baxus

@Consigliere Moving the whole tournament at this stage would just be taking a piss, wouldn't it? Especially if they would do it for a competition no one outside of FIFA headquarters really cares about. Not that I would be that surprised, mind you. From what I understood, players need to leave their clubs before New Years but there was some talk about Liverpool (maybe some other clubs as well, but I wouldn't know) maybe being able to come to an agreement with national teams to keep players for the match against Chelsea. I'm not sure it was ever likely to actually happen, but I mentioned it as a best case scenario for the club.

They are not likely to be rested in any of AFCON matches, are they? They will be wrecked after AFCON, especially if they stick around for Chelsea match before leaving for national team duty.

I'm not a fan of F1 in general, haven't watched it for close to 20 years and caught only a few races this season, so I might be missing some knowledge of the rules and stuff like that and I could be flat out wrong, but from my perspective Verstappen made an asshole move. Verstappen was told to give up the position to Hamilton in order to avoid investigation and possible sanctions for an earlier incident and he waited to do it until the DRS zone where he could use DRS to overtake Hamilton immediately. Hamilton wouldn't fall for that and it resulted in contact and damage to Hamilton's car. From a neutral spectator's position, I'm loving that the title will be decided in the last race and I find Hamilton winning the record-breaking title and Verstappen beating one of the greatest ever (if not the greatest ever) to be equally appealing sport stories. I'd just love to see it won fair and square.

It seems Liverpool diversified their portfolio in order to remain competitive in the transfer market in the future.

Ok, that's fine. But where is the line? Winning 2/3 of possible titles over a period at least a decade?

Somewhere out there, there's someone saying the same about Reece James. And neither of you are wrong. How do we define who's dominant? Aren't City dominant? If not, why not? Over the last 10 seasons City have 5 league titles, 1 FA cup and 6 League cups. Where is the line between being a good or a great team and being dominant?

Ever heard "Saudis are fit and proper owners"? Btw, isn't every job Gerrard takes until he finally takes Liverpool over a stepping stone to Liverpool?

As @A Horse Named Stranger said, lot of European leagues have under soil heating which greatly reduces possibility of snow-covered pitch (except in some strong blizzards or something). Others have a winter break and some even start their season in spring and wrap it up in autumn. If I'm not mistaken, last round or two of the group stages in European international competitions are not played in countries with colder climate and high probability of snow, with clubs from those countries playing their home games before that. It was over 10 years ago, so I can't remember which team played Dinamo Kyiv in Ukraine mid-December but players were wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts under their kits, had caps and gloves on etc. I guess that was one of the reasons why Ukrainian teams don't play at home at that round anymore.

Serbia's appointment of Dragan Stojkovic as national team manager turned out to be just what was needed. He lead the team to the top of the group and, even more importantly, in the process turned the team around to one that's not a chore to watch. Most of you probably won't know who he is, since he spent most of his career as a player in Japan where he was one of the J League stars. He did play for the national team of Yugoslavia (both the "old" one and the "new" one) in two World Cups in '90 and '98 and in one Euros in 2000. I'd dare say he's considered by most to be THE star Serbian player of the last 3-4 decades. On the topic of Serbia missing Euros on regular basis, the one in 2000 is the only one I remember our team playing in, whether as Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro or Serbia alone. Yugoslavia (the "old" one, with Croatia, Bosnia etc.) did manage to qualify in 1992, but was banned from competing and Denmark went in their stead and ended up winning the tournament. I said I won't watch the World Cup in Qatar due to all the controversy around it, but this team is making that really hard for me.

Portugal "somehow" managed to lose to Serbia because they were happy with 1-0 lead after 2 minutes and just as happy with a 1-1 after Serbia equalised. They even resorted to time-wasting for most of the second half. Pretty much a disgraceful performance from a team THAT filled with talent in all positions. DISCLAIMER: I missed last 10-15 minutes of first half because I had to take the dog out, so that part may have been different but I doubt it.

I don't care who did it, in what game, what the backstory is... none of that matters one bit. The foul was dirty and it deserved some punishment. Had Jokic not reacted, the guy would've gotten a flagrant foul, 1 or 2 whatever, and no one would've said a thing. Now we're all taking about Jokic and his reaction, which we all agree was not wise and he should've kept his temper in check but we are talking out of our comfortable chairs and not with elevated heartrate and adrenaline rushing through our bodies. I just want to see dirty fouls like that punished most severely. Not trying to defend Jokic or anything like that, but it's not as if he bodychecked an innocent bystander. The guys provoking such reactions and then faking injuries when the victim retaliates need to be held accountable even more than the guys lashing out.

Couldn't be further from it.

Just out of curiosity, do you know what "starogradske" means?

I didn't mean to say that Ferguson is guilty for Moyes' failure at United, but the squad he left behind definitely was one of the factors. Moyes was horrible in the transfer market, no denying that. He also didn't seem ready for added pressure of managing United, especially right after Fergie. He could've done better, but United were a mess when he took over and that didn't help.

As a @A Horse Named Stranger said, Fergie went all in to win the title in his last season and go out with the bang. His actions suggest he didn't care that much about what would happen the season after. Fergie squeezed the last bits of greatness out of Vidic-Ferdinand-Evra defense and left them all well in their thirties for the next manager to deal with. Similar goes for Van Persie, Rooney etc. With a squad in dire need of rejuvenation, enormous pressure of not just managing United but managing United right after Fergie, it would be a miracle had Moyes managed to continue United's trophy streak.