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Football - Stolen Taxi for Pardew


Philokles

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10 hours ago, Dolorous Gabe said:

What's the feeling from Liverpool's perspective on Lallana? I must admit I really like him as a player. I always feel like he makes a difference in an England shirt. If I were England manager he'd be in the squad every time if fit.

He’s missed most of the season with injury and his initial return resulted in a further setback.  To the extent he has played lately, there have been plenty of flicks and turns as usual but not in a good way: slowing down attacks, out of sync with team mates, ruining the rhythm. 

Lallana has been very good for England.  He was very good for Liverpool for the first half of last season, but was hit and miss before and after that and is currently very far from his best. 

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11 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

Anthony Martial is being linked with a move to Juventus. If Man United are prepared to let him go, he's the type of player I'd like to see Chelsea go in for. His quality certainly merits more game time than he has been given this season.

Don't think United are prepared to let him go. He's effectively under contract until June 2020 (contract expires next year but includes an option for a 1 year extension which the club can trigger). The club are currently in talks with both him and DDG over new contracts as well. 

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1 hour ago, Soylent Brown said:

I don't know what the general etiquette is, but if Martial was unhappy and wanted to leave, wouldn't it be pretty crappy of United to trigger the extension? Can they even do it without his consent?

(Not that I've any clue how Martial feels about any of this, mind.)

Yes the club can unilaterally trigger the extension. However, I don't think the club would block any move if Martial made it clear he wanted to leave since Mourinho is on record as saying that he will not stand in the way of any player who wants to leave. We would probably still trigger his extension but only to give us some leverage during transfer negotiations.

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17 hours ago, Horse of Kent said:

Not sure what Stöger was thinking. First half Salzburg were all over them in midfield, Batshuayi isolated up top. So what does he do? Take off two midfielders and chuck on two more forwards to join Batshuayi out of the game. Not only that but the two coming off were Götze - the most creative player in the side and Reus - whose individual acts of brilliance is all that has kept this side afloat in recent weeks.

Stöger addressed the subs in a post game.

Reus was heaving some problems and was under pain. So Stöger was forced to sub him. Götze otoh just played rubbish and didn't bother to do what he was told to. He was supposed to attempt through balls and make runs behind the Salzburg defense. He didn't do neither. And tbf, Dortmund's play in the second half was not as bad as the first half. At least they created some chances. Overall it was very little they offered over two legs. And Stöger did something which was a bit out of character in his post match interview, he called out the poor mentality/work ethic of his team. He said there are too many good footballers in this squad, who apparently look at the team sheet and think: Yeah, we are better individually, so we will win this. So that team as a whole isn't willing to do the basics like running, because we will solve it with our technique.

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I find Jose Mourinho’s comments about Man United’s ‘football heritage’ strange.

He focuses on how, in the last seven years, their best performance in the Champions League was making the quarter final in 2014.

That’s true, but he’s forgetting that he hasn’t reached a final, himself, since 2010, when he won it with Inter. Since then, his best performances have been reaching the semi final three times with Real Madrid from 2011-2013 and once with Chelsea in 2014.

Man United have actually reached a final (defeat to Barca, 2011) more recently than any team managed by him since he last won it in 2010.

His own personal recent record in the tournament has been better than Man United’s, but not by that much.

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2 hours ago, JordanJH1993 said:

I find Jose Mourinho’s comments about Man United’s ‘football heritage’ strange.

He focuses on how, in the last seven years, their best performance in the Champions League was making the quarter final in 2014.

That’s true, but he’s forgetting that he hasn’t reached a final, himself, since 2010, when he won it with Inter. Since then, his best performances have been reaching the semi final three times with Real Madrid from 2011-2013 and once with Chelsea in 2014.

Man United have actually reached a final (defeat to Barca, 2011) more recently than any team managed by him since he last won it in 2010.

His own personal recent record in the tournament has been better than Man United’s, but not by that much.

I’m surprised he hasn’t received more backlash yet.  On one hand he has a point that United haven’t had much pedigree in Europe in the past 5-6 years and are in a rebuild.  On the other hand, how can Utd fans accept him trashing their “heritage” (toxic choice of words by him) and claiming that City have a better heritage?  They’re a prideful bunch, even if most of their success was in domestic competition while they had a vast financial advantage.  On the third hand, he was hired as a serial winner and has spent a lot of money to assemble a team that is less than the sum of its parts and got deservedly eliminated by a fragile Sevilla team.  

Rafa had barely finished his litany of “facts” before the media and pundits tore him down for cracking under pressure.  Looks like a similar situation. 

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Quote

Jordan Henderson returns to the starting line-up as Liverpool make four changes for this afternoon’s Premier League clash with Watford at Anfield.The captain is restored to midfield with Georginio Wijnaldum, while Joe Gomez and Joel Matip return in defence.It’s Henderson’s 200th league appearance for the Reds.

Elsewhere, Dejan Lovren misses out due to a minor ankle issue, while Adam Lallana is not part of the matchday squad as he continues to work his way back to full match fitness.

Liverpool: Karius, Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Can, Mane, Salah, Firmino.

Subs: Mignolet, Milner, Klavan, Moreno, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ings, Alexander-Arnold.

 

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Just now, Soylent Brown said:

Gomez has been poor today. He's the more defensive minded RB out of our young ones, but he makes mistakes at the back constantly. 

I wonder how close Clyne is. Hopefully when he comes back he can jump back in without much fuss unlike Lallana who seems to be unable to get match fit. 

 

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4 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Gomez has been poor today. He's the more defensive minded RB out of our young ones, but he makes mistakes at the back constantly. 

RB has been a relatively weak spot all season, which is why Mourinho targeted that position.  Both TAA and Gomez are very young and inexperienced at this level.  Gomez’ overall level of play really impresses me, but he still gets caught inattentive at times.  And right now he’s coming back into the team very rusty with no football in the past two months.  Trent has done very well for his age and experience, offers good crossing and has speed for recovery but he needs that speed for recovery because he gets caught out a lot. 

Both of them will improve and perhaps play other positions in the long run (CB and MF) but right now we’re getting by while being a bit weak there, especially since our right-sided CB is not Virg to compensate. 

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