Football: Fox hunt failed - Leicester are Champions!

[Consigliere]

8 minutes ago, Notone said:

The EL starting spot can be reassigned to league placement. Which basically happened when City won it, and refused to drop out of the top 4.

It could but simply getting rid of the C1C does not address the revenue issue for lower division sides. Besides, as I already pointed out, the competition does not need to be abolished in order to accomodate a winter break.

[Iskaral Pust]

34 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Apparently the suspicious item at Old Trafford was a training device someone had accidentally left behind. Brilliant.

It made me laugh.  I can picture a circle jerk of health & safety jobsworths trying to persuade us that this was a good thing. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

It would help though. 

If you want a winter break, then you need reduce the play load, and you need to do it significantly. From all the European top leagues I think only the Bundesliga has an actual winter break. But there you only have one cup competition without replays, and you also just have 18 teams in the league. Which means 4 matchdays less compared with La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 or the EPL. Reducing the number of EPL teams is not going to happen. And neither is anything else tbh. The EPL makes the biggest cash, because of the amount of games and those split kick off dates. You can practically spent almost an entire week watching a Premier League Club. Be it in a cup game, a European competition or an EPL match. Reducing the number of games will reduce the marketing value and the overall cash in English football. Esp. if it goes towards boxing days football, when the EPL had been without competition in the past. I think the amount of abusrd actions to increase the marketing value will actually increase. And thus the workload of footballers. Wasn't there already the suggestion to play the season opener or the community shield cup in China? 

[Philokles]

I'd rather go down to 18 teams to solve schedule overcrowding, but losing the League Cup wouldn't be too awful. It is nice that a win in the first round guarantees a good draw, but it is a relatively meaningless competition. If the Premier League clubs decide they want it gone, there is not much the Football League can do about it. Rather than compensating financially, the PL could just blackmail by threatening to remove the money they give currently, like they did with the EPPP. The only hope would be if the Football League clubs made it so awkward that it was not worth their effort like with the B team proposal. I doubt they would over the League Cup though,

[Iskaral Pust]

In the meantime most of the PL clubs have arrived at a pragmatic compromise of playing reserves and kids in the early rounds of the cups and even Europe.  But even if you skimp on the domestic cups, the PL games themselves are pretty intense to balance with European games.  A two week break in January would be great to keep the PL teams competitive in the knock-out stages of Europe. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Transfer news:

Gladbach's Nordveidt will join West Ham on a free transfer.

 

[polishgenius]

England's provisional squad for the Euros:

 

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart, Fraser Forster, Tom Heaton.

Defenders: Nathaniel Clyne, Kyle Walker, Gary Cahill, Chris Smalling, John Stones, Ryan Bertrand, Danny Rose.

Midfielders: Dele Alli, Ross Barkley, Fabian Delph, Eric Dier, Danny Drinkwater, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, James Milner, Raheem Sterling, Andros Townsend, Jack Wilshere.

Strikers: Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge, Jamie Vardy.


I'm guessing Rashford will be cut unless Hodgson is unhappy with Sturridge's fitness in early training or Rashford scores six goals in his final two games, so sensible choice there.


Less sensible: Andros Townsend. Even as a provisional backup I don't understand that. And Hodgson's complete refusal to acknowledge the existence of Mark Noble is shocking.

[mormont]

Nah. Noble is a perfectly good middle-of-the-table player. At his level, he's great. But international football tournaments are not his level. Of course the same applies to Andros Townsend, so there you go.

I'm surprised by the selection of defenders. Only three centre-backs and four full-backs? The usual thing would be to take an extra centre-back who can fill in at right-back. With that squad, you're one injury and a suspension away from having to play Walker or Bertrand as a central defender. Not optimal.

[Philokles]

Townsend has had an exceptional few months at Newcastle. He has contributed to six goals in twelve games for a relegated side. I'd much rather have him in the squad than Walcott. Either way, I would imagine that he will be one of the three to drop out unless there are injuries in his position.

Bertrand did play at centre back for Southampton a bit this season when they switched to the 3-5-2, so maybe Hodgson sees him as the fourth choice there.

[Raja]

There's *alot* of noise regarding Noble's omission, I'd like to defer to the opinions of our resident West Ham fans as I've only seen them play twice this season. That midfield is filled with similar kind of players though, except Wilshere who, imo, is probably the only one of the deep midfielders who can carry the ball ( Barkley and Alli will certainly play higher up). 

[polishgenius]

12 minutes ago, mormont said:

Nah. Noble is a perfectly good middle-of-the-table player. At his level, he's great. But international football tournaments are not his level. Of course the same applies to Andros Townsend, so there you go.

I'm surprised by the selection of defenders. Only three centre-backs and four full-backs? The usual thing would be to take an extra centre-back who can fill in at right-back. With that squad, you're one injury and a suspension away from having to play Walker or Bertrand as a central defender. Not optimal.

 

Erik Dier will be the one playing center-back in that situation. Pretty sure that's the only reason Delph is in, to cover for him at DM if that happens.

There are lots of players in the England squad who wouldn't - or aren't - first choice at the very top of the table but would do a job and do very well at the sort of level just below, UEFA-chasing spots. Noble's no worse than the likes of Milner or Henderson (Henderson might prove better, but he hasn't yet) and he's certainly had a better season than the latter in the same position.
I'm not saying that he should be straight in the team but that he hasn't even been considered for the squad says a lot about Hodgson's narrow-mindedness. Same goes for Antonio actually. Hell it took him far too long to consider Danny Drinkwater and he's pretty much been forced to do that.

