But that’s where I think Bielsa was a great coach but not a manager. Could have managed him through the playoffs when we needed him, then dealt with the situation. I can see criticism of Bielsa for that but how anyone thinks anyone else would have got that squad promoted needs to look seriously at the seasons before
I don't know which of your moderators edited this post of mine above - no harm done but I don't appreciate it. It's one thing having a bit of banter and I enjoy that, but altering posters' comments is a basic no no for me. I'll get off my soapbox for now - I wonder if anyone will admit it. See you guys some time.
Saw it and I liked O’Leary, but was catching up when replying. But you’re seriously comparing having Rio with Cooper? Dacourt with Klich / Dallas? Mills with Ayliing? The likes of Kewell, Woodgate, with Struijk Greenwood etc. when we’re rebuilding the academy that Bates dismantled. I’d say he had far better quality at his disposal.
For those of you who hate my long rambling statistical posts, then this is probably one best avoided Given that Elland pointed out that the site I have used previously for stats, did not include 100% of the information I was referring to, I've relooked at the same data using transfermarkt.com regarding squad sizes Average Number of players used by a Premier League Team - 27 ( We used 29) Average Number of players aged 21 or under - 4 (We used 10) Average number of players with over 500mins played - 20 (We had 19) Average number of players with less than 90 mins played - 3 (We had 4) Average number of players per squad aged 30 or over - 7 (We had 6) Average number of players aged 30+ who played 500 mins or more - 6 (We had 6) Least number of players used in total - 23 by Burnley and West Ham Most number of players used in total - 31 by Everton, 30 used by Watford Number of players aged under 21 or under used - Unsurprisingly we are top for this with 10, Norwich used 8 Least number of players used aged 21 or under - 0 by Newcastle. Burnley, Chelsea and Watford had 1 Least number of players who played more than 500 mins this season - 17 by West Ham. Villa, Wolves and Man City used 18 Most number of players who played more than 500mins this season - 23 by Newcastle. Watford and Norwich used 22 Number of players who played less than 90 minutes in a season - 8 by Man City, followed with Everton on 6. Both Southampton and Burnley had no players play less than 90 minutes in total Number of players aged 30 and over who made an appearance - 15 by Burnley, followed by both Newcastle and Watford with 12. Villa had the least with 1, followed by Spurs with 2 Number of players aged 30 and over who played 500mins or more - 12 by Burnley followed by Newcastle with 10. Again the least were Villa and Spurs So the average squad size for a Premier League team, is 20, with 4 under 21 players, with an additional 3 players that are likely to play less than 90 minutes in a season. Writing players off because of their age, seems to be a fallacy, with only 4 teams fielding 3 or less 30 year old players or older for more than 500 minutes this season. Liverpool had more players aged 30 and over than ourselves, Chelsea had the same number. Size of squad seems to count for very little, given that Burnley and West Ham used the least and Everton the most players this season, with only Newcastle and Watford relying upon more than 21 core players (including under 21's). However both ourselves and Norwich over relied upon under 21's. Whilst the average squad size (not including u21 players) was 23, and we had the lowest with only 19, West Ham, Wolves Man City and Brighton had a senior squad size of 21, whilst Crystal Palace and Norwich had 20. Everton used 26 senior players and Watford 29, so another two senior players in our squad probably would've helped. So we can forget about 18+4, because no club achieved that, not even ourselves. 21+4 seems to be more realistic, however it then depends are those two additional squad players, in the mould of a Stuart Dallas, a Rodrigo, Adam Forshaw or Tyler Roberts For those of you who have got this far, well done for having patience, for those who skipped the post, I don't blame you
Yes O'Leary had better at his disposal but he would have sold the deadwood and bought better. The problem is Bielsa has stuck with the same players for 3 years and not really bought better. You could point out he made the squad weaker from last season by letting Pablo, Allioski and Berardi go.
Just to start no 1 is absolutely Bollix yet again, but you keep peddling the lie to leave yourself with no credibility
2 points of interest 1) We've put a legal challenge alongside Burnley against Everton breaking FFP rules. 2)Atalanta (Italy) has supposedly made contact over James
Should just scrap FFP rules. Nothing fair about a lot of the competitions. Sustainability? Good luck with that if the government shuts you down or you happen to have an owner from Russia, etc. Waste of everyone's time.
