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Totally Unofficial 2019/2020 Premier League Thread (NWT)

What is happening in the ICC? 4 red cards in the 3 matches tonight?
 
That's a bummer for Asensio -- it looked pretty innocuous, but they often do. He just kind of jarred his leg in the turf, wouldn't be totally shocked if the field had something to do with it. They play on such shitty surfaces usually on these tours of non-soccer stadiums. Gotta get that cash, I guess -- it's silly.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if this changes Zidane's stance on Bale. Probably not, but despite missing his penalty in the shootout, Bale looked pretty good, I thought.
 
Can their relationship even be repaired after Zizou publicly shat all over Bale?
 
Doubt it. Zidane claims something was lost in translation, though.
 
Betis are about to land their second bad knee guy, getting Milik from Napoli. Lo Celso to Spurs has to be on, but kind of hope this means Firpo to Liverpool, as well, though Fekir was super cheap, so maybe they don't need all that cash. Firpo will probably go to Barcelona anyway.
 
Milik is crocked. But the signing makes sense for a club like Betis just hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. Undoubtedly talented.
 
And HOT TAKE ALERT, but I'm still not certain that I want N. Pepe at United. Sure, we need a RW talent, but is he the right one? 24 years old now and his last two seasons were fantastic, no doubt, but I'm just not sold.

Lot of Ligue 1 hibbi-jibbies with me much like the Eredivisie. Success in Ligue 1 does not necessitate success in the Prem.

Just 15 caps at age 24 for Ivory Coast is an eye opener. And not in a good way.
 
Nathaniel Clyne did his ACL and is out six months, so probably won't be going anywhere this summer.
 
deacvision7 said:
And HOT TAKE ALERT, but I'm still not certain that I want N. Pepe at United. Sure, we need a RW talent, but is he the right one? 24 years old now and his last two seasons were fantastic, no doubt, but I'm just not sold.

Lot of Ligue 1 hibbi-jibbies with me much like the Eredivisie. Success in Ligue 1 does not necessitate success in the Prem.

Just 15 caps at age 24 for Ivory Coast is an eye opener. And not in a good way.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't read too much into the cap thing. He burst on to the scene kind of late, just turned 24 in May, and only declared for Ivory Coast more recently (he was born in France).

I feel a lot better about buying from France than Holland, but you will always get some duds. The Premier League is just such a different beast, it's tough to tell.

But I like Pepe. Goal numbers were enhanced a lot last season because of penalties, but he is still putting up double digits two consecutive years in a league where they don't score a lot of goals compared to others.
 
El Chupacabra said:
I wouldn't read too much into the cap thing. He burst on to the scene kind of late, just turned 24 in May, and only declared for Ivory Coast more recently (he was born in France).

I feel a lot better about buying from France than Holland, but you will always get some duds. The Premier League is just such a different beast, it's tough to tell.

But I like Pepe. Goal numbers were enhanced a lot last season because of penalties, but he is still putting up double digits two consecutive years in a league where they don't score a lot of goals compared to others.
Click to expand...

But that is kind of my point. Is he the real deal or just a player that is going thru a golden patch of form?

I readily admit that I've paid far less attention to European football than I used to before my wife got pregnant/my daughter was born, so I may be WAY off. I acknowledge that without reservation.


And yes, France/Ligue 1 is a better and more reliable league than the Eredivisie, no arguments from me. But I refuse to believe that a player that did nothing of note from age 18-22 and then burst onto the scene the next two seasons is a sure-fire match winner.




Should United sign him, I'd love to be proven wrong, but I am far from sold at present.
 
Pepe's game is getting better season over season too:

DzcfifJXgAMADby.jpg:large


Probably running hot above xG given the penalties and this not great shot chart:

DykeSzUXcAI1tEq.jpg


He's also a little one-footed which works in half space but not if you want him to be a primary creator. And he gets dispossessed a bit too much.

But he's very good.
 
TownieDeac said:
Pepe's game is getting better season over season too:

DzcfifJXgAMADby.jpg:large


Probably running hot above xG given the penalties and this not great shot chart:

DykeSzUXcAI1tEq.jpg


He's also a little one-footed which works in half space but not if you want him to be a primary creator. And he gets dispossessed a bit too much.

But he's very good.
Click to expand...

That is just the two seasons in which I noted he has performed well in Ligue 1. None of which goes against my concerns about a player suddenly finding a golden patch of form entering their prime.

I would well hope that a player with another year of experience at age 24 would be better than they were with a year less experience at age 23.
That should pretty much go without saying. Nice radar charts tho.

I realize the coincidental humor of this, given my previous reliance on stats, but Townie, how many times have you actually watched Pepe play a full 90 minutes?
 
deacvision7 said:
Townie, how many times have you actually watched Pepe play a full 90 minutes?
Click to expand...

Maybe 2? I don't think he played when Everton played Lille last summer. Saw him score against Rennes in the French Cup where Lille went out last season (round of 32? 16? 8? no idea) and then saw him as a substitute another game.

Hence, without seeing him play live much, I rely on stats to tell me the story.

There are maybe 30 footballers playing professionally who take > 4 shots per 90 and produce .4 xG per 90. So that puts him in good company. Maybe 25 of those players are better than him and 5 are worse, but while I'd doubt he's the sole outlier of that group, my guess is it's informative enough about his game to say it'd be projectable going forward. Lille also took a jump as a club from 17-18 to 18-19 after Bielsa left.

My concern if I were a team like United is what would happen if he took a lower volume of shots. For some players, that means they can work on his shot map and say hey stop taking so many shots and focus on getting in better position to take better shots. For others, reduced role means reduced output.
 
xG sucks. We've gone over this and I know you disagree with me on that point, but I'd need a better statistic than xG to think a player is good or crap.


And shooting a lot, is not such a stat. Crap players can shoot a lot. And this is why xG is a crap stat. If I, a crap player, would take 5 shots a game at .1 xG each, I have a .5 xG total for that game. Pretty fucking good! Sign me up!
 
Oh god Everton are apparently actually in the Zaha sweepstakes. DEAR GOD NO. There is no more overrated attacker in the PL today. And Palace want 80M? Haha fuck no. I'd maybe pay 25M, but it would still be tough to stomach his antics. We already have Richarlison and his dark arts, but at least he scores goals. Hopefully this is only a ploy to get Barca to come down on Malcom.

In less worrying news, we supposedly have Jean-Phillippe Gbamin of Mainz lines as Gana's replacement. More of traditional 6. Strong and good on the ball. I assume he'll sit back and let Gomes and Siggy go B2B?
 
Shooting a lot is actually a good stat and one of the best indicators. It’s science. Bad players actually don’t usually shoot a lot.
 
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