Football (Soccer)

[blue scholar]

When is Timber due back? Real shame, I wanted to see him play.

Would you guys take Ivan Toney when his ban is over?

if it's a loan or player swap (for someone like ESR or Nketiah), definitely.

 

[blue scholar]

Partey and ESR look to be on the way out. Love Tomi, but he seems too injury prone. Timber has been a massive miss and it's just unfortunate what happened to him.

As regards to the title not being won in December, granted, but there's enough evidence over the last 20 years alone to see and know how we fall away in title races, be it early, midway, or right at the end. Don't know what it is really, but it majorly seems like a mentality thing. We just don't seem to have that elite killer instinct thing that most top teams have when it's back to the walls time.

It's all a wash with the latter part of the Wenger era being strapped for cash (we were well punching above our weight then due to the quality of our manager) and the coaching carousel that happened after he left.

We do need more mentality players like Adams, Keown, Viera, Henry though. Right now, the only players that can replicate that mindset is Rice and Gabriel.

 

[Iceman]

Think it's looking to be around Jan-Feb for Timber.

I would take Toney, but not for the price they are quoting.

Ok not too bad, I hope he can make a good impact in the second half of the season.

Brentford were quoting £100m right? What would you be happy paying?

 

[Iceman]

Another great win for Villa, they really are a threat this season for the top 4 at the least, Emry really has given them belief and knows how to set up his team against anyone to be competitive. Very hard to predict this seasons games, Liverpool with a slight advantage now but theres a lot of games coming up over christams a lot could change just in the next month.

I want City's woes to continue for a while. It makes the league table look so much more interesting when there's many teams in the mix.

 

[Iceman]

Madrid drew with Betis but Bellingham got his 16th goal in 18 games!

 

[PepS]

It's all a wash with the latter part of the Wenger era being strapped for cash (we were well punching above our weight then due to the quality of our manager) and the coaching carousel that happened after he left.

We do need more mentality players like Adams, Keown, Viera, Henry though. Right now, the only players that can replicate that mindset is Rice and Gabriel.

Mentality could of been worked on and instilled throughout the club from top to bottom despite those constraints though. You don't need expensive signings to achieve that.

 

[PepS]

Ok not too bad, I hope he can make a good impact in the second half of the season.

Brentford were quoting £100m right? What would you be happy paying?

Yeah, but it will take a while for him to bed in and get used to the pace again. Coming back off a long term injury in the colder months isn't exactly ideal either.

£80-100m were the prices being bandied around. I'd only go to £50m max, personally.

 

[Zantera]

Arsenal might still win it. It's a tough league to predict because even though history makes you want to say City, they have looked pretty bad this season (by their standards). Like sure you expect them to fire on all cylinders come March/April but if Liverpool or Arsenal are within touching distance then, anything could happen.

I'm all down for a shock Aston Villa PL win with Emery lifting the trophy and the bus takes a detour past the Emirates.

 

[blue scholar]

Madrid drew with Betis but Bellingham got his 16th goal in 18 games!

Goal machine.

I wonder if he'll ever go to the Premier League while in his prime.

 

[blue scholar]

Mentality could of been worked on and instilled throughout the club from top to bottom despite those constraints though. You don't need expensive signings to achieve that.

A level of it could be instilled yes. But another level to it is something innate.

 

[Iceman]

Goal machine.

I wonder if he'll ever go to the Premier League while in his prime.

He’s so young that he could stay at Real for 7/8 years and still be at his best as a CM. I’d love to see him in the PL one day. Hopefully he gets tempted after a very successful period at Real.

 

[B]

Disastrous, we looked off the pace from the start & the early goal sort of jolted us into life. We then woke up a little & started to press & look for ways through but to no avail. After Bournemouth's 2nd though, it looked like we just threw the towel in & quit.. again, they could have scored 4 or 5, we were lucky they only went on & scored 1.

The scoreline doesn't reflect the complete performance as we did have spells & probably should have scored a couple, but you cannot quit like that. People have spoke about "Manchester United DNA" a lot in the various sides & under various managers since SAF retired & quitting like that is completely against the club's DNA if such a thing any longer exists. It doesn't matter the calibre of squad, who's injured who's fit, the manager, who we've played, we have scored 2 or 3 goals in a matter of minutes before, giving up, when you've 25+ to play is unacceptable.

Martial looked like he'd quit from the opening whistle, that should be his last game for the Manchester United first team. There was a few occasions in that first half in which Garnacho, Antony & Fernandes wasted energy & looked like donkey's trying to hurry defenders/midfielders into quickly turning over the ball only for them to dump it off to a player that was under next to no duress because Martial was just having a casual little jog after the man. Martial obviously peaked in his 2nd or 3rd year with us & the time Mourinho wanted rid of him, the club (in particular our jabroni owners) should have perked up their ears, knew their roles, shut their mouths & listened.

Our wild erratic season continues, tune in same time, next time for more fun & adventures!

 

[BlackFox]

Our away form was a massive problem last season, this season we have solved that problem by being awful at home now as well, conceding 3 goals at home in five home games in all competitions, truelly awful performances and stats. I dont really see ETH lasting much longer, its fire stuff now and clearly he hasnt gotten a grip on the changing room at all. Like all that proceeded him, its not all on him but a lot of the problems have been caused by him, players like Antony, Onana, Amrabat, Hojlund, Mount none of these players have impacted the side really the side at all but falling out with Varane and Casmeiro and persisting with the likes of Maguire, Dalot, McTominay, players we already know arent good enough and tried to sell in the summer is adding up to one huge mess.

