Thread title's all I've got. So far as I'm aware nothing actually interesting is happening or set to happen at the moment so I guess just keep bitching about VAR in here if you like.
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Thread title's all I've got. So far as I'm aware nothing actually interesting is happening or set to happen at the moment so I guess just keep bitching about VAR in here if you like.
And only one game today as well? Even the fixture list has given up.
Don't worry, they'll be frogmarching me to RAM IT DOWN MY THROAT presumably.
There’s a game on Monday and on Tuesday this week. The latter being Luton vs Burnley which has 0-0 all over it.
That's this generation's West Brom vs Stoke.
West Brom/Stoke seemed to happen about 8 times a year.
This one will only be happening this year. In the top flight at least.
Resurrecting 'Wordle' was a VARy bad decision. Board AIDS.
Hard to ignore too when it always at the top.
Just seen that Wissa decision Gahahahahha. Geezer truly getting fucked for not playacting and another big VAR win.
“Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night. It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined.
“We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.
“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.
“That such failings have already been categorised as “significant human error” is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.
“This is vital for the reliability of future decision making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.
“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”
I expected as much :p
Such a mong club.
'We can't actually do anything about it but here is our moan'
Surprised they didn't beg for a replay.
This result is basically the 98th.
Getting fired in a two team league so early, lol.
A two team league?
That's a funny statement up above. Love the shade of "failures" plural.
The only interesting thing which isn't be clarified is what the error was. I can only assume that, somehow, the VAR room didn't realise the goal had been disallowed on the pitch and so gave it a cursory check complete as the alternative scenario [pressing the wrong button but just going with it] seems a lot more mental. Oh wait, I see that has been confirmed.
Random undefeated season to win the league and be nowhere for 10 years before and now after.
Also, on the lol sports lawyering front [I assume this has been rejigged in the VAR era] but didn't there used to be some sort of rule where if the game was restarted the wrong way then the result was voided? I'm pretty sure a club tried to argue that once in some context or other [obviously unsuccessfully in my mind].
Here it is:
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...ms-421759.html
:drool:
Liverpool also appealing the Jones red card. :D
The league will over turn both of them because they have no spine.
Hopefully Gary Neville’s on the committee.
I thought that too. It's fucked to the point they need to bin it off until it's fixed.
Boys, stick to on-the-pitch discussion please, like this useless cunt's appraisal of his team's on-the-pitch competency:
He's been watching 2008 Premier League Years on Sky Sports Gold.
On that note, did Egghead watch that viral clip of Amrabat vs Mbappe at WC and think he could play a bald Berber as an EPL fullback? Get the fuck out of the league lad, I need a new face to lol at.
Are Fulham going to beast Poch's men tonight?
This surely has to be the first time in the Prem era that we've gone into a game with Chelsea as favourites, I'll be genuinely disappointed if we don't get a win tonight.
Although a quick look at the odds says the bookies still favour Chelsea, bit surprised at that.
That’s because the Champions of XG are due a win and a bit win at that. Bookies too scared to leave the odds too long.
1-0 Fulham. Willian (58’), Caicedo sent off (36’)
It's a monday night, it'll be a draw surely.
Broja and Palmer starting against the most toothless side in the 18-team league, easy Chelsea win.
Broja after an ACL. He’ll probably snap it in half again having barely played at all since December
Broja :lol: :lol: :lol:
Palmer is a ridiculously good footballer.
Enzo back playing deeper/closer to caicedo and Chelsea pissing it. No surprises
Gammons being made to bow to a muslim because of the sheer strength of his girth/football knowledge. Incredible Monday evening scenes.
Watching Gallagher’s technical ability beside Palmer/Fernandez/Caicedo is quite funny
And so at last for Chelsea, a net has rippled: and indeed, it has rippled twice in a trice.
Still can't decide if Peter Drury is horrendous or great.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66987861
Thoughts and prayers for those VAR cunts tonight who are sweating it out like Russell Brand if he'd actually have been guilty of anything.
How many of them are there in that room, two? The "should we intervene?..."-"nah" exchange in that minute or so after goal was given will take them down.
Pathetic from Liverpool. What are they going to do, sue them? Rub of the green, my friends.
Jesus, I've just turned on SS for the first time in months and that's my fucking evening ruined. The greasy cunt must be manouvering for a new gig :D
Goals for Chelsea on October: 2
Rest of PL teams in October: 2
Who is laughing now?
They just want it for the lolz.
You have to wonder, at what point, one of the however many people in the room they have said to another, isn't it meant to be 1-0 to Liverpool?
As pointed out on MNC, the idiotic robot code they have to talk to each other in is as much to blame as anything. I'm not really a great fan of the TMO in rugger, but the one thing they have hit upon after however many years is the clear and open dialogue, in language people can understand that you now get, rather than insane shouty mess PGMOL rolled out recently.
What recording of some disaster am I thinking of where you heard the people supposedly in charge of preventing it absolutely failing to comic levels? This may reach those pevels.
Air France plane crash. [main guy says hang on, why are you pulling back on the stick seconds before everyone dies]
Or the one where Capt Schiettino [?] was getting coated off by the Italian Coastguard.
I got on an easyjet flight with Vinicius earlier in the year, and haven't been able to take him seriously since. If he's spearheading this Fulham outfit in the absence of any goals from Raul Jimenez then they're bang in trouble.
Poch is watching this and not bothering to make a change other than for injuries. Christ, he’s annoying.
I ain't even watched it but lol at Gallagher MOTM for reasons Waff has elaborated on. Fabulous example of this country's understanding of the game which prevents it from succeeding in the sport.
There is literally nothing wrong with anything Pochettino has done so far. Some encouraging signs of a bit of versatility in the frontline. We're a mid-table squad so you have to be extremely patient.
Funny old game. Arguably the worst Chelsea have played all season (aside from points in the 1st half )and pissed it in the end really.
Broja having the thickest Slough accent will never not be funny
Absolutely woeful game from us, threw it away in the first half. Our lack of cutting edge once again showing up in the second. Need Iwobi and Vinicius to start from now on.
He played for Burnham Juniors didn't he? Always were the best club for youngsters in the area.
Having the choice of Vinicius or Jimenez are your striker must be pretty soul destroying
Yeah fucking awful. Vinicius being the best option in the club is mental.
The audio is coming baby.
“Don’t put the lines on” presumably. Along with “soz wasn’t watching, has he given it? Must have. Let’s say offside for a laugh.”
The audio isn't exactly going to yield anything other than "Check complete". They've already said he believed the original decision to be a goal, that's the critical mistake.
I still don't get why the VAR ref, or his assistant, upon seeing that the ref had given Tottenham a free-kick, didn't just call the ref and say "oi, knobhead, that wasn't offside".
It's being reported that there were only 2 seconds between "check complete" and Spurs taking the quick free kick to get the game going again. If you include the delay of images getting to Stockley Park and the VAR room, by the time they even saw the ball being placed down for the free kick it would have been too late.
Yeah. VAR room thought it was a goal awarded and put up a very quick line and saw Diaz obviously onside, not needed to compare two players or anything. They responded with "check complete" they thought, confirming a goal. Next thing they know is Spurs are passing the ball around the back having taken their free kick and the current rules prevent them from shouting the ref to give a goal.
I think this is the wider reform that probably needs to come out of this. Of course the game is slowed down as much as possible by VAR anyway, but we really don't need teams hustling up to the line NFL style to stymie accurate decision making or the ability to correct errors [not that this is likely to occur again or has happened before sorry Gary Neville and your "having been worried about offside for a while now" - it's more like that freak goal line one that sent Sheffield United down eventually]. As was pointed out on one of the many comment pieces surrounding this there must have been a point at which the error was realised and the decision was made to 'stick to protocol' [ie can't stop the game] over doing the pragmatic/sane/non-catastrophic alternative.
Unless they sit there in absolute silence, which they are probably mandated to do as the whole operation reeks of The First Galactic Empire [or maybe the MET], someone must have clocked that something had gone pretty badly wrong pretty quickly and hopefully the audio will reflect this in comedy style.
If this happened in cricket (which it very easily could), the third umpire would simply call down to the on-field umpire 'Erm, wrong signal mate' and he'd reverse it. I don't see why that didn't happen here.
It's all part of the [misguided] desire to BE AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE so they'll have all sorts of mental protocols to follow with the idea everyone is treated the same by a quasi-automated checklist based system.
Obviously they omitted to put the first thing on the list as 'what has been given on the field and what am I checking here'?
It's a bit like when you plane is going down, you just have to hope the answer is number 7 rather than number 857 in the what to do when your plane is going down manual that they have to refer to.
The dialogue [and imagery] used in rugby is the way to go, but football fans can't be trusted with that sort of stuff [which is a systemic administrative/establishment problem].
Also, I bet they release the audio of the decision [which will be what Thommo said and therefore completely bland/pointless] but won't release anything beyond the check complete.
I'm reading the VAR fucks thought the goal was given initially so they didn't need to interfere and said "check complete". Brah, the audio is gonna be some lols because each version sounds like the worst cover-story going.
It was funny at first it happening to Liverpool but having Niko and other Liverpool plebs in general still writing paragraphs about Saturday is slightly excruciating.
Sorry, I'll try to keep it within the limits of your attention span going forward.
You can't referee in here, this is the VAR room.
Thank god. A post without multiple brackets.
Parentheses.
You use brackets m8
Check complete.
Keep calm, Utd are playing tonight and Antony is back. We'll all be back to lolling in unity soon.
This message is hidden because Don is on your ignore list.
If that's what you're seeing, most of the time it's more interesting than the actual post.
Definitely more coherent.
Poor geezers all on the ropes, me drowning in a pool of white man's tears, who truly wins out of all this toxicity?
The sporting integrity of this thread has been compromised and UNDERMINED.
I see they've given Liverpool the audio but not released it publicly. BOOOO!
It's been leaked
Southend takeover confirmed :drool:
Not The Rock :(
All that time putting Ron's hair on him in Paint WASTED.
https://www.premierleague.com/news/3718057
Audio as has been described previously really. Other than the obvious fuck up, the thing that sticks out is they seem to be trying to rush to get the decision done as fast as possible.
It circles back to an issue we have here with soccer fans not wanting the game slowed down 'like the NFL does.' The point of VAR is to get the decisions correct. This emphasis on speed of decision is idiotic. Take all the time it needs to actually do it properly, or just don't have VAR.
Yeah that feels like it comes from being incredibly rushed.
Confirming the on field call while waiting for replays/lines would fix that though.
Or going with "it is/isn't offside".
"Well done boys, good process" immediately followed by the wrong thing happening is so perfect.
Weeping. The fucking 20 year old intern on the technicals as replay operator is the only one with a clue. And to make it sweeter, he sounds muslim. Fucking 'av it.
The answer here could have been once they’d fucked it. Stop the game get the ref to say we fucked it, should have been a goal our mistake Spurs will you give Liverpool a goal. We will add the difference on at the end of the game. If they say no fair enough but at least you’ve given the opportunity for the right thing to happen within the game and if you show them the evidence which you have to hand I can’t imagine you would get a huge amount of pushback.
Rather than just saying there’s nothing we can do. They obviously told the fourth official they fucked it so when did the ref find out?
That audio is hilarious.
'Oli', what a hero.
The fact that the entire fuck-up discussion happens when the ball is out of play for a throw in but the check complete mongo and his assistant are so busy figuring out what they're going to do with their lives now that they just entirely bottle it.
The pace of it all is like the ones they rolled out earlier in the season where they're all just shouting over each other and it's a balls out machismo thing about being right the fastest or spotting something that hasn't been seen. And yet they go to painful lengths to rule goals out ninety nine times out of a hundred.
We're fucking back bitches.
Hojlund > Haaland.
That Galatasaray line-up is a right motley crew.
Shame they never added Thiago to it, as was so often rumoured.
That defending from Dalot is sickening.
