smithfieldhotspur.bsky.social
64 posts
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45 following
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Great looking shirt! Got my delivery from Divine Schism last week too on your recommendation , looks like a quality set of sponsors
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I’m not sure I see at least 3 low possession teams in the top 6 and I’m pretty sure I’d prefer to follow one of the teams in the top 10 here rather than the bottom 10 .. Forrest the only notable exception (who I believe will finish outside the European places)
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Sorry I meant ‘84
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Agree it’s hard to see him survive if we don’t win it. I dont agree that a team with ambition can’t have a season like this and still be successful if the underlying fundamentals are right and players believe but I do see yr point. Crazy if we win the EL, he’s our most successful manager since 1982
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Exactly. There’s a reason that we are not starting as well as we were in games, but it’s beyond this team selection. City missed some guilt edged chances but the starting 11 hung in and then got us back into the game in the second half to set up the opportunity for subs to impact the game.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about what it would take for me to decide Ange is not the guy, at what point would I lose belief and only have hope left. If we get knocked out by AZ, I’d still give him one more season if we have decent performances in the league and players are still on board
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I too have an Ange bias having watched him in his playing days and may look for positives with a bit more ferver. Having said that, I think it’s fair to say that the Ange OUT camp are a lot more emotional and less factual than the IN, who I see focus on evidence beyond just table position.
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I respect the time that people put into producing podcasts and content for those interested but more often than not they simply reflect the fact that the person has a microphone and a strong opinion rather than any real insight. I’m enjoying football a lot more having stopped listening to them
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Who won’t our fans turn on is a better question. Did you see him more as a wide player cutting in, like he has been at Bayern? Im looking forward to seeing him and Odebert on opposing wings with solanke in the middle, with Spence and udogie behind.
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We could really do with another one of him. Mikey more might grow into that but Brennan feels
like a stop gap for now and maybe a situational specialist. I was hoping there would be some instant game changing chemistry between he and Tel, but maybe with a few more games?
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probably too nuanced a message and doesn’t fit as neatly on a banner. Making it personal is easier and ridiculing investments, concerts… that make the club self sustaining also easy targets when football results are disappointing. the post abramovich equation of money=trophies has hoodwinked fans
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If the Levy out movement was singularly focused on demanding a higher investment in players (signings and wage bill to revenue %) and protecting groups like seniors from ticket hikes, I feel they would have almost unanimous support. Ownership change not required for that and we avoid its pitfalls
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Just watched the game back. Son penalised at the 10min mark for obstruction on Hutchison. It was on the half way line, but only makes this more frustrating.
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Have the most successful teams in the premier league recently, City and Liverpool, not been closer to outliers than the average also?Do we have that data? Fair to ask has Ange taken it too far, but … has this been a pattern for success others have been afraid to follow from the safety of mid table?
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I also think there’s plenty to be apprehensive about with regard to Ange too though, I get that. Personally I’m operating on faith based on what I’ve seen and what the data is telling us but like the players, Ange does need to grow from this to deliver to this teams potential. Im choosing to believe
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I definitely think theres FOMO for Iraola and possibly others. Just as eg. of how things take on a life of their own, one podder this week claimed how well Iraola had done in Spain as proof this isn’t an outlier season? Good manager, maybe great, but those obsessed win rate seem happy to ignore his?
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I agree 100% with this. It’s so rare for a manager to be given the chance to learn from their experiences at the same club. This season at least the upside of giving Ange that chance seems higher than getting rid … only for some other club get the benefit of the experience from him
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Romero first missed a game through injury after Intl Break 1. He was out agin 1 week before the 3rd Intl break, went anyway, then has only played once since, picking up a diff injury after returning. Intl travel and recovery are a major factor in the mix.
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Over this sample size, Mickys injury, over 20 games out, is going to have a big impact on how we compare to other sides. He’s a player with a history of this type of injury, so how do we factor that in? Does the playing style exacerbate it or would this have happened in his career anyway?
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It’s hard to draw anything other than feelings about playing style and injury causality from the data we have access to (as the article all admits). The “correlation” being “ too strong to ignore” just means it’s the easiest conclusion to draw without having to do the hard work of digging deeper
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A lot of pods and posters seemed to have changed their tune recently. The sceptic in me thinks that they’re more concerned about trying to avoid a loss of subscribers and views than the actual impact of a change of ownership .
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Heard on a pod recently that “Ange is the first manager not to get a tune out of Son”. According to FotMob data for the EPL, that’s not the case. Sonny has missed some big chances this year uncharacteristically, but even so he’s in 79th percentile for goals per 90, 86th for assists. “Washed”
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Some bad losses in there and this doesn’t capture the intangibles of ‘performance’ but hopefully helps asa reference point for those who know that football results are inextricably linked with context and dismissing factual context is just conjecture, which many r happy to present as fact it seems
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The panel chat was full of half recollected ‘impressions’ and had no actual facts, just emotions, which prompted me to pull this together. Like I said, people will still see what they want in this but up until when the injuries hit we had won 10, lost 4 drawn 1, conceding 12 and scoring 29.
