Where the fuck has this year gone?
What's happening this month? Club World Cup and Premier League memes I'm assuming.
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Where the fuck has this year gone?
What's happening this month? Club World Cup and Premier League memes I'm assuming.
God damnit.
Justice 4 Ian.
At least I gave him a month off.
Took 2 minutes to trigger bruh. :D
I demand a referendum on the creation of the monthly football threads.
Adama's lack of running off the ball is embarrassing. A Right wing-back in Doherty is more of a threat running into the box, compared to Adama.
Alright my epic V League OP will have to wait until January.
Pleb has put the appropriate amount of fixtures in the OP though so credit for that.
Apparently the Ballon d'Or results have leaked already and will be:
1. Messi
2. Van Dijk
3. Salah
Yeah, Fox, you fucking idiot. There's only like six things on the internet at a given time I can't believe you missed it.
That's my worst poster nomination sorted.
You should nominate him for his pessimism regarding Liverpool tbf as it's getting a little annoying. We've been as good as we have been in my entire lifetime and yet he still can't seem to enjoy it. I found him insufferable at times in last months thread. I remember Hodgson, Konchesky, Poulsen and co. Nothing will ever be as bad as that period.
Winning an award. :cool:
Smiffy for biggest 6 year old
Did Messi even play well last year I really have no idea.
If by play well you mean scored more goals than anyone else, then yes.
Messi probably does deserve it, but I can't state enough how good Van Dijk has been. Salah in 3rd does raise some eyebrows. It does show how much sway winning the Champions League has on this though.
People say that these digital companies are entering the network and forcing fans to buy yet another subscription for no reason at all. Ignoring all the innovation that the Silicon Valley mindset can bring.
[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKuI3M2WoAAVEAI.jpg[/img]
Savage AND Sherwood? Praise Jeff Bezos.
So it's like NFL Red Zone except with a bunch of people who think we want to hear about their opinions
Considering most of the names from 20-11, Mahrez still being in the top 10 of this is confusing.
Boston or Rochdale at home. I'm happy it isn't Notts Forest or Leicester.
The last time we had an FA Cup draw that wasn't at home to a Championship side was 1967/68.
2nd Merseyside derby in 3 years in the third round.
Meanwhile City get a walk in the park against some lower league muppets.
Plus ça change etc.
It's getting harder to say that it's not a fix. I don't remember a top team playing a top team on the first day of the league my entire life. It was always, more than likely Title winner v promoted team and some no mark matches. Now we've had Arsenal v Liverpool, Arsenal v City, City v Chelsea, United v Chelsea etc. The fixture computer is not neutral.
Yep and they never play each other on the last day either (I think 88/89 was postponed).
We had United this season, write your own joke here.
I'd love to know they come up with it. Like, what actual things do they consider when putting it together. Atos also handles the Aviva Premiership fixtures as well. I'm guessing there's policing considerations and good old capitalism involved.
Lifted straight off the Premier League site.
Quote:
Producing the full Premier League fixture list for 2018/19 is no random draw.
It is the result of a meticulous and painstaking process that lasts almost half a year and involves the scheduling of 2,036 matches across the top four divisions in England.
The man behind the list is Glenn Thompson, of Atos, a veteran compiler who has collated about 60,000 matches since taking on the role in 1992.
He explains how the list is compiled.
When does the work on the next season's fixture list start?
Glenn Thompson: At the start of the year. That's when I get the playing dates from the Premier League.
The whole thing is built up putting in the international dates from FIFA, then the European club competitions, then the Football Association adds in the dates for its competitions and what you are left with are the dates when you can play league and League Cup matches.
What is "sequencing"?
That's the methodology we use which is all about breaking the season down into a number of constituent parts, which are called sets. We break it down into five sets, which are reversed in the second half of the season.
Are there any rules you have to adhere to?
There are the "golden rules" of sequencing. In any five matches there should be a split of three home fixtures, two away, or the other way around.
Wherever possible a club will not have more than two home or away matches in a row, and will be home and away around FA Cup ties.
We will also strive to prevent any club from having to start or finish the season with two home or two away matches because it would be unfair for a team to finish with two aways, especially if they are looking for points.
Around the Christmas period, if you are at home on Boxing Day you will be away on New Year's Day, or the equivalent date. And we will also try to maintain a Saturday home-away sequence throughout the season wherever possible.
Do clubs from the same area play at home on the same day?
Most clubs will have a partner club they cannot clash with. There are the obvious ones – Manchester United and Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton – and then when you get into London it gets a bit more complex and less obvious.
What happens next?
Around March, the Premier League sends to each of its member clubs a form asking them to fill in three things: 1) Are there any dates you wish not to be at home? That is answered in conjunction with the local police. 2) Which club do you want to pair with? 3) Are there any teams you do not wish to play at home on Boxing Day?
Can you satisfy all of the requests?
From looking at the sequence we know how many of these dates we can meet. When we can't, the Premier League will ask the club which of the requests are most important.
We cannot accommodate everything but, on average, we satisfy higher than 85 per cent every year.
And that's put into an algorithm that then generates a random sequences which they then spin until they get the one they want.
It's not that bloke picking the games every year :cab:
Arselol against Leeds?
Memes.
Is the football on Amazon solely for December or is this now a permanent thing?
I think they have this set of midweek fixtures and then the Boxing Day ones this year. Got it on now, can’t fault the picture quality!
They bought a couple of packages as a foot in the door, but they can blow everyone else out of the water financially to such an extent that it wouldn't be surprising if they took the lot.
I'd missed Andre Vilas Boas taking over Marseille. Wasn't he a rally driver last year?
I thought as much as I could only see those fixtures. I like the fact you can click through stats and analysis whilst watching, see player information, starting line ups and hopefully the highlights tab is for replays that can view during the games. It all rests on the common potato's at this point as I much prefer streaming than finding a TV.
I clocked that whilst reading something on Marseilles improvement lately. I had no idea where he went after Spurs but to learn it was to Russia then China then France is a bit of a weird movement and he's still so young he could have at least another 15/20 years globetrotting.
Peter Drury and Jim Beglin on comms. Shades of the lesser of two Champions League semi finals on ITV 15 years ago.
Alright, the Pro Evolution Soccer dream team. At least until John Champion came along and ruined it with his shouting of the players' names.
Gabriel Jesus....what a cunt. I backed him in the Brazil/Argentina match and he missed a penalty, perhaps one of the most shittest penalties of the year. Tonight, I thought fuck no am I getting on him as FG so of course he goes and scores a right proper goal.
It has potential to kick off this match.
That's some hit by Rodri.
Aye but it was just your standard 'thump'. I only value such goals if a) it's from us and b) it's at least 40+ yards out.
Palace winning with ten men to climb to 5th place is perhaps the biggest WTF moment of the evening.
Chelsea to catch Villa off guard.
Leicester to beat Watford in a tighter match than expected.
Tottenham to absolutely rinse Man United with that line up.
Southampton to come unstuck to plucky Norwich could and probably should see another managerial change.
Wolves to continue their good run of form with a 2-0 win against West Ham.
Liverpool obviously to take a point in a drab 0-0'er but it would be funny if we scored early and battered them thus meaning Silva leaves and Everton go back in for Moyes.
Sherwood sitting there talking about players hitting other players with "diags".
Fuck off.
I reckon United will win tonight.
I just seen that run of fixtures that Everton have...ouch.
:D And I've seen out line up. :lol:
Our line up is boss!
Sue Smith commentating on the West Ham game.
She reckons even Chelsea fans will have had a tear in their eye when David Martin hugged his dad on Saturday.
Dodgy keeper alert.
That said, any desire for Utd to ever win goes out the window as soon as you see a smile on the face of that vermin Lingard.
:moop: He's my FF keeper along with both Spurs centrebacks. FML.
That goalkeeping :D
I thought when United signed James they would kill his career but the more I watch him constantly picking himself up the more I'm convinced the kill will be an actual death.
:moop: Get out of there, ya twat.
That was a very special corner.
The way he hits those is incredible.
Rashford's got his shooting boots on tonight. That would've been a stunning goal.
This team would transform with a decent number 10 instead of Lingard or fucking Pereira.
We are a completely different side with Tammy Abraham in it - the link up play, and the finishing, are light years ahead of Batshuayi or Giroud. I can't believe how much I underestimated him prior to this season.
He's likeable too which is a first for Chelsea strikers.
Vardy got booked for diving despite being a definite penalty.
VAR fucked him.
That was quality by Alli tbf.
All over them and we've fucked it.
That's technically handball by the rules.
Ali is a horrible little rat cunt, but that was brilliantly done.
Are you confusing him with Ashley Young?
They don’t get much more rat cunty than Alli in fairness.
That pass from Mane! And of course our Divock scores
Mané should be footballer of the year shouldn't he? I bet they give it to Salah or van Dijk.
That was lovely by Mane.
Lol if that’s given. Yellow for Rashford all day.
For some reason it has just struck me at this point that 'Hotspur' is a really weird word to have as the second half of a team name.
Oh my. :drool: Origi.
Divock, again. Proper lovely stuff
If someone told me that Declan Rice had special needs, I wouldn't bat an eyelid.
Mike posting about Liverpool is worse than Liverpool being good.
Mane, obvs.
;)
All four of our goals have been sex.
That was so comfortable but these shitty goals we keep conceding is annoying. I doubt it will cost us all too much as we're too good going forward too but meh.
Three points is all that matters for this month.
It's going to finish 5-5.
Top Ireland hates Baz, Bottom Ireland hates Mike? Or vice versa?
2nd half has been atrocious to watch
We're now six clear of fifth-placed Wolves, this is going to be one of the dullest second halves to a season in living memory. Even Leicester can play the kids now really.
Dele Alli under Mourinho :drool:
Donning Mourinho feels good.
Ole Gunnar Binman safe, Paulp Ogba comes back, goes on a mad one, they start to threaten the top four, then he stops bothering to save himself for international duty, come sixth, miss out on their main transfer targets...
Pretty much.
Fantastic result, very good performance and with Bournemouth and Watford next up in the league. :drool:
This evening got me proper giddy for the first time so now we're going to turn to shit, right?
At least now we know who to blame if it does :lol:
:lol:
:D Jesus Christ. They don't even attempt to hide it.
Italians and Spaniards have no clue.
That's fake because Italian newspapers are pink.
Nope, it's legit. Gazetta dello Sport is the only sports paper in Italy that uses pink paper.
Also, those fucking hoofs from Liverpool. Precise as fuck.
So that's the squad we're taking to the World Club Championship thingamajig which really seriously begs the question as to what our line up is going to be against Villa because quite frankly, I can think of maybe three of that potential line up. Clear where our priority lies but it's a quarter final of a cup comp so I would have preferred a bit more experience. It looks like we're going to stick out the entire U23/18's for it and Villa aren't that bad tbf to the twats.Quote:
Alisson, Van Dijk, Wijnaldum, Lovren, Milner, Keita, Firmino, Mane, Salah, Gomez, Adrian, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Lonergan, Shaqiri, Brewster, Robertson, Origi, Jones, Alexander-Arnold, Elliott, Williams.
It's the league cup, you're arguably the best side in the world at the moment and World Club Championship would be a nice addition.
Plus you don't get a chance to win that every year. No-brainer.
If I was a liverpool fan I wouldn't give the slightest shit about the fa cup or even the champions league this season, let alone the league cup. Prem or bust.
“Digital platforms? I would say dustbins. Made up of noble grudges. Cheap indignation. A nice thought a day keeps the doctor away.
“Armies of right-minded people flock to the web these days to die their beautiful souls white.
“Having identified the racist on duty, go, two strokes on the keyboard… you feel yourself to be a better man in a better world.
“White, black, yellow. Denying the difference is the typical obvious stumbling block of anti-racism racism.
“Black Friday… was and is only the praise of difference, the pride of difference, the magnificent wealth of difference.
“Transformed into poison by those who have the poison inside.”
It's you who is the racists...
Club World Cup would be good for marketing purposes, but beyond that fuck the domestic cups off.
Pile everything into the league and Champions League.
No doubts it would be a nice addition. I just assumed we would leave 3/4 who at least have first team experience. Lallana, Shaq etc probably won't even be used over there.
This is true but then we've just had a good the piss taken out of us for nearly a decade for winning just one trophy so it would have been nice to take all competitions seriously as honestly, I reckon we'd have a chance in each and every one of them.
The Premier League is obviously the one we want but we're a big club and big clubs should contest multiple honours. I expect our U23/18's to give Villa a game but given you then get the chance to face either Man United/Man City or Everton in a semi or final, it just feels a bit meh as those are the games you want. Watch Leicester win the thing now.
I would think some of that Liverpool squad will play against Villa and then travel out for the second game (is there definitely a second game or do you need to win the first?).
Either that or b-team versus whoever in the world club thing and youth team and Adrian against Villa and rest the first XI.
Our first game is the semi final but truth be told, I didn't think about a few flying out after the Villa game as we play the very next day.
