Football 2025-26

[thetime]

Not great so far for english teams.

 

4 defeats 

2 draws

 

 

 

 

[andyrhodes24]

11 minutes ago, thetime said:

Not great so far for english teams.

 

4 defeats 

2 draws

 

 

 

 

All but one away from home, would expect Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool to turn it round from here, maybe City if they pull one back tonight

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

 

I'm not one of those people who writes on the Internet "If X happens, I'll do Crazy sh*t" and I know Liverpool had a faceplant in Istanbul last night (again) but come on - are Liverpool really so bad that they can't beat this mess?

Galatasaray are a good team and disrespected by the British media IMO. I'm not surprised Liverpool lost there. I do think home advantage matters a lot in that tie though, and Liverpool should fancy their chances to win at home.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Arsenal fans? 

 

Maybe also Bournemouth and Sunderland ones? Even if the former had a big winless run in autumn and the latter haven't been quite as good recently.

 

There's something to be said about such a stuffed calendar and everyone pushing intense physical demands behind everyone looking knackered, mind. Which means both the biggest ever World Cup in a place that will almost certainly have weather-related disruption to make games longer and then another season next year means that by this time next year, so many players are going to look like they want bed rather than games.

Arsenal, Man U, Brentford were the ones that came to mind. Sunderland fans are probably happy but I'm hoping they won't be in a couple of weeks! I think a lot of fans/teams will have had higher expectations than results this season though. So many clubs will have hoped to "kick on" and then taken a backward step or not progressed.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, andyrhodes24 said:

All but one away from home, would expect Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool to turn it round from here, maybe City if they pull one back tonight

Hmm

[kaosmark2]

Anyone know enough of the nonsense calculations around country coefficient to know if the English 5th place is at threat?

 

Would be hilarious if Liverpool flop out of this season and next.

[andyrhodes24]

21 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Hmm

I think I said this at 2-2 in my defence hahaha. PSG should see that one out from here, a serious collapse from Chelsea but not outside the realms of possibility

[thetime]

25 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Anyone know enough of the nonsense calculations around country coefficient to know if the English 5th place is at threat?

 

Would be hilarious if Liverpool flop out of this season and next.

 

Not much chance of missing out on top 5. You get same amount of points from champions league to the conference. 

[thetime]

5 minutes ago, andyrhodes24 said:

I think I said this at 2-2 in my defence hahaha. PSG should see that one out from here, a serious collapse from Chelsea but not outside the realms of possibility

 

Not great for English clubs though, 3 getting hammered by 3 goals. Newcastle being very much with an outside chance, Liverpool and Arsenal you would expect to turn it around. 

[andyrhodes24]

7 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

Not great for English clubs though, 3 getting hammered by 3 goals. Newcastle being very much with an outside chance, Liverpool and Arsenal you would expect to turn it around. 

Definitely a quirk of having six English teams in it this year, the quality won’t be as high across the six. Spurs obviously not there by finishing in the Prem’s qualifying places, and Liverpool/Chelsea/Newcastle have all been dodgy in the league.

 

City do have these Champions League turnarounds in them though, especially at home.

[charlierc]

8 hours ago, andyrhodes24 said:

I think I said this at 2-2 in my defence hahaha. PSG should see that one out from here, a serious collapse from Chelsea but not outside the realms of possibility

Yeah with 20 minutes to go, it was 2-2, PSG have had something of an awkward phase recently and a draw would if nothing else been a half decent result. Then they stuffed it big time. 

[charlierc]

8 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Not great for English clubs though, 3 getting hammered by 3 goals. Newcastle being very much with an outside chance, Liverpool and Arsenal you would expect to turn it around. 

Newcastle being the only one of the 6 to actually have lead at any point is wild. And I'm still gutted about the way it went at the end but these things happen. I'm more hopeful of beating Chelsea on Saturday then winning at the Nou Camp though. 

 

I'd expect Arsenal to advance and while Liverpool aren't that convincing, a two goal home win next week is nonetheless doable. Man City have beaten Real Madrid 4-0 at home before so I guess that's a precedent to try and follow, if very hard, while Spurs and Chelsea are most likely going to be out by this time next week. 

