Football: For Now We Are All Champions!

[Consigliere]

It looks like the Pogba saga is finally coming to a close with Juve having given the green light for Pogba to undergo a medical. The reported fee is eye watering but there is no doubt that Pogba is a significant improvement over our current midfield options. Really didn't think we would pull this off.

[polishgenius]

-------------De Gea
(Darmian) Smalling Baily Shaw
----Pogba Schneiderlin
Mikhi --- ----Rooney----Martial
----------------Zlatan

 

 

Not a bad lineup. Though I'm a bit worried that it's gonna be Carrick and not Schneiderlin and it's a pity for Herrera that there oesn't appear to be much place for him.

[Raja]

They should be relegated for the 'Pogback' hashtag. 

[ljkeane]

Has Rooney got the legs to play 10 anymore? Especially with an aging Ibrahimovic in front of him.

And, yeah, the money for Pogba is insane, there's definitely no way he's worth that. We should probably give up on sane transfer fees with the new tv money though.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Dammit.Grujic is off injured.Hope it's something minor.

[Consigliere]

9 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Not a bad lineup. Though I'm a bit worried that it's gonna be Carrick and not Schneiderlin and it's a pity for Herrera that there oesn't appear to be much place for him.

I'm worried about that as well. Our starting XI for todays game has Carrick and Fellaini in midfield. It seems that Mourinho, like LVG, prefers Carrick.

 

On Pogba's reported fee: I agree that based purely on what he can give us on the field, he is not worth that much money but I'm sure that the higher ups at the club are looking at his 'off field' potential as well. Pogba must surely be among the most marketable figures in sport at the moment and I'm sure that the club are looking to take full advantage of that. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if we eventually end up turning over a healthy profit out of this deal. I'd be more shocked if we didn't, tbh.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Terrible goalkeeping.Manninger beaten on his near side FFS! We're down 2-0

Overall not good enough in 1st half.We seemed sluggish compared to Mainz and our midfield coudn't string a pass together.Henderson and Can have zero understanding between the.Lallana nowhere to be seen.

[Raja]

7 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

,On Pogba's reported fee: 

If he's half decent, zero people will give any fucks about his fee. 

[Consigliere]

5 minutes ago, Raja said:

If he's half decent, zero people will give any fucks about his fee. 

If he's only "half decent" then I'm sure that the fee will be questioned by a whole lot of people.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

We're down 3-0 hahahaha.Absolute shit.

At least Moreno has been subbed.

[polishgenius]

If the first ten minutes of a glorified pre-season friendly are any judge, Shaw and Martial could be a fearsome pairing down the left.

It's certainly good to see Shaw back and bombing up and down the line, anyway.

[baxus]

3 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Yeah,i read some of that negative shit too.It was a pretty good header,overall i like what i've seen from him so far.

I am pretty impressed with his display as well.

With all the hooliganism, third-party ownership, rumoured match-fixing etc. surrounding Serbian league, I have tried my best to se as little of it as I could but from what I could not avoid seeing it's a very low-level league compared to Premiership. So far, his transition to a much higher level of performance has been going much better than I expected.

Hopefully, his injury is nothing major.

As for the current result against Mainz, Liverpool did play a rather high-tempo prep match yesterday plus they traveled to Mainz. That match was never a priority with a schedule like that.

[Mark Antony]

Weird idea to play a game in another country less than 24 hours after your last one but it's still typical Liverpool to beat Barca 4-0 and then turn around and look like shit against weaker competition. 

Will be interesting to see where in the midfield Pogba plays. Haven't watched that much Juve but from what I've seen I think his best position might be the 10 role. 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

1 minute ago, Mark Antony said:

Weird idea to play a game in another country less than 24 hours after your last one but it's still typical Liverpool to beat Barca 4-0 and then turn around and look like shit against weaker competition.

Don't worry,yesterday was a fluke.We're now down 4-0

[Consigliere]

Our defence isn't looking too clever atm. We gave up a few very good chances to Everton and we are looking a bit vulnerable at the back today as well. Read somewhere that Mourinho wants to switch to zonal marking so there will probably be a period of defensive vulnerability while players adjust to this new system.

[Consigliere]

Great run from Lingard and good composure to finish.

[polishgenius]

Just call him Lingardonna.

[Iskaral Pust]

I didn't see Liverpool/Mainz.  I'm not surprised we were over-powered but I am disappointed that so many players seemed to be clueless in how to coordinate.  They could have played a controlled, low tempo game and let Mainz go at it as hard as they want, but we didn't even have that.  I wonder how the players felt about being asked to play again so soon and risk muscle injuries.  Terrible decision by the club (I think it was part of the Karius deal). 

I saw the second half of the Utd/Leicester game.  Zlatan takes the headline but he and Rooney weren't great.  I guess all that matters is you take one of the chances, even if you shinned an attempt at an open goal.  Martial and Rashford sharing time on the left wing to accommodate the two lumbering egos in the center looks like a terrible waste of talent.  It looks like Utd will return to wing play and lots of crosses, which does suit Zlatan.  Leicester's wingers did very little to pin back the FBs, but Musa at least attacked that space.   I assume Pogba will be an upgrade on Elbows Valderrama.  Leicester were surprisingly poor defending corners and crosses, especially when Huth and Morgan are basically only slow but good in the air.  Simpson seemed terrified of Martial's pace and was backing off 10+ yards.  Leicester struggled to create anything except for a goal gifted to them.  Bailly adds some pace and aggression at CB but looks like he'll concede a few free kicks too.  Still a big upgrade over Jones, Blind, Rojo and possibly Smalling. 

[BigFatCoward]

that strip is in no way, shape or form a Man Utd strip.  absolutely scandalous. 

[polishgenius]

28 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Simpson seemed terrified of Martial's pace and was backing off 10+ yards.

It was more Shaw that did that to him. I tend to think that when facing Martial on the wing getting close is the best option, because while he's lethal once he's got it under control he can be put off his first touch, but every time Simpson tried that Shaw went bombing past on the overlap and he's much faster than either of them.