Football 17/18

[Gnomicide]

2 hours ago, The Nal said:

Yeah happens every single season. 

Can't remember the last time 5 teams from the Prem were in the KO stages of the Champo League with 4 of those having a realistic chance of winning it. 

[Hugh Jass]

This year the league is split into four distinct groups:

City, miles out on their own.

The top four chasers, all of whom look fragile and beatable on their day.

Leicester, Everton and Burnley who aren’t doing anything.

The entire bottom half, any of whom can be relegated.

Saying the standard is poor without qualifying it is just nonsense. It depends what you want to watch, if you want to see the biggest, most expensively assembled sides regularly sticking six or seven past the fodder then go watch Barcelona, Bayern or PSG. 

[pink_triangle]

16 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

This year the league is split into four distinct groups:

City, miles out on their own.

The top four chasers, all of whom look fragile and beatable on their day.

Leicester, Everton and Burnley who aren’t doing anything.

The entire bottom half, any of whom can be relegated.

Saying the standard is poor without qualifying it is just nonsense. It depends what you want to watch, if you want to see the biggest, most expensively assembled sides regularly sticking six or seven past the fodder then go watch Barcelona, Bayern or PSG. 

Are you convinced those teams wouldn't put 6 or 7 past the premiership fodder?

[Wooderson]

I’m explicitly saying I want more contests. Higher standards.

[The Nal]

1 hour ago, Gnomicide said:

snip

Ha! Who knows though? 5 of the 16 teams left are from the prem. Spurs have shown a bit of bottle this season, City can beat anyone, Mourinho has won it twice and Liverpool can beat anyone on their day if they fire up top. 

Can't pick 4 teams from another league in that position. Maybe due to there not being 4 teams from another country left in it I suppose. 

[TheGayTent]

1 hour ago, Hugh Jass said:

Saying the standard is poor without qualifying it is just nonsense. 

I think if the bottom 10 teams in the top flight right now played the bottom 10 teams of 15 years ago (the season both our teams went down), the teams of 15 years back would win a lot more than they’d lose. 

The level of individual skill and technique this year is abysmal. The vast majority of games I’ve been at have been “championship” standard. 

Of course it’s all entirely subjective, but that’s my opinion. 

[jyoung]

[Hugh Jass]

1 hour ago, jyoung said:

Gutted I can’t be there for this tomorrow, Baby Jass arrived last week so I’m staying home for the time being. Going to be an emotional day.

[TheGayTent]

Congrats to you 

[fred quimby]

3 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Gutted I can’t be there for this tomorrow, Baby Jass arrived last week so I’m staying home for the time being. Going to be an emotional day.

What kind of dad are you. Surely perfect time to take the nipper to his/her first match

Congrats by the way

[jyoung]

Congrats, good luck and enjoy! No child should be subjected to watching WBA games though.

[zahidf]

Great article on the transfer market. Sad as well

http://www.espn.com/soccer/spanish-primera-division/15/blog/post/3369206/dark-side-of-the-transfer-window-shows-players-with-no-power?src=com

[lost]

Lookman scores on his Leipzig debut whilst Everton put that performance in. Words fail me..

[pink_triangle]

51 minutes ago, lost said:

Lookman scores on his Leipzig debut whilst Everton put that performance in. Words fail me..

I'm not convinced Everton would be doing much worse if they had kept Unsworth. I think the initial improvement under big Sam was just regression to the mean. I hope an 18 month contract doesn't mean your stuck with him for another season, trouble is he ends up with a big pay off.

The relegation battle looks interesting, I'm predicting WBA, Huddersfield and Stoke, but half the league could go down,

 

[Hugh Jass]

At 14.59 today I was optimistic regarding our chances of survival. Now I am not.

[lost]

8 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I'm not convinced Everton would be doing much worse if they had kept Unsworth. I think the initial improvement under big Sam was just regression to the mean. I hope an 18 month contract doesn't mean your stuck with him for another season, trouble is he ends up with a big pay off.

The relegation battle looks interesting, I'm predicting WBA, Huddersfield and Stoke, but half the league could go down,

 

Yup. Already out of the relegation zone under Unsworth and upto 15th,  Big Sam continued to pick the same side and made the top half.

I just don't understand the team selections, 6 changes to the team that beat Leicester, £27m on Tosun, he started the first two games and now he's on the bench seemingly behind Niasse and Calvert-lewin. 

[Wooderson]

That Everton performance tells you everything you need to know about the standard of the league. Abysmal.

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

That Everton performance tells you everything you need to know about the standard of the league. Abysmal.

yeah, a team getting beat is a rare thing in football.

[Wooderson]

56 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

yeah, a team getting beat is a rare thing in football.

They’re 10th. 

[jyoung]

Looking forward to some gung ho attacking football this afternoon. Fancy Spurs will do the job.

[zahidf]

three assists by Mkhitaryan for Arsenal. good start!

[Hugh Jass]

This Liverpool match is doing nothing to disprove my theory that Dele Alli isn’t actually very good.

[Gucci Piggy]

42 minutes ago, zahidf said:

three assists by Mkhitaryan for Arsenal. good start!

He was brilliant, too. Ramsey obviously got MOTM and most of the plaudits because of his hat trick but Mkhi was the best player on the pitch.

I thought he'd fare better in Arsenal's system than United's but I wasn't expecting anything like that so soon. Hopefully he can keep it up (obviously not the assist rate ).

[ThomThomDrum]

Ridiculous finish to the LFC Spurs game. 

[pink_triangle]

I thought the spurs players were going down ridiculously easy. The same commentators would be screaming if a European team was doing the same. 

I still feel Kane needs to do more in these big away games before that world class label is thrown around.