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2023-24 Performances


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5.6 Season Average Rating
Appearances
51
Clean sheets
13
Goals
0
Assists
0
Yellow cards
6
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The guys over at Full Time Devils also made reference to how Onana would get assists this year.
Didn't he almost get one the other game - played someone through and they miscontrolled it one on one? Feel like it might randomly have been Dalot.

Jokes aside we have clearly changed how we play with him in goal so there is a transformation of sorts. I am keen to see how it works with Licha and Case back given how they can play and also how the Case/Mainoo midfield works (I'm assuming we see this pairing).
 
I mean, it didn’t. If it did you could find quotes on here to back up your point yet, despite being asked multiple times, you can’t. And even going externally for opinions from randomers anywhere on the internet you still can’t find anyone making a case for Onana “transforming our attack”, never mind the batshit accusation of your previous post, that he would “improve the quality of our shots on goal”. Like I said, it’s very odd behaviour.

What people did say about Onana (which is repeated in those articles you linked) is that he’ll get us playing slightly higher up the pitch, because he’s able to have a much more advanced starting position than DDG. Which we can see has happened, as the one and only positive metric we’ve produced this season has been winning the ball back more often deep in the opposition half. This isn’t the same thing as “transforming our attack” but it is a positive influence that goes beyond what you would usually expect a goalkeeper to influence. Anyhoo. You’ve had this explained to you multiple times already, so I’ll leave you to it now.

I did that here back in the summer during peak Onanamania.

You can't come on here now -- well, I guess you can do anything you want -- and downplay the perceived significance of the impact that would Onana would have on our attack. (A month ago the argument was "improved recycling of possession leading to higher quality attacks"). But let's break down what you have just written to understand how little sense it makes, shall we?

What people did say about Onana (which is repeated in those articles you linked) is that he’ll get us playing slightly higher up the pitch, because he’s able to have a much more advanced starting position than DDG. Which we can see has happened, as the one and only positive metric we’ve produced this season has been winning the ball back more often deep in the opposition half.

So Onana has us playing "slightly higher up the pitch"? That sounds great but in fact Onana had nothing to do, just to pick one example, with Bruno intercepting the ball in midfield that led to the Rashford pass to Garnacho for the goal (the one that stood) against Villa. We rarely, in fact other than the horror mistake by Turner, the Forest keeper, that led to a goal I can't think of a single example of this, "win the ball back deep in the opposition half" claim. We have been winning balls in midfield, but not in the opponent's own third or right off the boot of the last defender. We are not, amigo, a high pressing team. And we're not a side who is led from the back by a keeper plays high up the pitch or in any way squeezes space that allows his outfield players to squeeze the opposition until it chokes and relinquishes possession.

Are we a model of defensive prowess under Onana's outstanding "advanced starting position"? Let's take a look at the numbers -- after 20 PL games we have conceded 27 goals. That's shambolic. How about our attack? Surely with a keeper whose advanced starting position is so astute that our goal production must have improved. After 20 games we have scored 22 goals. Horrifying. For a bit of perspective our goal difference after 20 PL matches (you really don't want to debate me on Onana's performance in the CL, which you wisely ignore) is -5. Compare that to the top four clubs in descending order -- +25, +16, +24 and +17. After 20 PL matches we are 9 points off fourth place with all hope of a PL title challenge entirely out of the question and a top four finish virtually out of the question. To add a little more context to the perspective we are only 6 points ahead of the 12th place club. It is not exaggeration to worry that United could even fall out of the top half of the table by season's end. By the way, last season at this time, early January, there was some talk of United being in a position to push for a PL challenge. That of course never came to pass and was undoubtedly always unrealistic, but we were in the PL trophy conversation as late as early January 2023, whereas this season we were out of the PL trophy by October.

