*Official* English Football Season 2014-15

[flibbertyjibber]

Southampton are a good shout for an outside bet for top four. Most performance models I've seen had them as 3rd best performing team in the league, even before yesterday.

Been brilliant so far given all the doom and gloom over the summer. You would think they can improve too with so many new players getting better together as a unit over time though not sure they can play much better than they have already. Tadic looks one of the signings of the season for the price.

 

[Ikki]

Thought he was trying to make a point as they won their last game playing pretty averagely too

I was making the joke that if winning when you're playing badly is the sign of champions; well, we'll win the treble for winning that game - that's how bad we were. Absolutely woeful. Shouldn't have drawn let alone won.

Also, this https://twitter.com/paulsinha/status/523842742712299520 .

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Super Mario is trending on Twitter after his "performance" today.

 

[Uppercut]

Apparently got 1 goal 0 assists in his last 20 Premiership games.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

OH BALLOTELI IS GARBAGE? SHAME NO ONE MENTIONED THAT WHEN HE WAS SIGNED EH?

Trash player. Gives you nothing unless he woke up in the mood to do so.

 

[Eds]

Trash player. Gives you nothing unless he woke up in the mood to do so.

Haha. Such a hilariously MOTD-esque statement. I'm guessing he woke up this morning deciding to miss open goals?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Garry Monk lost his cool in the interview there, called Moses and the referee of cheating. I mean, Moses did dive when there was close to zero contact, what's wrong with calling him a cheat? Went over the line when he said the referee cheated, but nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade with regards to Moses, right? Diving=cheating, pretty simple.

 

[cpr]

Southampton are a good shout for an outside bet for top four. Most performance models I've seen had them as 3rd best performing team in the league, even before yesterday.

I always find this one to be most accurate

 

[Ikki]

Balotelli had an awful performance, but for me he is trying too damn hard to score and needs to learn how to play with his teammates better. Beforehand you feared he will play like he doesn't care or be aloof, but honestly he's worked hard every game. He hasn't looked anything near disinterested. I don't think he'll be leading the goal scoring charts but I think he will still be a decent forward for us. Too early to judge in any case.

Defense is where we're really ****. We've spent something like 100m on defenders in the last few years and we can't buy a clean sheet.

 

[GIMH]

Balotelli had an awful performance, but for me he is trying too damn hard to score and needs to learn how to play with his teammates better. Beforehand you feared he will play like he doesn't care or be aloof, but honestly he's worked hard every game. He hasn't looked anything near disinterested. I don't think he'll be leading the goal scoring charts but I think he will still be a decent forward for us. Too early to judge in any case.

Defense is where we're really ****. We've spent something like 100m on defenders in the last few years and we can't buy a clean sheet.

I wonder if Balotelli would be doing better if Sturridge was fit. I doubt he was really signed to be leading the line

 

[Jarquis]

I always find this one to be most accurate

Yeah, I'm sure you were one of the ones who had Arsenal as favourites for the league in February next year.

 

[Cabinet96]

I always find this one to be most accurate

You've got quite a bit to learn then.

 

[Cabinet96]

Yeah, I'm sure you were one of the ones who had Arsenal as favourites for the league in February next year.

Thing is, there's even a difference between whether you think someone is the favourite or the best. In February Arsenal had a big upper hand based on what had already happened in the previous 6 months. The number of people who thought they were the best team in the league was probably even lower than the amount who thought they were favourites.

 

[cpr]

Yeah, I'm sure you were one of the ones who had Arsenal as favourites for the league in February next year.

I had them as favourites next February?

Would you like to put that post into English? Then I can decide whether you've made a coherant point or usual reactionary bull****

 

[cpr]

You've got quite a bit to learn then.

My point being performance models mean jack all if they are not what the result is measured by. Being 3rd best in a performance model means nothing if you are below 3rd in the league. It could infer you might perform better and reach a higher position, if the gap to 3rd isnt too much to overcome. It could also mean **** all if you lose your star players to injury next match and go on a mare of a run. Want to be 3rd best in the league? Reach 3rd, stay there until the seasons over....

 

[Jarquis]

I had them as favourites next February?

Would you like to put that post into English? Then I can decide whether you've made a coherant point or usual reactionary bull****

Replace 'next' with 'last' - Cabinet managed to figure it out.

I'd rather be reactionary than ****ing durr-brained. AFTER 8 GAMES LEAGUE TABLEZ IS DA TRUTHS.

 

[Cabinet96]

Well I'd definitely argue that in the infancy of a league season, arguing the merits of a team and how good they are based on where they are in the league is pretty naive. There's just too much luck involved in football for short term results to be a good indicator of a sides quality. Other statistical measures which are used in performance models are much more repeatable and are less prone to being skewed by luck, a ****ty referee decision, whatever. Take Aston Villa for example, weren't they something like fourth in the table after the opening four games? At the same time most performance models had them as one of the worst three sides in the league. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them in a dog fight at the end of the season to stay up, even though they got a quarter of the points they need in their first four games. Because in the longer run being **** does bite you in the arse often enough. Yet at the time you had respected Guardian journalists telling us the same signings they'd ridiculed before had been proved a success because of the score after a few games and Lambert got a big new contract.

 

[Jarquis]

My point being performance models mean jack all if they are not what the result is measured by. Being 3rd best in a performance model means nothing if you are below 3rd in the league. It could infer you might perform better and reach a higher position, if the gap to 3rd isnt too much to overcome. It could also mean **** all if you lose your star players to injury next match and go on a mare of a run. Want to be 3rd best in the league? Reach 3rd, stay there until the seasons over....

My point is that league tables after 8 games mean jack all if they are not what the result is measured by come seasons end. Being 3rd best in the league after 8 games means nothing. It might mean you win some points and go up, lose some games and go down or do a bit of both and stay third. It also means **** all if you lose your star players to injury in the next match and go on a mare of a run. Want to be 3rd best in the league? Do whatever you want to for the first 37 games but be there after the 38th.

 

[Pothas]

It is just the word, 'performance model,' sounds horrible.

 

[cpr]

Replace 'next' with 'last' - Cabinet managed to figure it out.

I'd rather be reactionary than ****ing durr-brained. AFTER 8 GAMES LEAGUE TABLEZ IS DA TRUTHS.

Hate to smash your dreams kid, but it is. Southampton have performed well and are 3rd in the league. Thats all that really matters at the moment. Sure someone can crunch figures and say 'so and so are performing 2nd or 3rd best' but its kind of irrelevant really, as at best its a educated guess at whats going to come, and can be messed up by countless other things, both within that team and others. All the prizes are awarded for where you finish up in the table, and if you're 3rd after 20% of the season gone, then I'd say you've made a good start and have a fair shout at being up there at the end.

As you brought Arsenal into it, because I know you hate people posting off topic, I probably did call Arsenal for the league last year, I can't remember. However thats not any stats crunching or performance modeling of a serious degree, its one mans opinion, half educated by watching football and having a guess at whats going to happen over the next few games. And it was about as accurate no doubt.

I'm sure Statistical modelling is all well and good, but for me, footballs played on a pitch, not a calculator, and I'll enjoy watching it rather than needlessly fretting over the performance curves and potentials of teams. At the end of the year the league table will tell me the truth of it, whether people think its fair or not doesn't matter as its the table that decides.