[FOOTBALL] Midweek Fixtures - League Cup Quarter-Finals (19/20 December)

[Reg]

http://www.live-footballontv.com

19:45 unless stated.

Tuesday
Arsenal v West Ham
Leicester v Man City - Sky

Wednesday
Chelsea v Bournemouth
Bristol City v Man United (20:00) - Sky

Bayern Munich v Dortmund (Cup 3rd Round) - BT

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42414884

Erm... I hope the Chinese billionaire and Billy Beane like greasy breakfasts.

[Kikó]

Chien Lee adibadiba doubt you.

Bristol city will be an interesting one. Are they two legs?

[phonics]

No, semis only.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2017/dec/19/the-100-best-footballers-in-the-world-2017-interactive

lol at this also. Even in the bottom third of the top 100, they have managed precisely one player outside the major giants from the so-called top five nations. Might as well just rank them by google searches.

[-james-]

Found out today that Rene Maric, some 25 year old tactics nerd who started a blog (http://spielverlagerung.com/) a few years ago got hired by RB Salzburg, led their kids to the UEFA Youth League title and is now first team assistant coach.

Get blogging, Reg.

[Disco]

Someone planned a nice little christmas for themselves.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42418007

[Kikó]

Rojo is trying to do the same.

[phonics]

I want to know what Kolasinac has done to Arsene Wenger and immediately.

We're going to play Ashley Maitland-Niles against Salah on Friday and it'll be hilarious. Triple captain time.

[Mazuuurk]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2017/dec/19/the-100-best-footballers-in-the-world-2017-interactive

lol at this also. Even in the bottom third of the top 100, they have managed precisely one player outside the major giants from the so-called top five nations. Might as well just rank them by google searches.


Well, you could say there's a certain correlation between a player being Good and playing for the most prominent clubs.

And in the extension, if we're being a little wild here, one might even suspect that the players of those clubs are the more googled players around.

[Shindig]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42414884

Erm... I hope the Chinese billionaire and Billy Beane like greasy breakfasts.

"Chien Lee if living is without you ...."

[-james-]

It seems pretty pointless involving Foden in senior games at this stage, doesn't have anywhere near enough muscle mass and just gets lolled off the ball.

This City back 5 of Bravo, Danilo, Zinchenko, Mangala & Adarabioyo is hilarious as well and Leicester have done nothing to threaten it.

[John]

Did a pitch invader set someone on fire before I turned this on? Eight added minutes. :cab:

[niko_cee]

Case in point for why the post-match dive review panel is a complete waste of time there (do they even have it in the league cup?).

Not that I think he'll be done for it, but even if he is (there was no contact - just text book 'clever play' by a forward) you take those 2 games every time to keep your team in the competition. If you want to change behaviour you have to punish the situation where no advantage is gained as much as you do the one where it is. But you might need a full time civil service style operation for that.

[Lewis]

I had this great image of United shitting City out over two legs, winning the thing, and then Jose Mourinho using it all summer to claim to have had a better season than them.

[Lewis]

There is something extra sad about defenders diving.

[John]

Bravo is such an utter bombscare that he shouldn't even be playing in the cups. I've seen more composure in a hungry dog.

[John]

The new running order for penalty shootouts is the fucking pits.

It's not often you see a shootout of this quality outside the AFCON though. Until Vardy pops up to make an arse of it.

[Lewis]

He looked like he measured his run-up wrong there. He can't have done.

[John]

Lol at Bravo's reaction to 'Pep' trying to celebrate with him.

[CJay]

Pleased to see Leicester lose that one. Will Gray get done like Lanzini and Niasse did? They really need to make the deception rule more wide-ranging.

[Giggles]

I hope that's not a play on the word 'mints'.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/1219/928607-bravo-the-penalty-hero-as-foxes-minced-by-city/

[Byron]

Surely that's a reference to 'mince pie'

[Baz]

Lol at Bravo's reaction to 'Pep' trying to celebrate with him.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2017/12/19/TELEMMGLPICT000149705212_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberW d9EgFPZtcLiMQfyf2A9a6I9YchsjMeADBa08.jpeg?imwidth= 450

[Jimmy Floyd]

Pep going absolutely mental after a League Cup win on penalties seems a bit unhinged, but then he probably is a bit unhinged.