There is no aspect of our play that has improved this season over last season. We are worse in every important aspect of play. Even if we allow for early season nerves by Onana, opponents like Forest lick their lips at the prospect of facing United and have no fear that Onana will make top saves or that his advanced positioning will somehow intimidate them or improve our performance against them. We didn't even dominate possession -- 54-46% -- and barely took more shots than Forest -- 8-6. If there were ever a game in which Onana's brilliance as a keeper would have the impact you wish in your mind's eye has been the case all season, this would have been it. But it hasn't been the case that we've dominated opponents and in fact in most of the few games we have won -- 10 wins, 1 draw and 9 defeats, by the way -- we were fortunate to have come out with the win. You could argue that we've been unlucky, but to paraphrase one of the great backgammon players of all time, luck is for losers. We were actually lucky to beat Wolves 1-0 (Onana got away with a blatant foul but the pk was not called) and our performances since that match have not improved ovef the course of the season and have arguably deteriorated. There is nothing about Onana's play that has, however one would want to phrase it, improved our team performances or our team results.

All we can do at this point is to accept the reality of the situation and hope that Onana improves every single aspect of his play. Or we can see what our backup keepers can do while Onana is away on international duty.
 
Didn't he almost get one the other game - played someone through and they miscontrolled it one on one? Feel like it might randomly have been Dalot.

Jokes aside we have clearly changed how we play with him in goal so there is a transformation of sorts. I am keen to see how it works with Licha and Case back given how they can play and also how the Case/Mainoo midfield works (I'm assuming we see this pairing).

was Garnacho, he’s also sent through Antony and Rashford in previous games.
 
Didn't he almost get one the other game - played someone through and they miscontrolled it one on one? Feel like it might randomly have been Dalot.

Jokes aside we have clearly changed how we play with him in goal so there is a transformation of sorts. I am keen to see how it works with Licha and Case back given how they can play and also how the Case/Mainoo midfield works (I'm assuming we see this pairing).

Yeah, it was Dalot. Weirdly set up the same player twice. Once in CL and then again in a PL game more recently.
 
Simple answer - just ok. Not great. Not terrible. He saves the shots you’d expect him to save but does have a habit of blocking them into dangerous areas and hasn’t made many really exceptional saves yet. He’s much better with the ball at his feet than DDG. And better at sweeping up behind the defence. Which is a nice upgrade. What I’ve been most disappointed about is dealing with high balls in and around our six yard box. DDG was always pretty terrible in those situations, so it wouldn’t have been difficult to look better but there’s no noticeable difference. Which is not ideal. I think/hope this will improve as he gets more confident. If not, then he’ll go down as yet another bad signing.

Sounds like we pretty much agree then. He's not terrible, but he doesn't really save the difficult but possible ones. I recall a forward saying he would shoot early when coming one on one against Schmeichel because the Dane scared the living crap out of him. I also recall opposition players shooting from all angles at DDG after his first few mistake-prone matches, but then as he proved himself a brilliant shot stopper that also stopped. It's like having a high line and then you realise Walcott is playing as striker - you adjust.

Agree about his confidence and competence with the ball at his feet, and his sweeping is also better - although I assumed he would be even more proactive? His command of the box is a concern. He does box from time to time, but there's no real command there - no presence.
 
Yeah, it was Dalot. Weirdly set up the same player twice. Once in CL and then again in a PL game more recently.
was Garnacho, he’s also sent through Antony and Rashford in previous games.
Looking at FBref he's played 3 passes that directly lead to a shot in the league and 2 in the CL, so that's not including the miscontrols.
The way xA is measured, total distance and where the ball has come from are part of the calculation so he won't ever score high on that chart (he is at 0.1 already in the league though, for reference Alisson's highest ever over a whole season was 0.04 for some context). Reckon we might get one this season.

@Raoul maybe the guys on Full Time Devils were onto something...
 
The way xA is measured, total distance and where the ball has come from are part of the calculation so he won't ever score high on that chart (he is at 0.1 already in the league though, for reference Alisson's highest ever over a whole season was 0.04 for some context). Reckon we might get one this season.
How did de Gea do last season?
 
Looking at FBref he's played 3 passes that directly lead to a shot in the league and 2 in the CL, so that's not including the miscontrols.
The way xA is measured, total distance and where the ball has come from are part of the calculation so he won't ever score high on that chart (he is at 0.1 already in the league though, for reference Alisson's highest ever over a whole season was 0.04 for some context). Reckon we might get one this season.

@Raoul maybe the guys on Full Time Devils were onto something...

That seems a bit mad, considering the assist he got for Salah when they played us.
 
That seems a bit mad, considering the assist he got for Salah when they played us.
Sorry I made an error as it was averaging Alisson's xAG across his whole career, his best xAG is 0.3. He has actually got 1 assist in 3 seasons.
 