Apparently they need to be in Qatar 48 hours before the first match so that's a no-go.
It'll be word from up high that's made them send a real squad. Global fanbases couldn't give a fuck about the League Cup but there is great glory in defeating Al Sadd and whatever Mexican side is there this year.
They'll probably get a game in the semi against whichever goat herders they're playing.
Likely to be Monterrey from Mexico. They are probably pretty decent. @Pepe ?
Monterrey would finish bottom of their group in the European Champions League. Flamengo are probably about as good as Arsenal.
They'll probably play both games at 50% and it'll just end up being a week long training camp
He's dead (knee).
I hear VVD is having sleepless nights at the thought of marking Vincent Janssen. :D
Can't wait to lose to a bunch of 12-year-old scousers.
If it's an Anfield we'll just have to rely on the crowd to suck a few balls in for us.
As expected, Silva has been sacked. Another interesting and quite startling fact, Evertons starting line up cost more than ours last night. :D
How much do you think Grealish will set someone back if he goes? Is his contract solid enough for people to get their pants pulled down?
Grealish strikes me as a Zaha. Great at a club like Villa, useless at a Top 6 club. Probably a good fit for Arsenal :D
Oh, perhaps 35m?
I thought he wasn’t up to much when he first came through but he’s led that club back from despair. He’s had a lot of responsibility put on him and come through it. I don’t see him as a 10 needing 2 assists every week. He’s just really good at keeping the ball moving through midfield. Can pop it off or drop a shoulder and beat a man.
John McGinn should go for double whatever he goes.
£35M? Not a chance. Elmohamady says Grealish is the best he has ever played with and Salah is his international team mate so whatever Salah is worth now plus the inevitable English tax so I reckon you're looking at closer to £120M.
Grealish was making noises about Liverpool the other day, in the context of the position he prefers to play in, so I eagerly await another installment of the "fuck you, pay me" saga.
He played under Steve Bruce at Sunderland.
He played under Steve Bruce at Hull.
He played under Steve Bruce at Villa.
The same Steve Bruce who currently has Newcastle 11th if score remains the same. :drool:
Alan Shearer co-commentating on the Brighton game. And Amazon were doing so well.
Lacazette has been fouled on all 3 corners so far.
Why isn't Tierney playing? Surely he is fit by now?? Arsenal appear to have selected an actual proper midfield for once. 3-0, ahoy.
There can't have been many more erratic/rash back 4s than the Arsenal one tonight. Kolasinac, Luiz and Sokratis are all absolute bombscares. They're the only team I've seen who are worse at playing it out from the back than Brighton in terms of mental risk taking. All neat and tidy from Brighton but they do lack an attacking edge so could do with Arsenal chucking one in for them.
Leno must have one the of the best save percentages. Arsenal give up a ridiculous amount of shots.
Arsenal would be better served replacing the squad than the next manager. This is grim stuff.
Well that was inevitable.
Just an FYI, these last two games have been better than anything in months (excluding Europa/Carling Cup teams). That's how bad it's been.
That’s just not true though, is it?
In this age of VAR, you should play to the whistle on everything. EDIT: Unless the whistle went and they still gave it.
Whatever. I'll take owt.
The looping flick to the back post is kyrptonite for Ryan, he's just a bit diddy.
Always liked Arsenal as a club but by fuck they’ve gathered up one of the biggest assortments of hateful twats I’ve seen in a single team.
The person Arsenal really need to sack is all their fans, or failing that, just mantralux. They need to get away from this idea that they have to be an attractive passing team playing 'good football', it's a load of gubbins and historically illiterate. Sort the defence out, get a tough midfielder, and build again from there.
Good old Sussex by the sea, good old Sussex by the sea!
Jesus Arsenal are shite.
Aubameyang, Ozil and Pepe across the attacking midfield stations.
WORKRATE :drool:
Aubameyang genuinely pissed off for a few minutes (what was that all about?) and did anyone notice?
No, but that was quite funny. There was quite a lot of chimping out in the Arsenal ranks (David Luiz a central protagonist). The one I was thinking was around the 85th minute after Dunk and Webster clashed heads, he seemed to go off somewhere for a short while.
Freddie Ljungberg looks an inspiring sort going off that interview. :cab:
I think now's the time for Allardyce.
And that VAR goal was better than I could've imagined. :D
I don't think most want 'attractive' football a la Wenger's last decade, at all. Maybe the bods from Nigeria and UAE cluttering the twatter space, but certainly not around N7.
We did use it as a 'moral victor' thing for a while. I spoke with one of my best mates -a big Chelsea fan about this the other day... When Roman swung into town and we dealt with the first period of not being London's best team in some 50 odd years for more than a year at a time, and in particular when Chelsea developed a new identity as the most winningest win at all cost winners in the land, we were somewhat bereft. In Wenger's first decade we played great stuff, but it was often via counters and it was no more aesthetically orientated than any other big team of the day.
The move to flighty little technicians with a penchant for hamstring strains coinciding with the aforementioned change in the local hierarchy brought about the whole sense of puritanical superiority through the aesthetic, but most fans woke up on that front well before Wenger departed.
25 years, 6 months and 11 days and I've finally walked out of an Arsenal game on the wrong end of the result. Was inevitable it would happen now I'm there for the majority of home games, but I always thought it'd be against someone a bit more esteemed than fucking Brighton.
35m? You're dreaming. You're talking at least 70m in the current market. It's an interesting one because he's obviously a huge Villa fan, so we'll have to see how that plays against ambition. Don't think he'll go this summer though and there's a chance he might stay when he gets the inevitable England call up. He's obviously twice the player of say...Ross Barkley. Bit of Gazza about him.
What a glorious Summer we're in for.
Chill out. He's not going anywhere. Think McGinn might end up at United though, which is a massive shame. Player.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50681751
Did you not tell them to play to the whistle, you smacked arse?
Given we all know play will go on until the thing happens and then they'll check it yeah, just keep playing.
The sport has to evolve. Rules have to change. I want to seen the clock being stopped every time the ball goes out of play or the whistle is blown, and just play two 30 minute halves or something like that. There are a few other rules I would change.
They need to sack Wilder and bring in Marco Silva.
Must be time Iain Dowie got another go.
It'll be interesting to see where Silva chances his arm next. Probably going to have to find a cushty number a la Martinez. Maybe he's more Villas-Boas, without the enigmatic squatting. He can join Owen Coyle in the Indian Super League or whatever it is called.
This shit is bananas.
Chelsea got their ban lifted. They should be buying a whole new defence.
They might get Sancho in January, but I’d imagine Chillwell would be the summer.
Current defence is fine other than left back. We're not trying to win the league. Give Tomori time to develop.
You should just start saying 'we'll'.
Mon the Tory racists.
Macclesfield's game off tomorrow due to players' strike. Bury mkII, waiting to happen. Will seriously fuck me off as if their results are expunged we'd lose points while rivals at the top wouldn't.
Nigel Pearson appointed at Watford, will he make it to New Year's Day?
Why are there so few premier League games today?
Because there was so many in midweek.
Big Dunc in?
What's the protocol for when your eighty million euro keeper isn't very good?
You’d assume this is just the usual new manager bounce. Not a hope Duncan Ferguson ends up competent in any way.
Good to see Baines is still alive.
Also foul throws in professional football should never happen. :face:
Kepa is fine, there are very few 'good' goalkeepers out there if a full season with no fuck-ups is the expectation.
New manager plus Everton away means a 3-1 loss is a pretty good result for us.
Not a bad ball that for a guy who can only pass sideways.
Another route 1 goal :drool:
Conceding two goals to Dominic Calvert-Lewin is disgraceful.
Get the Parrott on at half time.
https://streamja.com/XNGX
Heung Min Son is great.
Mo Salah has just taken 3 men out with a backheel assist for Keita.
Alright, George Weah.
Interesting decision to put Wythenshawe's Anthony Taylor as the ref in the Manc derby.
11 clear of Leicester, 14 clear of City....'Mon United? A draw and a feisty game wouldn't go amiss. Pressure on Leicester tomorrow too and yeah, we could wrap this title up by the end of the month given Leicester and City face one another and we face Leicester too.
Or is this where we Liverpool it? Unassailable lead to be followed by 10 defeats on the spin or something daft.
I'll writing to the FA about this. This is not something that should be allowed to happen.
https://gyazo.com/b61c363a6174585036d5fea32754a8f7.jpeg
I have a sneaking feeling we're going to get smashed today.
I'm hoping we lose to kick-start City's title challenge again.
City winning another is better than Liverpool winning.
:happycry:
Starting in December this time.
AWB is a wall, I love him so much.
This game is ridiculously open.
We've had two chances already we probably needed to score to get anything out of this sort of game.
That's a blatant penalty.
Was the refs view blocked?
Stone wall penalty. City need to wind it in with all this protesting.
We've looked good so far. Watch Rashford miss this.
Rashford looks unplayable.
If City don't get absolutely spannered here they'll have got away with murder.
Deserved.
Fuck's sake we should be 4-0 up.
This is the best I've seen anyone play against City.
Has a bit of a feel of the last days of Rome when Herr Heynckes (was it?) rolled the Panzers through (Pep's?) Barcelona.
:drool: Never doubted OGS.
Pep seething. :drool:
That'd have been (wrongly) given at the last world cup I reckon due to it looking in slo-mo like Fred moved his hand into the path of the ball.
Handball, but never a pen.
:cab:
It's not handball.
In days gone by United would find themselves in situations not dissimilar to this and they'd steamroller the second half and win.
KDB anonymous in another big game. Same with David Silva - biggest fraud of recent times.
KDB is their best player by far, the only one who looks like creating anything. You need to stop getting pissed before watching football.
Micah Richards is the best City 'pundit' for seething as well. He's such a prick, oh look, he's saying Fred should slide to the ground with his arms behind his back. :D
Is he Reece James?
Is he fuck.
Thank you.
That’s alright.
It’s weird. If it was a city player (attacking) and led to a goal it would’ve been given as a foul. As a defender it wasn’t. I don’t think it should be a handball, but they’re getting a bit too detailed in the laws that there’s a lack of consistency.
What were Leicester’s odds to win the title this year?
Yes, the new handball rule for goal situations is total shit, but if we're going to standardise the approach, it needs to be back to it was/is for defensive situations, not the stupid strict liability that has been sort-of introduced for attackers (not absolute as see Bernardo Silva being allowed to cross the ball with his hand against Liverpool).
How's Kyle Walker not been booked there :cab:
That's fucking disgraceful from the City fans. Haven't seen anything that bad for ages.
No wonder they never go the ground. Fuck them off.
I'm starting to think I might be the problem.
Didn't watch the Spurs game and we were apparently good and it sounds like we were playing really well in the half of this that I didn't watch.
This refs been terrible though.
Trying to give City everything he can.
Man City are quickly becoming more detestable than Liverpool.
Man City's corners are a nonsense.
What a cunt Guardiola is, you just know he was disingenuous to OGS then. I've got say, that's the best I've seen United play for a long time and they were well deserving of their three points. City fans launching stuff was awful too and hopefully that'll be punished because there's no place for it. Aston Villa shirt on tomorrow. :cool:
What a time to be alive.
EDIT: And racial abuse too. Poor form, City. Poor, poor form.
That was bloody enjoyable. The first 30 minutes were brutal. Fred is turning into a decent player.
That Suarez goal is absolutely absurd.
Hey United won. Mega. I figured they would score (how do City spend all that money and have no defensive depth?), but only letting one in is pretty decent going.
Ron Saunders :(
The build up and the finish...
https://streamvi.com/watch.php?video=1575751468
Celtic and Rangers at 3pm. Stevie G to lift his first managerial piece of silverware?
Should be a decent game. Glasgow is Green though and I imagine Celtic will edge it.
Vardy’s going to break his goal scoring record again.
You know I thought AWB got well skinned a couple times only for the final ball to not be there for whomever Sterling was looking for.
Aside from that :drool: what a day. Was pretty fucking nervy there at the end.
Leicester will probably come unstuck against Man City and ourselves tbf but a top four spot would be a brilliant achievement. I highly doubt it will last long enough to sustain a title challenge but then who am I to doubt a team with more title winning experience than us.
When did Iheanacho get good again?
Is this the start of Sheffield United's plummet?
What's Grealish's price up to now, Mellin?
Fuck Rice, but Grealish :cry:
That's a lovely header.
Good lad Stevens.
Is that right about Vardy retiring from England, and when was it? The news completely passed me by.
He packed it in after the World Cup.
2 points off Europe. What scenes.
Steve Bruce is donning everyone this year. Should take over from Southgate when we go out in the group stage.
Rangers and big Alfredo :D
He should have about three goals and Rangers should be romping it. Ooops.
Probably should delete this lol
Not a hope Connolly has a dead leg from the sounds of that. Something has happened.
HAHAHAHAHHHAHHAHH. He’s a fucking mess
Well this has got nice and heated now.
“Adama” looks like he should be playing for Leeds Rhinos.
After the Vardy revelation that’s a new one on me too. Have Brighton really not won at home since the got promoted?
