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The Fight to Qualify for the European Conference League 2020/21

After the Leicester season, I would not honestly write anybody off that is in that Top 10 maybe even as far down as Arsenal in 11th. 10pts over 21 games could still be doable in this crazy season.

I would like to think West Ham are not in it, and should not be consistent enough, but crickey who can predict anything right now?
 
paxtonwolf said:
After the Leicester season, I would not honestly write anybody off that is in that Top 10 maybe even as far down as Arsenal in 11th. 10pts over 21 games could still be doable in this crazy season.

I would like to think West Ham are not in it, and should not be consistent enough, but crickey who can predict anything right now?
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The increased congestion this season also plays into the hands of teams who aren't in Europe and makes it more open
 
AdamB said:
The increased congestion this season also plays into the hands of teams who aren't in Europe and makes it more open
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Half expected the festive period to bring a bit more predictability into the results as the teams not in Europe also had to deal with more fixtures.

I guess it has done for the Manchester clubs and Arsenal (if they count), Leicester have done alright too, but not for us and Liverpool. Perhaps just poor form from the two of us.

Either way it remains very close. Bit of a stretch perhaps to say that Covid has definitely been an equalising force, but not business as usual at the very top at least.
 
braineclipse said:
Half expected the festive period to bring a bit more predictability into the results as the teams not in Europe also had to deal with more fixtures.

I guess it has done for the Manchester clubs and Arsenal (if they count), Leicester have done alright too, but not for us and Liverpool. Perhaps just poor form from the two of us.

Either way it remains very close. Bit of a stretch perhaps to say that Covid has definitely been an equalising force, but not business as usual at the very top at least.
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Volumes of games combined with timing
No coincidence that the game after we have a week off against a team we have played 9 games more than we play our best
Same with city and their week off giving them a chance to beat an inferior side too
The benefit that brings is huge and so far hasn’t really been flagged up as a contributing factor enough IMO
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Volumes of games combined with timing
No coincidence that the game after we have a week off against a team we have played 9 games more than we play our best
Same with city and their week off giving them a chance to beat an inferior side too
The benefit that brings is huge and so far hasn’t really been flagged up as a contributing factor enough IMO
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Agreed. I'd like to think that Jose would leave say 5-7 first teamers at home for the Marine game and largely send our Europa team plus kids...that way the Villa game will be similar to having had a week off too
 
AdamB said:
Agreed. I'd like to think that Jose would leave say 5-7 first teamers at home for the Marine game and largely send our Europa team plus kids...that way the Villa game will be similar to having had a week off too
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The Europa games were different as we needed the insurance, but we really shouldn’t be seeing the likes of Kane, Son, Ndombele, Dier, Lloris, Hojberg anywhere near this one.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
The Europa games were different as we needed the insurance, but we really shouldn’t be seeing the likes of Kane, Son, Ndombele, Dier, Lloris, Hojberg anywhere near this one.
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I bet you either Kane or Son make the trip to Marine. Even if he goes with Lamela, Vinicius and Moura up front, and sends Bergwijn as cover I think he'll send another senior forward and Bale is injured.

Dier - hopefully not as we have Rodon and Sanchez, and then Tanganga as cover. That's strong enough at CB in my view
 
SteveAWOL said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1346093369605431296
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Wow. Not exactly a surprise, but it's nice extremely annoying to see the bare stats.

Like it or not, with VAR, winning a penalty becomes a valid part of the game. The difference between the top penalty-getters and the average sides is far more than the number of free kicks that lead directly to goals, I'll warrant.

So why do some sides win more penalties than others? It can't all be referee bias!

Part of it must be down to individual players. Do they dive (or rather, "make the most of contact") convincingly? Or are they just the type of player whose jinking runs and quick feet make it extremely hard to tackle them? The likes of Hazard, David Silva and Salah must have won loads of penalties just because of their dribbling skills.

Or there's the style of play. The sort of team that buzzes around the edge of the box with an attacker or two eventually darting in, or with quick interplay, is more likely to win penalties. Again, think of Emirates Marketing Project a couple of years ago.

On the flip side, our players (Lamela aside) aren't exactly great at conning the ref. Kane and Sonny overact like a CBeebies presenter, while we don't really have a jinking dribbler. Or the sort of gameplan that results in lots of darting runs into the box. Defenders are able to make their tackles outside the box and take their chances.

I wouldn't be surprised if ManU are training hard on winning penalties. They've been the difference between mid-table and topping the league, after all.
 
FatBloke said:
Wow. Not exactly a surprise, but it's nice extremely annoying to see the bare stats.

Like it or not, with VAR, winning a pelanty becomes a valid part of the game. The difference between the top pelanty-getters and the average sides is far more than the number of free kicks that lead directly to goals, I'll warrant.

So why do some sides win more pelanties than others? It can't all be referee bias!

Part of it must be down to individual players. Do they dive (or rather, "make the most of contact") convincingly? Or are they just the type of player whose jinking runs and quick feet make it extremely hard to tackle them? The likes of Hazard, David Silva and Salad must have won loads of pelanties just because of their dribbling skills.

Or there's the style of play. The sort of team that buzzes around the edge of the box with an attacker or two eventually darting in, or with quick interplay, is more likely to win pelanties. Again, think of Emirates Marketing Project a couple of years ago.

On the flip side, our players (Lamela aside) aren't exactly great at conning the ref. Kane and Sonny overact like a CBeebies presenter, while we don't really have a jinking dribbler. Or the sort of gameplan that results in lots of darting runs into the box. Defenders are able to make their tackles outside the box and take their chances.

I wouldn't be surprised if ManU are training hard on winning pelanties. They've been the difference between mid-table and topping the league, after all.
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I'd like to see a league table showing touches in the opposition's penalty area. I would suspect that there is a reasonable correlation between that and number of penalties (and that correlation would get closer over a longer amount of time).
 
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