Consigliere

Spurs are a bit of a bogey team for City but, yeah, City don't tend to fuck up a close title run in. They've managed to come out on top of every single close run in going back to 2011/2012.

Reports that Florentino Perez is initiating an ownership restructure at Real Madrid to ensure that the club can never be sold to a State, Hedge Fund, High Net Worth Individual or Consortium. As a contingency measure, should the club ever find itself in serious financial difficulties in the future that would require a cash injection, the club would be allowed to convert the 100,000 socios membership into shares to sell with a market limit of 49.9% thus going from 100% fan owned to a 50+1 model.

3 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Liverpool will face a post-Klopp world soon enough. It's not an easy gig to succeed him. It took Arsenal a while to find a satisfactory post-Wenger manager (who had overstayed his welcome). United still haven't found their post-Ferguson guy (admittedly United is just dyfunctional on so many levels, and Liverpool look like they at least have managed to put a presumably more functional structure in place).

The big difference with Arsenal is that they didn't make the same mistake United did. They realised that they needed to put in a proper structure above the manager post Wenger. It didn't work out with Sanllehi and Mislintat but they didn't abandon the approach because of that setback.

It was a risky pass from Onana but a part of that error is down to our positioning. Our back 4 are too flat when we try to play out from the back. Teams that are good at playing out from the back split the CBs with the fullbacks higher up the pitch with the midfielders and wide forward dropping a little deeper to provide passing options. It happens quite regularly that we end up playing risky square passes because of this poor positioning - in this instance, Dalot should have been further up the pitch and our midfielders and wide forwards should be dropping deeper. Onana has zero passing options in the middle of the pitch.

Maguire and McTominay are better strikers that all our actual forwards.

50 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I hear you. I don’t have a good answer either but man, it’s a need. Thought Rice did a lot more carrying forward this game than he has done and that is really useful (see Trossards first goal). I also think Partey reads the game super well so when he intercepts, he immediately looks forward which is unique in this side. I don’t know what we do but we need a Partey replacement somehow. Makes us so much better. Wonder if it’s a spot Timber could play…

Zubimendi (plays for Real Sociedad) would be a good option imo. Not a carbon copy of Partey's style but he's got a good passing range and is very good at making interceptions in the opposition half. Is solid defensively as well so would allow Rice to play more box-to-box.

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

Looks like it's going to be Arne Slot for the next Liverpool manager. I don't really have any particular opinion on whether he or Amorim is the better candidate having watched exactly zero minutes of either the Dutch or Portuguese leagues this season. We'll have to see how it goes I suppose.

I have watched a bit of both. Stylistically, Slot seems to be more suited to the makeup of Liverpool's squad than Amorim which, in theory, would ensure a smoother transition.

1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

2 premier league players (both 19) arrested over a rape. They've apparently been suspended so it won't be too difficult to work out who they are. 

Wolves have had to put out a statement saying it's not any of their players involved because the internet detectives decided it must be Wolves players which has resulted in some of their players being harassed.

Jackson should've been sent off there imo. The ref should have at least gone to the monitor. Got away with a potential ankle breaker.

eta. not even a yellow card? Shocking.

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

 

Partey has barely played this season, and definitely isn't getting a new contract. Arteta tried to get rid. He is stuck with they guy. Totally unlike the revolting moves Ten Hag was making to bring  Greenwood back into the dressing room. And don't get me started on Antony.

Also, Ten Hag still probably wants Greenwood back at the club. I mean, why should we assume he has changed his mind at all?

And nobody is "sucking anyone off". Grow the fuck up, for fuck sake.

24 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be in defence of Ten Hag or not. All you've done here is pointed out just how badly you've regressed this season, while Arteta gone the opposite way. Either way, the chaos and tactical naivety is why Ten Hag is seventh in the table, twenty-four points below Arteta at the summit.

Not a defence. Just pointing out that Ten Hag is capable of setting a team up to be more compact but is choosing not to this season in which case he should be sacked for stubbornly sticking with a disastrous setup.

Oh, and you seemed really really concerned about rapists wrt Ten Hag but busy sucking off Arteta who happily continues to play a rapist. Like I said, results trump morals.

6 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Should have kept de Gea. 

Onana has been very good though barring those fuckups in the CL.

I've been moaning about Ten Hag's tactical setup since preseason. I've also mentioned recently that the chaotic setup seems to be what he's going for in which case he should be sacked. @ljkeanealso correctly pointed out that this setup amounts to nothing more than "create a chaotic open game and hope it goes our way". However, Ten Hag is pretty clearly able to set the team up to be much more compact if he wants to -- he's just choosing not to this season for whatever reason -- as evidenced by last season. Sure, the chaos element reared its ugly head from time-to-time but United conceded 43 goals last season (the same as Arsenal), 17 of which came in 3 games against Brentford, City and Liverpool and we also kept the most clean sheets last season.

Arsenal fans seem to love Arteta when he's quite happy to play a rapist. Arsenal fans were enthusiastically cheering on said rapist when he was performing well but suddenly found their morals when he wasn't. Results trump morals.

4 cup finals in 4 years is pretty good going though. Nobody has ever suggested that he's the "best manager in the world".

Paul Joyce reporting that Arne Slot is Liverpool's top choice to replace Klopp.

Forest's request for the VAR audio recordings to be provided to them has been granted.

eta. Forest are also being investigated for comments made after the game.

Kerry Hau reporting that Bayern have opened negotiations with Rangnick.

1 hour ago, House Cambodia said:

While that's absolutely true, what went wrong at Chelsea is he was forced to take sole responsibility for buying in players, which he didn't feel qualified to do. He might actually do well with a competent full backroom in place. 'Might' doing a lot of heavy lifting, to be sure.

Tuchel has had falling outs with the higher ups in every job he's been in. He's just someone who starts throwing his toys and picking fights with everyone when he doesn't get his way.

Tactically, it's pretty unlikely that he'd do a worse job than the turdfest Ten Hag has served up this season though. Even Newport County (a side sitting in midtable in the 4th division) were just waltzing through our midfield with ease. This issue was apparent even during preseason and Ten Hag has done nothing to mitigate it.

18 minutes ago, Darryk said:

Would Man U fans accept the kind of football that Tuchel teams play?

That's not really the big issue though. United are in the process of putting in a structure above the manager which likely means that the manager is going to be more of a head coach. Tuchel is another Mourinho/Conte type who doesn't play well with others and will pick a fight with a DoF and/or Technical Director at the drop of a hat.

Not sure we can do any better though if Ten Hag is sacked with Liverpool, Bayern and Barca all in the market for managers. There's been reports that Allegri might leave Juve at the end of the season as well. Napoli, Milan and possibly Chelsea could be looking for new managers too.

Leverkusen's plot armour continues. Yet another late, late goal to keep the unbeaten run alive.

9 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

 

Are they wrong about the penalty calls, though? I watched the replays, and one for sure was a penalty, the other two could have been called soft if they had been given. 

They have a case but insinuating that the only reason they weren't given the penalties is because the VAR is apparently a Luton fan is silly.  The ref didn't give the pens so the VAR protecting his mate on the field is much more likely.

Close but offside. We've seen absolute loads of kneecap and armpit offsides so the referees being strict about it is hardly surprising.

Who'd have thought that Solskjaer was a better tactician and coach than Ten Hag. We had better control over games playing Fred and McTominay in midfield under Solskjaer.

Forest's organised crime boss owner upset that he can't threaten and bully officials in England like he can in Greece.