Boubacar Kamara - officially signed new 5 year contract.

[Drummond]

In the first half of the season, I often thought how we seemed to reflect Kamara's performance as a team: when he played well we played well, and when he played badly so did we. Without him we've looked good far less often, Doug in particular looks to have shouldered too great a burden, and the compounding loss of Tielemans has been the ultimate kicker.

Yep, and that suggests we need someone closer to his qualities as a back-up. The issue is finding someone good enough that's happy to play second-fiddle.


*edit, as paul said two posts ago!

[Dave]

Mentioned before that Ndidi on a free wouldn't be a terrible idea. Only 27, but loads of experience, knows his way around the league and will be settled and ready to go on day one.

Wouldn't be close to our first-choice midfield, but if he'd been in our squad this season he'd have easily racked up 25 games.

[pablo_picasso]

Mentioned before that Ndidi on a free wouldn't be a terrible idea. Only 27, but loads of experience, knows his way around the league and will be settled and ready to go on day one.

Wouldn't be close to our first-choice midfield, but if he'd been in our squad this season he'd have easily racked up 25 games.

That is a decent shout.

As a squad player, on a free, he would be a decent pick up.

[ozzjim]

Knows Tielemans well too. Not sure he's technically good enough for Emery receiving the ball in tight spaces though.

[Monty]

Mentioned before that Ndidi on a free wouldn't be a terrible idea. Only 27, but loads of experience, knows his way around the league and will be settled and ready to go on day one.

Wouldn't be close to our first-choice midfield, but if he'd been in our squad this season he'd have easily racked up 25 games.

That is a decent shout.

As a squad player, on a free, he would be a decent pick up.

Noooooooo

[pablo_picasso]

Mentioned before that Ndidi on a free wouldn't be a terrible idea. Only 27, but loads of experience, knows his way around the league and will be settled and ready to go on day one.

Wouldn't be close to our first-choice midfield, but if he'd been in our squad this season he'd have easily racked up 25 games.

That is a decent shout.

As a squad player, on a free, he would be a decent pick up.

Noooooooo

Not a fan of the player or choice of words?

[Footy-Vill]

Funnily enough there's been some discussions about nicknames and groundhog day and Ndidi has the nickname Groundnut Boy!

"I would go round selling different types of foods, like peppers, tomatoes and groundnuts (peanuts). I was actually known for selling groundnuts and sometimes they would call me Groundnut Boy"

[Monty]

Mentioned before that Ndidi on a free wouldn't be a terrible idea. Only 27, but loads of experience, knows his way around the league and will be settled and ready to go on day one.

Wouldn't be close to our first-choice midfield, but if he'd been in our squad this season he'd have easily racked up 25 games.

That is a decent shout.

As a squad player, on a free, he would be a decent pick up.

Noooooooo

Not a fan of the player or choice of words?

I associate it with American Sports Draft Speak, but I could be very wrong.

[pablo_picasso]

Mentioned before that Ndidi on a free wouldn't be a terrible idea. Only 27, but loads of experience, knows his way around the league and will be settled and ready to go on day one.

Wouldn't be close to our first-choice midfield, but if he'd been in our squad this season he'd have easily racked up 25 games.

That is a decent shout.

As a squad player, on a free, he would be a decent pick up.

Noooooooo

Not a fan of the player or choice of words?

I associate it with American Sports Draft Speak, but I could be very wrong.

😂

Might be where I picked it up from.

I do watch a bit of College Football & NFL...

[Monty]

Aw mate! And I thought you were alright!

[eamonn]

I thought you were bemoaning the creeping lexicon of Tate, pick-up artists etc.

[SaddVillan]

Following on from various psost here re how Kamara's absence has affected ourresults, I've looked at all our Prem games to date to see how we did with and without him.

We played 23 games up to him being subbed off in against ManU in the 65th minute, it was 1-1 at the time, but we lost to an 86th minute goal.
And we've played 12 games (to date without him)

Discounting the ManU game
 
         WITH KAMARA                                          WITHOUT KAMARA                                       
P23 W14 D4 L5  F49 A30                               P12 W6 D3 L3  F23 A 21
Win rate 60.9%                                            Win rate 50%
Points per game 2.0                                      Points per game 1.75       
Scored     2.13 per game                               Scored     1.92 per game
Conceded 1.30 per game                               Conceded 1.75 per game

6 clean sheets- 26.1%                                   Games with clean sheets: 2 - 16.7%
Games with only 1 conceded: 10  - 43.5%       Games where we only conceded 1 goal: 4 - 16.7%

WITHOUT KAMARA
P12  W6 D3 L3
Win rate 50%
Points per game 1.75
Goals  per game
Scored 2.00
Conceded 1.75


Was his injury a watershed moment?

Other players have missed some games and  I have a feeling that Torres being absent has also affected us negatively, but losing Kamara affected our ability to defend AND attack - he screened the back 4 and allowed Dougie and Meatball to get forward.

We scored more and conceded fewer goals per game with him, kept more clean sheets and earned more points per game.

If we'd continued the same run of form since his injury as before (achievingh the same points per game average), we'd be 3 points better off. 4th place secured and who knows what difference he'd have made in the UECL?

Having said all that I've said, the game's not played on a spreadsheet and we are where we are.


C'mon Agent Grealish v Spurs!!

[pablo_picasso]

Aw mate! And I thought you were alright!

Its a fascinating sport... 😉

[Monty]

Aw mate! And I thought you were alright!

Its a fascinating sport... 😉

To be fair I like Aussie Rules, so nobody's perfect.

[pauliewalnuts]

Aw mate! And I thought you were alright!

Its a fascinating sport... 😉

To be fair I like Aussie Rules, so nobody's perfect.

I think all other sports are shit.

Especially rugby, though, rugby is incredibly shit.