[polishgenius]

2 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

It seems a bit mad to pick Wilshere after he's only been back for a couple of weeks, having been out for so long. I wonder how many minutes into our opening group match he'll get before he has to come off?

They literally delayed the announcement from Friday to today so Wilshere could prove he can run about for an hour. Joke. I've always rated Wilshere and there is something to what Raja said above but if England are that desparate for him you're in bad shape, boys.

[Raja]

Yes, that's a fair point regarding Wilshere, but I imagine the england camp thinks that's worth the risk. His injuries have been impact injuries, so there is that, but he's bound to get more of them. I'm not Wilshere's biggest fan ( it's hard to see where he fits in at Arsenal), but given the players England have, I'd easily have him in the provisional squad, at the very least. 

When do they announce the final squad? I imagine they play friendlies between then and now. That will probably help in making the decision on Wilshere. 

[polishgenius]

The final deadline is the 31st of May, so the Turkey and Australia games are before then.

[Consigliere]

14 hours ago, Notone said:

It would help though. 

If you want a winter break, then you need reduce the play load, and you need to do it significantly. From all the European top leagues I think only the Bundesliga has an actual winter break. But there you only have one cup competition without replays, and you also just have 18 teams in the league. Which means 4 matchdays less compared with La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 or the EPL. Reducing the number of EPL teams is not going to happen. And neither is anything else tbh. The EPL makes the biggest cash, because of the amount of games and those split kick off dates. You can practically spent almost an entire week watching a Premier League Club. Be it in a cup game, a European competition or an EPL match. Reducing the number of games will reduce the marketing value and the overall cash in English football. Esp. if it goes towards boxing days football, when the EPL had been without competition in the past. I think the amount of abusrd actions to increase the marketing value will actually increase. And thus the workload of footballers. Wasn't there already the suggestion to play the season opener or the community shield cup in China? 

I just think that a proposal for a winter break that does not include radical changes to the calender and the axing of a cup competition is much more likely to receive widespread support and less resistance. Bottom line: a two week winter break in January for the Premier League can be achieved without messing with the traditional festive season fixtures or screwing over the Football League in the process.

 

[Mexal]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

Yes, that's a fair point regarding Wilshere, but I imagine the england camp thinks that's worth the risk. His injuries have been impact injuries, so there is that, but he's bound to get more of them. I'm not Wilshere's biggest fan ( it's hard to see where he fits in at Arsenal), but given the players England have, I'd easily have him in the provisional squad, at the very least. 

When do they announce the final squad? I imagine they play friendlies between then and now. That will probably help in making the decision on Wilshere. 

I'm with you. I just don't rate Wilshere though I do agree his ability to carry from the back is really useful for the English side. For Arsenal though, Cazorla does it so much better so no idea why we'd want to play Wilshere ahead of him.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And for the Scousers.

I know I am repeating myself on this issue:

Karius is reported to have reached an agreement with Liverpool. The 22 y.o. goalkeeper has rumoredly a release clause in his contract and will cost around 10 million €.

 

[Raja]

58 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I'm with you. I just don't rate Wilshere though I do agree his ability to carry from the back is really useful for the English side. For Arsenal though, Cazorla does it so much better so no idea why we'd want to play Wilshere ahead of him.

In my mind, they *sort* of do the same thing in different ways. Cazorla's ability to shimmy ( for a lack of a better word) past a player and pick out a pass is second to none in the Arsenal squad, he helps us transition from defence to attack ( but in that process he needs a runner). Wilshere does the same thing, but he drives with the ball instead, gliding past players defenders in the process ( doesn't need a runner as he's more than capable of pushing on himself). Wilshere carries the ball whereas Cazorla distributes. They both help with that transition, but Cazorla is miles ahead as his distribution is almost always correct. Wilshere, unfortunately, does not make the right decision at the right time - that's where he needs game time and that's been the problem. 

[Mexal]

5 minutes ago, Raja said:

In my mind, they *sort* of do the same thing in different ways. Cazorla's ability to shimmy ( for a lack of a better word) past a player and pick out a pass is second to none in the Arsenal squad, he helps us transition from defence to attack ( but in that process he needs a runner). Wilshere does the same thing, but he drives with the ball instead, gliding past players defenders in the process ( doesn't need a runner as he's more than capable of pushing on himself). Wilshere carries the ball whereas Cazorla distributes. They both help with that transition, but Cazorla is miles ahead as his distribution is almost always correct. Wilshere, unfortunately, does not make the right decision at the right time - that's where he needs game time and that's been the problem. 

The other issue is Wilshere is careless. Not only does he not make the right decision, he may make the right decision then misplace the pass. Also, I don't trust him dribbling around in his own area whereas I trust Cazorla since he's able to use two feat which makes him so much less predictable. That and he knows when to release it.

I think he's fine to back up Cazorla but no chance he should be first choice or playing on the wing. Everyone raves about Wilshere but his end product is almost as bad as Chamberlain's and he averages 16 games a season.

[Raja]

I agree. He's not ahead of Cazorla, but he's someone who I think has the potential to become a first team regular ( Yes yes, I know, his injuries and potential and all that, but still). I think AW mentioned this in one of his recent interviews that we need this variety in attack when playing against defences with two banks of four. Hoping that Jack stays fit for the whole season is a long shot, I suppose that's why we've gone for Xhaka.