General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

Do you have a link to those? I especially doubt that anyone said it was a better deal considering Nunez cost more.

He has less defending stats because Newcastle have been far better than United so he has done less defending ,

A good pointer to that is as you say Martinez has higher numbers on Martinez tackles & duels but on the flip side he has also nearly lost double the amount of Duels that Botman has lost 36 to 19

I think there the same level of defender not much in it but personally i think Botman been better my reasoning is 80% of what Martinez does is last stich , Botman has been is far more assured ,5 fouls to 12

But i do agree they are the same level of defender & very close

Passing is down to style as you say Martinez has more per game & that but if you look as successful long balls Botman has 50 to Martinez 31

Size isn't everything but at the same time its hilarious for people to say he isn't to small because look at Cannavaro & Baresi he's not & will never will be in there league , (he's also smaller)

Its like people saying Elliot is to small & slow for Liverpool & someone but David Silva was small & slow so he'll be fine,

Martinez height will be grand , the odd time it ill hurt him example the KDB ball to Haaland that skinned his head but it won't make or break him

Haaland is obviously a superior finisher & CF to Nunez i don't think that's even a real debate , there's a reason he on 865 grand a week ,

Lets be honest here every club & fan in the world would have wanted Haaland over Nunez

Nunez could still go either way , he could mature & find calmness at the correct moments like Henry, Suarez ,Sanchez, Eto dare i say Mane did or he could continue to be a bag of unfiltered chaos that never settle himself & keeps missing chances like Lakakau & Morata types

A very detailed post - fair play.

I agree with what you say about the shot per 90 - it is skewed because of his early sub appearances and shorter games. But when he is on the pitch, he is still getting ~4 shots at goal. That's a nice amount to be having for an off-centre forward who is not the teams primary goal-getter. Salah still holds that title, but I do think that this will change in course. I've a feeling that Liverpool want to start to use Salah as a creator from wide again, chipping in with goals. The signing of Gakpo makes me think even more that there will be a permanent switch to the 4-4-2. But the real change will be moving from being Salah on the end of everything to having Nunez on the end of everything. Will this make his ~4 shots on goal per game? Perhaps, I would think so. Even if it is just a change to ~5, it still gives more him more chances.

I like your argument around XG and variances. He is currently on 5.9 NPXG in the league, scoring 5 times. So he is underperforming, but not by a whole amount. Obviously you don't want to be overperforming by too much as this means you are scoring low percentage shots too much and perhaps very lucky. But it is harsh to say that Nunez outperformed his XG by 7 last season and not being unsustainable because at the same time you mention that Haaland also outperforms his XG and has done for a few years. I know Son is a player who has traditionally vastly outperformed his XG, and to be fair he has consistently done it for every one of his seasons at Spurs. So it is possible for some players to do it. Salah is a player who has basically been basically outperformed his XG by 1 for every season at Liverpool bar his debut season. He had that mad season but then settled into a 'regular' goalscorer while maintaining a large number of goals scored and XG. Can Nunez replicate this? I guess that's the (sixty-seven) million dollar question. The stats nerds at Liverpool will have their work done and they use a hell of a lot more metrics in their analysis of players. I hope they have got them spot on (again).

Nunez is currently snatching at things a bit, but more so, he is trying to have the perfect finish - right into the corner or the side netting. his shots are making the keeper dive but they are going just wide. It's like he is trying to finish too perfectly. If that even is a thing. This could be as a result of having to shoot against Alisson in training every day! Sometimes, he just needs to put his laces through it and get it on target. He has a powerful shot. A lot of times, the keeper will struggle to stop it if it is low and with pace. As you mentioned, Haaland scores with basically every other shot on target - a few of these have just gone through the keeper. Not all keepers are world beaters so will let a couple go past them. Maybe this is a pointless comparison but when Suarez first joined Liverpool, his conversion rate was quite poor too. He hit the post an awful lot, or shot just wide. Once he calmed down a bit in front of goal and stopped trying to score the un-saveable goal, his conversion rate was much much better. He went from 1 goal every 4.3 shots (48 shots), to 1 every to 3.1 (72 shots) and finally 1 every 2.6 shots (81 shots). While his shot output increased, he also increased his conversion rate too. Maybe it was a maturity to his game and development.

I wanted to find Suarez's quote about his own conversion rate and came across this article from Michael Cox from 10 years ago - before he settled and became the best striker in the World for ~10 years. There are some aspects that have similarities to Nunez at the moment, IMO, in terms of finishing. Obviously they are different type of strikers.

"He's a small, quick dribbler who enjoys roaming the pitch laterally, yet was also a brilliant poacher in his Ajax days. The first half of that description holds true for his 14 months at Liverpool, but he is yet to prove he has the finishing ability of old."

"Six goals doesn't look much better when you consider that Suárez has 4.2 shots per game – only Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie have more, and they've scored 18 and 25 goals respectively. But shots per game is a statistic open to interpretation and debate, and Suárez epitomises the uncertainly with which it should be viewed. Players with a high shots per game rate are generally exceptional performers – from Europe's top five leagues, first and second by that measure are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The main thing this says is that they're constant threat, which is something Suárez – to a lesser extent – also offers."

"At heart Suárez is a goalscorer, and it is only fine margins costing him. He's hit the woodwork six times this season – as many times as he has scored. That record suggests that he's on the right track, and he can look to his opposing striker on Saturday to see how important a couple of inches can be – Robin van Persie was previously the king of hitting the woodwork, now he's the best finisher in the Premier League"

Suarez himself said this - When you shoot, you can look for the spaces between the posts and the goalkeeper. But instinctively, you usually aim for the corners, which means that there’s a chance the ball might hit the post…

Sometimes this happens. As a striker, you can shoot from 25 yards and hit the post with a shot that is technically perfect…There is an element of luck. It would be more worrying if chances were not being created. Maybe next season, all the ones that hit the post and come out may go in."

This must be your 4th or 5th time bringing up the haaland 'red card'

He can't seem to move on from it. Even though it should have been a yellow, not a red.

The defender has actually headed the ball at this point, and Haaland is accidentally late . I don't know of anywhere on the pitch where you you can lead with your foot this high. Haaland is 6'5" so I'd say his foot is 5 foot high here. I say accidentally because clearly he hasn't gone to kick him in the head.

However, there is a duty of care to other players that is the issue here. To me, this is as obvious as it gets. Wasn't even a yellow shown.

just saw the VAR article linked above. Two quotes from Dermot Gallagher "Andersen throws himself in" and "With this one, it's almost like Andersen comes into Haaland's space" Talk about the referee's club!

Ok, I’ll accept he should have received a red based on those others being red. But I don’t accept that he set out to kick a player in the head. Wasn’t there a player red carded against Liverpool in the CL for doing something similar and catching Firmino?