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Football: Fox hunt failed - Leicester are Champions!


Mexal

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Italy provisional squad announced: 

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Federico Marchetti (Lazio), Salvatore Sirigu (Paris Saint-Germain)

Defenders: Davide Astori (Fiorentina), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Angelo Ogbonna (West Ham), Daniele Rugani (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Manchester United), Mattia De Sciglio (Milan), Davide Zappacosta (Torino)

Midfielders: Marco Benassi (Torino), Giacomo Bonaventura (Milan), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Alessandro Florenzi (Roma), Emanuele Giaccherini (Bologna), Jorginho (Napoli), Riccardo Montolivo (Milan), Thiago Motta (Paris Saint-Germain), Marco Parolo (Lazio), Stefano Sturaro (Juventus), Antonio Candreva (Lazio)

Forwards: Eder (Inter), Ciro Immobile (Torino), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Graziano Pellè (Southampton), Simone Zaza (Juventus), Federico Bernardeschi (Fiorentina), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma)

 

Nothing too surprising, but it looks very weak up front. 

 

I would be very concerned if I were a United fan about the email anecdote in the Guardian article. For all van Gaal's faults, watching video analysis if you are a top level player should be mandatory. And then whoever leaked it thinks that it is the best thing to tell the media to win sympathy for their plight.

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I don't think I believe the email anecdote mostly because of the 'installed a tracker' allegation. Even if it's possible to have a program to do such a thing, it seems neither likely nor legal.



Is El Shaarawy going to be in the Italy starting line-up? He's had an excellent run since he went to Roma, seems to have finally remembered what he's good at.

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16 hours ago, polishgenius said:


Such a strange one. Even accounting for the fact that 25mil was peanuts by City's standards even before the new TV deal, why would you make your apparent key midfield signing, into a midfield that desperately needs fixing, someone who has just now yet again proved that the chances of him going a whole season uninjured are a whole lot less than even and that when he does get crocked there's a good chance it's serious?

Tbf. Gündogan had played almost the entire season at club level.

He played 25 league games, his last match was match day 30 (out of 34). Add the cup games and EL and EL qualifiers and he has played 40 matches this season. So his injury record this season is not nearly as horrible as it sounds, as he has indeed played in the majority of Dortmund's fixtures. It's just the international tournament he cannot play again. In contrast, how many games did United get out of Schweinsteiger this season? And with him, I would have held any bet that he won't play a full season for United.

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19 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I don't think I believe the email anecdote mostly because of the 'installed a tracker' allegation. Even if it's possible to have a program to do such a thing, it seems neither likely nor legal.

It is possible to have a program to do such a thing.

It's basically the same software that gives you the "seen" status on Viber, Whatsapp or whatever else you use.

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3 minutes ago, Notone said:

Tbf. Gündogan had played almost the entire season at club level.

He played 25 league games, his last match was match day 30 (out of 34). Add the cup games and EL and EL qualifiers and he has played 40 matches this season. So his injury record this season is not nearly as horrible as it sounds, as he has indeed played in the majority of Dortmund's fixtures. It's just the international tournament he cannot play again. In contrast, how many games did United get out of Schweinsteiger this season? And with him, I would have held any bet that he won't play a full season for United.

It's not just about this season though. Gundogan has only twice played over 25 (league) games a season in his career, and in both he made 28. And we already know he's unlikely to better that record next season, since he's going to be out till mid-October at least. They already have serious problems from their best striker and their best CB being seriously injured all the time, why would they add midfield to that list?


What does Schweinsteiger have to do with it?

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1 minute ago, polishgenius said:

It's not just about this season though. Gundogan has only twice played over 25 (league) games a season in his career, and in both he made 28. And we already know he's unlikely to better that record next season, since he's going to be out till mid-October at least. They already have serious problems from their best striker and their best CB being seriously injured all the time, why would they add midfield to that list?


