Football 16-17

[thetime]

it is pretty ludicrous that 1 point will get you through to the knock out stages.

Will lead to more defensive group stage than we get now.

Saying that I don't think the expansion is totally a bad idea.

Edited January 11, 2017 by thetime

[thetime]

12 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Hoping for a Utd vs Liverpool pisspot final. Liverpools best ever Premier League start and 15 games unbeaten, 9 wins in a row for Utd now. 

Massive for both teams, even more than the usual games between the 2.

Liverpool could quite easily be down to 5th by kick off time. Utd really need at least a point for momentum to try and get top 4.

[mjsell]

18 minutes ago, thetime said:

it is pretty ludicrous that 1 point will get you through to the knock out stages.

Will lead to more defensive group stage than we get now.

Saying that I don't think the expansion is totally a bad idea.

1 point could get you through yeah. For the smallest nation in the group (the one most likely to be knocked out) it makes sense that if they can't get a point against the biggest nation to just try and keep the result as close as possible. So you could see games where the 'minnow' is losing 1 or 2-0 and instead of opening up and going for a point just be happy with the tight loss.

[The Nal]

21 minutes ago, thetime said:

Massive for both teams, even more than the usual games between the 2.

Liverpool could quite easily be down to 5th by kick off time. Utd really need at least a point for momentum to try and get top 4.

Yep huge. Its a big turning point in the season at the moment I feel. Top and bottom of the league. Lots of 6 point games. 

Late kick off on Sunday could be nasty!

[mjsell]

4 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Yep huge. Its a big turning point in the season at the moment I feel. Top and bottom of the league. Lots of 6 point games. 

Late kick off on Sunday could be nasty!

Yep some big big games this weekend. Starting with a quite tasty Spurs vs West Brom (I will rescind my previous comments on West Brom being boring - Pulis is doing a great job). I think the biggest game of Saturday though is Watford vs Boro. If Boro win, then Watford are right back in the mixer and in the worst form in the league.

Fancy Liverpool against United for some reason.

[big__phil]

7 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Yep huge. Its a big turning point in the season at the moment I feel. Top and bottom of the league. Lots of 6 point games. 

Late kick off on Sunday could be nasty!

Indeed it does look a good weekend. Burnley, Hull, Sunderland and Watford all playing at home, in winnable games. The bottom could have a really different look by Sunday evening.

Leicester desperately need points, and their next few league games are Chelsea (h), Southampton (a), Burnley (a), Man Utd (a), Swansea (a), Liverpool (h). Tricky, with the away games looking massive for them. A quick look at their results says they haven't won away yet this season. That has to change if they fancy getting any points out of that run.

[big__phil]

Relegation odds with Paddy Power:

Hull - 1/7

Sunderland - 8/15

Swansea - 8/15

Burnley 3/1

Palace - 7/2

Boro - 5/1

Watford - 11/2

WHam - 14/1

Leicester 18/1

[pink_triangle]

One consequence of the expansion I have not heard mentioned is the cost of completing the panini sticker album, Euro 2016 was expensive enough with half the teams!

[Hugh Jass]

You just know United - Liverpool is going to be another dud.

[mjsell]

Quite enjoyed reading this article on BBC Sport

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38555815?isBumped=0&postFreq=0&isEmpty=0&isProfane=0&tooLong=0&charCount=0&isAwaitingProcessPreMod=0&isSubmitted=1&filter=none&initial_page_size=10&postId=126093969#comment_126093969

I dont say that very often

[eFestivals]

53 minutes ago, mjsell said:

Fancy Liverpool against United for some reason.

Not sure about that myself.

Moaniho won't feel able to park the bus at the Old Tesco, but they have a habit of playing shite but fluking it anyway.

[zahidf]

3 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Not sure about that myself.

Moaniho won't feel able to park the bus at the Old Tesco, but they have a habit of playing shite but fluking it anyway.

Utd are on a roll at the moment. 9 wins in a row

[thetime]

2 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Utd are on a roll at the moment. 9 wins in a row

Fixtures have been very kind to on that run mind, only top 6 side Utd have faced is spurs at the start of the run. 

Will be interesting how they will do against Liverpool"s pressing game, mane is a big miss for Liverpool mind.

[TheGayTent]

Allardyce nailed on for his first win as Palace manager at the weekend.

The fat, bung taking, hoofball dinosaur. 

[The Nal]

9 minutes ago, thetime said:

Fixtures have been very kind to on that run mind, only top 6 side Utd have faced is spurs at the start of the run. 

Only lost 2 games in all comps since mid September. 

[thetime]

13 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Only lost 2 games in all comps since mid September. 

Only one win against any team in the top 7, it really depends how negative or positive you want to be.

[thetime]

4 minutes ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

Hopefully coutinho will be back. Probably only play 60 minutes, or maybe even on bench and come on for last 30, but it could help soften the blow left by Mane.

I would say you will miss mane's pace against darmian or blind rather than coutinho.

Mane would off rip either of those 2 to pieces.

Edited January 11, 2017 by thetime

[mjsell]

plus the fact that Coutinho is just an all round better player than Mane helps.

If i could pick 1 player in the premier league to have at Arsenal it would be Coutinho. I think he is pure class.

Coming back from injury though might make him a bit rusty, and for a player that relies on sharpness that might be costly.

[kaosmark2]

4 hours ago, mjsell said:

Problem with 5 team groups is that it would be a big struggle at keeping the tournament at the same length as it is now - with the only way being to shorten the gaps between games.

If they want more teams, it'll be a longer tournament. I'd prefer to accept that than have a shitty group stage.

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, mjsell said:

Quite enjoyed reading this article on BBC Sport

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38555815?isBumped=0&postFreq=0&isEmpty=0&isProfane=0&tooLong=0&charCount=0&isAwaitingProcessPreMod=0&isSubmitted=1&filter=none&initial_page_size=10&postId=126093969#comment_126093969

I dont say that very often

I thought the argument that replays wouldn't interrupt the flow of the game was incredibly weak. There was just a statement that it wouldn't, with nothing to support that claim. It points out that it can be annoying in Rugby League, and doesn't have anything to counter the idea it would be worse in football. A flailing reference to cricket and tennis, but both of those are stop-start games by nature, with natural breaks in play.

The rest of it was decent though.

[Wooderson]

Fellaini to start vs Reds. Hoof.

[The Nal]

17 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

Fellaini to start vs Reds. Hoof.

              Dave

Tony Smalling Jones Blind

             Carrick

       Herrera Pogba

    Mick Zlatan Martial

[thetime]

5 minutes ago, The Nal said:

              Dave

Tony Smalling Jones Blind

             Carrick

       Herrera Pogba

    Mick Zlatan Martial

Think it will be rojo instead of smalling and lingard instead of Micki.

[The Nal]

6 minutes ago, thetime said:

Think it will be rojo instead of smalling and lingard instead of Micki.

If Rojo is fit?

Mourinho likes Lingard and Rashford coming off the bench when teams are tired. But yeah defo possible. But it'll be the standard home formation. 

[thetime]

5 minutes ago, The Nal said:

If Rojo is fit?

Mourinho likes Lingard and Rashford coming off the bench when teams are tired. But yeah defo possible. But it'll be the standard home formation. 

I think rojo will be fit, thinking lingard because he's more defensive minded than mikitaryan.

Also mikitaryan hasn't faired very well in the big intense games so far.