Dalot getting shoved around like a little kid :D
That Lens goal was absolutely lovely
Jude is a bit good.
What do you mean? He makes a more than passable left winger.
Can't really see a place for him with Kalvin Phillips in such good form.
Hojlund :cool:
What a player.
Gala's Gerrard with the slip there
I thought Arsenal were back @phonics?
Fuck me, we're so shit.
Onana :lol: :lol:
Bring back De Gea
Icardi :lol:
He shouldn't be anywhere near penalties after this week.
Icardi somehow comes out looking worse
No one could have seen this. None of it. Not even Reddit.
:harold:
What a hit that was from Valverde.
We're absolutely rancid.
Ten Hag Out.
Onana literally gets smaller in goal. He hasn’t half looked terrible in all aspects for Man Utd
My man has an art to jumping and yet making himself shorter.
Antony coming in, we got 10 mins of sublime entertainment still.
The 3rd goal comes from Ten Haag trying to have Amrabat play in 2 positions at once
A beautifully 90s set of results tonight. Hakan Sukur with the winner.
The coefficient is going back to the 90s as well with these mooks carrying the flag.
Reading Pat Nevin's comments about United, is he on acid?
Arteta mismanaged that as far as I'm concerned. Saka off with an injury surely means bring on Nelson, not Vieira. Formation went lopsided and lost the threat that got the goal in the first place: pacey interceptions.
Eventually rolls the dice on White ESR and Nelson and the shots rain down on the Lens goal but too little, too late.
Really bad.
Fear not Rangers fans, Frank Lampard is on the way to, erm, save the day?
I love that the audio has made it even funnier. Well done boys, good process.
Not sure why they haven't adopted standard comms procedures from other industries really, given the importance placed on this despite it 'only' being sport. If they just had to make it 10 seconds longer by repeating stuff back to each other it would have prevented the error.
I can only assume the explosion of injury time has made them speed through it.
Once again the PL got shown up by UEFA last night on VAR.
UEFA manage to create a 3D model of the offside and still get to the correct decision quicker than "Stockley Park" do drawing lines on a still frame with Paint. And then with a potential change of decision the VAR officials send the referee over to the monitor and show him logical replays instead of a still frame or super slow motion.
They'll blame the pressure put on them by people moaning the process is too slow, but you can hear in the difference in voice tone between 'Daz' [shouty] and the technical guy [calm] what the real issue is.
Talk of all these foreign referee trips, can we get some foreign ones back in exchange? I could cope with some comedy VAR business if it was that crazy Mexican ref [presumably long retired] instead of a couple of divs called Simon and Darren fucking things up.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67003581
The UK and Republic of Ireland will now bid unopposed for Euro 2028 after Turkey withdrew to focus on a joint bid with Italy for Euro 2032.
It's coming home.
God willing Southgate will have been assassinated by then.
He wouldn't be involved in anything that interesting.
F.U
I could be wrong but the EFL could potentially get in trouble after that fan who had a heart attack at the game last night has now died.
The referee refused to stop the play whilst fans ended up running onto the pitch to get the game stopped whilst the fan was getting CPR at the side of the pitch. The medical people trying to get to the fan had to run round the pitch rather than over the pitch (which is obviously quicker) because the game wouldn’t stop. Goalkeeper refused to take a goal kick and game was eventually abandoned
Apparently one fan ran up to the lino and another to the ref, explaining the emergency and they were both ejected.
The only good thing about this is that it will get Casement built.
The only good thing about that bid is that it will get Casement built.
Northern Ireland must have a stadium not named after an executed traitor that they could have used.
:cab:
That's absolutely mental. The officials should never work again. I can only imagine they were not following the rules because SURELY the EFL have a rule allowing them to stop a game for an emergency. It's happened before, anyway.
I know it's the brand, but stop being such a misery guts.
The reason I said EFL would potentially get sued is that they’ve apparently told referees not to stop games as it was happening all too often. So according to Twitter melts, the referee was just following EFL guidelines
But takes a special sort of retard to have a game continue when someone is getting CPR next to the pitch. Not like it was in the stands
If that's true someone somewhere will do very well to avoid prison. That's criminal negligence and it has to be bollocks.
Never mind this dead fella, I’ve just checked the premier league table and Tottenham have still got Liverpool’s 3 points.
Anyway, Klopps wants the Spurs game replayed. He really is a perfect match for Liverpool’s victim complex.
I laughed out loud when I saw that. Any remaining pretence of being a serious figure disappears up his arsehole.
If it actually happens then Spurs should just refuse to play the game and if that leads to the points being awarded to Liverpool then so be it. This is peak, peak sillybollocks.
There's no actual chance of it happening, right?
I look forward to Christmas when he’s flying the #toomanygames flag too.
Yeah, it would collapse the sport in on itself, and Klopp must know that, so he must either be one of the sillier Germans in Germany, or he is trying to make himself a hero with the sillier scousers in north-western England.
*visits RAWK*
lol.
Quite the change in tune since the post game interview.
Suggests he's been briefed on the party line since. Bring on the court case!
I honestly don't know how anyone can support them. It's just a deeply unlikeable club from top to bottom.
*city
Geezer's got the nation rattled with a throwaway comment during a press-conference for Union Saint-Gilloise. We're so fucking massive.
You're jointly the most successful club in England while having the most small time mentality. Absolute cult of a fucking thing.
On idiots labelling things as small time, Birmingham City FC have absolutely donned it with that shirt retirement.
Having not seen his comments, but only heard a bit on the radio, isn't it more of a case of him saying yes please if offered a replay [obviously] but that it won't happen [also obviously]?
Yeah, looks like he might have gone for the more mad approach [again probably obviously].
'Yeah, looks like he might have gone for the more mad approach (again [probably obviously])' would have been better.
Square brackets are a dead giveaway for past legal training.
I always wondered what these {} are for. Maths?
:D
Presumably they existed for some reason before they were on keyboards but they're used extensively in programming. All the various bracket types are.
Isn't there a hierarchy of brackets for brackets within brackets? Those ones do look quite mathsy - I'm sure I used those curly ones for some sort of maths/science type thing at school. Don't think I ever used brackets in the legal training world, other than I guess where there are bits you need to add in to documents, it's all italics for the latin bits.
Any word on whether t-shirts are being printed up for the match against the Tony Bloom EU Feeder XI?
Ye it's usually used for sets, but not only that.
The second bullet. :D
I think it's the maddest thing conceivable.
Quote:
In 2030, the FIFA World Cup will unite three continents and six countries, inviting the entire world to join in the celebration of the beautiful game, the Centenary and the FIFA World Cup itself. The FIFA Council unanimously agreed that the sole candidacy will be the combined bid of Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, which will host the event in 2030 and qualify automatically from the existing slot allocation subject to the completion of a successful bidding process conducted by FIFA and a decision by the FIFA Congress in 2024. Additionally, having taken into account the historical context of the first-ever FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Council further unanimously agreed to host a unique centenary celebration ceremony in the country’s capital, Montevideo, where the first ever FIFA World Cup took place in 1930, as well as three World Cup matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay respectively.
Here's Klopp on the VAR shambles.
:harold:
They don't help themselves the insane fuckers do they?
I think the real news from the insane World Cup announcement is that it guarantees Saudi Arabia the tournament in 2034.
Watching that Klopp thing, it does sort of look like he's been put up to saying there should be a replay as most of the rest of what he says is pretty reasonable. What he should have said instead of the replay thing is that there should be some mechanism for the VAR/Referee to correct clear and obvious errors that they have themselves made, but again that would run into difficulty if Spurs had scored in the phase of play immediately following the error rather than a few phases later, so maybe you just have to leave it with the moral force thing of the ref being able to explain what has happened and put it into the court of fairplay between the managers. Imagine if Mourinho was on the benefiting side in such circumstances and that conversation happened or it was late in the game and would have a major bearing on the result. Just clean up the initial process going forward is probably the best outcome.
The true conspiracy theory here is that Liverpool's American owners are hamming it up to try and collapse everything and create conditions for a Super League.
Mbappe struggling on a wet and windy night in Newcastle.
Not sure why people are treating PSG as some giant of the game. They're trailing Brest, Reims etc in league one.
Getting donned by a back 4 including Burn, Lascelles and Schar. Who needs pace.
Farmers league strikes again.
Lyon dfl is the end of an era. Aulas must either be dead or nearly dead by now.
In fairness to PSG, Taz backed them/their manager to be the real deal this year, and, as we all know, there's no overcoming that endorsement.
Just no interest in defending in any way.
Basically playing 424 with wingers who don’t track back was a bold move. Clearly paying off for Enrique.
I feel for the safety of some of these PSG players. Their ultras are about to bomb their houses
Get Dummett on. He'll smash one in from 30 yards. :D
Bit mad. Kinda wish I'd made an effort for it.
That's a beautiful assist from the youth.
Shame to be missing the human rights Derby tonight. Magic of the game.
It's a shame, as as a narrative arc Newcastle being good and winning something would be great, but having MBS picking up the trophy in the style of an NFL owner obviously dampens the spirit somewhat.
Lol at that awful attempt at an overhead kick from Maeda costing Celtic a winner.
Yeah, I should have caveated that it's not happening this season.
Brendan Rodgers in Europe is something else
Schar curling one into the top corner from 30 yards, while falling over, probably sums PSGs day up.
Plastic flags are out though. They should forfeit the game for this Chelsea behaviour.
We're gonna be knackered for West Ham but this is mint. :D
Mad fucking night. Two geordies and two Bruce rejects on the scoresheet in an absolute drilling against PSG.
And all it took was blood money apparently.
The ref and VAR completely fucked Porto and the game tonight. It was of course some gammon from Wythenshawe who's had far too many sheperd's pies and ales in his lifetime to have any functioning braincells.
If your judgement was worth sharing you wouldn't be getting bent over by your bosses every other week.
No one's judgement on here is really worth sharing, but still here we are.
He's a shit manager. I can't remember who it was who said I was wrong when I said it before (when he was still at Leicester) but I was right and still am.
I'm going to devote the rest of my life to finding out Taz's home address and sending a microwave shepherd's pie and a four pack of Carling there every day until one of us dies.
I'll never forget the day I went on Lucas Torreira's Wikipedia page for the first time.
Sammie Szmodics must have gave Stephen Kenny's Mrs one.
Maguire and Henderson both in the latest England squad. Fuck off, Waistcoat.
Hasn’t bothered to call up a left back either lol
Yeah but he's said VAR is shit so we love him again.
The police escorted fan bus to the Velodrome got lost. :happycry:
Brighton are suddenly quite shit.
Lots of players have been very hot and cold this season for them.
Also, Fati is wank, particularly as a number 10. I know they have a lot of games, and he's mixing and matching the squad a lot, but it feels like Joao Pedro should be playing a lot more than he is.
There's more fundamental issues than simply depth but they really need to give up on the refugee and yes, Fati is shite but will be a bigger ask to drop. Lol at Welbeck not passing that.
Is there a completely different ball in European games or something? Brighton all look like they've never tried to control one at all before.
Fuck me, Gattuso looks like an unemployed alcoholic.
Klaksvik with their first group stage point. :cool:
Am obsessed with these armchair tactics strategy expert accounts on Twitter talking about a team processing a 5 man mid block in the 7th triangle squirting the opposition by man marking in a gradient zone.
Absolute fucking gibberish and all the neckbeards stroking their chins wondering if their club can counter this by forcing the aggressive mid-high press through the spatial channel and switching from a 3-1-2 buildup into an adventurous 2-2-2 counter.
You found James' Twitter? Nice.
Get it out wide and whip it into the mixer, that's what I say.
https://wp.inews.co.uk/wp-content/up...t-14.57.15.png
You need to use google translate regularly but @futboltherapist is an incredible account.
Paulp Ogba seems done for. Maybe the Saudis can disguise him under a different name and he can continue there.
