Football 2024/25

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

And Real were struggling to integrate Mbappe into the team as well, and retirement of Kroos.

 

Glitzy drawing antics seem to be very popular atm. Means they can give themselves attention and bonuses. Call me cynical, but it is about Uefa!

They've gotta do something to try and can keep the European Super League wolf from knocking at their door. Apparently.

 

But then we're seeing there's a substantial bloat with these competitions, as we'll see with the World Cup getting bigger next year. Or FIFA's new and enlarged 32 yeam Club World Cup that I'm not sure is quite as desired as they think it is.

[charlierc]

On 1/18/2025 at 8:05 PM, thetime said:

 

You will need maximum points in those to keep the pressure on for a top 4 place. Liverpool and City away, forest at home sandwiched after those games in the league. 

 

Will be interesting if you will be in top 4 or mid table come end of Feb. 

 

As someone that isn't just a utd fan but a football one, finding this season fascinating. 

And there we duly are slipping on the Fulham banana skin. Drat.

 

I'll be chirpier if we beat Arsenal in the Carabao in midweek but Man City, Forest and Liverpool next in the league - not ideal.

[thetime]

6 minutes ago, charlierc said:

And there we duly are slipping on the Fulham banana skin. Drat.

 

I'll be chirpier if we beat Arsenal in the Carabao in midweek but Man City, Forest and Liverpool next in the league - not ideal.

 

Tough run.

 

Although if you get 4-6 points from those 3, your March/April fixtures seem favourable. 

[lost]

Spurs down to 16th 😶

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Tough run.

 

Although if you get 4-6 points from those 3, your March/April fixtures seem favourable. 

A saving grace could be that many of the teams around us are also inconsistent - Chelsea & Aston Villa in particular. Our game at Man City also slots in-between their two Champions League games against Real Madrid, so we could be forgiven for thinking we might be turning up at a good time.

 

Our lack of depth going forward is a problem though, given Wilson and Barnes are struggling with injuries and Almiron has been returned to sender, while FFP/PSR are saying no new signings until the summer for us. Shame we haven't found someone in the Championship like Morgan Rogers who Villa found as worthy of taking a chance on and who has emerged as a proper talent.

[charlierc]

Well I have mixed opinions from watching Arsenal-Man City, given in a way it's assuring to know Man City are still being flakey and could be gettable in this push for a top 4 position.

 

The immediate concern is that Arsenal now seem to have found how to score goals in large quantities and might see our 2-0 lead from the first leg as one they can wipe out.

[Skip997]

Getting interesting. Can see us losing to the Moyes inspired Everton. 

[thetime]

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

Getting interesting. Can see us losing to the Moyes inspired Everton. 

 

Not with Michael Oliver reffing. 

[charlierc]

A Man United fan was telling me on Instagram that he half expects Marcus Rashford to bang in a hat-trick on his Aston Villa debut at this rate. Would be sod's law given they seem to have real goalscoring problems.

 

Feels like we're not too long off them just sacking off the Premier League and putting all their energy into trying to win the Europa League, both for the prestige and for a Champions League place being the prize.

[thetime]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

A Man United fan was telling me on Instagram that he half expects Marcus Rashford to bang in a hat-trick on his Aston Villa debut at this rate. Would be sod's law given they seem to have real goalscoring problems.

 

Feels like we're not too long off them just sacking off the Premier League and putting all their energy into trying to win the Europa League, both for the prestige and for a Champions League place being the prize.

 

Rashfords gone stale, best decision for him and the club. 

 

I think they sacked of the league a while ago. They would be foolish not to put all the eggs in the europa. 

 

United won't get relegated, they won't finish in the top 8. So quite rightly he is using the league to experiment and decide who he wants next season (not many). 

 

 

[charlierc]

14 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Rashfords gone stale, best decision for him and the club. 

 

I think they sacked of the league a while ago. They would be foolish not to put all the eggs in the europa. 

 

United won't get relegated, they won't finish in the top 8. So quite rightly he is using the league to experiment and decide who he wants next season (not many). 

 

 

We're certainly seeing unusual experiments like Mainoo as a false striker to compensate. But yeah.

 

Certainly I'm wondering if Amorim may have had a point about wanting to wait for a whole transfer window so more renovations could be done. PSR meaning no striker may not have helped either.

[charlierc]

There was a part of me that entered this Newcastle v Arsenal second leg today genuinely concerned we might stuff it up. And yet, Wembley, here we come.

 

Will be a toughie either way against Spurs or Liverpool but be nice to give it a shot.

[thetime]

14 hours ago, charlierc said:

There was a part of me that entered this Newcastle v Arsenal second leg today genuinely concerned we might stuff it up. And yet, Wembley, here we come.

 

Will be a toughie either way against Spurs or Liverpool but be nice to give it a shot.

 

I don't watch a.lot of Newcastle,  thought Newcastle were impressive. Surprised how weak Arsenal were, getting bullied all over the pitch. 

