Football: A Blizzard of Games

[A Horse Named Stranger]

21 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

Not buying a CB would be beyond stupid.

You are linked to Kabak again. Rumoredly the idea is to offer Origi in a swap deal to lower the fee. However, given that Schalke really need money, and that Kabak is one of the few players with an actual transfer value, I don't think that's going go fly. So you have to cough up 15-20m for him.

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

What you need in a situation like that is either really good close-control dribbling down the middle, or a good holdup man. Thiago wouldn't really have helped you coz his influenced is about recycling the ball fast, which with West Brom sitting so deep wasn't a problem, but Jota would have. Seems odd to say that when Salah and Mane struggled, but Jota's main advantage over them in a situation like that is they do prefer to be moving at pace so tend to cut wider when pressured, whereas he's got a habit of stopping dead to send a defender the wrong way which means he's more comfortable cutting for the center from the off.

Thiago still has a great vision paired with his passing range, so there's a chance, that he would've found one of those tiny bits of space. I mean it's kinda telling that Mane was set up by good ball by Matip. Anyway, the problem for Liverpool was more like not putting that game to bed in the first half. Mane could've done so, Salah had a great chance after a corner, when he just hit thin air instead of the ball. If they'd made it 2-0, they'd have most likely left the pitch as victors. Bit of reversal from the Palace game, where pretty much any somewhat decent situation was played out and converted.

 

[Consigliere]

 

 

 

[Rorshach]

Was looking forward to us getting a hiding, but this will just help with longer rest time and getting players back. 

Approve.

[polishgenius]

Could put Newcastle in jeopardy too, since they played City after the first Covid positives but before the latest round. Hopefully not though.

 

13 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

We look totally clueless though when Fernandes isn't playing or having a poor game (although those have been few). Our attacking playing is far too reliant on one player and our defence is prone to amateurish mistakes in nearly every game. I see this current good run as being no different from our other good runs under Solskjaer. Those were followed by a stretch of dire performances and results. 

While I agree we're far too reliant on Fernandes, we have in fairness been bouncing back from poor results throughout this good Prem run. We've been somewhat 'lucky' (in pure Prem terms) that the bad results were not in the Prem and thus we're still unbeaten for ages, but even within that we've had poor performances and come back with good ones. So hopefully when we do slip the turnaround will be faster than the long bad runs before.

 

 

4 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Thiago still has a great vision paired with his passing range, so there's a chance, that he would've found one of those tiny bits of space. I mean it's kinda telling that Mane was set up by good ball by Matip.

 

He is a great passer, but he's not exactly known for his high assist rate or huge amount of key passes. Like he might well have found something coz he;s really good but he isn't at heart a 'break the deep block' player.

[Consigliere]

 

[Mark Antony]

Null and void the seasono

[Iskaral Pust]

How did City suddenly get a postponement in their favor?  The PL rule published at the start of the season was there would be no postponement if each team had at least 14 healthy eligible players.  With City’s squad, they easily meet that threshold.  Was there some rule update that I did not hear?

I’m not objecting to precautions to preserve the health of players, staff and their families.  If anything, we need more of those.  It just seems like this decision was arbitrary.  Players were forced to travel at high risk for international games, and clubs got no reprieve as players had to self-isolate on their return (we had Salah, Shaqiri and Tsimikas all self-isolating), but now City get a postponement despite having plenty of eligible players in a big squad.  Spurs didn’t even get a postponement during the infamous food poisoning all those years ago.  And plenty of other clubs have been wracked with flu before without having a game postponed.

Regardless of the capricious administration, I hope all the infected players & staff recover quickly.  

[Soylent Brown]

From what I've read, City had a number of cases at Christmas, and then they've had the additional ones today, so it may well be that enough of their squad is out to meet the criteria.

And even if they have got enough players technically available, with so many positive tests in so little time, it would be irresponsible to play the game.

[Consigliere]

Diego Costa requested for his contract to be terminated citing family reasons. Atleti now confirm that an agreement has been reached to terminate his contract with immediate effect.

[Rorshach]

"Whilst Everton will always have public safety uppermost, we will be requesting full disclosure of all the information that Manchester City provided to the Premier League so the Club can be clear on why this decision was taken."

Seems Everton wants to know, too, as the board was just informed of the PL board's desicion.

[Soylent Brown]

I think Everton are annoyed at being left out of the discussion entirely, rather than questioning the validity of the decision.

[Daemon the Leaner]

https://soccer.nbcsports.com/2020/12/29/premier-league-covid-break-latest-news/

Well covid can make what players need

[Soylent Brown]

Putting a break in the season doesn't really help that much with tiredness, as it just means they'll have to further congest a different part of the fixture list. Probably better to keep matches going where possible and just postpone games where there are quite a few positives in the squads involved.

[BigFatCoward]

On 12/27/2020 at 3:22 PM, A Horse Named Stranger said:

 

Both formations feel a bit unbalanced (not super solid at the back) to me. Of Course you could also go the 4-2-2-2-2 road, with Kante + Mount/Havertz in central midfield and Abraham/Werner upfront. 

Yeah, 13 players would help against most teams.

[BigFatCoward]

Good is prevailing v evil at the Hawthorns. 

[polishgenius]

Hopefully that's just a knock for Saka and he's not out long since he's Arsenal's best player. And one of the best prospects in the league.

 

 

 

[Daemon the Leaner]

I really hope that Ole's not doing the rush back thing again with Wan-Bissaka, especially when we have decent back up options IMO in Williams and Tuanzebe.

[Mexal]

34 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Hopefully that's just a knock for Saka and he's not out long since he's Arsenal's best player. And one of the best prospects in the league.

Yea, any kind of long term injury would be killer. I'd love to buy Bissouma and pair him with Partey. That'd clear up Arsenal's midfield issues real quick.

[Soylent Brown]

That would have been a yellow for Matic, there, but for Jonathan Moss's usual gross incompetence.

[Soylent Brown]

Neto is pants.