Football: Attempting to stay ahead (in your) City.

[shortstark]

8 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Nah. It happens every year. Arsenal mostly outplays United, they get two cheeky goals on the break and de Gea shows once again why he's one of the best in the world. Don't underestimate the emotional comedown after a derby win against Tottenham.

This is one of the main reasons why Wenger had to go, the mental block of Man U was a real thing, lets see what this new era of Emery does for this psychological aspects of the gunners. i am quietly optimistic and has even gone as far as placing a little wager with my rabid man u supporting nephew.

[Iskaral Pust]

Some credit is due to Everton and Arsenal for embracing change when it was needed. 

Everton’s team yesterday included five starters signed this summer — Richarlison, Gomes, Digne, Bernard, Mina — plus Pickford, Keane, Walcott and Gylfi were signed a year ago, and Gueye two years ago.  Only Coleman has any significant tenure.  Allardyce was a terrible choice last year but they have made huge progress to replace a generation of players that had aged out, and now they have a manager pushing good football. 

Arsenal had only three starters signed this summer, but Auba, Laca (sub), Kolasinac and Mustafi were signed just a year ago too.  More importantly, the change in manager after a long stagnation and then decline has revitalized them. 

Both clubs have fans significantly happier than last season, and now contribute to entertaining games for everyone.  Both were rightly criticized for poor judgment at the start of last season, but they learned from it. 

[Consigliere]

Reports saying that Ralph Hasenhüttl (ex Leipzig boss) has agreed in principle to take over at Southampton. 

[polishgenius]

I'm going into this game with the same feeling that I had before the 8-2 game, except in reverse.

[Raja]

Think Xhaka is going to be a pretty big miss for us 

But yeah, I'm with Mexal, we never do well there. Fellani will probably score with a couple of headers 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Everton’s team yesterday included five starters signed this summer — Richarlison, Gomes, Digne, Bernard, Mina — plus Pickford, Keane, Walcott and Gylfi were signed a year ago, and Gueye two years ago.  Only Coleman has any significant tenure.  Allardyce was a terrible choice last year but they have made huge progress to replace a generation of players that had aged out, and now they have a manager pushing good football.  

Although, Walcott shouldn't be starter over Lookman at Everton.

I think the latter offers more as player and his younger than Walcott. But that is just my personal opinion.

[Philokles]

Cardiff at home in the cup. About as underwhelming as a Premier League draw will get. On the other hand, the most winnable.

No doubt the dullest tie in the round - United at home to Reading will be on tv.

[Iskaral Pust]

Liverpool away to Wolves in the FA Cup third round.  I think that's the only all-PL tie in the round, so we got the toughest draw -- and a tough decision on whether to rotate players after the City game -- but at least the Molineux pitch will be in better shape than some of the smaller grounds.  Trying to find a silver lining to a tough draw.

[BigFatCoward]

Modric wins ballon d'or. Fucking load of shite. Makes the judging in Wilder v Fury seem plausible. 

[Consigliere]

Modric winning is a joke. He was not even the best midfielder, let alone best player, at his club last season. Messi placing 5th makes a mockery of this award - the man had the most goals, most assists, most chances created and most key passes in La Liga last season. This is supposed to be an individual award. Team achievements should only come into it if it is difficult to separate two players. 

[Calibandar]

12 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Modric winning is a joke. He was not even the best midfielder, let alone best player, at his club last season. Messi placing 5th makes a mockery of this award - the man had the most goals, most assists, most chances created and most key passes in La Liga last season. 

Yes, yes and yes, you couldn't be more correct.

I find the whole thing a complete farce. Yes of course it should go to Messi and  if it's not him, it should go to Ronaldo, and not to Modric. It just reeks of misjudgement for all sorts of quaint reasons.

I'd take several others over him, such as for instance Hazard.

[mormont]

Look, I'm not going to argue that Modric was better than Messi last year. He wasn't. But we've had ten straight years of Messi or CRonaldo, and honestly Messi should've probably won it in 2007 as well. It seems churlish to complain about giving someone else a look-in for once. *shrugs*

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Makes the judging in Wilder v Fury seem plausible. 

How the fuck did Fury get up though?

