Darwin Nunez - Thoughts?

[El Rojo]

6 hours ago, Lee909 said:

Cracking header the second

That goalkeeper will be disappointed, though. Makes me appreciate that we have Alisson all the more.

[VladimirIlyich]

9 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

That goalkeeper will be disappointed, though. Makes me appreciate that we have Alisson all the more.

As long as he saves his good stuff for us I don't care. Could be a favour to a team mate?

[Barrington Womble]

15 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

That goalkeeper will be disappointed, though. Makes me appreciate that we have Alisson all the more.

Haha, the first time Ali has got a game in ages too..

[VladimirIlyich]

49 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

Haha, the first time Ali has got a game in ages too..

He is never that static with us. Probably fucked from the travelling.

[Scott_M]

The greatest footballer of all time…

 

 

…and Messi.

[Supremolad]

On 15/11/2023 at 20:26, Razoray said:

The Arsenal game was our 29th in the league last season. So it has been 22 (21.5) games with Trent inverting. 

In our last 22 league games we have 51 points (should rightly be at least 52 - fucking Spurs). We would probably have beaten Southampton, if Champions League football was achievable on the final day of last season, also.

 

In their previous 22 league games:

Man City - 53 points

Aston Villa - 45 points

Man United - 43 points

Arsenal - 42 points

Newcastle - 38 points

Brighton - 35 points

 

We have a superb record since the formation switch was made. 51-54 points from 22 games is back to 2021/2022 form. It has worked.

It, and the whole team/squad needs further improvement, but we are much more than the sum of our parts right now, and are competing at the top of the league, which is all we can really ask really. 

The evidence has been clear for a good while. The formation switch has been successful. It stopped our terrible run of form and results have been great since. Although it's true our current system has minor flaws but we have to recognise all systems have flaws. The trick is minimising the effects of the flaws.

 

Despite the overwhelming evidence, we still have a vocal minority who think the new formation with Trent as inverted fullback should be binned off. We are always a draw or defeat away from hearing them say it over and over again.

[El Rojo]

4 minutes ago, Supremolad said:

The evidence has been clear for a good while. The formation switch has been successful. It stopped our terrible run of form and results have been great since. Although it's true our current system has minor flaws but we have to recognise all systems have flaws. The trick is minimising the effects of the flaws.

 

Despite the overwhelming evidence, we still have a vocal minority who think the new formation with Trent as inverted fullback should be binned off. We are always a draw or defeat away from hearing them say it over and over again.

 

We're all guilty of nonsense on here. In recent times I've even heard Alisson criticised, FFS. Trent should be binned, Van Dijk is finished, Mac Allister is slow and shite, Robertson can't defend and Tsimikas is worse, Konate's a crock, Salah's too predictable, Nunez misses too much, Elliott's not good enough, Gakpo's anonymous, Diaz doesn't have enough end product.

 

God help Szloboszlai if he has two bad games in a row. 

[Redder Lurtz]

Scored tonight against Argentina. 

[TheHowieLama]

2 hours ago, Redder Lurtz said:

Scored tonight against Argentina. 

 

That is one fuckin slloooooowwwww stream ya got.

[Turkish Delight]

 

13 hours ago, Supremolad said:

The evidence has been clear for a hile. The formation switch has been successful. It stopped our terrible run of form and results have been great since. Although it's true our current system has minor flaws but we have to recognise all systems have flaws. The trick is minimising the effects of the flaws.

 

Despite the overwhelming evidence, we still have a vocal minority who think the new formation with Trent as inverted fullback should be binned off. We are always a draw or defeat away from hearing them say it over and over again.

 

I don't think the sample size is big enough to claim that. 

 

We have 5 away wins from 12 since we made the switch.  Four from ten if you ignore the two games we had to change shape in due to sendings off. We played well in 2 of those (Leeds and Leicester last season who were both as shocking as we were good).

 

In that time the only team of note we've beaten at Anfield was Spurs who we had a bit of luck against. 

 

The jury is still out for me. I think we lack creativity playing this way and put too much onus on Trent being our source of making things happen. In the tougher away games his pass completion is around 60% which leads to the play coming back at us and in several games we've struggled to create much from open play due to our narrow formation.

 

I'm quite happy to get proved wrong but there's still some way to go before I trust what I'm seeing on the formation front.

[Redder Lurtz]

13 hours ago, TheHowieLama said:

 

That is one fuckin slloooooowwwww stream ya got.

