Thursday, 8 September 2022

S12M7: Smorgasbord

Not short of talking points this week then....
Where to start? VAR controversy AGAIN? Tommy T facing a winter of unemployment? Graham Potter chasing the moolah? Or the overshadowing news from today.


I think the thing I'd like to start with is the Haaland. There are certain movements or skills that get associated with players. The Cruyff turn. The Ronaldinho Elastico. Or the Vieira insouciant cross-field switch with the outside of the boot. Snappy name. Well I'm calling the Haaland nice and early. The Haaland is a back-post kung fu style volley, launching his go-go-gadget 10 foot leg from somewhere near the penalty spot to convert a deep cross from a yard out into an open net. He's done it at Dortmund and is doing it at City. TM. Copyright. You read it here.


See, I'm getting good at predictions. Last week I wrote, 

"I do reckon Tommy T is starting to go a little, so sneaky feeling he's not lasting the season"

Now admittedly, I didn't think he'd not last the week. But when it's not right, it's not right. Tuchel has a habit of falling out with people so it wasn't the biggest stretch, but also Todd Boehly really is putting himself front & centre. A long may the Chelsea Soccerball Experience continue.

Ah, bugger, they've hired a good coach. Really annoying when that happens. 

What else? VAR controversy is boring, but I think I need to make special mention of the farce that disallowed the Brighton goal. The most nothing of nothings that took over 4 minutes of checks (so I'd argue by definition not a clear & obvious error) to rule out one of the best strikes you'll ever see. Buzz (Kevin MacAllister's brother, geddit) will be fuming that history will lose that goal forever, especially given that it's have been up there with the best hat tricks of all time.

I'm not anti VAR conceptually as I've stated many times before, but it's quite impressive how the implementation can be screwed up in so many ways.

Let's get statty:

This week, 18 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (17/18)
Most disputed predictions: Brentford vs Leeds & Man City vs Arsenal (8-8-2 & 4-4-10 splits respectively)

Highest odds: Steven Daniels (1136/1)
Lowest odds: Aron Kleiman (657/1)
Average odds: 926/1

Best predictors: ECI & debutant Massey Ratings (6/10)
Worst predictors: Feneley, Feneley's mother & WhoScored.com (2/10)
Average score: 3.89/10

Best predicted result: Brighton WIN (16/18)
Worst predicted results: Everton vs Liverpool DRAW, Bournemouth WIN & Aston Villa vs Man City DRAW (1/18)

Everyone's results:

 


Leaderboard (>2/3; 5/6)



This week's predos:



Good luck!

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