5 hours ago, Hasta said:

Regardless of who is in that position, I'd expect the XG to be higher than 0.5. Just my opinion.

I'd think a professional footballer would put that away more than 1 in 2. I mean, I'm looking at that situation and thinking I would put that away more than 50% of the time !!

I just think it's all perceptive between what someone thinks a chance should be rated against other chances. A similar chance might happen in a game 2 weeks later and will it still be rated as 0.46 ? Or does someone else rate it differently? And then it's used as a comparison against other players and against other games. It's all very subjective. 

I've no real issue with XG. It gives an indication of how a game is going or who had the better chances. But when we are comparing that Pears is -0.1 and Leo is -0.16, that's so close it (and most other keepers are around there) I dont think it tells us much .

As far as I know, (some xG models are different to others) base xG is only determined from the position of the shot and whether the shot is with the foot or a header. So yeah you expect anyone to put that exact chance away i.e open net, nobody blocking the shot. But the 0.46 number comes from the average of all shots taken from that position which includes shots with loads of defenders in the way and all that. 

xG is better viewed as a season long thing, where players will get a variety of chances which balances out this issue. Players will get some high xG chances that are actually harder to score than lower xG chances, depending on the circumstances of the individual shot. 

6 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Some 13 years on and still we dont know why they are still here?.

They appear to want to want to be associated with us but dont want to get involved with the day to day running...they set zero expectations for promotion,they dont address the fanbase,they are now putting in the bare minimum to keep the lights on,what do they get out of it?

Knowing this I really do understand where the accusations of some form of nefarious activity going on comes from.

How much longer have we to suffer this?,its dragging everyone down connected with Rovers but we appear powerless to change it.

The only thing past any nefarious dealings I can think of is that we are essentially a conversation starter for use at parties/conferences/whatever for them. They stomach the millions of pounds lost so they can say "by the way we own former premier league champions". Like we're not even a plaything but a little trinket put on a shelf

It makes no sense but when have Venkys ever made sense?

12 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Centre backs are 6 and 5. Amidst the barrage of jargon that has started to filter into the game for whatever reason, people wrongly see a number 6 as a holding midfielder.

24 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

No a 6 is defensive midfielder number. Klopp mentioned it alot. 4 and 5 are centre back numbers. 

Different countries moved different players to originally make the back 4 from the old W-M, England moved 5 and 6 backwards and split 2 and 3 to be the full backs. In Europe they still split 2 and 3 but moved 4 and 5 back instead. The south american countries do it differently as well for what its worth but we've had an influx of european coaches so the european way has caught on

Make no mistake this squad needs MILLIONS spent on it to even be mid table in the championship. That's assuming we stay up. 

I actually feel somewhat sorry for this set of players cause fuck me they've been hung out to dry by the upper management 

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

No. It's not even Pears' worst fuckup. Have you forgotten him chucking it in his goal against Wigan?

I did think of that but this one's worse imo.

I know it may be harsh to gang up on a GK for a mistake, occupational hazard and all that.

But..

Genuine question. 

Is that the worst keeper fuck up from a rovers player? It's the worst I can remember 

The thing that always strikes me when something like this happens is always the blasé nature of the announcement and the sheer lack of thought put in to the decision.

Just like when the super league was announced with half a website and no concrete plans on how it would actually function alongside other competitions, this has been announced in a sort of "by the way" tone, seemingly oblivious to any pushback that might occur. The lack of awareness is staggering.

For what it's worth I don't think clubs being reliant on fa cup replays to remain in business is indicative of a healthy system but if the way money is distributed down the pyramid is not changed radically then they simply have to remain. Aside from the monetary gain, they make the cup unique and it's satisfying to make bigger clubs play you again.

Big clubs crying player welfare is laughable, you have massive squads and the best academies in the country. Use them

As good as Szmodics has been this season, he has only shown this performance level in the last 18 months at most. He's a clinical finisher and a hard worker but he's not especially quick and isn't that much of a creator. The only way a club would really get return on investment from buying Szmodics is if they got promoted to the prem as a result. To be honest I think there is a fairly decent chance he stays this summer if he doesn't angle for a move, I don't think it makes too much sense for a club to buy him for more than £10m and it would be suicidal for us to sell him at that price given how important he is to us and our history in the transfer market.

That said, we are not a normally run club and there is a high chance a bid around that amount will see waggotts eyes pop out of their sockets. Even at that stage it shouldn't be the end of the world, with that £10m we should really buy 4 players we could develop into players at Szmodics level. I have no confidence this would actually happen so yeah, try and keep him.

