Greenlizard0 PL & Championship Football Thread ** spoilers ** [14th - 19th January 2022]

Soldato
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so poor yet that’s two assists in what two games for Fred

and McTominay arguably our best player for a few games

McTominay suddenly looked good against a knackered Championship side (sorry Brentford). He never gets that go forward against decent sides. Flat track bully.

As for Fred....I could kick balls into the area every game to Ronaldo, Greenwood, Cavani, Rashford etc. and get assists. If he's not on silly money though I'd keep him as a squad player, works hard, gets around the pitch, doesn't get injured.
 
Caporegime
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McTominay suddenly looked good against a knackered Championship side (sorry Brentford). He never gets that go forward against decent sides. Flat track bully.

As for Fred....I could kick balls into the area every game to Ronaldo, Greenwood, Cavani, Rashford etc. and get assists. If he's not on silly money though I'd keep him as a squad player, works hard, gets around the pitch, doesn't get injured.

Didn't he score the other day too?
 
Soldato
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so poor yet that’s two assists in what two games for Fred

and McTominay arguably our best player for a few games

Not that everything is as simple as goals and assists stats but thats 4 assists in 93 games so if you want to throw a "so poor yet thats two assists" shout then well it isnt great is it.
 

fez

fez

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Yeah, Fred doesn't assist anywhere near enough goals to make up for his shortcomings and he has cost us far more games than he has won over the past few years. I know it wasn't really his fault per-se but he got the touch in the box that gave Villa their equalising goal in the previous game.

Its like Pogba. He assisted 5 goals in one game early in the season but then he comes and saunters around the pitch for the next 3 games and does FA. Good players contribute game after game. Their bad patches are just that, patches, not the norm.

Two xG figures from the game have it at:

2.87 - 2.19
2.5 - 2
 
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Lol. Not seen it yet but I don't blame him. We should have taken more points in the first half of the season, have since gone on a horrible run and then we finally create a load of great opportunities against a big team... but still get soundly beaten. I would hope he's bitter!

It's easy to forget how small a club we are. We've the smallest budget in the league by some distance... Norwich's wage budget, the next lowest, is double ours! Whilst our wage budget last season was in the lower half of the Championship... and our 10 outfield players tonight were all in our Championship side.

It's quite amazing that we've not spent the entire season in the relegation zone... but we're going to need to pick up points soon to avoid getting dragged in.

It would be such a shame if that where to happen. Of all the plucky bottom half teams (including Villa) I think Brentford have the best work ethic and that's more entertaining to see as a fan of the sport then any amount of tactical vigilance shown by City and the like.
 
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Lol. Not seen it yet but I don't blame him. We should have taken more points in the first half of the season, have since gone on a horrible run and then we finally create a load of great opportunities against a big team... but still get soundly beaten. I would hope he's bitter!

It's easy to forget how small a club we are. We've the smallest budget in the league by some distance... Norwich's wage budget, the next lowest, is double ours! Whilst our wage budget last season was in the lower half of the Championship... and our 10 outfield players tonight were all in our Championship side.

It's quite amazing that we've not spent the entire season in the relegation zone... but we're going to need to pick up points soon to avoid getting dragged in.

There's 5 teams that are comfortably worse this season, the big struggle will be next season, similar to Sheff Utd who overachieved in the first season and ran out of puff/got found out in the second season.
 
Soldato
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Fred isn't a DM, it's no surprise he's playing better when in his actual role, same as he does for Brazil.
He definitely plays better high up

also mctominay just needs someone alongside him that can pass

yesterday performance was still poor in the first half with the amount of mistakes

second half slightly better but was more about counter attacking

general play and combos still poor
 

fez

fez

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McTominay just needs replacing. Hes another player that is better further up the pitch. As a DM he is ******* awful. Positionally really bad and if you watch him when our CBs have the ball he genuinely hides behind the attacks so there is no way for the CBs to pick him out with a pass a lot of the time.

The problem with Fred and McSauce is that they aren't being played in their best position but they are also not as good as the other options in their favourite positions. 2 top CMs to replace those two would make a massive difference to the team but we also need more work and shape from our forwards. Part of the reason we are so easily overrun in midfield is that we have too many attacking players who don't work for the team. The opposition can bypass the forwards and overload the midfield at will.

Whenever I watch us play we are overrun even when we have strength of numbers over the opposition. We don't use our players effectively on the pitch. Its no good having 5 defenders if only 2 of them are actually doing anything useful defensively and the opposition can still play through and around you.
 
Soldato
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There's 5 teams that are comfortably worse this season, the big struggle will be next season, similar to Sheff Utd who overachieved in the first season and ran out of puff/got found out in the second season.

I dunno... just because it happened to them doesn't mean it'll happen to us. I mean, it might... but it's not a great comparison given our two very different transfer models.

They spent tens of millions on McBurnie, Mousset, Brewster, etc. whilst relying on McGoldrick... also their rise and fall was due to just one man; Chris Wilder.

We're vastly different football clubs.
 
Soldato
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so poor yet that’s two assists in what two games for Fred

and McTominay arguably our best player for a few games
Yeh so poor would they get in any of the top 4 sides or even top 6 I don't think so the standards of united are getting lower and lower

They've been over run by almost every side this season including Norwich and Watford that is not united standards at all
 
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