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Football, a Sterling effort, but Virgil got Dijk'd.


BigFatCoward

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1 minute ago, ljkeane said:

I'm not sure about that. I think they genuinely tried to play, they were repeatedly trying to pass out from the back in the first half, they gave up a bit in the second half, City just completely hemmed them in.

That's the thing with City, when teams get past their press and actually have to defend in their own half, especially without Fernandinho, they do look a little vulnerable. Their ability to keep the ball and win it back so fast when they lose it means it hardly ever matters though. 

Probably fair.

I just tend to be bored when every defender is closer to their own goal than midfield. 

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As it happens my stepfather 5 times removed,simply because we've had to remove him 5 times,happens to be a Brighton fan for some inexplicable reason.

Ok he's from Brighton.

So yeah like I'll have a word.

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Just now, redriver said:

As it happens my stepfather 5 times removed,simply because we've had to remove him 5 times,happens to be a Brighton fan for some inexplicable reason.

Ok he's from Brighton.

So yeah like I'll have a word.

Brighton just, just did enough in the first half of the season to stay up. Since January they've been on an alarming downward spiral - only Huddersfield picked up less points than Brighton since January.

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Just now, Consigliere said:

Brighton just, just did enough in the first half of the season to stay up. Since January they've been on an alarming downward spiral - only Huddersfield picked up less points than Brighton since January.

Yep.More in hope than certainty.Still proud of the lads.

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6 minutes ago, redriver said:

Yep.More in hope than certainty.Still proud of the lads.

Liverpool have had an amazing season.  You can't control what your competition does.  We'll have plenty of time to regret missed points here or there, and narrow decisions and fine margins, but the reality is that we significantly outperformed.

From City's point of view, Kompany smashing in a late, improbable long range goal against a parked bus opposition is their own fairy tale clincher for this title.  It all depends on perspective.

I prefer to live in an alternate reality where we won the CL in 2007, the league in 2009 and 2014, the EL in 2016 and now the PL & CL double in 2019.  But I'm such a gracious winner that I don't crow about all those extra trophies so no-one ever notices and tries to correct me.

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2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

That’s a properly cynical foul from Silva. Solskjaer wasn’t wrong about how City kill other team’s counters.

Every successful team has a dark side, none more so than the Utd team under Fergie. Not knocking it, my team, (Arsenal), have been missing it for years, just saying.

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11 minutes ago, State Trooper said:

Every successful team has a dark side, none more so than the Utd team under Fergie. Not knocking it, my team, (Arsenal), have been missing it for years, just saying.

Even Barcelona. The absolute masters for a decade at tactical fouling and cynicism but they win, play pretty football and score lots of goals so nobody pays much attention to the 'dark arts'. 

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10 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Even Barcelona. The absolute masters for a decade at tactical fouling and cynicism but they win, play pretty football and score lots of goals so nobody pays much attention to the 'dark arts'. 

Absolutely.  Even when Mourinho's Real Madrid team with Pepe and Ramos were making ugly fouls in the Classico matches, the Barca players were diving, feigning injury, time-wasting, haranguing the referee, etc while doing their own tactical fouls.  And they rarely get punished as they should either.  Unfortunately it seems that cynicism is rewarded.

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2 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Absolutely.  Even when Mourinho's Real Madrid team with Pepe and Ramos were making ugly fouls in the Classico matches, the Barca players were diving, feigning injury, time-wasting, haranguing the referee, etc while doing their own tactical fouls.  And they rarely get punished as they should either.  Unfortunately it seems that cynicism is rewarded.

Barça managed to even get lauded as "pure" because Messi didn't do it. Surely, he didn't, but there were Busquets, Puyol, Dani Alves, Mascherano...

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26 minutes ago, Triskele said:

Pardon my ignorance, but does Kompany have a history of taking low percentage shots or is there some other contextual reason this was such a thing?  

That tweet up there, and he's a defender, and he's been with them since the won their first PL title. It's also a stellar goal. 

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16 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Although the Chelsea fans have been booing the team, and particularly the manager, for a couple of months or more, achieving CL qualification and possibly (likely?) winning the EL would have been viewed as a positive season last July.

It hasn’t been the most convincing season, and they have a big uncertainty ahead with Pulisic arriving but Hazard probably leaving, but not actually a bad first season for Sarri.  But will he stick around while the fans won’t support him?

It has been a very strange season for Chelsea. I am delighted that we managed to qualify for the CL through the league with a game to spare, but a lot of that is down to how poor Spurs, Arsenal and Man United have been. If we win our final game, we will finish the season third with 74 points. Last season, that wouldn't have been enough to finish 4th in the previous two seasons. Particularly through the middle of the season, we were dire to watch at times. We just passed and passed without any intention and fell to defeat against any team that showed a little bit of fight. 

