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Premier League top scorers now v. around turn of the century: 1. Erling Haaland 2. Igor Thiago 3. Antoine Semenyo 4. Dominic Calvert-Lewin 5. Bruno Guimaraes 6. Hugo Ekitike 7. Danny Welbeck 8. Jean-Philippe Mateta 9. Harry Wilson 10. Morgan Rogers 2001/02 1. Thierry Henry 2. Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink 3. Alan Shearer 4. Ruud Van Nistelrooy 5. Michael Owen 6. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer 7. Robbie Fowler 8. Eidur Gudjohnsen 9. Marian Pahars 10. Andy Cole Some major qualifications are needed for comparisons of this type - most importantly, we have the benefit of viewing the old era playing careers in entirety and the sample size of one season only - in another season Mo Salah would've been up there for the contemporaries. Moreover, for every Henry in those days, there was a Darren Peacock, Richard Dunne or Nigel Quashie. I do believe the overall technical standard is superior these days. Teams tend to play one striker these days, so inevitably, you'll have fewer No.9's on the modern list. All that said, clearly there has been some decline in the standard of forward. The same could be said at the second tier. Again, 2001/2002 1. Shaun Goater 2. Clinton Morrison 3. Dougie Freedman 4. Darren Huckerby 5. Stern John 6. Dean Sturridge 7. David Connolly 8. Peter Crouch 9. Steve Claridge 10. Marlon King. With all the qualifications borne in mind and despite the change in football styles today, I still can't quite explain what seems like a significant decline for the Premier League. For the Championship it is might be partly explained by the fact that more British players are moving abroad and five subs might be keeping more players on the fringes of Prem teams rather than dropping down.

Feels like Oxford are gone with Wednesday, Norwich are too good to go down and will pull away. So, us vs Portsmouth?

No rush. Takes a while to get up to speed with the sideways passing moves. Aim for giving him a start after the international break.

You know he's shit when even the bots won't come to his defense

Upwards???

I'm with you, I fancy our chances of staying up if we start playing 5-5-2. In fact, I don't think I do. Do we have enough players to play that?

Of course, no red flags there and at least a load got satisfaction in waving inflatables in his general direction.

The Soul Brothers Six - Some Kind Of Wonderful

Has Henriksson actually had a shot in any of the games he's played upfront?

Thinking about the "Travis is ordinary and we won't miss him" posts that I saw everywhere when he left. Absolutely crying out for a hard working captain with a bit of needle. It's fine, I'm sure Tavares will become the next Fernandinho any time now.

Maybe they think the slower they ‘integrate’ him the longer it will take us to realise he’s shit too.

I struggle to believe that Jorgensen is less "ready" than Henriksson, when the latter looks utterly lost attempting to play up top.

What struck me about United’s win was that they were playing in a system not for a system. The players had freedom to express themselves within their system not be a slave to it. We are trying to recruit players with flair and ability, not systems architecture heads. When I hear people like Amorim or even Slot talk about the system then I smell trouble. Vi talks about players for a system. It means he can’t motivate players to express themselves within a simple 4-4-2, 5-5-2 They become more fearful about the system than their own ability to attack, or defend.

9 clean sheets in 38 League games under Ismael so we aren't even a side that looks capable of grinding out 0-0s

🤣the referee can`t grasp the rule that shoving someone in the back is a foul,he really should`nt be out there imo and those ***** in the video room are as much use as an artex canoe

I think yesterday was the first game he's played without it, since he came back.

I can't remember if it was yesterday, but his knee has been wrapped to high hell of recent. I'm increasingly of 4 at the back camp. Solves the left back issue, gives our best 3 midfielders a start and Jorgensen looks good on the break

It’s 4 away games without a goal and firmly believe it will be 5 after this. The only question is will we shut them out or not and grab a point. One will in 13 but no pressure on the manager.

Everton goal in the first half, absolutely no idea why that was given as offside. James Garner just pushed Morgan Rogers in the back in the box, whilst on a booking, no foul and no review on VAR. What’s the point of it if not to stop things like that? Absolutely standard that not long after Villa should have a pen, Everton bag.

I was expecting something more risqué than that🙂

He also said we need someone who is ready now. A walking contradiction unless it comes to blaming others for our crap season.

Ismael has said across his pre and post match interviews around the Ipswich game that the focus is on a striker but that the Jorgensen deal has made that less of an urgent need. Seems very much like a case of seeing what if anything is left after that and deciding at that point whats next in line after that. So nice and proactive as ever. And a good job we arent lacking in quality in pretty much every area.

or when your club can't sign any player capable of starting a football game immediately without the fear of an injury, or needing to get "up to speed". Pathetic.

All the Venky plants on twitter that were arguing with me that Ismael is a much better manager than Eustace, seem to have disappeared for some reason 🤔

He's been poor since he came back from injury.