Football: Liverpool You Stupid Bastards

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Yeah if clubs want him this summer, they will have to cough big Money. Bayern could, at least in theory, also find that kinda money. I don't think they will, and afaik Haaland isn't that eager to compete with Lewandowski over minutes, so that puts them down on the prefered destination list. Chelsea is rumoredly not of the right stature for Haaland to be his dream move. City are the right size and offer the right stage for him. Liverpool like Bayern are unlikely to throw that kinda cash around - and they'd need to clinch CL qualification first, before that discussion can start. United, but then again, if team Haaland has questions about Chelsea's size, then surely the same questions apply to United. And I'd think you have different needs to address first. Real would presumably want to make that move next year. But football biz is insane. So if they were faced with a now or never situation, they might pull the trigger. Barca lacks funds. Juve maybe?

Anyway, personally I think a lot depends on whether Dortmund manage to salvage CL qualification this year. If they fail to qualify, then financial pressure might very well lower their asking price a good bit. Depending on how much they will make from Sancho's departure.

[Consigliere]

So another hattrick for Lewandowski. Gerd Muller's 40 goal record is going to be broken. Lewa has been the best player in the world these past two seasons - it'd be a travesty if he doesn't win the Ballon d'Or.

I'm also enjoying Sule at right back. I wouldn't have thought that that would work for a guy built like a fridge but he is properly quick and surprisingly agile with good ball control and some sweet technical skills. He was great today and created so many chances.

[polishgenius]

24 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

United, but then again, if team Haaland has questions about Chelsea's size, then surely the same questions apply to United.

On the one hand he has an existing good relationship with our manager which could help, but on the other one of our club legends tried to cripple his dad so.

But I don't think we should prioritise him if he's moving next summer anyway. We need a no9, but we need creative players more. A right winger and, if Pogba leaves, a replacement for him have to be the priorities. In other words Sancho should still be our primary Dortmund target.

 

[Consigliere]

3 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

In other words Sancho should still be our primary Dortmund target.

There's been some reports that Raphinha is a target for us. We will probably sign whoever is cheaper.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

5 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

I'm also enjoying Sule at right back. I wouldn't have thought that that would work for a guy built like a fridge but he is properly quick and surprisingly agile with good ball control and some sweet technical skills. He was great today and created so many chances.

Yes, he has all the abilities to be an elite defender, however he is under surveillance at Bayern right now. At least that's what the footballing papers claim. Süle has struggled a bit after coming back from his injury last season. And with Bayern it's don't let the door hit on your way out, when you don't perform. Süle's contract is up in 2022. So they reportedly told him, he has to perform better than he did for most of the season, if he wants to stay (contract extension). If he doesn't, they'd sell him in the summer. (they did the same with Boateng before Guardiola arrived: Do you like playing for us? Yeah sure why you ask? If you don't start playing better, you won't be playing for us much longer.)

Personally, I rate Süle quite highly, but apparently Bayern disagree there.

11 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

But I don't think we should prioritise him if he's moving next summer anyway. We need a no9, but we need creative players more. A right winger and, if Pogba leaves, a replacement for him have to be the priorities. In other words Sancho should still be our primary Dortmund target.

Like I said, I think you've got other needs that you want to address first.

[polishgenius]

1 minute ago, Consigliere said:

There's been some reports that Raphinha is a target for us. We will probably sign whoever is cheaper.

 

 

We'll probably sign Raphinha for 70mil and then someone will get Sancho for 80.

To be fair I wouldn't be mad about that signing- he's the right kind of player in that he can do magic  in tight spaces and dribble effectively at relatively slow speeds so he can wriggle his way into a low block and disrupt it - but there's levels of difference between him and Sancho, who despite all the focus on Mbappe and Haaland has a chance to be one of the players of the upcoming generation where Raphinha definitely won't be.

There's probably some wonky thinking that getting Sancho would render buying Diallo essentially pointless whereas Raphinha is good enough to improve us but older enough and of the kind of level that if Diallo turns into the player the club wants him to be there won't be much argument about him taking over- but you shouldn't run a club like that.

