2015/16 Soccer Thread

Looks like Cech will be the key to winning the title.

It remains to be seen who for.

Agent Cech has been activated.

Clean sheet vs City most likely.

Bah. I set my alarm for 7:30pm and ended up sleeping in and missing the Newcastle-Southampton match.

Same old Arsenal

Roke wrote:

Bah. I set my alarm for 7:30pm and ended up sleeping in and missing the Newcastle-Southampton match.

Was a great game, and the reaction from Newcastle fans is great! Although a 2-2 draw, very happy with the way we played, might've been Obertan's best game for us and Wijnaldum looks great! We looked very tired towards the end though, but I think a draw against Southampton is a good start to the season for us, and it's a shame we lost Anita (who played very well!) and got really tired, otherwise we would've been in with a good shout of getting all three points.

A lot of pessimism for Manchester United! I remember when we'd win nothing with kids. Then we did! Also when we were doomed to play second fiddle after van Nistelrooy left. Three titles on the bounce! And when Ronaldo departed how we were to be found out as a one man team. We've taken two league titles since he went to Madrid.

We were definitely not going to make the top four last season, either.

I'm not sure how we're going to do. Chelsea and Arsenal are undoubtedly the favourites. The loss of De Gea would be a huge blow. And relying on Smalling and Jones to step up is concerning. I'm not so sure Rojo and Blind are centre back solutions, either. Mr van Gaal has changed players positions before, though, and they then played the rest of their careers in those roles.

The thing I keep coming back to is that van Gaal usually delivers. Rooney is better than anyone gives him credit for, myself included. I've been in the camp that wouldn't have been too bothered had he been sold for years now. He's going to break records for goals scored. Hernandez is a more than suitable backup, or even strike partner, if we play to his strengths. We have solved our right back dilemma in Darmian, and finally got a destroyer in Schneiderlin to balance our midfield. Carrick, Schweinsteiger, and Herrera provide options to partner him depending on the set up per the opposition. Herrera can play as a 10 also.

Falcao and van Persie are done and needed to be moved on. Di Maria couldn't hack the pace or the physicality. Good player, though, which is a shame. We finally got Nani and Anderson (a while ago) off the books, too. Sad to see Rafael go. Loved the guy, but his forward contributions although good did not outweigh his defensive lapses.

If Luke Shaw can stay fit. If Juan Mata is not rotated in and out (keep him in the team you damn philosopher). If any two centre backs can stay fit long enough to form an understanding. No more 3-5-2 one week and 4-3-3 the next! Then that horrendous start from last season should not be repeated. That cost us more than anything.

If Ageuro stays fit City do the double over United, and probably win the league should Kompany compliment those goals by remembering he once knew how to defend. I dread the derby if Ageuro is fit. Dread it!

For fantasy, is there a specific day the prices update?

RnRClown wrote:

If Ageuro stays fit City do the double over United, and probably win the league should Kompany compliment those goals by remembering he once knew how to defend. I dread the derby if Ageuro is fit. Dread it!

Aguero.

I love NBC. I went from having to go to bars every weekend morning or watching terrible illegal internet streams. Now I can watch any Premier League match. I'm glad to see they will continue to cover.

Seems like a huge mistake by say ESPN not getting in on the EPL.

Canadian coverage is still 'good' in the sense it's all covered but its being butchered by 2 players who then divide the games over several of their own channels trying to excise a fortune out of the fans.

Which I don't pay for. f*ck them.

jowner wrote:

Seems like a huge mistake by say ESPN not getting in on the EPL.

Canadian coverage is still 'good' in the sense it's all covered but its being butchered by 2 players who then divide the games over several of their own channels trying to excise a fortune out of the fans.

Which I don't pay for. f*ck them.

I think the quality of Canadian coverage basically comes down to who your cable provider is. I thought it got a lot better, at least for me, when TSN went from 2 channels to 5 regional ones since it means that between them and Sportsnet pretty much every game is broadcast on a non-$15/month channel. If you're in say, Saskachewan with Sasktel and they don't offer all the regional channels you do get screwed though.

The US does seem to get a lot better soccer coverage overall than we do. NBC does a better job than either Canadian broadcasters and they don't get $15/month for one channel with the occasional EPL, FA Cup, or CanMNT game (and now Bundesliga I guess and then another $18/month for Bein. It will be interesting to see what happens when the CRTC mandated skinny packages and pick-and-pay come along even though I'm skeptical as to the price.

Roke wrote:
jowner wrote:

Seems like a huge mistake by say ESPN not getting in on the EPL.

Canadian coverage is still 'good' in the sense it's all covered but its being butchered by 2 players who then divide the games over several of their own channels trying to excise a fortune out of the fans.

Which I don't pay for. f*ck them.

