Iskaral Pust Posted August 28, 2018 Author Share Posted August 28, 2018 3 hours ago, Consigliere said: This might be too cynical from me but given this is Mourinho we are talking about, it wouldn't surprise me if he deliberately sabotaged our defensive setup to make a point (see, I told you I needed a CB!). I’m pretty sure that was a factor. If the changes succeeded — and it did confuse Spurs for the first half until their half time talk — then he’s a tactical genius. If the changes fail, then he has shown that the club’s CBs aren’t good enough. OTOH if he had kept Bailly and Lindelof again and they played poorly again then it’s his CB signings who failed and he failed to make any tactical adjustments. He made very sure to limit the perception of his personal failure. Smalling, Jones & Herrera as an unfamiliar back three and very rusty, dropping Lindelof and Bailly who played all of preseason, was a ridiculous gamble unless your personal accountability is asymmetric in that choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 I'm not sure why you guys are trashing Mourinho. That man is a treasure. I can't stop laughing at that ridiculous presser. 18 hours ago, Raja said: Mourinho is an idiot, but he's got nothing on Trump. 'Trumpinho' is something I can do without. Take him please! We'll give you the old colonies back in exchange! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Meanwhile Löw and Bierhoff have gone public with the results of their post-mortem of World Cup. Key bits. Löw: Not a single cause, but many small contributing factors. We underestimated the impacts of the Erdogan pictures. Özil went overboard with his racism claims within the team and the FA. I tried to reach him for the past two weeks to talk to him in person, he has not answered the phone, or called me back. Overall, it's a sad situation for all parties involved. There's never been racism within the team while I was in charge of the team. My approach to the WC was bordering to arrogance. Possession football is better for suited for league competitions, but not as good as counter attacking football for k.o. competitions (Löw went on to explain how the Germany's football became more and more of a possession styled team). The team spirit/cohesion wasn't as good as was 4 years ago, however some reports were way too dramatic. Furthermore the bloated backroom staff will be reduced again. With regards to the footballing future. In addition to the players who voluntarily retired after the World Cup Khedira won't get called up again. For the next games against France and Peru there will be three newcomers. Kehrer (PSG), Havertz (Leverkusen) and Schulz (Hoffenheim). Furthermore Sane (Man City), Petersen (Freiburg) and Tah (Leverkusen) who failed to make it to the WC roster are also back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Seedings for the CL confirmed. Pot 3 looks really strong and with the likes of Inter and Hoffenheim in pot 4, we're going to get some tasty groups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League group stages for the first time (and only their second appearance since they won it back when it was the European Cup) which is nice. Even better is Red Bull Salzburg continuing to fail to qualify in the most embarrasing way possible. This time conceding twice in a minute at home to blow a two goal lead. That is on top of conceding twice after the 87th minute to Dinamo Zagreb again at home and getting knocked out by a side from Luxembourg in the last five years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 29, 2018 Author Share Posted August 29, 2018 29 minutes ago, Consigliere said: Seedings for the CL confirmed. Pot 3 looks really strong and with the likes of Inter and Hoffenheim in pot 4, we're going to get some tasty groups. Benfica came from behind tonight to win convincingly and leave Liverpool in pot 3. I hope we draw them to take our revenge. I’m looking forward to this year’s CL, especially since Bayern, Barca and RM may all be fading/aging and the pots offer some unusual match-ups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Always be careful what you wish for. I think the news of Barca's impending demise are not really justfied. RM and Bayern are a bit of unknowns. Bayern with Kovac in charge but overall aging/fading is probably accurate, and RM with Lopetegui but without C. Ronaldo. But Real are apparently weakened to the point, that they can spend 40m on Vinicius, just to send him into their reserve, as they didn't have enough roster spots to register him for the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ants Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 On 8/27/2018 at 12:23 AM, Consigliere said: The 2nd half of Watford/Palace was lively. Great goal by Pereyra. Ward really should have snatched a point for Palace in injury time. Bad miss that. Watford should have been down to 10 men after 3 minutes. Absolute disgrace that they weren't, and then the same player had another nick after being given the yellow which could have got him something. Palace very unlucky, but Ward should have got something for them at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 29, 2018 Author Share Posted August 29, 2018 3 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said: Always be careful what you wish for. No doubt. Those three clubs, and Juve and Atletico,have been dominating the CL for a long time. But you have to hope for a change to the established order. City, ‘Pool, Spurs and Roma last season were able to shake things up a bit. Hopefully more of that ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Mane is a humble and down to earth guy.Great new interview.He mentions that Van Gaal tried to sign him but he rejected saying 'not the right club,not the right moment' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 PSG and Napoli. Bollocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 I’m glad we got that over Atleti/Dortmund. Well mostly just glad we avoided Atleti. