2020-21 : that was the season that was

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Whilst no one moment can define a season - The Lanzini goal does seem to have defined ours, bad refereeing, Winks not putting ball in row Z and a player scoring a worldie that he may never repeat - The point that they gained and 2 we lost would also have swapped our league positions at the end of the season.
 
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Billy The Yid said:
We`ve been shiete for large parts of the season, but yes those last minute goals cost us, along with some farcical refereeing. How many dodgy penalties did we have given against us, Arsenal away, Everton away, Chelsea home, City away with the game at 0-0, and how many goals did we have disallowed for toenail offsides, Kane at Leeds, Son v Pool with the game 0-0, not to mention Allison being allowed to pick the ball up from outside his area, game changing bad decisions that all add up to potentially dropped points.
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whilst I don’t disagree with you, I’d love to see a table of stats that includes each team in the league with decisions that didn’t go their way, as well as VAR/dodgy refereeing working in one’s favour.
We definitely had some bad calls, but I’d like to see a like for like comparison for every team.
Surely this must average out? Unless you’re Bruno Fernandes/Man United.
 
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Domestic cup competitions :

1. The League cup was dealt with as professionally as
possible, with the team sheets reflecting the opposition
and the performances therein.

The final itself was more of a reflection of the general
morale/mindset malaise that had already poisoned the squad.


2. The FA cup campaign was conducted in a similar manner.

The bottom line however is that when you send a strong team to
Everton, score 4 goals and still lose, that is a savage indictment
of the on-pitch discipline.
 
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Europa League :

IMHO everything prior to the KO stages was done near perfectly.
In particular :

- the qualifier games interleaved with PL fixtures, when the squad
would have effectively no summer break after the 2019-20 season

- the compressed UEFA group stage fixture schedule

- the squad rotation, Vini doing the business in attack etc


The Zagreb away game however was a shocker.
With hindsight it was the real indicator that squad resolve/morale
had gone on the pitch, and the manager was incapable of
doing anything to correct it.
 
Squad :

1. New boys

Hojbjerg has had a decent season.
His strengths and weaknesses are there to see, and on the
latter time will tell as to whether fatigue (he played a lot of
games) and formations are a great deal of the latter.

Reguilon had a season of two halves IMHO.
His general attacking play is good, but his defensive discipline
leaves a bit to be desired. On the latter, age is on his side so
he can improve.

Vini did a decent job when called upon in the EL + FA cup games.
Sadly not given enough chances to see whether he is a
PL standard striker who could take the load off of Kane.

Bale.
We got moments of the old Bale of Spurs, and moments where
Zidane looked wholly vindicated in ostracising him from Madrid.
How much of the overall picture is due to real match fitness or
attitude, who knows. There is still a class player within.

Docherty.
What was the point of signing him ??


2. Incumbents

So many players badly declined this season.
Toby / Sanchez / Alli / Sissoko etc.
If it wasn't moments of class gone, it was also baseline levels of reliability/trust.

Son played a lot of the season with a spring in his step and a
smile on his face, and the results spoke for themself.

Kane went up a level in his overall game with his service to Son.
A joy to have watched, but sadly some other club is now
probably going to benefit from it.
 
Roo said:
whilst I don’t disagree with you, I’d love to see a table of stats that includes each team in the league with decisions that didn’t go their way, as well as VAR/dodgy refereeing working in one’s favour.
We definitely had some bad calls, but I’d like to see a like for like comparison for every team.
Surely this must average out? Unless you’re Bruno Fernandes/Man United.
Click to expand...
No it doesn't average out. If there is no bias the number of points gained or lost by each team will be something like a normal distribution centred around zero. To know the spread you need to know the number of wrong refereeing decisions that affects points. I would guess each team gets about one every three matches so with each one affecting one or two points thats a maximum of 18 points gained or 18 lost. Although having all thirteen decisions in your favour is very unlikely. Some teams may well have gained or lost 10 points though.
 
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The season ends and I have rated all the players on a scale of 1-10 where 1 equals Dier and 10 equals Kane.

· Lloris – 7

· Doherty- 2

· Regullion - 5

· Alderweireld - 4

· Hojbjerg - 6

· Sanchez – 1

· Son - 8

· Winks – 2

· Bale – 6

· Kane – 10

· Lamela -6

· Hart – 4

· Rodon – 6

· Dier – 1

· Sissoko – 2

· Lo Celso – 3

· Dele – 3

· Bergwijn – 2

· Tanganga – 4

· Lucas – 6

· Ndombele – 4

· Davies – 4

· Vinicius - 5
 
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The Changing Man said:
The season ends and I have rated all the players on a scale of 1-10 where 1 equals Dier and 10 equals Kane.

· Lloris – 7

· Doherty- 2

· Regullion - 5

· Alderweireld - 4

· Hojbjerg - 6

· Sanchez – 1

· Son - 8

· Winks – 2

· Bale – 6

· Kane – 10

· Lamela -6

· Hart – 4

· Rodon – 6

· Dier – 1

· Sissoko – 2

· Lo Celso – 3

· Dele – 3

· Bergwijn – 2

· Tanganga – 4

· Lucas – 6

· Ndombele – 4

· Davies – 4

· Vinicius - 5
Click to expand...