I think the quality of Canadian coverage basically comes down to who your cable provider is. I thought it got a lot better, at least for me, when TSN went from 2 channels to 5 regional ones since it means that between them and Sportsnet pretty much every game is broadcast on a non-$15/month channel. If you're in say, Saskachewan with Sasktel and they don't offer all the regional channels you do get screwed though.

The US does seem to get a lot better soccer coverage overall than we do. NBC does a better job than either Canadian broadcasters and they don't get $15/month for one channel with the occasional EPL, FA Cup, or CanMNT game (and now Bundesliga I guess and then another $18/month for Bein. It will be interesting to see what happens when the CRTC mandated skinny packages and pick-and-pay come along even though I'm skeptical as to the price.

The height of Canadian coverage for at least English soccer was when Sportsnet (Rodgers) just had it all. Between all the time shifting regional channels you saw pretty much 100% of the games for a basic package + whatever time shifting cost. This was ages ago tho. I watched Joleon Lescott on Wolves win promotion.

Now? We have Sportsnet world + TSN in the mix. I find they just split the coverage broadly across all their channels to pretty much force you to subscribe to the full.

I did one year of World subscription. At $100 split between me and my Liverpool roommate we felt cheated. You could only watch games that were specific to world if I was not mistaken or at least whatever was the Sportsnet slice. So you pretty much just ended up buying 60-75% of the games.

Since we didn't have cable tv the amount of games we ended up still streaming was comical. Also the software\quality was average and clunky.

Compare that experience to what I get from MLBtv and its no contest. At father's day I got the remainder of the MLB season for around 70 CDN that's taxes exchange etc all in. Split that with a friend and so far 0 problems and no blackouts.

By far the best streaming service so far. From my tablet load a game and shoot it over to the TV via Chromecast 0 problems. Have used it with a PS3 also great. There's a reason the NHL teamed up with the MLB a couple weeks ago to use the same streaming service (partly owned by the MLB teams).

For the same quality streaming service and knowing that I wouldn't run into login problems sharing I'd probably pay $200 for the entire EPL season assuming I could split the cost 2-3 ways with friends.

Edit: watched the United game on main Sportsnet channel, then Villa Bournemouth game. Streamed second half of Chelsea (no TSN) 0 problems. Streamed Arsenal and it locked up twice on me. Was at work today would of had to stream.

In Portugal, Benfica's channel has the rights to the Premier League (among others).
I have a feeling this isn't common in other countries.

EPL highlights thought:

I really like the look of Watford's kit. Plus they have Ighalo, one of my favourite bargain Football Manager players from years past. I remember him costing £350,000 for what was a good top-half EPL striker.

Looks like Shaqiri to Stoke might be back on which I find exciting and apparently Everton are signing Aaron Lennon for £4m. If Lennon's new contract is for more than 2 years I don't like that for Everton.

Roke wrote:

Looks like Shaqiri to Stoke might be back on which I find exciting and apparently Everton are signing Aaron Lennon for £4m. If Lennon's new contract is for more than 2 years I don't like that for Everton.

I had concern's about Shaqiri's attitude (which is I think why we were only in on a loan offer for him), but getting trumped by Stoke City (Shaqiri), West Ham (Ogbonna), and Newcastle (Wijnaldum) this window is pretty galling.

I don't like Lennon on a more than 2 year contract either, but apparently we're running a retirement home which occasionally fields a footy squad, given the number of long-term contracts we're awarding our more geriatric players.

Martínez has said that we need a striker, a playmaking number ten, and a central defender. Given that Aaron Lennon is none of those, and we still very much need those roles, I'm okay with the signing only as long as it doesn't preclude us getting the bodies we actually need in, before the deadline.

At least, I'm happier with Lennon getting minutes than McGeady.

Lennon is 28, looks 35 and feels like hes been around so long that hes 40.

He's really only 2 years older than Walcott?

Order of bust English wingers by succession is what? SWP, Lennon, Walcott and Sterling with each one just being marginally better and more hyped?

Ighalo's goal this weekend was one of my favourites. That was a really good bit of work. And Watford generally did seem like PL quality team. (Although Everton was largely shambles, so we'll have to see.)

Shaqiri to Stoke would be amazing coup. Even if he doesn't reach his World Cup heights again, it's such a boost for a club that was the byword for a boring, unambitious PL team.

95th minute. 1-2 down and ADO Den Haag send up their goalkeeper, Martin Hansen, to try and salvage a late draw against PSV with the final freekick of the game...Wow...

Anybody watched the European Super Cup? 9 goals. It was a goody.

Clusks wrote:

95th minute. 1-2 down and ADO Den Haag send up their goalkeeper, Martin Hansen, to try and salvage a late draw against PSV with the final freekick of the game...Wow...

That was spectacular.

Well, its August 11th and we already have the goal of the season.

I'm not sure whats a worse omen.

