Football: Steve the Bruce King of Geordies

[Daemon the Leaner]

3 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Seven if you also include Tuanzebe. We need to sell a couple at least but our board's incompetence at dealing with contracts has left us in a position where we are struggling to offload players. 

I'm not too keen on this Dybala deal either. It's looking increasingly like Dybala really doesn't want to leave Juve but is being forced out by the club. We are going to end up with a mopey player on £350k/week putting in half arsed performances. Woodward will never learn. 

On CBs: I can see Tuanzebe being loaned again, Bailly is injured as always and perhaps Rojo's gonna be more a back up at LB than a CB... so it only leaves our iconic fellas of Jones & Smalling as back up CBs. One of the last three has to leave though.

On Dybala: the new Di Maria /Alexis. It's written all over the place. Woodward just want shirt sales.

[Consigliere]

19 minutes ago, Ser Glendon Fireball said:

On CBs: I can see Tuanzebe being loaned again, Bailly is injured as always and perhaps Rojo's gonna be more a back up at LB than a CB... so it only leaves our iconic fellas of Jones & Smalling as back up CBs. One of the last three has to leave though.

On Dybala: the new Di Maria /Alexis. It's written all over the place. Woodward just want shirt sales.

I'd be surprised if Tuanzebe is going to be loaned out - Solskjaer has preferred using mainly Lindelof, Jones and Tuanzebe at CB in pre season. He's already much better than Rojo and a better passer than Smalling, Jones and Rojo. Young is our backup LB and Dalot has played a fair number of games at LB too. I'd say Rojo and Bailly would be at the top of the transfer list. Smalling and Jones will stay because they are English and United like to pad the homegrown quota. 

 

Quote

Woodward just want shirt sales.

Most definitely. Dybala is sponsored by Adidas as well (our main shirt sponsor) and so is Pogba. Woodward is probably salivating at the marketing potential. LVG was right when he said that the higher ups at United don't give a shit about football and only care about commercial activities. 

[Iskaral Pust]

I gave in and purchased a copy of FM19.  My wife and son are out of town for a few days, so this is the time experiment with a time-consuming game. 

It’s so dull.  So much data but too difficult to actually do anything you want, like find cheap talent (I tried starting as Sunderland in League 1).  The fun part of the original CM games was scouring the globe for undiscovered young players.

That was $50 wasted but at least I won’t waste anymore time on it. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And the game was sitty, as expected.

Started off, with our captain injuring himself in the middle of the pitch, game continued, while he was lieing there on the ground, they scored - one cb less to defend basically. He possibly suffered a fracture.

Their second was ruled off after VAR interference. But then they scored another regular goal anyway. Quite poor defending.

Got one goal back before half-time.

Couple of good chances, But somehow either the goalkeeper, woodwork or narrow misses prevented the equalizer.

Then came their third - nice goal admittedly. And that was basically curtains.  The attacking movements in the final third looked ok, but the defending was criminal.

This is gonna be a long season.

2 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It’s so dull.  So much data but too difficult to actually do anything you want, like find cheap talent (I tried starting as Sunderland in League 1).  The fun part of the original CM games was scouring the globe for undiscovered young players. 

Depends. I found it more rewarding to get young players thru the clubs' own youth systems. Something the old CM games lacked (I mean CM2 (my first game from the series) had one serious problem, you basically had to look for aging players about to retire, and once they were gone, the newgen with Maradona's values was automatically on your shortlist - it did not even have real value progression apart from them losing pace starting age 34 iirc). Anyway back to FM. The first few seasons were always a bit meh. Deciding what kinda football I want to play, and recruiting players accordingly (who also make somewhat decent tutors (determination!!)), and also getting the backroom stuff sorted out. I remember one save (FM 14), where I started from scrap at a third tier team, fought my way to the top flight (almost getting sacked along the way, because those low tier clubs are a pain on the revenue side, it got better after winning the first promotion). Then I was poached by one of the Istanbul clubs (Besiktas I think), the team was struggling to meet expectations with a financial problems (and a different footballing philosophy; started with possession football at my first club, to direct counter attacking at Besiktas) but the potential to actually win something, then I moved on after 3 seasons or so (and sorting out the club), to Feyenoord (direct attacking football, a tasty academy and a first team squad filled with younger players), and then I was approached by Barca and somehow lost interest in the safe. I know there are better war stories in the FM world out there, like winning the CL with scandinavian teams - and getting your best players poached by richer clubs.

