Consigliere Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Another late goal for City which takes them to 100 points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 17 minutes ago, kairparavel said: Chelsea had a CL spot on the line, yeah? Sort of. I doubt they were really holding out much hope of Brighton winning at Anfield, especially given Brighton didn’t even put out their strongest side. Still, not a great effort leading into the FA cup final. Great effort from City to reach 100 points. They’ve been fantastic this year. ETA: One of the main problems with the Premier League this season for me has been the lack of a real tier of good solidly mid table teams. Hopefully Rafa will get some money to spend in the summer and maybe Newcastle will be one next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Meh. Worst season ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Well, I couldn’t watch the game today. Thank goodness. Neither us nor West Ham had much to play for other than pride - and, given that Samuele’s on the sideline, I’d prefer the team to leave pride behind (he has, ages ago) and play to lose him. Permanently. #SamueletostaybehindinLondon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 12 minutes ago, ljkeane said: ETA: One of the main problems with the Premier League this season for me has been the lack of a real tier of good solidly mid table teams. Hopefully Rafa will get some money to spend in the summer and maybe Newcastle will be one next season. Yeah. Pretty much literally only two, Leicester and Everton and even they were at risk for a while, unless you count Arsenal and Burnley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 16 minutes ago, Spockydog said: Meh. Worst season ever. Time to get behind Arteta... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mme Erzulie Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Brighton were halfway to the beach today, but we still looked very sharp. Glad to see fatigue seems to have been the biggest reason for the drop in quality over the past 2-3 weeks. Great goal by Solanke, really hope he can kick on next season and push for a berth in the starting lineup. Lallana looked very sharp. Mané looks like he's finding his form (just the finishing missing now), and Gini looks like he's relishing the physical aspect of the game more and more. Bring on the CL final. If we start like we did today, we could have a chance of blitzing Real into submission before they realise the game's begun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Wonder where Conte will end up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 18 minutes ago, Mexal said: Time to get behind Arteta... It's looking increasingly likely. By all accounts, he is an excellent coach. But right now I think I'd prefer someone with some actual management experience and let Arteta hang with Pep for a few seasons more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 21 minutes ago, Mark Antony said: Wonder where Conte will end up Would welcome him to Islington with open arms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemon the Leaner Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Mark Antony said: Wonder where Conte will end up Likely in the same Little Italy bar than Ancelotti and Pellegrini. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Spockydog said: It's looking increasingly likely. By all accounts, he is an excellent coach. But right now I think I'd prefer someone with some actual management experience and let Arteta hang with Pep for a few seasons more. Agreed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 So Barcelona are currently getting battered by Levante to potentially spoil their undefeated league season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Levante 5-1 up now. Massive upset. Barca looked dead certain for an unbeaten season but Levante are taking some of the gloss off. Barca without Messi is a very different beast. He's not even in the squad so I can't see Barca mounting a fightback now. ETA. make that 5-2. Coutinho pulls one back. ETA 2. looks like a comeback is actually on. Coutinho pulls another one back. 5-3 now. ETA 3. Suarez makes it 5-4. Unbelievably Barca look favourites to win this one. Levante have turned to shit since scoring their 5th. ETA 4. Levante hold on for the win. Great second half. Definitely takes some of the gloss off what has otherwise been a dominant season in the league for Barca. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 On a slightly less glamorous stage, German second tier football was quite tense with regards to the relegation zone. Braunschweig who lost their promotion play off games against Wolfsburg last season got relegated today. Kiel, who are facing Wolfsburg next week for their promotion play-offs next week, fielded a B-Team and that was more than enough to properly demolish Braunschweig. I won't miss Braunschweig. So if by any off chance some Braunschweig supporter reads this. Good riddance. In a direct relegation battle Aue lost at Darmstadt. And Aue have every right to feel cheated. Bundesliga 2 has no goal line technology and no VAR. So Aue scored a regular goal which was not given (clearence behind hte goal line), they were denied one stonewall penalty, and got another call turned down. They were the much better side for most of the game and conceded a stupid goal late in the game, as they thought they needed to win as... Heidenheim was trailing at that point against Fürth. Heidenheim managed to score a late equalizer, which made that goal Aue conceded so much harder to take. Oh, on the sunnier parts of the table Nürnberg hosted Düsseldorf. Both teams have clinched promotion, so this game was just to decide who wins the league. Nürnberg was leading 2-0 early on, just to concede the 2-3 late in the game. Note a draw would ahve been enough for Nürnberg. But as they say. Der Glubb is oi Depp [The club is a fool]. On a seperate note, Frankonian is one of the funnier dialects German has to offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Just seen Pochettino's post-match comments. There's no way Levy's gonna back him in the market, especially now their stadium costs have reportedly risen to a billion pounds. I'd absolutely love it if we went in for him (it would be even better than nicking Sol Campbell off them), but I can't imagine Gazidis is remotely ready to spend the kind of money Poch would demand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 Since the 4-1 loss to Spurs back on October 22nd, not long after a 5-0 loss to City, Liverpool had the fewest goals conceded in the PL over the remaining period (29 games). I know it’s terrible cherry-picking to select a subset of a season, and especially a subset that carves out some of the toughest games (away to City and Spurs), but that was the turning point when Klopp tweaked the formation to have the FBs alternate their attacks rather than both pushing forward, and to have them surge forward and back rather than sit forward. Our defensive capabilities were boosted by VVD, Robertson and Karius from January onward but the first principal adjustment was in tactical formation to not overcommit going forward. Basically we started the season too attacking, especially with Moreno and an inexperienced Gomez/Arnold at FB, Migs still in goal (remember when he was conceding almost every single shot on target allowed?) and no VVD at CB. Once we adapted the formation to support a fragile defense, we tightened things up a lot. And then our defense improved too as the season went on. So it took us 9 games to learn and adapt, but we were the meanest defense for the subsequent 29 games. My hope is that this looks like a sustainable improvement over a large sample that we can carry forward into next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfell is Burning Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Brazil announced it's 23-man squad for the WC: GK: Alisson (Roma); Cássio (Corinthians); Ederson (Manchester City) Defenders: Fagner (Corinthians), Danilo (Manchester City), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Filipe Luís (Atlético de Madri); Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain), Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain), Miranda (Internazionale), Pedro Geromel (Grêmio) Midfielders: Casemiro (Real Madrid), Fernandinho (Manchester City), Paulinho (Barcelona), Renato Augusto (Beijing Guoan), Fred (Shakhtar Donetsk), Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona), Willian (Chelsea) Attackers: Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain), Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City), Douglas Costa (Juventus), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Taison (Shakhtar Donetsk) No real surprises, though I'm disappointed than when in doubt Tite went with players he managed at club level in Cássio, Fágner and Taison rather than players who are playing at a higher level. There's 6 players that went to the 2014 WC (Thiago Silva also went to 2010, though he didn't play). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Strong team. Midfield is fair bit weaker than Spain, Germany, France but that attack might be the best at the World Cup. Firmino will be on the bench, no? Crazy to have a season he’s had and not start but Gabby Jesus is amazing as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Reckon Rafinha, Naldo, Fabinho and Willian have a right to feel aggrieved about who was picked over them. Other than that more or less the right squad was picked. The biggest issue with the midfield was letting Thiago and Jorginho go to Spain and Italy. It shouldn't be too much of a worry that Cassio is in the squad with Alisson and Ederson ahead. No matter who was called up should be well behind those two, so choosing someone who suits the squad dynamics/works well with Tite makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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