Morelos is some boy. An absolute bottle merchant when it comes to Celtic. Just surprised he hasn’t lost his head more.
That you Keeks?
https://www.soccerstats.com/homeaway.asp?league=england
They've won three this season alone.
Perhaps they have't won after going behind at home, they tend to fold in such situations (not today though).
They beat Everton a few months back after going behind, I know this as I was on Everton and I think Digne put in his own net. Someone did.
Random. Joaquin at 38 scored his first-ever hat-trick for Betis in a 3-2 win.
It's fine margins but he seems to have organised us better against the big sides. Defenders are scoring where our strikers aren't but at least Carroll's provided a big lump to launch it to. Jethro and Saint Maximin have added extra pace to the midfield as well. In some respects, it's a better team but we do miss the goals at the top.
Rafa didn't surpass this points tally last season until January 29th (the Man City win). This time around, we've scored 4 more goals and conceded 1 more. The main thing about last season is how well Rondon started to score after November and then Perez wrapped the year up strongly.
Rashford is on his game. 5 goals in his last 5 premier league games. 37 goals in the league now. The same as legends like Ayoze Pérez, Benni McCarthy and Salomon Kalou.
0.29 goals per game is the same as Louis Saha, Gareth Bale, Mario Balotelli, Djibril Cissé, Frank Lampard and Diafra Sakho. There are 109 players with a better goals per game ratio than Marcus.
He's just turned 22 though. Not really a fair comparison to line his scoring record up against those of players at peak age.
Rashford and United won me £1,500 this weekend. The man's a don.
Age is irrelevant. He has appeared in over 150 premier league games and completed over 8000 minutes. He has a ton of experience.
Goal stats under the age of 23
Goals per game - 66th
Total goals - 13th
8000 minutes is about 90 games, not 150 so I'm not really sure goals per game is the one here. Who's above him in that list? Is there a minimum appearance requirement or is it just a load of small samples?
Also seems a bit odd to be raising his scoring record during what is by the best goal scoring season he's ever had.
I started watching his number since Lukaku left as he and Martial are now the main men at the club.
Players at 23 with similar stats to Rashford
48 goals. 0.37 GPG - Chris Sutton
46 goals. 0.30 GPG - Emile Heskey
42 goals. 0.33 GPG - Dele Alli
41 goals. 0.31 GPG - Jermain Defoe
37 goals. 0.29 GPG - Marcus Rashford
37 goals. 0.35 GPG - Robbie Keane
36 goals. 0.25 GPG - Gabriel Agbonlahor
30 goals. 0.31 GPG - Anthony Martial
It looks like it’s coming from the other end to me.
He gets a lot of stick for not scoring enough, but given his minutes played, age and an employee of Man Utd, he is doing OK. We are just used to Man Utd strikers dropping 20+ league goals a season. He is at 10 goals and we are halfway through.
Lol
Woops. Even reading it back though it seems ambiguous as to the point Sincere was trying to make though.
It's still not good enough though. You can add Martial into that category as well although in Rashfords defence when Martial isn't there he has to rely on shit service throughout. I don't see him as an out and out goalscorer but you have to bare in mind he's only recently turned 22 and really I think he's got a bit of a raw deal at Man United more so under lvg and Mourinho.
He got a raw deal under the manager that gave him his debut at 17? :cab:
He may have given him his debut (or rather was forced to do so) but he still got a raw deal, yes.
Is there a way to factor in say... actual clear cut chances into it ?
What I mean is, my man is generally relying on a midfield almost entirely bereft of creativity. He's missed some 1v1s, sure, but I feel as if he hasn't received the type of service that would push him on to being prolific beyond his current run of form.
Man’s just havin a bit of fun
I swear Sincere did it once or twice, then one or two people had a pop so he decided he was going to do it religiously.
Ross is mostly a cock but it’s refreshing to hear a bit of straight talking rather than the usual politician riddles.
https://www.offtheball.com/soccer/sh...funding-935702
Arsenal have completely imploded.
I do not understand why manager after manager seems to have confidence in Xhaka and/or Ozil.
How many side swipes does cresswell get on Pepe?
AFTV is going to be golden. :drool: In all honesty it's better viewing than the actual football, if you can even call it that.
Whoever is in charge of transfers at Lille has played a blinder with Pepe.
Arsenal are embarrassingly bad and Ljungberg looks one of the least inspiring people in world history. They need West Ham to outshit them here as their next few games are tough aren't they?
As if a bloke who used to colour his hair has turned out to be a useless manager.
I had expected to check the score and see West Ham around 2-0 up based on the talk here :cab:
To be fair, AFTV is still going to be Golden.
I'm a regular viewer to be honest and I can understand a lot of the concerns. I was going to ask if you would have kept Arsene Wenger with hindsight but I don't think Emery's record was all too dissimilar IIRC.
I don't see it as a huge job either. New defence is definitely needed as Leno isn't too and I would say a new midfielder but it still boggles the mind that Ramsey was allowed to just walk away. I think most of your issues are of your own doing.
I mean, was allowed and was allowed. How do you force someone to sign a contract? He left because they were being shit.
And no, I wouldn't have kept Wenger around. The club just needs 5-10 years of overhaul, probably go through a few managers. If they can keep hold of these quite promising kids like Martinelli, Guendouzi Willock and Nelson etc, and if a player like Holding actually stays fit and steps it up a notch, then there might be a core to build on for the future.
But yeah I'm not optimistic at all.
As far as I was aware it was Arsenal who withdrew the contract because the club had a different vision, no? For me it should still ring huge alarm bells as he's not the first nor the last to be able to leave on a free and we're not talking bit part players here.
Martinelli I do like but I take it with a pinch of salt when big clubs bring in the youngsters as it very rarely works out in the long term. Even in the days of Wenger when he used to use the cup competitions for the kids, how many actually 'made it'.
One thing that has always been consistent with Arsenal in my opinion is just how fragile they are from a mental aspect. I used to think it was a Wenger thing but clearly it's something that I believe is ingrained in the club these days. You just know when the going gets tough that Arsenal are going to fold, often in spectacular style too.
I know you have all been waiting.... SEA Games final kicks off in 54 minutes. Vietnam v Indonesia.
I was genuinely going to write a big OP about Vietnamese football this month that'll now have to wait until January. Blame Pleb.
That also mean's Spikey's Southend OP is delayed.
I look forward to it. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Doan Van Hau, the situation around Bau Hien and the general positivity and success around the national of late. All thanks to Mr Hang-seo, or were the seeds of success planted by Bau Duc and the famed HAGL academy?
Also, 30 minutes to kick off and there's already about 2m people watching the streams :drool:
My bad, I meant running down contracts but you get the point I was trying to make, I hope.
What he wanted is immaterial as it was Arsenal who ended negotiations, no? Jack Wilshire and Pires spring to mind, obviously the obvious one in RvP being sold for peanuts to direct rival.
I may be bias with Ramsey given he's our best midfielder though.
I want Arsenal to be good tbh, I have no qualms with them. Right now the club is a bit of a joke.
I think players running down contracts and signing for other teams on huge deals is going to get more and more common. The ridiculous transfer fees being paid at the moment will see to that.
I have issue with that either. Footballer hands in transfer request he's a traitor, footballer fulfils his contract he's a cunt. Sometimes I feel they can't win.
Full time: Indonesia 0-3 Vietnam. Vietnam complete the gold medal double, with the women's having won a few days ago.
Perhaps but then let's not forget the sacrifice that many make in order to obtain that end goal. I don't understand the argument either as if such money was offered to 99.9% of people then they too would accept it. No footballer is going to say "oh no, that's too much money."
I have more problems with agent fees or those who do fuck all collecting the big money. That's not to say I agree with the OTT money in the in the game but it is what it is.
Liverpool are getting DUMPED out by Salzburg tonight.
I'm half expecting us to lose only for an out of sorts Napoli to lose too. :D I'd almost take it just for the seethe.
Our youngsters found themselves 2-0 down in the Uefa Youth League with twenty odd minutes to go.
Final result. Salzburg 2-3 Liverpool. It's ingrained. :drool:
Mike Ashley's offering free half-season tickets to some season ticket-holders to bolster the crowd numbers.
Pretty big game tonight for Fulham in the Championship. I'm already accepting the fact that automatic promotion is out of reach, but we're in the midst of a tough run of fixtures and really need to somehow get a win out of tonight's game at Preston, as we have Brentford and Leeds in the next two games.
That's an outstanding finish by Salah.
Easiest ££ ever. Why the fuck Bet365 had us at 3/4 to win I'll never know.
Now for Watford. :cool:
He missed sitters all game, before and after then comes out with that.
Thieving little git.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-so...-idUKKBN1AG0ZY
How come Liverpool only ever play crap teams who let them win?
I had no idea Chelsea were in the Champions League.
Well, no.
:nodd:
Pineapple head is not a good player.
Gabriel Paulista is a mentalist.
I'd also love it if Remy dumps Chelsea out.
Group G is absolutely mental.
Hope we get Real in the last 16.
Fair play to 17 year old Ansu Fati scoring a minute after coming on to dump Inter out.
Also now the youngest ever scorer in the Champions League.
If I've worked it out properly then Liverpool will end up facing either Dortmund, Lyon, one of the Madrid's, Shakhtar/Atalant.
I legit would prefer Real.
Real Madrid
Dortmund
Lyon
Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb or Atalanta
Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen
Dortmund would be the best viewing in terms of entertainment. I'd fancy anyone that wasn't Atletico, though it would be nice to go back to where we won #6.
Any reason why not Atletico? Aren't they struggling a bit this year?
I'd take Madrid purely because we owe them one but I would fancy our chances against any of the above.
They are past masters of 'the low block'.
They're probably absolute bobbins, but'd still be a massive, snidey pain in the arse no doubt. Obviously whoever comes out of City's group is the best option, but it'd be more entertaining giving Real a good shoeing (Hazard to boss it, natch).
I reckon we can only play Bayern, Juventus, Barcelona or Leipzig.
Should have boshed it and come third.
You know, I'd prefer to avoid Leipzig than the other three which is telling.
PSG as well in fact. I would prefer them out of the five, all of them are better than us but at least with PSG there's a chance that they drop their string of onions, burn their croissants and fail to get the apples in their tarte tatins properly caramelised.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49707902
Barca are very high on him.
Annoyingly he's renounced his Guinea-Bissau nationality though.
Always kind of impossible to tell which way it will go when they debut that young. I'm inclined to say for most - the hype is way off the charts compared to where they end up.
In fact - I'm trying to think about how many of these 17-year-olds or so that came into a first team and did a job that ended up becoming real stars in the end.
Messi for sure, and Ronaldo was like 18 when he broke through at United? But those two are unique.
Apart from that, who? Arguably Rooney. Bale made his debut when he was 17, and apparently from googling Pirlo was also around that age. I think Aguero was 18 when he got to Athletico.
But overall I think there are way more Freddy Adus and Bojans as things turn out.
I would drop Mbappé in any list you are making
#Mbappe2020 :drool:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50737095
Napoli have sacked Ancelotti.
Timing seems a bit off considering they just won 4-0 to progress to the knockout rounds.
He's been a dead man walking for weeks and their domestic form has been dire. Nearly two months without a win.
I didn't realise former Derby manager Jim Smith passed away today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVdaDkiIOfM
:drool: Wanchope!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIUno6R_Pa4
That line. :drool:
Absolute shambles in the end. 2nd loss in 4 days, and in both games we haven't started to push forward and really put the opposition under pressure until the final 20 minutes. Odoi picked up a really stupid red card - whether it was a red is a little debatable, but he has given the referee the dilemma by acting the complete twat and jumping into the Preston defender. Preston then could (and should) have been down to 9 men before half time, but it doesn't excuse a really lacklustre performance.
It's a good finish and all by Salah, but after seeing Roberto Carlos references I was expecting more. Aguero did a similar thing against Liverpool years ago.
Jim Smith bought Micky Quinn and took us to the play-offs in 1990. We lost to Sunderland and it all went to shite.
I think the old Mark Hughes one wasn't as tight an angle as the Salah one but he also had to welly it on the volley because there were defenders who'd have got back if he'd tried to finesse it.
Moving on from Salah, what about Haaland? Quite a non-existent game for him. Flash in the pan? I always get iffy when people talk about strike rates as someone like Haaland although 17 goals in 16 games is impressive, I find it less so when 12 of them came in four games.
From the few highlights I saw I thought he looked like he had a few half chances and didn't do too badly with them. The one where he forced the save in the first half was well taken, and the (better) one in the second he tried to sneak in at the near post also wasn't a bad effort, even though neither ended up being goals.
Probably needs to move to a (mid-tier) team in a decent league next to see if he can keep progressing. I guess Leipzig is the logical choice, although I don't know how good a testing ground the Bundesliga is for strikers. Frankfurt currently lolling themselves to death at the exploits of the £100m+ worth of strikers they shifted last summer.
