The Murphy/Salah thing makes for a good hook but it was fun going through the various clips to see who else might set up those sorts of goals for the big Swede.
Mo running down the right wing w his head up and the ball at his feet ... Jeremie (overlapping) to his right at pace ... Florian (underlapping) ... Isak in the area using apex predator instincts to find the right space ... late box arrivals from Cody joined sometimes by Macca (2 players with elite game intelligence) ... almost impossible for opponents to defend once they all get used to playing together
Great read. Not to be negative but I noticed that a lot of attacks break down after Salah receives the ball which also happened during last season. Do you have a way to put a number on that?
With Wirtz joining, I was hoping that he would take over the role of proving the last pass and allow Mo to focus on finishing.
I think a sentence from the 'Isak or Ekitike' article I wrote sums it up re Salah:
"On turnovers of possession per 90, Ekitike was again worse than Salah, the man who amassed more of them than any other Premier League player in 2024/25. When you’re the top scorer and leading assist provider in the division, this sort of issue can be overlooked. When you’re the new £86m kid in town, not so much."
I guess it's the price of doing business when your tactic is to get the ball to Salah asap. Thinking about it, I should've probably looked at turnovers as a percentage of passes received. But anyway, you're right, Salah does lose the ball a lot.
Do you happen to know how many of Salah’s turnovers let to a shot for the opposition?
I suspect that opponents caught onto Salah’s tendency to turn over possession and look to exploit us with direct attacks, eg 2-2 v Bournemouth. As we tend to commit a midfielder to crash the box to give Salah more options, we are vulnerable in these situations.
Sadly not but I suspect you might be right re opposition tactics.
One thing I did find today though - Salah was 10th in the Premier League last season for proportion of player touches ending with a turnover. While he made the most turnovers, he wasn't the worst offender on a pro-rata basis.
Great work. I definitely appreciate learning the phrase "Geordie Arabia." I should have thought of that one... Good point about the psxG. My general impression of Isak is that he's more of a poacher than I would like, not least because the last striker we spent an insane amount of money (Ha! Little did we know...) on to basically be a target man didn't succeed at this level. But, again, the psxG point is a valid relief of that concern and we know that Isak functions just fine at this level, thanksverymuch. (My mild concerns are only heightened by Ian Graham reminding everyone a few days ago that in the same year that we bought Bob, our other main target was Heung-Min Son, only for Rodgers to insist on a target man in the form of Benteke. Sigh... Anyway, ancient history. Am happy to see Isak put any of my mild fears to rest, not least because we have Florian delivering the balls even if he is more of a target man. Like the story of the boy and his horse: We'll see.
Hughes' moves this summer (Isak, Wirtz & Ekitike) upgrade our attack to 'best-in-Europe' status for this season. Simultaneously, he future-proofed it for the eventual loss of Mo in the coming seasons. Very exciting!
The Murphy/Salah thing makes for a good hook but it was fun going through the various clips to see who else might set up those sorts of goals for the big Swede.
Mo running down the right wing w his head up and the ball at his feet ... Jeremie (overlapping) to his right at pace ... Florian (underlapping) ... Isak in the area using apex predator instincts to find the right space ... late box arrivals from Cody joined sometimes by Macca (2 players with elite game intelligence) ... almost impossible for opponents to defend once they all get used to playing together
Great read. Not to be negative but I noticed that a lot of attacks break down after Salah receives the ball which also happened during last season. Do you have a way to put a number on that?
With Wirtz joining, I was hoping that he would take over the role of proving the last pass and allow Mo to focus on finishing.
I think a sentence from the 'Isak or Ekitike' article I wrote sums it up re Salah:
"On turnovers of possession per 90, Ekitike was again worse than Salah, the man who amassed more of them than any other Premier League player in 2024/25. When you’re the top scorer and leading assist provider in the division, this sort of issue can be overlooked. When you’re the new £86m kid in town, not so much."
I guess it's the price of doing business when your tactic is to get the ball to Salah asap. Thinking about it, I should've probably looked at turnovers as a percentage of passes received. But anyway, you're right, Salah does lose the ball a lot.
Do you happen to know how many of Salah’s turnovers let to a shot for the opposition?
I suspect that opponents caught onto Salah’s tendency to turn over possession and look to exploit us with direct attacks, eg 2-2 v Bournemouth. As we tend to commit a midfielder to crash the box to give Salah more options, we are vulnerable in these situations.
Sadly not but I suspect you might be right re opposition tactics.
One thing I did find today though - Salah was 10th in the Premier League last season for proportion of player touches ending with a turnover. While he made the most turnovers, he wasn't the worst offender on a pro-rata basis.
https://www.gamemodelsfootball.com/ratings/mbappe-ratings
Great work. I definitely appreciate learning the phrase "Geordie Arabia." I should have thought of that one... Good point about the psxG. My general impression of Isak is that he's more of a poacher than I would like, not least because the last striker we spent an insane amount of money (Ha! Little did we know...) on to basically be a target man didn't succeed at this level. But, again, the psxG point is a valid relief of that concern and we know that Isak functions just fine at this level, thanksverymuch. (My mild concerns are only heightened by Ian Graham reminding everyone a few days ago that in the same year that we bought Bob, our other main target was Heung-Min Son, only for Rodgers to insist on a target man in the form of Benteke. Sigh... Anyway, ancient history. Am happy to see Isak put any of my mild fears to rest, not least because we have Florian delivering the balls even if he is more of a target man. Like the story of the boy and his horse: We'll see.
I can’t take credit for Geordie Arabia but I also can’t remember where I first heard it.
'Geordie Arabia' is a good one
Hughes' moves this summer (Isak, Wirtz & Ekitike) upgrade our attack to 'best-in-Europe' status for this season. Simultaneously, he future-proofed it for the eventual loss of Mo in the coming seasons. Very exciting!