Football: Forever blowing bubbles...or more?

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Rüdiger has been doing this all season. That's not United being passive or too deep. That's a regular feat of Chelsea under Tuchel.

[Soylent Brown]

He pops up every now and again, sure, but he's basically been camped out up there today.

United have no threat up front at all. Fernandes and Sancho have been giving the ball away cheaply every time they get it, so they're barely making it past the halfway line.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Well, sorta pity Ole's no longer in charge. Playing the United way on the front foot, taking the game to Chelsea could've been entertaining.

[Soylent Brown]

Haha!

[ljkeane]

That’s one way of getting out I suppose. That makes things interesting.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

So, can United still back out of the deal with Rangnick to make Carrick a permanent manager?

[Consigliere]

Shit game. Undeserved point. Better than getting thrashed though which looked like the most likely outcome before the game given the form of the respective teams. Rangnick has a huge job on his hands and with games coming thick and fast, there isn't going to be much time to do work on the training field. We can only hope that he can implement something better than this crap.

[polishgenius]

39 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Undeserved point.

Nah. We weren't very good but if Chelsea wanted to deserve a win they needed to make more of the possession we ceded than they did. They had 22 shots but only five on target, and even from that there were what, three good saves? It was not inspiring in the slightest but we stifled their midfield and prevented them from playing, which is way lower than we should be aiming but, given the last few weeks, an understandable first step back to some semblance of cohesion. A win would have been a robbery but a draw is about the right result for what both teams brought to the game. 


Ziyech is fucking wank by the way why do Chelsea persist with him.

[Iskaral Pust]

Liverpool were well worth their victory over Southampton.  They ran up the score easily enough, and then played it out in a low gear to conserve energy.

Southampton generated a few dangerous moments, mainly through their high pressing, but Alisson smothered them so thoroughly that the danger was quickly forgotten.  Thiago played very well but was culpable of a few risky giveaways.  His problem is that he imagines an elegant way to play through a press, but sometimes his teammates don’t anticipate and commit to his unconventional pass, so he passes into an empty space that can be gobbled up by the opponent’s press.

Jota had his best match as a false 9, and not just a poacher.  Mane is very involved but still has too many sloppy final balls.  Fabinho ran the midfield for the last 30 minutes.  Robertson was at his sharpest in many months — some rest and competition from Tsimikas really boosted him.

Southampton worked hard and also used a lot of tactical fouls.  I can see why they had a good undefeated run until this past week.  But they lack creativity and skill up front.  Armstrong is fast but too often offside or not clinical with a chance.

Midweek is the derby.  Let’s hope we have fewer season-ending assaults this time.

[Raja]

Curious what's going on at Everton, I know Rafa's teams supposedly do better in the second half of the season but still

[Soylent Brown]

I think injuries have screwed them over this season. They don't have a great deal of depth and the likes of DCL and Doucoure have really been missed.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Isn't it so, that Benitez teams traditionally offer up three points to Liverpool as part of some obscure ritual for an unknown purpose. Well, in this case the purpose is probably to get a nice severance packet and to spend more time with his family.

[BigFatCoward]

Can anyone confirm if the bloke who flew from America for spurs cancelled game and was subsequently offered hospitality by Harry Kane when next in london, legit sent that tweet previously, where he is slagging Kane off?

[Spockydog]

I imagine he's deleted that by now. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Smart move by Kane, tho.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ahum, I know the Ballon d'or is arguably the most useless award in football, but how and why did Messi win it this year? He wasn't even on my top 3 list (Lewandowski, Jorginho, Kante).

[Soylent Brown]

I'm sure he'd be devastated to learn that.

Jorginho was one of the top 3 players in the world last year was he? Fucking hell.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Jorginho is actually very good at what he does. 

He is sorta the brain of that Chelsea side. He organizes and orchestrates their plays. I know, there are a lot of morons out there who whine about it's all sideway and back way passes. But like I said, those are really morons who have no clue about football. Yes, he plays a lot of short passes, but all of those serve a purpose that often just becomes visible 3-4 passes later. With those short passes he shifts the play slightly to one side, or another, and that opens up passing lanes. It's not as spectacular as some Gerrard hollywood passes, but like I said those passes actually do serve a purpose.

Anyway, Messi over Lewandowski was really robbery.

[Soylent Brown]

He's very good at specific things, but quite limited at others. I'm not suggesting he's a bad player, but he's nowhere near good enough to be considered in the top 30 players in the world, sillyarse politics aside.

Lewandowski should have won last year, absolutely, but I don't think it's as clear cut this year. Really they should give him a retroactive 2020 Balloon.

[mormont]

We've said it before, we'll say it again, though not for much longer. Lewandowski is in the large number of players who can count themselves unlucky that they live in an era where CRonaldo and Messi are on the pitch. The fact is, CRonaldo can score 43 goals and 6 assists in 60 games, including 7 in 6 in the CL, finishing top scorer in Serie A; and Messi can score 41 in 56, with 17 assists, finishing top scorer in La Liga, and winning the Copa America: and we can genuinely and unironically say neither of them had a particularly good year, at least by their own standards.

Lewandowski scored all the goals and more, but the tie break for a lot of voters in the Ballon D'Or sometimes comes down to 'but this is Messi'.