2017/18 Soccer Thread

bigred wrote:

I didn't see any negative actions from Koln. I keep saying headlines that are negative but nothing to back it up besides a general sense of outrage and negativity. Frankly, I was embarrassed by the home fans. Koln looked like a fun group of guys.

I walked into a bar and the 2nd half was starting. Totally forgot it was on.

One person sitting at the bar was trying to paint it up as if there was a riot + fights + glass being thrown etc.

The headlines vs the actual articles if you read them are comical.

'Chaos' 'Riots' then you read the article and the actual account is tame.

They could get away with it at Arsenal because the Hugos are so supine. There's plenty of grounds (both in England and overseas) where turning up like that would have met with a different reaction - have a look at footage of the Burnley - Hanover game this summer, and that was supposed to be a friendly. I guess that you'd be unlikely to get 20k going outside of London, but even so I think that turning up at West Ham or even Chelsea would be quite different. And not in a good way.

You could argue that Arsenal could have segregated a larger area (I think they allocated the UEFA standard percentage, which in their case is about 2,900), but if their own fans have season tickets for those areas, why should they be moved ? I think that Koln have questions to answer - they knew what allocation they had, and they should at least have warned ticketless fans not to travel, rather than shrug it off.

Quite pleased with the Newcastle performance today. Would like to see Joselu with some better finishing but as long a striker's getting good chances I don't worry too much, the finishing usually comes. I only caught glimpses of the early match but Palace look a mess and seemed to be allowing Lemina to run the show without putting him under any sort of pressure.

Harry Redknapp's resigned from Birmingham after bringing in 14 players in the transfer window. They're 2nd-from-bottom in the Championship.

Roke wrote:

Quite pleased with the Newcastle performance today.

I haven't seen any highlights but 2-1 at home over Stoke is a nice result for them, for sure.

And whoa, Man City demolished Watford?

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

And whoa, Man City demolished Watford?

You make it sound like a surprise.

Still, the porous defence so often alluded to by such coaching geniuses as Robby Savage and Danny Mills is making a bit of an effort - 2 goals conceded in 6 games. And the Daniels goal for Bournemouth was pretty much unstoppable.

PS - I might have inadvertently given non-British readers the impression that Messrs Savage and Mills are in fact pundits of note. They are not. Their continued existence is an affront to all right-minded individuals.

Good fantasy day there - Aguero hattrick, Vardy goal and 2 Southampton defenders

Other good bits - Liverpool drawing at home, ditto Spurs, and Fingers getting fired.

Oh, and someone's pointed out Palace's next three fixtures in the league are City (A), United (A), Chelsea (H).

Oh dear. Though I am mentally bracing myself for City to have 40 shots, 90% possession, hit the woodwork 8 times and then lose 1-0 to a massive deflection in the 90+5th minute.

Don't scoff, I went to a cup game in the early 90's where City hit the woodwork 6 times and lost 1-0 to Notts County, who scored in the 89th minute. Even worse, 2 of City's post-hitting efforts were after the goal...

Everton vs Man United
I guess the wheels fell off in the second half, but I watched the first half and Everton looked a striker short of being a decent team.

IMAGE(http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVQB8UxUYAA3-yY.png)

And this despite the €200m worth Coutinho and Ben 'The Second Coming' Woodburn playing.

And the £40m Alex Oxl......no, I can't type it for laughing...must concentrate.

An incredible moment in football last night, as Sunderland played Everton last night and fielded a side with more Everton appearances.

What a shame Moyesie himself wasn't there to take it all in.

Apparently Rashford is a world superstar now. Amazing what scoring against Burton Albion's reserve team can do for you in the hands of skilled sycophants.

Meanwhile, an FA investigation is to be held into the outcome of last night's League Cup draw. It was announced that Manchester City have been drawn at HOME for the first time in the last 11 draws, and Manchester United have been drawn away, and to a Premiership club at that (ok, Swansea). Looks like someone got the two balls mixed up.

Given that, and the strength of our opposition in the first six matches, I wouldn't be surprised to be in the relegation zone at that point - though I fully expect us to start moving through the gears by Thanksgiving or so.

Accurate on the first part. Fingers crossed on the second.

I think the folks who have been calling for Koeman's head are silly. Agree we've had some bad performances (and the Atalanta match was woeful), but there's lots of football to be played.

DCL is young, will be inconsistent, and it's not reasonable to expect him to lead the line all season, but I've been very impressed with him so far - we've definitely looked a better side with him on the pitch. Still inexcusable that we didn't sign another striker as replacement for Rom, but DCL's performances have cushioned that somewhat.

Speaking of surprises, who had Niasse scoring (or getting minutes at all) in an Everton jersey? Everyone with your hands raised - you are all liars.