New Freddy Adu just dropped:
https://www.theguardian.com/football...t-at-age-of-13
I look forward to seeing how the unhealthy level of interest in him goes on to damage his mental health and ruin his potential.
What a weird twitter account.
Led to this though:
:D
I haven’t seen anything outside that Rooney thread. Will avoid.
https://www.goal.com/en/news/man-utd...62e00a4cf27080
About that :happycry:Quote:
He has said in his new Amazon Prime documentary: “My thought process is to show Manchester (United) that they made a mistake in waiting to give me a contract.
“And to show other clubs that Manchester had made a mistake in not offering me a contract.”
Maybe we were right and he is a waster.
Who's the 'we' here?
You love to see that needle.
The Nation of Cooked Ham.
A tale in two parts.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67035413
Toggle Spoiler
I'm sure Rangers has their own binman rolodex.
Tell me Peter Lovenkrands has his badges. :drool:
They're only doing it for the massive pay out Chelsea will give them in 3 months time.
Luton Town FC a fascinating watch. Absolutely zero talent or anything else really but there they are, 4 points on the board.
Could be adding to that with Spurs doing a classic Spurs.
That United defence. :drool:
Good news everyone, Chelsea are shit again.
1-1. 19th century textile hubs in the dirt at the hands of the plucky blues.
Did the fact that he can't save shots come up at all when 'recruitment' was assessing how well Onana can apparently pass? Not even three months in and he's looking like the worst signing of my lifetime.
They just sign all Ten Hag's old players from Ajax don't they? Not sure any thought goes into it.
I hope Ten Hag didn't delete De Gea's phone number.
Someone shop De Gea's face on to Ray Patterson.
Bellingham top scorer in La Liga. 20yrs old, midfielder.
Cole Palmer, whilst looking like a runt, is a stunning signing for us.
Pissing hell.
Complete inability to attack and defend is causing issues.
Brentford keeper has fumbled every shot he has faced this game.
The ghost of Cathy Ferguson with two late goals, classic United. We need the old man in a box before teams will start truly believing they can hang on to a result at OT.
McSauce wtaf when he isn’t playing deep and hiding hes a hero
Just play him closer to the oppositions box and he’ll do bits. Saving Ten Haags job :D
Another example of team reverting from doing the thing that was working, to just sticking 10 behind the ball to see it out and it bites them.
Never in doubt.
My Bournemouth supporting mate reckons Iraola is on the brink of the bullet. Add in us exposing the Kompany myth and it should be a fabulous month ahead for Steve Bruce and kick 'n' rush football.
The referee pulled back the game in that Chelsea game after Burnley kicked off so clearly they can look at VAR after a restart. Sterling was clearly onside and they still looked at it for two minutes, kicked off and then paused the game again just to award it. Took over 2 minutes to figure out if the foul for penalty was in the box too.
Bournemouth have enough about them really for someone to keep them up.
Sheffield look like competition winners at this point and Luton/Burnley don't look too much better. Goodison seethe should see Everton pick up enough points to be better than those three, so the only other real question mark is Wolves.
If anyone wants the pleasure of being a little sick before they eat, type ‘Chris Basham’ into Twitter. The still photo of his ankle looks fake it’s that bad.
I never had any opinions on Vincent Kompany as a player, revolting swede aside, but seeing him cutting about in his blazer and teacher trainers makes me want them to tank.
Here’s a video
Toggle Spoiler
McDon :cool:
I genuinely think Mctominay could play the same role Xhaka was before he left Arsenal, same career trajectory too. Bin Bag doesn't fancy him but someone could snap him up cheap in January.
How many points were Bournemouth expecting from that opening run of fixtures? Three is obviously not great but seems a bit lol if they sack him.
My mate's take is that Gary O'Neil was a good fit but the owner/DoF had a fixation on appointing Bielsa, failed, and had to appoint one of his acolytes instead, to scratch the itch. Fixture list has been impossible though.
'Wazza' sacked as manager of DC United after just 14 wins in 53 games.
Liverpool/Brighton game should be properly good. Feel like someone is going to get battered but not sure who.
Liverpool keeping up this notion of Alexis as a 6. Guaranteed goals today.
Brighton to score first, Liverpool to win 3-1.
Some of this playing through the press from both sides is seriously impressive to watch.
Has any team made all 5 subs at once yet? Can't seem to remember seeing it.
:D
Properly SEETHING.
Brighton :cool:
Can we stop using numbers to describe positions? Number 6 is traditionally a centre half anyway.
Regista?
Brighton so good at beating our press.
Has Harvey Elliot even touched the ball?
Excellent stuff that.
Last 10 mins are a perfect example of the Klopp risk v reward ideal.
Just me or is the Brighton player a little lucky there? Not even a yellow?
Have all three goals have come from “trying to play out from the back”? Get it pumped long.
The commentator saying how unlucky when Gravenberch missed an open goal from a few yards out :D
You have to wonder if Klopp has fully killed off the obsession with clean-sheets. It's often lost on the masses who do their "lololol Liverpool can't defend" shite for the 20 mins we sometimes aren't on top but we gain a lot in our attacking play from not being so concerned with it. 3-1 > 2-0.
Only saw one replay but how close was that foul on Salah... Looked like Salah kicked the ball first, then was fouled. I'm guessing the Brighton player actually kicked it, but given no replay, who fucking knows.
There are only four positions. Goalkeeper, defender, midfield, forward. Ask Wikipedia. Everything else is wankery.
So fucking predicatable.
How has MacAllistair now been booked :lol:
Every foul he’s done should have been a yellow.
Gomez, you thick cunt.
Hell of a game that. All effort and pressing.
Do not like managers making defensive subs for the sake of it and all it did was invite Goe Jomez related panic.
That better get a replay cause no way was that a foul. But, equally, now pretty gutted we didn't lose:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F77QE6aX...jpg&name=large
Footballing intelligence goes hand in hand with intelligence.
Hope I'm wrong but that Arsenal line up is rats.
They refer to a number 6, as a CDM?
No idea how Kovacavic isn't off here.
In other news, Ajax lost again, making it 5 points in 6 games, with them currently being in the relegation playoff spot (albeit with 2 games in hand, one of which they've effectively won). That's quite the fall from grace.
Check complete. Good process.
Lucky to get away with a point. Isak looked off for our first and Guimaraes should've seen red. I'll take it given how good West Ham have started.
Stringer Bell ‘put the word out’.jpeg
Great to see Pep suffer a flukey deflection to lose a gane they showed no ambition to win.
Can see the Odegaard-Bergkamp comparisons now, I suspect no other player has got their fans on their feet in the same manner as the Dutchman until this Milkybar Kid turned up. Admittedly where Bergkamp did it with skill and goals, this manchild does it through running round like a headless chicken and appealing to the fans to stand up but still, special talent.
When's the last time City had three domestic defeats in four games like this?
They're such a different team without KDB and more importantly, Rodri.
Saliba donned Haaland again.
League starting to look like it might be interesting this year, probably won't last, certainly given some of the occupants of the top spots, but at least the procession is on hold for a while.
Probably.
Having now seen the highlights, I've no idea how Gross wasn't sent off for pulling Szobozlai down, but kudos for Lewis Dunk claiming he was 'on the cover' after the game, he was on the 6 yard line in line with the far post when he was pulled down.
Also lol at those Kovacevic decisions, particularly when Jota was castigated for being an idiot for picking up another yellow after being booked for nothing last week. I guess Kovacevic just figured he was at liberty to mow people down after getting away with the first one.
Kovacic
Yeah, him.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67063281
Ex-Chelsea winger Eden Hazard has announced his retirement from football after leaving Real Madrid at the end of last season.
Someone check on Waff.
Bit of a shame he never lasted physically, in reality he's been pretty much retired since going to Madrid.
A mercurial player somewhat out of sync with the way the game has gone during his career.
He was immense for us. Was stupid to leave but I suppose inevitable as these guys are looking for a big contract to finish their careers.
Euro 28 in UK and Ireland. Euro 32 in Italy and, erm, Turkey.
Quote:
The joint bid means that five nations – England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales – will host the event, with Uefa reserving two “safety net” berths for host teams that do not qualify on merit. If more than two sides fall short, only the two with the best record will get a place – so it is possible for host nations to miss out.
Giggles cheering on Top Ireland will be fun.
Fair enough.
Will the host nations have their group games at home? I'm not sure a bunch of NI fans going to Casement Park (if it even gets built) in West Belfast is gonna go that well.
In all reality there's not a chance Casement actually gets done, tournament or not. It won't be allowed happen.
The BBC have a potted history for anyone who, like me, falls into this category:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/northern-ireland/67056689Quote:
Outside of the island of Ireland, some may wonder what the fuss is all about?
Gerry Adams country. I’m sure there’ll be no bother whatsoever.
I quite like Jonanthan Liew's Bellingham/Southgate/England thinkpiece. I don't know that there's anything particularly profound in there, but it has some amusing one-liners.
Quote:
At which point, with sighs, Bellingham must now peel off his superhero suit, slip on a blue training top and start playing sideways passes to Harry Maguire.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67062742
Lad on the right wondering where he is.
Lol at Old Trafford getting binned.
In such a small country you wonder why they don't use a lot more stadiums.
And yeah, Bramley Moore Dock and the Etihad, real home of football stuff.
All about the cheese rooms.
It all makes sense until you see they're using Hampden.
Football fans can't be trusted, as you well know.
They should have got funky with the home nation scheduling. Giggles' mob could have been based at Celtic Park, Scotland at the GAA place, and special guests The United States Mens National Team could play their games in Dublin. Or France could if we aren;t doing that, England were always paranoid about them invading through Ireland, per that union programme, which I didn't really get seeing as Ireland is a lot further away from France than England is.
Why have Birmingham City, after a decent start to the season by their abhorrent standards, sacked their manager and appointed Wayne Rooney? Is it for clicks? Are they hoping for the Netflix cameras to roll in? Sport is almost a parody of itself now.
Tom Brady wanted someone in charge that he’s heard of
Christ, of course, Americans taking over. The world's most clueless morons.
Are you doubting the tactical acumen of Wazza, a man daft enough to be abducted by some of Barrow's cheapest slags on a night out?
Ł500 and you can have the NFT.
Reckon spain might give us about 5 or 6 here.
:happycry:Quote:
If the goalkeeper gets the ball, he can take everything else with him and Unai Simon has done just that.
I think Robertson was offside anyway but yeah, he literally smashes into Robertson whilst getting hands on it before dropping the ball and breaking Robertson’s arm by the looks of it
Oh yeah, I forgot it's fine to kill outfield players when they're in an offside position, silly me.
Clearly not endangering an opponent.
It's almost never worth challenging the goalkeeper 50-50. Either you get a free kick unfairly given against you, or you get Battiston'd.
Bryan Zaragoza.
:cool:
Hope he's half as good a Jorge Pińa.
Hopefully it's just the arm and nothing shoulder related.
Greatest player in the fucking world.oh my days
Fuck off
This ref is an utter joke. Assumed it was ruled out for offside but was given for a foul. Utterly mental. Ball was already in the net before he was slightly touched
Has robbo actually broken his arm?
God, we’re utterly brutal to watch.
Oh well. Still only need a point against Georgia or Norway to qualify assuming Spain lose to Norway on Sunday. Hopefully the former get at least a draw and confirm us going through so we don’t bottle it in Georgia 15 years later once again
He's been underwhelming for some time now. Robertson that is.
Is this game today some sort of 20th anniversary of the 1-3 horror? The one England match I've ever attended and one of the real low points in the history of English sport.
Kendry Paez does it again. Not sure I should be drooling over a 16 year old but we’ll be doing it anyway :drool:
Baz does it all the time.
The team to bring the shitshow curtain down. The monkeyman's lot win this easily.
Gallagher & Henderson in the double pivot. Unreal.
Yeah I thought initially that line-up at least had some different names in then I realised the formation we were gonna be rocking.
