MAN CITY MASSACRE! - WHAT WE LEARNT FROM GW9 IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

Well, that was a weekend of football. That's what that was. It was a weekend of football. Thanks for watching. I hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure you come back for more insight. Now, it's so juicy. We're going for a little double up this week. First part right now. Obviously, you're watching it. Second part of the fallout will be out tomorrow. Every single team covered except for the nil nils. We don't touch nil nils. The new rule, especially when they're that boring. If you're new to the channel, do me a favor. Take your finger and stick it on that subscribe button and hit that subscribe for me. Only place we can start, of course, is the Manchester Derby 6-3. Wow. And the three saves United, doesn't it? The three does save. Let's be honest. Was it more of a 6-1 or a 6-2? You know, the Anthony goal was pretty frightening as well. And it could have been so much more. The XG was actually 3.37. So it might even be higher for Man City to 1.72 for Man United. But it was it was the Erling Haaland show. It resumed this week with another predictable outcome. Of course, a hat trick, a piece for Foden and Haaland saw the 22-year-olds. And I think that's a really important thing to say. Both of these dudes are 22. Scary. It saw them become the third and fourth players to ever score hat tricks for Manchester City in a Manchester Derby. Before we go into the tactical elements of all of this, here are some more fun stats on Erling Haaland. You've probably heard all of these, but just in case you haven't. First of all, in terms of goals scored by the age of 22. Messi, 44. Cristiano Ronaldo, 50. Erling Haaland, 170. If this guy stays fit, he's breaking every record. Every record, especially at Man City. Haaland is now equal for Premier League hat tricks with the following players. Anelka, Drogba, Lampard, Lukaku, Ronaldo and Jamie Vardy. After playing eight games, yeah. All right, let's get into the nitty gritty of it. Man City took their dominance of football matches to new heights versus Man United, in my opinion. With Rodri, it could have been a bit of a stumbling block. The fact that he obviously wasn't playing in Pep's midfield. You thought they might be able to get at them. And Gary Neville, of course, said like, we're going to do you, Tomeka Richards. And that obviously ended in curb your enthusiasm soundtrack. However, it merely demonstrates just how good this city side is. They don't even need a defensive midfielder sometimes because of how they're able to control possession and win the ball back through work rate and tenacity on the front foot. I thought Bernardo Silva personified this for Manchester City. If we have a look at his heat map here, you can see just how influential this guy is. And obviously the focus has to be on Foden, on Haaland, and actually Grealish as well, who I thought was sensational. But the influence of this guy is it's really, really special. And I know I talk about him a lot. But when you look at his heat map, you just see how influential he was all over the pitch. Again, for a team that didn't play with that Rodri figure, that Fernandinho figure, that will be the thing that we would pick at if Man United got something from this game or if Man City play a game, don't play that kind of player and don't win that football match. But in Bernardo Silva, you've got someone that's just like insatiable and playing for the best team and they have the ball all the time. You think that hunger would disappear, but that was the biggest in terms of, yes, okay, quality, all these things, right? But just the hunger of every single player on that pitch, to talk about Haaland for a second, actually, the fact that go and watch Foden's hat-trick goal, go and watch that goal and watch the replay. Replay being slow-mo, right? And as Haaland passes the ball to Foden, he slips and then he gets up and you can see in literally in a split second, his hunger at 6-1, was it at that time? Or 5-1, he wants to get up so that just in case there's a rebound, if Foden's shot is saved and he's the guy who's passed the ball to Foden, this kind of hunger is something I've not seen that in a striker for a long time because that is instinctual. It's crazy. But anyway, back to Bernardo Silva. He won't get the credit because of Haaland and Foden's immense individual displays. However, Bernardo put in a brilliant and complete performance. He also reformed that partnership that we've spoken about on the fallout previously with Jack Grealish on that left-hand side. They really do enjoy playing with each other. And we saw that last season and it looks even more effective this season because it feels like Grealish is starting to feel the juice a little bit, if that makes any sense. With Haaland, of course, as that focal point as well. Bernardo Silva's role demonstrates that if City utilise that division of labour that they can get around not needing Rodri all the time. Of course, there's going to be games like that. But again, it just shows the depth. This isn't an 11-man game anymore. And so sometimes you're going to need those other players, but the work rate has to be at the maximum. And that's what you get with Man City every single time. When it comes to Manchester United, do Man United still have big problems or was this simply a brilliant showing from Man City? Let me know in the comments below, especially Man United fans. I want to know how you feel about this because I think it is one where, you