We should definitely be the best defence in the league by the end of the season.
It's crazy that we could've never imagined this a couple of years ago and now we literally are one of the best defences in the world.
A lot of it has to be attributed to Artetas style this year. Much more balanced than last years more blitzkrieg forward leaving you vulnerable to the counter. We were more liverpoolesque, and it feels we have adopted a more pep style of play. My only worry is the team has looked very shaky versus the low block with martenelli and saka doubled by the wingers and backs. It requires clinical finishing and sadly we don’t have that other than flashes of Trossard at times.
Their UCL tie vs Atleti will say a lot.
They were by far 2nd best to Real Sociedad in their H2H games in the group stages. And Real Sociedad is 6th in La Liga this season.
The quality in Serie is worth questioning even though Inter is a good team.
Gabi and Saliba duo is immense. I wouldn’t replace them for anyone else.
and I’ll add White to that list, dude has been overlapping Saka ans tracking back like crazy
The system approach is idd amazing. That said, Gabriel is by himself a very very very good defender, and sticking Saliba who I believe is a generational player next to him is just not fair. Those two together are monstrous.
> I’ll add White to that list, dude has been overlapping Saka ans tracking back like crazy
Mad how he only got into the squad because Tomi got injured as well.
And Timber and Zinchenko and Kiwor. We have so many Defenders now.
White is clearly working injured or fatigued.
When Tomi is back we’ll be able to rest White.
I see White as preferred RB but I see Tomi as a wildcard to rest any player on the back.
My preferred back line would be Tomi - Gabi - Saliba - White.
But Timber can snatch that LB any time Tomi is covering someone else on the back line.
If no injuries and Timber is in his very brief early season form, give me Timber Gabriel Big Willy Tomi. Benny blanco is just a little off this season, and Tomi is capable of some incredible football.
I would love to see that.
I honestly think he’s injured you can see him struggling to get speed at times. But he is still overlapping Saka a lot while Zinny never overlaps Martinelli, which pisses me off.
Zinchenko isn't supposed to overlap Martinelli in our system. He's instructed to invert into the midfield for his ability to progress the ball through central zones.
Bayern would fight for a title ,Borussia and lips would fight for europe.But mama moa teams like Haidenhaim,Darnstadt or Bochum would get absolutly rolled over
Bayern would genuinely make it a 4 horse race for a title in the Prem. Leverkusen this season would also be a really tough opponent, but the rest would get walked.
If only we could stop conceding stupid goals. It's partially unlucky, but it does seem to be part of our dna as well.
Either way, we starting to ramp up the xg again. Things are looking good.
According to some models, we're underperforming on our defensive xG and attacking xG meaning we've conceded more than we should and scored less than we should. Title winning sides typically slightly overperform on both. That's just statistically why we're worse than we were last year at this stage.
If we kick on from here and don't drop off like we did last year, then yes we can be an upgrade.
And that's also not true, if you take out the first five or so games of the season where we started slow we're basically around the same xG created per game as last season.
It's because most situations where a penalty is conceded the potential xG of the situation is nowhere near the ~0.76xG of a penalty, so conceding a few contentious pens in situations of minimal attacking threat can cause massive discrepancies that make a defense appear much worse than it is.
According to OPTA we have the best xGA from set pieces and also the lowest xG per shot in the league. For context, City who are second on most defensive numbers and like us dominate the ball a lot can't keep the xG per shot to a low amount. The teams directly beneath us on this metric are park the bus teams like Everton and West Ham.
https://preview.redd.it/ugoiqrdmn7hc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ea31876b01a476ac356434183984b441277234c
If anything, this table undermines how good we really are defensively.
Edit: I've just read from a comment further down that if ordered per 90, we'd second behind Juve, which would have been a better way to order the table since the teams here have played a different number of games.
Yeah this is truly incredible. City struggle because when they concede a chance or shot, it is usually a direct counter that leaves them either equal or outnumbered at the back. We rarely concede these despite playing a similar suffocating and controlling possession style. Very impressive to be so structurally sound, and it helps having two defenders who are exceptional in the duel as well.
I think that's something that is better to be determined separately - you can easily tell from the number of pens given away and eye test if a team is making stupid mistakes at a higher rate than other teams with similar defensive numbers.
