Football: For Now We Are All Champions!

[Consigliere]

Not a particularly impressive performance. We didn't play with much fluency and we are still moving the ball too slowly alot of the time. Rooney had a poor game and barely had any influence in addition to losing possession on numerous occasions. The link up play between him and Ibra was virtually non existent. I was very disappointed that Mkhitaryan did not come on in place of Rooney. Mkhitaryan should be our first choice #10.

I hope Mourinho doesn't make the same mistake as LVG and continue to play his favourites even though their performances are below par. Bailly looks to be a good prospect: pacey, strong and good in the air but he is still a raw talent and is prone to making unnecessary/rash challenges.

Based on the two matches I've seen (Everton & Leicester), there was little to suggest that we are capable of challenging for the title. More likely we will be in a dogfight for 4th place. Still early days though and I'm hoping for a marked improvement over the course of the season. 

[polishgenius]

4 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

 More likely we will be in a dogfight for 4th place. Still early days though and I'm hoping for a marked improvement over the course of the season. 

I think we will. I hate being fair to Mourinho but it's not unreasonable for him to point out that when LVG has had the team playing cautious passing for two years it may take a bit of time to get used to taking more chances. I think we saw that a few times when Zlatan made what looked quite a reasonable pass but the receiving player was five or ten yards too deep. To his credit, Lingard has had no trouble with this.

 

Quote

Mkhitaryan should be our first choice #10.

I'd imagine the plan is to have him on the right, but if Lingard continues impressing and Rooney continues doing nothing, that could change. I'm surprised at how little he looks to have featured this pre-season, but Mourinho evidently likes Lingard already. Might be a different matter once the season actually starts.

[Iskaral Pust]

It's a pity the Arsenal/City game wasn't televised here.  Stupid Olympics is on every channel instead.  From the match report I read on ESPNFC, it sounds like Sanchez did start as striker with Ramsey as #10.  And it sounds like Gabriel injured his ankle.  The Liverpool/Arsenal game next Sunday may feature fourth and fifth choice CBs for both teams at this rate.  Considering how terrible Wisdom has been and how rusty Matip looked today in his first game after injury, I really hope Lovren's muscle strain yesterday wasn't too bad.  

I was surprised that Yaya was so prominent for City in this game.  I thought he was on his way to MLS or China.  Did I miss a big change of heart there?

[Iskaral Pust]

Liverpool are back at the top of Physioroom's league table, even without counting Lovren (no news yet) or Grujic (not yet evaluated).  Ojo injured too -- a pity for him to have preseason interrupted again but not a huge impact on the team at this point.  But he looks very promising. 

[Calibandar]

6 hours ago, polishgenius said:

-------------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.

I like the line-up you suggest. However it still has Rooney, and I would really prefer for him to be excluded. I can also see Valencia being as good as Darmian as the right back. 

I like the first look I got of Baily. I think he and Blind might be the partnership, but more likely Smalling comes back in for 1 of them when he returns, and it probably should be Blind who goes to the bench. I'd also like to see Schneiderlin given a shot, and let's not be quick to let Herrera go either. We need depth.

6 hours ago, ljkeane said:

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.

The money is extravagant but then so is Bale to Madrid for nearly 100 million euros. All that matters is that United's actually done it, a massive coup. Love this player. And a great addition to the EPL. I know it's a lot but he's one of the best players in the world, quite likely the best player in his position, and at 23 years old he's only just beginning to work towards the prime of his career.

3 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

   I assume Pogba will be an upgrade on Elbows Valderrama.  

Elbows Valderrama, I like that. I was very surprised to see him start today by the way, is he actually going to survive the management transfer and stick around? Quite baffling in some ways. Cannot imagine he will start in any games where the squad is fit but could have a use off the bench I suppose.

2 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Not a particularly impressive performance. We didn't play with much fluency and we are still moving the ball too slowly alot of the time. Rooney had a poor game and barely had any influence in addition to losing possession on numerous occasions. The link up play between him and Ibra was virtually non existent. I was very disappointed that Mkhitaryan did not come on in place of Rooney. Mkhitaryan should be our first choice #10.

I hope Mourinho doesn't make the same mistake as LVG and continue to play his favourites even though their performances are below par. Bailly looks to be a good prospect: pacey, strong and good in the air but he is still a raw talent and is prone to making unnecessary/rash challenges.

 

Rooney just continues to be poor, it's something you're just used to now.

He does give some nice passes sometimes, but then the next one will be one where he loses possession which leads into a dangerous counter. The question is, is Mkhitatarayn good enough, will he fit into this team. It seems he may come from the right whereas I think Rooney's place is the primary position that should be fulfilled. Mourinho may start out by giving Rooney some games first.

[Spockydog]

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It's a pity the Arsenal/City game wasn't televised here.  Stupid Olympics is on every channel instead.  From the match report I read on ESPNFC, it sounds like Sanchez did start as striker with Ramsey as #10.  And it sounds like Gabriel injured his ankle.

