24/25 Match Week 4 Recap

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Headlines 📌

• Current Situation📈📉

• Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- “Super Sub”

• Off Island 🏝️ - USMNT

• Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

• CS Match of the Week. Liverpool 0-1 Forest. WOW!

  • SHOCKER. 55 Years - the last time Forest went into Anfield and won, 1969 (a very good year).

  • Callum Hudson-Odoi. The “Super Sub” came on at HT and scored this banger off the post at 72’ for the winner.

  • A Setback. Those were Liverpool gaffer Arne Slot’s words, so were these. “If you’re not disappointed in dropping points at home against Nottingham Forest something is wrong”….no offense to Forest.

  • That’s How It’s Done. Forest gaffer Nuno tactically managed a brilliant game. While Liverpool had more chances and while Forest were more defensive, they did not just try to hold on for a draw. Nuno brought on attackers at HT and they stretched the field.

  • Undefeated. Yes, Forest has yet to lose and this win at Anfield has the Tree’s thinking big.

  • Troll. Nice troll from Forest supporters.

• Comeback 1. Aston Villa 3-2 Everton. Another 2-goal Everton lead, another loss.

  • Last week the Toffee’s held a 2-goal lead at 86’ and lost.

  • This week, they held a 2-goal lead at 27’, conceding 1 before HT and then again at 58’ before Jhon Duran came on at 69’ and the “Super Sub” scored this ROCKET. The look on Emi’s face says it all.

• Comeback 2. Wolves 1-2 Newcastle. The Magpies kept their loss-less streak going by scoring at 75’ and 80’ to complete the comeback.

  • Harvey Barnes came on at 46’ and the “Super Sub” hit this screamer for the win.

• North London Is Red. Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal. It’s early, but this is a season defining match. A loss, after last week’s draw, and it might feel like City are running away with it already.

  • Huge win for the shorthanded Gunners at their fiercest rivals. Rely on solid defense, great depth, and then find a way to get a goal and get out of the stadium with all three points.

  • Gabriel Magalhaes with the header off the corner, great field level video.

  • What a song. The road fans serenading Ange - brilliant - “Cheer up Postecoglou, Oh what can it mean, To a Fat Aussie Bastard, And a shit football team…..”

  • Looking ahead. MW5 Arsenal at City.

• Win is a Win. City 2-1 Brentford.

  • Fast Start. 25 seconds and Brentford lead at City on Wissa’s header.

  • Haaland. Going for back-to-back-to-back hat tricks. Did not get it. Just 2 goals this week.

    • One. Typical power up in the box.

    • Two. Not typical, off an ASSIST to the goalkeeper, not just known for clean sheets.

    • Wissa. Unfortunately for the Bee’s Yoane Wissa was taken off before HT on this tackle with what looks like a long term injury.

• Clear and Obvious. That is how the VAR should interpret reviews. In the Palace 2-2 LCFC match, the Foxes had a 2-goal lead at 46’ when Palace scored to cut the lead, however the referee called the play offside. VAR reviewed the close call and OVERTURNED the ruling, even though it was clearly offside. So they overturned the call that was right to begin with.

  • Vardy. Speed.

  • Steve Cooper, LCFC gaffer, was pretty direct in his post-match presser.

Current Situation 📈📉

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

Goals are DOWN this season over last, clean sheets are UP over last but only slightly.

CS will track the clean sheets over the season as well as the number of goals scored compared the last season.

Last Season had ZERO match weeks under 30 goals scored. This has yet to have a MW go over last season’s average of 32.8 goals per MW.

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

“Super Sub”

The TWELLTH man is a term used in American Football to talk about the home crowd advantage. While the term is used by many teams, Texas A&M University has the best tradition related to the 12^th Man in College Football “Home of the 12^th Man”.

In basketball, leagues have awards for the best SIXTH man, the player who doesn’t start but makes a big impact for their team. Yardbarker did an article on the best 25 sixth men in NBA history.

In the EPL “Super Sub” is the term used for bench players coming on and making an impact.

