Recent content by ReSchmycling

I think some more context is needed here. Toney is a very good penalty taker, and he's also much more than just a goalscorer. It's misleading to say that Toney can't pass the ball, simply from completion stats - these will be affected by how he fits into Brentford's tactics. His passing is very...

Thank you @Spiersey for your contributions. Really interesting to hear more about Brentford and Brighton's own datasets, and how those might allow for more unique insights. I don't think I realised the extent of it before. Yes, Matthew Benham's funding was a necessary part of the puzzle - but...

It's interesting that for most of that period of Scholes / Gerrard / Lampard and then Carrick / Barry / Parker, England were managed by two foreign managers in Eriksson and Capello... So it wasn't just an 'English' problem (but presumably the English media and public opinion still played a part).

Apparently Peter Gilham, the long-serving stadium announcer, played it for his friend Judy in the 1970s, and it stuck... I think Hey Jude has particular emotional resonance because of how it ties together the good and bad times of being a fan - the build-up from "take a sad song and make it...

Ostensibly that backline was a direct product of Perez's Galactico policy of the time - 'Zidanes and Pavons', a team primarily comprising megastars and a supporting cast from the Real Madrid academy. But the line-up in the original post might not be the best representation of the team during...

No film posted yet? It's so easy now we're in the digital age...

Yes, the two were very much inter-connected. And that cavalier attacking approach with exciting games like the 3-3 draws with Barcelona and come-backs against Juventus and Bayern definitely added to the allure of the '99 treble win, much as the 2008 team was fun to watch too. Judging relative...

Perhaps defensive weakness was less of an issue for the team in '99 per se, than that '99 was the only season with both Stam and Schmeichel in the team? Followed of course by the struggles to find a suitable GK until van der Sar (false dawn with Barthez aside), and also some similar problems in...

Agreed. And it's a bit of a tangent, but another dimension to the team's 'success' during those years and slightly earlier is that of the five seasons from 1996/97 to 2000/01, there was only one ('98) where United didn't either win the CL or lose to the eventual winner, despite only making it to...

Ronaldo barely played in the Champions League during his peak years, when the other European competitions were far more prestigious than now because of fewer CL entrants from the bigger countries. He had very strong goal-scoring numbers in the UEFA Cup for both PSV seasons and in the Cup...

It's quite a unique situation though, which wouldn't apply more widely. If Lingard goes to mega-rich but relegation-battling Newcastle and has an impact similar to his loan at West Ham last season which is decisive in helping them stay up, that's worth far more than £15m to them.

It's against United's interests to help Newcastle stay up anyway - it'd just mean less delay before they inevitably become another major rival. The 'survival bonus' would at least help to soften that blow a little...

I'm saying that his post-match interviews and behaviour yesterday should be interpreted in the context of his general man management. And even the point about Sancho has been overblown here. Yes it wasn't as articulate as it could have been, and was badly-timed considering the reason for...

A bit sad to see some of the reactions on here and how Thomas Frank is getting characterised, speaking as a fan of both Brentford and United (the product of many years when it felt like the clubs inhabited different worlds). I can see why his comments on Wednesday grated with some people, and...

Yes that's how it ended up and he did buy the dummy, but I wonder if over-committing was partly from having to stretch for the potential block while in the process of making up ground on Lukaku. He certainly didn't cover himself in glory, but I think there's an element of bad luck too (and...