Losing to West Ham at home or....

Eva Carneiro braced for axe from Chelsea bench after criticism from Mourinho.

Drawing vs Swansea at home + your coach preparing to go off the deep end before its even September.

Maybe its just Jose throwing all his toys out before the transfer dead line to get a couple more guys in but I honestly think if the ship doesn't level quick the guy is going to pop his top and force himself out like last time.

That's not going to happen. Forcing himself out, that is.
Same thing happened with Guardiola/Bayern last year.

But speaking of Eva: Arsenal + Eva

slazev wrote:

That's not going to happen. Forcing himself out, that is.
Same thing happened with Guardiola/Bayern last year.

But speaking of Eva: Arsenal + Eva

It's not?

He already did it once at Chelsea. He pretty much cornered himself in Spain with the media. Italy?

Mourinhos intensity can be a positive to motivate and drive his players. Unless he goes into meltdown mode where everything just goes toxic. It's not even September and hes throwing the medical staff under the bus.

What happens if Chelsea go on a real skid? I'm not sure he has the temperament to cool things, absorb the critics and right the ship. Considering his track record depending on how the wind is blowing he's liable to start throwing his players under the bus.

Ferguson was probably the master of playing both angles. Hair dryer treatment in the locker room and its everyone else's fault otherwise. If anything Wenger is to far the other way acting to cool all the time.

This should probably be more of a discussion about footballers feigning injury, but instead it's turned into a bit of an excuse for people to use Eva Carneiro as a bit of eye candy for what is, on the face of it, quite a boring story. Such a shame, Mourinho's big thing is that he tries to create this "it's everyone against us" thing, and loves his team to be a bit of an underdog. It can work for a bit, but ultimately he's not really suited to spending too long at any one club. Within one or two years he'll be back at Inter, he even said so to Italian press when he rejoined Chelsea!

I'm guessing nothing his happening to the member of the medical staff who was actually first on the pitch...

Never mind that the the moment the referee or the player ask for treatment the player has to go off the pitch whether or not the staff actually go onto it. Mourinho needed to distract from an abysmal performance (even when it was 11v11 they were very lucky to be ahead, if not not behind) so he found himself a prominent scapegoat.

Of course there's also this:

Mourinho is said to have held reservations about Carneiro’s role within the first-team squad since at least last year. While there is no question about her professional abilities, the Portuguese coach was concerned that the dressing room dynamic was affected by the presence of a female. According to a source, some players had expressed misgivings to the coaching staff about the set-up, arguing that it forced them to alter their usual behavior in a team environment.

Or "We want to be horrible people in the dressing room, following the example of our captain, and we don't want anyone there who might point out or make us realize we are awful".

jowner wrote:
slazev wrote:

That's not going to happen. Forcing himself out, that is.
Same thing happened with Guardiola/Bayern last year.

But speaking of Eva: Arsenal + Eva

It's not?

He already did it once at Chelsea. He pretty much cornered himself in Spain with the media. Italy?

Mourinhos intensity can be a positive to motivate and drive his players. Unless he goes into meltdown mode where everything just goes toxic. It's not even September and hes throwing the medical staff under the bus.

What happens if Chelsea go on a real skid? I'm not sure he has the temperament to cool things, absorb the critics and right the ship. Considering his track record depending on how the wind is blowing he's liable to start throwing his players under the bus.

Ferguson was probably the master of playing both angles. Hair dryer treatment in the locker room and its everyone else's fault otherwise. If anything Wenger is to far the other way acting to cool all the time.

Abramovich made a mistake firing Mourinho the first time. He knows it and won't make the same mistake twice. That's why he renewed his contract.

Real Madrid? Every manager has problems coaching that team.
Mourinho did a fantastic season and was fired the following year. Ancelotti won a Champions League and was fired the following year.
Besides, the media there is disgusting. Just a bunch of hyenas looking for fires and if they can't find them, they'll just start some.

You make it seem like he'll scream and point fingers if Chelsea goes on a losing streak.

Duplicate post. Please ignore.

I've been catching up on the games from the opening weekend. Pretty much every match was worthwhile viewing. I was really impressed with Leciester City's Riyad Mahrez. He played an absolute blinder. Ranieri was as entertaining as ever in interviews, too.

The one game that wasn't up to standards? Manchester United against Tottenham. We were lucky to come away with the three points. The Philosopher had best get it together. Last season and pre-season were the write offs to experiment with. Now we need to be seeing an understanding between the players, and a style of play worthy of Manchester United.

De Gea (again) is not in the squad for the Villa game. Romero looks set to keep his place between the sticks. Jones is still out. Rojo, too. I wonder if Sherwood will look to test Daley Blind should he remain at centre back. Rudy Gestede is a monster in the air. It's a definite concern.

City vs Chelsea this weekend! Looking forward to that one.