know, Man City are just purring. But it's also one where the game was lost in the mindset of these players. And I generally feel like that's a little bit lazy, those kinds of thoughts. But it was, wasn't it? Because the tactics were tactics that you would, you know, that would be obvious to do. There is that one stumbling block, sorry, in terms of, you know, team selection. McTominay, Casemiro, I get it. I get McTominay's been playing well, but it's Casemiro, you've bought him for a reason. You've bought him for these huge games. You've bought him for leadership. You've bought him to go into the lion's den and to not play him. I found that really, really odd. I found it really, really odd, regardless of how well McTominay plays because we know McTominay is not really the answer. So I found that really, really odd. But let me know how you feel about it in the comments down below. The first half, in my opinion, was a glimpse into how much work there is still left to be done at Manchester United. The juxtaposition between how calm on the ball and composed Man City were compared to how petulant and erratic Man United were when they were in possession was an insight into not only how far away these clubs are in terms of quality, but also where the minds are for these players. Man City came into this match more or less knowing they'd win. It did feel that way, didn't it? There was such confident arrogance about them when receiving and releasing the ball. I think that also comes down to a settled squad that knows their pattern of play as opposed to a Man United side who don't have that at this moment in time. They're hanging on that little bit. They're playing on the counter-attack. It's not totally there. The second half was a bit of a throwaway half, in my opinion, because Man City massively eased their foot off the gas whilst Man United knew the game was already over. They played with that little bit less pressure and there was less pressure on them. One positive for Man United was maybe Anthony and the quality that he showed with that goal. He played okay. And Martial obviously comes off. I quite like the fact that he wanted that penalty. I think that shows a nice little annoyance about him, a selfishness, let's say, as well, which I think will be a relief for 10 Hard because, of course, Ronaldo is not playing in this game as well. He's gone on record saying how much he likes the French forward in the past. All in all, this is going to have to be a match that Man United put behind them quickly. They're back in action in midweek, a trip to Cyprus. And then, of course, they've got another weekend fixture. And then it's going to be back-to-back, midweek, then weekend, every single week up until the league disbands for the World Cup. So this needs to be a blip because they need to build up some momentum because the confidence is built on shaky ground, I think, at this moment in time. Final quick question on Man United because I'm thinking about doing a video on this and I'd love to get your opinions before I do it, actually, just to see different sides of it. Ronaldo, what would you do with him now? He's obviously there, didn't play in this game. He's obviously frustrated. What would you do about Ronaldo between now and the World Cup? Let me know in the comments down below. Get involved. Crystal Palace 1, Chelsea 2. The XG on this one, 0.44 for Palace. We'll talk about that a little bit later on. And 1.14 for Chelsea. Crystal Palace versus Chelsea was another insightful tactical battle, actually, this weekend. On one side, you've got a Palace side who kind of finally went for it. We've sort of been craving this for a while to sort of play their attackers together as a quartet. And on the other side, we finally got to see how Chelsea looked under Graham Potter in the Premier League. When it comes to Crystal Palace, the most interesting tactical note from Palace this weekend was that despite not having a game of football for four weeks, they still did come out with a bold front-footed approach. We can see here, actually, in the average positions that they pretty much played 4-2-4 with Cekdikore and Eberici. Eze, my boy, as the midfielders. Eze as one of the midfielders. I never thought I would see that. That just shows that they were kind of going for it. The XG wasn't ideal, you know what I mean, in terms of creating stuff. And I guess that comes down to Chelsea a little bit. You see with their high line, again, very, very brave. Show that they want to sort of be on the front foot because I guess, you know, this is a Crystal Palace team that can really get in behind you quite quickly. So I think that's a nice thing to say about Crystal Palace. And to extent, they had five attackers on the pitch, if you count Eze as an attacking player, which I certainly do. But this bold approach, it's what we've been waiting to see for a while. And whilst Palace didn't win the match, I'm pretty excited about Palace. And I know in the video I did where I was talking about the thing about every team, and I said the thing about Crystal Palace is actually they're not as good as we're saying. I think hold fire on that one because I think in the next couple of games, whilst they lost this match, I think their next two matches will be matches that you should be keeping an eye on. And if you get a chance to watch them, watch them because their next match is at home to Leeds, which could be an absolute corker, especially when you've got Jesse March sort of saying the stuff he's saying, saying someone come and have a go at us. I think