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Spurs get the group of death for the second season running. I'm happy that we got one of the big boys this time and a strong side like Valencia as well. More difficult but still better than the group we had last season which was no more than a strong Europa League level group. Now it feels like the CL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 30, 2018 Author Share Posted August 30, 2018 Tough draw. We’ll just have to see how good are PSG under Tuchel and Napoli without Sarri. Group D would have been the nicest outcome for us. Group G probably the worst. Not an easy draw for Spurs either. City and United for reasonably favorable draws. Hopefully we’ll be in pot 2 in future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 There has been lots of (rightful) criticism about the the big five getting 19/32 spots, but it has made the groups look much more competitive this year. It is only really Group G where you would be reasonably confident about picking the two qualifiers, compared to last year where there was only one or two that looked (and turned out to be) up for grabs. 4 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: Tough draw. We’ll just have to see how good are PSG under Tuchel and Napoli without Sarri. Group D would have been the nicest outcome for us. Group G probably the worst. Not an easy draw for Spurs either. City and United for reasonably favorable draws. Hopefully we’ll be in pot 2 in future. The top two seeds for D look nice if you are in pot 3, but Galatasaray are probably the second most dangerous pot 4 side after Inter at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 29 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: City and United for reasonably favorable draws. City, sure but calling United's group "reasonably favourable" and Liverpool's a "tough draw" shows that your bias is impairing your judgement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Yeah United and Liverpool got very similar draws quality wise imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 30, 2018 Author Share Posted August 30, 2018 3 minutes ago, Consigliere said: City, sure but calling United's group "reasonably favourable" and Liverpool's a "tough draw" shows that your bias is impairing your judgement. I’m not saying it’s a cake-walk but your #3 and #4 should be manageable and the two top seeds will go through. Valencia are a big name club but were a distant 4th last season and only 12th for the prior two seasons. They’re at a low ebb lately and unlikely to be competitive yet in the CL. I would expect that Juve are much happier to have Valencia in the group than say Liverpool. City’s group is definitely easiest. That’s the benefit of pot 1. United got a reasonable draw for pot 2. Spurs got a tough draw for pot 2. Liverpool got a reasonable draw for pot 3, which is naturally a kind of tough draw overall — our own fault for being pot 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted August 30, 2018 Author Share Posted August 30, 2018 2 minutes ago, Mark Antony said: Yeah United and Liverpool got very similar draws quality wise imo Juve and PSG I would agree are similarly tough. You think Valencia are as tough as Napoli currently? Even losing Sarri, the Napoli team looks a lot better to me than a Valencia still climbing back from a big drop off in recent years. That’s the entire distinction for me. Neither pot 4 team looks like they’ll be a threat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 23 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: I’m not saying it’s a cake-walk but your #3 and #4 should be manageable and the two top seeds will go through. Valencia are a big name club but were a distant 4th last season and only 12th for the prior two seasons. They’re at a low ebb lately and unlikely to be competitive yet in the CL. I would expect that Juve are much happier to have Valencia in the group than say Liverpool. Sure, but I think that Liverpool's group is very much comparable in terms of strength to United's. Marcelino has completely turned Valencia around and has them playing some quality football - their big problem last season was a lack of depth. They've addressed that to an extent but still don't have a deep squad. Napoli has lost the manager who elevated them in addition to one of their most influential players. I don't think there is a big gap between Napoli and Valencia atm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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