[Waffdon]

943164673423233025

:drool:

[Giggles]

Pep going absolutely mental after a League Cup win on penalties seems a bit unhinged, but then he probably is a bit unhinged.

I seen that this morning, but when was it? I had assumed last night but when I checked Livescore I seen that Arsenal played West Ham and couldn't see Utd anywhere.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He manages City, who beat Leicester.

[Giggles]

Shit sorry, I read that wrong. There was a tweet doing the rounds of Rio Ferdinand (put out there by himself naturally) losing his mind watching Man Utd beating Arsenal 3-1 and I thought it was last night.

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42404704

An emerging young candidate for David Brent status.

[Kikó]

Can't wait till we lose over two legs to city.

[SvN]

1-1 in the first leg at Old Trafford, then 3-0 at the Etihad.

[Danny]

Rosicky retires. All of the Nike cage tournament are now retired.

[Jimmy Floyd]

When the last person who was on CM01/02 retires, that will be me done I think.

[SincereTheRebel]

Rosicky retires. All of the Nike cage tournament are now retired.

Bravo to the fact.

[SvN]

When the last person who was on CM01/02 retires, that will be me done I think.

I wonder how many are left. I checked a few randoms and almost all were retired. I think O'Shea was the only one I found still playing.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think Rooney was on it (just barely). Anyone who was a teenager then would still be mid-thirties.

[Dave.]

Is Van der Vaart still playing? I think he might have even been on CM00/01. Gareth Barry definitely was.

[Magic]

Nando Torres.

[Danny]

Buffon.

[SvN]

Good idea for a website that. A list of remaining players still active, that are crossed off as they retire.

[Danny]

That’s how we will get people back!

[-james-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/12/20/man-utd-fan-jailed-unprovoked-racist-attack-raheem-sterling/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

25 previous convictions, waits for someone outside their place of work (someone high profile no less), racially abuses them in a vile manner and assaults them, and only gets 16 weeks? Surely that's incredibly lenient?

[Lewis]

Is a bit. I hope Jose Mourinho gets straight back on the bus after this match and leaves matey alone with his expensive wine.

[Giggles]

There's Clement gone.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/dec/20/struggling-swansea-sack-paul-clement-after-nearly-year-at-club

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Margaret Dodds is probably a right hooligan.

[randomlegend]

Rashford has a seriously incredibly powerful shot.

[Lewis]

Is Bristol a good fit for the English Premier League (EPL)? The transport links to Somalia are clearly brilliant (return services can be slow), but everything else about it says definitely not.

[Baz]

Cristiano Ronaldo was decent on 01/02.

[Waffdon]

Rashford taking all set pieces is still the funniest thing of 2017.

[randomlegend]

You must have had a shit year.

[Lewis]

You would delete your FM save if some fucking defender did that to you.

[Waffdon]

You must have had a shit year.

There he is again! Every time.

That’s a ridiculously good goal.

[Waffdon]

That would have went straight into the wall from Rashford.

[randomlegend]

Was that deflected? I thought it was on first viewing but commentary didn't mention it.

[randomlegend]

That would have went straight into the wall from Rashford.

Nobody's disputing him having been rubbish on set pieces.

[Lewis]

I can see why he takes the longer range ones with his shit Ronaldo style, since they can bounce around in the box, but anything closer (or even worse from a crossing position) he should be about seventh in the pecking order.

[randomlegend]

Romero is fucking terrifying :D

He doesn't even seem to notice either, he just looks completely gormless and unbothered.

[SvN]

Targaryen needs binning in January.

[Waffdon]

Hazard’s backheels :drool:

[Baz]

That’s a ridiculously good goal.Bristols? Was absolutely mega.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/ce5f46c87bca42b95767a9f4a1e1ae92/tenor.gif?itemid=4945237

[SvN]

Darmian can slink back to Italy too.

[Giggles]

Oh lol.

[Waffdon]

Romero had the right idea lying down on the ball. Another lovely goal.

[randomlegend]

We deserve to lose to be honest. Have been totally crap.

[Ian]

The state of that.

The wine had better be good.

[SvN]

On the bright side, at least City won't be able to batter us now.

[Lewis]

I don't think this is enough of a shock result to merit these sort of scenes. They are a Championship club.

[Waffdon]

I don't think this is enough of a shock result to merit these sort of scenes. They are a Championship club.