What does Schweinsteiger have to do with it?

Ok, I found it somewhat amusing, that the key signing to an ailing midfield for both Manchester clubs are injury prone Germans. And I thought it to be funny, that a United supporter called out City for that signing. With Schweinsteiger it was way worse though, since he is more of a physical midfielder to win balls, while Gündogan is more of passing player.

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42 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Is El Shaarawy going to be in the Italy starting line-up? He's had an excellent run since he went to Roma, seems to have finally remembered what he's good at.

Since Italy's last competitive game the two strikers they started - Eder and Pelle, have lost most of their form and El Shaarawy has refound it. So if you were picking based on form then it would be him and Insigne, but both would be better suited to playing off either Eder or Pelle. Also Italy split their team in the squad announcement into goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, wide players and attackers to suit their 3-5-2 and El Shaarawy was listed as a wide player rather than a forward. But when they have generally started Darmian and De Sciglio at wingback, surely he would be far too attacking a player to play there.  However, in the friendlies they apparently have tried a 3-4-3 a few times, which gets the best out of El Shaarawy, Insigne and Bernardeschi as the wide forwards in the front three and he did score a goal off the bench against Germany.

So, basically, I don't think there is anyway of knowing until their warm-up friendlies at least.

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18 minutes ago, Notone said:

Ok, I found it somewhat amusing, that the key signing to an ailing midfield for both Manchester clubs are injury prone Germans. And I thought it to be funny, that a United supporter called out City for that signing. With Schweinsteiger it was way worse though, since he is more of a physical midfielder to win balls, while Gündogan is more of passing player.

 

I dunno why you're turning this into a dick-waving contest- not everything I say is intended as a slight or call-out against City or you. It was a pure observation- it's an odd signing for City to make in their current context. I said exactly the same thing, albeit for different reasons, when we signed Schweinsteiger. It's not actually illegal to make or accept criticisms of your team, you know.

But if you insist, the situations aren't really that alike because United already had a pretty full midfield and Schweini was just another part (that was my main reason for wondering about it- we'd already just bought Schneiderlin, into a midfield that already had Carrick, Fellaini, Herrera and it turns out Rooney in it, did we really need Schweini when we had other areas in more urgent need of fixing?). He was already going to be fighting hard for a spot- him being injured just made it more likely he wouldn't play. If City make more signings it could look different, but for now it looks like Gundogan could be Pep's  key, marquee signing and that would be strange.



@ Sept Sev: cool. Should be worth looking out for their friendlies then.

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It wasn't intended as an offense or so, I just found it somewhat ironic. Because of how similar the signings were in that respect. And that's the kinda stuff that makes me chuckle. 

Oh, and I think van Gaal considered Schweinsteiger as a bit more than a mere luxury signing, as he wanted more of a leader type player, which Schweinsteiger with his injuries was never going to be. 

I have no vested interest in Bayern, Dortmund, Manchester (neither club), Liverpool, or Arsenal. So I am really somewhat neutral towards the EPL and CL crowd. As far as the British football in general is concerned, I am probably most likely to cheer for the Celts (and as a result root against Rangers).

So for me this taking the pish out of a United fan calling out City's signing an injury prone German, was exactly that. Sorry, if it came across otherwise.

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21 minutes ago, Raja said:

Nope! I quite like Ramsey ( We're not letting Jeor or Mexal send him away) 

Honestly, I'm totally fine with a Ramsey/Xhaka partnership for some games. He's good depth. Just don't think he should be the first choice CM.

Lots of decent CM options for Arsenal this season with Xhaka, Elneny, Coquelin, Wilshere, Cazorla and Ramsey. Have to hope that's enough depth in that spot to carry us through the season. We essentially upgraded Arteta/Flamini with Xhaka and Elneny. Not bad. 

Now if only we can sign a striker, especially one not named Morata (doubt we're in on him, figure it's just RM driving up his price). 

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