Oh, of course. I’m not sure you need some made up statistic to do it, though. An experienced scout (or fan) should be able to identify a good creative player.
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Arguably an (even more advanced) analytics approach built our most recent successful Liverpool team.
I was ahead of my time on expected threat!!!
Completely agree on the first goal dictating a game hit us.
Not completely knocking it, but that analytics approach also screamed at us to get Keita. Just saying
Nobody knew he will be that fragile!
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With the double negative / oxymoron construction of this sentence, I haven’t a clue what you mean.
There have been glimpses of the player we thought we were getting. If he had been able to play 40+ games per season who knows the player he would be now. His body just failed him.
Not = Now
Typo
Or
Not so slowly = quickly
Probably the second one
This past Monday at work, I replaced all the Pepsi in the canteen to 7UP. Now I’m dreading going into work tomorrow…
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Bournemouth worked a whole lot harder in their 3-2 loss to Arsenal than we made them work yesterday. Just my opinion but, they were much more comfortabe against us and we never really troubled them after the first 20 minutes. It felt like our lads just shrugged their shoulders on 20 minutes and said ‘well, it’s not gonna be our day’. 
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It’s kinda disheartening to see the CM slowly gets bossed by the opposition and what we can send out is a non-prime Henderson to do on-the-job training with Bajectic in a match that might end up deciding the club’s future revenue.
Anyone would be disheartened…
Very true and for an analytical dept. it’s vital. But as a fan it’s not. Like someone else suggested it’s not fool proof. We’ve signed lads who haven’t worked out eg Keita and The Ox being the big two.
Nobody said it’s foolproof, but it’s much better than the alternative.
Looking away from Liverpool, Brighton and Brentford have had major success by implementing a date driven approach.
You talk about drive and urgency and giving your all for the shirt and then talk about players who can play in tight spaces and then pick Fabinho & Keita in midfield.
Yes Keita is one that has the ability to play in tight spaces but lacks everything else you talked about and Fab is poor on tight places and is one of our worst culprits at the moment for drive and urgency and they both lack one other ingredient, pace.
Fabio hasn’t played much and most feel he lacks the physicality to play at this level at the moment amd therefore he would be lacking being able to play in those tight spaces with what we have seen so far.
On yesterday’s performance, Gakpo was the only player to break their lines coming deep and turning with the ball. At then end of the game we were pumping crosses in and if that is what we are going to do when chasing a game, then Nunez has to be central and Gakpo left or Jota with someone on the right who can get wide and put a good cross in. Not that I think we should resort to this but it seems our fall back as we lack the guile otherwise to break down a team
Otherwise apart from the players you chose what you mention is what we require definitely in the respect of players who can play in tight spaces and for me midfielders who can at times beat their man.
My bad, I should have clarified in the post, the only reason I chose Fabinho in there was for protection of the back four, not for playing through tight spaces.
If I can please request you to look at my post again, I clearly mentioned…and I quote “The only available players who could do that yesterday in available midfield options were Keita, Cavarlho and Arthur.” So, hope that sorts it.
Keita as you agree has the ability to play in tight spaces , but to be fair, would have been a better addition yesterday, than Harvey at the very least. I know , he lacks alot in what we call physicality and offer protection , but like I said, we sometime need to go with what the game demands and this game demanded some ball playing players.
I also feel, Fabio has been the victim of versatility he offers and has been really made a bit of a scapegoat for our bad runs during this season. To be fair, players with low centre of gravity who can hug the ball as you like, do not need to be so physical. A very simple example is Coutinho from our own past. These sort of players can play between the lines very well and have the ability to pick a pass. Yes, they can get outmuscled at times, but it’s the end product for me , that will matter. I would rather prefer, we pick a player in midfield who can create something, who wants the ball, than a player who would show physicality and pass sideways each time or send the ball backwards.
For me, after Coutinho, he is one technical player, who is a perfect guy to play in behind in a diamond, but has been played, left wing, left mid, right fwd.
Also, I feel, At times, too much has been made of his physicality. And, I am willing to bet that the way Harvey and Bajetic got muscled out yesterday by some Bournemouth players , does not make them any better in physical terms from Cavarlho. I am sure you will agree, even Cody isn’t great in physical terms, it’s the ability to turn on the ball and get away from someone pressing against you, which matters. This can either by done by skill or by being a physical beast.
To finish off , I agree with your points that our play , if it has to be cross based, then players need to be played in their best positions, at the very least. Or, an epiphany needs to occur in our coaching staff that we require players who can play in tight spaces. Because, right now, you do not need to be a rocket scientist to stop Liverpool. Park the bus and hit them on counter and 3 points are always yours.
I also think for Madrid, we need to go all out and Jurgen needs to spring some kind of surprise for Ancelloti. He has kept Jurgen in his pocket for far too long. The law of averages needs to work out now.
Not going to waste ny time trying to find this one. Nope
No offence intended 
I cannot even play walking football , but I will be 80 in a few weeks so maybe understandable
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There was a small episode in the game that seems to sum up our mind set. Trent and Robo were eyeing up a free kick on the right, about half way into in the Bournemouth half. The ref had marked the spot. One of them, possibly Trent, moves the ball about 50 cm to the left of the line, while the other tries to rub the line out. It was just embarrassing (school boy stuff and not even secondary school) and the ref of course notices, or was told by the video ref, and they respotted the ball - all the time time was ticking away.
Why, just why? What is that 50 cm going to give you.
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That throw to the Bournemouth player was equally as depressing.
Good reply pal, but Fab with a midfield of Keita and Cavalho, doesn’t have the mobility, the speed are the quality on the ball to feed the aforementioned players.
Harvey deserved to start on his last 2 games where he was great in and out of possession, just didn’t produce yestrrday and Bacjetic is physical enough but actually probably had his poorest game in possession.
With Keita on his way out and looking like he doesn’t care when he plays, I prefer to look at other options or even different formations.