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Presumably OFFICAL 2015/16 Premier League - Leicester CHAMPS. Best Sports Story Ever

ONW said:
They did a little montage of the studio commentators' statements about how Leicester would do at the beginning of the season. Hilarious. Although, I'm sure no one outside of Nostradamus could have called this.
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I thought them hiring the Tinker Man was the kiss of death to send them down!
 
siff said:
Spurs picked a terrible year to be really good
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I couldn't imagine how Spurs fans feel.

FINALLY this is the year they finish above Arsenal, Chelsea, United, City, and Liverpool...and they're not going to win the title.

If they manage to keep their team together, which I think they should be able to, they're going to have more opportunities. I think Spurs are going to be good for awhile
 
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siff said:
Spurs picked a terrible year to be really good
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Not really. Wouldn't a worse year be where all the other top teams were on form instead of dramatically off it?

Spurs are at a shade under 2 points a game which has basicallhy never been enough to win a title. They simply don't have enough points.

I did see earlier Spurs would've been the youngest team to win a PL title ever by some distance, so perhaps they are just unlucky that the league opened up for them now as opposed to in a year or two. But they could always win it in the future if they can keep this core together
 
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Have a Leicester jersey en route at the moment, should be here any day. So let's not crown their asses yet, I have an amazing ability to jinx even the hottest teams.
 
wsc8521s said:
Spurs are at a shade under 2 points a game which has basicallhy never been enough to win a title. They simply don't have enough points.
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And that's really the long and short of it. This is a very young and very good Spurs team, but they aren't really a title quality team (yet). It would be something of a fluky title this year were Spurs to win it, not because of the names at the top of the table but because of the very low point totals. People remember that Blackburn team for being an "outsider" winning a PL title, but that team had 89 points ... even if Spurs were to win out they would only finish with 80 points, which would be a shockingly low number to win the title.

That being said, the future appears to be very bright for Spurs and if you told me before the year that Spurs would be 2nd in the table, have scored the most goals in the league and allowed the fewest and Kane would cement his place as a true superstar while a kid like Alli became a match winner to join him ... I'd have bitten your hand off and ran as fast as I could to bank that prognosis.
 
No way do all of City, Chelsea, and United stay down next season. Especially with at least 2 of those clubs getting excellent new managers next year.

Also can't rule out Liverpool with Klopp getting the full summer to reinforce.
 
I don't expect them to "stay down" - I also expect Spurs to be very good, and with a solid established squad and management and offseason to be able to contend with those clubs on the same footing. Spurs should easily be competitive again next season.
 
(also - next year's PL could be amazing ... Liverpool is probably in the worst shape, but as you said - they have Klopp and will spend money. The 7th place club is still going to be nastily loaded).
 
vadimivich said:
(also - next year's PL could be amazing ... Liverpool is probably in the worst shape, but as you said - they have Klopp and will spend money. The 7th place club is still going to be nastily loaded).
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http://statsbomb.com/2016/04/liverpool/

A little different perspective on Liverpool being in the worst shape, although the founder of this site just wrote a piece about how flawed he thinks PDO is, and I think I read also he's not a huge fan of TSR, either, but, anyway, he wasn't the author on this Liverpool piece, and the author's conclusions aren't solely based on PDO and TSR. He (the owner, Ted Knutson) is an interesting twitter follow, though, having just reactivated after working as an analyst for Midtjylland and Brentford the past couple of years.

Here's a recent article with him by Raph Honigstein.

https://www.redbulletin.com/int/en/sports/raphael-honigstein-on-the-power-of-stats-in-football
 
El Chupacabra said:
http://statsbomb.com/2016/04/liverpool/

A little different perspective on Liverpool being in the worst shape, although the founder of this site just wrote a piece about how flawed he thinks PDO is, and I think I read also he's not a huge fan of TSR, either, but, anyway, he wasn't the author on this Liverpool piece, and the author's conclusions aren't solely based on PDO and TSR. He (the owner, Ted Knutson) is an interesting twitter follow, though, having just reactivated after working as an analyst for Midtjylland and Brentford the past couple of years.

Here's a recent article with him by Raph Honigstein.

https://www.redbulletin.com/int/en/sports/raphael-honigstein-on-the-power-of-stats-in-football
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If you read that entire thing - he comes to the crux of the mater:

These will likely even out a good bit without anything changing but the underlying causes there are those that have the easiest fixes: a new goalie, a new centerback and a healthy Sturridge and Coutinho.
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And that's why Liverpool are likely in the worst position of any of the top 6-7 for next year - they don't have the money to fix all their problems in one fell swoop the way United, Chelsea or City can ... and they have massive holes that must be fixed. Coutinho/Sturridge aren't going to stay healthy, so they need 4 top class players just to reach a really competitive level (Goalie, CB, Striker, AM) let alone push on for a title challenge. I love Klopp, I think he's a fantastic manager and I think Liverpool will improve ... I just don't think they will improve enough to finish in a CL spot next year, there's just too many holes that still need patching and I think Klopp will need a couple of years to really get all those fixed.
 
