Marco Bizot - signed

[Drummond]

Seems like a top bloke too.

Second only to Chevalier for saves in Ligue 1 last season, no wonder the supporters loved him.

[eye digress]

Which isn't quite as flattering as it sounds - Brest shipped a load of goals last season, the greatest number of goals outside the dropzone (they finished 9th). The PL equivalent (second most saves) last year was Aaron Ramsdale! Chevalier shipped 23 fewer goals.

[eamonn]

He seemed psyched up to play against an old rival in Feyenoord. Let's see how he does at Leeds and Wolves, he wasn't great against Palace.

[cdbearsfan]

Which isn't quite as flattering as it sounds - Brest shipped a load of goals last season, the greatest number of goals outside the dropzone (they finished 9th). The PL equivalent (second most saves) last year was Aaron Ramsdale! Chevalier shipped 23 fewer goals.

Conceded 59 but had an expected goals against of 66.25.

I post this for two reasons:

1. To suggest that their defensive woes may not have been entirely his fault.

2. As I know there are a load of xG fans on here and wanted to give them all a lovely Friday treat.

[Ian.]

He seemed psyched up to play against an old rival in Feyenoord. Let's see how he does at Leeds and Wolves, he wasn't great against Palace.

That’s unfair, being shit against Palace is just part of the Villa contract.

[paul_e]

Which isn't quite as flattering as it sounds - Brest shipped a load of goals last season, the greatest number of goals outside the dropzone (they finished 9th). The PL equivalent (second most saves) last year was Aaron Ramsdale! Chevalier shipped 23 fewer goals.

Conceded 59 but had an expected goals against of 66.25.

I post this for two reasons:

1. To suggest that their defensive woes may not have been entirely his fault.

2. As I know there are a load of xG fans on here and wanted to give them all a lovely Friday treat.

Even more than that, they were clearly out of their depth in the champions league and the extra games hurt them but also the number conceded isn't entirely 24 of those goals came in the 6 games against PSG, Marseille and Nice. 35 conceded in the other 28 doesn't look too bad really.

I had to look it up but I knew they got battered by Nice and Marseille late in the season and PSG put 15 past them in 3 games (1league and 2CL) in February.

[eye digress]

Which isn't quite as flattering as it sounds - Brest shipped a load of goals last season, the greatest number of goals outside the dropzone (they finished 9th). The PL equivalent (second most saves) last year was Aaron Ramsdale! Chevalier shipped 23 fewer goals.

Conceded 59 but had an expected goals against of 66.25.

I post this for two reasons:

1. To suggest that their defensive woes may not have been entirely his fault.

2. As I know there are a load of xG fans on here and wanted to give them all a lovely Friday treat.

Great stat. No, I didn't mean to suggest he was at fault for the high number of goals, but rather that he was playing in a slightly gung-ho team liable to give him the opportunity to make a large quantity of saves.

Wonder what the expected goals against was for Chevalier?

[eye digress]

Even more than that, they were clearly out of their depth in the champions league and the extra games hurt them but also the number conceded isn't entirely 24 of those goals came in the 6 games against PSG, Marseille and Nice. 35 conceded in the other 28 doesn't look too bad really.

I had to look it up but I knew they got battered by Nice and Marseille late in the season and PSG put 15 past them in 3 games (1league and 2CL) in February.

Bit harsh - they did get as far as the playoffs and had a few great results in the very early games. But take your broader point that when they were bad, they were very bad!

[paul_e]

Which isn't quite as flattering as it sounds - Brest shipped a load of goals last season, the greatest number of goals outside the dropzone (they finished 9th). The PL equivalent (second most saves) last year was Aaron Ramsdale! Chevalier shipped 23 fewer goals.

Conceded 59 but had an expected goals against of 66.25.

I post this for two reasons:

1. To suggest that their defensive woes may not have been entirely his fault.

2. As I know there are a load of xG fans on here and wanted to give them all a lovely Friday treat.

Great stat. No, I didn't mean to suggest he was at fault for the high number of goals, but rather that he was playing in a slightly gung-ho team liable to give him the opportunity to make a large quantity of saves.

Wonder what the expected goals against was for Chevalier?

For Lille it was 36 against 45.74

However it is worth noting that Ligue 1 in general has a massive negative for xG for last season with only 4 teams scoring more than their xG across the league so pretty much every keeper is positive from there and most attackers were under. It's a bit of a weird set of stats really and is probably something someone with a bit more time and interest could turn into a pretty interesting youtube video/series.

[paul_e]

Even more than that, they were clearly out of their depth in the champions league and the extra games hurt them but also the number conceded isn't entirely 24 of those goals came in the 6 games against PSG, Marseille and Nice. 35 conceded in the other 28 doesn't look too bad really.

I had to look it up but I knew they got battered by Nice and Marseille late in the season and PSG put 15 past them in 3 games (1league and 2CL) in February.

Bit harsh - they did get as far as the playoffs and had a few great results in the very early games. But take your broader point that when they were bad, they were very bad!

By out of their depth I mean they didn't have thge squad depth to handle a champions league campaign. If you look at their results they were pretty obviously fucked by March.

[eye digress]

Take it you're volunteering?

[eye digress]

Even more than that, they were clearly out of their depth in the champions league and the extra games hurt them but also the number conceded isn't entirely 24 of those goals came in the 6 games against PSG, Marseille and Nice. 35 conceded in the other 28 doesn't look too bad really.

I had to look it up but I knew they got battered by Nice and Marseille late in the season and PSG put 15 past them in 3 games (1league and 2CL) in February.

Bit harsh - they did get as far as the playoffs and had a few great results in the very early games. But take your broader point that when they were bad, they were very bad!

By out of their depth I mean they didn't have thge squad depth to handle a champions league campaign. If you look at their results they were pretty obviously fucked by March.

Yes, clearly, also explained by the fact they were a flash-in-the-pan team whose CL qualification was a significant overachievement. They were running on fumes and momentum from the 2023-24 campaign in the early CL games, but then ran out of steam (and reverted to the mean), hence the various thrashings. 

[cdbearsfan]

Which isn't quite as flattering as it sounds - Brest shipped a load of goals last season, the greatest number of goals outside the dropzone (they finished 9th). The PL equivalent (second most saves) last year was Aaron Ramsdale! Chevalier shipped 23 fewer goals.

Conceded 59 but had an expected goals against of 66.25.

I post this for two reasons:

1. To suggest that their defensive woes may not have been entirely his fault.

2. As I know there are a load of xG fans on here and wanted to give them all a lovely Friday treat.

Great stat. No, I didn't mean to suggest he was at fault for the high number of goals, but rather that he was playing in a slightly gung-ho team liable to give him the opportunity to make a large quantity of saves.

Wonder what the expected goals against was for Chevalier?

I can only find the team stats (below) and he played in just a handful of games so not sure.

https://understat.com/league/Ligue_1/2024

[paul_e]

Take it you're volunteering?

Fuck that, I'm a stats nerd but not enough to put in all the work to explain why the entire French league was a statistical anomaly last season. I'd love to watch it from someone like Statman Dave though.

[eye digress]

I can only find the team stats (below) and he played in just a handful of games so not sure.

Thanks for the linky link. Wasn't he an ever-present last season at LOSC?