I did that here back in the summer during peak Onanamania.

You can't come on here now -- well, I guess you can do anything you want -- and downplay the perceived significance of the impact that would Onana would have on our attack. (A month ago the argument was "improved recycling of possession leading to higher quality attacks"). But let's break down what you have just written to understand how little sense it makes, shall we?

What people did say about Onana (which is repeated in those articles you linked) is that he’ll get us playing slightly higher up the pitch, because he’s able to have a much more advanced starting position than DDG. Which we can see has happened, as the one and only positive metric we’ve produced this season has been winning the ball back more often deep in the opposition half.

So Onana has us playing "slightly higher up the pitch"? That sounds great but in fact Onana had nothing to do, just to pick one example, with Bruno intercepting the ball in midfield that led to the Rashford pass to Garnacho for the goal (the one that stood) against Villa. We rarely, in fact other than the horror mistake by Turner, the Forest keeper, that led to a goal I can't think of a single example of this, "win the ball back deep in the opposition half" claim. We have been winning balls in midfield, but not in the opponent's own third or right off the boot of the last defender. We are not, amigo, a high pressing team. And we're not a side who is led from the back by a keeper plays high up the pitch or in any way squeezes space that allows his outfield players to squeeze the opposition until it chokes and relinquishes possession.

Are we a model of defensive prowess under Onana's outstanding "advanced starting position"? Let's take a look at the numbers -- after 20 PL games we have conceded 27 goals. That's shambolic. How about our attack? Surely with a keeper whose advanced starting position is so astute that our goal production must have improved. After 20 games we have scored 22 goals. Horrifying. For a bit of perspective our goal difference after 20 PL matches (you really don't want to debate me on Onana's performance in the CL, which you wisely ignore) is -5. Compare that to the top four clubs in descending order -- +25, +16, +24 and +17. After 20 PL matches we are 9 points off fourth place with all hope of a PL title challenge entirely out of the question and a top four finish virtually out of the question. To add a little more context to the perspective we are only 6 points ahead of the 12th place club. It is not exaggeration to worry that United could even fall out of the top half of the table by season's end. By the way, last season at this time, early January, there was some talk of United being in a position to push for a PL challenge. That of course never came to pass and was undoubtedly always unrealistic, but we were in the PL trophy conversation as late as early January 2023, whereas this season we were out of the PL trophy by October.

There is no aspect of our play that has improved this season over last season. We are worse in every important aspect of play. Even if we allow for early season nerves by Onana, opponents like Forest lick their lips at the prospect of facing United and have no fear that Onana will make top saves or that his advanced positioning will somehow intimidate them or improve our performance against them. We didn't even dominate possession -- 54-46% -- and barely took more shots than Forest -- 8-6. If there were ever a game in which Onana's brilliance as a keeper would have the impact you wish in your mind's eye has been the case all season, this would have been it. But it hasn't been the case that we've dominated opponents and in fact in most of the few games we have won -- 10 wins, 1 draw and 9 defeats, by the way -- we were fortunate to have come out with the win. You could argue that we've been unlucky, but to paraphrase one of the great backgammon players of all time, luck is for losers. We were actually lucky to beat Wolves 1-0 (Onana got away with a blatant foul but the pk was not called) and our performances since that match have not improved ovef the course of the season and have arguably deteriorated. There is nothing about Onana's play that has, however one would want to phrase it, improved our team performances or our team results.

All we can do at this point is to accept the reality of the situation and hope that Onana improves every single aspect of his play. Or we can see what our backup keepers can do while Onana is away on international duty.

That's an awful lot of bollocks.

Firstly having a keeper who will push up behind the defence is crucial to being able to successfully play a high line and press high. Utd are defending higher this season and have one of the highest rates of high turnovers in the league. Is that all on the keeper? No, but he plays his part is making sure the distances between players from back to front is maintained which is crucial to maintaining a successful pressing system.

27 goals conceded, means Utd have the 3rd best defence in the league. It's not shambolic compared to other teams. What is shambolic is the amount of chances conceded. 5th or 6th most in the league. You can argue about the quality of those chances agaisnt and whether teams should have scored more goals. But funnily enough this is part of the reason why Onana ranks so highly in terms of shot stopping and psxg.

