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Football: Silly season


Mark Antony

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1 minute ago, ljkeane said:

I don't disagree that Chelsea could do with adding to their squad but I'm not sure Conte's entirely blameless. It's hard to say how much he had to do with the decisions to sell Matic and loan a load of players out but he was the one who informed Costa he was done as a Chelsea player by text. He could have started Morata yesterday instead of Boga as well.

Did you watch Conte on Sky Sports' PL programme? It is quite clear he wanted Matic at the club. The board went over his head when they saw £40m offered for a 29 year old. Good business, but only if the player is surplus, which he clearly wasn't in Conte's eyes.

Ake shouldn't have been sold. I agreed at the time with Chalobah's sale but now he would definitely get games. Zouma's loan was to rehabilitate him after missing over a year, so I get that. The rest of the loaners I agree with.

Not starting Morata was strange, given he was our best player when he came on. Conte keeps saying he's not ready but he looked it yesterday.

As for Costa, Conte and the club maintain the stance that he was informed in January that he was being sold in the summer. I'd love him back in the side, but if Conte would rather not have a player of his quality in his squad because of his behaviour, it goes to show how difficult he must be to manage.

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Meanwhile the first round in the German Cup is being played this weekend.

While Friday and Saturday were relatively uninteresting (in terms of upsets), today there's a hillarious one in the making.

HSV (Bundesliga) is playing in Osnabrück (Liga 3).

After around 20 minutes Osnabrück were down to 10 men. Yet, they went on to humilate the Bundesliga club. After 70 minutes Osnabrück (despite being one man down) were up 3:0 (three nill!!) Then Mordor was awarded a penalty, which they converted. So it's atm just 3:1 for Osnabrück atm.

Hahaha, and final whistle has just been blown. :D

Let's all laugh at Mordor.

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49 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

For fuck's sake I fucking knew Herrera was going to be the one getting shafted by Matic's presence.

At least the overall shape of the team is attacking.

Personally, I'd say Matic is the better player of the two. There's a time and a place to play two holding midfielders, and at home to West Ham isn't one.

Only a matter of time before Man United break through. West Ham have been poor so far.

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14 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

Personally, I'd say Matic is the better player of the two. There's a time and a place to play two holding midfielders, and at home to West Ham isn't one.

Only a matter of time before Man United break through. West Ham have been poor so far.



Herrera isn't really a holding player, though. He's a box-to-boxer at heart.

And while in theory Matic-Pogba-Mkhitaryan/Mata is a more attacking midfield than Matic-Herrera-Pogba, I think Herrera's shown he can be plenty attacking when let off the leash plus I thought the whole idea was to give Pogba a freer hand, which sitting him back behind Mata doesn't really do.

Matic is a good player, though I think Herrera is the better, but my problem isn't with him, it's with the mentality he indicates in Mourinho.

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23 minutes ago, polishgenius said:



Herrera isn't really a holding player, though. He's a box-to-boxer at heart.

And while in theory Matic-Pogba-Mkhitaryan/Mata is a more attacking midfield than Matic-Herrera-Pogba, I think Herrera's shown he can be plenty attacking when let off the leash plus I thought the whole idea was to give Pogba a freer hand, which sitting him back behind Mata doesn't really do.

Matic is a good player, though I think Herrera is the better, but my problem isn't with him, it's with the mentality he indicates in Mourinho.

I think Pogba is better coming from deep than starting too high up the pitch. He's definitely more of a no. 8 than no. 10. Looking at this performance so far, Herrera hasn't been missed. I'd guess he'd start big matches at home and a lot more away games. I can't see Matic being rotated too often.

Lukaku has taken his goals well. He suits United's style to a T.

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12 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

I think Pogba is better coming from deep than starting too high up the pitch. He's definitely more of a no. 8 than no. 10.



Sure, but what he really is is a no. 8 and a no. 10. Having Matic alongside him releases him from defensive duties but having Mata there means he's still pretty limited about when he can actually get forward.
That's why I'd rather it was Matic-Herrera-Pogba. Since Herrera is also a box-to-boxer with some number 10 in him, it gives them both the chance to do all that they're best at, and offers a real defensive solidity at the same time since both are defensively responsible.

Plus, it just seems both really stupid and really unfair to drop our best player last season.


And now Fellaini's on instead of him too. Fuck's sake.


I can't be too het up about this particular instance, we've played well. But it's just the whole thing that bothers me.

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2 minutes ago, polishgenius said:


Plus, it just seems both really stupid and really unfair to drop our best player last season.

 

At least Herrera will have Mata to speak to about this. After all, Jose dropped Mata after he was our best player for two seasons in a row.

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5 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

City and United look fucking good. Guess that's what identefying your weaknesses and addressing them in the transfer market can do for you. See them fighting for title. 

It's early days. I could see them fighting for the title though, especially City. Their squad is disgustingly good. I think United will have more issues.

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In fairness, while City's squad seems disgustingly good when you look at their bench yesterday, it's still very forward-weighted and I can see them having issues at the back as the season goes on.

Our squad looks a little less loaded with special but it's also a bit better balanced, and we have two keepers better than either of City's.


Spurs have the best team, though. But they are very shallow and really need to add some depth in the next couple of weeks. Especially if they want to make a run for the CL and challenge in the league.

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Really good performance and I'm relieved that we actually got the goals to reflect our dominance. West Ham didn't cause us much problems although, tbf, they were missing a number of players. We do look to have a very well balanced squad. Now only if Shaw can stay fit and start producing consistently. Martial needs more consistency as well - he did have a very good preseason though. Hopefully Mourinho gives him a good amount of game time in rotation with Rashford on the left.

Re: Herrera. I'm sure he will be back in the starting XI. Mourinho has a bit of a dilemma now that Matic has arrived. Think Herrera can be moved to RM in a 4-2-3-1. Mkhi/Mata rotate at #10. 

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4 minutes ago, Horse of Kent said:

It should be Ko-la-shi-natts with Bosnian pronunciation, but Ko-la-si-natch is also used in his birthplace Germany.



See, that's what I would have thought (well, the 's' thing isn't a 'sh' but the z-ish sound it really is isn't viable in English) but he introduced himself differently?
Either he's trying to be polite to the English fans or his family have decided to Germanise it even more than saying it 'ch' at the end at some point.

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