Jump to content

Football: The Closed Season


mormont

Recommended Posts

27 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

Hakimi to inter. Perfect wb for conte 

He's kinda weak defensively but if anyone can improve that part of his game, it's Conte. It also appears that Di Marzio jumped the gun a bit - Hakimi has agreed terms with Inter but Inter have not yet agreed a fee with Real Madrid. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Consigliere said:

He's kinda weak defensively but if anyone can improve that part of his game, it's Conte. It also appears that Di Marzio jumped the gun a bit - Hakimi has agreed terms with Inter but Inter have not yet agreed a fee with Real Madrid. 

Kicker claims it's gonna be around 45m € + add ons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Consigliere said:

He's kinda weak defensively but if anyone can improve that part of his game, it's Conte.

 


I haven't paid enough attention to Juve to know if he's being brought in to fill a specific gap at FB, but in the long run I can see Hakimi being a fullback in the same way Gareth Bale was a fullback, ie not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, polishgenius said:

I haven't paid enough attention to Juve to know if he's being brought in to fill a specific gap at FB, but in the long run I can see Hakimi being a fullback in the same way Gareth Bale was a fullback, ie not.

Inter, you mean.

He'll play as a wing back in Conte's system - that would give him more freedom to attack and could mitigate some of his defensive deficiencies as well. Inter have declined taking up the €12m option to buy for Victor Moses so Hakimi and Candreva will compete for the right wing back position. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile in the Bundesliga.

Bremen are fighting off relegation for the moment and are thrashing Köln 6-1, which got them to the play-down spot. That was only possible, because Union, who were already safe, decided to show up all the same, and they beat Düsseldorf 3-0. Let's see if Bremen get their derby against our neighbours.

Bayern squashed Wolfsburg 4-0 and are thus the first team to score 100 goals in a season. Remember, Bundesliga only has 34 matchdays.

Schalke continued to impress, by losing 4-0 at Freiburg. They were sitting on fourth or so at the halfway point of the season, and will finish 12th. Popcorn time. So I am mildly curious whether Wagner will survive this (I think he should, as Schalke always has had shitty mentality). The next question is, whether Mist Corona Clemens Tönnies will be forced out this time. I wish their fan scene best of luck in that endeavour.

Leverkusen won their final game (1-0 against Mainz), but missed out on the CL qualification, because Gladbach also won their game against the Big City Club.

Dortmund having secured #2, showed up in flip flops, and got trounced by Hoffenheim (0-4).

So basically goals galore today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Meanwhile in the Bundesliga.

Bremen are fighting off relegation for the moment and are thrashing Köln 6-1, which got them to the play-down spot. That was only possible, because Union, who were already safe, decided to show up all the same, and they beat Düsseldorf 3-0. Let's see if Bremen get their derby against our neighbours.

Bayern squashed Wolfsburg 4-0 and are thus the first team to score 100 goals in a season. Remember, Bundesliga only has 34 matchdays.

Schalke continued to impress, by losing 4-0 at Freiburg. They were sitting on fourth or so at the halfway point of the season, and will finish 12th. Popcorn time. So I am mildly curious whether Wagner will survive this (I think he should, as Schalke always has had shitty mentality). The next question is, whether Mist Corona Clemens Tönnies will be forced out this time. I wish their fan scene best of luck in that endeavour.

Leverkusen won their final game (1-0 against Mainz), but missed out on the CL qualification, because Gladbach also won their game against the Big City Club.

Dortmund having secured #2, showed up in flip flops, and got trounced by Hoffenheim (0-4).

So basically goals galore today.

No way should Wagner be surviving this. Schalke haven’t won a game since the first one of 2020! But you’re right that the issues go deeper, the club needs a clearout starting with Tönnies.

Not much of a surprise to see Bremen hammer Köln when Timo Horn went on record saying he hoped Fortuna would go down. He could’ve made that Rashica goal look a little more convincing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Harry Maguire is such a spoilsport.


The goal was one thing, but I gotta say, for all the focus on his defensive qualities and lacks, Maguire's put a lot of work into his influence in the attacking play over the season and it's paying dividends, he's picking up a good habit of timing and aiming runs through midfield just right so he breaks open defensive lines as the unexpected option. It created our first goal and at least one other chance we had today. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Annoying that we had to go to extra time. This was a comfortable game for us except for the period of sloppiness and loss of concentration that set in just after we scored. Norwich never looked much of a threat until scoring from their only shot on target.

Norwich are definitely getting relegated. Aarons, Cantwell and Buendia are a clear cut above the rest of the Norwich players and all three are very likely to be picked up by other premier league sides. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, polishgenius said:


The goal was one thing, but I gotta say, for all the focus on his defensive qualities and lacks, Maguire's put a lot of work into his influence in the attacking play over the season and it's paying dividends, he's picking up a good habit of timing and aiming runs through midfield just right so he breaks open defensive lines as the unexpected option. It created our first goal and at least one other chance we had today. 

That's handy against the smaller teams, I guess, but now you have Pogba and Fernandes in the team, surely you want them picking the passes out as they've 10x the quality?

I'm not generally a fan of centre backs charging forward (Matip does it for us far more than I'd like.) It does mix things up a bit, but it's also a very generous invitation to counter-attacking teams.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Soylent Brown said:

That's handy against the smaller teams, I guess, but now you have Pogba and Fernandes in the team, surely you want them picking the passes out as they've 10x the quality?

 


Well yeah I don't want him doing it all the time but the point is, especially against defences sitting deep, it opens up space for them to work by breaking the defensive line. A slow run and simple pass from a player they weren't expecting to be there can on occasion do just as much as all the skill in the world from a midfield magician.

It does depend on his defensive partners being awake, but I'm not too worried about our counter-attack defence. Generally speaking when we're caught out on them it's because Maguire was too slow anyway, so him being out of position by an inch or a mile isn't a huge amount of difference..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...