The Ongoing Serie A, La Liga, All English Football, Champions League Thread - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Part 52

[Iceman]

I thought United were having a bad night, Chelsea losing 3-0 at home to Bournemouth.

Just saw that. WTF's going on? t:

In other good news the Toon are 1 up against Burnley. Every point counts down there but we really need to start getting 3 against beatable teams at home. Only so many of those opportunities left in the season.

 

[DeadPresident]

Jesus those substitution choices are awful...

Good to see the Toon taking the lead Ice

 

[DeadPresident]

How the **** was that not a red for Alli...?

 

[DarthSkywalker]

How the **** was that not a red for Alli...?

English, doesn't play for United.

 

[Iceman]

Jesus those substitution choices are awful...

Good to see the Toon taking the lead Ice

FFS, 1-1. We never seem to able to get the 3 points in these games and just stay stuck right near the bottom.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Very tight at the top, Liverpool now 3rd just 3 points behind Utd. Equal on points with 4th place Chelsea (how long has Conte got?), with Spurs just two points behind in 5th and we play them next. Such an interesting race.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Just seen this on Twitter:

Jose Mourinho's record away at Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham as Man Utd manager: 8 games, 0 wins and 1 goal scored.

That can't be true, can it?

 

[DeadPresident]

I actually think it could be, we’ve been atrocious away to the top 6.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Could be worse - the Chelsea fans are raging against Conte at the moment.Was looking forward to some upcoming touchline drama between him and Mourinho but he (Conte) may not even be manager by then.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Plenty of twists and turns to come in the 2nd half of the season of course. I still feel that we'll ultimately come up short as although we've addressed our biggest weakness, we've weakened our biggest strength and we are one or two injuries/suspensions away from paying the price for electing to wait until next summer to get the targets that we supposedly want (who ironically may not even want to come by then as we may not have CL football to offer) just to save a few £££'s.

 

[B]

Ridiculous early goal I think really dented the confidence & pretty much threw any gameplans we had out the window immediately. I didn't see the replay but did Dele Alli actually mean to play the ball back to Eriksen's path? Either way was a ridiculously unlucky/bad goal to concede considering it was just a long ball. Then Phil Jones's own goal, messes up his feet & deflects it into his own net really killed us.

1st half though we weren't that bad, after we conceded that opening 15-20 minutes we actually had some half decent chances to get back into the game. Lukaku & Martial both had chances & we actually looked threatening every time we went forward up until they got a their 2nd.

2nd half however was the worst performance I've seen from us all season I think, Pogba & Matic had absolutely no control or influence over the game, Martial was starting to make horrible decisions trying to run at 2 or 3 men when he had options & runners, Sanchez was a ghost after being moved inside & Lukaku was living off scraps. In general we had no control over the ball & when we did get it, we just moved it far too slowly allowing Spurs to casually get back to defend.

 

[B]

So those that covered the team and the players themselves are all wrong?

They did not play like the Dutch of the 70s or any Barca before. The revolution was indeed televised. And not Barca or any other team flew like that. And this is why he can make it happen at other places. He took what he learned and evolved it.

If those that covered that Barcelona team & the players themselves have said that Guardiola was the man that revolutionised Barcelona & completely changed the clubs philosophy & playing style, then yes, they are 100% all wrong, every single one of them bar none. Cruyff is the man that laid the blueprint & foundations for everything that is the current day Barcelona from their youth setup right through to their footballing philosophy for the last 20 odd years. His influence reached beyond Barcelona changing how a lot of managers thought about the game.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

If those that covered that Barcelona team & the players themselves have said that Guardiola was the man that revolutionised Barcelona & completely changed the clubs philosophy & playing style, then yes, they are 100% all wrong, every single one of them bar none. Cruyff is the man that laid the blueprint & foundations for everything that is the current day Barcelona from their youth setup right through to their footballing philosophy for the last 20 odd years. His influence reached beyond Barcelona changing how a lot of managers thought about the game.

Now we are changing the goalpost. Pep changed how that team played. And considering most if not all those players were there before he was in charge of the first team, they could talk on the actual differences. Day to day and on a macro level.

This is like crediting Busby for what SAF did. Foundations and groundwork are one thing. But there is a reason a major changes the fortune of a team to such a great degree.

 

[Iceman]

Just seen this on Twitter:

Jose Mourinho's record away at Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham as Man Utd manager: 8 games, 0 wins and 1 goal scored.

That can't be true, can it?

With his negative tactics away from home at rivals it could well be. Surely that would be enough for him to change strategy.

