Football: New Season, but same old Messi at Barca and elsewhere.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

18 hours ago, Vaughn said:

Sure, how about 30M for Kolašinac? Great - done deal.

Wait, come back - we'll throw in a low mileage German midfielder for free.

on second thought , we'll probably be fine, so thanks but no thanks.

[Daemon the Leaner]

I was preparing to moan about how it's tactically inept to play Brandon Williams at LB considering he's right-footed, but he actually ended quite well his 1st half, producing a penalty. Still skeptical about his positioning though.

Juan Mata looks pretty much finished also.

[Consigliere]

6 minutes ago, Ser Glendon Fireball said:

I was preparing to moan about how it's tactically inept to play Brandon Williams at LB considering he's right-footed, but he actually ended quite well his 1st half, producing a penalty. Still skeptical about his positioning though.

Juan Mata looks pretty much finished also.

The thing with Williams is that he's rarely ever played at RB. Even in the youth setup, he played at either LB or LW on occasion. Ethan Laird was (and still is) considered to be the bigger talent and so was played in his preferred RB position - he had a couple of serious injuries that kept him out for about a year otherwise he might very well have gotten a run in the first team ahead of Williams. 

 

Re: Matt Judge. The guy is well known to be rubbish at transfer negotiations. There were reports that Leicester's negotiator became so frustrated with him that she contacted  Woodward who had to become involved in the transfer because Judge was fucking it up so badly and pissing off his counterparts at Leicester. But once again, it's Woodward who must shoulder the responsibility as he is the one choosing to keep someone around who is so obviously bad at a very important part of their job. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

In other news.

I think Dortmund might become City's most disliked club in Europe.

They are poaching another youngster from City's academy. This time they are after Bynoe-Gittens. While they are talent shopping in England, Stoke's Joshua Ireland is also in Dortmund doing a try out.

[polishgenius]

Well they're poaching a youngster from City's academy coz City are poaching so many youngsters from other academies that his route is not clear. Their own fault.



 

6 hours ago, Consigliere said:

The thing with Williams is that he's rarely ever played at RB. Even in the youth setup, he played at either LB or LW on occasion. Ethan Laird was (and still is) considered to be the bigger talent and so was played in his preferred RB position - he had a couple of serious injuries that kept him out for about a year otherwise he might very well have gotten a run in the first team ahead of Williams. 

Yeah the problem with Williams as a first team LB isn't his right footedness, it's that despite being a promising fullback in general (though his defending needs work too) he is completely the wrong type for what we need right now, coz attacking-wise he's not bad at getting into the final third and delivering but he doesn't pass in the meantime at all, he's pure overlap.


Needing the first-teamers to come on and finish off Luton isn't a great show of strength in depth.

[ants]

On 9/20/2020 at 10:52 PM, polishgenius said:

Another absolutely nonsensical penalty decision. This kind of rule makes it a risk that there's more benefit of forwards just shooting at defenders to try to hit their arm rather than trying to create chances themselves.

I know it isn't technically the rule, but I've got no real problems with the ManU penalty.  Ayew had a shot on goal, it was going towards the goal, and Lindelof's arm got in the way.  For me, that is the kind of thing the handball rule should be trying to stop, even if its accidental.  We don't want arms stopping shots on goal.  

But then, I'm often out of line.  I thought the Declan Rice decision last year was a good outcome!  Thought it would be incredibly unfair for Rice to benefit with a goal from a handball when the defender got there first and put their head on the line to knock it out of his path.  

[Consigliere]

Wolves have signed Semedo from Barca for €30m + €10m in addons. 

[Heartofice]

18 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Wolves have signed Semedo from Barca for €30m + €10m in addons. 

Hope he's not psychologically damaged from the battering he got against Bayern.

[Iskaral Pust]

4 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Wolves have signed Semedo from Barca for €30m + €10m in addons. 

Seems like a big upgrade on Doherty.

[Iskaral Pust]

The LC looks like a bad COVID risk.  Leyton Orient had 17 positive tests, but they weren’t going to test at all until Spurs offered to pay for it.  And Liverpool are paying for Lincoln to test.

I know the financial situation for smaller clubs is dire, but the sensible approach would be to keep clubs in their respective bubbles and cancel the inter-league cups for this year.  That would apply to European competition too except those clubs can afford testing and other protocols ahead of the matches.  

[Heartofice]

10 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

The LC looks like a bad COVID risk.  Leyton Orient had 17 positive tests, but they weren’t going to test at all until Spurs offered to pay for it.  And Liverpool are paying for Lincoln to test.

I know the financial situation for smaller clubs is dire, but the sensible approach would be to keep clubs in their respective bubbles and cancel the inter-league cups for this year.  That would apply to European competition too except those clubs can afford testing and other protocols ahead of the matches.  

I think Leyton Orient lost about £150k from the abandonment of that fixture. While I understand the need to protect clubs, cutting off another income stream for lower league clubs could well be the death of a lot of them. 
 

[Iskaral Pust]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

I think Leyton Orient lost about £150k from the abandonment of that fixture. While I understand the need to protect clubs, cutting off another income stream for lower league clubs could well be the death of a lot of them. 
 

I agree that needs to be addressed but I would separate the two.  If the LC is a public health risk, and possibly would shut down all of the other football competitions, then shut it down.  Then separately look into a compensation program for smaller clubs to keep them alive. 

[ants]

13 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I think Leyton Orient lost about £150k from the abandonment of that fixture. While I understand the need to protect clubs, cutting off another income stream for lower league clubs could well be the death of a lot of them. 

So you think it's better for a club to play with 17 positive people in and around the first team so that they can get a paycheck??????

[Heartofice]

2 hours ago, ants said:

So you think it's better for a club to play with 17 positive people in and around the first team so that they can get a paycheck??????

No obviously not. Duh.

But if one of the issues is clubs not being able to afford to test, then there should be a collective effort to cover that cost. Basically the big clubs should be chipping in more to assist in these situations. 
 

Simply cutting off a major stream of income for smaller clubs at the very time they need it the most seems counter productive 

[Soylent Brown]

Not sure why we're playing VVD tonight. Not ideal.

[Soylent Brown]

The more I see of Neco Williams, the less impressed I am. He's still young, but he's way closer to Flanagan than TAA.

The first three goals were well taken, joined by a slightly lucky, but well-worked, fourth. Tsimikas, Minamino and Jones looking pretty good.

[Mark Antony]

Tsimikas does look good. Our attacking depth is pretty solid now if Shaq stays healthy with him Minamino, Jota and Origi. 

[Soylent Brown]

Origi has been useless again so far today, but, yeah, at least we have Minamino, Shaqiri and Jota.

[polishgenius]

It's a shame you wasted the RedCafu nickname on Flanagan given it's a far better fit for, well, either of your current fullbacks.

[Iskaral Pust]

Very well taken goals.  I’d sub off VVD now, even if it means moving Grujic to CB.  Usually Milner is the babysitter for the kids.

I wish Shaqiri could stay fit.  His skill offers some threat, especially at set pieces.  But his fitness record is worse than Matip’s.  Curtis Jones looks bloody confident, and nice to see Minamino hit a long range goal with confidence.