GWT: EPL - Matchweek 9

[bluesfan94]

Yeah, it's a week away, but oh well. A couple London derbies between a top team and a midtable team, as Spurs host Fulham and Arsenal travel to Chelsea. Meanwhile, City will try to return to their winning ways but face a tough matchup when they host Brighton. Oh yeah, there's also a Merseyside Derby. That's neat I guess.

Home	Away	Time and Date (CT)	Venue
Liverpool	Everton	Sat., Oct. 21, 6:30 AM	Anfield
Brentford	Burnley	Sat., Oct. 21, 9:00 AM	Gtech Community Stadium
Bournemouth	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Sat., Oct. 21, 9:00 AM	Vitality Stadium
Nottingham Forest	Luton Town	Sat., Oct. 21, 9:00 AM	City Ground
Manchester City	Brighton & Hove Albion	Sat., Oct. 21, 9:00 AM	The Etihad
Newcastle United	Crystal Palace	Sat., Oct. 21, 9:00 AM	St. James's Park
Chelsea	Arsenal	Sat., Oct. 21, 11:30 AM	Stamford Bridge
Sheffield United	Manchester United	Sat., Oct. 21, 2:00 PM	Bramall Lane
Aston Villa	West Ham United	Sun., Oct. 22, 10:30 AM	Villa Park
Tottenham Hotspur	Fulham	Mon., Oct. 23, 2:00 PM	Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

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[Savant]

Reposting from MW4 thread. Modifying it but message still applies:

Liverpool in the early game. Their record in the early game following the international break is terrible. Since 2015, this is the 13th time that they have been scheduled to play in the early game immediately following the international break.

This is more than double the next most frequently scheduled teams (Chelsea and Tottenham), triple Man City and quadruple Arsenal. Utd have 5. They will also be the early game after the international break again in November.

Yes it’s a lousy time slot that someone has to play in. Yes it’s on LFC to find a way to improve in those games. But why have they played at that time so much more than everybody else, and why isn’t it spread across more evenly. This is an outlier

Also Andy Robertson probably dislocated his shoulder against Spain. Got to love the international break

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Reposting from MW4 thread. Modifying it but message still applies:

Liverpool in the early game. Their record in the early game following the international break is terrible. Since 2015, this is the 13th time that they have been scheduled to play in the early game immediately following the international break.

This is more than double the next most frequently scheduled teams (Chelsea and Tottenham), triple Man City and quadruple Arsenal. Utd have 5. They will also be the early game after the international break again in November.

Yes it’s a lousy time slot that someone has to play in. Yes it’s on LFC to find a way to improve in those games. But why have they played at that time so much more than everybody else, and why isn’t it spread across more evenly. This is an outlier

Also Andy Robertson probably dislocated his shoulder against Spain. Got to love the international break

When I heard that, I laughed....

I would love to stop talking about conspiracy and LFC and just focus on the football but it is getting so obvious that the FA is having a piss at LFC for some reason. Most likely because of Klopp and his constant talk about it, there are 18 other clubs in the league, that is not normal.

 

[bluesfan94]

My guess is they wanted the Merseyside derby to be at lunch time so that there's less chances of shenanigans.

 

[Savant]

My guess is they wanted the Merseyside derby to be at lunch time so that there's less chances of shenanigans.

That doesn’t check out. And there isn’t a ton of evidence suggesting that is a factor. Think this is more driven by the TV powers that be wanting Liverpool in a prime time slot. But again that doesn’t explain why LFC are getting picked more than double everyone else. It’s an outlier

More fun facts

 

[robertmac43]

That's just bad balance, plain and simple.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

FFS, they aren't playing at midnight. It's noon.

College sports start at noon every week....why can't grown ass men?

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

I mean both teams are playing at the same time no?

 

[Savant]

FFS, they aren't playing at midnight. It's noon.

College sports start at noon every week....why can't grown ass men?

Are we really trying to equate most soccer players to grown ass men? Also, college sports players aren’t playing on different continents days before.

I mean both teams are playing at the same time no?

but why is it so imbalanced? Everyone knows it’s a bad slot. And a team like Wolverhampton or Everton aren’t sending as many players out to South America and other players across the world

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Last year Man City played 3 matches at noon on Saturday following a Wednesday match while Liverpool and Arsenal had zero.

