Football: End of the seasons, start of the dramas.

[Iskaral Pust]

Good to win but Liverpool look very tired and are just limping to the finish line.  Fabinho injured now and possibly Keita too.  And Salah bereft of form.  I’m worried they have nothing left to give in two finals ahead.

[Soylent Brown]

I don't think it's tiredness as we've made most teams we've played this year look like prime AC Milan whilst scraping wins against them. It's just more of the same.

Mane and Diaz look to be in decent form, but I think we'll need Salah to play well if we're to have any chance in either final, and I just can't see that happening. He needs a good long summer holiday to reset.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

With the big footballing question being answered:

Will Haaland go to City? Yes

Will Rüdiger leave Chelski? Yes

Will Liverpool win the league? No

Can we now focus our attention to the really big footballing story, which is Wagatha Christie (obviously).

[Heartofice]

Heres an article by Barney Ronay today that is saying what I was attempting to get at, just better.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2022/may/10/erling-haaland-to-manchester-city-is-a-tactical-gamble-that-might-just-pay-off?CMP=share_btn_tw

 

Quote

At the end of which the team that obsess most over possession have signed a star player whose one weakness is his ability to keep possession. The manager who gave us the modern passing game has signed a striker whose passing is the least developed part of his game. Guardiola is often accused of being overly fixated on his own methods. To his credit, he is well out of his comfort zone here.

 

Quote

Then, there’s the other stuff, the data flags. Haaland doesn’t just make fewer passes than any other leading goalscorer in Europe. He’s miles back.

Karim Benzema makes 41 passes per 90 minutes, Mbappé 38.9, Salah 35, Cristiano Ronaldo 32.4.

Haaland is right down there on 22, ranked 129th out of 193 attacking players in the top five leagues to have played more than 18 games. Among players who have filled that slot for City this season, Phil Foden completes 40.5 passes per 90 minutes, Gabriel Jesus 36, Raheem Sterling 35, Jack Grealish 41.6. Haaland has one (yes: one) accurate long pass in the Bundesliga this season. Foden has attempted 26 of these, Jesus 22. Haaland hasn’t made a single accurate cross. Mbappé has 19 of them. Haaland will improve, and play differently in a different team. But this is still a massive disparity with other top players.

The point here is simply that one side of this equation will have to change. Either Haaland adapts to fit the style, and there is no reason to assume he can’t (or indeed, as yet, no reason to suggest he can either). Or City successfully adapt a system that, while it lacks a pure finisher, is based almost entirely on working that overload of passing players in midfield and attack.

Point being that Pep has a very specific requirement for his players, and maybe this signals that he wants a different type of player to give his side something different, or that he hopes he can get Haaland to adapt his game enough to play in Peps system. Either way, the assumption he will automatically be a success should be taken with a lick of caution.

[Raja]

Barney Ronay

[Rorschach - 2]

I'm not nervous, you're nervous!

 

[Raja]

I don't think leeds are okay.

Terrible tackle by Dan James. That's two shocking tackles Leeds players have made in consecutive games.

[BigFatCoward]

I'm not sure passes matter when you score a goal a game at 21. 

Also KdB is ok at this football lark isn't he? 

[Spockydog]

59 minutes ago, Raja said:

I don't think leeds are okay.

Terrible tackle by Dan James. That's two shocking tackles Leeds players have made in consecutive games.

There's a tear in the fabric of space and time above Elland Road, and an interdimensional Don Revie, who never got the England job, is meddling with Bielsa's legacy. Allegedly. 

[Spockydog]

22 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I'm not sure passes matter when you score a goal a game at 21. 

Also KdB is ok at this football lark isn't he? 

Yeah, you can keep your Messis and your Salahs and your Rapealdos. If I could have any player in the world, it'd be him. Amazing footballer. 

[Rorschach - 2]

I don't understand why no subs. 

It's not like we're tearing Watford apart.

[Rorschach - 2]

One point. Better than none, and our away record is poor.

But given the opposition, this feels very much like a wasted opportunity. And Watford weren't really pushing either, so there was plenty of room for us to press harder. 

We did seem tired, though. So maybe we should have rotated a bit today, and tried to get more players involved.

[Consigliere]

I'm okay with Leeds going down. Them or Burnley. Everton must stay up.

 

Gerard Romero, who's a reliable journo for Barca, with a big claim. Says that a deal for Frenkie de Jong to United is expected to be completed this month. Fee expected to be around €70-80m.

[Rorschach - 2]

In totally different news, this Kevin de Bruyne fellow is good at football. 

I think we should make an offer for him. He might just be a hit in the PL.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

It's gonna be Leeds, that's going down.

Their last few games had relegation written all over it. Burnley did what they needed to do and quietely collected the badly needed points, same for Everton. And Leeds just went on to collect red cards. The discipline/cohesion is gone. If Marsch managed to save them by some miracle, it would be exactly that.

[The Sunland Lord]

Always rated Coppa Italia highly. Always.

I don't know what happened to Perisic while on loan at Bayern, but he came back five times the player he was. I'd extend his contract even at his age.

[Corvinus85]

Looks like Lukaku is ending the season how he began it, looking like an actual striker. At least that's one positive for Chelsea.

[Tywin et al.]

27 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Looks like Lukaku is ending the season how he began it, looking like an actual striker. At least that's one positive for Chelsea.

It's a bit head scratching to me. He was so good to start off the season, than after a month or two if felt like he disappeared and couldn't do anything when he got playing time. 

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's a bit head scratching to me. He was so good to start off the season, than after a month or two if felt like he disappeared and couldn't do anything when he got playing time. 

He got injured and spent a long time off the field. That can mess up a player, but a great player should bounce back. He also struggled with motivation given his comment about playing at Inter again.

[Tywin et al.]

27 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

He got injured and spent a long time off the field. That can mess up a player, but a great player should bounce back. He also struggled with motivation given his comment about playing at Inter again.

I get that, he had some injuries and for a time had one foot out the door, but even when he was back it felt like the team wasn't getting him the ball when he was making to this novice's eyes a ton of great runs that could have lead to scoring opportunities.