Palace will go and do that if Palace stick to this attacking setup, given how vertical Leeds look to play. That match could well become a basketball game. And then after that, you've got Leicester away for Palace. So these are two massive games for Vera's side as they're currently winless in four. So putting together a decent run of results is now going to be crucial for them. With Chelsea, and of course we did that video as soon as Potter got the job in terms of how they were going to set up. And you can see from the average positions, that high line. So from a Chelsea point of view, it was always going to be interesting to see how Potter did set them up. Now, Potter, he's a manager that sort of built himself a reputation of tactical flexibility and being brave enough to use those different formations, depending on what he feels like is the best port of call. So whilst the average positions don't really look like any kind of particular shape, apart from that high line, which I think is interesting. The formation, it kind of resembled that of a sort of 4-2-2-2, which I know again with the average position doesn't really sort of suggest that. But again, there's that flexibility. So this could be really beneficial for the forward players of Chelsea as it's not only allows Chelsea to play with four forwards, at a time, it also allows a lot of them to play in their sort of desired areas. So the thing you have to remember about Potter's tactics, however, is that he gives these players so much flexibility. And he's also someone who doesn't believe in that sort of rigid formations and ultra structure. So I think that'll be fun. We spoke about Kovacic in that video about how Potter would set up. There is that double pivot there of Kovacic and Jorginho. That's going to be an interesting thing to keep an eye out on in particular as well. Whilst they didn't have standout games, from a tactical perspective, it's something we should remain aware of because Kovacic had a total of 83 touches in this game. And he could be really, really important player in facilitating this sort of fluid football that Potter wants to play. When it comes to defence, that's where I think there's still some question marks, got to be honest. I think we need to give it a few more matches before we pass judgment. One aspect I do want to look at though over the next few weeks is Thiago Silva. And I'm ready to have a bit of a rant. I've got to be honest as well when it comes to him as a part of that back four, I think there could be moments where he could look shaky. Obviously the main one, one I'm ready to have a rant about is the handball. Like what on earth? Like how, how is he getting away with that? I hate this and I hate that I'm going to say this, but if he plays for a different team and he's not 38 and he's not Thiago Silva, he is off. He is so off. If that's, you know, if that's gay down the other end, he's off. It's a joke. It's an absolute embarrassment. And the fact that he goes to VAR with some of the things that they've gone to VAR for, where they go, okay, well, if you say so. And the things are so cut and dry like that when he handballs it twice. It's so cynical. It's just, honestly, it's disgusting. And for a team like Palace at home, they're brave enough to go for it. And then Thiago Silva then provides a header for that goal for Aubameyang. It's just disgusting. In my opinion, absolutely disgusting. But there's going to be scenarios where is he 38 or 37? Let me know in the comments where he's going to get exploited. I think in those areas, especially when you want to push those players forward. So it's going to be interesting to see if they kind of stick with him or move to a three or how they kind of move that around. But he's, I mean, he shouldn't have been on the field. Absolutely shouldn't have been on the field. But there is this tactical overhaul that's going to take place here. And it's going to be interesting to see how Potter gets on in the coming weeks and months. Southampton 1, Everton 2. The XG on this one, 1.75 to 1.96. So a tight affair. And it did kind of come down to that, actually, at the end of it all. This match, it was a brilliant opportunity to sort of gauge where both of these teams are in terms of quality. And it's a good chance to see where they lay in terms of where they could finish. Because at the start of the season, these two were both teams that many people had down the bottom. I certainly did. And I was wondering. But I think in terms of the replacements and the transfer window that Everton have put in place here, I think they've done very, very well. And what they've done in particular is they've made themselves very, very sturdy. Very, very good defensively. It was Everton who ultimately, of course, came away with the win. A great away win as well. You can see Lampard laughing when he was sort of talking about it because of how few away wins they've had over, well, his tenure and over the last 80 months, let's say. It's the type of game that Everton would have lost last season. I've got to be honest. Last season, they were a bit pissy, weren't they? This year, they just feel strong. So after going one nil down last season, Everton said, I mean, they would have probably dropped. They would have been like, how do we find the answers? And that would affect the quality of their play for the rest of it. And it would have been a lot of unforced errors and it would have incurred from that. And I think they go on and lose that game. However, after that palace game last season, there is, and Everton stayed