Listen, Australia are a dangerous team. Snakes, spiders, you name it. Jellyfish. You can't be too careful.
It's so utterly depressing.
Oh God love you, you fucks. As if you won't qualify.
What's the crack formation-wise? 4-5-1 as the beeb have it? Which of the three centre-halves is going to play left-back? Colwill? Is GSB doubling down on Smallpockets desire to ruin him or are we going for some sort of funky 5-4-1 wingback nightmare?
The circle of shite could be completed from 2003, but Australia are effectively a pub side aren't they? So we'll probably coast past them.
Could be a real eye-bleeder though, so there's that to look forward to.
The drop off in quality between the 2003 side and this Australian one must be massive. Who were they fielding back then? Kewell, Viduka, Emerton, some sort of decent 'keeper, Craig Moore, Cahill. Now what, midget Mat Ryan with only one 't' and that guy I thought was a jock but isn't at centre-half?
Most of the Qatar World Cup has been erased from my memory, but didn't Australia unexpectedly reach the knockouts? Or did they just score against France or something.
Ferguson really makes things out of fuck all.
Apropos of nothing, perhaps it was thinking back to the likes of Kewell and Viduka, I got to thinking about Lee Bowyer and whether I was the same age as him [turns out he's 4 years older than me] but in the course of finding that out I see he's the manager of Montserrat. Odd.
lol Henderson.
:D
Studs showing, straight into the ankle. We got VAR in this one?
Australia should be 2-0 up here. We are so bad.
The lady referee is going to be absolutely blowing by the hour mark. She's having to full on sprint end-to-end to keep up with the pace.
Bit of a shame that Mitchell Duke chance didn't continue the long tradition of English misery at the hands of Australians called Mitchell, seriously is every second man there called Mitchell? Also I'm not sure it's 'unlucky' Dion for Watkins to be missing an open goal but whatever.
Another cracking tackle from Gallagher, two feet off the floor and doing the old scissor the legs thing.
Dion sounds like he's smoked a reefer just before coming on air.
This Henderson and Gallagher midfield is looking fantastic.
Loving the ref's card flourish. Authoratah.
Unless he's got a trip to Turkey booked soon James Maddison will be full Lombardo by the next World Cup.
Rob Holding's hair is one of football's greatest comebacks.
Henderson is such a heinous selection. What is Southgate thinking?
As shit as we are, I do love Didi Hamann calling us 'we' and really giving a fuck. He's watched enough of this shit that he's angry.
Luxembourg with a reasonable chance to qualify for the Euros is not something I ever expected to see.
What the fuck did I just watch?
Sounds like I missed another Southgate masterclass in creativity.
I'l be fucked if I watched any of it but these quotes are great entertainment nontheless.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...r-wembley-boos
Part of the problem some of these people (Southgate) have with fan relations sometimes is that they have spent 30+ years of their lives on various trainings grounds keeping their shape for a very good living, and therefore have no idea how the fan experiences football. In Southgate's mind that's a cracking midfield duo due to how few mistakes he thinks they will make. In the fan's mind it's at best like watching paint dry.
Jassim pulled out of United bidding
The twat really has built a rod for his own back with his previous judgemental moralising on issues. You can't on one hand lecture an entire nation about human rights or sections of the England support on BLM matters and then act completely oblivious as to the major reason why Henderson is being targeted.
Why would he even want a minority stake? If he can't raise the money for a takeover, why bother? It will still be run on current lines, and you will just end up being held responsible with no power to change anything.
Tonali being investigated for a betting scandal. How Italian of him.
Just watched highlights of England 9-1 Serbia. England very good, but my god a Serbian just passed it to an England player 5 or 6 times, leading directly to a goal.
Also, the gap in playing styles from the U21s to senior team is astonishing.
Any idea of a team who play in all black kits and the goalkeeper kit is also black?
Well that would be illegal, so no.
There are quite a few German teams who have their home kit as black like Eintracht Frankfurt. Obviously the keeper isn't also in black.
It has a whiff of face-saving about it. INEOS essentially backs the club refinancing, and then, worst case scenario, they're just rubes for the Glazers continuing to run it into the ground, and the best case is that the club turns around off the back of it and its value increases. If the price/purchase structure was all decided now you would expect him to be able to raise it.
Morata is such a cock.
First team qualified?
Scotland :cool:
First team to be knocked out?
Scotland. :cool:
Can someone explain how Moldova are still in contention. They haven't got a single player that pretty much anyone has heard of.
Man, I'd love a couple of smaller teams to get into the hat. Luxembourg, Moldova ... erm ... Israel?
What a load of silly bollocks they've turned the game into.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/24416...harebar_native
I was looking at this this morning. Georgia, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan will have a playoff for the final place due to doing well in Nations League C. If anything was ever designed for someone to win electoral votes from small countries this was it.
Luxembourg are still in with a shout of a top two finish which isn't something I ever thought I'd see
The Sandro Tonali ‘I was forced out of Milan’ making a lot more sense now. They’ve proper swindled Newcastle assuming he gets a lengthy ban. :D
I'd really be doubtful whether they'll even beat Gibraltar tonight. The whole squad must be rock bottom right now.
Feels like a form of punishment but I’m watching them again tonight. My 5 year old son watched them play Greece on Friday. He’s started his Ireland supporting at the worst they’ve been in my 31 years. Poor kid isn’t even going to get those few tournament runs and close calls that I enjoyed.
I'd be buying him an eggball and telling him to forget about it at this stage.
Have you fucks switched over to the North or something? 18 year-old generational talent coming through and a goalscorer too. That man will single-handedly decide the majority of games and drag your arses to multiple tournaments.
Doesn't work for Norway.
They're getting there. Were probably in a similarly dark era pre-Haaland.
Bazunu - not far off getting run out of Southampton and may not be heard of again
Kelleher - Lazy cunt too satisfied not playing at a big club to get a move
Doherty - long past done
O'Shea - turned out to be shite
Collins - turned out to be shite
Duffy - finished
Omobamidele - has made the worst move of all time and may never be seen again
Cullen - finished
Molumby - turned out to be shite
Browne - not worth a fuck and never will be
McGrath - same
Connolly - turned out to be shite
Robinson - done
Szmodics - might qualify next time out with Hungary
Johnston - piss and wind
Ogbene - piss and wind
Idah - never been any good
Obafemi - never been any good
That leaves Ferguson, Ebsoele, and Knight (who needs the next manager to leave him in midfield and stop messing) as actual prospects. Throw in Moran, who will be a player, and that's the lot. Not a hope of qualifying for anything until at least 2032.
Gylfi :harold:
What the fuck is going on in Brussels? Seems like a bit of a mad reason to abandon a game of football unless there's some sort of link to it.
Apparently two of the folk shot were in Sweden tops but I don't think it is connected to football. The video going about showing the bloke shooting them they don't even look like they're in Sweden tops so it's either a shite about the tops or the video is something else
Also the game was irrelevant. Glorified friendly.
Phillips starting tonight. :eyemouth:
The players on both teams apparently refused to come back out after half time.
Starting Phillips is lol, but a line-up out of Southgate which shows some actual intent is nice.
4 attacking players counts as intent?
Maguire and Phillips must have more minutes for England than their clubs this season.
Not a serious nation.
If I were going to be fair to him, which I'm not really, I'd ask who his other options are in that double pivot alongside Rice on the assumption that Bellingham is a free role ahead of them from now until 2034. What you'd really want would be a Modric-type player who is reasonably mobile and can dictate the tempo, but I don't think such a player really exists.
Don't play the fucking double pivot with the worst back 4 in the history of English football. Pragmatism requires an ability to defend, which we don't have.
I'm holding out hope for a Ned Flanders freak-out in the dressing room.
England's bench probably beats the team the badger has put out, although they'd probably have to shunt Colwill to left back unfortunately.
Wait, we're mad at this lineup?
Outside of Maguire for Dunk it looks like exactly what you'd want England lining up with against a strong nation.
You can argue Maddison/Grealish/Rashford/Foden but it's fractional differences.
"England boss Gareth Southgate, speaking to Channel 4 about selecting Kalvin Phillips: "It is tactical. I felt Kalvin did a really good job against Scotland. He is a different sort of player to Hendo."
Did he seriously say Hendo?
As you all know I am a proud English patriot and champion of liberty, but I'm afraid the people who boo opposition national anthems at England football games should all be killed by the state. No other country in the world does it and it's fucking pathetic.
'This is the self-preservation society' a very apt opening number from the benighted band in the face of Southgate's England.
God I'm turning into a shitter Henry Winter.
A Phillips red would be tremendous.
I look forward to Waistcoat claiming this complete disorganisation and inability to defend properly is because we guilted him into dropping 'Hendo.'
Missed his chance with the first minute Nani effort.
He won't be close enough to anyone for the rest of the match to have a look in.
The Stones-Maguire axis of doom is just so bad.
I know it's been said a million times but it really is incredible how turgid England manage to be given the quality of players at their disposal.
Aside from Pickford, Maguire and Phillips these players are all nailed-on starters for some of the best clubs (yes United are shit but Rashford isn't and replace him with Grealish if you want anyway) in the world.
In Kane and Bellingham you've got arguably the best 9 and 10 in world football.
And this is what we're served up.
Why are the frogmobiles looking at this for ages?
Not really a Kane special but it's ridiculous that that is a penalty, there was no possibility Bellingham could have taken another step, he was at full stretch to earn the contact. More a fault of the rule though really.
Football's about kicking the ball, Bellingham kicked it, right back then kicked him, penaltí.
I think these type of penalties have been broken for a long long time.
Your goal once in these situations is to kick the ball out of play knowing the opposition is going to kick you half a second later. It's why going round the keeper died out, more profitable to just boot the ball out of play and get taken out.
Jesus, Bellingham is something isn't he.
So the tackler is allowed to be at full stretch and toe the ball away, preventing the attacker from taking the ball under control, but if the attacker responds in kind they are fair game to be fouled? Can you not see how ridiculously advantaged defenders would be with your rules?
I agree that you can't really solve the problem with rules, although phonics understands what I am saying. It would have to be discretion based, which would be more disastrous.
The wider complaint probably doesn't apply in the instant case as at least Bellingham is in the middle of the box and the ball was still within the field of play and potentially playable at the point of contact, but more broadly, the penalty rule was clearly conceived in an era where the threshold as to what constituted a foul was much higher than it is now, and the logical argument that "anywhere else on the pitch and that's a foul" means it is now much more advantageous to use the rules to win a penalty, than it is to try and score a goal from many situations, which is a bit shit.
Liam Cooper still getting call ups for Scotland is beyond ridiculous. One of the worst 40 mins you’ll see so far. Absolutely horrendous
I know it could never happen but I would like the idea of the shitty toe poke the ball out of play knowing you'll get fouled plays to be turned into indirect free kicks rather than penalties.
Speaking of, what happened to indirect freekicks? I grew up watching teams have to set-up two players to do anything but now I have no idea what causes a free kick to be indirect.
Obstruction and goalkeeper offences like picking up a back pass are the main ones aren't they?
Obstruction probably doesn't exist anymore as by the point of physical contact both parties are rolling about on the floor claiming a foul which is given one way or the other. [/soundingold]
Is point 1 and 3 not also known as 'a foul'?Quote:
An indirect free kick can also be award to a team if the opposing player:
Plays in a dangerous manner
- Prevents the goalkeeper from releasing the ball
- Impedes the progress of an opponent
- Commits any offense that stops play that does not warrant a direct free kick
Could say the same for point 2.
What's the ref signal for indirect, a hand in the air? It is weird that that whole thing seems to have fallen out of the game.
That was the best goal I've seen England score for a very long time. Rashford was great at the end but this guy Bellingham is just a joy.
I do like this new aura Bellingham has. He knows he’s the best in the world.
He's a fucking phenomenon, isn't he?
He's what we always hoped that Rooney would become.