You also really need to drop this mythical link you've created between the goalkeeper chance creation and scoring goals. They are not directly linked in the way you keep maintaining and nobody on here has claimed it be such. It really is such a weird obsession you have going on.
 
So Onana has us playing "slightly higher up the pitch"? That sounds great but in fact Onana had nothing to do, just to pick one example, with Bruno intercepting the ball in midfield that led to the Rashford pass to Garnacho for the goal (the one that stood) against Villa. We rarely, in fact other than the horror mistake by Turner, the Forest keeper, that led to a goal I can't think of a single example of this, "win the ball back deep in the opposition half" claim. We have been winning balls in midfield, but not in the opponent's own third or right off the boot of the last defender. We are not, amigo, a high pressing team.

Almost everything you've posted there is fictional.
 
Didn't he almost get one the other game - played someone through and they miscontrolled it one on one? Feel like it might randomly have been Dalot.

Jokes aside we have clearly changed how we play with him in goal so there is a transformation of sorts. I am keen to see how it works with Licha and Case back given how they can play and also how the Case/Mainoo midfield works (I'm assuming we see this pairing).

Unfortunately, it doesn't work at all without attackers to actually score the goals. A team without a proper striker would never be able to take advantage of such an approach; and even if it could, its generally not a good idea to rely on one's keeper to initiate attacks compared to doing it with high quality outfield players.
 
Unfortunately, it doesn't work at all without attackers to actually score the goals. A team without a proper striker would never be able to take advantage of such an approach; and even if it could, its generally not a good idea to rely on one's keeper to initiate attacks compared to doing it with high quality outfield players.
Think it's fair to say we aren't going to 'rely' on Onana as a source of goals. Call me crazy but I am happy to go out on a limb on that one.
 

:lol:

All you've got left in your empty pockets is to flat out deny that those who argued that Onana would have a substantial impact on the squad in terms of our ability to control possession of the ball actually meant what they said. You are free to deny that all you want but I've posted for more than enough claims made by those who wanted Onana that his exceptional footwork would unleash our ability to control possession and lead to higher quality chances on goal to make your denial ludicrous.
 
:lol:

All you've got left in your empty pockets is to flat out deny that those who argued that Onana would have a substantial impact on the squad in terms of our ability to control possession of the ball actually meant what they said. You are free to deny that all you want but I've posted for more than enough claims made by those who wanted Onana that his exceptional footwork would unleash our ability to control possession and lead to higher quality chances on goal to make your denial ludicrous.
You said we are not a high pressing team :lol:
 
:lol:

All you've got left in your empty pockets is to flat out deny that those who argued that Onana would have a substantial impact on the squad in terms of our ability to control possession of the ball actually meant what they said. You are free to deny that all you want but I've posted for more than enough claims made by those who wanted Onana that his exceptional footwork would unleash our ability to control possession and lead to higher quality chances on goal to make your denial ludicrous.

So now you've gone from transforming the attack and scoring goals to controlling possession.

Just admit you were wrong all along and move on.
 
The guys over at Full Time Devils also made reference to how Onana would get assists this year.
In his defence he's had a few beauts which could have been hockey assists if our decision making was half as good as it should be.
 
That's an awful lot of bollocks.

Firstly having a keeper who will push up behind the defence is crucial to being able to successfully play a high line and press high. Utd are defending higher this season and have one of the highest rates of high turnovers in the league. Is that all on the keeper? No, but he plays his part is making sure the distances between players from back to front is maintained which is crucial to maintaining a successful pressing system.

27 goals conceded, means Utd have the 3rd best defence in the league. It's not shambolic compared to other teams. What is shambolic is the amount of chances conceded. 5th or 6th most in the league. You can argue about the quality of those chances agaisnt and whether teams should have scored more goals. But funnily enough this is part of the reason why Onana ranks so highly in terms of shot stopping and psxg.

You also really need to drop this mythical link you've created between the goalkeeper chance creation and scoring goals. They are not directly linked in the way you keep maintaining and nobody on here has claimed it be such. It really is such a weird obsession you have going on.

It goes without saying we now have an incredible "modern keeper", one whose ball playing skills are elite. But has this elite ball-playing keeper had the successful impact you allege he has had on our performances this season? Let's forget about our impressions and go straight to the facts.