 

[B]

It's actually worked out pretty well for Arsenal in the end despite losing Sanchez who seemed like he was dividing their dressing room anyway. They've got Ozil to sign a new deal apparently which is huge, got Aubameyang who's potentially got 20+ goals a season in him & they got Mkhitarian in exchange for Sanchez & if they can get him firing they won't have come out of this window looking too bad.

 

[Iceman]

It's actually worked out pretty well for Arsenal in the end despite losing Sanchez who seemed like he was dividing their dressing room anyway. They've got Ozil to sign a new deal apparently which is huge, got Aubameyang who's potentially got 20+ goals a season in him & they got Mkhitarian in exchange for Sanchez & if they can get him firing they won't have come out of this window looking too bad.

Any idea how long a deal Ozil signed? I guess they made the best of a very bad and unnecessary situation.

 

[Lilbaz]

Good game for us tonight. Early goal obviously helped. Then it was tit for tat till the second. Then i think utd gave up a bit. Mourinho walking down the tunnel with 5 minutes of the first half still to be played said it for me. Thought spurs deserved more.

Need to do the same next week though. We are the form team in the prem result wise just not play wise. If we want to get top 4 we need to sync that.

Anyway, welcome lucas.

 

[Zantera]

Any idea how long a deal Ozil signed? I guess they made the best of a very bad and unnecessary situation.

He signed until 2021, so same length as Aubameyang I believe.

 

[HunBoy]

(L)acazette (M)khitaryan (A)ubameyang (O)zil
LMAO

Typically players by who it is possible to win nothing, but then beautiful Youtube videos are put together about them.

LOL MU
Smalling, Young, Phil Jones, Lukaku... Just some players, who have motion when your football-hater pal start playing football The world's best forward should be with the physique of Lukaku, but he cannot take advantage even of this. Than a piece of wood, tragedy. Pogba name kid yet play football?

I believe it that somebody this likes running around aimless, oh but to consider PL is the #bestleague? Unspeakable. Beautiful thing the struggle the running but it would be necessary to play football.

#AlmightySaintPhilosopher

 

[DeadPresident]

Could be worse - the Chelsea fans are raging against Conte at the moment.Was looking forward to some upcoming touchline drama between him and Mourinho but he (Conte) may not even be manager by then.

Yeah he’s not long for that job IMO, he seems to be engineering a move away as fast as possible criticizing the transfer policy, etc.

I think the allure of the Chelsea job has worn off, they’re going to struggle to fill the position with the best of the best because they’ve put so many people on that merry go round in recent history that there’s nobody left to approach.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Sign central defender for world record fee
Beat top team in the league
Sell best creative player for 3rd biggest fee of all time
Knock Everton out of the FA cup
Lose to bottom team in the league
Go out of the FA cup to second from bottom team in the league
Rage about no signing to replace best creative player sold for 3rd biggest fee of all time
Go up one place to 3rd when not playing

The rollercoaster that is LFC ladies and gentlemen; when you just wonder what the hell will happen next (at least its never boring, I guess)

 

[Mandon Knight]

Sign central defender for world record fee
Beat top team in the league
Sell best creative player for 3rd biggest fee of all time
Knock Everton out of the FA cup
Lose to bottom team in the league
Go out of the FA cup to second from bottom team in the league
Rage about no signing to replace best creative player sold for 3rd biggest fee of all time
Go up one place to 3rd when not playing

The rollercoaster that is LFC ladies and gentlemen; when you just wonder what the hell will happen next (at least its never boring, I guess)

* Win FA Cup in May
* Earn a crust from Champions League run to QF's
* Finish 3rd in League and earn more money from Qualification to CL for next season.
* Probably lose to Brighton at home on last day of season

 

[AverageMan]

I think you're right. Did you play well too though? Is there any sense that things might be getting better? Looked so hopeless just a few weeks ago but stringing a couple of results together down there at the moment makes a lot of difference given how tightly bunched everyone is.

We actually played really well. Carvalhal is doing something bordering on voodoo down here - Jordan Ayew & Sam Clucas actually look like footballers now. Results didn't go our way last night, but hopefully we can keep the mini revival going.

 

[AverageMan]

Apparently Swansea are close to buying Ayew from West Ham, didn't they sell him to them in the first place?

Yep, that's the level of our scouting system. Has he played for us before? Yes? Good, go get him!!

 

[Iceman]

We actually played really well. Carvalhal is doing something bordering on voodoo down here - Jordan Ayew & Sam Clucas actually look like footballers now. Results didn't go our way last night, but hopefully we can keep the mini revival going.

Oh congrats mate! Excellent stuff. It’s so tight at the bottom that anyone who starts playing well will eventually get out of trouble with so many other teams ready to drop into the bottom 3.