In fairness to Rooney he played with the same impetuosity until he broke his foot/was crushed under the weight of the Gerrard/Lampard midfield debate.
And the granny stuff, obvs.
It's the pure luck of the draw of the family around you. His Dad seems to be very on it from the moment he knew the kid could play. Every decision has been informed by the decision he'll have to make several years later. From forcing Jude abroad to save Birmingham from bankruptcy instead of joining a United for half a million to turning down City for Real Madrid because joining a 'plastic club' to quote the Dad would ruin his legacy.
M'Bappes mum could take a lesson or two from him.
It's also very healthy for him on a number of levels that he's safely ensconced in Spain away from all the utter bullshit than runs through our football. I mean, utter bullshit runs through Spanish football too but that's not his problem.
That control and pass back to Foden was ridiculous.
I guess it's all on how he recovers from being sent off in a critical game now.
Also in fairness to Rooney, he was put under 1000 times the pressure than Bellinghams ever faced at an equivalent age that would have Jude will playing for the Blues.
Who is our best ever player to date? Is it Rooney? Stanley Matthews, Beckham, erm, Bobby Moore?
It's probably Lineker really, pound for pound.
My Dad says its Bryan Robson. Is always his go to 'if he wasn't drinking 12 pints of mild a night and you dropped him into todays game' player.
Oh and that player Jimmy Hill used to bang on about all the time, Jimmy Greaves?
He's young yet, plenty of time for his spirit to be crushed, at least for England.
How on earth did we ever lose the final of the Euros to Italy? I know they were rolling at the time, but they are, and pretty much were, absolutely terrible.
Because waistcoat took about 30 minutes to react to Italian half time changes and then shit himself at every opportunity thereafter.
Yeah. You watch this game and we're just miles ahead of them despite all the things we always moan about. Our talent production in the last 10 years has been world-leading.
Speaking of which, I'm only just catching up with Mancini resigning the job mid-campaign to go to the Saudi Arabian national team. Proper Phil Mickelson villain stuff.
Fox has beaten me to it. I'll give Gareth a pass for that first World Cup, but everything since then has seen a group of England players almost as good as any other national team going constrained by his hideous safety first approach and incompetent in game management.
In other news, San Marino equalised against Denmark on 61 minutes. Since gone behind again but what legends.
Bellingham's probably going to slot into the 'make something happen' role Sterling had under Southgate.
Tonali's co-accused has been handed a 7-month ban :uhoh:
'Fagioli' lol.
Isn't that just Bean in Italian?
Yeah he was but transformed into a different player quite quickly. That Euro 2004 Rooney was a different breed, like Bellingham.
Tonali apparently bet on AC. Sue the cunt and bomb Milan.
I always maintain with Rooney that if he'd died tragically shortly after Euro 2004 we'd still be mourning the nailed on loss of England's greatest ever player and by some distance. It simply didn't turn out that way.
He is probably England's greatest ever player. Have we all suffered some kind of collective amnesia?
Ok, one of the World's best ever players.
He was for ages?
After Euro 2004 he scored only three more tournament goals for England. The first was the winner against Ukraine at Euro 2012, second was in a defeat to Uruguay in our failed 2014 campaign, and the last was the opener against Iceland which we went on to lose 2-1.
Most England supporters don't care what he did for Man U, certainly not on an emotional level. After Euro 2004 we thought he would play with the same freedom and lead us into contention for many tournaments, that just didn't happen.
I thought Chelsea were just a bit jinxed but I’m starting to think their medical department might just be a bit shit. Lavia, Chalobah, Chukwuemka and James were all back in training and now all four had a ‘set back’ and are injured once again. Same happened to Badiashile who was back in training in September and still hasn’t kicked a ball after getting re injured.
And Kante has also played more already this season than he did for Chelsea in the past 12 months (though that may be down to Saudi league being at walking pace)
People know Rooney didn’t just play for England, right?
Even for Man Utd I'd say he didn't quite live up to his promise, which was partly due to Ferguson employing him in the Dirk Kuyt role for a depressing amount of time, but there was a time when he was just as good as Ronaldo and Messi yet they both went on to tear well ahead of him.
That injury he got at the end of his mental 2009/10 season cost United the league and probably the Champions' League, and by all accounts he never quite got over them rushing him back from it (he certainly stank 2010 up for England on it). He should have been used solely as a striker after that, like when he kept them in the 2011/12 fight with twenty tap-ins, but they persisted in thinking he was a ten for a few more years and it finished him off.
On the topic of Rooney:
Some of the shite we played up front while he was fucking about on the left wing is hilarious looking back.
No doubt he was a great footballer for much of his career but he certainly peaked early, he just had the mental ability to consistently perform at a high level for years beyond that point. At 18 years old (Euro 2004) I'm not sure there's been anyone better at that age (not even Messi or Owen) and his injury probably/definitely cost us the tournament; from early 2004 (still at Everton) until Ronaldo got him sent off at the 2006 World Cup he was phenomenal, completely uninhibited natural ability. There wasn't anything specific, he was just a pure joy to watch as he ruled games whilst appearing to not require the immense effort you'd imagine it needed, much like what we're seeing with Bellingham recently.
Man Utd fans will probably say he was best around the 2009-11 period, though. And from an influential perspective, he probably was at his best (for them) in this time, but he wasn't the mind boggling talent we saw years previously.
Wasn't he just too fond of the beer and fags to prolong his peak in the same way Ronaldo and Messi did?
Ashley Cole has been England's best player of the past 20 years.
Shite wording but that's what I was getting at with the "completely uninhibited natural ability" comment. Once external factors started creeping in he wasn't the same player. Maybe no less effective, but didn't have as much "wow factor" that Messi, Ronaldo, now Bellingham have.
And Ronaldo will continue to turn out for Portugal in his 50's.
Oh, horrible news from the Gateshead side of the river: Iron Mike Williamson is off to manage MK Dons. He doesn't look like he's down as player/manager so a glittering career has come to an end. 439 appearances 17 goals.
This now raises an important question: Which ex-Newcastle player takes over? Steve Watson is available. Probably him for a second stint.
We've had some twat I've never heard of look like declaring. That can only mean he's realised he's shite at an early age, which is probably for the best. Nothing like battling Callum O'Dowda for a spot to put you back in your box.
Gazza found something at Wembley to enjoy himself.
Grim day. Robbo out for 10 weeks and Salah making the worst public statement I've ever seen. Why not just put it into AI to read out, brother?
Gravenberch in for his first league start. Boy looks some player from his cameos so far.
Beginning to wonder why we bought the best CDM in the world to sit him on the bench.
This is such a shit game at lunchtime off the back of an international break, hopefully rank Everton turn up rather than dig in and break Everton.
Merseyside police always ask this game to be put in the early slot. It's shit because the evening kick offs for the derby usually are electric.
DCL has fucked that.
That was a stunning challenge by Ashley Young.
Is there actually ever trouble at the Liverpool derby (one of them v Tranmere would be the 'Merseyside' derby), or is it just that herding that many people around the city is a ballache?
Onana’s way too good to wear an Everton shirt.
These last ditch tackles have been incredible.
Mac Allister seriously needs taking out of the holding role. Caught with the ball way too often. He's gonna cost us a good few goals playing in that role.
Harsh red for Young.
As lol as it is when it's not you, but that's not a red card.
Referee has been giving everything to Liverpool so far so that was always gonna come. Lucky if either were yellow cards.
Reminds me of the Jota red. Absolutely shouldn't be combining to make a red card, but when you're on a yellow and you dive in like that, that's how it's going to go.
Mykolenko playing like prime Maldini.
Lunchtime kick offs should be abolished.
Ref is on the take.
Appalling refereeing not to give Konate another yellow there.
Replay the game.
They’ll end up winning but this is another game where Liverpool have been shite the majority of the game
Should be booked for diving.
That's a pen...
A bit silly from Keane.
Now get the 2nd and put them away please.
Everton deserve that for bringing Keane on. The worst defender in the league
Howay. Worst performance of the season by far.
Post international early games should be binned. Both sides were terrible today. But neither as bad as the referee.
All early kick-offs should be binned.
I assume 'the Asian market' is why they even exist, as they're dreadful for everyone else.
TV rights in general and you also need to stop the evil working class people from having a beer before the start otherwise they'll start boxing each other and I'm not talking Queensberry rules.
The VAR obviously has someone other than Neal Maupay or the Burnley penalty taker FGS today.
Bobby Charlton's had enough of watching United.
Same.
Thiago Silva and Cucurella starting at the back and no recognised striker. Saka against Cucurella and Jesus/Martinelli in Silva’s channel :sick:
I saw the other day that Silva wasn't getting his contract renewed and thought of you. Just 7 months to go.
Gateshead's match against Chesterfield was stormed off or whatever. So Rob Elliot has to wait to get his first match in charge. Rather than field applicants, the board went with him as an interim boss.
Got to say, as I search for some form of sport today that isn't going to be an epochal disaster, I fear a bit for our left side here. Hopefully it's Mudryk's breakout game but that's probably a 40/1 shot.
An excellent turnaround from Leeds. 2-0 down at half time away to Norwich to win 3-2. I don't see anyone other than Leicester winning the league, even at this early stage. But hopefully Ipswich drop off and we can chase second place.
The current squad is a breath of fresh air after ripping out the majority of the over-valued, over-paid wasters of the last couple of seasons.
That ball looks like it’s going to cause havoc in the grass. Pitch is heavy as fuck
Bournemouth gifted Wolves the winner. Bournemouth were down to 10 men and had goal kick in the last minute. Neto decided to play it short under pressure, Billing got robbed for a tap in. Silly.
Cole Palmer is a little shit.
That looked like a clear handball.
I'm not sure that should really be a pen but fuck it.
Not sure playing with no striker is going to help when holding onto a lead and dropping back.
They are going to have to loosen the rule on handball, it’s absolutely mental that we’ve had two game tipping incidents today being a ball inadvertently hitting a defender on the arm from about 30cm.
How do you teach a defender to ignore natural instincts when jumping for headers?
There is a more simple solution than torching all of the rules of the sport.
I think current official thinking on the topic seems to be 'unlucky m8'.
We were really good in that half. Centre backs are a bit all over the place though so I fully expect them to drive in three second half.
Gallagher and Rice, is there anything setting them apart except one has performed regularly for a shite side and the other has had to fight harder for first team mins? Enzo and Caicedo continuing to outclass the opposition but the Norwegian Bergkamp can't ever be ruled out of lighting up a game (unless of course it's a meaningful game against respectable opposition).
Cucurella has played well so he’s due a bombscare moment.
Would be taking Mudryk off for Jackson and sticking Palmer out wide. Not the game for Mudryk at all.
Not watching, but is Cucurella playing well because he's playing as a leftback rather than in a 3? Also, is Colwill playing in the middle? :eek:
Raya :lol:
Raya should be taken out back.
Thank god Ramsdale's the one having to hold a newborn is all I can say.
Both these keepers aren’t helping the Spanish GK reputation. Both are brutal
Aren't they very much on brand for Spanish goalkeeping, with the good ones of the past 20 years being the historical anomaly?
Goalkeepers from cold countries are the ones to go for. You knew where you were with Jussi Jaskalainen.
This referee has booked everyone for their first foul (none of them cynical). Absolutely awful stuff.
:lol:
Jesus Christ. Arsenal will get back into this now having been completely out of it. What a fkn mong
Another tit who should be playing for Barakaldo or Ourense.
If we don't win it will be because the woeful Jackson approached that golden chance like a man still learning to walk.
I hate this game.
Was always going to happen after that Sanchez monstrosity. They’ll probably go on to win this now, still ages left.
Shocking game management has been a problem dating back a long time and it's not going to get any better with these child spreadsheet pieces being brought on at the end of every game. Can Sterling not just play the 90?
The Arsenal allez allez allez song really annoys me.
Evans and Maguire starting at CB? Ugh.
