17th Everton and 16th Liverpool. Could be a interesting relegation battle this year, Pretty sure we will be there or there abouts come May.

We won't be. 

[StanSP]

Maupay to Everton. Thought he had already moved to Forest! 

 

 

[Aus Fox]

2 hours ago, Deeg67 said:

Implicit in all these ostrich “we’ll never be relegated” posts is the question: who will?

 

Bournemouth seems a prime candidate, though they already have a win,  Everton seems hopeless and were lucky to survive last season so maybe them, though they have enough talent to where they should stay up.  Who else?  I don’t think Fulham or Forest are going down.  You have to think West Ham will figure it out enough to survive.  Villa?  Wolves?

 

The absence of obvious chum at the bottom of the table makes this cavalier attitude very dangerous, and I hope the board doesn’t share it.

I’d say Bournemouth, Forest and one of Leeds or Southampton will go down. Everton will run it close again and Fulham will struggle the tough the season but will pull away. 
Over the course of a season those six will  have the inferior squads. Don’t judge a season over what’s happened early on. Some teams start well and others don’t - last season Arsenal were bottom after three games and Everton were in the top four. 
Over a season the cream rises to the top and those that haven’t got the quality beyond the 11 or the ability to score goals will go down.

[Finnegan]

Every time I think about how bad our squad / transfer situation is I remember we're not Everton and I feel better. 

[The People's Hero]

2 hours ago, AjcW said:

Think we are well beyond that!

 

Also where have we not had luck this season?

 

We were lucky to be 2-0 against Brentford

Insanely lucky to be 1-0 against Saints

 

We were given those opportunities, that's 6 points we threw away that we would have stolen.

I don't think we were lucky to be ahead in either of those games; we dominated and completely controlled both games up to those points.

 

It was the complete surrender of approach and initiative that hurt us in both (and the fact that we simply cannot defend).

 

When we're controlling the ball and being a bit assertive and hunting the ball down, we are fine and teams don't hurt us. As soon as we sit back and allow teams a foothold in games we crumble.

 

I'm not a football expert. The above is obvious stuff and its very concerning that the same mistakes keep being repeated.

[FoxinNotts]

8 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Every time I think about how bad our squad / transfer situation is I remember we're not Everton and I feel better. 

I don't think our squad is bad.

[BKLFox]

6 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

I don't think we were lucky to be ahead in either of those games; we dominated and completely controlled both games up to those points.

 

It was the complete surrender of approach and initiative that hurt us in both (and the fact that we simply cannot defend).

 

When we're controlling the ball and being a bit assertive and hunting the ball down, we are fine and teams don't hurt us. As soon as we sit back and allow teams a foothold in games we crumble.

 

I'm not a football expert. The above is obvious stuff and its very concerning that the same mistakes keep being repeated.

Yet bizarrely this is the bit most hit Rodgers and what they believe the issue to be, tiz strange

I agree with you & I don’t believe the remit is to do this as in get 1 goal and then completely stop this and start withdrawing, this surely must be coming from players themselves and mentally wanting to just hold a lead

[The People's Hero]

23 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

Yet bizarrely this is the bit most hit Rodgers and what they believe the issue to be, tiz strange

I agree with you & I don’t believe the remit is to do this as in get 1 goal and then completely stop this and start withdrawing, this surely must be coming from players themselves and mentally wanting to just hold a lead

You might be right but Rodgers' substitution in the Brentford game was bizarre. KDH looked fit and strong and was the best player on the pitch. Pulling him off completely surrendered the intitiative.

 

 

[Bert]

2 hours ago, AjcW said:

Think we are well beyond that!

 

Also where have we not had luck this season?

 

We were lucky to be 2-0 against Brentford

Insanely lucky to be 1-0 against Saints

 

We were given those opportunities, that's 6 points we threw away that we would have stolen.

We certainly weren’t lucky to be ahead against Brentford. We destroyed them until KDH got dragged. 

[Fox92]

2 hours ago, Happy Fox said:

I don’t think luck has anything to do with it, it’s tactics. Rodgers tactics and way of football has the players playing with shackles on.

"Players playing with the shackles on".

 

Stop making excuses for the players. They are pathetic as well.

[BKLFox]

3 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

You might be right but Rodgers' substitution in the Brentford game was bizarre. KDH looked fit and strong and was the best player on the pitch. Pulling him off completely surrendered the intitiative.

 

 

I wish you worded that a little different the giggling school boy came out in me 😆 

 

But yes he for sure should have utilised the 5 subs considering the heat, the only defence I could offer is he thought putting Maddison in the KDH slot and bringing on Daka would try and peg Brentford back due to his speed, he’s also an attacker so forward thinking as opposed to switching KDH with Cags for instance which suggests he himself is dropping the team back so 🤷‍♂️ 
 

 

[Sampson]

7 minutes ago, Bert said:

We certainly weren’t lucky to be ahead against Brentford. We destroyed them until KDH got dragged. 