[kaosmark2]

12 hours ago, andyrhodes24 said:

I think I said this at 2-2 in my defence hahaha. PSG should see that one out from here, a serious collapse from Chelsea but not outside the realms of possibility

I did figure but it was quite funny. Honestly even at 4-2 I thought Chelsea had a chance, as Chelsea do have it in them to score 3 goals against PSG. Although I don't think they've got any chance of a clean sheet.

 

3 hours ago, charlierc said:

Newcastle being the only one of the 6 to actually have lead at any point is wild. And I'm still gutted about the way it went at the end but these things happen. I'm more hopeful of beating Chelsea on Saturday then winning at the Nou Camp though. 

 

I'd expect Arsenal to advance and while Liverpool aren't that convincing, a two goal home win next week is nonetheless doable. Man City have beaten Real Madrid 4-0 at home before so I guess that's a precedent to try and follow, if very hard, while Spurs and Chelsea are most likely going to be out by this time next week. 

I think we've got only slightly less chance than Liverpool tbh. Depends a bit on how much the Chelsea game takes it out of us, but if Livramento coming back either lets Trippier rest against Chelsea or even better Tino can start in Barca, and we've got an extra day of recovery for each game than our opposition, who knows?

 

I think we'll see cup-string teams from both us and Chelsea at the weekend, ie us resting 3-4 and Chelsea making 7-8 changes. If Frankie De Jong is still out next week I do fancy our chances, the difference he brought back at the start of the season was immense.

[thetime]

4 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

 

I think we'll see cup-string teams from both us and Chelsea at the weekend, ie us resting 3-4 and Chelsea making 7-8 changes. 

 

That would be a bit dangerous for chelsea, with how tight the top 5 is. They might see the PSG game done now, all effort going towards the league. 

 

There next 4 are pretty difficult with Newcastle, away at Everton and then games against City and United. 

[kaosmark2]

5 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

That would be a bit dangerous for chelsea, with how tight the top 5 is. They might see the PSG game done now, all effort going towards the league. 

 

There next 4 are pretty difficult with Newcastle, away at Everton and then games against City and United. 

Well it depends who they rotate doesn't it? If they leave out Caicedo, James, Palmer, Fernandez we should beat them. But outside those players I think the 2nd string isn't far off the 1st and they rotate a lot anyway.

[andyrhodes24]

18 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I did figure but it was quite funny. Honestly even at 4-2 I thought Chelsea had a chance, as Chelsea do have it in them to score 3 goals against PSG. Although I don't think they've got any chance of a clean sheet.

Agreed, if we can put two past them at Stamford Bridge then PSG certainly can. Massively error prone such as for the Okafor goal in our game.

[thetime]

3 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Well it depends who they rotate doesn't it? If they leave out Caicedo, James, Palmer, Fernandez we should beat them. 

 

I hope you do beat them, although I am not sure you will. Newcastle have 1 of the worst away records this season, with only 3 away wins all season. Only beating Burnley, Spurs, Everton doesn't give me much confidence you will. 

[kaosmark2]

1 minute ago, thetime said:

 

I hope you do beat them, although I am not sure you will. Newcastle have 1 of the worst away records this season, with only 3 away wins all season. Only beating Burnley, Spurs, Everton doesn't give me much confidence you will. 

Yeah, we've been bad away, particularly in the PL, and I do think we've got more chance at the Nou Camp against a nearly full strength Barca than we do in London against a full strength Chelsea, but if they decide to rest in hope of a big turnaround vs PSG then we've got a chance. I still think that any game in which Caicedo doesn't play anyone should fancy scoring 2 against them. He's so key to protecting a fragile and inconsistent defence.

[thetime]

10 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Yeah, we've been bad away, particularly in the PL, and I do think we've got more chance at the Nou Camp against a nearly full strength Barca than we do in London against a full strength Chelsea

 

I know its good to be positive.

