Do Hughes have a fetish for hard to pronounce names?
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I dont think our guys use externally calculated xG heavily in their model, but conceptually they are building their model based on behaviors/actions that amount to the same thing - is he doing stuff that when done consistently is expected to result in goals being scored. Interestingly, in the various stuff Spearman and Graham has said on the media tours since leaving, they have suggested weāve actually viewed underperforming xG as an opportunity because it means the player is likely undervalued by the market and with a belief in mean reversion that sooner than later their underperformance will level out.
I wonder if they have moderated any of their thinking on this since Darwin?
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I am still curious where Jonathan David will end up
With a name that easy to pronounce evidently not LFC with Hughes at the helm 
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I believe the formula model they use to decide is
Should we sign a player= (Hughes +Slot)Opinion/expert opinions in TAN
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āTarget = (((Data Analysis Team Recommendation + Opinion of Coaching Staff + (Potential Commercial Appeal * Number of letters fans will have to pay to have name printed on shirts)/(Transfer Fee + Wages) - 100% chance if transfer thread is opened by Nikola)
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Never mind, Iām sold
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Iām sure the risk of āvalue trapsā will be something they have built into their processes and is under constant scrutiny.
Iāll be very surprised if this goes through.
Unless we move both Jota and Nunez , donāt see it going through.
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If weāve begun talks, I think there is a very good chance of it happening. Both Nunez and Jota may leave this summer, I think it unlikely this deal happening is contingent on them both doing so though. We probably have enough cash / other players leaving to fund business this summer.
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Without comparing, I must say I like what Iām seeing from Marmoush.
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Chelsea being in for him too is a pain, although since they were beating us to players last summer weāve kicked it up a notch and won the league.
Somehow they always seem to have plenty of cash to throw at players, so if thereās no release clause it will drive the price up, and Ekitike could easily be a ā¬100M transfer fee.
Young, talented, fast. Thereās some work to do but if he has the right attitude and works hard Slot will definitely improve him. Crazy to say that about such an expensive player, but Iām a bit underwhelmed with the striker market as there are question marks over all of them, and prices have gone through the roof.
With that said, I am very confident in our recruitment team, and if Ekitike is the one that has bubbled to the top and we are making a move, bring it on. They will have data and analysis that goes way beyond the sort of stuff we can see, but on his Xg, if he is underperforming against that I tend to see that as a good thing, as in most things sooner or later performance will revert to around the expected average. If it was the other way around we would be getting squeezed for a 22 goal striker who is blowing hot and is really a 15 goal striker.
Slot is a brilliant coach. We have an excellent team. There is a vacancy up front. It looks like Wirtz is being signed to help put chances on a plate for the new man, to go with the great players already here. You would have to think that if we are in for him, Ekitike would be making a mistake to not join.
One final thing - is he a full French international, or is there still a possibility he could declare for Cameroon? Not sure where I might be picking that up from, but with the AFCON angle, it might be something.
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No, not a full international yet for either nation.
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Considering weāve got Wirtz arriving in as well for big money too.
Iād say we are with our budget when we get Wirtz , Frimpong and Kerkez.
Any other signings have to be on the outgoings.
Same here. I never saw him play for Frankfurt but he looks like a good replacement for Alvarez. I like that type of forward, they are not common in modern football.
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Why would they? If anything, his last season in Benfica was the outlier, and mean reversion would have suggested the opposite.
Iām not sure why, but I vaguely recall his first season with us featuring him as top in chance creation or something like that. Yet when I tried looking recently it wasnāt the case.
There were tentative links to Marmoush too for Liverpool. Having the likes of Jota , Gakpo , Diaz probably ensured that we didnāt think seriously of bidding for him.
But he seems a fine player.
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His dad is Cameroonian and so heād qualify for them. I am positive they will be trying to make it happen.
Heās been identified as a potential elite talent since he was kid, but itās been pretty poor ever since he left Reims. Last year was really the first time he came close to living up to his potential in terms of production. That is exactly the sort of situation in which we move from monitoring to acting
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Itās a tough call though.
If we wait for one more season, we potentially miss out on the chance to sign him altogether.
At this point in the striker market , we (and most other clubs) are going by potential as an indicator for performance. There arenāt any feasible tried and tested targets.
Isak , his transfer fee and Newcastle not needing to sell with his injury record to boot. That could make it a tough call for Liverpool
Osimhen - seems Saudi bound
Who else ?
It wonāt be as bad as United signing Rasmus Hojlund but itās pretty much the case for quite a lot of the clubs when we are talking about a CF.
Almost all of them are looking at potential.