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

Irrelevant to the point I was making though. I was saying that a team 13 points ahead at this stage of the season, got overhauled.

You are, in fact, stating that the overhaul only took 16 games.

But you see that's where your wrong,

It not completely irrelevant it can & has effected games in numerous ways , decision of officials on the pitch, even without effecting officials it can have an effect ,, Arteta & Pep recently enough both lost there head at Anfeild & it lofted the home crowd & thus the players & there teams went on to lose,

Fergie was the master of effecting officials ,Jose followed in his foot steps ,

My worry is Arteta will effect his own players ,if Arsenal go down in the second half of a game they will need him to remain clam & effective ,

The Guardian are reporting Everton have been put up for sale for £500m (or what Chelsea have spent on players since Boehly came in).

They should change the club to

we buy any winger

You said two who was the other one bought not to score goals

Grealish like Sterling before him had a modest goal return before joining City & like Sterling before him you can bet your house Pep expected him to come alive in terms of goals , he hasn't scored them hence the talk already of him getting moved on ,

The top teams in the last 3/4 season have brought in wide forwards to get goals no question about it,

Can you name a wide forward at top Prem side not currently being judged on his goals or lack of them ?

Ahh i see Anthony & Sancho where named so your getting upset,

Ye your right Anthony is not supposed to score goals he was bought to spin around in circles & basically be anonymous

In December ep himself said he wants Grealish to be more ambitious & aggressive as he wants him to score more goals ,

Liverpool fan our not Mane & Salah & to a degree Sterling & Son changed what's expected of wide forwards in the Prem,

Nobody said he should be judge solely on it but in the end of the day he is being judged right now by everyone on his lack of goal involvements

You really think City thought 100 million Jack would only 6 goals in 53 Prem & Champions league games,

Iv no idea why you think Antony was brought not to score goals , What was he bought to do as he has 0 assists, He scored in his first 3 games & not since in the league ,

Lets go back to the original comment ,If you think for 1 second the 4 lads i mentioned where not signed with the expectations of scoring more goals than they have for the clubs your off your nut pal ,& we can agree to disagree

This is especially dire tbf. Still not sure wtf the original claim is.

The original point was Mane & Salah started a trend of Wide forwards getting judge on goals , its not a question of its right or wrong to judge them that way I'm simply saying what's happing ,hence Chelsea huge turn over looking for WF who can score,

There certainty didn't invent it , but they started the current trend in the Prem wide forwards getting judged on goals ,

I don't think anyone can argue that Wide forwards are now judged on goals, I mentioned four that are seen by media & fans as struggling & its down to there lack of goals since they moved Grealish ,Sterling Sancho ,Antony ,

Grealish is the perfect example, he does a lot more than score goals helped City win the league but currently fan & media are judging him on his lack of goals ,

I think you can argue with what iv said if you actually read it ,

Look at Almiron suddenly getting rated by everyone , why because he's scoring goals ,

Again i understand not all wide forwards primary job to do from there coach is to score but in the public& media that's what there being judged on ,

You would expect it in the good old days when the English were not producing as many big players and salivated over any slightly promising young fella.

@yourdeadwright

"The Mane & Salah era seem to have every club thinking they need two goal scoring wide forwards,"

Just because 2 players play on the wing does not mean their overall expected contribution to the team is expected to be the same.

Just like you wouldn't expect Paolo Maldini and Roberto Carlos to offer the same output from left back. They have different skillsets, and depending on the other players in your team; 1 will be more suited to the role than the other. If a team is weak defensively in midfield/CB you'd want Maldini at LB. If a team is strong at CB and defensively in midfield but lacks attacking output from the left you'd want Carlos.

Antony at Utd is expected to hold the width on the right hand side when the team is attacking down the left. To stretch the opposition backline so they cannot completely shuffle across and crowd out the attack on the left. If they do Antony is free on the right.

He also is tasked with holding that width to make room for an underlapping full back in Dalot who has had an excellent season because Antony opens so much space for him to operate in. This has been even more evident the last few weeks when it is AWB at RB because AWB cannot attack space to the same level as Dalot.

ETH did not sign Anthony thinking "Yes... we have our Mo Salah here. We will create space for him to pop up in the box and score goals." ETH worked with Antony at Ajax so he will know what player profile he was getting and what role he would want him to fulfil in the team.

Antony will be expected to score some goals ~10 a season I would say. But he is not the sides primary goalscorer so to compare to Salah doesn't make sense. What he will be judged on more so inside at Utd is how effectively he is opening space for other players and linking up with them. Are those phases of play actually creating chances etc..

Antony has a lot to work on for me. He needs to be far more dangerous taking on a man, beating him and creating a chance off the back of it & working on his ability to go on his right foot but given his role in the team his goal scoring hasn't been bad really.

His price tag doesn't help. You would expect the finished player in their peak or coming into it for that but.. here we are.

TLDR: Not all players jobs on the pitch are the same because their names are on the same place on a teamsheet.