Well, you say that but Michael Ricketts. I note his goals against Napoli were pens too, I know it doesn't diminish the achievement but it provides a little context.
Is the standard in Austria any good? 64 goals in 17 league games for Salzburg suggests they are in a league of their own so I take it with a pinch of salt.
He is clearly quality, however, it is worth remembering that the Austrian league is fucking turgid, apart from 2 or 3 teams. The remaining teams are tiny towns of goat-herders.
I reckon he should join Leeds - couple of seasons there, see how it goes. At his age there is no point joining a Man City or Barcelona... unless his agent is Riola.
The standard is pretty poor, but you can tell from watching Haaland that he has definite quality. When you consider his age, you can't knock him for having one game where he is a bit quieter, against the reigning CL champions. In my opinion, he should play the season out with RB Salzburg, then move in the summer and get a full pre-season in with whoever picks him up.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mino...ma/berater/282
Bonkers.
How can an agent adequately represent that many players?
It's not a one man operation Smiff :cab:
He's sat there alone in his hired 30ft x 24ft office trying to get the internet plugged in while fielding calls from all of them.
'Listen, Paul, I'd love to help but I've got to Skype this guy at Freiburg in fifteen and the Virgin's playing up.'
That's actually how I picture it too tbh. :D
It must be the easiest money in the world. You read about rugby players having agents, and it's a salary capped sport. The club can either afford you or it can't. How much negotiating room is there for an agent to be worth their cut?
I deal with cricket agents sometimes and they are basically unashamed parasite leeches, and that's with small amounts of money. The football ones must be proper Bond villains.
I still love that Mendes got into it because he got talking to a football in his bar and just offered to do a better job than his current agent.
EDIT: You ever dealt with this lot, Floyd?
http://www.fineedgecricket.co.uk/
I only ask 'cause the fella was on the Apprentice this year.
I think it was Thauvin who became a bit of a commodity before he'd got himself an agent, so he just referred anyone asking about him to his dad's mate.
Yeah I said if he had gone on Dragons' Den rather than Apprentice he'd have been asked why he needed more money and been told to fuck off.
According to their accounts from last year they have fuck all money.
I wouldn't expect them to have money in the bank, it'll be a dressed up side venture. On second reading of the site I would question how many of the clients they cite are actually still on their books. Bullshit is the primary weapon of any agent.
Out for three months with a dislocated shoulder.
Atalanta going into the last 16 is pretty funny.
That Dani Olmo goal is a fucking peach.
Raiola's clients absolutely love him and he is clearly good at getting them what they want. He was lobbing chairs and shit to get Michael Targaryen his move to Utd.
RashfordWatch
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/12...6144309313.jpg
Better than Ronaldo: Confirmed. :drool:
Hardly comparable for where Ronaldo played in his first 3 seasons with United.
Rashford would also need 47 goals in his next 69 Premier League games to keep up with Ronaldo.
Hater.
We're gonna win the league.
Best player in the world.
I have no issues with Rashford but he's a 1 in 3 striker at best. I still think they would have got more points keeping Lukaku for all his flaws.
Run Thommo with his dickead H off the board.
The only reason to believe that Rashford is not as good as Ronaldo is RACISM.
It would appear we're looking into signing Takumi Minamino who for me was the most impressive for Salzburg in both legs. £7.5M - Bargain.
Yeah, he looked good, and has a cool name. Bargain basement price sounds too good to be true but it seems there's substance to both the rumour and the clause.
Was going to say he'll probably just end up another Kagawa, but then, Kagawa was awesome for Klopp at Dortmund.
This really ought to be in a BIG JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW THREAD.
Ronaldo already had 27 games under his belt when he joined United. Ronaldo signed for United at 18.
Lol at that Celtic striker who just did a first touch so bad it served as a through ball for an opposition counter attack.
And at that goal.
What have you got against Shaq?
He's jealous of his thighs.
It's amazing how shit Ashley Young is.
Is Karius still at Besiktas? Not even on the bench? Poor Karius.
'Andreas' actually did something good.
Greenwood is class although it was a foul.
Can't Passley Young.
Close enough.
Fucking hell Greenwood.
Fucking hell Wolves :drool:
Turned it on a few minutes ago and seen 3 goals.
Wolves are just a poor man's Marcus Rashford tbh.
Is this Greenwood going to make it? He can finish, I'll give him that.
Klopp signs a new deal. Fuck Yeah!!!
Just booked my flight to Buriram to watch our (Ho Chi Minh City) first ever Asian Champions League match.
We'll get smashed.
Those obscure places in the world sounds nuts.
That's out of order from Salah.
Jesus we didn't half make hard work of that but probably the most important win of the month so far. Watford could consider themselves unfortunate, LiVARpool strike again...
Now...where's Pukki when you need him...?
We specialise in losing to Bournemouth at this time of year so I'd take a point today. Pretty sure at least one of Man U and Tottenham will leak points tomorrow.
Watford could easily have won by 2 or 3 with their shooting boots on.
Something about these early kick offs does not suit Liverpool.
Alisson saved us on more than one occasion and you sense we sort of got away with that. Plus side is we were shit but still won. Firmino for me was the worst on our side, it just seemed like nothing was sticking for him, very sloppy in possession and not for the first time in the last few weeks. Shaq non-existent, TAA walking a tight rope. Hopefully Gini injury isn't too bad but quite honestly, I'll be glad to get away from the league for a bit now. At 1-0 I was bracing myself for the inevitable late leveller and Watford would probably have deserved it.
The old saying though, it's a sign of champions....I'll really start to believe by the end of January but right now as awesome as it is, we've been stung far too many times so really trying not to get ahead.
What's happened to you Smiff? Talking to you about Liverpool has always been like talking to a dog about dinner time.
Didn't realise how severe our injury list was. Could be tricky today.
Wasn't this suggested the season Gerrard slipped? Rafa's fact season? Probably last season too if I was posting on here more often. I'm well versed in dealing with Liverpool fucking it. I'm cautious at the moment because it's all going too well and it has been for nearly two years.
I think I died a couple of years ago and now I'm in my own world six feet under. Liverpool, life, health, mind etc all good. Everton and United being shit probably confirms it.
Something's brewing....
Let's not include 'Rafa' as a near miss. He famously didn't have what it took to win the Premier League.
Right decision in the end but how has it taken that long to give that. Its obvious as soon as you see the first replay.
I've just noticed that we are 17pts clear of Man City :/
It's going to take a full month of Bambi on ice to fuck it from here. I told you all in August (possibly September) that this is Liverpools year.
Arsenal fan tomorrow. :cool:
Next up for Leicester is City away. Must win for both teams you feel.
I'm only half watching but it appears to me West Ham could have had about four penalties here. For two massive blokes Antonio and Haller topple very easily, but there's been definite contact every time.
That Everton team is amazing. 532 with two wingers accompanying Tom Davies in midfield. Could be ugly.
Rangers are going to go bankrupt again soon enough spending £7m on chavs like Ryan Kent. He is dreadful.
Alfredo Morelos might be the funniest player since Peak Suarez. Such a beautiful, stupid bastard.
Right. That's the game. 1-0 defeat incoming.
Anyone got a decent stream for the Utd game?
I don't like Harry Maguire as captain. I don't have an opinion on whether he is good at it, but you can't captain a team you've been at for three months.
The only other option in that line-up is probably De Gea though, and (other than Oliver Kahn) keeper as captain is always meh.
EDIT: Found a decent stream, if anyone needs a link. http://livesoccers.tv/soccer-streams...ed-vs-everton/
If Mike Phelan set them both a Club Knowing test and Maguire won then fair enough, but I would usually defer to time served.
I bet Duncan Ferguson could have all nineteen opposition managers at once.
This high-line Everton are playing is suicidal; or it would be if we could finish.
Dundee set him up well. Some bloke.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the...bar-fight/amp/
:cool: pub won’t have changed one bit from the 80s.
Fuck's sake :D
EDIT: I actually think that's a foul but whatever.
It was a foul, but the refs are terrified of Big Dunc
I'm blaming Luke Shaw for that one. Shit clearance, cowardly non-block, and then he lost his man on the corner.
How did Utd end up with so much trash in the squad? Beggars belief with the money they have.
I don't think it was a foul tbf, his eyes were on the ball throughout. If anything it's just weak goalkeeping (but De Gea has plenty of credit in the bank) and Luke Shaw being Luke Shaw. If the result holds out then it's same old, same old as far as United go. It's one thing getting yourself up for the big games where teams come at you but if they can't break down teams then they will continue to struggle. They haven't even looked like getting past Everton outside the first 20 mins, if they do then Everton themselves will falter too as they are equally as inept at the back.
1-1 I reckon.
I think it's both just about a foul and crap bit of goalkeeping. Whether his eyes were on the ball isn't relevant is it?
Shaw's been bobbins as well.
It's a foul, especially in today's football.
De Gea is looking the wrong way trying to punch the ball because otherwise he gets a hand in his face. It's a foul.
Was it a foul?
Daniel James deserves a knighthood for smacking Lingard in the face there.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka would be stacking shelves if nobody had ever spotted his tackling. I don't know why he crosses the half-way line.
What a tackle.
Greenwood will be superior to Rashford.
Greenwood is such a fucking finisher.
Also put £13 on him to score when he came on :drool:
Greenwood is brilliant.
Maserico Machewood.
86th minute and neither team has made any subs. Don't know why, maybe the bench is too much fun today
Poor Moise Kean, he's been treated like shit at Everton.
Duncan Ferguson is a fucking idiot for doing that even if Moise Kean isn't very good.
Agreed with regards to Kean. You can't spend that sort of money on someone then proceed to rip out by shred of confidence he had. He looked dumbfounded too.
Lol Duncan Ferguson says he took Kean off to kill time.
Also apparently Utd have won more points from the teams above them than the teams below, which is pretty special.
The reality is that spending the sort of money on Kean that Everton did was round the fucking twist. What had he done in his career to date? Been racially abused in Italy? It's not that far removed from an Italian team bowling in with that sort of offer for Calvert-Lewin, which everyone would think rightly mental. Or, you know, £35m on Iwobi. What were they doing in the summer? Still loving Big Dunc. I reckon he's a much better coach than people give him credit for.
Oddly I’ve more optimism walking in for this one than I did pitching up against Brighton or Southampton. Not at all informed optimism, just the general, hopeful optimism that accompanies a big game (is it even big? Is ‘big’ now those around us like Newcastle?)
Either way glad to see the same front three out and a lack of Xhaka.
Quality finish that. Spanking en route?
Absolute roasting incoming here.
KDB really is the greatest player when playing against mid table shite
That finish by De Bruyne was so clean.
Carra jizzed.
Three times I’ve put this on and bored myself to tears with it and every time I’ve turned it off there’s been a cunting goal.
You've done well to reach the point of tears before the first goal, two minutes into the game.
Unreal. Absolutely diabolical when they’re in possession. There a couple of lads just sparked up in the stadium after discussing that if they get chucked out it’d be a mercy.
City could probably get 6+ with considerable ease. Arsenal can not cope with a player as good as De Bruyne.
The disappointing thing has to be that Man City haven't even got going and yet Arsenal still find themselves in further trouble. Watch it end 3-0 now.
I'll try again Arsenal.
Pepe is such a waste of time. Drag back flick/backheel passes in your own half at 3 nil down? Alright matey. Maybe he'll get to square up an immobile defender at some point and all will be right with the world again.
A TTH XI would hold their own against these. Shit match other than some magic from De Bruyne.
Duncan Ferguson has the maddest fucking eyes. Like he's taken a line before the press come in.
Apparently that was De Bruyne's first premier league brace.
What's the deal with Hazard at Real? Is he having one of his hibernation seasons?
The deal is he didn't really want to go but his agent made him and he isn't mentally cut out for that sort of club/stage.
Even being Belgian helps him on the international stage because, you know, Belgium.
Champions League draw coming up. I want Real Madrid but if we don't get them then I think Lyon or Atalanta will do.
Dortmund v PSG
Real Madrid v Man City
Atalanta v Valencia
Atletico Madrid v Liverpool
Chelsea v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Juventus
Tottenham v RB Leipzig
Napoli v Barcelona
Borussia Dortmund vs PSG
Real Madrid vs Man City
Atalanta vs Valencia
Atletico Madrid vs Liverpool
Chelsea vs Bayern
Lyon vs Juventus
Tottenham vs RB Leipzig
Napoli vs Barcelona
On balance, that's a horrible set of fixtures for the English clubs.
Did not want. Where's Porto when you need them?
I'm inclined to disagree. I can see them all qualifying bar Chelsea. Spurs could go either way.
In other news, Arteta is the new Arsenal manager. Not sure what qualifies him but we'll see. He seems to have a reputation within the game but it's a ballsy decision given his lack of experience and what he has to work with there.
"Can you confirm you wrote down everything Pep has done? Great, see you on Monday."
I got the impression they wanted Arteta last time but chicken out to go with someone (Emery) with some experience.
It's the shittest job in football. United without the money to throw at problems.
I would say even worse than Man United.