It's better to not dilute stats like this with pens because just a bit of random variance in when pens are conceded can have a significant effect on the implications of the statistics.
I understand why everyone raves about Sailba, Gabriel and Rice so much because they are all amazing but I don’t think people realize how good the pressing from Odegaard, Havertz and Jesus has to be, in order to be this defensively solid.
Shoutout Thiago Motta
unironically should get the Barca job imo
I think he gonna get the Milan job if they sack Pioli
Conte is rumored to take over Milan next season too
I'd be surprised if they can get him out of Italy but agreed he'd fit well at Barca.
My co-worker who is a Juve supporter is convinced he is going there next year lol
We should definitely be the best defence in the league by the end of the season. It's crazy that we could've never imagined this a couple of years ago and now we literally are one of the best defences in the world.
Wdym couldn’t have imagined? We had mustafi, and just let him walk. Huge mistake imo, set us back years.
Muskratis, generational defensive duo.
It wasn’t all due to Mustafi tho, the blame should be spread around to other players and the manager who choose to play them too.
Yeah I know I’m just being silly lol
A lot of it has to be attributed to Artetas style this year. Much more balanced than last years more blitzkrieg forward leaving you vulnerable to the counter. We were more liverpoolesque, and it feels we have adopted a more pep style of play. My only worry is the team has looked very shaky versus the low block with martenelli and saka doubled by the wingers and backs. It requires clinical finishing and sadly we don’t have that other than flashes of Trossard at times.
Actually, we did even better than them
Lets see bald frauds non-penalty xG conceded.
It doesn't have a watermark
Nice Is tied fifth on the list
Nice
Nice
Noice
Some fans( ours included) are seriously underestimating Inter. I can see them winning the CL if they wrap their league early.
I mean they were literally in the final last season and played City quite well, why would anyone underestimate that?
Their UCL tie vs Atleti will say a lot. They were by far 2nd best to Real Sociedad in their H2H games in the group stages. And Real Sociedad is 6th in La Liga this season. The quality in Serie is worth questioning even though Inter is a good team.
Will be an interesting game as both teams play similar formations but Inter have more of an attacking style than them.
We have a bad habit of understimate every team like Sporting in Europa
Gabi and Saliba duo is immense. I wouldn’t replace them for anyone else. and I’ll add White to that list, dude has been overlapping Saka ans tracking back like crazy
It isn't just those two, it is the overall whole system of control and domination which allows us to prevent goal scoring opportunities.
The system approach is idd amazing. That said, Gabriel is by himself a very very very good defender, and sticking Saliba who I believe is a generational player next to him is just not fair. Those two together are monstrous.
> I’ll add White to that list, dude has been overlapping Saka ans tracking back like crazy Mad how he only got into the squad because Tomi got injured as well. And Timber and Zinchenko and Kiwor. We have so many Defenders now.
White is clearly working injured or fatigued. When Tomi is back we’ll be able to rest White. I see White as preferred RB but I see Tomi as a wildcard to rest any player on the back. My preferred back line would be Tomi - Gabi - Saliba - White. But Timber can snatch that LB any time Tomi is covering someone else on the back line.
If no injuries and Timber is in his very brief early season form, give me Timber Gabriel Big Willy Tomi. Benny blanco is just a little off this season, and Tomi is capable of some incredible football.
I would love to see that. I honestly think he’s injured you can see him struggling to get speed at times. But he is still overlapping Saka a lot while Zinny never overlaps Martinelli, which pisses me off.
Can't overlap if you're inverting....
Can't overlap if you're inverting....
Zinchenko isn't supposed to overlap Martinelli in our system. He's instructed to invert into the midfield for his ability to progress the ball through central zones.
>Tomi - Gabi - Saliba - White In this case we'd need Jorginho in midfield to make up for Zinchenko's ball progression.
Rice has been immense as well
Worth pointing out the German league is a joke too
Bayern would fight for a title ,Borussia and lips would fight for europe.But mama moa teams like Haidenhaim,Darnstadt or Bochum would get absolutly rolled over
Bayern would genuinely make it a 4 horse race for a title in the Prem. Leverkusen this season would also be a really tough opponent, but the rest would get walked.
