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Football: A New Hope


Iskaral Pust

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On 8/27/2019 at 7:07 AM, Jordan La Cabra said:

Was pleased with a pretty good performance from Chelsea away to Norwich. So far, I can't really complain about any of the performances from Lampard's side. Each game we have been able to go forward and create many more chances than I expected this side to be able to. We go forward with pace, and we have actually been very entertaining to watch, which couldn't be said for the 17/18 season under Conte, where we were devoid of ideas and overly negative, or the 18/19 under Sarri, where we trudged through the winter and spring months with a one dimensional and aimless possession based style. Under Lampard, we are able to move the ball a lot quicker, which is what Sarri wanted to do, but was unable to get us to do. Part of that may have been down to having more individualistic players like Hazard and Willian featuring more last season and Sarri's possession based style seeming very rigid in comparison to Lampard's, which seems to allow for more freedom. 

Mount's integration to the first team has been exceptional; he's been one of our best performers in every game we have played. Emerson seems to have levelled up, and is so far looking like one of the best full backs in the league. Take Abraham's goals from the game and he still played really well. He held the ball up and played some nice one touch passes. 

Defensively, we still look very easy to score against, although I thought our centre backs had a better game on Saturday - particularly Zouma. The only consolation for our defence is that our best centre back, Rudiger, still isn't back from injury. I will reserve judgement on our defence until I see how we perform when he returns.

I'm pleased Lampard went with Tammy instead of sticking with Giroud. I even think Michy was on the bench? Won't do TA any good being benched every other match.  Was happy with the performance. Let's get Rudiger, Kante, and CHO back by the Liverpool match on 9/22 and I'm curious to see how we hold up. 

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Solskjaer doesn't fancy Smalling because he can't pass for shit. He's genuinely among the worst passers in the entire league which is why even Southgate would rather pick Jones in the England squad ahead of him. Even in pre season, Smalling was bottom of the list - he didn't start any games, played the least minutes among all the CBs and only got the minutes he did because Bailly got injured.

It's a risk given the injury records of the others but one worth taking for a player who is currently 7th choice. Smalling is a solid defender but I'm not sure that this is a good deal for Roma - they should have paid the money for Lovren imo because Fonseca wants his teams to play out from the back and Smalling is useless at that. 

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Di Marzio and Fabrizio Romano tweetIng that Neymar to Barca is close to being finalized. Such a lame transfer if it happens imo. Crawling back to Barca after accomplishing very little at PSG is kinda sad. Hope Barca don’t win CL but they have to be favorites if they get Neymar back. 

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I wonder whether Barca have finally come up with the money. Bouhafsi reported yesterday that PSG rejected Barca's proposed deal that involved Rakitic+Dembele+cash and that PSG have set a certain price and will not accept players as part of the deal. Dembele's agent also came out yesterday saying that the player has no intention of joining PSG.

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Not sure, but I think PSG would take on Dembele quite happily as part of the deal. They are right now down on attacking options. Without Neymar it's really Cavani, Mbappe and then you are suddenly down to Choupo-Moting. While I think he is a reasonable back up for a top club, but PSG could really do with some more quality there. Having that said, suddenly Origi looks like a perfectly fine back up option, doesn't he? ;)

Dembele not wanting to leave Barca for PSG might be the bigger issue there. Anyway, if Neymar leaves PSG really need some replacement for their attack.

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The full draw

  • Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.
  • Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade.
  • Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.
  • Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow.
  • Group E Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.
  • Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague.
  • Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.
  • Group H Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.
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Pretty straightforward groups for all the EPL sides. None of the clubs should have much of a problem getting out of those groups. Group F is clearly the toughest and Group G could be interesting as well with all four sides being fairly evenly matched. 

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Typical Bayern luck.

Only real opponent for them are Spurs.

Anyway, most Groups are relatively easy to predict. Group H looks interesting tho.

A. Real and Paris to get into the k.o. stages. Group winner itself is not that easy to predict with the Neymar Transfer pending. As of now, I'd say Real over PSG. Gala into the EL

B. Bayern over Tottenham. Olympiakos into the EL

C. City to win the group for second I'd Shaktar over Bergamo

D. Juventus to win the group. Atletico and Leverkusen to fight out for the second place. I think Atletico will narrowly edge it (Atletico are rebuilding, so that could really go either way).

E. Liverpool over Napoli for Group winner (could also end up the other way). Salzburg EL spot.

F. Barca to win their group. Dortmund to finish second over Inter, Slavia just there to get beaten.

G. Lyon and Leipzig to advance over Benfica.

H. No, idea.

 

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