Europa
Wolves v Espanyol
Sporting Lisbon v Istanbul Basaksehir
Getafe v Ajax
Bayer Leverkusen v Porto
FC Copenhagen v Celtic
Apoel FC v FC Basel
FC Cluj v Sevilla
Olympiakos v Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar v LASK
Club Brugge v Manchester United
Ludogorets v Internazionale
Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Salzburg
Shakhtar Donetsk v Benfica
Wolfsburg v Malmo
Roma v Gent
Rangers v Braga
Blue and White Barcelona :drool:
That Barisic own goal at the end of the Young Boys game has served us well. Braga over Leverkusen every day of the week.
FC Chelsea London to piss past the Gestapo. Man siddy should go through as well.
Dortmund v PSG
Real Madrid v Man City
Atalanta v Valencia
Atletico Madrid v Liverpool
Chelsea v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Juventus
Tottenham v RB Leipzig
Napoli v Barcelona
Fucking hell.. nearly killed the poor bastard..
Bit of kit colour interchange but otherwise that may as well be a recreation of the Harald Schumacher foul on Battiston.
First thing I thought of too. That is brutal.
At least he was sent off for it unlike Schumacher.
Good tackle. John Hopoate special.
Rustu tribute act
Incredibile.
:D
Not a fucking clue.
Stunning.
....
Someone is going to have to explain to me what point they thought they were making with that?
Based on the "weareallthesame" I'm guessing they're going IT'S OKAY LADS WE'RE ALL MONKEYS!
Which is.... well, yeah.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50809222
A Russian law firm are suing Twitch for £2.1bn for pirate Premiership broadcasts.
My mate received The Guardian Top 100 400 player shortlist. Wayne Rooney was on that shortlist.
Ancelotti signs for Everton.
To do what?
Racially abuse Kean.
Can't be many teams better at keeping the ball than Brighton in the division.
Shame they do so little with it in the final third.
Pretty sure if Montoya gives that the full Zaha triple barrel roll and asks for a penalty when he goes down he gets it and it sticks on VAR.
Ancelotti seems a perplexing choice for Everton, although I suppose he at least keeps Big Dunc on the staff to probably keep doing whatever he's doing at the moment.
I'm watching it and you're not wrong. Not a bad challenge but it changed the outcome, I reckon.
Zaha nonexistent. £80M? GTFO.
Dan Burn is the man I'm after per the transfer thread. He's a legend. Between him and this White chap that seems to be going great guns at Leeds Brighton seem to have (inadvertently) unearthed a couple of quality players.
Burn must be not far away from thirty. I remember him being a quality signing as a young player from whoever he was at around 2010 in FM. He was a centre back then, which makes sense as a cross between a man and a step ladder.
He's not that old but he's older than I thought he was, 27?
He is a centre-half but seems to have adapted quite well to leftback. He's a defensive Peter Crouch. Great touch for a big man.
He often plays a sort of centre-back/full-back hybrid role. Today was full-back without the ball and pretty much centre-back with the ball.
Good game that. Frustrating, but enjoyable nonetheless. You're right though, niko - our quality on the ball doesn't quite translate into chances. At the moment some quality finishing from Maupay is getting us points.
I know he was quiet last season but Gross for £3m must be one of the best Premier League era bargains.
Ancelotti is good at keeping things ticking and keeping everyone onside. Motivating this lot? It's a very strange choice.
Maybe they keep Dunc around for team talks and training violence.
And to racially abuse Moise Kean.
When he was at Chelsea he started off with this fancy dan Joe-Cole-in-the-hole idea, which was a bit Eriksson, so he binned it off fairly quickly and went to the Mourinho formation with Drogba through the middle, the Useless Brothers either side, and Lampard from behind. Scored 100 goals and won the league. Sounds easy, but I think the league was pretty dogshit at that time. A Late Ferguson AI team took us to the last day.
Brighton folk: Is Aaron Connolly going to get a championship loan in Jan? He’s done the sum total of fuck all since Spurs and looks to have been dropped lately.
He's been injured, I think.
Picked up a groin injury against Arsenal and is still out.
I'm honestly so surprised at how Dan Burn has turned out - firstly, that he's competent enough to be playing regularly in the Premier League, and secondly, that he'd even try playing full-back again after getting run ragged by Assaidi when Stoke smashed Fulham 4-1 to relegate us in 2014.
He was always a decent prospect when Fulham had him, and he had good loan spells at Birmingham and Yeovil, but never really developed. We only played him at centre-back, barring that one Stoke game, and he was ok for a lower level Championship side, hence us moving him on to Wigan when we brought in the crux of our promotion squad under Jokanovic. I always thought he'd stick around Championship and League One teams.
I did see his only league goal for Fulham, a thumping 90th minute equaliser in a 3-3 draw up at Rotherham on a bitterly cold night in October. With his height, I'm surprised he doesn't score a few more.
We're going to get rinsed tonight against Villa.
Out expected lineup:
Gk - Kelleher
Def - Larouci, van der Berg, Hoever, Boyes
Mid - Kane, Chirivella, Christie-Davies
Att - longstaff, Stewart, Elliot
I've stuck £50 on us at 17/2. :D
EDIT: That was on Saturday btw but that team isn't as bad as expected. I have doubts that Villa will even stick a strong one out.
We've played the reserves (not the kids) so far, so I'd expect more of the same.
I was hoping as much. I figured given where you find yourselves in the league that you wouldn't take it too seriously given you're possibly the weakest side left if results go as expected (IE, Leicester/Everton/City/United)
That said, it's still bullshit that we have to stick the kids. I can't believe I'm moaning about it either given A) it's the League Cup and B) the only reason we can't field the first team is because we won the European Cup. :cab: How times have changed.
Liverpool: Kelleher, Hoever, Boyes, Van den Berg, Gallacher, Chirivella, Christie-Davies, Kane, Longstaff, Hill, Elliott.
Substitutes: Winterbottom, Clayton, Dixon-Bonner, Bearne, Clarkson, Norris, Stewart.
No idea on half of those. Shame for Brewster to be injured. Namesake makes the bench. :cool:
Flamengo look like they care about this a lot. Looks as if they've a few shit kickers in there as well.
The South Americans always go for it in the Club World Cup stuff. They have done since the Intercontinental Cup days.
Well that's killed the Villa game off quite early. A shame really but a week off in January probably makes this a win-win. Would love the younglings to fight back into it though
Harvey Elliott has been great dispute the score.
The fallout when they start the comeback. :drool:
:-D
Edit: I'd be embarrassed to celebrate tbh ha
I've liked what I've seen from him so far. That being said I don't know how strong this Villa side is.
Good performance though.
EDIT: As I say that...
Van Der Berg really is a terrible player, youngster or not.
Hoever, Elliot, Christie and Chirivella looking good.
What a bizarre comment to make.
Elliot's a don.
Good of the youth to take a season's worth of misfortune in one hit.
He's 17, barely been in the country for six months, doesn't speak great English and has zero support or experience alongside him.
You're judging him way too soon. Everyone of them should benefit from the experience. I don't know what you're expecting tbh. They don't even deserve to be 4-0 down either.
Isn't he 17? There are no good 17 year old centre-halves. They're usually absolute toilet until their early 20s at least. I remember watching Tomori at Brighton and thinking who's this joker a few years back. He does look a bit ropey, mind. At least he's sorted his hair a bit.
It feels like Pedro Chirivella has been around since the Roy Hodgson days. Who am I thinking of? Or has he?
I'm not saying he won't turn or to be a good player, simply that this season, he hasn't looked great (even for a young player), and perhaps needs a lot more time before we see him anywhere near the first team, or second team, again.
I can't believe the Hodgson days were nearly 10 years ago (Chirivella signed in 2013 apparently).
You've seen a lot of Premier League 2 games, I see. All 8 of them that he's featured in according to the Google?
I'm not saying he hasn't been below the standard but you've got to put it into perspective. I've seen him once before today, I didn't form an opinion then, I won't now either.
Quite literally men against boys. That defeat will do some of them some good too.
TTH should sponsor the League Cup cause we talk about it more than literally any other humans on Earth.
Liverpool playing a youth team definitely made it more interesting than it would otherwise have been tonight, even if the game itself might have been more even had Lallana, Origi et al been permitted to play.
It's Colchester's to lose now Liverpool are out.
Arteta is the new Arsenal manager. Going to have ex-players in charge of every team soon.
Teams have become savvy to the PR benefits of having sympathetic figures in charge. Tony Pulis will be lucky to work again.
Liverpool team: Alisson, Milner, Gomez, Henderson, Robertson, Lallana, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Salah, Shaqiri, Origi
Subs: Lonergan, Adrian, Alexander-Arnold, Jones, Williams, Firmino, Mane
There's rotation and then some. All I can say is if this Monterrey are any kind of competent, expect goals.
That the final of the Mexican league had to be postponed for a few weeks due to this shit is an outrage.
Yeah but once you've had the final of the Mexican league all the other competitions seem irrelevant. They need to do it this way to keep people interested.
Henderson at centre back :/
Injuries are really starting to mount up but fortunately it's just illness for VVD. It is what is but I feel we have enough quality to still win.
I think the biggest challenge will be the contrasts in playing style compared to what we're used to.
Another win-win tonight.
Should we lose, give the whole first team basically a week off before Leicester.
Are we finally starting to see the real Naby Keita....he's back to showing flashes of real quality I feel.
When does this move to the new format when it doesn't have to be in the season? Or is that even going to happen? Such a dull game. Should be neatly tucked into pre-season where this sort of tepid friendly (with with heavy contact) belongs.
I guess the summer isn't everyone's pre-season though.
2021 I believe but its a joke that its even expanding. You could see the Europa League runners up finding themselves being world champions? Get out of it.
Yeah, what next? Teams who aren't even the champions of their own country being the champions of their continent?
STOP THE MADNESS.
I haven't watched much of de jong. But he moves nice on the ball. He is so composed. He is graceful in possession.
You disagree? I find it all rather pointless. I would rather quality over quantity for any tournament. I would have held that opinion even if Wales qualified for Euros via nations league position etc.
Too many meaningless games. Example being last night in League Cup. If say Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham had reached that far then the quarter finals could have theoretically been kids for all sides, add on the knock on effect in the league where all four would have missed this week's set of fixtures etc.
And for what? For Fifa to line their pockets. If the Champions League becomes an actual league then it can fuck right off.
As a side note, you wouldn't have won either of your Champions League titles if only champions of the league qualified.
Never in doubt. Ha. Late goals just seem so normal for us at the moment.
I'd fancy Flamengo's chances.
Barbosa to FM it.
Well at least you haven't taken a throwaway joke too seriously, Smiff.
My short answer is that I can't think of many things I'd get het up about less than the possibility that the world club whatever might get won by a losing Europa League finalist. It's always been a tournament nobody cares about other than the people who are going to profit from it.
It is absolute madness that we could find ourselves returning to Liverpool with a trophy, a tan, a game in hand, ten points clear and our nearest challengers our next opponents.
Speaking of pointless games I'd forgotten we were playing tonight. Not on TV though so that's a bit of a result.
I still think the World Club Cup worked better as a summer tournament. Just bin the Confederation's Cup. World international football gets its due.
Fair. :thbup:
Good ol’ Bobby.
I’m still really surprised the Villa game went ahead. Absolutely ridiculous!
They need to change football so it's like baseball. 162 game league season, so you're playing every day but you rotate the players so each player only plays every five days or so - though for a goalkeeper or perhaps a centre back you could get more games out of him.
There are no downsides. At least three times as many people would be employed as professional footballers (+ jobs and + happiness), you'd need loads more staff to run the grounds and run the games (+ jobs), TV revenue would increase (+ money) and there wouldn't be any problems caused, not in a month of Sundays.
Most importantly the large sample size would mean the best team would truly win and xG would at last be proved correct.
Where would the League Cup fit?
Where is the footybite for League Cup games (or am I just missing it)?
You could fit 162 games September-March no drama, so the League Cup can go in April.
Turn it into a five-a-side instead.
Is Angel Gomes not worth a start over 'Andreas' in these fixtures?
This is like watching a rugby team without its halves.
Huge bore over in the Clasico.
I bet Harry Maguire is slower than Daley Blind over a short distance.
Baines with a proper strike in stoppage time to send the Everton game to penalties. That was rather tasty.
That Ronaldo header is brilliant.
Leighton Baines missing a penalty seems like big news.
Utd Vs City in the semi.
He does seem to have stepped it up a notch this season. I hope it's not just a purple patch, but rather a sign of things to come.
I don't mean it as a dig but he has been proper handicapped given how shit Man United have been, wasnt helped with Ibrahimovic joining and even now with Martial being made of glass, coupled with zero support other than James.
You'd still expect much better numbers for a side that wants to challenge for things but you can only play the hand you're dealt, I guess.
In another world he would have left United and joined a more fitting team that can play to his strengths. It must be frustrating knowing that regardless of your movement, it's unlikely you'll be found by the midfield and the only midfielder capable of finding you is a prick like Pogba.
