Rousseau

I posted this on the other thread: Terrible question. He gave PC an out. PC has a point - too many sideways passes or too many long balls. Which is it? He should have just stuck to long balls. It was a good idea to ask about style, though. We don't get that often.

Thanks. Terrible question. He gave PC an out.

What did he ask?

Yes, they had to (legal requirement, I think?), but they just use it to feed the B-team.

Neither do Brentford.

Dessers, Lawrence, Matondo and Cerny all have 4 Goal Involvements (goals + assists) this season. I think the point is Dessers and Lawrence are not doing anything special; they're just available. We need better all-round.

Rangers 1 - 0 FCSB FGS Dessers

Rangers vs FCSB

From an xG of 13.9. So we're even underperforming our xG, which is low to start with.

We tried to, didn't we?

I don't disagree with any of that. I just think it's a bit unfair to put all the blame on the manager. I think he wanted a 6 and more forwards, but for whatever reason we couldn't get the deals done. I don't think he would have wanted to go into the season with just Dessers (he even wanted him sold, if we are to believe the rumours, so must have expected a replacement). Sometimes deals don't work out. That's not to say he doesn't share some of the responsibility, though. I blame him more for not getting more out of what he has.

It's partly Clement's fault, but it's mainly the DoF's fault. As in, he is responsible, but I wouldn't blame him, per se, as I did like the recruitment strategy as a whole. We were in for an experienced 6 (Jordan) but it didn't work out. I would assume we were looking for forwards, too - I couldn't be certain, though. It's clear, evidenced by his recent interview, that the DoF chose not to persue players that weren't veted by the scouting process when our first choices didn't work out. I see that as a prudent approach - even if I was disappointed we couldn't strengthen properly with more first team players. In response to your other point, elsewhere, about cost cutting - I think that was necessary. That doesn't mean we should accept being less competitive, though. The reality is that our wage bill is higher than their's, so it's not that we're being out-spent, it's just that we have not been using what we have wisely. Again, Koppen's more prudent approach is the correct solution in that regard.

Me: Ooh - MNF tonight! whoo-- *Special guest Aaron Ramsey* Me:

It is strange, because it's not as if he hasn't used back-three formations before in his mangerial career - most notably at Brugge, iirc, which brought silverware. I did think he'd be quite flexible in that regard.

Of course not, but my xG point was based on the wider context of this season.

It certainly passes the eye test. I always like to back it up with stats, though.

They've been lucky. You had Everton relegated last season but I said quite early that their xG showed they'd be safe from relegation. Don't dismiss the xG.

My main criticism of Beale was the xG difference. Basically we were not creating enough chances - never mind taking them - to deserve to win games comfortably. Beale's average difference was 0.94 difference between our xG and the opponents xGA. That's not even a goal more than our opponents. That improved significantly under Clement last season (and that's with the end of season slump built-in). However, this season it's actually worse than Beale, at 0.86. Damning.

The comparison will be there, but I think the data shows that Aberdeen have been relatively lucky. Celtic, Hearts and Dundee should have beaten them as they had much lower xG in those games. Then against Motherwell the xG was even. I think they've just been clinical. Over the rest of the season that will even out. We'll be comfortably second.

Even I'm struggling...

Nul points.

I had the season written off anyway, but I expected some progress before now.

And he comes off his line for that...

0.14 xG...

Brutal stuff.