The less said about what happened in the Champions League the better for Onana, so let's ignore his performances in the CL and focus only on the PL.

Our goal difference is -5. I'm not here to blame Onana for that, but we certainly can't look at such a stat -- a hard stat and not a derivative number such as xG -- and reach the conclusion that our new keeper has had anything like the positive impact on both our attacking play and our defensive play that many of us had hoped for.

As for 27 goals conceded being a number we should be proud of, the 17th place club (Everton) have conceded 28. Sure, we can point to Luton Town's 37 and agree that we're not as shit as Luton Town in terms of goals conceded, but that's hardly a benchmark we should be proud of. Why we've been so much worse defensively this season compared to last season is a complex answer, one which includes the key absence of Martinez, but I guarantee you that no one in the land looks at our keeper situation and thinks to themselves that we finally have a proper shot stopper.

But it's in the attack where the thesis for Onana falls apart. However you want to sugar coat it now, the argument for Onana when we brought him in was that his elite footwork would improve our ability to control possession and lead to higher quality chances. I've wasted too much of time already providing direct evidence to deaf that we were promised a "transformation", but since deaf ears are what they are let's forget that ever happened. It is still the case that even now the argument is that with Onana's ball playing skills we can press higher and with a higher press we will force opponents to submit to our will and win matches, possibly trophies.

Not only have we been inept defensively, we are inept offensively. After 20 matches we have a goal difference of -5. There are valid explanations, but the idea that Onana would in any way improve (from here on out we shall banish the word "transform", as though the claim had never been made despite the mountain of evidence) our play outside his own 18 yard box is pretty daft. Even Allison, whom I regard as the greatest keeper on the planet, isn't ball recycling machine. He's highly adept with his feet, but Liverpool rely on Allison above all else as a shot stopper and a physical presence in his own 6 yard box.

Command of the box? What every one us believed we were getting when we signed Onana, myself included, was a keeper who would be a massive upgrade in terms of command of the box. However, that has proven to not be the case.

We've brought in a keeper whose ball-playing skills are elite, but neither our defensive nor offensive performances have been anywhere near an improvement over last season, as evidenced by our -5 goal difference after 20 matches. Going forward we have no choice but to stick with Onana but knowing what we know now, just as know now with Sancho and Antony, we would have taken a pass on bringing in Onana.
 
Command of the box? What every one us believed we were getting when we signed Onana, myself included, was a keeper who would be a massive upgrade in terms of command of the box. However, that has proven to not be the case.
Still he has better command of the box than our previous keeper. Not a massive upgrade in this regard, though
 
It goes without saying we now have an incredible "modern keeper", one whose ball playing skills are elite. But has this elite ball-playing keeper had the successful impact you allege he has had on our performances this season? Let's forget about our impressions and go straight to the facts.

The less said about what happened in the Champions League the better for Onana, so let's ignore his performances in the CL and focus only on the PL.

Our goal difference is -5. I'm not here to blame Onana for that, but we certainly can't look at such a stat -- a hard stat and not a derivative number such as xG -- and reach the conclusion that our new keeper has had anything like the positive impact on both our attacking play and our defensive play that many of us had hoped for.

As for 27 goals conceded being a number we should be proud of, the 17th place club (Everton) have conceded 28. Sure, we can point to Luton Town's 37 and agree that we're not as shit as Luton Town in terms of goals conceded, but that's hardly a benchmark we should be proud of. Why we've been so much worse defensively this season compared to last season is a complex answer, one which includes the key absence of Martinez, but I guarantee you that no one in the land looks at our keeper situation and thinks to themselves that we finally have a proper shot stopper.

But it's in the attack where the thesis for Onana falls apart. However you want to sugar coat it now, the argument for Onana when we brought him in was that his elite footwork would improve our ability to control possession and lead to higher quality chances. I've wasted too much of time already providing direct evidence to deaf that we were promised a "transformation", but since deaf ears are what they are let's forget that ever happened. It is still the case that even now the argument is that with Onana's ball playing skills we can press higher and with a higher press we will force opponents to submit to our will and win matches, possibly trophies.

