Thread by @babuyagu

I'm still very proud of myself for highlighting this when he fight signed for us.

It comes from watching Enrico Chiesa as a kid whose first touch seemed to solely exist to make an angle and space to get a shot off with his second. So I am always watching a player's first touch

https://twitter.com/MelissaReddy_/status/1430817869223317504

to see what their aim is. Are they just trying to get the ball under control. Do they tend to stop the ball dead then look up and make decisions (Can). Or are they being proactive. Is their first touch always with a greater purpose?

And this is the stuff Wenger describes as the

'foundations' for a player. Stuff that if it isn't in place by the time they are 14 then you aren't going to see much change in it. Because after that you need to add other things to their game before they turn pro - and then it is maintaining levels, fitness, tactical prep.

The other 'type' of finisher I love is the Aguero. It is hard to describe but he runs with the ball and throws little micro-feints in to make you think his next touch will be a shot - and the keeper sets himself for it and a defender will slide to block it, then he takes another

little touch rather than shoot... then BANG. And he gets the ball up off the ground to make sure if the defender did slide it will be over them and the keeper's set position probably relaxed when the shot never came and won't be ready.

Fucking loved watching Aguero shoot!

A fun player to go back and watch the shot technique of is Romario. He does all that. He is always taking shots early... or sitting people down before shooting... but it is also that little toe-poke finish that caught most people out. He incorporated it as part of his stride

while running so you wouldn't even see a wind-up for a shot and he just toe pokes it past the keeper still standing.

He broke some record after I moved to Brazil and they had a massive compilation of his goals in Rio for Vasco, Flamengo and Fluminense and the finishing was just

outrageous. Keepers had no chance. But he was also a fucking tank. He had that same - arse 2 inches from the ground anchoring his weight so you can't knock him off the ball - stuff going on that Maradona and others did. Stocky wee bastard. Like an Olympic wrestler.

With analysis now - where we take the average number of goals based on the same location, height, placement etc of a shot... what we lose in that is technique. If you have some deception in your shot technique then a shot a keeper would easily save in usual situations will just

leave them standing because they thought the shot would become earlier or later than when it did

If you take a shot early, then you catch the keeper while they are moving in their goal from their set position on the cross/pass. Their momentum going one way, you put it the other.

And getting back to Jota - he is 24. I always say that the peak goalscoring years are 24-29. And he is getting better and better. His non-penalty xG per 90 was 0.33, then 0.46 - we sign him - 0.57 and now 0.63

To put that into perspective, Mbappe's was 0.68 last season in Ligue1

And one last thing on Jota - he was called a flop when we signed him. He had just had a season converting about 50ish % of his NPG into goals. 7 goals from 12xg.

xG is a good measure of repeatable output. We saw that and massive value in Jota. Fans see a flop.

And that is why Chelsea won't be too bothered about Werner - if they are smart.

That guy is a fucking goalmine

(get it... like gold mine... but with goals? Right? No? Should I stop?)

I guarantee you if Chelsea put Werner on the market tomorrow, we would be the first club in for him. Though Edwards would probably do the whole sucking teeth schtick, pretend to have doubts and it was a huge risk and try to negotiate it down to £14 up front and a box of Wispas.

https://twitter.com/CraqueStats/status/1307860190566506496

Btw the original Jota article I wrote for those interested.

I also highlighted how under Klopp Mané refined his process to find consistency in his game - something that also naturally occurs with forwards as they age and gain experience - keep what works, bin what doesn't.