Hahahahah I didn't know, I though it had just happened! 

[Barrington Womble]

On 18/11/2023 at 01:34, Turkish Delight said:

 

 

I don't think the sample size is big enough to claim that. 

 

We have 5 away wins from 12 since we made the switch.  Four from ten if you ignore the two games we had to change shape in due to sendings off. We played well in 2 of those (Leeds and Leicester last season who were both as shocking as we were good).

 

In that time the only team of note we've beaten at Anfield was Spurs who we had a bit of luck against. 

 

The jury is still out for me. I think we lack creativity playing this way and put too much onus on Trent being our source of making things happen. In the tougher away games his pass completion is around 60% which leads to the play coming back at us and in several games we've struggled to create much from open play due to our narrow formation.

 

I'm quite happy to get proved wrong but there's still some way to go before I trust what I'm seeing on the formation front.

 

Personally I think the tougher away games are the absolute least of our problems. Last year's top 4, city lost to man united and drew at Newcastle. They beat arsenal and achieved 4 points. In those same games, we beat Newcastle and lost the other two. While 3 points is not ideal, it's hardly the basis of crisis if you can win the league with 4 points in those games.

 

The crisis was getting beat at Bournemouth, forest, wolves, drawing at everton & fulham, losing at home to Leeds. We dropped points to all the newly promoted clubs and 2 of the 3 relegated teams (of which there was no overlap).

 

If we change our performances away to the bottom 12, don't shit the bed at home to a team who go down, then we'll have no issue this season. It probably won't win us the league, but it's pretty fanciful to think it would. I haven't done one of those points tables of this year v last, but our worst 2 performances last year were wolves and Brighton away. We have 4 points from those games already, at an aggregate of 3-5, against last season's 6-0. While the Luton draw was bad, it wasn't the loss to forest or Bournemouth last season. 

 

Get back to beating shite, maintain our home form and hold our own away to the good teams and we'll be on for a good season. 

[Turkish Delight]

11 hours ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

Personally I think the tougher away games are the absolute least of our problems. Last year's top 4, city lost to man united and drew at Newcastle. They beat arsenal and achieved 4 points. In those same games, we beat Newcastle and lost the other two. While 3 points is not ideal, it's hardly the basis of crisis if you can win the league with 4 points in those games.

 

The crisis was getting beat at Bournemouth, forest, wolves, drawing at everton & fulham, losing at home to Leeds. We dropped points to all the newly promoted clubs and 2 of the 3 relegated teams (of which there was no overlap).

 

If we change our performances away to the bottom 12, don't shit the bed at home to a team who go down, then we'll have no issue this season. It probably won't win us the league, but it's pretty fanciful to think it would. I haven't done one of those points tables of this year v last, but our worst 2 performances last year were wolves and Brighton away. We have 4 points from those games already, at an aggregate of 3-5, against last season's 6-0. While the Luton draw was bad, it wasn't the loss to forest or Bournemouth last season. 

 

Get back to beating shite, maintain our home form and hold our own away to the good teams and we'll be on for a good season. 

 

We're +3 compared to the same fixtures last season. The 4 you've mentioned plus an extra 2 points v Villa at home and -3 v Spurs away.

 

I agree on the thought process of beating the poorer teams being a good platform for success. I'm not entirely convinced this formation will help us do that but I suppose time will tell.

 

Of thr current bottom 12 we've had Wolves, Chelsea and Luton away so far this season and taken 5 points.

[Barrington Womble]

10 minutes ago, Turkish Delight said:

 

We're +3 compared to the same fixtures last season. The 4 you've mentioned plus an extra 2 points v Villa at home and -3 v Spurs away.

 

I agree on the thought process of beating the poorer teams being a good platform for success. I'm not entirely convinced this formation will help us do that but I suppose time will tell.

 

Of thr current bottom 12 we've had Wolves, Chelsea and Luton away so far this season and taken 5 points.

 

But with this formation we also finished last season with wins at Leicester and Leeds and while we drew at Southampton, I'm not sure we would if it had not been a dead rubber. I think things over the last 22 matches (or whatever it is) are chalk and cheese with where we were August to march last season. We're clearly not back at 18-20 levels, but I wasn't expecting that. Just takes some big steps on the way. That we've done. 