Reece James played a whole 10 mins without an injury?!
Just seen the Rice goal.
:D
Nothing beats a Gary Neville "oh no".
Not sure how we went from Kepa and Mendy to this prat and someone brought in directly from the New England Revolution.
Every domestic Real game with Vinny I tune into is descending into some school pantomine version of the George Floyd killing. It's fucking superb, always being baited by half a dozen tatted favela fucks as he begins to get more and more irate if they're not winning. He's a pussy as are his soft af teammates but he'll be pushed to finally chin someone soon.
That penalty decision is also hilarious, but JFH says definite penalty for me. :D
JFH is an underrated pundit. Doesn't say much of value himself but is always involved in massive ding-dongs.
I would say the deviation of the ball instantly before, and the clear lack of intent in terms of the defender positioning his body that way, I mean, what advantage is there to be had to block a header going well wide [?], put it into the accidental category. But as the Jimmys say, the rule is more lol bad luck mate with those. Weirdly, if Mudryk heads it, it glances/brushes Saliba's head/chest and then hits his arm in exactly the same was it's not a penalty. That's a silly rule.
It all goes back to the seminal VAR penalty handball decision in the 2018 WC Final where slow motion entirely ruins accurate understanding of the game.
For example, as a direct comparison, what about the one where Jackson headed the ball into his own arm earlier in the season? Distance was probably about the same.
It’s really impressive how Chelsea have managed to only secure 12 points so far. Should have been minimum 17/18 (based off of performances and nothing else).
Suppose that’s what happens when your average age is about 22 if you don’t include Silva. At least the midfield is finally rebuilt. Now to add Nkunku and Oshimen to the madness in January
Then maybe Odegaard should add some goals to his game.
Then the game just becomes shit hockey with the likes Baggio dinking the ball into poor Chilean mugs hands in 1994. Handball is probably the least susceptible rule to forensic analysis, seeing as it was an unintelligible mess prior to VAR. Deliberate? Who was it that got sent off in an Arsenal Chelsea game years ago for punching the ball wide when it was already going wide? Was it Hazard? Or was it an Arsenal mug?
Oxlade-Chamberlain did it but Gibbs got sent off for it.
:D
Yeah, that was the one, perfect.
McDon :cool:
McTominay giveth and he taketh.
What Sir Bobby would have wanted, this. Struggling against a total turd of a team.
Dalot :cool:
We're fucking back, bitches.
I would wait atleast 6 minutes after we score to make such claims based on this season
Sheff Utd going for the worst record from here on out. This was their chance to show they were something other than dreadful.
Luton remain outside the drop zone with their late heist. Legends.
I also enjoyed Vincent Kompany's Burnley being described as looking like a youth team by Martin Keown today.
Has football really changed so much between the levels these days?
Vincinius Jr racially abused again, what's the Spanish equivalent of gammon?Jamón?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...tor-ratcliffe/
Sir Jim looking to bring in some ProperFootballMenTM once he gets in the door.
Tarta de pastor.
Pata Negrita.
Konate was really lucky not to get a second yellow for exactly the same thing he was booked first time for. I don't see any issues with the Ashley Young ones, they're both yellow cards.
Very nice tribute to Bobby Charlton by the BBC as well.
We were as crap as the handball rule. I'm also yet to see David Raya do anything impressive.
His distribution was absolutely terrible. Looks like a fad signing to me.
There was one point when he leathered it out of play around the halfway line and Arteta and the entire coaching staff seemed to stand up and applaud, as if they'd just seen Yo Yo Ma perfect Elgar's cello concerto, rather than a goalkeeper lumping it into the stands. Sometimes it's as if execution just isn't valued in modern football, it's all about the PLAN.
Anyone signing a goalkeeper based on their kicking should be sacked on the spot.
Ederson gets the label of "could play in midfield" often, but it gets overlooked that he's actually a top notch shot stopper first and just so happens he kicks well. It seems like everyone has tried to copy him since he came into the league.
Also nobody presses City that high up in case they get bummed in short order so he has all the time he wants to ponce about with it.
I was having this discussion with IRL friends and raised the point that, from my experience, keepers are keepers because they were crap and wanted to feel involved. Suddenly raising the old “we are just going to get you involved with little passes from the back” seems a pretty bad idea.
Was petr cech good with his feet? Was he fuck and he was a great keeper.
I think I’ll need to see some stats to suggest why those pissy little passes at the back are net positive. See so often they end up in either a chance or goal for the other team. Most live games I watch have one.
I think it's the idea you could always build something from the back. Hoofing it to half-way doesn't always retain possession. Still, keepers should have an awareness to know when it's better to just club it forward.
Likewise defenders don't quite seem to know when it's better to just clear the ball.
I’m an advocate of possession in the opponents third, or at a stretch the opponents half, is the only possession stat worth a salt. Who cares if you have possession inside your own box?
Particularly if there’s an attacker looming.
Well the concept is that you will be able to play it out of your half every time, which would lead to higher possession at the opposite half. Which is all well and good, apart from the fact that many teams seem to have no alternative plan.
Burnley getting desperate early.
Did they ever just figure it’s because they’re shite?
Proper backwards gammon thinking on keeper distribution here. You've all got hundreds of years of generational conditioning into thinking kicking it long and losing it is somehow okay just because it's still a few passes away from being in the back of your net. See RDZ's comments yesterday on why Milner wasn't the issue when he was gobbling up all 15 inches of Doku's girthy snake time and time again. You have to think a few steps ahead.
Just seen that Harry Kane has 10 goals and 5 assists in 11 games. It's such an absurdly bad league I can't believe the statisticians don't treat it like when people used to buy from the Eredivisie.
Would he get those numbers for Darmstadt?
It's not that the quality of player is bad, it's that any form of defensive coaching or a line not up to the halfway line has been made an official crime in the country.
What a goal.
What was that celebration about?
Young people.
"3 Official Apologies From PGMOL, You'll Never Sing That" :cool:
A lot of things to wank over with this Spurs side, the freedom of the fullbacks is very close to my own heart, the one-touch passing, the pass and move but it all goes back to the most basic giveaway of a manager who (against my expectations) knows what he's doing, the relentless press. Fucking great times to be a Spurs supporter.
The penalty they've just awarded Napoli is a joke.
Edit: didn't realise the game I'm watching isn't live :D not having a good night.
I was trying to figure out whether you meant Empoli or something. :D
Spurs winning the league managed by an Australian is in theory one of the worst possible outcomes for sport, but it's just so likeable. I'm sorry.
I wonder why Thomas Partey isn’t travelling with Arsenal today.
Rapey.
Has he placed any bets lately?
He's made of glass though so doesn't mean much, same reason a physio follows him round on international duty.
It’s amazing that rep he’s managed to get since joining us. Think he played 150 games with no injuries for Atletico and no issues. Timber missed like 3 games since he was 19 and then blows his ACL in his first game. I don’t get it.
Raya passing it to the opposition again. This continuing farce and Arteta not wanting to lose face might genuinely derail his entire tenure if it carries on.
Both Raya and Havertz (even if I can see the upside with this one) were both proper too smart by half signings.
Genuinely nothing to separate United and Copenhagen so far.
They just have very little idea how to play through the lines. Everything is done at snail’s pace.
Gabriel to Gabriel to Gabriel :cool:
That turn was excellent.
That's a cracking finish from Jesus.
Speaking of cracking finishes:
Slabhead :cool:
Death. Taxes. Sevilla 3rd in a Champions League group.
I’ve just realised that it’s THAT Jesus Navas playing for Sevilla. He must be about 40 by now.
Fuck off McTominay.
Onana :cool:
Finally he comes good.
Must be a full moon. Onana and Maguire saving Man Utd’s CL run. What a horrendous team though. Disgrace if they’re anywhere near top 6 in the league
They'll probably go on a Rashford inspired run of playing quite well for a bit having stolen a few results of late.
Sir Bobby's ghost inspiring the Onana-Maguire redemption has set them back a month or two now and should hopefully ensure Egghead remains in place for another raping by us. Glorious.
I see Garnacho's getting a bit of grief for scuffing up the penalty spot yesterday.
That should be something VAR is mandated to police with it being an instant dismissal for unsportsmanlike conduct. Problem goes away immediately.
Did the fixture compiler have a stroke for this Sunday?
PREMIER LEAGUE
West Ham 13:00 Everton
Aston Villa 14:00 Luton
Brighton 14:00 Fulham
Liverpool 14:00 Nottm Forest
Man Utd 15:30 Man City
What the sweet fuck is that about? Is that to the liking of the scummy gammons who actually attend games or something? What about the millions of scholars of the game and muzzies and what not who need to be maximising their viewing of EPL action?
Manchester Derby is an hour earlier due to police request. Therefore the early televised game moves forward one hour as well.
The other three are in the usual spot for the non-televised Sunday games (ie. those that played on Thursday in Europe), no?
Assuming you're in the stands at Anfield, you can watch the game there and look down at West Ham v Everton on your smartphone during dull passages of play. Then on to the pub in your half and half scarf and racially balanced betting-advert friendship group to watch Man Red v Man Blue.
Here's an observation. Man U, in their league soccer to date, have won 5 and lost 4, the 5 wins coming against the sides currently placed 13, 14, 15, 18 and 20, and the losses to teams placed 1, 2, 6 and 10. They have still to play 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11 (Chelsea). Are they, as opposed to being really fucking terrible, actually completely abysmal beyond belief? Time will tell.
Whilst conducting this research I also observed that 11th-placed Chelsea have had a comically easy run of fixtures thus far. Relegation beckons, my friends.
Wouldn’t say that. played 3 of the top 5 in 9 games and West Ham away as well which is an automatic loss.
Spurs are getting battered in two weeks.
All at home too. Haven't yet played a top 8 side away, this applies only to us and Arsenal.
On the plus side, the league cup draw has opened right up.
Well you shall be buzzing about Novembers run in. Easy peasy.
We haven't played well since winning the League Cup. I suppose we were alright in the 4-1 against Chelsea, but that was largely due to them being awful than us doing anything particularly well.
That performance against Barca feels like a lifetime ago.
Probably clickbait but hilarious if true.
Meanwhile, Man City…hush hush.
Didn't you literally say as much when they were embarking on the run just gone of games? Which Chelsea went on to somewhat spaz up by losing to Forest at home among other terrible/inexplicable results. On the subject of which, Liverpool look to have a pretty piss easy run up until they play City in late November so bring on being the first team to lose at Kenilworth Road in a few weeks.
Yes. I just like to say the opposite of Floyd.
I'm actually a bit more optimistic than I was then, mainly because of Cole Palmer and the fact that Pochettino knows what he's doing. However I think a top half finish is still a long way off. It's not a top-ten squad.
Fairly meagre pickings tonight, of which magpies v yellow tits may be the best option.
Similarly to my previous post, why are these 17:45 KOs common place now in CL? Didn't it just used to be random Russian games? I thought it might still just be games involving terrorist nation clubs like Ukraine and those with risk of stabbings (Gala/Feyenoord/etc) but Inter-Salzburg yesterday?
I presume it's for TV, and they are of course 18.45 in the land of shit breakfasts, so presumably works for them.
I was sort of going in that direction but Poch finally realised he should be swapping Fernandez and Gallagher's roles around and since then it has been 3 wins and a draw. That and they haven't ever really played too horrendously in any of the games (hence winning every single game on 'XG' this season :cool:)
My current theory is that if we’d bought Palmer instead of Havertz then Mahow would be crying into his cornflakes on the daily. Hoping City did us 3 favours in a row would be unlikely but I also assume Arteta takes the bald frauds word as gospel and the way he got pushed out meant that it was never happening.
While I’m sharing theories, annoyingly Dortmund have fucked my Bundesliga is shut hypothesis. They’re so, so much better than Newcastle.
Colep Almer, destined to be referred to by his full name forever.