I have no clue who we would replace him with though so maybe that will keep him in the job to next season but Bayern and Liverpool up next really dont help him much.

 

[Zantera]

We desperately miss Martinez (and to a lesser extent Casemiro) just these warrior mentality types who will go to war on the pitch. Too many of our players fold like a house of cards under pressure. Every game we go down 1-0 I feel like the general vibe becomes "Oh so its a loss today then", even though yesterday we had 85 minutes to turn it around. Meanwhile with other top teams you feel like they can go into the 85th minute being 1-0 down and still clutch a win.

 

[blue scholar]

City getting hit again by the injury bug, now Haaland is out

 

[blue scholar]

Luton is crazy good with their headers, 1-0 to them

 

[blue scholar]

great goal by Bernardo Silva. 1-1

Edit: 2-1 now for City. that was fast lol

 

[Iceman]

Luton are not an easy game right now for anyone. Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and City all having struggles against them. At the beginning of the season would have expected those 4 games to be minus 16 goals for them. Great to see their combativeness.

Newcastle’s away day woes continue. To be fair I expected a loss of at least 3-0 today so I don’t even feel bad about it. Same outfield 10 for 5 games in a row playing twice a week without a bench. We need a reset ahead of Milan at home and then hopefully we can astray a recovery with easier games and some players gradually returning.

 

[Iceman]

We desperately miss Martinez (and to a lesser extent Casemiro) just these warrior mentality types who will go to war on the pitch. Too many of our players fold like a house of cards under pressure. Every game we go down 1-0 I feel like the general vibe becomes "Oh so its a loss today then", even though yesterday we had 85 minutes to turn it around. Meanwhile with other top teams you feel like they can go into the 85th minute being 1-0 down and still clutch a win.

We’ve seen a lot of teams fighting to the end in recent games. Utd seem to only turn up when everything falls into place without complications. At the first difficulty they down tools and look ahead to their weekend.

 

[blue scholar]

Luton are not an easy game right now for anyone. Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and City all having struggles against them. At the beginning of the season would have expected those 4 games to be minus 16 goals for them. Great to see their combativeness.

Newcastle’s away day woes continue. To be fair I expected a loss of at least 3-0 today so I don’t even feel bad about it. Same outfield 10 for 5 games in a row playing twice a week without a bench. We need a reset ahead of Milan at home and then hopefully we can astray a recovery with easier games and some players gradually returning.

Do you feel like you're going to make quite a few moves in january? your team is barebones due to injury but still in contention for Top 4/5 and CL knockout stages.

Also, Isak seems out of form ain't he?

 

[Iceman]

Do you feel like you're going to make quite a few moves in january? your team is barebones due to injury but still in contention for Top 4/5 and CL knockout stages.

Also, Isaak seems out of form ain't he?

Yeah, Isak hasn’t been looking too good lately. Much less creativity and his finishing has been poor.

I think we need to make a fair few loan moves. Not sure who’s available though.

 

[Iceman]

I think the funniest stat I read yesterday was that Anthony Martial has been at the club for 8 years and that's 3 years longer than club icon Eric Cantona.

Another stat I heard was that he hasn't completed 90 minutes in 3 years? That sounds crazy, just pointless keeping him all this time, paying out all those wages for no return, and now his value just getting less and less for a sale.

Old post in an old tab where I forgot to press send

 

[B]

Turkish football leagues suspended indefinitely after Ankaragucu president punches referee

Imagine this sort of thing happening in the top league in England, you'd never hear the end of it. It's harsh & punishes many for the actions of a few, but I'm near positive I read Turkey would host Euro 2032, I'd strip them off that immediately, I'm pretty sure it was a joint bid with Italy, just let the Italians host it alone.

I've been somewhat waiting for something to erupt in terms of violence towards an official after they've made an error in a game but I'd never has suspect an owner/club president to to be responsible.

 

[Zantera]

What are we thinking tonight? I'm thinking it will either be us pummelling Bayern getting a surprise win being the better team, like a 3-1 or something but Copenhagen or Galatasaray end up winning so we still finish 3rd. OR the other game actually ends up a draw which would be in our favour except we crap the bed and don't win the game.

I would be fine going out of the CL today if it meant we could put together a string of results in the league. A shock win to Liverpool would be great but doubtful for sure.

 

[Iceman]

Turkish football leagues suspended indefinitely after Ankaragucu president punches referee

Imagine this sort of thing happening in the top league in England, you'd never hear the end of it. It's harsh & punishes many for the actions of a few, but I'm near positive I read Turkey would host Euro 2032, I'd strip them off that immediately, I'm pretty sure it was a joint bid with Italy, just let the Italians host it alone.

I've been somewhat waiting for something to erupt in terms of violence towards an official after they've made an error in a game but I'd never has suspect an owner/club president to to be responsible.

I saw that, utter disgrace.

I think it depends how seriously they treat this and what they do about it. If they brush it under the carpet then sure. The people involved should be facing jail time and should also be ousted from their jobs. Suspending the league is a big step so hopefully it means things like that may actually happen.