Xabi Alonso - Fee Agreed (Official)

[Craig_H]

You see that's not funny.

I'd rather stop arguing with you.

It wasnt a joke, that's possibly why it wasnt funny.

And (in a more light hearted manner), we need things to do more than just even out. We need to overturn a 4 point defecit

[Guest]

It wasnt a joke, that's possibly why it wasnt funny.

And (in a more light hearted manner), we need things to do more than just even out. We need to overturn a 4 point defecit

Or maybe they won't be able to repeat the same feat, as by losing Ronaldo and Tevez that could cost them, let's say - 12 points? That's what I meant by the 'evening out' comment.

[Craig_H]

Or maybe they won't be able to repeat the same feat, as by losing Ronaldo and Tevez that could cost them, let's say - 12 points? That's what I meant 'evening out'.

Possibly yeah.

Maybe we wont have 10 penalties and something like 6 or 8 games where we're playing against ten men, either.

[Guest]

Possibly yeah.

Maybe we wont have 10 penalties and something like 6 or 8 games where we're playing against ten men, either.

You see, that's the thing I think we excel in and that's called consistency.

[Neil Young]

i blame rafa for not having adequate man management skills. if ur not his favourite he doesn't care bout u. he is like every teacher i ever had at school.

Why do you mention that?

...Unless of course you're overlaying your feelings about your teachers on to Xabi's relationship with Rafa in which case please lie down on the couch and pay me £50.

In other words, the fact you see it that way and choose to link it to your experiences of authority figures at schoold probably says more about you than it does about Rafa.

[Guest]

Why do you mention that?

...Unless of course you're overlaying your feelings about your teachers on to Xabi's relationship with Rafa in which case please lie down on the couch and pay me £50.

In other words, the fact you see it that way and choose to link it to your experiences of authority figures at schoold probably says more about you than it does about Rafa.

[Craig_H]

You see, that's the thing I think we excel in and that's called consistency.

Yes, clearly it was all part of the masterplan.

Maybe United's 1-0 wins were part of their's.

[certifiable]

I was waiting for Capello's first words on him.
And hoping they'd be to my liking.

Until I see him play have to just accept that someone like Capello knows his ****.

In summary, and not in any way knee-jerk, he's going to be our missing link

:edit: wrong thread!

[DannyMan2006]

Carra and Gerrard both refer to Rafa's personality and man management skills in their books. Not personal and fairly cold, is the impression they give.

Some players wouldnt let it bother them, obviously. Some might.

Exactly. I don't knwo any manager in the game who has suited every player they have managed. Houllier was very close, but maybe suffered in other areas because of this.

[DannyMan2006]

Possibly yeah.

Maybe we wont have 10 penalties and something like 6 or 8 games where we're playing against ten men, either.

Penalties come about through spending time in your opponents box and potentially having a chance to score anyway. Man Utd and West Ham away for example, we looked set to score in both situations. No doubt though we had luck in plenty of situations, but also lacked it v Spurs away (woodwork 3 times) and Stoke at home (goal disallowed). Things even themselves out. You generally tend to have more "luck" though if you dominate possession in games. Funny that. Famous saying by a golfer "The more I practise the luckier I get".

In general I would say the loss of two important players to Man Utd is a bigger loss than Alonso to us. Luck doesn't really come into it.

[Craig_H]

Penalties come about through spending time in your opponents box and potentially having a chance to score anyway. Man Utd and West Ham away for example, we looked set to score in both situations. No doubt though we had luck in plenty of situations, but also lacked it v Spurs away (woodwork 3 times) and Stoke at home (goal disallowed). Things even themselves out. You generally tend to have more "luck" though if you dominate possession in games. Funny that. Famous saying by a golfer "The more I practise the luckier I get".

In general I would say the loss of two important players to Man Utd is a bigger loss than Alonso to us. Luck doesn't really come into it.

I never buy this whole 'evens itself out' thing, why should it?

It's not machinery we're on about here, or anything scientific. It's random and as such, i dont see how or why it 'must' just even itself out.

[Guest]

I never buy this whole 'evens itself out' thing, why should it?

It's not machinery we're on about here, or anything scientific. It's random and as such, i dont see how or why it 'must' just even itself out.

It's indeed a scientific theory but it's also been used in 'folklore' to interpret a saying.

Link

The Law of Large Numbers says that in repeated, independent trials with the same probability p of success in each trial, the percentage of successes is increasingly likely to be close to the chance of success as the number of trials increases. More precisely, the chance that the percentage of successes differs from the probability p by more than a fixed positive amount, E > 0, converges to zero as the number of trials n goes to infinity, for every number e > 0. Note that in contrast to the difference between the percentage of successes and the probability of success, the difference between the number of successes and the expected number of successes, n×p, tends to grow as n grows. The following tool illustrates the law of large numbers; the button toggles between displaying the difference between the number of successes and the expected number of successes, and the difference between the percentage of successes and the expected percentage of successes. The tool on this page illustrates the law of large numbers.

[Guest]

And to be fair Craig, you wouldn't buy into anything other than your own flaw ... err sorry flair.

[DannyMan2006]

I never buy this whole 'evens itself out' thing, why should it?

It's not machinery we're on about here, or anything scientific. It's random and as such, i dont see how or why it 'must' just even itself out.

But my "evens itself out theory" does not apply to other teams, just ours - which is far more realsitic.

For instance, we may have got ten penalties (i don't know the number), but how many were deserved? The majority of what I can remember. Yet throughout the season I remember countless times where I've been asking for a cast iron penalty and one has not been given.

Either way, I think it is unrealistic to suddenly expect premiership defenders to improve and not make illegal tackles on our players. It comes down to simple maths really. The more time we spend in an opponents box, the more time we are likely to be awarded a penalty. That is the real reason the better teams tend to get awarded more of the decisions. Last year we eventually saw a more attacking Liverpool and as such got awarded alot of decisions in our favour.

I wouldn't say we were given a vastly higher percentage of decisons in our favour, we just presented more options and situations in which a decision was needed to be made.

[Craig_H]

I'm not saying they werent correct decisions, but how often does a team get 10 penos in a season? It's pretty rare and not something we'd be well advised to bank on happening again. Ditto with the number of players Xabi managed to get sent off