I don't know if anyone's posted his goals from last season, but here they are. Lots of striker's goals, if you know what I mean. Certainly something that we missed for large chunks of last season. Only two penalties, so he'll fit right in.
That's two more penalties than we'll be given next season. He operates well in the box, better than Richarlison in that regard as his play with back to goal in tight situations/under pressure is markedly better. Whereas the Brazilian defaults to flopping to the floor in hope of a foul, Solanke definitely has more variety to his hold-up game. The length of the contract tells me that Ange really rates him and sees him as a crucial piece of the puzzle we're still building. Thinking of an analogy, the system that comes to mind is the Liverpool attack of Mane-Firmino-Salah, where the overwhelming majority of goals came from the flanks and the Brazilian's job was to anchor the system and tie it all together, chipping in with a fair amount of goals himself. If I'm right, we're still a RW and a long-term successor to Son away from matching that team's output.
Wouldn't have been my first (or second...or third!) choice, but it looks like Ange is sold on the lad, so.....let's go, Dom!
What do you mean by average? Our whole squad is probably on the top 5% of professional players worldwide.
its an expression rather than an actual average. Saying that in top 6 team players he probably is bang average. Just as Hodjberg is a superb player to everyone non pl player but bang average in the league
The Mirror claim that we've told Jude Soonsup-Bell he can leave this summer If true, it's likely contract-related as he has a year left on his deal and either isn't signing or (like with Yago Santiago, who was also in the final year of his contract) it's stick-or-twist time and we decided to twist
Looks like Solanke is a done deal , what odds Reggie going to Barca on loan with Raphinha going the other way as a loan
If all our players were 2% better than average we would likely win the league because small differences matter at the highest level. The problem is that a 2% difference in skill level between two players is hard to see in practice. That's one of the reasons most signings don't improve teams
In tennis where you can actually measure it by points won, the world best is less than 10% better than their average opponent. The difference between the 50th and 100th best player is too small to show up as a statistically significant performance difference over hundreds of matches. Literally nobody can tell which of Solanke, Richarlison and 50 other strikers is better.
I'm certainly not overwhelmed by the Solanke signing but he seems to be an Ange type player especially with his pressing ability. I hope he makes our press harder to pass through. What does baffle me is why, yet again, we have left the signing so late that he has no pre season with us.
This is further compounded by football being a team game. Players need players and personal attributes need to compliment team mates. This is why Ange emphasises wanting players with the right mindset. Observation of games shows that the team with most desire wins (assuming a similar level of technical skills). Each individual can show different qualities, passing, shooting, tackling, running speed, ball control but you would expect a high level from all PL players. Positional awareness you can only see in games over time. Listening to Ange telling players that the next move is what's important. What you do when you have received the ball, what you do when you have passed the ball, what you do when you don't have the ball, or your team loses the ball is all about awareness. So just buyng a great player will not make a positive difference unless the player fits the team.