[Rorshach]

10 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Although, Walcott shouldn't be starter over Lookman at Everton.

I think the latter offers more as player and his younger than Walcott. But that is just my personal opinion.

It's the opinion of most every Everton supporter I know of. 

I believe it won't be long before it's the standard either. Silva has tended to keep the players performing well - see Mina keeping his spot over Zouma, for example. 

Personally, I guess Walcott keeps his place on account of being a better defender. However, Lookman's game has improved greatly from last season defensively as well. I'm hopeful that Lookman will start vs Newcastle.

[Consigliere]

9 hours ago, mormont said:

Look, I'm not going to argue that Modric was better than Messi last year. He wasn't. But we've had ten straight years of Messi or CRonaldo, and honestly Messi should've probably won it in 2007 as well. It seems churlish to complain about giving someone else a look-in for once. *shrugs*

It's not churlish at all. This is an award for the best player and Modric was not the best player by a long shot. I also don't see why 10 straight years of Ronaldo and Messi winning makes it okay to make a mockery of the award just to give someone else a look-in. Messi and Ronaldo are inarguably the two best players in the world and were the two best players last season as well. It should have been between the two of them again. 

[Heartofice]

10 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Modric winning is a joke. He was not even the best midfielder, let alone best player, at his club last season. Messi placing 5th makes a mockery of this award - the man had the most goals, most assists, most chances created and most key passes in La Liga last season. This is supposed to be an individual award. Team achievements should only come into it if it is difficult to separate two players. 

Its really always about international performance though, and everyone watched the world cup so I guess he's in the back of their minds. Modric was a standout player for Croatia. I feel his award is quite heavily based on sentiment , but maybe that is ok. Lets be honest both Messi and Ronaldo had poor seasons by their own standards.. its just that those standards are insanely high.

[mormont]

39 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

It's not churlish at all. This is an award for the best player and Modric was not the best player by a long shot. I also don't see why 10 straight years of Ronaldo and Messi winning makes it okay to make a mockery of the award just to give someone else a look-in. Messi and Ronaldo are inarguably the two best players in the world and were the two best players last season as well. It should have been between the two of them again. 

YMMV and all that, but let's be real: we agree Modric wasn't the best player in the world last year. But it's not as if the Ballon D'Or has always and only ever gone to the best player in the world. Like every other award supposed to recognise the best, sometimes people vote for other reasons. To describe that as 'making a mockery' of the award is - whether accurate or not - certainly, IMNSHO, churlish. At least a bit. 

Of course this is a pretty churlish thread - see various opinions on Liverpool, for example, who judging by some of the comments here one would assume are in the relegation zone. 

[baxus]

10 hours ago, mormont said:

Look, I'm not going to argue that Modric was better than Messi last year. He wasn't. But we've had ten straight years of Messi or CRonaldo, and honestly Messi should've probably won it in 2007 as well. It seems churlish to complain about giving someone else a look-in for once. *shrugs*

Why would it be churlish to say that Messi deserved the award over Modric if that's the case?

The award is for the best player in the past year. If Messi was better than Modric (and majority of the fans seem to think he was and there are stats to confirm that standpoint), he should've won it.

[Consigliere]

I don't consider stating facts to be churlish. It would have been one thing if Modric himself had had a great season individually but outside of a handful of games, he was pretty much average last season. He performed much better in 2016/2017 which, in terms of individual performance, was the best of his career. I stand by my statement: Modric winning is a joke. Hazard, Salah, KdB, Griezmann individually all performed far better than Modric last season. 

 

@Heartofice

I agree that the WC clouds judgement. While Modric was the best player for Croatia, I wouldn't go as far as saying that he was standout. He wasn't that much better than Rakitic imo. 

And while Ronaldo and Messi did not perform as insanely as they did at their absolute peak, they both still performed brilliantly by any metric. 

[mormont]

30 minutes ago, baxus said:

Why would it be churlish to say that Messi deserved the award over Modric if that's the case?

Hey. I said that. Clearly, I don't consider saying that to be churlish.

But then again: there's saying that, and there's saying things like 'its a joke', 'load of shite', 'makes a mockery of the award', 'complete farce'. How you say things is the issue.