Was thinking that with the commentary as well. They’re a top three Championship club with a Billionaire owner.

[Pen]

I quite like it. Bristol haven't done anything of note during my lifetime (not that I remember anyway) so you can understand the joy after a last minute winner.

edit: From their wiki:
Bristol City won the Welsh Cup – despite being an English club – in 1934. In 1907 they finished runners-up in Football League Division One, which is their highest ever final position. In 1909 they lost the FA Cup final to Manchester United, their only final. Since relegation in 1911, however, they only returned to the top division from 1976 to 1980 and did not contend for any honours then. In 1982, Bristol City became the first English club to suffer three consecutive relegations. They were promoted to the Football League Championship in the 2006–07 season after finishing second in League One but failed to make a second consecutive promotion to the Premier League after they were defeated by Hull City in the 2008 Football League Championship play-off Final at Wembley Stadium. With victories in 1986, 2003 and 2015, Bristol City are now the most successful team in the Football League Trophy.

With nothing but the football league trophy during their last hundred years you celebrate when ever you can.

[Lewis]

Was thinking that with the commentary as well. They’re a top three Championship club with a Billionaire owner.

In a cup tie, on the telly... Arsenal away would have been a more definite win.

[John]

As crap as it is, I sort of get the desire to bring it up if a couple of years ago a club was getting relegated or staying up by a point or whatever, but in what way does it matter that three years ago Bristol were beating Crewe?

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's Man Utd, anyone outside the top six beating them is MASSIVE.

[Kikó]

Good for Bristol City. Mourinho out.

[Giggles]

I always preferred Rovers.

[SvN]

At least Moyes managed the semis.

[Pen]

Has the possibility of mind games been ruled out?

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's mind games in the sense that he doesn't need another hammering off Pep at the moment.

[John]

Mourinho just wanted an excuse not to get on the wine that pleb in charge.

[Lewis]

It's Man Utd, anyone outside the top six beating them is MASSIVE.

I don't know. Anyone over the age of fourteen (admittedly the average age of Football Twitter, and thus the new target audience for anyone with a NARRATIVE to push) will remember some absolutely bizarre shit going on in the cups. Binning one against an UP FOR IT Championship team is less of a surprise than Leicester taking their match to extra time.

[John]

Has Phil Neville ever spoken aloud and made sense?

'It's an unbelievable strike and no wonder he can't remember it.' What?

[Magic]

:harold:

[-james-]

i don't know. Anyone over the age of fourteen (admittedly the average age of football twitter, and thus the new target audience for anyone with a narrative to push) will remember some absolutely bizarre shit going on in the cups. Binning one against an up for it championship team is less of a surprise than leicester taking their match to extra time.

DAMAGE CONTROL


sfd

[Kikó]

Has Phil Neville ever spoken aloud and made sense?

'It's an unbelievable strike and no wonder he can't remember it.' What?

The guy is a complete moron.

[Waffdon]

Morata was booked for putting the ball under his shirt celebrating his wife’s pregnancy and will miss the Everton match. Lol wit

[Jimmy Floyd]

I vary on Jose, but surely the criticism of him is absolutely ridiculous. They're second at the moment to the side with the best first half to a season for decades, and look much improved on last year's United team.

[Reg]

Are these "Mourinho out"s serious, Kikó?

[Kikó]

No , he's doing a very good job with a team that has obvious deficiencies.

[Adamski]

No , he's doing a very good job with a team that has obvious deficiencies.

Which he hasn’t resolved, no?

[Kikó]

No but he's not getting all the players he wants eg in the summer he wanted four and he got three. The team are still desperately average in places.

Lindlof, Pogba and Lukaku are good signings.

[Shindig]

They're a better team than they were under van Gaal and Moyes.

[Lewis]

It's harder to completely write Lukaku off when you're not seething over him, so you would have to say that his signings have mostly been good, and he has also saved a few people you would have previously written off (Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Fellainimania, Jesse Lingard). You could also, if not credit him for improving Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, at least give him credit for handling them properly in spite of his reputation. His problems stem from the previous three to five years of bullshit recruitment, from Juan Mata to Morgan Schneiderlin, right back to nobody having any sort of Rio Ferdinand replacement in mind.

