CL Round: Newcastle - Barca 1-2

FCBarca said:

Take even less time to remove Lamine, Balde and players who didn't even get any minutes

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I have done this, so its easier for me when I go into the Google Sheets to calculate the avg rating.
Also, it's been done, so it's quicker for me to get the Google form online, as it's almost always 2 AM here in India when matches finish. I don't think me posting the next day will generate many responses.

I keep the same form for consistency. Also, the Google sheet it generates, I can accumulate it at the end of the season, and have the rating in the same row, for each player. As you can see, its been numbered using their Jersey.

If me doing this would help, and make more people, I will try doing it next match onwards.

We got bailed by Rashy
Newcastle pressed really well at the beginning ... good thing they didn't score ! then they ran out of gas

jamrock said:

Newcastle started the game strong but it was unsustainable.

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Was talking about the game just now.

This is the key point and why every big side needs a world class shot stopper.

Another goalkeeper and Newcastle get an early first goal and we either have to slog to bring the game back (like under Flick last season) or the game gets away from you by half time (like under Valgreens and Herb).

But a world class stopper keeps you in the game until you kick into gear.

Joan may finally be that guy we always needed in Europe. Let's see if he continues to grow and is consistent when it's not the first of 8 league games in Europe, but an away knock out tie. He is still untested at that type of pressure level but very very good signs.

Porque said:

Was talking about the game just now.

This is the key point and why every big side needs a world class shot stopper.

Another goalkeeper and Newcastle get an early first goal and we either have to slog to bring the game back (like under Flick last season) or the game gets away from you by half time (like under Valgreens and Herb).

But a world class stopper keeps you in the game until you kick into gear.

Joan may finally be that guy we always needed in Europe. Let's see if he continues to grow and is consistent when it's not the first of 8 league games in Europe, but an away knock out tie. He is still untested at that type of pressure level but very very good signs.

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Agreed, said it in his trend, this kid might be the generation keeper we needed.

I didn't see much of him at Espanyol, never thought he would be this good this quick.

I know I felt confident the team would play well in the absence of key protagonists but I also didn't expect a repeat of the performance vs Valencia. I didn't know how fluid they'd look although undoubtedly the strengths were clear in our potential XI as well as the areas of weakness - succumbing to high press, especially on Martin's side. The talk of size felt is oddly a recurring theme from English punditry despite Pep's Barça proving that was a myth

And early on, it was a question of whether someone would make an error due to the high press from Newcastle apart from the main clear chances they had from Gerard's flank. But even without Rashford being clinical, I thought it was a cagey performance for the most part - it went as predicted probably, then a question of whom among the attacking front 3 would score. I thought Fermin would have his chances but I can only recall one.

Should Flick have called on Jofre rather than Eric? That's the one sub I would've questioned but on balance a very encouraging performance to start the CL campaign. I have to believe Flick stressed the importance of demonstrating this no excuses mentality and it showed. We should be confident with a performance like this away in CL, even in St. James Park - I thought the atmosphere was impressively raucous but I prefer ambiances of genuine passion over the madness from those fans who lose it when just forcing a throw in. But in terms of the much hyped intimidation factor from English fans, this is Barça - they are not unfamiliar with difficult stadiums. I do continue to find it amusing how ignorant fans can be about Barça

Pedri & Frenkie, they set the bar - there's no other midfield pair like it in football

Joan Garcia will end up being a historic signing - I can't recall Barça ever having a keeper of his quality & skill set. Madness

Now we wait for Lamine to get fully healthy

Great win by the team. I’m proud of the boys for absorbing the pressure that was given early on in both halves. We gave them a footballing lesson in the second half and I wish maybe we could’ve scored 3-4 instead of 2. Eh It isn’t that important anyway, a win is a win. Barcelona start their UCL campaign with a great win at a very hard stadium like St. James’ Park.

The Road to Budapest has truly started boys!

And just on Marcus, have to be happy for the player - you can see the genuine joy when scoring. Not relief but joy and that comes from being happy & valued, not trying to prove something. This should help the player in Liga as well where the defenses will be different than the familiar one he faced last night, his integration into the team is evolving and only natural it will reap big rewards

Nazario1985 said:

We got bailed by Rashy
Newcastle pressed really well at the beginning ... good thing they didn't score ! then they ran out of gas

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Exactly as expected. They come out crazy. We needed to survive the beginning and then Barcas control will take over.