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I heard discussion on one channel this week about Ange’s ability to develop young’s players. Looking at the early games of the season you get a picture of what the plan was. Gray subbed in first two games for Bentancur/Biss but moves to back line as soon as defensive injuries occur, just as an eg.
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For comps, PL- premier league, EL - Europe League, CC - Caraboa Cup, FAC - FA Cup. In the starting lines up, a player in blue indicates they were not in the starting line up for the previous Premier League match. Grey means they were in the last starting 11 in a different position.
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Forrest do stand out. The article explained that the chart mostly reflects Nuno going to a back 5 to hold a lead. So it’s the amount of times a team shape changed in game not number of formations used. No detail behind numbers for spurs but feels like this is more change than Ange would want ideally
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This from the Athletic. At a minimum it shows Ange has been looking for ways to adapt to the different players we’ve had available and game state. People say there’s no adaptation without realizing there is possibly too much, certainly more than we would see without the injuries.
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What I see in these examples are tired players trying too hard to ‘do something’ and just end up out of position and ball chasing. This is not tactical and not instructed. It’s tired legs and minds who lack the energy it takes to maintain focus and discipline. Disappointing but understandable.
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youtu.be/cf8ZV1KhMr0?... an impartial and reasoned assessment of the current dilemma here with reference to telling stats
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Add to this that Dragusin Udogie and Sarr are 22. Kinskey 21. Brennan and Mickey are 23. These are all players still developing and a long way from mature and experienced in the way that produces consistent performances and results. It’s a multi year process in its early stages whomever the manager
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What we’ve done this year is already extreme in terms of young players and circumstantial. No way this happens if we had not had the injuries etc because these are the types of results you are likely to get
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I also think getting the balance right of introducing youth players in a way that aids there development and preserves the results fans want is nigh impossible. Possible with an individual, but multiple players is wishful thinking and not a realistic criteria. Class of 92 was a complete anomaly
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We need better injury management and a post mortem within the club about how this has happened and what can prevent it structurally and procedurally … but as a managerial criteria I’m not sure this should really be on a list of things we’re considering when looking for an Ange replacement?
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The challenge is that results and the emotions they elicit are immediate but good footballing teams are built over multiple seasons. Most discussion I am seeing about what we need from a new manager are reactions to our current predicament only which is not the real problem that needs solving
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Berkinshaw got relegated and became arguably our most successful manager. I’d like to see ange given the opportunity to at least show what he’s learned from this once players get back. What do we have to lose from this point this season?
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With the injuries, timing and combination of them and the schedule, it feels too easy for both ange in/out folks to point to things that confirm their bias. This is so extraordinary that I can’t think of any example we can point to for an actual objective assessment that is helpful
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2% more than Liverpool in and out of possession. If you think that explains it, then you go with that. This wasn’t a Defence of ange, btw, just stating that you don’t speak for everyone in telling him to fuck off
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Not on my behalf @flirtram.bsky.social . Liverpool the best team in Europe and we’ve only been able to put a B team out today. He’s not perfect but the squad is in bits. Deki exhaustion on legs, Son same. Richy off 40’ in. Can’t believe we were still in this with only 45mins to play considering.
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Before the first leg, I’d have taken this … going into the last 45 with everything even. But something has to change in midfield for sure. Too slow, no awareness, poor ball security. This is the recurring theme in our poor results of late
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Industrious midfield, I just hope we don’t cede all the initiative to them. Like the option of dropping Deki back into midfield and bringing on Tel if we need more creativity, but I was hoping we’d start that way and have them on the back foot in the first half.
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I think this is the first game this season we have won when according to xG we should not have. JLA did a youtube piece on that I think. It felt
like the Wissa chance was the only real bit of ‘luck’ we had? The rest was just good box defending. Maybe outperforming xG is why this felt so satisfying?
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I imagine a London club was the only option so we keep him under Sonny’s wing off pitch, that limits options. Wouldn’t want him in the midlands alone with little to no English. It does say that he was gettin no minutes with us for sure. Character building sounds like all that can come of it though
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I think it would be wonderful if the fans got behind a team with 4 or 5 teenagers in as they got schooled but this is not going to be the reality in this social media age. Ange can do better. But we’re seeing a lot of minutes from developing players every week and that includes Radu, sarr, Brennan
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What we see on the pitch is only half of the picture. Spence not being in the Europa squad looks like a massive oversight but how much ground did Spence have to make up behind the scenes, off field? We can only speculate but it feels to me like Tyrese lost his tryst at some point for some reason?