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The Football Thread - Season 2017/2018
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Have you never learnt from mistakes?
I made an horrendous mistake on a 200k tender, laughed at! A few years later that experience helped me win a 1m tender!!
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It looked like Wenger left everything thing hanging, contracts, plans etc just so long as he beat Fergusons record. Certainly was weird how there was little action with the team until the transfer window.
Still could be interesting times if the board release the funds and the new manager gets to do things his way. They need a good clearout otherwise I can see Aubameyang and Lacazette getting tempted elsewhere with no champions league. Lacazette to Athletico Madrid that he missed out on last season, Aubameyang back to AC Milan?
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Indeed I have but it was my fail not some second hand fail from someone else. I would be concerned that the older failed players would cast a shadow of failure onto the youngsters. I hope the youngsters do well.
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But you could look at it from the other view and that they can share that experience and failure and maybe spot the warning signs early as they have been there and done that. Lets not forget that we are only talking about Hart possibly here, he was not as sole fault for the Euros, it was not his decision to get Kane taking corners. He had a couple of bad games, happens to every player! Ranieri failed in Greece, did he cast a shadow of failure onto Leicester? Didn't Beckham 'fail' at 98 v Argentina, but made up for it later?
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Squad doesn't look too bad in my minimal opinion.
It would be interesting to see what the formations will used by Southgate. I imagine letting Kane and Vardy loose up front, with Sterling, Alli and Linguard feeding up to them,could be a good combo. Defensively, we look to have some strong players too.
I expect we will get out of the group and not further lol
It would be interesting to see what the formations will used by Southgate. I imagine letting Kane and Vardy loose up front, with Sterling, Alli and Linguard feeding up to them,could be a good combo. Defensively, we look to have some strong players too.
I expect we will get out of the group and not further lol
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Yeah, and how much would we have had to pay to keep him? and he upset others in the team.
Sanchez and Mustafi have both been shouted out as failing to take responsibility when making mistakes on the pitch. Sanchez would try to do too much and lose the ball, sometimes in our own half. Mustafi would make mistakes and blame others. The players had a "meeting" at the training ground and the pair of them got upset with the outcome. Sanchez suddenly got an injury and didn't play for 2 or 3 games (read throwing his toys out of the pram), and Mustafi was put on the bench for a few games.
Don't get me wrong, I think Sanchez is a great player, but ask yourself why he was only ever a benchwarmer at Barca... Why did they let him go, and why wouldn't Pep do the deal that would take him to City?
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Ooh. we could be one of the most experienced squads there with the right selection of oldies instead of these youngsters.
So much failure. 
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Money and wages. If he was that poor you should have sold him when you were offered 60m in the summer.
You lost a 20-30 a year goalscorer at a time you needed goals. There was just mismanagement and a loss of respect from the players towards Wenger. The hypocrisy when he announced he was leaving...
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Sanchez was one of the few players who actually looked like he gave a f**k. The so called defence were pretty much clueless and couldn't be bothered half the time.
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Can't argue with that Simon, but he did give the ball away a lot, and he did over do things. He almost refused to pass to Giroud at times, although he did seem to have a good on field relationship with Ozil.
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I think lots of players are guilty of that - even Salah and Sterling who have had a great season. If more players had the same work ethic and desire as Sanchez we could have been top 4. The only players we have left who are fit to wear the shirt are Kolasinac, Ramsey, Wilshire, Ozil (as he is pure class although lazy) and Aubameyang. On the fence with Lacazette and not seen enough of the young players to have a view.
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Mane is the one for giving the ball away for Liverpool,
apart from a couple of games towards the end of the season Salah has not been too bad imho. I think the main thing going for the Liverpool front line has been their work rate, although Klopp has organised it so they are not at 100% all of the time. I would never have Ozil. The least I expect of a player is to give close to 100% every game, and he does not get anywhere near that imho. There are enough people willing to give that in their place, and for free too.
If you are not the best player but give 100% than you can't ask for anything more from that player. It is up to the management/club to organise what they have to get the best out of them or get better players. Leicester showed what can be done with a well organised team of average/good giving close to maximum every week. Cit€h have shown how far ahead of the rest, and what records can be achieved with very good players doing the same. For the money he cost, and the money you assume he gets paid Ozil is invisible a lot of the time. I'm not sure what I think about Sanchez,
great ability but moody and/or lazy in the latter stages of his Arsenal career! I didn't see enough to have a conclusion. So far he doesn't seem to fit in at Utd. That Ozil and Sanchez were not seen as good enough to stay in Spain says something to me.
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Really? Take Both Madrid clubs and Barca out the equation and the league is not that good. The PL is the most competitive and toughest. If they can survive here then they are good players. Who wants to go to the likes of Stoke (in previous seasons) or Burnley on a cold Novembers night! Thats why for me, Ronaldo is better than Messi.
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I'm sorry, but that is simply not true. It's a myth peddled by lazy and/or ignorant and/or prejudiced British sports media.
FiveThirtyEight.com has a set of global rankings which compares the strength of teams in all the major leagues. Methodology here and rankings here. The rankings are constructed so that recent results are weighted more heavily than results earlier in the season, and the the top of the rankings doesn't hold many surprises: 1 Bayern, 2 Real Madrid, 3 Man City, 4 Barcelona, 5 Liverpool. But if you look at what's going on further down, you might be surprised.