As for Sarri, it took him until March to start playing players the fans had been calling out for him to pick the since early on in the season: Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi. Since Loftus-Cheek in particular has come in, our performances and results have improved. He has had his own recurring injury problem, but for Sarri to have waited until March to pick him on a consistent basis when fit is frustrating, especially when Barkley and Kovacic offered us very little in his place.

It looks like we are going to have the transfer ban, which I don't see as a bad thing at all. As we don't have a director of football, I don't trust the people in charge of transfers at the club to make the right signings, so I'd be glad if we couldn't sign players in this window and had to trust some of the players who have been successful out on loan, like Reece James, Tammy Abraham and Kurt Zouma. Another season on loan might be good for Tomori and Mount, but I wouldn't be against us selling Barkley and bringing Mount back for next season.

With the transfer ban in mind, I haven't seen enough from Sarri to convince me he'd be the right man for the job if we aren't able to sign players he wants and have to rely on using what we have. 

 

A note on Vincent Komany:

I've actually been on for Liverpool to win the league this season. I think, after so many years without winning it, it would actually be quite nice to see the club finally do it. However, what a great moment in Premier League history that could have been last night when Kompany fired one into the top corner to win the game for Man City.

Kompany is a great professional and the type of leader that any club in the league would love to have. Greame Souness often goes on about 'senior professionals'. Man City are the only top 6 club in the league that has those. Kompany, D. Silva and Aguero are the back bone of that club, leading the team by giving everything they have for the club when they play, which is influencing the next breed of leaders coming through at Man City, like De Bruyne, Sterling, B. Silva. 

If this is Kompany's last season at the club, he goes out not only as Man City great, but a great of English football.

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Being the only top6 side that managed to take all 3pts against Pep's band, yeah, I think there are postive points you can take away from Chelsea's sesason.

In fact, every top6 "chasing pack" side has had a bit of an erratic PL campaign.

Spurs appeared like they would be able to sustain (if not improve) their form from previous seasons, but their pace has been sunk by injuries since February, and by now it doesn't seem like they've recovered. It again shew how flat is this Spurs squad, which at least gives credit to Poch for keeping them in CL level these years. (he even improved their record in CL) If he isn't backed to drive an ambitious transfer window this summer, I can see him packing his luggages the following summer though.

Arsenal have never looked like they could sustain a great run of form, albeit Emery's done well with the squad he has at his disposal. It's a bit of a failure for them to not clinch this 4th spot, but I can see them win the EL. They're basically on a Mourinho-1st-Utd-season scheme.

Solskjaer really brought some fresh air to Man Utd' season. But this squad has lacks that we fans have been complaining about for years without them to be fixed. Asking Solskjaer to mask them in a few months -never mind fix them- was a bit of a hard task.

 

 

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It's a question of how you look at it.

Chelsea and Spurs arguably had the most complete teams from the pack; with different shortcomings. With Spurs it's simple depth. Their starting XI is good, plain and simple, but they really need a deeper squad. Chelsea really lack some really good forwards. Otherwise their squad looks more or less sorted. It's just a question where Sarri wants to take them, and if the squad is suited for it, but the raw quality to play CL football is there. Also pending transfer ban.

With Arsenal there are some holes that need fixing. Centrebacks are probably their top priority. Then midfield and fullbacks could use an upgrade, and the big question is what to do with Özil. He doesn't seem to fit into Emery's idea of football, but tough to see Arsenal find any takers, as it looks like Özil is content with collecting his big paycheck without necessarily making the match day squad. On some level I can't blame him, it's his last big contract, and it is quite big indeed. And that will probably limit Arsenal's options to sign top talent.

United has been covered to no ends. At least one centreback and fullbacks are probably high up on their shopping list. Solskjaer now needs to prove he actually is their longterm appointment as manager, they have to find a DoF. ANd then there's the question mark concerning de Gea, and whether Pogba will be trying to get out, and how/if Lukaku does fit into Solskjaer ideas for United. Also a few new midfielders would not harm them.

 

I am curious how City and Liverpool will act on the transfermarket. They obviously have less need to add something than the pack, but Liverpool really want to add further quality depth to their forwards. City will buy something, probably some successor for Fernandinho and to pre-empt a pending transfer ban.

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1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

City will buy something, probably some successor for Fernandinho and to pre-empt a pending transfer ban.

Would be fun if they provoke the transfer ban by buying too much players trying to anticipate a ban.

Anyway, I still don't get how Semedo isn't a starter for this Barca team.

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Embarrassing how Liverpool fans have finally discovered who Luis Suarez is. Racism when playing for you - fine, general shithousery against you - unacceptable.

Though booing him is pretty much the only atmosphere there is at the moment.

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