Ghost of Clough

Perhaps because he contributes more than other midfielders when he actually plays. Minutes per goal contribution: Sibley - 176 (even higher when looking at CM/AM only) Hourihane - 227 Bird - 236 Wingers and forwards being: Weston - 25 Mendez-Laing - 113 Washington - 130 Waghorn - 134 Collins - 140 Barkhuizen - 148 John-Jules - 188

Skip to 54 seconds for behind the goal

Can you find a still of both incidents? I haven't seen the replay from the one yesterday (it didn't even occur to me it was near an arm), but I also have no idea what the one from 3 games ago was 😅

The U18s finished in a respectable 7th position last season, only 2 points off 4th spot. As far as I'm aware, we haven't recruited from other clubs for our U18 side this season, all progressing from our U16 side. The small improvement this season is from a combination of having a very talented group of 1st year scholars, as well as not needing to fast track too many into the U21 side. The U21s certainly had a season to forget last year. Results have improved, but even the games we are losing are typically by just 1 goal (we've only lost by 2 or more 3 times, the last was in September). There are a few reasons for the improvement. The 3 main one being: 1. More high potential U18s progressing into the U21s. Last year's 1st year pros were all released in the summer, with only 1 2nd year pro retained (Bardell). This to me highlights the low potential of the U21 squad last season. 2. Solid recruitment - Weston, Gibson-Hammond, Bartley, etc. These signings have helped us maintain a healthier flow of U18s into the U21 side. Jeffcott and Lindsay helped plug gaps too. 3. Perhaps the most important- having good CBs playing at CB. For most of last season and early this one, we had players filling in. Bartley returned from injury in October and gave us a good platform to build from. Bardell is back now too. Early this season we had DRobinson, Radcliffe, and Bradley Johnson filling in. Last season Grewal-Pollard and Clarke were often played there too.

Correction: the win put us 4th, 3 points ahead of Wolves.

Tuesday is the earliest

At least Bolton are losing

2-1 FT. 5th, but level with Wolves on 21 points. Only Man Utd, Man City and Liverpool Mintus came on for Richards at half time. Augustien and Green on for Hawkins and Osong around the 80 min mark.

2-1 Oguntolu (assisted by Eames) in the 33rd minute

1-0 Osong (Osayande assist) in the 10th minute

He played the full 90 for the U21s earlier in the week

Derby U18s vs Newcastle. Kickoff at 1pm Price Perry Banks Osayande Gough Tola Hawkins Richards Eames Osong Oguntolu Subs: Hardy, Canoville, Green, Minutus, Augustien

I dont think it matters. FA Rules state: Any Club altering its team selection or numbering after Team Sheets have been exchanged may be fined. A Player who is named on the Team Sheet may be replaced without fine if he is injured warming up after exchange of the Team Sheet. Any subsequent changes must be notified to the referee and to a representative of the opponents before the actual kick-off . EFL rules are pretty much the same, except teamsheets handed in 75 minutes before kickoff and cannot reveal to anyone else until 60 mins before kickoff, with detail on replacements also stated: Should any nominated Player or substitute sustain an injury or become otherwise incapacitated after the submission of the Team Sheet to the Referee and before the kick-off, he may be replaced; the Referee shall be informed. Should there be any other extenuating circumstances which require a nominated Player or substitute to be replaced during the aforementioned period, the Referee shall allow such replacement and report the full circumstances to The League. The League shall then initiate any inquiries it may deem fit so as to satisfy itself as to the bona fide nature of the replacement.

A late change due to someone picking up an injury during the warm-up 😉

Alternatively, you could look at goals/assists per 90. 23/24 - 0.22 (1 in 402 mins) 22/23 - 0.29 (8 in 2458 mins) Prior to that he was at Newcastle in the Premier League, and anything earlier isn't anywhere near relevant to his current ability. Essentially he's a '1 in 4' type player at a Championship club. He would still do a job for us in League 1, which is all we would need until one of our other forwards returns. It's also a better option than moving Mendez-Laing central and being forced to use just Barkhuizen, Blackett-Taylor (struggling with injuries), Wilson (may be needed at RB), and Sibley (may be needed at LB) on the wings.

Weston's more of a 10 who can also play out wide. If he is to play upfront, he would need to be partnered up with a more traditional 9... which doesn't exactly solve our problem.

I swear Warne (or Pearce?) said we had a long list of CF options. After finding out the wage/fee demands, the list was reduced to just 3 (or 4?) on deadline day. We agreed everything with 1 of them, then at 8pm their manager or owner decided to cancel the move.

Good luck to him. Given he's only the 6th most used CM/AM for the U18s this season (4 of them being 1st year scholars), it looks like this may be with a view to joining them permanently. We've also started putting U16s on the bench at his expense.

Using your source, Son's averaged 37% more goal than his xG over his career, and is currently 61% up for this season.

It could be either, which is why you only use it as part of an analysis. If someone like Harry Kane has outperformed his xG by 50% for 10 consecutive seasons, it's because he's a good finisher, not because he's been lucky for 10 years in a row. However, Nick Blackman may hit a 6 month purple path where everything goes in and his actual goals vs xG is through the roof. In this case, it's not due to being a good finisher, he's just in a good bit of form. Stats like xG and xA are based on averages. Some players are above average, others are below average.

I think we'll need to sign players with more end product. We're losing Bird and Hourihane who have a combined 9 goals and 13 assists so far this season Docherty - 1 goal and 4 assists in 88 Championship games (1 contribution per 1011 mins) Thompson - 3 goals and 3 assists in 122 Championship games (1 per 1125 mins) Williams - 4 goals and 14 assists in 185 Championship games (1 per 749 mins). Also sufers with a lot of muscle injuries Whilst I would expect Osborn to add the goals/assists we should be looking for, I think it's unlikely he would come to us. I would also expect one of our summer signings to be a left footed set piece taker. We've seen this season how Warne likes us to swing corners in, with Hourihane and Mendez-Laing/Ward sharing responsibility. Perhaps Arthur Read who shares the responisbility at Colcehster too, is their leading assister and 2nd top scorer despite playing as a DM in Colchester's favoured 352.

Updates in bold (above) plus new injuries below based on DET Josh Vickers - Missed the last few games with a thigh injury. Back next month James Collins - Awaiting results from a scan. Could be fit for Stevenage or could be out of the season Ryan Nyambe - Knee injury but may be back for Stevenage Conor Hourihane - Has a knock but should be fine for Stevenage Corey Blackett-Taylor- Has a knock but should be fine for Stevenage Available for Stevenage: Wildsmith, Loach, Nelson, Bradley, Cashin, Ward, Wilson, Sibley, Adams, Bird, Thompson, Smith, Fornah, Mendez-Laing, Barkhuizen Doubts: Nyambe, Elder, Hourihane, Blackett-Taylor, Collins

Yesterday, the DET reported Waghorn may be in training next week, and Washington "could be back next month" (I thought he was already back in training?)

So we currently have a 26 man first team squad, of which you try to keep all but 5 of them - that doesn't leave much scope for improving the squad. If promoted, we'd need to improve more than just 3 CMs (replacing our 2 main starters) and 2 CFs

I can't see it. Stevenage isn't exactly the type of game you want to throw a youngster in. They would use every trick in the book - elbows into chests, stepping on toes, etc.. This is also Warne who chooses not to use Brown or Robinson despite bing 2 or 3 goals up and having a sub spare.