Dortmunds problem is they're forever in that transition of having sold their best player(s) the summer just gone and need time for the new cash cow to develop their game.
Bamford is finished.
Tonali banned til next August.
Out of the Euros next year.
Rofl. There has got to have been a clause in the contract with Milan that covers this sort of stuff, not that it'll help on the pitch mind.
I found it incredible he was playing last night and the game at the weekend.
Presumably Milan knew of the shenanigans.
In other Newcastle-are-shit news, the uselessness of them and others is threatening to cost us the 5th Champions League place (you need to be top two leagues previous season to get it). Currently trailing Spain, Italy and Holland.
So essentially everyone that isn't Arsenal, Liverpool or Man City needs to cheer the English lads on for a deep run in their respective European competition now?
Travesty of a goal allowed against us.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9YfIb6W...jpg&name=small
Onana trying to make things okay is even better. Not in this day and age son :D
He might get away with it if he says the other one was for Maguire.
Chambers getting his full debut tonight. I'm hoping this is a Trent style debut out of necessity that leads to a good young player coming through..
Tsimikas is okay but that's exactly all he is.
Every time Tsimikas does something good it looks like a total fluke.
The lad also looks completely fucked after about 5 mins of a game.
10 months for a shit addiction. :D
Considering it would have been completely legal for Tonali to bet while he was playing for Milan but he chose to use an illegal overseas bookie instead I'm going to presume that they didn't know.
Kelleher not covering himself in glory there.
Kelleher has been absolute shite for a while now.
Clearly content to get fat as a never needed back-up, which is a bit of a shame.
Watching Brighton v Ajax. The former are really toothless and the latter are a pub side. It's like watching one of those dire Wembley games when England play Lithuania and struggle to break them down.
Finally they take the lead after a glorious 100-pass move. Ajax have no right to playing at this level. League One standard at best.
They're in the relegation zone in Holland and just sacked their manager. Properly dire these days.
Mac Allister ain't getting back in to our starting XI as anything other than as the holder ahead of this beast.
Egghead had him for a few seasons too :happycry:
What an incredible assist from Nunez to Gravenberch though.
Watching the highlights from last night, what on earth was Kelleher doing? The striker runs from outside the box and by the time he reaches about 12yrds out, Kelleher still in his 6yr box and essentially hasn't narrowed the angle at all.
Gravenberch looked decent.
I was quite taken aback by how horrifyingly weak they were. They played like San Marino just turning up hoping to keep the score down.
They're at PSV on Sunday, who have won every game so far this season. Unfortunately the handicap market is not good value.
Tonali in the Newcastle squad for tomorrow's game. Is this a last hurrah before FIFA ratify the ban, or is he just banned in Italy?
The thing I saw suggested it's just that the ban isn't in place here yet.
I'm concerned justice will be served, despite the presence of Italians and any potential bribery.
It's just been sent worldwide. Hes going to need a new hobby for 10 months.
Not if we can cleverly disguise him as Toni Longstaff.
It felt a bit misguided for Newcastle to be even considering him on what could only have ever been a technicality.
Football managers don't even think like that nowadays I don't think, they're just in a bubble of 'the group'. See also Greenwood etc.
It's yet another my team = ok, other team = bad. If Klopp or whoever is managing Man Utd these days did it then would be a different story. No matter what the original story was.
Probably more to do with playing two games a week.
Where can I watch St Pats vs Shamrock Rovers @Giggles
Been given a tip to bet on Mason Melia to score. Lads only 16 but got the swagger of Giroud.
Haven't you got a firestick? RTE2.
Yep, sorted. Cmon the reds.
Good lads, I completely forgot it was on the telly. They show fuck all games on TV here unless it's Man Utd, Liverpool, or Rangers.
Though why would you watch a game just for a bet? Surely if it wins it wins and you just check after.
If you're streaming you could do better than this shite.
Speaking of the dead (to us), I saw via Facebook that JordInc's a father now.
During half time in CP-TH I switched to another channel where it was Bochum v Mainz, the summariser for which had a very out of place South African accent. Sure enough it was Sean Dundee, as I live and breathe.
James is diljeet.
JorDinc.
Saint also took English lessons and now posts as Yevrah.
Would be nice to get a few old heads back for a reunion thread wouldn’t it.
We could definitely do with some of the characters back. Banning anyone was daft as the lunatics made this place.
No Enzo no party, surely.
These South Americans and having babies so young needs to stop. Now I’m forced to watch Gallagher play deep again.
Chelsea now just a right back away from a full XI worth of injuries/absentees.
Bettinelli; [blank - but probs James in week], Fofana, Chalobah, Chilwell; Lavia, Fernandez, Chukwuemeka; Nkunku, Mudryk, Broja
The starting XI today is just awful. Come on Poch, work your magic.
If Sterling could kick a ball properly he’d be an all timer.
Palmer is such a joy to watch. He has so much time.
What a first half. Should finish 8. :drool:
Madueke is useless.
That was absolutely amazing defending. Bloody hell.
We could play until 6pm and not score. Players just aren't of the required standard unfortunately. Can't blame them, nothing they can do about it.
I’ve watched this exact game about 20 times since Tuchel came in. Chelsea’s home record in the past two years has to be in the bottom three
Looked offside.
I can't remember being as forlorn as when watching this game and looking over the squad. We're looking at years and years of this to come. This is baseball tanking in an open league.
It's just not a squad that has been put together to play football together. When analytics turns ugly.
Losing at home to Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Brentford without scoring is some effort.
Looking forward to ruining Spurs’ title chances next week before back to the same old.
We have far more chance against teams that attack us than teams that sit in low blocks. The only times we looked dangerous were in the first half when Hickey went on a couple of adventures and we counter-attacked into the resultant space, one of which saw Madueke hit the bar. If you just defend in a deep block we won't ever score unless via fuck ups.
At home to shite is default 0-1.
That Arsenal XI looks a bit pants.
No respect whatsoever with that team :D
Should score about 8
It's a nice idea, well, actually it isn't, but, thankfully, it isn't happening. Spurs have been egregiously lucky on numerous occasions this season. Beating Palace 2-1 with 1 shot on target sums it up. Robbing Sheffield Utd blind with two goals deep into added time, needing a last kick of the game OG to beat 9 man Liverpool. It'll run out. Spawning so may wins puts them in a good position for the top 4/5 though, which is good for keeping the shit on a stick brigade [United and Chelsea] at bay.
Kicking off in Munich by the looks of it.
https://gyazo.com/6295e10503270e0cf0d41812cc3729ab.jpeg
Angeball working is going to cause an issue for one of the Uniteds you feel.
Assuming the first 8 games are a good barometer, Arsenal, Liverpool, City and Spurs should be comfortably clear of the rest. Newcastle are feeling the effects of a lack of great depth now. 2 games a week, injuries and bans mounting. United are going to need to start getting results away at the sides mentioned in order to keep pace, unless they can click into a better way of playing.
I was thinking the same. We took the foot off the pedal big time after the break but who cares I suppose, it was a cracking first half.
Summerville is the absolute lad. One of the very best players in this league. He terrifies defences when he runs at them. I'm a bit apprehensive for the inevitable January interest.
Spurs will get sunk by their complete lack of depth in defence and midfield. A couple of injuries there and they're straight back to Dier and Skipp.
1-0, Kane.
I'm not sure that's what we're seeing so far if I'm honest. All the games they've lost in the league were way before Champions League started. And on top of that, losses away to Brighton and City, at home to Liverpool and a draw at West Ham are on brand for them. Sure, the extra games will have an effect overall on their season, but I feel they've been exactly how they were in the second half of last season so far.
Kane lobs the keeper from the halfway line to make it 5-0
https://gyazo.com/0af612552bc52b25554d99d7635379d2.giff
Non serious league.
Fair play, that is mint. Good to see even the goalkeepers play a high line over there.
Also a great effort by Darmstaft to see Kimmich sent off in the first five minutes, and then be down to nine themselves before half time.
They can't mark for shit. 7 goals in 24 minutes for Bayern.
https://gyazo.com/bc5d10cb8d569d97699f9ba5e563e2b2.jpeg
Igniting the imaginations in a thousand back gardens all across the land.Quote:
and apart from the goal the Blades shape and organisation has been good
There really are some absolutely brutal teams in the league this year.
Everton might be wise to try and take that point deduction asap.
Kane hattrick, 8-0.
He scored from his own half. He's having a right laugh over there.
You'd never see an 8-0 in the Barclays.
Are these collectively the worst three promoted teams ever?
Possibly, and the teams that went down last year were very good as well. Leicester are miles better than Burnley.
Bellingham :drool:
https://gyazo.com/237c3d95baa4d75e77aa97111bd50c73.gif
Bellingham is literally the most complete player I’ve ever seen
He's the new Steven Gerrard with intelligence.
And playing for a good team.
gif probably doesn't do the shot justice, but that looks like a poor effort by the 'keeper.
Spending about 5 mins trying to judge whether an offside call is offside or not even after they've drawn the lines on it in Bournemouth. I'd suspect both these managers' jobs might rest on this and crowd has lost all interest. Gotta love how the technology is simply not there for this.
Disallowed. Iraola lives.
Sheffield United will make a real assault on that Derby record I think. Can't see where 10 points are coming from.
Bellingham with another tap-in. Are they just not familiar with midfield runners or something in Spain? This is ridiculous.
Have Real got some sort of Diablo/uber2 tactic on the go?
The spic commentator having a pop at Vini Jr for daring to applaud as he walked off. Racist cunts. He also spent the entire first half describing how Gavi had Bellingham in his pocket :D
A better angle of the Kane lob...
And Bellingham's first
I assumed the goalie must have given the ball away 'playing out from the back' to have been in such a dreadful position, but no.
That’s gotta be at least the 5th stoppage time winner for Bellingham this season
Fitness advantage.
How is Tebas dealing with City Football Group being second in the league over there?
The English Dom Szoboszlai is coming along nicely.
Maybe Brum had a point.
Rob Elliot's still waiting for his first win as Gateshead boss. Thumped 4-0 by Fylde. Meanwhile Mike Williamson keeps his 100% league record going with MK Dons. If we were still under Mike Ashley's iron grip, he'd be our next binman.
13 goals in 13 games for Bellingham. Absurd.
This Newcastle kit is crimous.
Southgate should be locked up if he doesn't take England to the final next summer.
Absolutely never a penalty. Just end the sport.
Yep. He stops himself and kicks the floor. They clearly knew it wasn’t a penalty either with how long they were looking at it.
It's just another example of the Harry Kane / Anthony Gordon throw yourself into contact special. Hwang [was it?] fully stopped himself and Schar was two feet planted and going down 'anticipating contact' before there was any fleeting touch.
Shay Given and the woman in the studio shilling hard for the Saudis.
She did say it wasn’t a penalty but Shay Given’s reasoning made me vomit in my mouth.
Kane ripping up the Bundesliga, Bellingham looking like a once in a generation talent and a supporting cast of quality back in the Premier League, there's no hiding place for Sir Gareth anymore, is there?
Our best hope would be if those two above start unexpectedly turning out at centre half for their clubs.
Anthony Taylor's family in the embassy obviously, or I guess more likely he has a lucrative gig lined up midweek out there.
I do wonder what club Pedro Neto would be playing for if he didn’t do his knee and ankle in back to back years.
Looks back to his best this year.
Gary O’Neil has turned Hwang into a right don
Wolves have been really good in the second half.
Commentators and personnel in general make it out as if Newcastle are the only team ever to play in European football.
And he's dead again.
It's all a bit condescending, really. We have a right to occasionally be good at things without Sky Sports pinning our homework on the fridge.
Not being injured really is the most underrated thing in football.
Yeah, and that was concussion wasn't it? And he must have played 50+ games a year for what, 6 years? Madness.
Edit: 305 games in 6 seasons, only one season under 50 games. I bet he played quite a lot of those 90 minutes as well.
