I'm sure someone on here will make up an excuse for some negativity even though it bears out what I've been saying for months. Harry may or may not come back stronger but will the team be stronger with him?
I said they “probably weren’t “ Given their strength in depth, it would be naive to right them off. That was my point in the post you refer to.
One goal in two matches tells me that they are. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what happens at Palace.
Accidental handball last night = penalty and booking. Tonight (Shaw already on a yellow) = free kick but no booking. Was arguably more 'deliberate' than Rose.
Unfortunately Barca are above you in the favouritism league. Messi could punch the ref on the nose and VAR would blame the the ref for headbutting his fist
The correlation between a team with a 20+ league goals per season striker and that team finishing in the top 4 is extremely high (the PL era alone shows that) .
Or they will completely ignore the story because it's an inconvenient truth. Strange that you were the only person to respond.
Inconvenient or not it's still the truth which some just cannot see because of favouritism. I responded to add credence to what I've been saying which, for some reason, people are contradicting and mocking, even though it's the truth. What about the last part of my post about whether or not we are stronger without Kane? gerialco, are we or are we not stronger without Kane?
Even statistically, it would seem that we are; using both a small sample for recent form and a longer 2 3/4 season sample too. I still wouldn't advocate selling him just yet but I would rotate him a lot more. That way, we'd become less predictable and HK would be fresher. One thing that would change my mind would be if these ankle injuries became a frequent occurrence next season too. At that point, i'd look to cash him in abroad before he becomes permanently crocked.
I've given up responding to claims that data supports a theory when there isn't enough data to justify that claim. There are so many variables affecting match results that you literally need 100s of games to deduce anything about any specific one.
According to the CIES site, which does at least try to use statistics correctly, Kane is currently the most valuable player in world football. Yet we will be stronger without him.....
Firstly, 2 3/4 seasons is a good enough long-term sample (over 100 games). Secondly, 100s of games doesn't tell you anything about recent form so you do need to look at the last 5-10 games too.
My two cents: I think we also have to take into account the fact that no matter who we play, item 1 on the opposition agenda that week in training will be 'how to stop Kane'. It is testament to his quality that teams regularly double up on him yet he still bangs in the goals. That is what divides the good from the elite: when the opposition devote almost their entire prep time to stopping you yet it doesn't work. HOWEVER, that is not to say that teams haven't been getting better at damage limitation. It is for this reason (as well as a general drop in creativity) that we're seeing Kane popping up in so many positions that you wouldn't ordinarily see a lone striker occupy. Compare his overall movement now to a few years ago and you'll see that he is spending a large amount of time dropping deep or wide to pick up the ball and start attacks. In other words, he definitely is encroaching on the areas that Dele, Son and Eriksen usually operate in. Beyond this, there is the factor that whilst teams have spent the best part of 4 years studying Kane's game and working out how to stop him, they haven't got nearly as much data on Dele or Son - both of whom are highly unpredictable players as it is - and so when Kane doesn't play opposition defenses seem confused as to who to pick up and when. Does this mean the team is currently worse with him? Possibly yes. Does that mean we should sell him? Absolutely not! The way forward now is solely in Poch's hands and he has to rise to the challenge of choosing from: molding the team around Kane's new style of play, reining in Kane and instructing him to play as a traditional #9 would (maybe he should wear that number, as he does for England?), as frustrating as that probably is for him, or a combination of the two. He remains an elite player with a supporting cast of almost-elite players. To break that up would be lunacy but Poch definitely needs to act as we have seen what Son is capable of when no-one is stealing his thunder and now, just as Barca had a to find a way to make Suarez-Messi work and as Juve are struggling to make Ronaldo-Dybala work, Poch has to earn his stripes by getting the most out of Kane and Son together.