 

Barcelona have only lost once in the league and champions league this season, that was a last minute goal to PSG.

 

The home game was your chance. 

 

 

[kaosmark2]

30 minutes ago, thetime said:

I know its good to be positive.

 

Barcelona have only lost once in the league and champions league this season, that was a last minute goal to PSG.

 

The home game was your chance. 

Well there's being delusional and thinking it likely, vs being positive and thinking it's possible having watched the matches. I also just think we're kinda due a little bit of luck so who knows? We're obviously not going to be favourites and it'd be batshit to think we are.

[charlierc]

5 hours ago, thetime said:

 

I know its good to be positive.

 

Barcelona have only lost once in the league and champions league this season, that was a last minute goal to PSG.

 

The home game was your chance. 

 

 

I agree that we probably won't do it. It would be an amazing result if we did pull it off and I'm hopeful we can do it but it would be a massive surprise. I'd love it if we beat them but at the very least I want to see us put up a decent fight. 

 

The annoying thing is that we are most of the way to being a team that challenge the best but that final thing ends up going wrong, as seen in conceding late to lose to both Arsenal and Liverpool or beating Man City in the first meeting only to then lose 4 matches to them in 2 months. But that's just football sometimes. 

[thetime]

15 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I agree that we probably won't do it. It would be an amazing result if we did pull it off and I'm hopeful we can do it but it would be a massive surprise. I'd love it if we beat them but at the very least I want to see us put up a decent fight. 

 

The annoying thing is that we are most of the way to being a team that challenge the best but that final thing ends up going wrong, as seen in conceding late to lose to both Arsenal and Liverpool or beating Man City in the first meeting only to then lose 4 matches to them in 2 months. But that's just football sometimes. 

 

With Newcastle struggles when in European competition, would you prefer europa/conference or none? As I am sure it will hinder you getting back into the champions league next season, through league position. 

 

Same with United, don't matter which one we qualify for. I expect us to struggle, as the squad is way to thin. Utd even struggle midweek premier league matches. 

Edited March 12 by thetime

[kaosmark2]

52 minutes ago, thetime said:

With Newcastle struggles when in European competition, would you prefer europa/conference or none? As I am sure it will hinder you getting back into the champions league next season, through league position. 

 

Same with United, don't matter which one we qualify for. I expect us to struggle, as the squad is way to thin. Utd even struggle midweek premier league matches. 

I don't think we'll get it, but I'd genuinely love to be in the Europa League. I think we're about 70-80% of the way towards having a squad that can compete playing twice a week, and that we'd have a genuine chance of winning the Europa without having a humiliating league season. Not in a "we'd walk the Europa" but it'd help us practice with the bi-weekly games while having the odd time where we actually can manage around an easier one. 

 

It won't have the glamour of Champions League nights, but I think it'd absolutely be a positive for our squad development, Howe's management skills, and the status of the club/team. Also a chance to improve our own Uefa Coeffecient.

 

Conference League I could take or leave, I'm still yet to watch a game of that competition and it's a lot more Eastern European teams with the long journeys. I don't really think the Prem should be allowed a slot there, if you're going to have a 5th CL slot for the "best national leagues" then your league should be considered too strong for ECL representation. 

[Skip997]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

 

With Newcastle struggles when in European competition, would you prefer europa/conference or none? As I am sure it will hinder you getting back into the champions league next season, through league position. 

 

Same with United, don't matter which one we qualify for. I expect us to struggle, as the squad is way to thin. Utd even struggle midweek premier league matches. 

United ain’t struggling, they’re playing well above par with that squad.

 

I’ll tell you who’s struggling, Liverpool, massively below par with their squad. Still can’t fathom why Slot is still standing on the side of the pitch. He should be made to pay for a seat with all the other armchair managers 

[thetime]

2 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

United ain’t struggling, they’re playing well above par with that squad.

 

 

 

I wouldn't say 'well above', utd should be around the 4th - 7th position. Which I am sure where they will end up come the end of May. 

 

Although Liverpool should be up there with Arsenal and City thats for sure.