Otherwise FM has always been a huge tablebase calculation. Excel football if you will.

[Jeor]

5 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Most definitely. Dybala is sponsored by Adidas as well (our main shirt sponsor) and so is Pogba. Woodward is probably salivating at the marketing potential. LVG was right when he said that the higher ups at United don't give a shit about football and only care about commercial activities. 

The big question is when the football starts impacting the commercial activities. To some extent United can trade on the Ferguson era but once that gets further and further away and the chances of success diminish, United may become a China-Lite - a place where footballers get paid a lot and paraded around as marketing ponies, but properly ambitious footballers don't go there. To be sure, United still plays in the EPL so the China League metaphor is hyperbole, but you know what I mean...

[Consigliere]

Reports that Barca have reached an agreement to sign Firpo for €18m + €7m in add ons. That's a lot less than I thought Betis would sell for. 

[Joey Crows]

Hot Take: This is the year of the front 3 in England. 

Firmino, Mane, Salah

Kane, Son, Alli

Silva, Aguero, Sterling

Lacazette, Aubamayang, Pepe

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And Sane RUMOREDLY to be revealed on Wednesday at Bayern. Fee 100m €, annual wage of 15m for 4 years.

Source is the Express, which I would not label to be reliable by any stretch of imagination. The Cologne based tabloid claims it's got the information from a member of Sane's family.

Bayern stuck to their official: we only comment, when there's something official to comment on policy, thus no comment.

[Consigliere]

I'll believe Simon Mullock over the Express anyday. He's probably the most reliable journalist for City. This is what he reported yesterday:

- City have told Sane he can go if their price is met.

- Bayern stunned by £140m price tag.

- City refuse to be seen to be pushed around by a club that's been so vocally critical of the Abu Dhabi ownership.

- City have offered Sane a £170k/week deal (up from his current £65k/week).

- City are resolved to keeping him for another year unless Bayern meet demands.

[Rorshach]

We have signed Moise Kean. Protracted ending there. Pacing issues. Nervous? Absolutely. Now, all we have to fear is that he'll crash and burn..

But I liked this tweet from the official site. So there's that.

[Raja]

That's a steal for Everton

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Let the games begin!

 

Alisson

Arnold - Gomez - Virgil - Robbo

Henderson - Fabinho - Wijnaldum

Salah - Firmino - Origi



Sane - Sterling - B. Silva

De Bruyne - Rodri - D. Silva

Zinchenko - Stones - Otamendi - Walker

Bravo


LFC subs: Mignolet, Matip, Lovren, Keita, Chamberlain, Lallana, Shaqiri

MC subs: Ederson, Angelino, Foden, Garcia, Gundogan, Aguero, Jesus

Referee: Martin Atkinson

[Consigliere]

The Wembley pitch is looking a bit heavy under foot. Not the best surface. 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

35 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Not great from Liverpool so far. Wijnaldum hiding as usual, Origi playing worse than a fucking mascot, and Fabinho looking slow and sloppy. More like how he began last year than ended it.

yeah, our midfield needs to do better in getting balls to the forwards.Salah should have scored at least 1.Trent needs to put in some good crosses.Overall, we look not as sharp as City and just more sloppy.

Would like to see Keita come on for Gini.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

1 minute ago, Soylent Brown said:

Salah's looked pretty good overall, but has made a few poor choices. Firmino looks lively too. TAA hasn't had the best of times, but he plays further forward so unless we actually get the ball now and again he looks bad. Not really his fault.

I'd like to see Keita/Ox/Brewster on for Wijnaldum and Origi in the second half.

 

I've not seen much of Brewster so this is jumping the gun a lot, but if Origi's being favoured over him I don't have a great deal of hope for him. Origi is sub-Shane-fucking-Long.

Salah should be less selfish sometimes, i get that strikers love to score,but when you have an insanely tight angle at goal, just pass to the other player!

Hendo i feel should be 10-12 yards further on.He's so deep,that he's neither here nor there in a kind of no man's land.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Salah's worst finishing that i've ever seen.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Goddammit Salah.FFS

[AncalagonTheBlack]

So penalties? Seriously Salah should have finished that in the end.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Poor from Gini

[AncalagonTheBlack]

4 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Klopp has a serious blind spot. Let's have Wijnaldum gently pass it the the keeper ffs.

WTF was that? Neither power nor placement.Very poor pen.