There are six English teams in the top 20, and also six from Italy; then three each from Spain and Germany. No real shocks there. But there are fourteen Spanish teams, ten German teams and eight Italian teams ranked higher than the 7th best English team. Seven English Premier League teams are ranked lower than the lowest Bundesliga team.
Here's a graphic I put together from the FiveThirtyEight data illustrating the combined rankings of the Bundesliga (black), La Liga (yellow), EPL (red), Ligue 1 (blue), and Serie A (green).
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Well that was a great ride by Liverpool throughout the season,
Well done Real Madrid for winning 3 Champoin's League titles in a row, and the 13 overall.
It’s fine for players to make mistakes, but not when they are the sort of ones my 10 year old would be criticised for. What was he thinking for the first. Great option to the left but the throw was criminal. The third was a joke. Simple take but seemed to be in 2 minds to punch or catch. Liverpool could and should have won the match.
What Klopp needs to do is sign a quality keeper. Add a couple of other players and they have a great chance next year. He has fallen into the Wenger trap of not addressing the issue of mediocrity in goal, and has seemed content to put up with it.
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My issue with this analysis is that it assumes the leagues are of a similar standard, which they are not. Spain has 3 clubs capable of winning the league, Italy 2, France 2 and Germany 1.
In the premier league the teams are closer together (save this years run away by City). In other European leagues many of the weekly league games are merely a training exercise. Here in England, any team can win in any game. While the football may not be the best technically, it is far more competitive than the rest of Europe.
Now, is that a good thing? Maybe the fact that top European teams don’t get a hard work out every weekend could be the reason they are better midweek for a Champions League game?
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No it doesn't. The relative strengths of different leagues are calubrated by looking at matches between teams in different leagues. So Champions League and Europa Cup matches calibrate the Bundesliga vs Serie A vs La Liga etc; FA Cup matches calibrate the Premier League vs the Championship; and so on. There is no need to assume anything about the relative standards. And clearly it isn't assuming that, for example, the Scottish Premier League is of the same standard as the English.
And England has 1. But that's not the point. When people talk about the English league being competitive, they don't usually mean there are lots of clubs capable of winning it. They usually mean there are no easy games, any team can beat any other team, etc.
Again, not true. Look at the rankings. In England there is a huge gulf between the top 6 and "the rest" . In Spain and Germany, "the rest" are relatively stronger. The 8th or 10th or 15th best Spanish and German teams are better than the 8th or 10th or 15th best English teams.
If you want to argue that the English league is more competitive, what *exactly* do you mean, and what is your evidence?
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Terrible mistakes by Karius, no argument, but since he has been Klopp's preferred No1 he has played well. And in last nights game he made some great saves too. Part of Klopp's style of management is fostering a great team spirit, backing his players, and to large degree, shielding them from criticism. Saying that, that will be hard with the mistakes Karius did in such a high profile game. Maybe if it was just one mistake, but two...
While some of that is similar to Wenger, I don't think he got a good team spirit consistently for many years. Time will tell if the Wenger traits become a problem over time for Liverpool. He's doing pretty well up to now though. The biggest difference for me last night was the depth of the quality on the bench, but unless you have an oligarch or country backing a team, that takes time on relatively. If Ronaldo had been injured early, would it have affected Real as much as Salah going off early seemed to affect Liverpool. Maybe, we will never know, but having Bale on the bench may have negated any effect. I like Lallana, but after the season of being largely injured, he was pretty ineffectual unfortunately.
It was a great ride while it lasted.
The games against Cit€h and Roma I could watch again and again. Trust in the Klopp. Fingers crossed Salah will be fit for the World Cup, the Egyptian Federation are optimistic atm.
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This is part of the reason why you're glad that Klopp is your manager. NSFW btw. I couldn't see many other managers doing that.
NSFW btw. I couldn't see many other managers doing that.
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Stuart, my argument is based on what the "other" clubs are like in those leagues. You say it's calibrated by European competition, which is fine, but the top 3 or 4 sides in the major leagues qualify for the Champions league, the teams that have won the Europa league recently have been "relegated" out of the Champions League and into the Europa, so it's still the top 3 or 4 sides.
By competitive I mean exactly what you eluded to; any club can beat any club in the EPL, and we know it happens every year. This link shows what I mean...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/tables
Other than this year, the Premier League is usually much closer, although the spread between the top 4 is usually 12 points or so. What I will agree on is that you see some far "better" technical play and tactics in the other European leagues, but the EPL does tend to be more physical.
By competitive I mean exactly what you eluded to; any club can beat any club in the EPL, and we know it happens every year. This link shows what I mean...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/tables
Other than this year, the Premier League is usually much closer, although the spread between the top 4 is usually 12 points or so. What I will agree on is that you see some far "better" technical play and tactics in the other European leagues, but the EPL does tend to be more physical.
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Agree. The premier league is more competitive and stats don’t always tell you that. Even Man City have to be at the top of their game to get points off a team near the bottom of the league .
Fuji Dave
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Well that was a great ride by Liverpool throughout the season,
Well done Real Madrid for winning 3 Champoin's League titles in a row, and the 13 overall.
I knew that Real Madrid would win, but over the moon that Gareth got two goals as just picked up my winnings and got this.
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One step closer to living up his his name, King Kenny becomes officially Sir Kenny.
Many years overdue, but better late than never.
Many years overdue, but better late than never.
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