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Football - To Russia with Löw


Philokles

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Hard to Believe that Sané's absence from Germany's squad isn't down to injury.

Meanwhile, Fred is having his medical for Man Utd. Guess I've to be optimistic about him.

The little I have seen from him at Donetsk is exciting, the issue is that they evolve in a weak, far league. (They did make their way to UCL RO16 though.) I haven't seen him enough in a Brazil shirt to judge, but the fact he's in Seleçao's squad for WC says a few things, I assume.

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29 minutes ago, Warm-hands said:

Hard to Believe that Sané's absence from Germany's squad isn't down to injury.

No injury reported.  I think it’s more that Low’s system of narrow wingers doesn’t suit Sane, who hasn’t impressed much in his limited caps.  He gets played in a role similar to David Silva, which isn’t his strength. 

I’m a bit surprised that Low doesn’t want some variations available on his standard formation. 

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51 minutes ago, Warm-hands said:

The little I have seen from him at Donetsk is exciting, the issue is that they evolve in a weak, far league. (They did make their way to UCL RO16 though.) I haven't seen him enough in a Brazil shirt to judge, but the fact he's in Seleçao's squad for WC says a few things, I assume.

Another thing to consider is that some quality players have made their names at Shakhtar before moving on: Fernandinho, Willian, Mkhi, Douglas Costa, etc. Our impending signing of Dalot is far more risky. He's 19 and has only made a handful of appearances for Porto whereas Fred is 25 and a fairly seasoned campaigner at club level.

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13 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

How good is Julian Brandt? I remember Liverpool originally wanting him but then settling on Salah and now he’s keeping Sane out of the German team. 

good, but not that good.

Sane is faster (in fairness that can be said about most players) and is a bit more potent offensively. Brandt is more versatile (e.g. can play both wings), and is probably also a more rounded player, as in better defensively. He was also on Bayern's short list, no idea if they still want him.

But presumably Brandt won't be in the starting XI. Germany's first team will probably look like this.

Neuer - Hector  Hummels  Boateng  Kimmich - Khedira Kroos - Reus Özil Müller - Werner

4-2-3-1

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I agree with Notone on Brandt. He is good enough that the story is Sane’s absence  rather than his presence - after Leroy he has the best stats for the season of Germany’s more conventional wingers (though Reus missed half it and Draxler was not first choice), but it is still a major surprise. Especially as he is stylistically pretty similar to Germany’s other options.

 

30 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Brandt plays on the right, doesn't he? The guys keeping Sane out of the squad are Reus and Draxler.

It's a little surprising for those of us who've watched him in the Premier League all season I guess, but he doesn't have a great deal of experience internationally, and from what I've heard he's generally been poor when he's played. I'm sure he'll see plenty of tournaments though.

Mainly on the left, but he is comfortable on both and has played quite a bit on the right this season, as Bailey prefers left.

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25 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

Fuck how unfortunate is it to have your best player and gk injured in the cl final :(

"Unfortunate" soft-peddles it.  Dirty Ramos deliberately injured them both and received a game-winning advantage from his unpunished assault on two opponents.  But of course there'll be no review or retrospective punishment.  Liverpool miss out on the trophy, Madrid and Ramos will continue their shit-housing and get rewarded for it.

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2 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Without anything specific Toure should probably keep his mouth shut before throwing around racism accusations. 

He's been doing that for years. He's never won the Ballon d'Or because FIFA hates Africans.

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16 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Without anything specific Toure should probably keep his mouth shut before throwing around racism accusations. 

Yeah, but often that's not how racism works, is it? It's more subtle than that. Racists don't go around saying 'I dropped you because you're black'. (With the exception of certain dumbass commentators who though the mikes were off, of course.)

And to be fair, despite the headlines, in the interview Toure is suggesting that Guardiola may have a problem with African players. He's quite clear that this is something for which he has only circumstantial evidence.

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“However, the day he fields a team with five Africans, non-naturalised, I promise that I will send him a cake!”

Now, let's be honest here, having managed Barca, Bayern and now City, it's not as if Guardiola's had much chance of fielding a team with five African players.

Also, I don't remember Toure not playing for Guardiola the first time around, in Barca.

Also, he suggests that physical fitness is the only parameter that should be taken into account when picking the starting eleven which is a load of crap. Why on Earth would Guardiola favour the guy who's nearing the end of his career and is leaving the club at the end of the season over someone who's younger and can grow as a player throughout the season? And that's without even getting into Guardiola's tactical plans and who fits those better.

Calling racism when the more reasonable explanation is that Guardiola is picking players who fit his gameplan better is a new low, even for a guy who got his panties in a twist after not receiving a birthday cake for his birthday.

Had he provided the names of those Barca players who asked if Guardiola has issues with African players, then we'd be able to hear their side of the story and this story might get somewhere. As it is, it's a lot of "trust me, he does have problem with African players" without any real evidence to back his story up.

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45 minutes ago, mormont said:

And to be fair, despite the headlines, in the interview Toure is suggesting that Guardiola may have a problem with African players. He's quite clear that this is something for which he has only circumstantial evidence.

The problem with this is that nowadays you don't really need to provide evidence for such a claim.

This could really hurt Guardiola's reputation without any evidence ever being produced. It could easily turn into Guardiola having to prove he's not racist rather than Toure having to prove he is.

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1 hour ago, baxus said:

This could really hurt Guardiola's reputation without any evidence ever being produced. It could easily turn into Guardiola having to prove he's not racist rather than Toure having to prove he is.

Generally speaking yes, but not in this case. Touré himself doesn't have the best reputation, as in always complaining and blaming others if things don't go his way. Guardiola has a problems with divas/players who think of themselves as more important than the team or don't have the right work ethics. Thus my prediction when he joined City that Nasri won't be there for too long. With some goodwill you can read this into:

14 hours ago, Spockydog said:

“Pep likes to dominate and wants to have obedient players who lick his hands." 

That he doesn't like players who act up (like most coaches) is not really a secret, and has lead to some pretty sour grapes, Toure is just one of them. Ibra falls in the same category.

Klopp is another example for coaches who doesn't like to deal with BS from players, just that he is more patient than Pep. I mean if Sakho had said something like he didn't get along with him and ended his Liverpool career, because he was black, most fans would be like. I am pretty sure that's not why you were pushed out.

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2 hours ago, baxus said:

Now, let's be honest here, having managed Barca, Bayern and now City, it's not as if Guardiola's had much chance of fielding a team with five African players.

Maybe not, but it's odd to hear that said of those teams: they are very much international in their makeup. It's not inconceivable that a top European team would have five African players.

2 hours ago, baxus said:

Also, he suggests that physical fitness is the only parameter that should be taken into account when picking the starting eleven which is a load of crap.

It would be, if he had said it, which he very definitely did not.

What he did say was that he had evidence that his own fitness was good, and was not the reason for him not being selected. That's all. 

2 hours ago, baxus said:

Had he provided the names of those Barca players who asked if Guardiola has issues with African players, then we'd be able to hear their side of the story and this story might get somewhere.

Had he done that, you'd be criticising him for involving them.

You're complaining about Toure being unfair in his comments, but you're not being fair to Toure either.

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