up, there seems to be this galvanized spirit around the club. And the connection between Lampard, the players and the fans is really, really strong. I think he's really empowered that squad and that starting 11. And then a few nice additions that we're going to talk about have really made a difference. I think the likes of Cody and Tarkovsky as those two center backs, leaders, talkers, importantly as well, have been huge for them since they joined the Toffees. And Everton have found this newfound hardness, right? They feel hard. Am I allowed to say that? And it's added some metal to the side. So from a tactical perspective, this Everton team is now incredibly balanced all over the park. The back four have a solid base to them and have ironed out a lot of the individual mistakes. Partnership with Cody and Tarkovsky is now settled, which is something Everton have been lacking in years due to personnel, unforced errors, and then of course injuries as well. And then the midfield, midfield of Gay, Wobbe and Inanna is also super balanced. And they also offer loads of different traits, which gives Everton different qualities in the center, which allows them to have more tactical complexity and to also progress the ball way more fluently than last season. Alex Wobbe is a player that we're going to be speaking about soon in an upcoming video. So if you're an Everton fan and a Wobbe fan, another reason to subscribe to the channel. So despite him being excellent, again, it's actually Inanna that I want to focus on really, because I just like the way that Lampard's using him. In this game, Inanna, he only had 36 touches, sorry. But his role in this Everton side isn't to be a midfield controller or progressor. That role is left for Wobbe. Inanna has a very interesting role for Everton in that he's sort of used as this sort of half target man in which he utilizes his size in the box and his physicality to provide Everton with both a different option when they're breaking forward. Having said that, he's still very good technically. And he completed actually three of his four long balls versus Southampton. His box-to-box type role reminds me of, and I said this a couple of weeks ago, of how Yaya Toure was utilized at Man City. It's also a little bit more, there's a sort of little Fellaini vibe to it. Maybe that's just because it's at Everton, but you kind of saw his aerial presence for that equalizer for Cody. But it's a very promising start by the young Belgian. I think he's going to have a massive, massive part to play for this Everton side. And in terms of that structure of the team, you can see it in those average positions. Because look at that back four and then Idrissa Gay in front of him and how high up Inanna is. You can see exactly how they play from those average positions, in my opinion. On to Southampton and the problem for Southampton in this match, and I think it's going to be a problem all season. And it's where Everton won. It was that Everton took their chances when they were presented. Southampton did not do that. Both Shea Adams and Sekou Mara took three shots apiece. Failed to get any of them on target. This was the theme for Southampton as a squad to the season. The Saints took a total of 22 shots versus Everton, but only managed six of these on target. This came down to poor finishing, but also Everton's defenders being monsters, to be honest, when it came to blocking shots. Everton's back four combined, blocked a total of six shots from Southampton, most of which were in good positions for Southampton as well. Because I know that's often what they look to do, to have a lot of plays in those central areas. You saw that from the goal from Ariba, who's actually had quite a good start for the side as well. But he has that about him, that ability to take chances, to be composed when he gets the ball inside the box. I'm not seeing that from these other players. I just wonder how Southampton fans feel about this next question, which is in matches like these, would you like your side to have a target man to call upon from the bench? You know, I feel like Southampton just have no plan B whatsoever. And against Everton, they were trying plan A, plan A, plan A. I think sometimes you just got to mix it up that little bit. So let me know, Southampton fans, are you fed up with this plan A? And do you feel like there is a plan B? If there is, let me know, because I'm not really sure. It feels a bit like they're just sort of, in the last stages of games, sometimes they're just punching wind to all extents and purposes. So let me know how you feel about it, Southampton fans. We have ourselves another managerial casualty. Bruno Lars has been relieved. Seems to be the word, isn't it? We're relieving you of your responsibilities. Should he have been relieved? Let us know, Wolves fans, in the comments below. I'll give you my thoughts in a second. But let's talk about this game. West Ham 2, Wolves nil. The XG was 0.92 to 0.74, which I think tells a pretty strong story as well. This was an interesting game, both on and off the pitch for both sides, desperately needing a win. Both clubs only had recorded one win each prior to this match. So the pressure was going to be lumped on whichever manager lost this tie. And it was ultimately Wolves who lost, and Bruno Lars who lost his job. Obviously, we're going to talk about what Wolves did wrong, but let's talk about West Ham and what they did well, because they were a lot better versus Wolves than they have been this season. West Ham this season are averaging less than