In a much weaker league. Those teams wouldn't be anywhere near top 4 in the current Premier League. They'd probably be closer to relegation.
Wolverhampton Wanderers 18/19...
- Thread starter Rozay
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
A solid win last night and well deserved too. Even during their poor run their performances minus Huddersfield haven't been getting the result they've merited.
There were plenty of very good teams in 01 that should have finished above Ipswich
The Newcastle and Blackburn sides were very good and remained around the top of the league for a few year after.
You can't compare to today's sides. There was probably more equity on a European level as sides were more homogeneous across the board. The consolidation of power into a few leagues hadn't really happened then. From 1990-2000 clubs from 7 different nations won the 10 Champions League titles on offer.
Looking at it in relative terms, Wolves are not really close to those Blackburn and Newcastle sides.
best side I have seen come up from the championship, they go and try win every game they play, positive attacking football the amount of chances they create almost every game is unreal, if they had a proper goalscorer they would be well up the league. must be up near the top of the chances created league. would take Neves here in a heartbeat boys is class.
Gash today. They probably lose without the red card and even with it a draw would have been right.
Winning when you don't play at all well is a good habit to get into in this league. Fair play to them.
Isn’t this quite normal?
He’s great at shooting from distance, but even those players will obviously go through periods where they don’t score in 30 or even 100 shots. Doesn’t mean they should stop doing it or that they’re hurting the team.
Neves doesn't shoot because he wants, it's because he has freedom to do it. If NES suddenly decides it causes more problems than solutions, I'm sure he will stop the shoot festival.
He has had 30 shots for a combined xG of 0.75! Based on that I do think he should stop doing it, yes.
This is one of the things I just can't come to terms with as an armchair pundit. Players taking shots from stupid angles and distances they must know have an almost zero chance of going in. Kyle Walker is another one I've noticed who likes doing this. I think it has to with pressure from the crowd who urge players to shoot and are much happier with a low percentage shot than trying to play in a teammate which could yield a much better chance but could also result in no shot at all. Which of course is stupid. But I also think that a lot of players lack game intelligence in that regard.
This is one of the things I just can't come to terms with as an armchair pundit. Players taking shots from stupid angles and distances they must know have an almost zero chance of going in. Kyle Walker is another one I've noticed who likes doing this. I think it has to with pressure from the crowd who urge players to shoot and are much happier with a low percentage shot than trying to play in a teammate which could yield a much better chance but could also result in no shot at all. Which of course is stupid. But I also think that a lot of players lack game intelligence in that regard.
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They're on course for 52 points, only 1 more than what Wigan achieved in their first season whilst also making it to the League Cup final. Still think they have a lot more work to do to be the best promoted side - not that Wigan were the previous best but one of the most comfortable settlers that I've seen.
Is he that great at it? He has a scored a penalty and a direct free kick this season. These two account for 0.88 xG (his total is 1.94). He has taken 39 more shots which haven't resulted in anything. Of course the sample size should be bigger and I do remember that wonder goal from last year's Championship season but I have no access to Championship stats unfortunately.
Remember last year he scored 6 goals from outside the box and all of them were superb goals.
Thanks for pointing that out. Didn't know that. That might also explain why he's so confident taking that many low percentage shots from outside the box.
Bring Nuno to Man Utd! Such a likeable guy with a modern, forward thinking approach. He has Championship players like Coady, Doherty and Boly looking like established Premier League players already.
Eddie Howe-esque albeit on a smaller scale.
Eddie Howe-esque albeit on a smaller scale.
Another interesting stat - Neves scored more goals from outside of the area than he had touches in the opposition penalty box last season. Absolutely mental!
Except Nuno doesn't roll over against the big teams and has beaten Chelsea and drawn City already this season...
Impressive stuff.
If Eddie Howe was able to invest what Nuno has invested I think Bournemouth would be even better.
Nuno's spending compared to City and Chelsea though...?
Nuno has gotten those results because of his tactics.
If you gave Eddie Howe this Wolves team, and Nuno this Bournemouth side, Nuno would do better at setting them up to actually compete with the big sides, and Howe would still get battered by them.
But Bournemouth is a weaker side than Wolves and performing considerably well, better than Wolves.
Wolves didn't need to invest as highly as they did when they went up as already had a fair bit of talent, but Nuno was able to invest what £120m on top?
That's over double what Howe spent. Obviously one side would look more on par against top sides than the other.
Despite this though, Howe is still doing great and above Wolves in the league as it stands.
We didn't spend £120m on new players when we got promoted, the bulk of that was spent on converting the loans of existing players.
And Bournemouth are in their 4th season in the PL and have probably spent just as much as we have if you average it over the last 5 years.
Hopefully they won't be ahead of us in the table after Saturday!