Saw the team and immediately put some money on us going down.

Couldn't help myself, it was like an out of body experience 

Apologies because I may have been at the special sauce this evening but...

That was the most heartwarming rovers performance for a good while and it just reminds me that there will always be something left in this club even after the Venkys are done with it.

We took on a nation state and came out an inch second best. 

Let me tell you because I watched this game with a magpie 

We had them scared for a minute there 

1 minute ago, Southside Rover said:

I have to say to a man I thought every single player deserves enormous credit and did the club proud.

Even Billy the kid considering his lack of game time, a debut against 1st choice Premier League players, he did a job. Nervy and a few mistakes but understandable.

Rode our luck at times but it was just brilliant to feel that buzz again which I feared was lost when JDT departed.

The foundations are there to kick on until the end of the season, secure safety and then the summer circus is back in town and who knows what comes next but tonight was about the players and the fans showing the best side of our club and on national television it was a great advert

I will admit I expected so little and got so much 

And that is football

Watched this game with my magpie flatmate who wonders how the hell we're in the lower  reaches of the championship off that performance.

If only he knew, nevertheless it was nice to watch him sweat during extra time and penalties. It was nice to watch rovers and feel *something*, the owners can't take that away at least. 

But

We could be so much more than this 

COYB

Venkys Out

This is so incredibly shite from both teams that it's genuinely entertaining🤣🤣

2 minutes ago, islander200 said:

His stats ain't bad not far off 1 in 2

He also recently received his first call up to the United states squad who ain't that bad these days 

His record looks better when you look at his minutes played. A goal every 125 minutes. Will admit he looked a bit clumsy in the highlight reel 

I sometimes wonder how easy it would be to run a 'ITK' account. Just follow the crowd enough and you're bound to get something right. And if you're wrong then 'something changed at the last minute'

10 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

I don’t think so, what rule are you thinking of?

Perhaps the rule in european comps which require a number of players trained at your club. (I think its 4 but not sure)

5 minutes ago, islander200 said:

£16.5 for Jones I think (I could be wrong)

I thought Santa Cruz was sold for around £18m 

If we were actually all in on the 'brentford' model, the Wharton money would give us a massive head start from where Brentford started. They only started getting £20m+ for players in their last few seasons in the championship. How many good, young, championship level players could a competent club get in if they were allowed even half of what we might get for Wharton?

Instead we will probably get more excuses and more muddling along in the lower reaches of the league

For if anyone fancies a rant.

29 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Really coming to something seriously poor if we can't pay £500k for a player.

You'd hope its just us trying to be extra stingy and pay in instalments. Hopefully if push came to shove we could pay the full amount but it doesn't bode well haggling over such a small fee

2 hours ago, smiller14 said:

Styles come and go in football. I reckon in 10 years a big team will use traditional wingers and they'll be lauded as a maverick/genius. 

The first signs of this a probably already taking root. Looking at City vs Arsenal, both teams have become so adept at pressing each other and making it harder for the other one to play out from the back that you can see numerous examples in those games of City going long to Haaland or Raya hitting long diagonals to Saka/Martinelli.

They both will still mainly play out from the back against inferior teams as the equation is still "We have better players than them, if we have the ball more we have a better chance of scoring"

14 hours ago, J*B said:

Suddenly, a pixie appears and offers to play you the final piece of music you’ll ever hear. What do you pick?

Which member of Pixies is it? 

Every year in the championship there is a team that is perpetually on a 10 game unbeaten run but is somehow never higher than 14th in the table. Seems like every week you hear something like this on the mini highlights

" *middling striker* tucked home to make it 4 goals in his last 3 games to ensure *insert club here* would take all three points, they've taken 13 points out of the last 15 available and can surely begin to start looking up the table"

End the season 15th on 59 points

Listened to a podcast recently and they were talking about how Lewandowski will fit in at Barca given his age and the pressing game Barca want to play. In essence they suggested that a less mobile guy up front can still be useful in a pressing system by just ushering play into an area where other, more mobile players can press the ball. It's an interesting idea and could be a way to get Dack in the team. Past experiments with Dack up front haven't set the world alight though which could be a stumbling block

Haunting memories of watching the away game last year with my Everton fan mate laughing his arse off as we missed chance after chance.  Anyways the way Swansea play could play into our hands as it did first game of last season (here's hoping) 

I'd go for the same team as QPR except stick Gally up top and bring Dolan in for Vale 

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