 

Hopefully Spurs make it to the final. 

 

Newcastle will do well keeping Isak next season, he is a bit special. 

Edited February 6, 2025 by thetime

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

I don't watch a.lot of Newcastle,  thought Newcastle were impressive. Surprised how weak Arsenal were, getting bullied all over the pitch. 

 

Hopefully Spurs make it to the final. 

 

Newcastle will do well keeping Isak next season, he is a bit special. 

We seem to look like that in about 3/5 games, Tonali and Bruno giving both a lot of bite and a lot of quality in midfield, with some serious pace up front from Isak/Gordon/Murphy and some nice touches from them. Then we'll just have a game where we look low on energy, particularly from the full-backs and it's flat but we usually nick a result from some moment of magic, and sometimes we'll have a game where we look ponderous in defense on top of that.

 

I think we've probably got 6-7 Champions League quality players, but our depth - particularly in the front 3 - is really lacking.

 

I also want to highlight how much better we look when both Botman and Schar are on the pitch. Botman is comfortably our best defender positionally, with a lot of strength to him as well. Schar complements him nicely having a bit more pace and a deft touch, and a willingness to roam or man-mark. The back 5 with Schar in a man-mark/sweeper role was interesting, particularly as that compensated for Botman/Burn being potentially sluggish when together. I rate them both but I get worried by the pairing.

 

I do wonder what's happened with our funding/PSR. Supposedly we could spend £60m on Guehi in the summer, but that's now 3 consecutive windows with basically no incoming players. We sold for another £30m this window, but we desperately need another forward, with Wilson/Barnes seemingly perma-crocked, and Miggy now sold, there's basically no back-up at all. Willock and Joelinton have both played wide-left sometimes, but Willock's been a lot more inconsistent this seaosn, and Joelinton is now out for several weeks and is better in midfield anyway.

[thetime]

4 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

We seem to look like that in about 3/5 games, Tonali and Bruno giving both a lot of bite and a lot of quality in midfield, with some serious pace up front from Isak/Gordon/Murphy and some nice touches from them. Then we'll just have a game where we look low on energy, particularly from the full-backs and it's flat but we usually nick a result from some moment of magic, and sometimes we'll have a game where we look ponderous in defense on top of that.

 

I think we've probably got 6-7 Champions League quality players, but our depth - particularly in the front 3 - is really lacking.

 

I also want to highlight how much better we look when both Botman and Schar are on the pitch. Botman is comfortably our best defender positionally, with a lot of strength to him as well. Schar complements him nicely having a bit more pace and a deft touch, and a willingness to roam or man-mark. The back 5 with Schar in a man-mark/sweeper role was interesting, particularly as that compensated for Botman/Burn being potentially sluggish when together. I rate them both but I get worried by the pairing.

 

I do wonder what's happened with our funding/PSR. Supposedly we could spend £60m on Guehi in the summer, but that's now 3 consecutive windows with basically no incoming players. We sold for another £30m this window, but we desperately need another forward, with Wilson/Barnes seemingly perma-crocked, and Miggy now sold, there's basically no back-up at all. Willock and Joelinton have both played wide-left sometimes, but Willock's been a lot more inconsistent this seaosn, and Joelinton is now out for several weeks and is better in midfield anyway.

 

With no European football your games are evenly spaced out, so you should be OK with fatigue. 

 

I wonder if they will go big again in the summer, due to European football being a big possibility. 

 

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

With no European football your games are evenly spaced out, so you should be OK with fatigue. 

 

I wonder if they will go big again in the summer, due to European football being a big possibility.

That's the hope. If we end up having a run in both cups it might be a bit more brutal, and one injury could snowball badly, but we have to hope.

 

I suspect it's not about going really big in the summer, it's about seeing about seeing if we've got European football to attract bigger targets and spend more, and with eyeing up targets with shorter contracts and seeing if another 6 months can reduce the price. And if we don't get European football, which player kicks up and pushes for a move, and then how much we have to spend off their sale.

[thetime]

Liverpool getting a pen is a given in a tight game. 

[charlierc]

12 minutes ago, thetime said:

Liverpool getting a pen is a given in a tight game. 

We are talking about Spurs here. Given it's now 4-0, I suspect the implosion would likely have been triggered by something else.

[charlierc]

7 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

We seem to look like that in about 3/5 games, Tonali and Bruno giving both a lot of bite and a lot of quality in midfield, with some serious pace up front from Isak/Gordon/Murphy and some nice touches from them. Then we'll just have a game where we look low on energy, particularly from the full-backs and it's flat but we usually nick a result from some moment of magic, and sometimes we'll have a game where we look ponderous in defense on top of that.

 

I think we've probably got 6-7 Champions League quality players, but our depth - particularly in the front 3 - is really lacking.