RedxMAK said:

Great win by the team. I’m proud of the boys for absorbing the pressure that was given early on in both halves. We gave them a footballing lesson in the second half and I wish maybe we could’ve scored 3-4 instead of 2. Eh It isn’t that important anyway, a win is a win. Barcelona start their UCL campaign with a great win at a very hard stadium like St. James’ Park.

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I think with Yamal we score 3-4.

FinBarcelonafan said:

I think with Yamal we score 3-4.

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Or lose. Noone knows.

So far we played best without him in both of last games and that's good for both the team and Yamal himself.

Temptation said:

No it isn't. It's one of the most useful stats ever. Only people who don't understand what xG is say that.

xG is used to measure the quality of chances or attacking scenarios created. It's calculated using historical data and factors like shot location, distance, angle, shot type, etc.

It will tell you the approximate probability of a goal based on the quality of the chance created. An xG of 0.3 means there's a 30% chance of the goal being scored.

A higher xG doesn't necessarily mean you were the better team and dominated the game. It means you created better quality of goalscoring chances.

The numbers for the Barca Newcastle game makes perfect sense. You were the better team but they created more high quality chances on the break. Rashford's second goal was very low xG because you don't expect a player to score from there. Infact it's hardly a goalscoring chance.

Most Football fans (Game's gone brigade) tend to be tribal dinosaurs who reject any sort of modern technology, new development or statistical data driven decision making/analysis but the reason these metrics are developed is because it helps the industry massively. Data and eye test are both very important. Keep up with the times.

I believe you have misunderstood the meaning, purpose and application of xG. @Birdy

Mods should probably pin this comment somewhere for anyone who moans about xG in the near future.

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I agree with you - to a point. The problem is xG still has flaws (needs to measure game state because teams will build xG when 3-0 down and the other team takes foot off gas etc, and should take into account who's shooting - obviously Haaland is more likely to score than Ake). To be fair those new game state graphs seem to be trying to remedy this somewhat.

Also, as I said, I like it as a stat in principle (though I agree it doesn't necessarily mean you dominated the game if you win it, just created better chances) - as I said my problem is how the numbers are sometimes calculated. I gave two examples above where the xG of Spurs and Man City in games against Man United just did not seem right. If I thought it was very accurate I would trust it more. But how did City have less than 2 xG against United last week and how did Spurs only have 0.8 xG that night they scored four? In both games those teams had objectively good chances that fell to good finishers.

The problem for me isn't the idea of the stat - it's that how it is calculated and some of the context it neglects can make it seem more flawed than it could be.

@Birdy what do you think? Are these thoughts fair?

Temptation said:

No it isn't. It's one of the most useful stats ever. Only people who don't understand what xG is say that.

xG is used to measure the quality of chances or attacking scenarios created. It's calculated using historical data and factors like shot location, distance, angle, shot type, etc.

It will tell you the approximate probability of a goal based on the quality of the chance created. An xG of 0.3 means there's a 30% chance of the goal being scored.

A higher xG doesn't necessarily mean you were the better team and dominated the game. It means you created better quality of goalscoring chances.

The numbers for the Barca Newcastle game makes perfect sense. You were the better team but they created more high quality chances on the break. Rashford's second goal was very low xG because you don't expect a player to score from there. Infact it's hardly a goalscoring chance.

Most Football fans (Game's gone brigade) tend to be tribal dinosaurs who reject any sort of modern technology, new development or statistical data driven decision making/analysis but the reason these metrics are developed is because it helps the industry massively. Data and eye test are both very important. Keep up with the times.

I believe you have misunderstood the meaning, purpose and application of xG. @Birdy

Mods should probably pin this comment somewhere for anyone who moans about xG in the near future.

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I know how it works, and I'm not trying to convince you or anyone else.

Barcaman said:

Or lose. Noone knows.

So far we played best without him in both of last games and that's good for both the team and Yamal himself.

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Barca played badly, but Yamal? Nah

FinBarcelonafan said:

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Barca played badly, but Yamal? Nah

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What does that have to do with comment? Barca 2 best matches this season were without Yamal.

Happens often that supporting characters rise up when lead man is out.
We used to knock Madrid at Bernabeu twice without Messi, for example.