Sissoko, Winks, Doherty 2 points <yikes>

generous
 
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Roo said:
whilst I don’t disagree with you, I’d love to see a table of stats that includes each team in the league with decisions that didn’t go their way, as well as VAR/dodgy refereeing working in one’s favour.
We definitely had some bad calls, but I’d like to see a like for like comparison for every team.
Surely this must average out? Unless you’re Bruno Fernandes/Man United.
Click to expand...
Why would it average out?

Take Jamie Vardy as an example. Dives all over the place and I regularly see other people being criticised for doing a Vardy.
Initiating contact with a defender and going down is his signature move, yet you'd never know it going by the pundits or commentators.
If they don't have any consistency and miss repeat offenders for years, then why would the officials be any different?
 
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PleaseNotPoll said:
Why would it average out?

Take Jamie Vardy as an example. Dives all over the place and I regularly see other people being criticised for doing a Vardy.
Initiating contact with a defender and going down is his signature move, yet you'd never know it going by the pundits or commentators.
If they don't have any consistency and miss repeat offenders for years, then why would the officials be any different?
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Actually, take Bale mk 1 and Vardy as examples of egotist refs + media hack Narratives (TM) .

Remember when all and sundry was going on about
Bale being a diver, even for the blatant moments when he
was not ??

Remember Vardy in the 2016 game against the Spanners when :

- he was diving

- a ref was brave enough to call it

- he clocked up the cards which meant he got a red

- the media hacks went into meltdown as they thought the
subsequent game ban might derail the Lesta fairytale


Jump forward 5 years and the same Vardy-onics + hack Narrative (TM) .
In spite of that, a nice touch by Nemesis to make Bale himself
the destroyer of both yesterday.
 
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Following on from TCM's ratings, I'd go with:

Hugo - 7
Hart - 6

Aurier - 4.5
Doherty - 1

Toby - 1.5
Sanchez - 1.5
Dier - 1
Rodon - 5
Tanganga - 5

Reguilon - 6
Davies - 5.5

Hojbjerg - 6.5
Winks - 1.5
Sissoko - 2
Lo Celso - 1.5
Ndombele - 2.5
Dele - 1

Lucas - 6.5
Bergwijn - 1
Lamela - 2
Bale - 7
Son - 8.5

Kane - 10
Vinicius - 6
 
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Roo said:
whilst I don’t disagree with you, I’d love to see a table of stats that includes each team in the league with decisions that didn’t go their way, as well as VAR/dodgy refereeing working in one’s favour.
We definitely had some bad calls, but I’d like to see a like for like comparison for every team.
Surely this must average out? Unless you’re Bruno Fernandes/Man United.
Click to expand...
2 nonsensical red cards, a few penalties and a blatant red totally ignored and some ridiculously soft ones given.

And the teams those decisions profited? Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal & Chelsea.
Big surprise huh?
 
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Big Ern said:
2 nonsensical red cards, a few penalties and a blatant red totally ignored and some ridiculously soft ones given.

And the teams those decisions profited? Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal & Chelsea.
Big surprise huh?
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as I said initially, I don’t disagree. But I’d really like to see some stats on this.
We’ve definitely had our fair share of ****ty decisions, that’s for sure!
 
1. I am glad we did not come 6th as it would have hidden a huge issue ... like coming 6th last season did.

2. Am glad we came above the goons cos coming below them in their worse season in 25 years would have been grim wum wise with mates.

3. This season has shown that certain squad/first team players are not top 6 quality, let alone top 4 or trophy winning quality.

Dier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Winks, Sissoko, Hart, Doherty and Aurier would not make the squads of any of this seasons top 6.

Ndombele, Lo Celso, Dele and Bergwijn wouldn't get into any of the top 4 squads and while 1 or two may get into West Ham's or Leicester's squads they would not into their first teams.

4. As we won't be able to get rid of them all I am not sure how much will progress next season.

5. Am pleased the season is over!
 
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remembercolinlee said:
1. I am glad we did not come 6th as it would have hidden a huge issue ... like coming 6th last season did.

2. Am glad we came above the goons cos coming below them in their worse season in 25 years would have been grim wum wise with mates.

3. This season has shown that certain squad/first team players are not top 6 quality, let alone top 4 or trophy winning quality.

Dier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Winks, Sissoko, Hart, Doherty and Aurier would not make the squads of any of this seasons top 6.

Ndombele, Lo Celso, Dele and Bergwijn wouldn't get into any of the top 4 squads and while 1 or two may get into West Ham's or Leicester's squads they would not into their first teams.

4. As we won't be able to get rid of them all I am not sure how much will progress next season.

5. Am pleased the season is over!
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Agree with most of that, only thing I'd say is that despite a dog awful season, I think there's still a possibility Bergwijn can become an important player.

Had his confidence wrecked this season and the racism towards him certainly didn't help but I think when we factor in how dangerous he looked when he joined, and the fact he was doing that most weeks for PSV, there's a player in there somewhere. A new (attack minded) manager will hopefully help release the shackles that have weighed him down this season.
 
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Big Ern said:
2 nonsensical red cards, a few penalties and a blatant red totally ignored and some ridiculously soft ones given.

And the teams those decisions profited? Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal & Chelsea.
Big surprise huh?
Click to expand...
Take the key out mate, they're wound up enough <laugh>
 
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