DMAA

Replacing Helander like for like. Like for like in terms of of availability to play that is. With Souttar I pretty much see our number 4 as a number 3 and Davies has been unreliable for two seasons now too so I’m very uncomfortable with an injury prone and ageing Balogun being our 4th choice centre back. Standards are low if people are content with that.

Hopefully a centre back

I asked Joost to run the stats on Dowell. matches up with what it looked like from YouTube. A goalscorer and very creative too. Would struggle as an 8 though.

Kamara and Hagi would be more realistic. Two players that wouldn’t cost crazy money and could certainly do him a turn in that league.

Ideally

Where are you getting those stats? I was looking at FBref and trusty had better numbers, albeit it was aerials won rather than % won. Trusty looks much better on FBref.

Would much prefer Trusty. If the stats are to be believed, Panzo would be worse in the air than Davies. That doesn’t work in Scotland at centre back.

He’s 29 later this year 🙂

Joost's stats for Danilo are good too. A very interesting link. Perhaps a case of identifying a player who is due an upturn in his career based on underlying performance.

I’m a big fan of that system in our league, and good pressing forwards would create a lot of opportunities for us and put loads of presssure on opposition defences. I've often been frustrated by our 1 up front approach because we just don't have enough players in and around the box and right on top of defenders. In an ideal world, I'd like a quality goalscorer brought in, maybe like Dessers although I find the fee very high. I also think Colak is underrated and has proven himself as a very clinical goalscorer. His goalscoring rate is excellent.

He got the 9th highest number of minutes at Angers last season, but he got just over 2000 mins compared to 3200 mins from the player who played the most, despite availability to play being almost the same. I saw someone post a quote from the manager saying he was struggling a bit with fitness after his injury ravaged season at Stoke. If that’s the case, that’s possibly better than not playing as much because you aren’t performing. After a season of playing fairly regular football, he should be in a far better place this summer than last. You’re probably right about set up. More of a Christmas tree? If we sign Dessers, he's a 20 goals + player though. If not, Colak can be that player. One thing I do like about Sima is that he does seem a goalscorer, despite some very low xG and touches in the box last season. System could be to blame for that too. If you compare to some of the players from recent seasons he's certainly an improvement for goals.

His FBref stats are the same as Lammers for last season, very bad. Playing for a bottom of the league side of course so you expect them to be low, but didn’t seem to stand out at all in that context. Did score a few goals. Managed a fairly low minutes total despite a high number of appearances, apparently it's partly because he was struggling to regain full fitness after a season out injured. So I'm a bit mixed on it. Looks like he can score goals and add a bit of athleticism but not less skill full and creative than you'd want in a wide forward. Edit - just seen your comment on the last page commenting on some of this.

It’s been a great loan for us because we’ve shown Bayern and other elite clubs that we can be trusted with their players and make them wanted across Europe. I hope we go back to Bayern for another loan.

😃

It says based on 507 minutes minutes so it looks like that only includes Champions League. Europa League would be interesting.

No chance does he end up at Sevilla.

I honestly can’t remember. I’m sure it was Modern Fitba who produced some stuff with it, and that’s going back a few years. But I think the principle is simple, you’re measuring how many chances they create with an xA above a certain value, like 0.6 for example.

Sounds like Kent. Kent would often build up a decent xA with low quality chances. There's an advanced stat that can show you who creates the most high quality chances though, but you don't see it used often. I remember Hagi was way ahead for it anyway.

In my opinion, poachers win leagues in Scotland, and they are underrated by our support, many of whom are fixated on strikers who can “rag doll” defences. I’m hoping Dessers can be that goalscorer. Or Colak. There are at least signs of encouragement with Dessers on that front, and more of a track record, although still some red flags in his stats (hopefully explained by playing for Cremonese). What I really like in Dessers’ stats is that he’s in the 92nd percentile for touches in the attacking penalty box, and the 90s for carries into the penalty area. And 93rd for goals to shots on target. Somehow he’s managed to be in the 3rd percentile for shots on target % though, which I’m hoping is explained by a tough season near the bottom of the league.

Lammers’ career bears no resemblance whatsoever to Laudrup’s though, let’s be honest. The 3 foreigner rule worked against Laudrup at AC Milan. But he played his part (in an team who scored 36 in 34 games) and ended that season with a Serie A winners medal and a Champions League winner.

They weren’t really though. 29 goals in 48 games and then 6 goals in 8 games when we signed him. He was very much on the up. He'd broken into the Croatia squad the year before and had 6 caps and 2 goals when we signed him. But I agree with your point that things can turn around when you move club.

That’s encouraging

Yeh, and for the avoidance of doubt (again), I’m not writing him off. I like technical players, and I like his technique on the ball. I'm hoping our trust in Beale is well placed. We could certainly do with more dribblers in the team. Kent has been our go-to for about 5 years and his dribbling success always hovered around 40%.