[Razoray]

18 hours ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

But with this formation we also finished last season with wins at Leicester and Leeds and while we drew at Southampton, I'm not sure we would if it had not been a dead rubber. I think things over the last 22 matches (or whatever it is) are chalk and cheese with where we were August to march last season. We're clearly not back at 18-20 levels, but I wasn't expecting that. Just takes some big steps on the way. That we've done. 

City got 89 points last year, and after 12 games this year, they are on course for 89, in this. That's a far cry from when they won 100 and 98 points in consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2019. 

 

For the past 4.3 seasons, since 2019, City have averaged 87 points. We don’t necessarily need to get back to those heady days of 97, 99 and 92 point seasons, to be competitive. 

[Barrington Womble]

24 minutes ago, Razoray said:

City got 89 points last year, and after 12 games this year, they are on course for 89, in this. That's a far cry from when they won 100 and 98 points in consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2019. 

 

For the past 4.3 seasons, since 2019, City have averaged 87 points. We don’t necessarily need to get back to those heady days of 97, 99 and 92 point seasons, to be competitive. 

I think if we put our foot down and apply pressure, they will respond. I think they have played with some spare in the tank, as shown by the season we got 92, which is only the season before last. 

[Razoray]

10 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I think if we put our foot down and apply pressure, they will respond. I think they have played with some spare in the tank, as shown by the season we got 92, which is only the season before last. 

Maybe, but with 12 games remaining last season, they were 8 points behind Arsenal (albeit with a game in hand) and could "only" get a maximum of 94 points.

I acept that they have always been capable of going on a 12 game winning run, but their 18/20 squad is virtually gone and even from last season, they have replaced the winning mentality of Mahrez and Gundogan with Doku and Kovacic, who aren't proven to that level of consistency, and they had De Bruyne available for most of their consistent runs. Will he definitely be fit for the second half of this season? 

I don’t for a second believe that they are gone, but I would be surprised if they hit 90+ points. They’ve done it just once in the past four seasons. I don’t think we will get that much either, but we just need to keep at our current level of points accrual until March. If we get 32 points+ from our next 14 league game, we will have a chance at the business end, in my opinion. 

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, Razoray said:

Maybe, but with 12 games remaining last season, they were 8 points behind Arsenal (albeit with a game in hand) and could "only" get a maximum of 94 points.

I acept that they have always been capable of going on a 12 game winning run, but their 18/20 squad is virtually gone and even from last season, they have replaced the winning mentality of Mahrez and Gundogan with Doku and Kovacic, who aren't proven to that level of consistency, and they had De Bruyne available for most of their consistent runs. Will he definitely be fit for the second half of this season? 

I don’t for a second believe that they are gone, but I would be surprised if they hit 90+ points. They’ve done it just once in the past four seasons. I don’t think we will get that much either, but we just need to keep at our current level of points accrual until March. If we get 32 points+ from our next 14 league game, we will have a chance at the business end, in my opinion. 

Fair enough. I just think the challenge brings the best out in them, except like the year when we won the league and they knew they couldn't do it from very early. Same as our form last season but in reverse. 

[A_S]

Another 2 for Uruguay. 

[El Rojo]

3 hours ago, A_S said:

Another 2 for Uruguay. 

Great. Using up all his goals for his national side. Thanks Darwin. 

[Scott_M]

I’d start him Saturday but have a feeling we won’t. 

[Lee909]

6 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

I’d start him Saturday but have a feeling we won’t. 

 

I reckon most of the South Americans will be in the bench. Jota,Gakpo and Salah to start. 

[Scott_M]

1 minute ago, Lee909 said:

 

I reckon most of the South Americans will be in the bench. Jota,Gakpo and Salah to start. 

Just saw Mac Allister played 90 mins for Argentina.

[TheHowieLama]

4 hours ago, Scott_M said:

Just saw Mac Allister played 90 mins for Argentina.

 

What did you expect - they were playing Brazil FFS.

[VladimirIlyich]

On 17/11/2023 at 12:28, El Rojo said:

 

We're all guilty of nonsense on here. In recent times I've even heard Alisson criticised, FFS. Trent should be binned, Van Dijk is finished, Mac Allister is slow and shite, Robertson can't defend and Tsimikas is worse, Konate's a crock, Salah's too predictable, Nunez misses too much, Elliott's not good enough, Gakpo's anonymous, Diaz doesn't have enough end product.

 

God help Szloboszlai if he has two bad games in a row. 

Tsimikas is definitely worse than Robbo. That cant be disputed.