vadimivich said:
And that's why Liverpool are likely in the worst position of any of the top 6-7 for next year - they don't have the money to fix all their problems in one fell swoop the way United, Chelsea or City can ... and they have massive holes that must be fixed. Coutinho/Sturridge aren't going to stay healthy, so they need 4 top class players just to reach a really competitive level (Goalie, CB, Striker, AM) let alone push on for a title challenge. I love Klopp, I think he's a fantastic manager and I think Liverpool will improve ... I just don't think they will improve enough to finish in a CL spot next year, there's just too many holes that still need patching and I think Klopp will need a couple of years to really get all those fixed.
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Vad, do you view Joel Matip as a "top class player"?
 
vadimivich said:
If you read that entire thing - he comes to the crux of the mater:



And that's why Liverpool are likely in the worst position of any of the top 6-7 for next year - they don't have the money to fix all their problems in one fell swoop the way United, Chelsea or City can ... and they have massive holes that must be fixed. Coutinho/Sturridge aren't going to stay healthy, so they need 4 top class players just to reach a really competitive level (Goalie, CB, Striker, AM) let alone push on for a title challenge. I love Klopp, I think he's a fantastic manager and I think Liverpool will improve ... I just don't think they will improve enough to finish in a CL spot next year, there's just too many holes that still need patching and I think Klopp will need a couple of years to really get all those fixed.
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Here's the whole conclusion, which I think is important to include, not just the line you quoted, because he comes to pretty different prognosis than you:

Conclusion

Liverpool are in as good a long-term situation as they’ve been in recent history. They dominate the ball and tilt the field in a way that only Man City and Arsenal can match. This years weaknesses have come down to shot quality which has been heavily influenced by shocking and unlucky proportions of top-tier chances allowed and taken. These will likely even out a good bit without anything changing but the underlying causes there are those that have the easiest fixes: a new goalie, a new centerback and a healthy Sturridge and Coutinho.

Without the ball, only Tottenham can claim to play nearly as well as the Klopp’s squad. If Daniel Sturridge can remain healthy, there is no more complete team heading into next season than Liverpool. Man City and Arsenal’s attacking firepower will make them slight favorites but Liverpool should expect to be the 3rd best team within touching distance of the top starting today and going into next season. Liverpool have the coach and the fundamentals and are right at the edge, the next step isn’t a hard one to make.
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I did read the entire thing and he's saying that the underlying numbers even with these holes (especially since Klopp) are already there to be a top-4 Premier League level team (even an elite top 10 European team) -- the evening out he suggests might happen is a plus points total (basically because of more goals scored even if only achieving league average defending/goals allowed) WITHOUT addressing those squad flaws, the points catching up and "evening out" with the advanced #stats, not that these aren't sustainable numbers and they are going to come back to earth without fixes.

But those flaws will be addressed -- they've already added a centerback (Matip) and at least an additional option in midfield (Grujic) -- and a whole season of Klopp, and perhaps more importantly with a whole pre-season of Klopp, might be enough even with the current squad, to have them better challenging for a top four spot. He's saying they've essentially been unlucky even with these flaws in the squad, so addressing them to some extent, if not fully, and having a whole year of Klopp, might be enough. Soccer doesn't tend to work exactly that well, and I think more than anything they need something which these underlying numbers can't measure, which is leadership and some balls throughout the team, especially the spine. And Sturridge, well, yeah, I'd never count on that, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to contribute more next year than he has this year, even if not being able to play 30+ games; but basically they might not need him to make Champions League, based on the #advancedstats they have produced the past couple of years.

I don't think they need to spend a ton to upgrade in goal, Matip was free, Grujic about 5-ish. Zielinski rumors are strong, he'll probably not cost more than 10, so they can then throw the boat at Gotze or another attacker. And they're also young, only Spurs are younger I believe, so you hope a couple young-ish dudes can continue to improve, mainly Emre Can making the leap to elite. They're a lot closer to the top 5 than the teams immediately around them (West Ham, Southampton, Stoke), which the numbers back up as well as the eye test since Klopp has joined.

Anyway, just something fun to look at. They will probs blow their signings and everyone will pull hamstrings because Klopp will run them into the ground and they will finish 7th. Balotelli will come back and finish the job he started by fully emasculating Henderson. Their big attacking signing will be Igahlo and they will get James Ward-Prowse and Fraser Forster from their yearly plundering of Southampton.
 
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Dembele is just another example that it sucks that Belgium, France and Germany are all on the same side of the Euro draw (assuming they win their groups). Those might be the three best teams on paper.

Belgium-Germany could easily be a quarterfinal. Holy hell
 
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