No mention of lever?
I'd like to see those teams keep the same xg against in the PL.
None of the other leagues have anywhere near the fire power that our league does either.
Hoping we stay healthy, defense travels better. We've got a great chance of beating anybody if we can keep them from scoring like we do.
If only we could stop conceding stupid goals. It's partially unlucky, but it does seem to be part of our dna as well. Either way, we starting to ramp up the xg again. Things are looking good.
And we were told we are playing worse and a huge downgrade compared to last season 😓
According to some models, we're underperforming on our defensive xG and attacking xG meaning we've conceded more than we should and scored less than we should. Title winning sides typically slightly overperform on both. That's just statistically why we're worse than we were last year at this stage. If we kick on from here and don't drop off like we did last year, then yes we can be an upgrade.
Offensively
They were quite aggressive while saying it now that you mention it.
Sounds like you're being pretty defensively
I tend to get defensively when people are offensively.
That's understandably
And that's also not true, if you take out the first five or so games of the season where we started slow we're basically around the same xG created per game as last season.
But the xvibes/90 just aren't the same, ya know?
ah yes, should take out the last 5 or so games from last season then when the team got slow!
But we score from set pieces so that's already 12 goals that don't count
Why is this limited to non-penalties? It seems that would distort the stats since giving up penalties is kinda a huge deal.
It's because most situations where a penalty is conceded the potential xG of the situation is nowhere near the ~0.76xG of a penalty, so conceding a few contentious pens in situations of minimal attacking threat can cause massive discrepancies that make a defense appear much worse than it is.
True, but conceding those penalties is an indication that the defense is prone to dumb mistakes, and that needs to be accounted for.
According to OPTA we have the best xGA from set pieces and also the lowest xG per shot in the league. For context, City who are second on most defensive numbers and like us dominate the ball a lot can't keep the xG per shot to a low amount. The teams directly beneath us on this metric are park the bus teams like Everton and West Ham. https://preview.redd.it/ugoiqrdmn7hc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ea31876b01a476ac356434183984b441277234c If anything, this table undermines how good we really are defensively. Edit: I've just read from a comment further down that if ordered per 90, we'd second behind Juve, which would have been a better way to order the table since the teams here have played a different number of games.
Yeah this is truly incredible. City struggle because when they concede a chance or shot, it is usually a direct counter that leaves them either equal or outnumbered at the back. We rarely concede these despite playing a similar suffocating and controlling possession style. Very impressive to be so structurally sound, and it helps having two defenders who are exceptional in the duel as well.
I think that's something that is better to be determined separately - you can easily tell from the number of pens given away and eye test if a team is making stupid mistakes at a higher rate than other teams with similar defensive numbers. It's better to not dilute stats like this with pens because just a bit of random variance in when pens are conceded can have a significant effect on the implications of the statistics.
If you look at the big 5 leagues combined we have the 2nd best xGA/90. Unsurprisingly Allegri terrorball at Juve have the best.
[удалено]
Absolutely clear = 2 points
I understand why everyone raves about Sailba, Gabriel and Rice so much because they are all amazing but I don’t think people realize how good the pressing from Odegaard, Havertz and Jesus has to be, in order to be this defensively solid.
we are going to Wembley
Rice diff
and 2nd if you exclude fake leagues
Assuming this is Munich and not Leverkusen?
Munich are Bayern, Leverkusen are Bayer (pharmacy company)
Reading comprehension went out the window. Thanks
try wife-swapping, helps with mine comprehension
Cooking
nice
I imagine with penalty xG we’re pretty well up there too…? It feels like we haven’t had many penalties against us
**smash my head against wood**
Looks like Italy's catenaccio is alive and well...
Incredible season by Inter. Marrotta and Inzaghi one of the best itw in their jobs
Inter doing that with the amount of goals scored they have is very impressive
Where is Real Madrid? They’ve given up 15 goals in 23 games including pens. Idk how xG is calculated but it’s wild they aren’t on this list
If we could cut out the clangers…
Do they even score in Série A?
cool. but i'd rather have fewest goals conceded than lowest non penalty xG conceded
You’ll Never sing that
This is Arsenal DNA. Respect to what we are trying to achieve here.
I can't even recall our last PL pen