 

I also want to highlight how much better we look when both Botman and Schar are on the pitch. Botman is comfortably our best defender positionally, with a lot of strength to him as well. Schar complements him nicely having a bit more pace and a deft touch, and a willingness to roam or man-mark. The back 5 with Schar in a man-mark/sweeper role was interesting, particularly as that compensated for Botman/Burn being potentially sluggish when together. I rate them both but I get worried by the pairing.

 

I do wonder what's happened with our funding/PSR. Supposedly we could spend £60m on Guehi in the summer, but that's now 3 consecutive windows with basically no incoming players. We sold for another £30m this window, but we desperately need another forward, with Wilson/Barnes seemingly perma-crocked, and Miggy now sold, there's basically no back-up at all. Willock and Joelinton have both played wide-left sometimes, but Willock's been a lot more inconsistent this seaosn, and Joelinton is now out for several weeks and is better in midfield anyway.

There's whispers of a possible rebuild in the summer. We would need a long-term successor to Schar given he's in his 30s, maybe an extra CB if we're also thinking of replacing the in-their-30s Burn & Lascelles, further options to support Murphy & Gordon on the flanks, a replacement for Wilson as he's likely to be released at the end of his contract, and for some reason they also seem to be regularly claiming another goalkeeper given Pope and Dubravka are older too.

 

Dunno also if there might be some cash being kept aside for a St James' renovation/replacement, as has been heavily rumoured in the last month or so.

 

The balance was there though - Bournemouth felt like the game too far for a largely unchanged team over the previous 2 months, and against Fulham, we seemed to just not have the options to change things when Fulham upped their intensity after the break.

 

Makes the next two interesting if nothing else, given we won't know how many changes might be deemed the right idea for the cup game at Birmingham on Saturday and then there's the task of talking on Guardiola and the gang in Manchester.

[thetime]

54 minutes ago, charlierc said:

We are talking about Spurs here. Given it's now 4-0, I suspect the implosion would likely have been triggered by something else.

 

Well Van Dijk should of been off after 2 minutes, so the suspicions could be true. 

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

There's whispers of a possible rebuild in the summer. We would need a long-term successor to Schar given he's in his 30s, maybe an extra CB if we're also thinking of replacing the in-their-30s Burn & Lascelles, further options to support Murphy & Gordon on the flanks, a replacement for Wilson as he's likely to be released at the end of his contract, and for some reason they also seem to be regularly claiming another goalkeeper given Pope and Dubravka are older too.

 

Dunno also if there might be some cash being kept aside for a St James' renovation/replacement, as has been heavily rumoured in the last month or so.

 

The balance was there though - Bournemouth felt like the game too far for a largely unchanged team over the previous 2 months, and against Fulham, we seemed to just not have the options to change things when Fulham upped their intensity after the break.

 

Makes the next two interesting if nothing else, given we won't know how many changes might be deemed the right idea for the cup game at Birmingham on Saturday and then there's the task of talking on Guardiola and the gang in Manchester.

Yeah. Between Schar, Burn, Lascelles' age/fitness, I do think we need a CB long-term. Dubravka isn't just older, but his contract is up in the summer, and I think the suspicion is that we're after a more modern keeper with better distribution than Pope.

 

The work of upgrading our full-backs was done before, Hall and Livramento look good and like they're growing into themselves, and with our midfield very strong and with respectably tidy back-ups, it doesn't feel like a "full rebuild" type job, but 4 major-ish signings isn't nothing. GK, CB, RW and a CF. Unless we think Osula is going to step up and start being a regular option and the replacement to Wilson?

[charlierc]

16 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Well Van Dijk should of been off after 2 minutes, so the suspicions could be true. 

Haven't seen that incident.

[charlierc]

14 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Yeah. Between Schar, Burn, Lascelles' age/fitness, I do think we need a CB long-term. Dubravka isn't just older, but his contract is up in the summer, and I think the suspicion is that we're after a more modern keeper with better distribution than Pope.

 

The work of upgrading our full-backs was done before, Hall and Livramento look good and like they're growing into themselves, and with our midfield very strong and with respectably tidy back-ups, it doesn't feel like a "full rebuild" type job, but 4 major-ish signings isn't nothing. GK, CB, RW and a CF. Unless we think Osula is going to step up and start being a regular option and the replacement to Wilson?

You can guess that interest in an extra CB is where the idea for courting Guehi came from, even if Crystal Palace didn't want to play ball. I suspect someone will be on the target for next summer, particularly as I think Lascelles is out of contract and could be allowed to leave.

 

It is somewhat strange to have 5 keepers in Pope, Dubravka, Vlachodimos, Ruddy and Gillespie and to decide we still need better.

 

I think Osula hasn't really played enough to judge. Did ok against Bromley in the Cup, and indeed scored a great goal in that game, but not really done a lot else.

[Gnomicide]

Are they trying to make people like VAR?

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

Are they trying to make people like VAR?

Tbf this kind of thing goes on every week in the EFL or other VAR-less leagues.