Poor midfield recruitment model

[LEGS]

Of the 17 games The Fabulous one and Thiago have played together, we've won 16 and drawn the other.
Not bad that.

Also we keep LOADS of clean sheets when they play too.

[Nineteenx]

Of the 17 games The Fabulous one and Thiago have played together, we've won 16 and drawn the other.
Not bad that.

However, as meaningless stats go, the games in which they featured together in this particular stat were almost all last season when we dropped our defensive line much deeper and played an awful lot of games lining up 4312 with 2 of the 3 sitting fairly deep (halfway between our box and the halfway line) for the vast majority of most of those games, which obviously isn't our normal way of playing

Fab is actually improving, it is almost as if he is finally and belatedly being coached heaven forbid our coaches and analysis team do their job, he has improved an awful lot this season, he checks himself and his position quite frequently in games now in situations that in all past seasons and appearances he'd have gone blindly charging into

Interesting that a great many people, including commentary were incorrectly lavishing praise on Fab for getting the ball back prior to our second, it is very clear it was another Fab being caught out of position incident, the ball had him done, however, luckily for us, Elliott had positioned himself centrally covering Fab;s arse and his pressing the player made them turn back into Fab to enable him to tackle him, but for Elliott, their lads was long gone, absolute bonafide fact, go an watch it again

[eggy81]

Is there an attainable midfield player in the EPL that would be ideal for us. Not sure there is.

[Nineteenx]

Is there an attainable midfield player in the EPL that would be ideal for us. Not sure there is.

We need 2, I have a feeling we'll sign Bellingham, I see Hendo dropping into the Milner bit part role in the next 2 seasons, he doesn't have the same pace or dynamism he used to and I think his thigh injuries have limited his ability to play the medium to longer balls and switches he was so good at to release our forwards and full backs, injuries look to have taken a very heavy toll on Hendo over the past 2 seasons, look at his performances in 18-20 and the drop off in his mobility, dynamism and ball playing ability is massive, no longer the player he was for me and Millie probably joining the coaching staff

Thiago isn't what we need or needed and never was, Jones desperately needs a loan. Keita needs to move on, only Hendo Fabinho Elliott and unproven and untested and inexperienced youngsters left after that, it's why we desperately needed one of the 2 coming in during January, we've dropped 10 points from winning positions, 8 of those in games we were winning by 2 goals, that will more than likely cost us the title this season and it's a result of letting Gini go and not replacing him

[ianlfc]

However, as meaningless stats go, the games in which they featured together in this particular stat were almost all last season when we dropped our defensive line much deeper and played an awful lot of games lining up 4312 with 2 of the 3 sitting fairly deep (halfway between our box and the halfway line) for the vast majority of most of those games, which obviously isn't our normal way of playing

Fab is actually improving, it is almost as if he is finally and belatedly being coached heaven forbid our coaches and analysis team do their job, he has improved an awful lot this season, he checks himself and his position quite frequently in games now in situations that in all past seasons and appearances he'd have gone blindly charging into

Interesting that a great many people, including commentary were incorrectly lavishing praise on Fab for getting the ball back prior to our second, it is very clear it was another Fab being caught out of position incident, the ball had him done, however, luckily for us, Elliott had positioned himself centrally covering Fab;s arse and his pressing the player made them turn back into Fab to enable him to tackle him, but for Elliott, their lads was long gone, absolute bonafide fact, go an watch it again

How is it a meaningless stat ? Its the bloody truth !!

[CCTV]

How is it a meaningless stat ? Its the bloody truth !!

Eh, it doesn't contain or support hendo being great, Gini is not even mentioned in it and it's from the last calendar year roughly speaking and has nothing to do with those 12 games a few years back.
Finally it lends credence to the whimsical idea that Fabinho and Thiago weren't poor signings.

[miller0863]

@eggy
Pretty confident Bellingham and Carvalho are coming in the summer.
Only possibility I can see in addition may be Bissouma. Fab would be the one player we have no real cover for with Hendo coming to the end of his career.

[Nineteenx]

Fabinho - Apps 30 - W16 D8 L6 Goals 0 (zero) Assists 0 (zero) Big chances created 0 (zero) Shots on target 1 (one) Accurate long balls 98

As we're not comparing apples with apples or oranges with oranges let's contrast that with Henderson mostly playing the same position in 19-20

Henderson - 30 Apps - Won 27 D2 L1 Goals 4 Assists 5 Big chances created 9 Shots on target 8 Accurate long balls 125

LOOK at those stats, see how irrelevant using stats actually is when you're not comparing apples with apples? It does illustrate the issue of Fab not being nearly good enough with the ball though, those are absolutely shocking stats for any midfielder from last season and we have suffered from teams getting men behind the ball and picking all out other players up, blocking lines and just letting him have it for that reason in numerous games, not just this season

[Kev0909]

@eggy
Pretty confident Bellingham and Carvalho are coming in the summer.
Only possibility I can see in addition may be Bissouma. Fab would be the one player we have no real cover for with Hendo coming to the end of his career.

And I think we're affording it by one of the front 3 being phased out by Diaz....

And then whatever change we can get from a few broken midfielders

No way does fsg spend 100+m of own money

Call me kevative, but it's obvious to me, I hope i'm surprised it's about time FSG put some money into this club without big sales.

[Nineteenx]

@eggy
Pretty confident Bellingham and Carvalho are coming in the summer.
Only possibility I can see in addition may be Bissouma. Fab would be the one player we have no real cover for with Hendo coming to the end of his career.

I'd much rather have the lad from Monaco than Bissouma, yes he's Premier League proven, but i think the Monaco lad is better and if we can avoid it I really don't want any more AFCON players than we already have, plus there's the sexual assault episode when he was at Brighton, even getting himself in a position through which such allegations could be made isn't what I'd expect from one of our players

I think Hendo's role will be more of the current Milner role and contribution next season, the injuries of the past 2 seasons have absolutely taken a huge toll, he doesn't have anywhere like the same athleticism or speed as he had up until 2020 - He's only 32 in the summer, really shouldn't have slowed down as much as he has through age, it can only be the injuries, or perhaps for a player of his type maybe it does take it's toll playing as they do for so many seasons