• Jermain Defoe holds the record for most goals scored as a sub. 24 of Defoe’s 162 EPL goals were as a sub. He scored 1 goal every 128 minutes played.

• Striker Olivier Giroud (currently playing at LAFC in MLS) was a sub in 40% of his 255 EPL appearances, scoring the second most - 21 goals, 1 for every 95 minutes played.

• The most famous might be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Man United. In 1998-99 Man United were up 4-1 on Forest at the 70’ mark. Solskjaer came on as a sub and scored 4 goals in the final 20’. As a sub, Ole would score 17 goals in his career, 1 for every 92 minutes he played

This weekend when Forest pulled the huge upset at Anfield, it was sub Callum Hudson-Odoi who scored the winning goal. He was one of four subs to score this weekend. Last season CS talked about the rise in the number of goals being scored late in matches. Now, we are going to focus on the record number of goals by subs in the PL last season through this season.

• Last season 12.8% of goals were scored by subs, 159 goals, the most ever in the EPL.

• This seasons pace, 13.2%

• Second most ever, 12.2% in 2013/14

• Lowest ever, 3.3% in 1993/94

What may be impacting the rise of goals by subs…..

• Rule Change.

  • In 2022/23 the rules for subs changed from a maximum of 3 allowed to 5 per match. That saw an increase in goals scored by a sub from 102 the prior season to 132. Then last seasons 159.

• Increase in Stoppage time.

  • Last season the total added time to a match was over 11 minutes, almost double the amount from 3 years prior.

• Penalties.

  • 84 penalty kicks were converted last season, tied for second most penalties scored in a season. Interestingly, it wasnt the most penalties taken but was this highest conversion rate at 90.3%.

• Scoring is up overall.

  • Last season saw more goals scored in the EPL than any other season, 3.28 goals per game, up from 2.85 the previous season.

  • Here’s an interesting article (premier league) on the increased scoring.

Are more subs scoring because there are more fresh subs in the game or because there is more added time at the end of a match to score or because goals are up overall.

Interesting - here’s a snapshot from midway through last season on each club’s use of subs. There does not seem to be a correlation between clubs that sub the most with clubs that score the most.

• BHA & Fulham scored 55 goals and are the top two subbing clubs.

• City 96 & Chelsea 77 & Villa 76 are in the bottom 7 of subbing.

Will be interesting to keep an eye on. Goals are down this year so far. Will late match goals and goals by subs follow that trend?

Off Island 🏝️

USMNT

The USMNT drew with New Zealand, the 96th ranked team in the world, 1-1 in a home friendly. Christian Pulisic came on in the 2H and immediately made an impact to take a 1-0 lead. But, this match should’ve been 5-0, not 1-0. And you expect to see this play in a high school game, wtf is this.

CS OPINION

BOTTOM LINE. The US soccer federation has completely messed up the last several years (at least). This club makes today’s Carolina Panthers and Chicago White Sox look like well-run organizations. There are so many disconnects between leadership, managers, lower levels etc. This is not on one manager or another. It’s a culture problem. In addition, while Pulisic is a great player he does not have the personality to be the leader. They need that from elsewhere on the club and for many reasons that is not happening.

Here’s the good news. By hiring Pochettino, a proven manager from outside the organization, he can go in and focus completely on getting a great result at the 2026 World Cup. He needs to “ignore” the BS culture, administration and listening to all the excuses that have been made over the years and push this club to achieve beyond their individual abilities. He’s got the ability to do that. Will be fun to see if he can.

Here was part of his introductory press conference. Good listen.

USWNT - U20’s - Greatest Comeback?

The two most successful nations in the U20 Women’s World Cup played each other in the quarterfinals in Cali, Colombia. Germany had the lead 2-0 at 90’+7’. The US scored at 97’ and again at 98’ to tie the match, and then win in a penalty shootout.

Here are 2 minutes of highlights at FIFA.

Best Bets 💰

Biggest down MW of CS career. The top clubs coming out of international break did not show up and the underdogs ran wild. That’s what happens when you lay big money on big lines. It’s a long season, will not get it all back at once but will work our way back.