We were poor in the first half. Understandably, Ramsey looked way off the pace, as did Sanchez. Santi and Iwobi were great. And Walcott did okay in the second half.

Holding looks as green as grass, and probably needs to go out on loan. But he probably won't because Gabriel's injury looked pretty serious. It was one of those horrible contortions where the studs get stuck in the turf, and judging by the time and care the medics took while tending to him, it looks like he might have broken something. Fingers crossed it's not as serious as it looks.

 

[Raja]

I want to see our new number 17 in the starting line up next week. He's so fucking good. It was weirder seeing Walcott come on and look dangerous. 

[Mexal]

3 hours ago, Raja said:

I want to see our new number 17 in the starting line up next week. He's so fucking good. It was weirder seeing Walcott come on and look dangerous. 

Yea, Iwobi looked good for the most part. Liked Walcott's work from the right too in this game. Ramsey was way off pace and there is no reason to not start with Elneny/Xhaka at CM next week. 

Our CBs suck though. We're pretty screwed there. And we still missed a number of huge chances which is standard for Arsenal. Still need a legitimate striker to finish these chances.

[baxus]

11 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It's a pity the Arsenal/City game wasn't televised here.  Stupid Olympics is on every channel instead.

Man, I'd trade places with you in an instant!

I have 10 strictly sports channels (2 Eurosports and 8 local/regional channels that broadcast EPL, Primera, Champions League etc.) and the only ones broadcasting the Olympics is our national network who have such a moronic program scheme I have half a mind to go there after work and slap the person in charge of it.

[Jeor]

10 hours ago, Mexal said:

Our CBs suck though. We're pretty screwed there.

Yup. Looks like Mertesacker, Koscielny and Gabriel are going to all be out.

Which leaves us with Chambers (4th choice) and then someone else. I reckon given the circumstances, Wenger will play Monreal in the centre and give Gibbs the start at LB. Could be a high scoring opening game at Liverpool given the state of both defences.

[Iskaral Pust]

Did anyone notice that Andreas Kornmayer, our new fitness coach hired from Bayern, bears a slight resemblance to someone else....Which is Kornmayer?

[Nas!]

West Ham sign Andrew Ayew from Swansea for a club record £20M--a player who we wouldn't sign on a free last season because we thought his wage demands were too high. 

I like him as a player, so I am generally in favour of this.  I could see him working really well off Carroll, and of course he's already familiar with what Payet can do.  As a front three, they'd certainly have a lot of ways to hurt teams. 

My guess, though, is that he'll play mostly as a lone striker, with Payet pulling strings on the left and Feghouli terrorizing on the right.  I'm less convinced of his suitability to this role, but I'd happily be proved wrong. 

I wonder if this will mark the end of our search for a 'proven 20 goal per season striker'?

More importantly, I wonder if we'll sign a right back before the window closes?

 

[Spockydog]

City have confirmed the signing of John Stones from Everton, while Arsenal reportedly step up their pursuit of Johnny fucking Evans.

 

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

24 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

City have confirmed the signing of John Stones from Everton, while Arsenal reportedly step up their pursuit of Johnny fucking Evans.

 

Just shows Wenger is trapped in a loop, making the same mistakes infinitly.

[Rorshach]

Just about now would be a good time to announce the signing of a couple of CBs.

As long as they aren't Johnny Evans. He needs a strong leader beside him, something Arsenal hasn't got. 

[Mark Antony]

Stones is young and has potential but I don't think I've ever watched him play good enough to warrant all his hype or that big ass price tag but maybe he will become one of the prems best defenders  

[Raja]

They're clearly paying for his potential, which, if you consider what clubs pay for forwards, seems about right to me. In other news Ashley Williams is about to sign for Everton. At least they got a replacement in before the start of the season. 

Also, why would we buy Stones? It makes zero sense to blow 50 million on him? I get being frustrated at AFC's signings this season, but I don't understand the comparison here. 

[Spockydog]

4 minutes ago, Raja said:

They're clearly paying for his potential, which, if you consider what clubs pay for forwards, seems about right to me. In other news Ashley Williams is about to sign for Everton. At least they got a replacement in before the start of the season. 

Also, why would we buy Stones? It makes zero sense to blow 50 million on him? I get being frustrated at AFC's signings this season, but I don't understand the comparison here. 

Just another example of our rivals getting shit done while we dither and dither.

 

[Raja]

1 minute ago, Spockydog said:

Just another example of our rivals getting shit done while we dither and dither.

 

The stones thing has dragged on for 2 seasons though? 

Not sure about Evans - our links to Mustafi seem more concrete than the stuff re: Evans. 

[Spockydog]

1 minute ago, Raja said:

The stones thing has dragged on for 2 seasons though? 

Not sure about Evans - our links to Mustafi seem more concrete than the stuff re: Evans. 

Yeah, but they still got their man.

I'm sure there are strikers we've been tracking for just as long. The difference is our rivals seem far better equipped to make these moves actually happen.