Bournemouth have a squad that isn't on Wolves level. That much is pretty obvious. I don't think being in the Premier League has that much to do with it because you have players like Neves Patricio Moutinho etc. Who are extremely talented players from strong clubs and able to arrive on the Mendes link.
Eddie howe doesn't have close to that.
All big names, but none of whom have really shone consistently so far. Some of our best/most consistent players are probably Doherty and Bennett, who were Championship signings.
Bournemouth have a very underrated squad. They have built year on year and have players that would probably get into our starting XI in Wilson, King, Ake and Fraser. They also have a good solid squad, full of players that have consistently proven they can compete in the PL - Francis, Cook, Ibe, Daniels, Mings, Brooks, Defoe, Lerma and Begovic to name a few.
We may have a higher starting point than they did, but we are not in as good shape as they are just yet. We will need a few more windows and some more gifts from Mendes!
This is my point though. Nuno hasn't been able to get his squad shining as consistently whilst Eddie Howe has, to the level where his calibre of players is now seen as underrated (it isn't, he has much of the same as last year plus Lerma).
From those 30 shots, 9 resulted in corners, 6 they retained possession anyway, 1 was a goal on the rebound and 14 went out for a goalkick. Shots can't be measured in efficiency depending on how often they go in, he has a freedom to shoot from there for a reason. You can't just look at the stats, taking a shot can be the right decision even with a low probablity of going in. Depends on too many factors that can't be measured in statistics.
It's like when some people argue that corners should be taken short and the team should just keep the ball rather than crossing it in since there's only a 5% chance of scoring from a corner... despite the fact that teams keep the ball anyway 99% of the time even if the corner is cleared. It's pretty much impossible to measure efficiency accurately in this sport.
He scored plenty of goals from long range last season.
Nuno already has good experience at big club with expectations, can't remember how well or not he did at Porto but his sacking at Valencia was certainly knee jerk when you think how badly they did for the next two years.
Some good points I didn't consider initially and I have been thinking about this. My main point would be whether these outcomes are all that great really. If we regard the numbers you provided as representive (which they are not due to the low sample size) we get 1 goal (the rebound), 9 corners, each of which only has a marginally higher expectation than the initial shot itself, 6 retained possesions (which we can treat as if no shot had been taken) and 14 goalkicks with have an expectation of zero. So in the end still a very low return from 30 promising positions deep inside the opponent's half.
This is getting theoretical and difficult to measure accurately as you say but my gut feeling tells me that these long range efforts are probably not worth it unless the shot taker has proven to convert them at a way above average rate or they, despite their low expected value, still represent a team's best chance of scoring because the opposition is so superior. Something to think about and I can definitely be wrong.
One more point: If the initial shot has a much higher chance of going in (mainly because it's taken closer to the goal), then the follow-up situations will be much more promising as well to the point where it matters I think. Possession will be retained more often and there will be many more rebound opportunities with higher expectations.
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Apparently looking at signing Nakajima in January. 
@Yagami
20m bid rumoured. Have to think no way would Portimonense turn that down.
@Yagami 20m bid rumoured. Have to think no way would Portimonense turn that down.
Wolves have scored 17 goals in 16 games...you think that's good enough for United standards?!?
Heck, even Cardiff are only two goals behind that!!
He hardly plays attacking fluid football, it's based around pacey wide men and counter attacks and absorbing pressure.
The finishing by Wolves has been disgraceful this season.
They lack a clinical striker badly.
Game v Burnley at start of season they created six great chances and only scored once.
They need a poacher like Hernandez. As much as I chuckled last season about the link Andre Silva would've been great for them considering how well he's done at Sevilla so far.
Game v Burnley at start of season they created six great chances and only scored once.
They need a poacher like Hernandez. As much as I chuckled last season about the link Andre Silva would've been great for them considering how well he's done at Sevilla so far.
I really like how they are trying to play flowing attractive football. I honestly can't see them being relegated at all & think they will finish mid table (8 to 12). They lack what so many other teams do and that is a clinical striker, the hardest position to fill in the league.
It will be funny if they sign Nicolas Gaitan just for the lulz.
Important win for them and up to 7th...
This Nuno Santo is a proper manager, I like this Wolves team.
This Nuno Santo is a proper manager, I like this Wolves team.
Not a big fan of Nuno type of football but fair enough, he is doing a decent job there.
Wolves-Liverpool one will be interesting I think with Wolves's confidence back up now.
@FootballHQ Is the Nakajima business confirmed? I don't know how he would adapt there but he is a good player to watch.
Yeah talk in local press here he's a player Wolves have been watching last few months and are preparing 20m bid which would be incredible money for his club.
Diogo Jota took a while to get going this season and Adama is Adam so would imagine he'd add competition in that area while they look for an out and out striker.