Weekend Football

[Jimmy Floyd]

Fixtures not mentioned available here: http://uk.soccerway.com/?ICID=TN_01

Saturday
1200 Rangers v Celtic (Sky)
1230 West Ham v Tottenham (Sky)
1500 Burnley v Huddersfield
1500 Everton v Bournemouth
1500 Man City v Crystal Palace
1500 Southampton v Man Utd
1500 Stoke v Chelsea
1500 Swansea v Watford
1730 Leicester v Liverpool (BT)

Dirty foreign muck:
1200 Atletico Madrid v Sevilla
1515 Alavés v Real Madrid
1600 Montpellier v PSG
1730 Dortmund v Gladbach
1945 Juventus v Torino
1945 Girona v Barcelona

Sunday
1315 Sheffield Wed v Sheffield Utd (Sky)
1600 Brighton v Newcastle (Sky)

Monday
2000 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion (Sky)

[mugbull]

Yo tactics nerds - what are your thoughts on a return to the 2 striker system? 3 years from now i bet most of the good teams will be going the 3-5-2. The tedious era of the 4-2-3-1 is on the out, imo

[Giggles]

That's a seriously meh lineup of fixtures.

[CJay]

Stat on Sky Sports coverage of the early game:

“Tottenham could become the first away team to lose twice at the Olympic Stadium.”

Is that going to keep being a stat until West Ham win at home this season against someone they beat last season? They must have been seriously stuck for interesting stats.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've stuck the Glasgow match on, it really is an absolute zoo up there. Celtic are cutting Rangers to ribbons every time they go forward and should easily rack up eight or nine.

[Ian]

Some bookies were giving evens on a Celtic win yesterday too, which felt a bit generous.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This Morelos is the laziest footballer I've seen for a long time. Just spends his life standing still in an offside position.

[Lewis]

Brendan Rodgers is too big for Scottish football. Arsenal could (and probably will) do a lot worse when they start looking for their next manager.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I wouldn't mind him when Conte and his wig flounce off to to Milan.

[Kikó]

Brendon in charge of arsenal or Chelsea would be amazing.

[Giggles]

Spurs are such a ponderous and unthreatening attacking team.

[Waffdon]

Rangers are such a vile club

Roberts is giving that bloke a right bumming.

[Spammer]

The steel city derby tomorrow

[Reg]

Yo tactics nerds - what are your thoughts on a return to the 2 striker system? 3 years from now i bet most of the good teams will be going the 3-5-2. The tedious era of the 4-2-3-1 is on the out, imo

I don't think it will come into fashion as much as 3-4-3 has. One big strength of 3-4-3 was allowing Hazard types to have freer roles and not worry about pretending to be a winger. The way Man City are/were using 3-5-2 is interesting and I can't think of a team who have used players like De Bruyne and Silva as the two ahead of a sitter. But City have two brilliant strikers and not many clubs do. Controlling midfield is still a big deal (though maybe more in terms of pressing more than possession), so a flat 4-4-2 will still be something for underdogs, and 3-5-2 seems better for modern teams than 4-4-2 diamond because run-all-day Walker/Mendy types can get further up the pitch.

[John Arne]

How is the offside law phrased nowadays? If it's still 'gaining an advantage' Kane gains a massive advantage on that first goal.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Celtic finally score and then a flare goes onto the pitch. It's about time there started being huge points deductions for that sort of thing.

[Waffdon]

Celtic finally score and then a flare goes onto the pitch. It's about time there started being huge points deductions for that sort of thing.

You’re a great laugh.

[Lewis]

Just cower under the table in the fromagerie and let the Real Fans get on with it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

You’re a great laugh.

Fire has no place in stands full of people. If you think otherwise, you shouldn't be allowed to go.

[Waffdon]

James Tavernier is such a pathetic defender.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Rangers are a god awful team, although I get that Celtic are pretty good for the league.

[Waffdon]

Would appreciate Rangers players losing their shit for money purposes now.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Tierney should be going to a top English club. Who needs a left back?

[Samadini]

Soz Dummett.




You said top, not top, top.

[niko_cee]

Yo tactics nerds - what are your thoughts on a return to the 2 striker system? 3 years from now i bet most of the good teams will be going the 3-5-2. The tedious era of the 4-2-3-1 is on the out, imo

Aye, all hail the incredibly exciting 5-7 defender formations.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've only watched 10 minutes of West Ham but I can tell you now Bilic is getting fired.

[SvN]

It's all been downhill for him since the hair transplant. Like a reverse Samson.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Was only going to be a matter of time until his first red.

He's got so much talent but he's so incredibly thick.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's all been downhill for him since the hair transplant. Like a reverse Samson.

His hair very much reflects his team. You can pay for as much reinforcement as you like up top, but it's still going horribly wrong at the back.

[Mazuuurk]

They are bottling the comeback here

[Jimmy Floyd]

Cahill has been dropped for Rüdiger, Chelsea twitter will be partying.

We're now down to zero English players.

[Samadini]

Stoke's backline is pretty special.

[niko_cee]

Renato Sanches already on the bench for Swansea. He must be some talent that kid.

[Samadini]

He was trying his best to be the worst player on the pitch against Newcastle.

[Giggles]

How are Ward-Prowse, van Dijk, and Austin not starting this?

[Lewis]

These away games should switch Juan Mata and 'Micki'. Two man counter-attacks are a bit useless.

[Magic]

Amazing. This doesn't feel like a 'run' it genuinely feels like a record breaking season coming up.

*loses next 5 games*

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

He's going to win us the league.

[Lewis]

World Clashley Young? Yeah.

[Jimmy Floyd]

We're going to finish about 10 points off the top and about 10 points ahead of 4th. What a season we have coming up.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

De Geallini with a great save there.

[Waffdon]

Niasse

[Jimmy Floyd]

Hope he celebrated by nutting Koeman's smug face.

[Waffdon]

Niasse’s finishing is properly good. Proved it at Hull. What a guy.

[Raoul Duke]

Wasn't he the chancer they tried to flog for ages?

[Waffdon]

Wasn't he the chancer they tried to flog for ages?

Aye. Koeman said he’d never play for them.

[Lewis]

Corporate Mourinho getting himself sent to the stands to waste valuable time, and then wasting even more with handshakes and waving to the Southampton substitutes.

[Magic]

Fucking get in Leeds.

[GS]

The irony of Niasse scoring a brace is that Koeman is probably inwardly SEETHING about being 'wrong'.

Managers taking grudges against players who evidently want to play for the club has always struck me as odd. I've always assumed it's because they want to 'establish their authority' and other alpha male shite like that, but then you end up forcing out perfectly serviceable players like Mamadou Sakho and you're forced to let complete shit like Ragnar Klavan play instead because they can speak German and laugh at your jokes.

[Boydy]

What's the backstory with Koeman and Niasse?