14 in 23 for a 22 year old playing on the left wing is an excellent return...
That also all reads like you've never watched him or Utd play. The main criticism of all our forwards, Rashford absolutely included, is their lack of movement which had made us poor at breaking down defensive teams.
He's certainly in a good patch of form.
I've noticed recently he seems to be getting the Sterling treatment where commentators/pundits are keen on saying how many goals he's got 'for club and country' this season.
Do you even you watch your own side? Rashfords biggest weakness for me is his finishing. He's skilful enough, got a good burst of pace on him and has to contend with a midfield that seems more at ease passing it sideways or backwards. As I see it, your forwards are basically him and Martial, Rashford's finishing lets him down, Martial's inconsistency and poor decision making lets him down whilst James is a raw talent. If you had Lukaku still then I could accept the lack of movement being an issue as he was often static.
That's my opinion anyways but I'm sure Kiko and co will come along to verify.
https://talksport.com/football/63431...ffield-united/
"Their lack of movement is a joke"
https://youtu.be/jjYFr1L1ntw?t=135
2:10 - "complete lack of movement"
Etc.
You've actually just linked to talksport and Jermaine Jenas of all people. :lol: Jesus.
You're not entirely wrong in what you're saying but they could move all day long, without any midfielder worth shouting about to feed them once they have made the runs it's entirely pointless. This in turn possibly stops them from making said runs as they know they aren't going to be receiving the ball. I think this is why Man United seem better against the better sides. Long ball by Maguire over the top bypassing the midfield allowing Rashford or Martial to run onto it on the counter.
From what I see of Man United which admittedly isn't a great deal as I have Nytol instead is more Rashford or Martial running with the ball blindly, running into trouble before being forced to pass it back to the midfield who in turn pass it sideways or backwards, or they'll just have a speculative shot or an individual piece of brilliance (Rashford more so as he's got skills)
I do feel it's the midfield that's the biggest problem which is why it boggles the mind that they might be about to spend huge money on Haaland.
That said, what do I know, I'm no OGS and he clearly seems to know what he's doing....
When Pogba is in the side he spends 90% of his time on the ball looking for someone making a run whilst nobody does. You've literally no fucking clue what you're talking about.
We are better against better sides because we can counter-attack which we are actually good at.
I don't know if it's dawned on you but Pogba isn't in the side and hasn't been in a while.
There's also the downside of when he is in the side it leaves you unbalanced as he hasn't got the discipline to maintain his position when needed which is why he excelled at Juventus and has flattered to deceive at United. I'm not too sure on this occasion it's me who doesn't know what he's chatting, I think it's the part time United fan in yourself.
You always let yourself down Smiffy.
Your own manager agrees FFS. :D
With what?
Why anyone engages Smiff on the subject of Man Utd is beyond me. You may as well be debating, well, anything, with Harrold. I loves ya Smiff, but your hatred of Man Utd renders your opinion on them far too skewed.
My favourite part of this back and forth is Smiff saying "I don't mean it as a dig, but" as if he ever makes any post about United that doesn't contain a dig.
The truth of the thing probably lies somewhere in the middle, of course. Better movement would make it easier for the midfielders but if we had a midfield with any vision they'd be creating more than what they are.
The lack of creativity. He made mention of it after the Everton game, he made mention of it after the Bournemouth defeat. Even Gary Neville mentioned it just a few days ago.
Unless I've let myself down in another way in which case, meh.
Fucking hell are you actually broken?
You said our strikers only look like they have no movement because the midfielders other than Pogba can't pass. I tell you that even when Pogba is in the side, the lack of movement is still an obvious huge problem. You say "YeAh BuT pOgBa InJuReD1112!!!!". Retard.
Filthy header. :drool:
CFucking hell are you actually broken?[/QUOTE]
It's a reasonable assumption.
[/QUOTE]You said our strikers only look like they have no movement because the midfielders other than Pogba can't pass. I tell you that even when Pogba is in the side, the lack of movement is still an obvious huge problem. You say "YeAh BuT pOgBa InJuReD1112!!!!". Retard.[/QUOTE]
Yes....and I agreed with that but Pogba has been missing since August/October and now the issue is the lack of creativity, hence "they could move all day but no midfielder can find them".
By all means throw out petty insults but it speaks more volumes about you than it does me.
Quote:
'We didn't have the ideas': Solskjær laments lack of United creativity
Quote:
All runners but no passers: Manchester United might be rapid... but young side lacks creativity
Quote:
“Some of the boys lack a little bit of composure and we don’t create enough chances to win a game of football. They stay together as a team but we don’t create.
Didn’t he have one against Roma that was similar? His hang time is unreal.
You're absolutely brainless.Quote:
Yes....and I agreed with that but Pogba has been missing since August/October and now the issue is the lack of creativity, hence "they could move all day but no midfielder can find them".
By all means throw out petty insults but it speaks more volumes about you than it does me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUPw47DlZEA
Evidently so is your manager if he agrees with The Broken One™.
Gary Neville last month on the movement.
"The lack of movement from [Marcus] Rashford, [Anthony] Martial and [Daniel] James is a joke."
Gary Neville a few days ago on creativity.
Quote:
Gary Neville insists Man United's struggles against so-called 'lesser' teams this season is down to a lack of creative players at Old Trafford.
Quote:
Speaking to Sky Sports after the 1-1 draw vs Everton, the ex-defender said: "United still need those transfer windows, they still need those players into the club.
"We are still going to see inconsistency. There just isn't that quality, experience, patience; how to navigate a team that plays compact and is soaking up the pressure.
"Time and time again this season, when teams just force United to come forward a little bit, they have a problem - they haven't got the quality to break them down.
He almost always looks like he's jumped far too early but just seems to stay in the air.
Roma defenders stay getting bullied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBZjMA7Wsq0
You realise I agreed about the lack of movement, right? Nor did I suggest movement wasn't an issue. It all pretty much combines into the same arguement. No creativity means the movement is point of view is irrelevant, no movement means Pogba can't creative (when fit) I honestly don't see why you're being so fragile given it's a combination of both and we only got to that point because you suggested Rashford's biggest weakness was his movement, I suggested it was his finishing and then detailed reasons behind that opinion, ie, lack of creativity.
Go have a lie down. I would spell it out in simple terms for you but we've wasted enough time on something so trivial it's boring.
Copa del Rey tonight, lads, everybody excited for that, yeah?
Well at least I can see where the confusion is. I was referring specifically to Lukaku in that instance, just as I was referring specifically to Rashford's biggest weakness being his finishing.
As a whole, of course there is a lack of movement but without Pogba, even if they were moving, you haven't got the midfield to take advantage of it, just as there is a lack of creativity without Pogba (who again, has been missing more than he has played this season) and given the midfield can't create, it means Rashford and Martial have to be the creative force themselves. They can't do both. If anything it shows how unbalanced your side is.
Chill out a bit, fella.
They're basically the only games that are in the BBC fixture list with which to try and change the subject.
We can talk about the ongoing THRILLER between Aris and Volos instead if you'd rather.
I've always thought Steven Gerrard was overrated, a bit of a Scouse Nicky Butt.
Let's talk about Rebekah Stott's strike against Perth Glory this morning in Melbourne City's 1-0 win. I had the misfortune of watching it and yeah, women's football clearly isn't for me.
Spearing was always the better player tbf, he just lacked a few important attributes like passing, defending, marking, creating, scoring but boy could he run and point.
Ronaldo's header against us was another leap and a half.
https://i.imgur.com/KH90yO5.png
:lol:
Forgot about the existence of that.
^Ridiculous header from Ronaldo. The Dybala volley from the same game isn't too shabby either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGvD1Vi0WDw
(23 seconds in)
If he's 5'6" then those women are fucking behemoths
No matter what you keep telling yourself, 5'6 is not the average height.
That Ronaldo header might be the best I've ever seen. I mean, it's beyond football and I don't think anyone else who has ever played the game could have scored it.
I'd be testing the fuck out of him mind.
It doesn't beat Jared Borgetti. Nothing will ever beat Jared Borgetti.
Off to watch the Chris Wilder Total Northern Football Revolution today. Hopefully Brighton give them a good shoeing.
I'm going to watch the Arabs v Ayr at home. Big top of the table clash with everything at stake [/MitchellandWebb]
That Arsenal lineup looks like it could get bummed silly by Everton.
Macclesfield docked 6pts in the week (with a further 4 suspended), and their game called off today on short notice. Not looking good.
This is an awful match.
I would appear both Ancelotti and Arteta have their work cut out for them. Dreadful half.
Who’s the best out of Arsenal’s crop of 20 year old midfielders? We’ve got Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson and Ainsley. Surely at least one of them will turn out good
That was tragic.
Was there a single chance created?
I think the closest any came to scoring was when it ping pong'ed in the box and an Arsenal defender almost put it in. I've seen both their last two games and although they were slightly better in the second half, they've been pretty useless in box. Static, seemingly disinterested and lacking in any attack whatsoever.
Eoin Doyle has now scored in 10 consecutive games :cool:
I had never heard of him until this morning in this.
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-38805050.html
The beardo number 22 for Norwich is a fair hefter for a professional soccer player.
Are we just waiting for Ritchie to get back to send a cross in?
I thought Villa would be a banker today. :moop: Overrated pile of dross. This perception that they have enough to stay up is changing by the week. I half expected Sheffield United to have dropped by now too and given how Brighton were against Palace I thought they'd have enough but nope.
I'm going to start backing the team I think will lose to win instead. This last couple of weeks has seen nothing but last minute goals or the unlikelier team taking the points.
Almiron finally did it. Chuffed. :D
Watford, Norwich and Villa might be nailed on for the bottom three.
I'm actually happy for Newcastle given the circumstances. I'd have preferred it to be 2-1 with Zaha getting on the scoresheet but so far so good as far as FF goes. Jimenez and Grealish scoring, Sheff United and Burnley clean sheets. I just want Jesus and Sterling to run riot against Leicester now. :cool:
Leicester 7/1. :cab:
I'm a City fan boy and that seems mental.
Dundee United won 4-0 despite not being great. Looks like they're finally getting out of this league.
Lovely goal.
Better than Kane.
I'm on the club final between Liverpool and Flamengo and the latter are, shall we say, receiving some favourable refereeing decisions.
Partisan crowd as well.
Flamengo's absolute refusal to cross the ball is annoying me. Every single corner has been taken short (and lost, because their mandatory number tens are so slow) and they utterly refuse to do it from open play either. Must be scared of Virgil van Dijk.
I'll tell you what... that'd would have been a pen for Liverpool in the Prem. Defender pulls down Henderson, but ref gives it the other way.
In contrast, I fucking love Liverpool's use of big hoofs and cross-field balls. They really have the eye for that.
Referee doesn't have a clue, he's just guessing every decision. Very poor match as a result.
Yeah, as with most (all?) international competitions these things are blighted by the absolute shitheads they get to ref them.
Ref is making a mockery of the game. Doesn't want any physical contact.
I'd like to see a bit more of a foot on the ball in the 2nd half. Not had much chance to get the fullbacks up.
Virgil van Dijk actually liberated Belsen, and was also a first responder at Chernobyl.
Brighton were bobbins today, although that was largely down to Sheffield United being so good and not allowing them to play.
Webster had a proper 2/10 game, and a few others weren't much better. Credit to Potter for giving it a go, but I don't get what Glenn Murray really does anymore (they'd have been better served having Duffy on as a target man) and going zero wide-men from 55 mins on (3 centre-halves, 4 centre-mids, 3 centre-forwards) was a curious strategy.
'Let's just bring in South American football expert Tim Vickery.'
Flamengo isgonna pwn liverpool!!!:lol:'
No one had any real positions. He was playing off Murray, I think, with Maupay doing the same, so maybe out wide in a 4-3-3 but really it was just playground stuff. Dan Burn was left wing for the most part, Propper seemed to be rightback, Mooy was playing wherever he fancied. It was a bit mad really. Connolly did much more than Trossard and probably had the brightest moments for Brighton.
Got 10 in 10 for us in the qualifiers, so fatbot not I’ll take him as he is. In all seriousness though this is the first I’ve heard anyone saying he’s put on too much. He’s supposed to be in the best shape he’s ever been.
These Brazilians and the referee are a disgrace.
My first instinct was contact is outside.
Looks outside to me.
Or...not at all :cab:
How in the world is that not a foul.
Probably was outside, but the freeze frame needed forwarding a bit, it kept stopping before the actual contact. Hey ho.
Referee BOTTLED it.
Not our day today.
Is that not a red card?
Just seen a HD replay. Outside and a red card.
Is Flamengo's entire squad made up of thirty six year olds who used to be good?
Liverpool should have brought their VAR team with them.
As Danny Murphy just pointed out, the Ref was looking at the wrong angle in the replay. VAR is fucking pointless.
I reckon Flamengo could have just set a record for the most number of players offside there when the 'keeper hoofed it back forward. Must have been at least half a dozen of them, maybe more.
