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How do you think this affects Kai in the short to medium term? Do you expect him to still get 90 but in midfield, or potentially even benched?

Basically think I’m deciding between Bruno + Arsenal def and Eze + Isak, would be nice if we got concrete info on Eze ahead of the deadline, but doubt we’ll get it. Although my bench is still strong enough to cover no Eze, and idm him not playing BOU, but him missing SOU would be the issue

Yeah I’m with you on Eze. Annoyingly I’m 0.3 off Saka + Evanilson -> Bruno + Isak. Could take out Kai instead, but doesn’t feel right ahead of IPS(H), despite him probs playing midfield and mins risks…

I’m already on salah and trent so no issues there. There isn’t a 3rd pool player that I want atm so probs just save that slot for slot (lol). Eze + Isak is tempting for free, cuz not too sure about Bruno/Ode tbh

Would you prioritise bringing in Isak or Arsenal def/Raya with the Saka money? Newcastle next 3 fix the only reason this is close….

Would you prioritise bringing in Isak or Arsenal def/Raya with the Saka money?

A la Liverpool under Klopp, it’s both the play style + training intensity combined

Arsenal, Newcastle, Southampton, United

We’re in the same boat then 🤣 Just not sure where I want to go if staying in the same price bracket, potentially downgrade and then upgrade cheap defender to Arsenal DEF is the right call.

Have you got any plans to move Havertz out?

He does fit the profile that Slot seems to want at 9, I don’t think we’ll get him for anything under 70m is the problem.

He’s so frustrating cuz he’ll post 1.5xG one game, and then go 3 games with no shots 🤣

Brave call!! Good luck mate!

Ooooh no Salah 👀

Thanks mate. Maybe the Liverpool game gets postponed which will make this a non decision 🤣

Is Rogers minute risk enough to play Pedro or Evanilson over him?

Also just fyi, as a pool fan I’m pretty confident Trent’s starts are fine in the league. We only have 5 fit defenders and I don’t think slot will play quansah at RB again after what happened against Newcastle. He also needs to rotate robbo at some point, and the only way to do that is Gomez to LB.

Yeah a lot of discourse about city’s defence falling off but I back them to pull it back. Just seen that akanji is also out so that pretty much locks in gvardiol at LCB for palace. I think I’m gonna sell for Trent (unless the game gets cancelled 😉)

I’m pretty sure macca only took the corners on the right, because robbo has been terrible at them. Trent took the ones on the left when he came on from what I remember.

Yeh he’s probs good to go for starts, but do u reckon ake’s injury means he starts LCB now? Basically is there any point holding if that attacking threat is greatly diminished…

Thoughts on Gvardiol? He’s my route to Trent but he’s lowkey even more explosive with his goal threat.

Also both full backs were tucked in for the first 60 mins of this game and it clearly wasn’t working, just for context.

Think it’s game dependent. Could be wrong but I remembering hearing Trent say himself that the manager tweaks his positioning and the types of runs he makes based on the opposition.

But but but Kerkez was literally 1 on 1 if not for a great Lemina tackle!!

Yeah good point, just had a closer look at the fix and I agree… I genuinely think he’s a fine hold until better options emerge… Raul has good fix again starting in 17!!

Forgot about Thiago. No good options really at that price is the issue bar Joao Pedro. Welbeck maybe? Evanilson has also looked good so far, albeit he’s not playing against any defenders today.

Would you even want to rotate him tho? Feels like he’ll always be involved if Brentford do score…

Main takeaway for me? Rolling xG diff is generally a good metric for measuring team strength (albeit a very very simplified metric), but beware when making definitive conclusions, especially in the early parts of the season.

The convergence is due to the fact that early season data is from aggregating very few obs (lots of variance), but also capturing how teams can over perform in short periods of time (see Spurs’ first 10 games last season).

Plot showing how rolling xg difference changes throughout the season for each team (2023/24). Interesting to note how noisy the data is initially, before it stabilises. Pool, City and Arsenal leaps and bounds ahead by the end, but putting up similar numbers to teams like Spurs initially.