Football 2023/24

[Punksnotdead]

Just now, The Nal said:

Yeah Newcastle, Chelsea and Liverpool all before Xmas. 

And Villa & West Ham - can't see us getting many (if any) points from them 5 games!

[thetime]

4 hours ago, Punksnotdead said:

And Villa & West Ham - can't see us getting many (if any) points from them 5 games!

United should be aiming for at least 10 points.

Those around united will have the same sort of points post come boxing day, with villa and newcastle having tough games.

Edited November 27, 2023 by thetime

[thetime]

4 hours ago, The Nal said:

Weird season. How are Man Utd only 6 points off the top?!

Champions league results will have a strong bearing on the season, worst thing that could happen would be a europa play off and qualifying for that.

Same goes for Newcastle. 

[Skip997]

12 minutes ago, thetime said:

United should be aiming for at least 10 points.

2 points per game from that set of fixtures????

You're having a laugh

[thetime]

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

2 points per game from that set of fixtures????

You're having a laugh

Villa and Chelsea at home, utd should be getting 6 points out of those.

West Ham away = 3 points

Newcastle away = 1 point

Lose comprehensively at Anfield. 

[Skip997]

It's a "funny old game", but this what I'd expect:

Villa, who are "on fire" and currently 4th - comfortable win for Villa

Chelsea, completely unpredictable - could go either way

West Ham - likely win for Utd

Newcastle - again somewhat unpredictable - could go either way

Liverpool - comfortable win for Liverpool

 

[charlierc]

9 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

Just saw on social media that it’s 12 years since we lost Gary Speed. He is one of my favourite ever players and his death hit me more than any other ex footballer. Hopefully his death resulted in a greater focus on mental health and others have had more access/felt more comfortable accessing support.

Crazy how its gone that quick. He was playing for Newcastle when I started up and was always a great player for the team at the time, and the news when that happened was heartbreaking. Just a desperately sad scenario.

[charlierc]

53 minutes ago, thetime said:

Villa and Chelsea at home, utd should be getting 6 points out of those.

West Ham away = 3 points

Newcastle away = 1 point

Lose comprehensively at Anfield. 

Given our depth problems thanks to our injuries and our trip to PSG on Tuesday that'll likely have the same team that played Chelsea on Saturday, I'd honestly be okay with that.

Though being on 5 home wins in a row despite our injury clusterf**k and having beaten both Arsenal & Chelsea in that run (handsomely in the case of the latter), be nice to make it 6.

[thetime]

39 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Given our depth problems thanks to our injuries and our trip to PSG on Tuesday that'll likely have the same team that played Chelsea on Saturday, I'd honestly be okay with that.

Though being on 5 home wins in a row despite our injury clusterf**k and having beaten both Arsenal & Chelsea in that run (handsomely in the case of the latter), be nice to make it 6.

Quite a few teams could go either way after city and Liverpool. I've not been particularly impressed with Arsenal, they should of perhaps lost to utd. 

Even Liverpool are just getting by. 

Very even this season, only 8 points seperate 1st to 8th. 

[charlierc]

In fairness to him, Wolves have been having some incredibly harsh luck with the refs this season. If it evens out over the course of a season they're probably due to have 14 ridiculous decisions favouring them soon enough.

[Skip997]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

In fairness to him, Wolves have been having some incredibly harsh luck with the refs this season. If it evens out over the course of a season they're probably due to have 14 ridiculous decisions favouring them soon enough.

One of the greatest myths in football.

It never "evens out over a season"

Anyway the more managers that make complaints about refs the better. Officiating in the PL is a farce.

[charlierc]

So according to UEFA rules, a ball hitting something then an arm is not a penalty, and yet this is given as one. Arse. I thought we'd get one go against us after our Wolves or Arsenal ones but this in the 7th minute of added time when seconds away from beating PSG in their own backyard and leapfrogging them in the UCL group... ooft.

[Punksnotdead]

That was one of the most incredible games I have ever seen! 

Bring back De Gea!

[thetime]

24 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

That was one of the most incredible games I have ever seen! 

Bring back De Gea!