one XG per game, which has been a big part of their struggles, despite all the reinforcements in the attacking areas, actually, this season. This has meant that when their forwards don't take their chances, they're going to be vulnerable to getting beaten by a narrow scoreline down the other end. I think there's a few games, certainly Nottingham Forest feels like one of those games, right? Where they were knocking at the door. But if you're not creating enough and not taking those chances, then you're in trouble. So prior to this game, West Ham was still yet to score more than one goal in a match, which again is a symptom of their lack of creativity going forward. So for the first 25 minutes of this game, I thought that this match would be a bit similar to the outcome for West Ham. And the Hammers like really, really lacking end product in any way whenever they got forward. However, sometimes you just need that little moment. And I thought that would be the case with Moyes in this side at some point. And I expect them to go on a bit of a run. Now, if I'm honest, I haven't looked at their pictures, but just generally, you know, you get that feeling, don't you? So they were saved, though, this time by Skamaka, who scored an absolute belter. I did say, didn't I? When he came to West Ham, watch out for him scoring goals from outside the box because he loves having those little strikes. He did take a tiny deflection, but it was it was a good goal. Nonetheless, right? Bowen, I thought, was also brilliant in this game, and it looked like he really trusted Tilo Keira, who, of course, you guys would have seen have a difficult start initially, but he played right back in this game and he was able to fulfill his duties without the England forward needing to track back. You can see from the average position maps how advanced Bowen was, essentially playing as a striker here. So and he was able to stay up there throughout the game. So that trust in Keira was a great base to allow Bowen to be that little bit higher up. The only slight worry I'd have for West Ham is that they still only created 0.9 xG in this match, which is still it's not really a lot. So there still needs to be improvements, but hopefully West Ham can kind of use this as a confidence builder and use that as a step towards that more attacking fruitful football that creates more chances because the quality in terms of players has risen. And so I think obviously expectations come with that, but I think in time they will create quality opportunities. They've got good players who can score those goals, and it's hard to see a world where Skamaka and Bowen don't feast on that once those opportunities start to flow. Right on to Wolves and Wolves woes. It's no secret that a big part of Wolves problems under large was that they struggled to create quality chances. This season, they are averaging 0.03 goals per shot in the league, which is the worst of any team in the whole division. But another worrying stat, and this is something we spoke about in the prem guide at the start of the season, the problem was the average distance from which they are shooting. They're always kind of, they're never getting in behind, and that is the problem with the striking situation, which is something Bruno Lajs said in his final interview. The average shot distance so far this season is 18.8 yards. So the only side that's averaging a further distance so far is Leicester with 19.5. So what that tells us is that there isn't really a cohesive plan in which Wolves are able to create high XG chances and be penetrative with their play. Under Lajs, there was a distinct lack of imagination. And again, it felt like they were sort of more, despite having so many sort of nice technical, cute players, they just lacked huge, an ability to be on the front foot and just kind of go for it at times. And I think this was their main downfall. And this is why he has ultimately been sacked because although they don't have that strike or haven't been able to use that striker properly, they could have created more. They definitely could have created more. You've got, you know, those little players in those pockets. You could have had runners and those players can come back. You've got mobility there and they haven't used that. And so in my opinion, I actually think it is a justified sacking, to be honest, because I think there is a lot of talent in that squad. He's also been backed in the transfer market with big money signings such as Mateus Nunez, Nathan Collins. You've got Sasha Kaladzic as well. Granted, Kaladzic picked up an injury straight away. So I get that, but they should be creating more. I think with a mid-table side, sometimes it is about how you're playing a little bit, you know, and playing in the middle third the whole game. After a while, it gets really, really boring. And so it's maybe one of those where before it's too late, you make that move for someone who's just got that little bit more chutzpah, let's say, and gets this team firing because there's goals in this team. Right guys, part two of the Fallout comes out tomorrow, talking about Arsenal, talking about Tottenham, talking about Liverpool, talking about Newcastle, talking about every other team, apart from those two nil-nil draws. If you're new to the channel, hit subscribe button and hit the notification bell as well, because I'm going to be doing some reactions to games very, very soon. So you're not going to want to miss those going live tomorrow for that Liverpool game. So make sure you hit that bell. I'll see you soon.