Henderson :drool:
Are we going to get the South American strop, lads?
They'd have to concede another before losing it, I'd imagine.
That's some miss. Shame for such a young player to be shot to death.
Mane looks as though someone's set about him in his sleep with a set of clippers.
I never want to play a Brazilian team again.
That being said - World Champions :cool:
River looked comfortable but had little in front of goal in that match. Also, as is customary now, here is the Rafa vs Bruce update:
Rafa's side took until the 11th of February to level with our current points tally. Dalian Yifang finished their season at the start of the month with Rafa guiding them to a 9th placed finish. In that time he has managed 7 wins from 17 games. Today was also Bruce's 7th win as manager.
Potter's also behind Hughton on the x games in comparison, but then, I'm not sure Brighton won again after the Christmas games until about April last season, and people rolled that stat out about Bodgers v Klopp for quite a while too.
Also we've played more tough away games this season than we had by the same point last year.
And it's a better league - the promoted teams are far better than the ones that went down.
Fallon Sherrock. :cool:
It's all well and good having the first woman to win whatever in darts, but imagine being the first man to lose to a woman in darts. He'll never get over it. He's finished.
Shameful lustage?
Is it right this the Beeb stopped the broadcast night before the trophy awarding, to switch teh Michael Fucking MacIntyre?
They stopped it on BBC1, it continued online.
They are lost without Mings at the back.
I was hoping for a draw, luckily we took our chances and go into the festive period with a bit of confidence.
Genuinely think Danny Ings is as important to us as Le Tissier was in the 90s, we would be cut a drift if he was injured.
Andy hit the nail on the head. Without Mings at the back we're painful. Fortunately Chester's back from 11 months out and I'd put him in ASAP. McGinn went off injured after 4 mins, which is something we can't afford.
We're not that good though. It's all very well playing half decent football, but if you don't have a centre forward you're going to struggle.
‘Feed the Scousers’ must be up there with the worst chants going.
I've noticed a dramatic increase in twatty hand-wringing over anti-Liverpool songs in recent seasons. Sport obviously isn't for you lads.
Until Liverpool stop singing 'Chelsea rentboys' they are hypocrites. Although if Twitter is anything to go by, a lot of them seem to genuinely think that 'rentboys' refers to mercenary players.
It’s the hypocrisy of it, if nothing else. Fucking blokes from Wolverhampton or Leicester singing it. Jesus.
Milan lost 5-0 to Atalanta today. It leaves them in 10th place. They've scored 16 goals in 17 games. This will be their seventh straight season without a top four finish. Surely the worst run club in Europe relative to resources?
Ivan Gazidis’ excellent work keeps on chugging. What a fucking moron.
What resources? They're between Everton and Newcastle in the money league.
The whole United squad is atrocious. Not a single player worth salvaging.
PogbA’s gonna come on second half and save the day
Calvert Lewin’s arm still haunting De Gea. Sarr can’t even hit a ball correctly.
That's the problem with De Gea. No matter how well he might be playing, he's always got a clanger in him.
He probably has a couple of those every season.
That’s just as bad :D
:roflol:
Bring P. Ogba in.
Well this was entirely predictable.
I think if Tottenham win Chelsea later then the top four is unlikely to change thereafter. You'd probably be better off trying to finish below the Europa spot too. Or is next season when that other competition comes into play? Conference League or whatever?
Pearson’s such a good manager. He might be a bit of a nutter but that’s such a good appointment for Watford.
In fairness they were very unlucky against us last week and I think with better weather conditions they'd have taken the three points. Is it just a new manager bounce though. Defeat today I think would have left them dead and buried but alas, football.
Mason Mount starting again. Call the police.
That three at the back for Chelsea is terrifying.
Alonso will probably score now he’s back at wing back, the murderer. Kante will need to have the game of his life.
Isaac Success. :D
EDIT: His Wikipedia page is lol.
EDIT2: Nevermind, it has been edited.
Atrocious performance. Yikes.
Need a Rashford update.
I gotchu.Quote:
Only Raúl Jiménez, Raheem Sterling, Jamie Vardy and Mohamed Salah are involved in more goals in all competitions than Marcus Rashford this season among players playing in the Premier League. [Opta]
Jimenez. :cool:
United are seriously bad.
I have a hunch Tottenham are going to stick a fair few past Chelsea. 4-1 FT. :nodd:
That thing on the top of Tottenhams stadium looks like something from the reich.
I quite like how we've set up here, we are a lot more mobile than them across the pitch.
And there it is. Legend.
Wilollian.
Chelsea's most reliable player for years. Nice.
Now pull your finger out, Spurs. :moop:
That touch in the box from Mount after Abraham put it over the top to him is almost enough on its own to bring me round to Waff's thinking on him.
He’s not a bad player. There’s just far too much over reliance on him when he’s their fourth best central player.
Lucas Moura is every bit as shit as I remember him to be.
Thought Kepa’s head ate Sissoko’s knee at first there.
Atrocious. Lucas needs off and so does Dier (as he always does when he plays)
That was way worse than it looked from Sissoko on the keeper. Completely reckless and out of control, very lucky that the limbs arranged themselves in a certain way or he would have walked.
Dele though has to stay on, always. His trolling is the best in the league
Dele Alli is absolute scum.
Dele Alli is such a hateful little cunt.
Aurier is the worst player on the pitch, and possibly in the world.
Gazzaniga :D
That is a penalty and a red card.
Why is he trying to kick that?
:lol:
Its a fucking stone wall penalty.
That has to be a penalty. The ref should be punished for calling a foul the other way initially, it's so clear.
What the fuck was that hahahahahah
How is it only a yellow?
That surely needed to be red.
It didn't even need to go to VAR. It was so blatant.
That was a classic first rule decision, btw. Referees only react to things they expect to happen, not things that actually happen.
I think the ref calling a Spurs free kick initially is a more embarrassing miscalculation than whatever karate kid nonsense Gazzanigga was attempting.
Those sort of calls is why VAR is a good introduction and if it was kept to such things then it would be better received than the offside calls by a strand of hair.
Sanchez’s reaction is what makes it even better. What a mess.
You don't have to actually kick someone in the head for high feet to be called. It was reckless, dangerous play, and irrespective of any penalty call it should have been a red card for that alone.
Plus last man, wasn't he?
Now that was a clear backpass
He’s away to start crying again. What a sap.
Son as captain in my fantasy team :moop:
This sport is so soft. I might start watching American football now
lol at that but to be fair it was worse than Beckham in '98, so you know.
Is that really worth a 2 or 3 match ban? Really?
Can see why they’ve given it, he’s given the ref a chance to send him off. It looks bad, it’s petulant but Jesus.
Stupid is as stupid does.
They've lost their heads just like 2016. Waiting for a nasty tackle shortly. Mourinho needs to get Alli off for his own good.
Jose Mourinho is done. It's international management or bust after this job.
That’s the second time I’ve seen this Mourinho Spurs and it’s the second time I’ve seen him tactically destroyed by a former team. Nice to see from Lampard though especially after all the doom talk of the last while.
Racist abuse too.
Classy.
Lampard probably just got an old 2005 tactics sheet off his hard drive and changed the names on it.
Oh dear, here goes Gaz Nev - social commentator.
The abuse the Bulgarians got when England went out there and the way the press vilified an entire country when its been rife in England for ages makes it all seem to little too late in my mind.
Even the kick it out bollocks proved years ago they are just all talk.
Son seems to be developing a bit of a problem with red cards. That's 2(3) in about half a season.
Glorious day all round in the football really.
If Rudiger told Dave that he had been on the end of some racist shit... then why didn't Dave just take the team off? What am I missing? (Except for Dave being Spanish)
He's only saying it now though, he was as bad as every one else when the country was giving it to the Bulgarians. Since then there's been a number of high profile incidents that have been caught/reported.
Every single country seemingly has an issue with it. It won't be stopped by football anyway as it's not an issue that's solely sports related. It's everywhere. Even our new PM is a racist cock.
It's alright, we can get Stormzy on to address (berate the country on) the racism issue, as he did so succinctly with La Republica or whoever it was the other day. Italians get it.
How are they even looking at the penalty when he’s a yard offside?
I don't think it's a reflection on England, it's a reflection on the UK as a whole. Wales is every bit as racist as anywhere else. I never knew how bad until I got with Banana. Just the way she was treated by even bank clerks etc surprised me. She too was Eastern European.
Case in point actually, the likes of Wrexham which voted leave the UK, I imagine large swarms of that was racial as over the last 10-15 years it went from barely seeing a foreign person to being overloaded with Europeans.
There are 50,000 people or whatever in the stadium, 1,000 of them are probably racist, the difference is whether one of the 1,000 feels like expressing that in the form of abuse. That cannot be policed by Boris Johnson or anyone else.
It is self-policing.
Doesn’t help that he’s an open racist though, does it?
I would say it makes absolutely no difference to anything whether he is or not.
No doubt. Every club has them, I just don't see why football should be expected to sort it out. Highlight the person, kick them out the stadium and make it a criminal matter. It just strikes me as though football has taken the microphone for things like racism when it's barely even football related. Those who are racist in the stadium are every bit as racist outside it.
It should be the law policing it. The only benefit of it happening in a stadium is you can zoom in on said person/people. That said, UK is one of the most watched countries on the planet so I don't know why we don't just round them all up and be done with them. Probably save a few quid.
I think it's a reflection of how much more prominent identity politics is now than it used to be. As we saw today there are a lot of people out there who get very, very upset (for reasons I don't understand) about Stormzy being able to express an opinion.
It all started when Liverpool failed to condemn Luis Suarez.
Can anyone link me a clip on what Neville said about what’s going on in the stadium. I can’t find anything.
Smiff trying to blame Man Utd for racism and then saying something racist is top stuff.
Yeah, was only a flippant remark anyway. The vote was for disillusionment for a multitude of reasons. Every country is racist to some extent though, I think the only reason this gets played up so much is that your media love to portray that you’re the only ones that don’t.
On the ball, that was indeed a very good performance, I quite like this Lampard side. Spurs are still spurs anyway, regardless of management or fancy stadium - slightest bit of expectation and the shit the bed. They’re such a gutless club.
You think that's bad? I shit you not I had to delete donkey out of
as I was going to say donkey's years then thought fuck. :D I only did that because I saw the Depay thing on YouTube too.
I think you do raise a point that should be explored though in that some people are racist, some say something racist without even being aware it's racist and then you have others who are so confused by it all because they themselves have never been subjected to anything close to it so how does one even relate?
Come on out Waff with your Mount hate. Boy is mature beyond his years and has a top tier touch.
Fair play to Gary for calling out the Premier League itself there live on Sky, that's a fairly ballsy move.
EDIT: And Dave Jones absolutely shat himself in response.
Quotes?
Gary: The Premier League hides behind the FA on this sort of thing, it needs to stand up and do something (and then a load of stuff about how racism is accepted in political parties so of course it happens in football).
Dave: Those are the views of Gary Neville, not the views of Sky Sports.
Gary: Do you not agree with them, Dave?
Dave: It doesn't matter whether I agree with them or not.
Proper rights holder poo hitting the deck there.
Go on the Gerreh.
Can’t be bothered to do tweet tags on mobile. Here’s the video
https://twitter.com/ryanbaldifw/stat...073181185?s=21
The protocol is shit. You shouldn't get three warnings on this. Time for players, the captain's, to stand by their mates and drag the team off immediately. The authorities aren't doing anything about it, so time for the players to act. Azpilicueta should have done something about it, and hopefully next time, he will.
Was it at Spurs where Aubameyang got a banana chucked at him?
They didn't get three warnings. It was one warning issued three times.
I know players are not that smart, but they have to start leaving the field and going home if they really care about racism.
I don't understand the lack of action from players of the offending fan base. When it happened at City a couple of weeks ago, why isn't Sterling - vocal as he is on this subject - doing something about it? A show of support for the opposing players. Same goes here. Why isn't Kane going over to the fans? Do something. Some bullshit stadium announcement is going to do anything.
It is asinine in the extreme to blame players for not walking off when there is absolutely no evidence that the authorities would back them up in any way for doing so.
The players hold the real power though. If there were no games then shit really hits the fan and the authorities would have few options.
The problem is that the main issue for the vast majority of them is the bank balance, not whether they or a colleague is getting racially abused.
The authorities don't seem to be doing a lot a the moment, so I don't see a problem with the players taking their own action, regardless if anyone backs them up. Also, sports aside, if a mate of yours is receiving racist abuse, you do something about it - something more than telling the ref and playing on.
I really don’t understand walking off. If players started doing that then some loser at every game would realize little insignificant he had the power to stop a major premier league football match just by yelling “nigger” loudly once. It would happen at every single match. Walking off is capitulating and giving some failure of a person all the power in the world
You saw what happened in the USA when NFL players started not even walking off, but doing a harmless kneel at the start of the game. If players started going on strike here they would be hammered. Most of them probably think why should we take all the flak when it's us getting abused.