Conceding 14 goals in 5 champions league games. 

[Punksnotdead]

1 minute ago, thetime said:

Conceding 14 goals in 5 champions league games. 

Scored 3 in Munich, 3 in Copenhagen & 3 in Istanbul - only got one point!

Might be a blessing in disguise - we had no chance of winning the cup, so might as well get knocked out early?

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, Punksnotdead said:

Scored 3 in Munich, 3 in Copenhagen & 3 in Istanbul - only got one point!

Might be a blessing in disguise - we had no chance of winning the cup, so might as well get knocked out early?

A case for demonstrating the defence as really letting the side down that.

Just gotta beat Bayern Munich in the last game to have a chance. How hard can it be?

[Punksnotdead]

17 minutes ago, charlierc said:

A case for demonstrating the defence as really letting the side down that.

Just gotta beat Bayern Munich in the last game to have a chance. How hard can it be?

I'm not arsed to be honest - I'm 59 and I've been lucky enough to witness, in the flesh, Camp Nou 1999, Rotterdam 1991, numerous league titles, loads of FA Cup finals and other trophies. If we never win anything again, I've still been so lucky to have been there for those magical years.

If we're going to get knocked out in an average group, at least it was entertaining - 3-4, 2-3, 1-0, 3-4 & 3-3! - I'm predicting United 3, Bayern Munich 6! 😄

Edited November 29, 2023 by Punksnotdead

[Skip997]

15 hours ago, charlierc said:

A case for demonstrating the defence as really letting the side down that.

Just gotta beat Bayern Munich in the last game to have a chance. How hard can it be?

Hardly surprising when you've got non-league standard "slab-head" and "I thought he'd retired, and was only ever average anyway" Evans in the centre

Bayern Munich have already won the group and may well put out a second team. Should still beat Utd.

[charlierc]

Plenty of intriguing line-ups from this. Germany v Scotland as the first game of the tournament, a tricky looking group for a very out-of-sorts Germans, a decent Spain/Croatia/Italy triple-header, a group that could be either easy or full of banana skins for England, and a tricky group for whomever wins play-off path A.

Even if the third place thing in the current 24-team Euros format reduces the jeopardy.

[Comfy Bean]

3 hours ago, charlierc said:

Plenty of intriguing line-ups from this. Germany v Scotland as the first game of the tournament, a tricky looking group for a very out-of-sorts Germans, a decent Spain/Croatia/Italy triple-header, a group that could be either easy or full of banana skins for England, and a tricky group for whomever wins play-off path A.

Even if the third place thing in the current 24-team Euros format reduces the jeopardy.

Decent draw for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 We’re going for the first 2 games. Find out on Thursday if we’ll get tickets 🤞

[pink_triangle]

I can’t see wales getting through the play offs, but that’s an intriguing draw if they can. After spending all those years trying to get to the World Cup we got the most boring draw possible which made it worse when we flopped. I would much rather go against the best teams.

[Comfy Bean]

Just now, pink_triangle said:

I can’t see wales getting through the play offs, but that’s an intriguing draw if they can. After spending all those years trying to get to the World Cup we got the most boring draw possible which made it worse when we flopped. I would much rather go against the best teams.

Agree. Glad we avoided England from pot1 and Italy from pot4. Nice to be involved in the opening game.

[charlierc]

Huh. So despite fielding the same 11 that played 90 against Chelsea & PSG, and losing our first choice keeper to add to our ridiculously long injury list, we beat Man United to jump them in the table... take it as a sign of progress.

[charlierc]

8 hours ago, Comfy Bean said:

Agree. Glad we avoided England from pot1 and Italy from pot4. Nice to be involved in the opening game.

I heard a few Scotland fans suggest that Euro 2020 in 2021 ended up feeling like an anticlimax what with 2 games at Hampden and 1 at Wembley against England, and plus the covid-time reduced stadium crowds didn't help either. So yeah, I can guess that going to Munich to play Germany in Germany for game 1 of the whole tournament will feel like a very grand event indeed.

[thetime]

15 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Take it as a sign of progress.

Didn't see it as at a Christmas do, united were awful wasn't they?