Are they out to get City?

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

What’s the difference in playing 4 hrs later though?

 

[Savant]

if

Last year Man City played 3 matches at noon on Saturday following a Wednesday match while Liverpool and Arsenal had zero.

Are they out to get City?

were these after international breaks? Where players were distributed across the planet ?

 

[JeffreyLFC]

That's just bad balance, plain and simple.

How about 3 out of 3 since Klopp mentioned about it in a press conference.

 

[Savant]

What’s the difference in playing 4 hrs later though?

According to the sports scientists there’s a difference. Sleep, preparation, jet lag, there is such small margin for error and these things are very finely tuned. Elite athletes very micromanaged and routine based, so I can see why people wouldn’t like it

if not much difference put some other teams in those slots then

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Most people will not care but funny enough, Klopp complained about it last year and since then they ONLY schedule LFC in these games.

 

[Savant]

Most people will not care but funny enough, Klopp complained about it last year and since then they ONLY schedule LFC in these games.

Yeah it’s not negatively effecting them, so they don’t care

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Most points per match for Liverpool........the 12pm kickoff.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

I do believe calling out FA and Referee in the media/press conference, does carry a negative effect.

I think Klopp should avoid talking about anything relating to them moving forward. I don't know if media require a fixed number of question but he should become the most boring manager in EPL history, answer with boring answer, refuse to answer questions about decision or "controversy". Not play the media narrative like he did the last time he answered questions about the early kickoff time or the VAR controversy with Spurs.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Most people will not care but funny enough, Klopp complained about it last year and since then they ONLY schedule LFC in these games.

And yet, that’s when Liverpool performs best, maybe they’re trying to help.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

And yet, that’s when Liverpool performs best, maybe they’re trying to help.

They are not, at least recently. Unrelated to Klopp/LFC, I personally hate these early saturday games as it's way too early in the morning in North America. I prefer the 10AM or 12:30PM game in my time zone. Way more enjoyable.

 

[Savant]

Most points per match for Liverpool........the 12pm kickoff.

Data since 2013-14. So they are extending the sample size here. LFC get a lot of points per match because they are good. they probably get a lot of points in a lot of different time slots. Also this data is considering all those games, not specifically games after the international break, so no I don’t think this is some smoking gun. It’s just adding more data that is irrelevant to the point to try to fit The narrative that there is nothing to complain about despite it being an obvious outlier

 

[spintheblackcircle]

LFC get a lot of points per match because they are good.

That's not what the charts infers. Of ALL the time frames the league plays, Liverpool perfoms BEST at noon on Saturday. No other time or day is better for them than the early game.

this is comparing Liverpool to Liverpool.

 

[Savant]

That's not what the charts infers. Of ALL the time frames the league plays, Liverpool perfoms BEST at noon on Saturday. No other time or day is better for them than the early game.

this is comparing Liverpool to Liverpool.

That’s not the argument though. The argument is specific to the early game after the international break. When you are throwing in data that is including early game not after an international break it is diluting the data. It is also irrelevant. And also diluting it is increasing the sample size. You are putting up stats that are going back to 2013-14 AND including games not post the international break. So again you are blatantly ignoring the part of this that LFC are upset about it by throwing in FUD. It’s disingenuous to add additional variables in here

There is a difference between 2013-14 onward for all 12pm games and 2017-18 onward for 12:30pm games after an international break.

 

[gary69]

Well, hopefully Chelsea, even with all the injuries, can get one over Arsenal and bring them down a notch more to the level they belong.

Albeit in the absence of proper strikers (Jackson or Broja being somewhat fit would be appriciated) that might be too much to ask for, so I guess a draw wouldn't be a terrible result.

 

[bluesfan94]

According to the sports scientists there’s a difference. Sleep, preparation, jet lag, there is such small margin for error and these things are very finely tuned. Elite athletes very micromanaged and routine based, so I can see why people wouldn’t like it

if not much difference put some other teams in those slots then

If they’re routine based, probably advantage Liverpool that they’ve gotten so many