Looks like he may be getting his mojo back at long last, nice start to the season.

Costa bags a second with another good finish. Looks like Leeds are going to be entertaining to watch, winning 4-3 at the moment but all the new boys look like they can't defend.

It seems Leeds' plan is Don't worry how many we concede as long as we score one more than them.

It's official then, Jota has signed for Liverpool for £41m rising to £45m with add ons. From a financial point of view probably the best bit of business the club has ever done. Bought for £12.8m the club has made a minimum of £28.2m profit rising to £32.2m.

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 5 hours, 46 minutes ago
The downside of letting Jota go is that apart from Jimenez he was our most likely player to score. He got 16 in all competitions last season and that’s more than most of our squad other than Raul put together. We need to get more players into the opposition area and score more and not sure who will step up to the plate to compensate for Jota at the moment
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Only 7 in the prem, that was not good enough.

9 of his goals were in the Europa League, including 2 hat tricks against mediocre opposition. Only 7 goals and 1 assist in the Premier League is nothing to write home about. As we're not in Europe this season, I'm sure Neto and Podence will each get more goals.

Not sure why we would choose not to count goals scored in a competition that was important to the club. But Jota was our second. Best source of goals in the premier league anyway. And with Doherty going too who weighed in with a few, a team that doesn’t score enough has reduced its goal scoring capabilities at this point

Our system meant that we were reliant on a few players to score. Playing on the counter meant that we never got players in the penalty area. From that perspective, it isnt surprising that Jota, Jimenez and Doherty were our main source of goals, given they were the only players who really got into the penalty area and they played every single week.

If we are moving to a possession based style, you would expect our midfielders to play higher up the pitch; which would enable them to share some goals. Also, Podence and Neto look more than capable of adding goals to this team. They scored 4 between them last season despite only starting a combined 12 games and have a better goals per minute than Jota does.

Never sure about this goals per minute stat. Seems to suggest that if someone comes on for the last 10 minutes and scores, that if they had been on from the beginning they would have scored 9.

I would like to think Podence, Neto, Traore, Dendoncker can score a few more. What none of those players do is get regularly into what I would call a ‘goal poachers’ area. Silva I think will. Some of Jota’s goals came from close to goal, and that’s where most goals come from, but Jimenez is likely the only player that will get into those areas regularly from open play. So I think my concern is justified. We need to increase our goal tally and I’m not sure this current squad will

Have read today that Wolves are showing an interest in Oxlade-Chamberlain. Decent player but not what I think we currently need. Prefer to see us get wing backs or a goalscorer

I'm not saying we shouldn't count all his goals. What I'm trying to point out is that for a forward of his talent, he should have scored a few more and certainly had more assists in Premier League matches. 1 assist in over 30 league games tells me, he has more of an eye for goal, than laying on balls for his mates.

As Tam has pointed out, we were a defensive minded side last season and not many players got the opportunity to score.

Only 4 sides bettered our goals against (which was 40) and our 51 goals scored made us the 8th highest and let's not forget that 5 of our goals conceded were in one match.

This season, it seems that Nuno is placing more emphasis on an attacking style, hence a 3-4-3 formation away at Sheffield.

If we maintain the new style in most games, then I'm sure we will be able to spread the goals among more players.

By the way, if we look at the goal Jimenez scored, it was Podence who ran down the left (just like Jota did for us) and when he got to the edge go the box, he crossed it for an assist, instead of trying to beat players and take a shot (which I'm sure Jota would have done.)

So one game and he equalled Jota's entire assists from last season. Plus of course Neto got the assist for the other goal.

I rest my case, me 'lud.

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted about 5 hours ago
Never sure about this goals per minute stat. Seems to suggest that if someone comes on for the last 10 minutes and scores, that if they had been on from the beginning they would have scored 9.
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Well it depends on your sample size, like anything in stats. A sample size of one data point of 10 minutes would obviously not be representative and anyone using that would be an absolute moron.

In the case where we have over 30 data points which amount to well over a thousand minutes, as do here; it is a more than legitimate stat.

You could argue the same way with goals per game too. If someone only gets 10 minutes and doesnt score, it counts as 0 goals in 1 game.

Worth noting as well that Podence's goal last year was a poachers header from 4 yards out. Seems to be overlooked by DJ when he says that he can't score that type of goal.