 

 

1 minute ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Like I said, I think you've got other needs that you want to address first.

Yeah my bad you did say that already.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And the South American Football federation has pulled the plug for their march internationals.

 

[Grand Moff Mithrandir]

2 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

And the South American Football federation has pulled the plug for their march internationals.

 

Sanity has prevailed

although European clubs aren’t exactly helping dispel the notion that they are big bad bullies who insist on always getting their way

[BigFatCoward]

11 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Yeah if clubs want him this summer, they will have to cough big Money. Bayern could, at least in theory, also find that kinda money. I don't think they will, and afaik Haaland isn't that eager to compete with Lewandowski over minutes, so that puts them down on the prefered destination list. Chelsea is rumoredly not of the right stature for Haaland to be his dream move. City are the right size and offer the right stage for him. Liverpool like Bayern are unlikely to throw that kinda cash around - and they'd need to clinch CL qualification first, before that discussion can start. United, but then again, if team Haaland has questions about Chelsea's size, then surely the same questions apply to United. And I'd think you have different needs to address first. Real would presumably want to make that move next year. But football biz is insane. So if they were faced with a now or never situation, they might pull the trigger. Barca lacks funds. Juve maybe?

Anyway, personally I think a lot depends on whether Dortmund manage to salvage CL qualification this year. If they fail to qualify, then financial pressure might very well lower their asking price a good bit. Depending on how much they will make from Sancho's departure.

Eh? I hate Man Utd but they are one of maybe 5 clubs in the world who are in the 'biggest club' conversation. 

 

[polishgenius]

37 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Eh? I hate Man Utd but they are one of maybe 5 clubs in the world who are in the 'biggest club' conversation. 

 

 

You're right but I think Horse is referring to how likely we are to win trophies in the next couple seasons.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

What does everyone here think of the new offside rules being proposed by Wenger?

Quote

an attacker is onside if any part of his body they can play the ball with is in line with the second-last opponent (eg, the last defender).

Wenger presented his plans to football’s lawmakers, International Football Association Board (Ifab), at their AGM on Friday and the new interpretation of the rule will be trialled in the lower leagues of Chinese football.

in summary, it is if the attacking player is ahead of the last defender, or second-last player, but still with one part of the body that can score inline with the defender.

“So it is giving the attacking player a bit more room and so favouring attacking football.

“Obviously such a change would need to be tested. We have to see what kind of impact this will have on the game - if positive, if negative.

“If it is positive, we might go ahead. I

 

[BigFatCoward]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

 

 

You're right but I think Horse is referring to how likely we are to win trophies in the next couple seasons.

Fair enough if that's what they meant. But size and likelihood of success are not the same. 

And not sure on Haaland's exact quote, or how good his English is so it's an easy mistake. 

[Rorshach]

2 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

What does everyone here think of the new offside rules being proposed by Wenger?

 

Won't change much wrt VAR lines, was what I understood. But may give attacking teams a benefit, so perhaps a small positive there.

Basically, if I got it right, you now need the lines to check for "daylight", which open up for same problems we now have with armpits, just that it's behind the players and not ahead.

[ljkeane]

I think they should include a margin of error and give benefit of doubt to the assistant ref's call within that margin of error like they do with umpire's call in cricket. Situations were they're drawing arbitrary lines from the 't shirt line' and ending up offsides/onsides of a couple millimeters are ridiculous. Basically for me if you can't tell on the tv whether they're offside or not looking at the lines they should just be sticking with the call from the officials.

[MercenaryChef]

who thought two dinosaurs battling would be so boring?

i want to personally apologize to whoever has watched newcastle and west brom this morning.

[Mark Antony]

Klopp finally dropped some people yay

[Mark Antony]

 

[Mark Antony]

Completely outplayed by Fulham and can’t see that changing second half 

[john]

1 hour ago, Mark Antony said:

 

Such a weird season, difficult to unequivocally enjoy it. The European games were good though.

[Raja]

If Fulham hold out, they certainly deserve the win, I think.