It's crazy. He may be creeping into his 30's now, but things like that should be considered when the Public Investment Fund comes calling in June.
Fairly astonishing that that level of contact is apparently completely fine.
Ruling on the field stands can get to fuck.
You have to be some proper proper football man to, when asked for your player of the match, caveat your selection with "he hasn't been the best player on the pitch out there".
Was looking at the fixtures and it’s so absurd that most teams are looking at playing 3 games in November and 7 in December.
League games. Also League Cup and Europe, and presumably an international break still in there somewhere.
The December fixtures are stupid. Chelsea who aren’t in Europe play 3 times in 6 days and that’s before the madness between Xmas and NY.
December massively favours the top teams, although oddly they are also the ones who always cry about it.
Only way around it is to cut the league to 16 or 18 teams.
I think an 18 team league would be perfect. However the EFL teams would kick off at only having two teams going up.
Perhaps, but looking at Liverpool's fixtures, they have 6 in November, with an international break, and 7 [maybe 8] in December. That might be slightly skewed by the Newcastle game being on New Years Day - has that been moved back for TV?
Exactly why it'll never happen. It'd probably help cutting two of the also rans from the competition though.
I don't know why UEFA/FIFA doesn't standardise the league formats across competitions. Probably too sensible
That sounds a terrible idea.
I often wonder how Scotland would manage with a 20 team league. Any league where you play each other more than twice feels a bit small time.
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/imp...ches-anfield-0
We better cover Anfield like Celtic Park tomorrow.
With a challenge like that I expect, "Up the Ticketless IRA."
Whoever gets Branthwaite is fucking laughing, already England's best CB, if he was mixed race he'd be playing CL football by now.
Onana, Dalot, Lindelof, Maguire, Evans, Amrabat, McTominay, Eriksen, Fernandes, Rashford, Hojlund.
That defence :drool:
Could be anything today. 4-5 easy for city.
City lineup looks unbelievably attacking.
I reckon watching United is about as bad as it's been at the moment. Under 'LvG' and Mourinho, and even Ole Gunnar Binman for a brief period, you could tell (delude) yourself that another transfer window or two and once a few players get better... Now there are no grounds for any sort of optimism.
Generally agree, this season has been the pits. The lack of control in every game is depressing but trying to rationalize it by saying most of the team have been injured for large parts of the season. Any team would struggle having to play their second or third choice defence.
What's the excuse for the midfield?
Who’s this commentator on Sky Sports and why does he have to speak every sentence like a fucking poem.
Peter Drury, and because he's Peter Drury.
Onana :cool:
Match fixing levels of bad for the Forest keeper on the 3rd goal.
That's a pen for me.
It's one of those where it is a pen, but Rodri has successfullly Stuart Broaded it by protesting enough to get the VAR to look at it, as you'd never get it otherwise.
Total bullshit pen. Look at the level of contact allowed in the Wolves game yesterday.
I really dislike seeing that given as a pen.
Everyone is just going to be throwing themselves over in the box for the rest of this game now.
I also don't think they'd have looked at it if it was, say, Josip Gvardiol giving the protest. Rodri is a player with credibility and cachet, these things matter.
How has Onana managed three bookings this season? What a fanny he is.
He loves timewasting.
Great to see var with another wonderful contribution.
More contact by Stones on Hojlund going through than there was for the penalty.
They decide to clamp down on that type of defending every couple of years. It lasts a few weeks before there's been too many penalties and it goes back to normal.
I thought they were going to allow a lot more contact this season? If Rodri doesn’t roll around like a big doyle then it doesn’t even get looked at. They need to start penalising play acting, even when there is (minimal) contact.
Yeah but MICHEAL OLIVER has spotted a great injustice and we need VAR to decide.
Foden :harold:
Crying about a pen after they have 12.4% possession and 0.003 xG in the game to prolong egghead's reign :drool:
Onana has his confidence back.
It was headed straight at him but if it leads to Garnacho posting a few gorilla emojis and prolong that career too, we are here for it.
This is the first half of United I've properly watched this season and my findings are that Onana is a complete joke. Awful temperament, fannies about, you need him out of goal, flying save or not. Their only route to goal is by firing it up the middle for McTominay and Hojlund, which is fair enough as a tactic but it's mid-table stuff.
Getting fucked over by VAR aside, United have looked dreadful. No idea what their plan in this is.
Stay in the game and hope for something to fall to a player to scrape a lucky goal is basically our tactics all season.
Never fear, Mason Mount is on to save the day.
Did Foden just get away with squaring up to the lino?
Someone tell Gary that he took Amrabat off because he's a juiced-up Arab steamhead on a yellow card.
Antony. :D
United are a truly pathetic team. They need a mass clear out of all the crap players they’ve accumulated.
That was brutal.
It was like watching Man City beat a mid-table team, which is what Man Utd are at the moment.
Today, I feel a Cityzen.
That fucking Woman Abuser III is without doubt the greatest individual entertainer operating in the league :D
They have many problems, but one of them is that they/we all misjudged Ten Hag as some kind of genius when he's actually thick as two short planks. That's the veil put upon you if you succeed with certain clubs. If he'd made that CL semi with Feyenoord he'd never have come near the PL. Ajax, let's find you a crown.
He does seem to have brought a load of shit in from the Dutch league, which would suggest a serious lack of judgement when it comes to the ability required to play at the top level of the English Premier League not sponsored by Barclays.
Being a scout for United must be the easiest job going, the cunts are stealing a living if they exist at all. Just a series of managers either signing players they already know or the club signing the most famous available player for a given position of need. They find absolutely nobody.
They found Mount and Jonny Evans.
I'm sure the scouts find plenty of people. It's who the club signs that is the issue.
It's never been entirely clear who makes what decisions on recruitment. There was that weird shit about one of the Glazers blocking Anthony Martial leaving, but then we never heard anything like that again when it clearly implied that they were having a bigger input than they would like to admit.
The club has a terrible scouting structure that's leading to each manager bringing in players they know in some way or the CEOs pet project. The problem seems to be more with the loyalty to Rashford, Fernandes and McTomminay rather then the new players.
And again, this is the second or third choice defence playing week in week out.
Also doesn't help that the fans know nothing about the game.
I was listening to the Guardian football weekly the other month, and one of the blokes (Barney Ronay I think) was accosted by one of Man United's recruit team at an event because he'd criticised them. Apparently the bloke (I'm sure he was one of the top dogs) was adamant that the recruitment had been top class and couldn't understand why Ronay had been critical.
Marseille gotta be one of the biggest shitholes.
Passionate fanbase.
I fucking love Marseille. They should probably be closed down, but what a mad town and club.
Saw this earlier and got a chuckle. Proper commentator beef.
One of the subtweets seems to point to that shite sky had on before the game
Though he isn’t wrong if it’s about Drury either. He has his moments but it’s tiring.
No way Clive would be bitching at Drury. They're peas in a pod. Drury's style isn't urban poet either, just straight lyricism.
Clive the better commentator though.
:D
Irrespective of TAKTIK, I'm really not sure he could ever be a successful manager in England when he sounds like such a virgin mong. It really was clear from day 1.
I was thinking earlier: for a Dutchman, he speaks atrocious English.
I work with a Dutch fella and this was brought up when Man Utd appointed him. He said everyone in the Netherlands that speaks worse English than him is at least ten years older. Reckons it's almost impossible to be that bad given their exposure to the language, which is probably a big exaggeration but you get the point.
:sherlock:
They’ve been on tv for about 80% of all their games this season.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67262447
Is his Mum still on hunger strike?
She packed that in as soon as her diabetes kicked off.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67232561
Do you think he'll keep winning it after he's retired? I don't see why not.
Just noticed that Pepe Reina is still keeping the bench warm for Villareal, aged 41. What a second half to his career he has had, since leaving Liverpool: Napoli -> Bayern Munich -> Napoli -> AC Milan -> Villa (lol) -> Lazio -> Villareal.
Well it’s McTominay’s from next year onwards, so eight is his lot.
It's one of the great underplayed hilarities of this century's football that Portugal won their only ever major title as soon as Ronaldo limped off injured, and the winner was scored by a lumbering shithouse striker who only scored once more for Portugal after that.
I think the spectacle of the World Cup, particularly with the final being so bloody good, played it's part.
The woman they had on the Monday night club was insufferable on the topic of Messi winning the golden ball.
The World Cup does tend to be a bit of a trump card sadly, back to the days of Cannavaro winning it. 2014s best German still seething no doubt.
Haaland will probably have to decamp to Spain before having a shot at winning it, and even then he'll be playing catch up to Mbappe and Bellingham.
Oh, I see Messi got it in 2010. Guess the primacy of the World Cup was on hiatus then too.
Until he retires he'll be getting a disproportionately massive share of the votes.
The World Cup always heavily sways these things, but they usually have elite things going on either side of it, like Fabio Cannavaro won ('won') the league with Juventus prior to the 2006 World Cup and then got a big move to Real Madrid (where he was admittedly terrible). Mooching about France and then the McDonald's league is a new one.
Wesley Sneijder was ROBBED in 2010. The best player in a treble-winning team, the best player in Holland's shithouse final run, the best player on United's transfer longlist.
Neom 2034.
:sick:
Here was the full ranking, fascinating stuff, I'm not sure if you have to vote from a pre-approved list or what but some of these are amusing.
1 Lionel Messi
2 Erling Haaland
3 Kylian Mbappe
4 Kevin De Bruyne
5 Rodri
6 Vinicius Junior
7 Julian Alvarez
8 Victor Osimhen
9 Bernardo Silva
10 Luka Modric
11 Mo Salah
12 Robert Lewandowski
13 Yassine Bounou
14 Ilkay Gundogan
15 Emiliano Martinez
16 Karim Benzema
17 Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
18 Jude Bellingham (!)
19 Harry Kane
20 Lautaro Martinez
21 Antoine Griezmann
22 Kim Min-Jae
23 Andre Onana (!)
24 Bukayo Saka
25 Josko Gvardiol
26 Jamal Musiala
27 Nicolo Barella
28= Randal Kolo Muani
28= Martin Odegaard
30 Ruben Dias
And to clarify, I'm not saying you just give it to the best player in that year's World Cup automatically as that doesn't work if nobody performs exceptionally, but Messi did and he's a worthy winner as a result.
Julian Alvarez the 7th best player in the entire world? What?
'arry Kane should easily be top 10 on any such list. Haaland should be winning it but unfortunately for him he's Norwegian.
Alvarez in 7th is something. He's a very good player but to have him that high is laughable.
Lost to West Brom last night, right load of shit. Three defeats in a row now and the home record gone. We can't be trusted with actual money to spend
Other than getting sent home from the World Cup for being a twat, what did Andre Onana do to merit inclusion on the list?
Helped Inter get to the CL final...
Mo Salah chugging along in 11th place on the back of what exactly? Modric one place above also a bit :cab:
Got no opinion on this new QPR manager except that I have an overwhelming feeling that he got hired because he looks quite similar to Pochetino.
Foreign weirdos taking individual awards like that seriously make me proud to be English.
Big fan of the wahey from the Bournemouth fans as Nunez miscontrolled the ball seconds before smashing it in from 30 yards.
Might have to make the trip to Everton for the quarter finals. First time we've reached this stage in the League Cup since 2004. :cab:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67313204
Mint. I have no doubt he's probably due another 8 months.
You know what, I think all these recent bans are ridiculous given most players are forced to adorn betting company names all over their kits.
Could be 4-0 either way this. Excited.
'mon Horsham.
Leicester's Ghanaian vibesman Fatawu is unreal. Haven't seen such pure Africana on these shores since the days of Arouna Koné.
Toto Wolff now in the United ownership mix. With Brailsford already on board, I assume, there's definite scenes potential one way or the other.
Brailsford is a bit alarm bells, surely. Can they get Clive Woodward in to complete the trifecta?
I am amazed Byram hasn't been sent off yet.