22 Nov 2025 09:13:35
Was leaving it to someone else to mention the report that shows the league as it could / should be if Xg was anything like accurate! But hey ho.
The gambling based stat / americanisation of the game thro naff stats would have us up in 7th, and the superb transfer kings of Sunderland down in 18th.
Now I realise that most will home in on the 9 issue, but for me, it's that PLUS the other players in offensive positions getting their shooting boots on / 50pence heads rounded! As has been the case for what seems like donkey's, we continue to miss clear cut opportunities across the board at an alarming level imo, and that means they all need to step it up!
22 Nov 2025 10:54:37
Fair post Bright in particular the 50pence analogy, cannot remember a premier team missing more close range headers than us.
But I’m not really one to comment, in my prime I was in the middle of a trial at Southampton, and at the time I fancied myself as the next Chris waddle and the coaching staff were running set piece drills to improve our heading prowess.
At the end of the drill I was called across to the coaching team, which I took to be a positive until they showed me the yes, hand held, camcorder footage!
They summarised it as follows…. I possessed good movement, was adept at finding space in the box, but given my starting height of six foot four inches they had no video evidence of me getting higher than six foot five inches!
Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
Never mentioned that bit to my dad on the long drive home though.
22 Nov 2025 12:31:58
I’d have you over dcl any day class. You were wronged.
I’m not going to comment on the xg bright through fear of repetition.
22 Nov 2025 15:09:42
Great tale, Class! ?.
22 Nov 2025 15:42:38
True sadly bright ?.
22 Nov 2025 17:01:33
To clarify, that wasn't meant in a bad way; must still be a bit of a gut wrencher to be fair! ?.
22 Nov 2025 18:43:54
Oh think it hilarious now Brighty, there were 16 of us on that trial they took only one lad who went onto play a few games for Charlton and he was a million miles better than the rest of us, put together, I soon learnt my future lay with predicting our results, and that’s gone well, not!
23 Nov 2025 09:17:02
XG is a useless metric, can't understand why some people pay such attention to it. Today Bournemouth XG 4.08, West Ham 0.65, result 2:2. Liverpool 1.93, Forest 1.58, result 0:3.
23 Nov 2025 12:25:06
Pretty sure I'd agreed with that sentiment JR.