Not only have we been inept defensively, we are inept offensively. After 20 matches we have a goal difference of -5. There are valid explanations, but the idea that Onana would in any way improve (from here on out we shall banish the word "transform", as though the claim had never been made despite the mountain of evidence) our play outside his own 18 yard box is pretty daft. Even Allison, whom I regard as the greatest keeper on the planet, isn't ball recycling machine. He's highly adept with his feet, but Liverpool rely on Allison above all else as a shot stopper and a physical presence in his own 6 yard box.

Command of the box? What every one us believed we were getting when we signed Onana, myself included, was a keeper who would be a massive upgrade in terms of command of the box. However, that has proven to not be the case.

We've brought in a keeper whose ball-playing skills are elite, but neither our defensive nor offensive performances have been anywhere near an improvement over last season, as evidenced by our -5 goal difference after 20 matches. Going forward we have no choice but to stick with Onana but knowing what we know now, just as know now with Sancho and Antony, we would have taken a pass on bringing in Onana.

Why pick goal difference as a metric, does goals conceded not tell you how much worse the defence is this season? Let me help you out. After 20 league matches last season Utd had conceded 25 goals? So, only 2 less than this season at the same point. What a fecking huge drop off that is.
 
Didn't he almost get one the other game - played someone through and they miscontrolled it one on one? Feel like it might randomly have been Dalot.
One that sticks out (but vague too as everything is a blur since we hardly score) is him setting Antony free V Liverpool
And Antony would be one on one if he had a right foot and just ran to goal but allowed the defenders back instead
 
Why pick goal difference as a metric, does goals conceded not tell you how much worse the defence is this season? Let me help you out. After 20 league matches last season Utd had conceded 25 goals? So, only 2 less than this season at the same point. What a fecking huge drop off that is.

You’ve made my case beautifully. Even by your own admission we are not better defensively this season — we are actually worse, by your on admission — and we are not better offensively this season.

Onana has in no way improved our team performances, defensively or offensively, this season, which was already cut to ribbons by November Thank you for admitting what we already know.

We are where we are, worse by every relevant metric, and there’s nothing to be gained by wishing ETH had not set nearly 200m on fire with his acquisitions of Antony, Mount and Onana. Hojlund is a long-term prospect and may come good, but doubts about that are not unreasonable. What matters now is how can our coaching staff instruct Onana on basic shot stopping technique. As for leveraging Onana’s elite footwork, it will likely take 2-3 seasons for the turnover in our defenders to make that happen. We’ve been waiting for 10 years to put in a proper PL title challenge so waiting another 2-3 may not be too much to ask, but if Onana’s clumsiness in shot stopping persists even under ETH he’s mot getting 2-3 more seasons.
 
It goes without saying we now have an incredible "modern keeper", one whose ball playing skills are elite. But has this elite ball-playing keeper had the successful impact you allege he has had on our performances this season? Let's forget about our impressions and go straight to the facts.
We do? :D
 
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I’m happy to stipulate that Onana is the greatest ball-playing keeper of all time, but the point is that regardless of whether Onana’s footwork is elite, average or poor it is indisputable that by every observable and measurable relevant indicator or performance, we are worse this season compared to last season in terms of results, offensive production and defensive production.

Even Onana’s most fervent believers here cannot deny that he has been a massive disappointment relative to all expectations his believers attempted to have the rest of us believe was sure to come to pass.

Where a depart from Onana’s harshest critics is that I see in Onana who could in 2-3 seasons develop into a reliable keeper, one whose elite ball-playing skills will translate into more productive team possession, but Onana’s would reasonably reply that we cannot wait that long and that if he can’t pull himself together by season’s end we’ll have to start looking for another keeper and flog Onana off to another club, as we surely must with Antony.
 
Wigan 0:2 Man Utd
Crucial save in the first few minutes.

Otherwise a quiet night, good on the ball and dealt with everything else with relative ease.
 
Made a good save, did his usual hanging into the ball and kicking it out of play. Other than that didn’t see him which is a good thing
 
Did what he needed to do, no complaints tonight.

Went down early for the only real threatening shot, and it came off for him.
 
Had to give him a shout.

It's been very quiet in here since he didn't let in any goals every other keeper in the world would have saved.
I agree. He had a solid performance today. Good anticipation from him when that big chance you mentioned happend. Hope he can build on that.
 
Solid performance. Still a poor decision by ETH that we didn’t give Bayandir a runout before we throw him into the lion’s den this weekend.
 
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