[Spoonsky]

The Bristol manager swinging around the ballkid. :cool:

[Dark Soldier]

People generally forget the shitshow performances Sir Alex of Alex put in due to him not being about for over four years now. Guy could grind shit with the best of 'em. The myth of the United way is bollocks really as those games standout in the memory, not the ones where we almost shit the bed (or quite often did) and defend like spastics.

Its a much improved season but there's some utter shite, for this level, in the squad.

[Ian]

The myth of the United way is bollocks really

It absolutely is. Any consistent play of fast, entertaining football stopped within a few years of the treble, as I recall it. Of course there was good stuff with some combinations of players after that and some great games but we got a lot more 'organised' as time went on.

[Lewis]

The periods of Good Football have tended to coincide with having the best team, like in the nineties and the peak Ronaldo Years; but even those teams were hard as fuck and could - and did - defend teams out of games when they had to. The 2003 title was all shit football and individual strengths, and they remained competitive from 2009 to 2012 on the back of the defence (and they lost control of the title race in 2012 when they went to City for a draw, had two shots, and lost). 2013 was exciting until Christmas, but after that they were cruising most weeks, and everybody else was shit anyway.

So yeah they need to spend another two-hundred million quid. Just preferably not at the expense of Ashley Young.

[niko_cee]

United are absolutely brutal and the myth of the United way is better than the reality of the Mourinho one. Which season does he usually go mad in? Fair enough there were vast tracts of 1-0 shitfests in the past, but this modern incarnation of drossball is worse (and has been for years), made all the more amusing by the fact they are being lolled out of town by Pepball 2.0 over the road.

[Mazuuurk]

No but he's not getting all the players he wants eg in the summer he wanted four and he got three. The team are still desperately average in places.

Lindlof, Pogba and Lukaku are good signings.

How do you actually feel about Lindelöf? I was excited for him to go to United at first but now that I see him, it's looking a bit like he wasn't ready for it yet.

Hopefully this season will be a good learning experience for him so he can be decent next season, but he seems to have been quite shit most of this autumn.

[Mazuuurk]

For lack of a better place to put this. Just look at this fucker. Even his bony WAG doesn't really want to touch him properly. Just look at the desperate "what choices have I made" look she's giving.
For you Liverpool supporters, you should be disgraced to have someone like that on your team.



https://snag.gy/kDyNUd.jpg

[Giggles]

Desperately needs a haircut. And his face caved in.

[Shindig]

It's the tie that gets me. Looks like something you'd get off Bob Holness for losing.

[Mazuuurk]

I think the context of that picture was that he just had one, actually :vomit:

[niko_cee]

Cracking player though, even if he does look like a member of MS-13.

The state of that 'tie'.

[Mike]

He is a magnificent example of modern day football.
Bags of talent and too much money. I hope he never changes.

[John Arne]

Dresses like the nouveau riche in Vietnam. Grew up pissing into a hole in the floor, then suddenly inherit/win/find a bunch of money - and then dress like a spastic so everyone knows how rich you are.

[McAvennie]

His mum seems to approve of his tie

[Reg]

'The United Way' may be exaggerated, but it isn't a myth. Ferguson's team didn't play like Mourinho's have at Anfield (twice). Nor did they end up with four centre backs plus two wing backs when trying to protect a lead against bottom half teams. Ferguson's instinct was to try and turn 1-0 leads into 3-0 wins; Mourinho's is to defend the 1-0. Count how many times the full backs crossed the halfway line in a game from ten years ago then do the same in a game this or last season.

[SvN]

We definitely did park the bus at Anfield on multiple occasions. I recall us getting battered for 90 minutes then Ferdinand popping up with an injury time winner.

[Lewis]

John O'Shea. United stopped going for it at Anfield during those weird years when Gerard Houllier had their number, and didn't do so again until that 2015 game where they annihilated them in the first half. Liverpool weren't particularly great for most of those years though, so you would be better off considering a decade of booting Arsenal off the pitch, or the 2008 semi-final against Barcelona (and the second half of that final actually).

[Kikó]

Totally agree with the above. It's some misty eyed thinking that fergie went at the big teams. We gladly defended and tried to hit teams on the counter- we just had better players who could do it. And Park.

Re lindlof- I think he'll come good and his last 3-4 games he's stopped shitting his pants and looked like a defender. He's been unlucky not to start.

[randomlegend]

If Eric Bailly wasn't always injured we'd have already won the league after everyone else surrendered.