Neither were we lucky to be ahead of Southampton. Southampton hadn’t had a chance yet and while we weren’t creating much, Maddison’s free-kick was not luck, it was exactly the definition of what filbertway was talking about about the individual quality of a player bailing us out regardless of tactics.

 

I also really think there’s very little chance of us going down. We have too much attacking quality not to be bailed out by the likes of Maddison, Vardy and Barnes. That was the case last season, was also the case often under Puel where Vardy and Mahrez’ individual quality bailed us out a lot.

Edited 26 August 2022 by Sampson

[SkidsFox]

47 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Every time I think about how bad our squad / transfer situation is I remember we're not Everton and I feel better. 

The thing is they are at least trying to improve matters by signing up players. I know their judgement can be variable, but at some point their players will click.

Our problem is we're trying to cope without new blood, a couple of our best players wanting out (and unlikely to shine if they stay), and two of our best (Vardy and Evans) close to retiring. At least we've got some class young players in the side, but will it be enough?

[Bert]

15 minutes ago, Sampson said:

Neither were we lucky to be ahead of Southampton. Southampton hadn’t had a chance yet and while we weren’t creating much, Maddison’s free-kick was not luck, it was exactly the definition of what filbertway was talking about about the individual quality of a player bailing us out regardless of tactics.

 

I also really think there’s very little chance of us going down. We have too much attacking quality not to be bailed out by the likes of Maddison, Vardy and Barnes. That was the case last season, was also the case often under Puel where Vardy and Mahrez’ individual quality bailed us out a lot.

Can’t comment on the Saints game as I wasn’t there! 

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, Bert said:

Can’t comment on the Saints game as I wasn’t there! 

two poor sides until adams came on and bullied us out of it 

brendan ball was working perfectly in that context as the side controlling the game between two poor sides will invariably squeak ahead somehow  (see Tuesday night for example where this doesn’t work!) 

[Merging Cultures]

Just now, st albans fox said:

two poor sides until adams came on and bullied us out of it 

brendan ball was working perfectly in that context as the side controlling the game between two poor sides will invariably squeak ahead somehow  (see Tuesday night for example where this doesn’t work!) 

Where is our bully? Our Was or Wes?

We need an aggressor.

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, Merging Cultures said:

Where is our bully? Our Was or Wes?

We need an aggressor.

We have vards but he bullies by clever movement - we have no one who can stick a shoulder into anyone 

[FoxesWalk]

35 minutes ago, Bert said:

We certainly weren’t lucky to be ahead against Brentford. We destroyed them until KDH got dragged. 

We got 2 goals from an xG of 0.46 against Brentford. Whilst we did dominate the ball we aren’t creating clear chances. Against Southampton, one of the worse teams and defences in the league, we had an xG of 0.32. That is the worst I’ve seen a team do against Southampton in recent years… @AjcW is right, we have been lucky and are significantly outperforming the quality of chances we are creating. 

 

We are BOTTOM of the premier league for big chances created and BOTTOM of the premier league for big chances conceded. It’s no coincidence that we are almost bottom of the league. We are genuinely bad at the two key aspects of the game. 

Edited 26 August 2022 by FoxesWalk

[Sampson]

4 minutes ago, Merging Cultures said:

Where is our bully? Our Was or Wes?

We need an aggressor.

Used to be Ndidi but he looks like a shadow of his former self nowadays.

[Finnegan]

27 minutes ago, SkidsFox said:

The thing is they are at least trying to improve matters by signing up players. I know their judgement can be variable, but at some point their players will click.

Our problem is we're trying to cope without new blood, a couple of our best players wanting out (and unlikely to shine if they stay), and two of our best (Vardy and Evans) close to retiring. At least we've got some class young players in the side, but will it be enough?

 

They are literally the best evidence for the argument that it's better to not spend than spend poorly. 

[shiv]

7 minutes ago, FoxesWalk said:

We got 2 goals from an xG of 0.46 against Brentford. Whilst we did dominate the ball we aren’t creating clear chances. Against Southampton, one of the worse teams and defences in the league, we had an xG of 0.32. That is the worst I’ve seen a team do against Southampton in recent years… @AjcW is right, we have been lucky and are significantly outperforming the quality of chances we are creating. 

 

We are BOTTOM of the premier league for big chances created and BOTTOM of the premier league for big chances conceded. It’s no coincidence that we are almost bottom of the league. We are genuinely bad at the two key aspects of the game. 

I made this point in another thread but IMO until our goals actually dry up you can’t focus on our xG if we are consistently scoring. Goals aren’t the issue - our defending is.