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Geertruida


Nathan Gunn said:
I heard an interview with one of the players the other day (i can't remember who it was) and they were basically saying they had started working on next seasons game plan in the last few months of this season once we knew we were safe. And that ties in a lot with us being more on the front foot.

Earlier in the season we would always have less of the ball and have to outperform our Xg to get results, whereas now we regularly have 10+ shots on goal per game, was 21 i think on sunday. It's like the club know our approach (whilst ensured we got results in the short term), was not going to be enough to compete at the top end consistently.

I'd love to see an analysis of our shots per 90 mins over the season and Xg per 90 over the season. I think we'd be able to clearly point to the moment the attention switched.

I'm confident over the summer we will sign players who will enable us to play more on the front foot week in week out and we'll be absolutely fine. We'll play the old hard to beat away from home in Europe (still pinching myself), and be on the front foot at home
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Great call.

I don't think it's just about the 'penny dropping', however. RLB has been calling out the need to be bolder and more effective in the final third for many months. But that doesn't mean it's easy to do. Yes, it's about tactics and formation, but also about players' confidence in their own ability/willingness to take risks, building connections with teammates and knowing where they like the ball, etc - all things that take time to mature, especially with such a young squad in one of the most demanding leagues in the world.

In the first handful of games of the season - when we were flying - we were getting 2 or 3 shots on target per game, and that worried me a lot, despite all the hype re league position/the plaudits we received. So it wasn't really a mid-season slump. Delighted to see your stats on us having 10+ shots on goal per game latterly. It's all coming together!

Bring on next season.
 
I was against signing him up until Sunday (hear me out) but now I absolutely would sign him for 20 million.

My previous thoughts were, I wouldn’t be paying 20 million for someone who won’t be first choice in any position no matter how versatile he is, it’s still a lot of money really.

Now my thoughts are - we will be playing upwards of 50 games next season most likely with Thursday/Sunday at least 8 times, squad will be rotated a lot, he would be ideal. Get it done Flo and Co.

Edit* Flo and Co. sound like a dodgy mortgage brokers.
 
If he is going to stay he will want some playing time guarantees. After we blocked his move to Liverpool in Jan he has still not played significantly and when Ballard is back Mukiele likely goes back RB
 
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