Big Pete and Ian Wright, Suarez and Evra, Terry and Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole with the choc ice business, Silvas tweet just of the top of my head so it's a bit rich for players to be taking the morale highground as though it's just a select number supporters and the punishments have never been just. Supporters banned for life, players given a fine and a couple of games suspension.
I liked what Neville said but it's not just from politics fuelling it when it's been there for a number of years.
I believe it simply needs to be handed over the the police and the fill extent of the law used irrespective of who says it. Sterling was quick to voice his concerns which was good but then he let himself down by defending Silva. Blaming politics and Johnson isn't the right way to go either given its the media, supporters, individuals from certain parties (UKIP was rampant with it), the wider public, the grief Stormzy got on twitter was telling as well. Although I attribute that to people who aren't racist taking offence as he cited the UK is and I can imagine people felt that as an attack on them even though they aren't racist themselves, leave voters constantly called racist xenophobes by media another.
It's good that the discussion is behind had but talking about it won't change anything until serious action is taken. That Anthony Burke fella being an example. Arrested, released on bail and you know nothing else will come of it.
Black people also have to take some criticism themselves as they have been known to refer to each other as n***** whilst calling whites cracker Jack's or whatever. Then there's the Muslims who have had it bad.
I remember the Manchester bombing and how sad it was but one thing that popped into my head was how much I felt for Muslims who wake up the following day and have to go to work after it.
Then there's those we continually give coverage too with racial slurs hence the media being to blame too. Its simply not something which is just sports related but I think the lack of punishments in the past have helped too. Chelsea fans abusing the by guy on the train as an example. Then you have the stereotypes like when United sang about Lukaku or even Liverpool with Origi.
Where do you even begin to stamp it out is what I wonder.
Jesus. As timing would have it, I log into Twitter to see Katie Price attacking Stormzy and Nigel Farage being in line for a knighthood.
Fuckin' hell.
Walking off the pitch was something that should have been done ages ago but won't do any good now. That ship has long since sailed due to the ref (in theory) being able to cancel the game, which he never will of course.
Racism will never die. However, people do not have to stand for it. Walking off makes a statement. It's just stupid how we are about to be in 2020 it hasn't happened on the biggest stage yet.
I'm inclined to disagree. Walking off merely stops the game, it doesn't stop racism and you can almost guarantee if a team does walk off the focus will be on praising them for walking off in the face of racism but then again, what does that actually do in the grand scheme of things?. If a person is racist then they are racist whether they are watching a football game or sitting at home behind a computer.
If said racist person stops shouting racist abuse at people, that would be an improvement 'in the grand scheme of things.'
Players subject to racial abuse should be given a free pass to deal with the abuser in a Cantona-esque fashion.
It has to be self-policing, ideally in the sense of people policing themselves away from racially abusing others (in whatever context) or obviously just not being a racist, but, failing that, in a football context, the policing has to come from the crowd around, and in that context I think 'the protocol' can work. Hopefully when these things happen others in the vicinity take a stand against it. I've never heard racist abuse at a sporting event, but I've seen plenty of lairy twats challenged when their behaviour requires it, so would hope people don't just sit on their hands if the guy in front is giving it the full monkey noise big one.
Hitting teams financial would help. It would never happen but if a player gets abused at stadium x, the whole team and organisation should be punished with points deductions and stadium bans or something.
So punish those who weren't racist because someone in the crowd was? I don't see how a club is able to control what comes out of someones mouth or another person action.
If players are walking out of matches, then the crowd is more likely to speak up against the few being wankers.
Was listening to a podcast and they mentioned Tom Ince. Remember when Paul was telling everyone he was going to Inter.
ADO Den Haag appoint....
Toggle Spoiler
:(
West Ham should be legally required to have him as their manager at all times.
Scoring the winner after that fucking dance was Lingard's career peak.
His whole career.
Lingard has gone over 24 hours without a goal or assist. That is over 1400 minutes. That is 16 full games. Not bad.
Those sort of statistics make him out to be more useless than he really is. He shouldn't be starting for a club who have spent a trillion quid, but he would be down on the list of people who need bumming out to turn the CULTURE around.
Lingard's constant involvement makes me worry about Ole's suitability.
Late to the Pardew. Carry on.
7 posts up.
Well the Jurgen Klopp signs tread is ageing rather well. :D I was looking for a "Will Jurgen Klopp win the Premier League thread but doesn't seem to be one.
Simon however had this beaut. :drool:
https://i.ibb.co/PWn95zD/lol.png
Some of you were bang on the money btw. Kiko especially.
At least link it ffs, I think I was pretty sceptical.
Sadly right.
Only an air disaster can stop them now.
This version is so much older than I remember. Time flies.
This part is every bit as wrong as it was right.
Even the most mental probably wouldn't have expected it to be this good. If he lands the title then he's there with Shankly and Paisley forever more, I reckon.
EDIT: Also, this reads even better than it did then, I reckon. I would say we weren't prepared.
At least let this be the most smug you will get.
If Liverpool win the league and you go full on Scouse I'll be asking someone to ban you for a month.
He really has done an outstanding job and were I a jobbing winger playing at an anywhere near decent level in Europe I'd be praying for the call. What he gets out of players is ridiculous.
And why is your every post in that thread an ellipsis?
He's one domestic success away from a statue, although I'd argue he's done enough to be part of a Paisley, Shankly, Rafa, Klopp Mount Rushmore.
Mount Scousemore. They could build it in the bay like the Statue of Liberty, albeit Liverpool was the world's number one slaving city, but whatever.
I've been thinking about Luis Suarez and his influence on the decade. Not as a super-duper football megapower but as a man who managed to squeeze all his controversy into a single decade.
2010 World Cup Quarter Final - Handled on the line to stop Ghana taking the lead in the tie. He's sent off and celebrates Gyan's missed penalty.
20th November 2010 - Bites Otman Bakkal during an Ajax match. 2 match suspension which is then increased to 7.
15th October - Found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra during a match. 8 match suspension.
21st April 2013 - Bites Branoslav Ivanovic. 10 game ban.
2014 World Cup - Bites Giorgio Chielini. Four month ban and a 9 game international match ban.
What a top twat.
But he was our twat. :drool:
As far as being a shit house though, John Terry takes some beating although we'd have have to extend it to century as opposed to decade. I think it's fair to say both have improved somewhat in the last 4/5 years though and let their football do the talking.
The part I've never understood about racial attacks by sportsmen or supporters is most of their team mates are black but some attack opposing players. It's one of those wtf things that my mind can't comprehend. The Chelsea/Tottenham game the other day being a good example as half the players on the pitch were black. You attack one, you attack all in my mind.
In short. Animals > People.
You’re surprised at racism being illogical?
Nothing surprises me in today's world. I remember a while back a couple took their baby on a bus and started freaking out because the baby died, it later transpired that the baby was dead all along and it barely touched raised a reaction if I'm honest. Sometimes I think the world would be better if something occurred which wiped 3/4 of it out.
In answer to your actual question though, of course it's illogical but I still struggle to comprehend how people can be like that. Not just race but in general too. You're not black, white, whatever, you're human. Or not as it appears being humane is a lost trait.
Genuinely dreading the match tomorrow. Can't remember ever having lower expectations.
We are playing Newcastle don't forget.
Most anticipated United to be shit this season so another three points would go along way to surviving the drop and could even take them to the lofty heights of 7th or even 6th if Tottenham spanner it against Brighton which is pretty special all things considered but I'd like United to get them instead because I think Shindig's had it worse. :henn0rz:
As you were talking about players being a shit house, Andy Robertson is amazing at it, and I bloody love him for it.
Big game today, hopefully we get through it.
Jose dropping N’Dombele from the squad completely. It begins.
I fucking hate VAR.
Var is fine. The rules are shit.
I had Harry Kane FG. :moop: I had a sixth sense that Brighton score next after it was (correctly) ruled out. FML.
I think VAR needs a little rejig for the offside calls, sod the whole body part, I'd accept the feet since it's football. Go by that and make it universal then it could/should be easier. Fractional decisions by armpits and hair strands is just too much.
Fucking hell Spurs. Even when I want you to win you fuck it up.
Another goal disallowed due a player's pubic hair being offside?
It’s sucking any immediate excitement out of the sport and is only going to get worse. After a good portion of goals now you’re straight to looking at the referee and waiting for the stupid review, no immediate celebration.
Once that’s completely gone, the game at the top level is gone.
It’s been fine in other leagues, the Premier League has just made a mess of it so far. It has been getting a bit better though.
Ali being a cunt as usual.
What should the offside rule look like, according to those that think that the rule is the issue?
How will that change having to review every call to make sure that there is not one micrometer of overlap?
I feel like wherever you draw the line, people are always going to complain about the offside decisions where the player is only a hair's breadth over said line.
Yes, as long as there is a line, the problem remains.
What's the problem then?
I've only just seen the one from this match, it isn't even that close. He's obviously offside.
It’s a game of inches. Giving the attacker an extra few inches, maybe feet, makes a huge difference in terms of the passing, attacking that can take place. You could also put a 15 cm buffer around the last defender that the attacker can be in, would have the same effect
That was a fantastic goal.
I did always say that offside would be the thing that kills it and it looks like it is.
You either accept that some decisions will be wrong and you get the benefit of being able to celebrate a goal almost immediately as a result, or you use VAR and have to deal with all the tedium that follows thereafter.
VAR is supposed to remove doubt from the equation.
If the idea is to give attackers an advantage over defenders in an attempt to create more chances, maybe I could get on board with that.
Everyone always said that, it was obvious. At least VAR was implemented in a time when offsides per match are way down. Imagine having VAR at the turn of the century, when the most common tactic was hoofing long balls to your pacey striker who was constantly trying to get behind the defensive line. Some matches would still be ongoing to this day.
The authorities care for very different things than we do.
This Amazon coverage is alright. Sided with Chelsea v Southampton as it might be the better watch and influences our end of the table (that we're nowhere near).
I was right about Pepe. 3 managers and none of them think he’s worth a start. 70 million quid down the drain with that one.
How long are we giving Arteta until the stress of arsenal attacks his hair?
Unstoppable force vs immovable object that one.
Chelsea are horribleeeee at home. Nice finish from Obafemi Martins
How come Obafemi was playing? I thought the manager had took a big disliking to him.
Eoin Doyle gets 11 in a row. Town 3 up by half time. Best not Chuck this one away as well.
Hudson Odoi has come back from his injury looking like a non league player.
Achilles injuries are absolute killers. You can barely walk let alone play.
A piss poor day like this will hardly entice Amazon/Premier Sports back for much more.
I'm getting frustrated that almost every team I back these days, the opponent wins. I'm not talking one or two on a coupon, I'm talking every fucking team for at least 3/4 weeks.
PS. The quality on show in all these Premier League goals is abysmal. I thought Boxing Day usually meant goals.
Chelsea :harold:
Chelsea becoming an Arsenal 08-12 tribute act. It’s fun to watch but fuck me is it infuriating chucking easy games.
The AFTV lot have scarpered after one of them got arrested. Thank fuck this lot are finally being chucked out.
A bit like United, we haven't yet worked out how to play on the front foot. Unlike United, we will get there.
This must be the 4th place that no one wants.
Concern for todays game. If there is a weakness in this team it's when we have the ball for extended periods and then get countered, something which Leicester can do to deadly effect.
There's a tough run of fixtures from now until the "winter break." Though being 13 points clear at this point even I'd see it as difficult for us to throw away.
Get onside and start believing, Fox. :cool: We'll win today but spanner it against Wolves more likely.
First time I'm watching or listening to us all season. Also, Owen Hargreaves has three accents fighting at once.
Liverpool fans still pretending there is some kind of jeopardy. If you lose it from here the city should be nuked and Klopp hanged.
That Jordan Ayew goal was utter filth.
Best case scenario here is a 4-3 Newcastle win with Greenwood grabbing a hattrick. :eek:
Or you know, a repeat of the previous match. :cool:
Nah, I've noticed most the noise comes from rival fans as opposed to ours getting too giddy. Focus on each game as it comes then we'll be fine but the reaction to when we inevitably lose a league game is going to be telling. We've come too close to often to think its ours to lose, it's never boded well. It's hardly a pretence either as if you saw the Watford match you could literally feel the nerves in the stadium come across on TV.
If we're still in this position by the end of January then yeah, probably have it tied up by March but we're Liverpool, we don't do things the easy way so the scepticism is fair.
Realistically it would need a spectacular injury crisis alongside Man City peeling off 10+ wins in a row. We can start the slide tonight. Liverpool third by March.
Weren’t city just 3 points better off last time Liverpool cocked it up?
Maybe if our results are bad enough for long enough, the weaker teams will start attacking us and then we can counter-attack them and win.
https://i.imgur.com/xP5Eo3a.jpg
We were seven points clear going into the game against City who had a game in hand, they beat us cutting it down to 4, then they won their game in hand and our two draws against Leicester and Everton fucked it. That goal line clearance by Stones...FML. :moop:
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cp...41_pltweet.jpg
:worried: