General Football Thread

The Saudi takeover of Newcastle has been called off. How many suitors have failed in their bid for this club? It seems there is a new one every few months. Methinks there is something rotten in the state of Geordie (thanks William Shakespeare, say ahead of his time).

 

"In his first appearance following the resumption of the league - 343 days on from his concussion against LASK on 7 August - Van Wolfswinkel scored against FC Zurich on 14 July to bring an end to a testing 11 months."
Great news. Well done the Wolf.

 

Just visited the Brentford forum to leave a good luck message for tomorrow.....
and not a soul has posted on a single thread since July 2 2019!!
There isn't even a play-off thread??
I think many clubs are similar, so to everyone on here for keeping it going fairly stongly.

 

And our thanks to you, Cromer -- also DHCanary and of course the much missed Dave.

 

Not to mention Resurgam, alias Flub, who can oft be seen quietly moderating away in the background

 

Salary cap announced for League 1, at £2.5m per year.

Looks like that makes this a make-or-break season for Ipswich in some ways. Whilst their current £5-6m wage bill gets treated as about £1.3m under the new cap, it only treats existing contracts that way and not extensions. Ipswich have an awful lot of players out of contract next summer, who will either have to re-sign on a fraction of their current wages, or will leave. Then they'll be unable to offer significantly better wages than anyone else in the league.

EADT estimates they could sign 4 players on £4-5k p/w this summer and keep under the cap, but come next summer it gets a lot harder.

 

Apparently Town's GM was not in favour: "General manager of football operations Lee O’Neill told TWTD last month that he was no fan of the cap which he says will hamper owner Marcus Evans’s ability to inject cash into the Blues."
Doesn't say what Mr Evans thought of it though ......

 

When was the last time Marcus Evans made a cash injection? I thought that all he ever did was cover the losses the club made each year by converted it into a loan to himself? Hardly a cash injection.

 

Maybe recently DH, by way of a "virtual" cash injection; virtual this and that's have become quite commonplace during the pandemic...........

 

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Here's a random one, from a longer article here on player versatility: http://www.statsandsnakeoil.com/2020/08/10/finding-the-most-versatile-player/

Number of minutes Jonny Howson played in different positions for Boro last season. He played LB, CB, RB, DM, CM, LW, CAM and RW last season, with a pretty significant amount of minutes in each role.

 

I think the author needs to expand his list of possible explanations for differing levels of versatility to include the player's club being a total shambles. This would certainly apply in the case of poor Jonny .........

 

That's amazing from both players. Cemented by Niguez also notching up 13 mins as goalie too

I'm thinking Stiepermann is probably our most versatile current player given his first season at LB and across the midfield. Otherwise despite Tettey dropping back into CB, most of the tweaks have been around midfield or switching flanks. Good player management despite the injuries we've had.

 

I think its the other way around, and that's 13 minutes as a striker? I'm pretty sure Howson played more minutes at CB than up front.

Yeah I clicked this half wondering if Stiepermann would make an appearance, given the roles he's filled for us (and other clubs) over his career. But this is only 19-20 season data. Across his career, Stiepermann has played every position except GK, RB and CB.

 

Ah yes okay that probably makes more sense

 

It's very common nowadays for young players to gain experience in positions other than their "best" one. The thinking is that players will perform better in their role if they understand the roles of those around them. For example, a CB needs to understand what his FB is likely to do in given circumstances, so we frequently see CBs deployed as FBs. Similarly, if you want to show a wide midfielder or winger just how important it is for him to help his FB out defensively, put him at FB and let him experience "exposure" for himself. This isn't coaching versatility; it's coaching players to be better in their "best" position.

 

This should be a key thread through youth football. I would add that's it's not just about experiencing playing in other positions within units you work in within a team. It's also at youth football playing in positions you would normally be playing up against i.e. the better you know and understand the role of a striker the more able you are as a CB to defend against one.

 

On a tangent, lots of examples of gamekeepers turning poachers. Two City examples: Chris Sutton, who started as a CB before Dave Stringer converted him to CF; and, in reverse, Gary Doherty, who played CF for Luton, and then Spurs, but, by the time he joined Norwich, had converted to CB following a bad injury. Useful at set pieces if, when defending, your CF can call on his CB experience or, when attacking, your CB thinks like a CF!

 

And the great Dion Dublin of course

 

Great stat:

If Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting plays in the next round of the Champion's League, it will mean the relegated Stoke squad of 2017-18 had players who played in the 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 & 2020 Champions League semi-finals.