Speaking of England FA investigations... the FA's handling of the whole Mark Sampson debacle, with first Aluko and Spence and then the weird Bristol stuff where what went on there isn't completely out in the open yet, is a complete shambles.

davet010 wrote:

Apparently Rashford is a world superstar now. Amazing what scoring against Burton Albion's reserve team can do for you in the hands of skilled sycophants.

Meanwhile, an FA investigation is to be held into the outcome of last night's League Cup draw. It was announced that Manchester City have been drawn at HOME for the first time in the last 11 draws, and Manchester United have been drawn away, and to a Premiership club at that (ok, Swansea). Looks like someone got the two balls mixed up.

Rashford is a great talent. But he is definately not the new Ronaldo that some english media make him out to be.
As a United fan I am very happy about his progress, but also see alot of his flaws. Many of them the same as Welbeck, and look how he turned out.
Its way to early to judge Rashford.

Personally I still see Martial as a much bigger talent.

Rooney looking like a 1950s hockey player after getting elbowed in the head in the Everton-Bournemouth match.

Lyng wrote:

Rashford is a great talent. But he is definately not the new Ronaldo that some english media make him out to be.
As a United fan I am very happy about his progress, but also see alot of his flaws. Many of them the same as Welbeck, and look how he turned out.
Its way to early to judge Rashford.

Personally I still see Martial as a much bigger talent.

Welbeck seems like a decent enough comparable. I liked Welbeck a fair bit but repeated injuries really hampered him. Never saw him as a first-choice striker for a top-4 (well, now top-6) side in England but his versatility meant he would have been a nice rotation option for a side up there.

Niasse rescues Everton.

They should have had a penalty for the elbow on Rooney and they had another goal cleared off the line but I thought they looked really bad up until the substitutions. For all the money they've spent there was no pace in the side. Gylfi being an inert attacker from open play doesn't help but that's been his story for a few seasons now.

Sunderland in the relegation zone of the Championship 9 matches in. Last spring I thought they were worse off than Villa in the year Villa got relegated but I don't think I realized how bad things were.

bluuuuuuuuuh. 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough. 11 points from 9 games, and a distinct sense that it'll be mid-table mediocrity again this season. That said, the Championship season takes a billion years, so we could still go on a run and end up in the playoff places.

EDIT: Also, having watched today's highlights, I love Klopp but Liverpool cannot defend at all and they won't come within sniffing distance of any silverware because of it.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, five red cards!

Wait, Crystal Palace still haven't scored a goal?!?!?

Prederick wrote:

Wait, Crystal Palace still haven't scored a goal?!?!?

They did hit the post yesterday...on a big deflected shot.

Other than that, it would have been difficult for them to score when they had zero efforts on target. It's said that City keeper Ederson was seen sitting in the back of his net, with a notebook, Portuguese - English dictionary and a copy of Shakespeare's Henry V, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Big test next week though at Chelsea. Hopefully Mendy's injury picked up in the first half is not too serious, but buying Danilo is looking like a better and better move each week - he's already filled in for both Walker and Mendy.

Okay, have finally stopped laughing and wanted to write up a couple of brief comments.

Having seen what utter gash he was when we signed him I am shocked by Niasse's resurgence (though perhaps not as surprised at this gentleman). Seriously, he spent more time falling over than running channels.

Fair play to Niasse for seizing his chance, and I hope Everton give him a locker (if they haven't already). Major kudos to Unsworth for managing to find a player, and teaching Oumar that if he stays upright he stands a chance of scoring. I don't think that he's at the level we need, but I'm happy for him to keep it up and prove the doubters (including myself) wrong.

I agree that we didn't look great until Tom Davies came on (our youth players have really been stepping up, thank goodness - more credit to Unsworth for getting them ready to make that leap).

I'd have Kenny ahead of Martina unless our opposition doesn't fancy attacking on our right flank, and I think that our center midfield is way too heavy right now (Klaasen / Sigurðsson / Rooney / arguably Davies all are strongest centrally - even shifting folks wide, there's really no way to fit everybody in).

Lack of pace (and more distressingly, movement off the ball in general) continues to be a concern. Vlasic has shown some promise, but we don't have a lot of options (especially wide).

Onwards.

2017 Puskás award voting is live. I'm torn between first time volley from own half and bicycle kick goalkeeper...

Also, anyone else think that Matic one in there is a bit strange? I mean, it's a great goal, but was that seriously one of the best? Didn't Fekir for Lyon score a ridiculous one from the half way line only a few weeks ago?

Someone has just pointed out to me that Man City have scored more Premiership goals in their first 6 games than Derby Co did in the 2007-08 season.

All of it.

Looks like Monaco might have overdone it with the clearance sale over the summer - they've just been gubbed 3-0 at home by Porto.

Clusks wrote:

2017 Puskás award voting is live. I'm torn between first time volley from own half and bicycle kick goalkeeper...

Also, anyone else think that Matic one in there is a bit strange? I mean, it's a great goal, but was that seriously one of the best? Didn't Fekir for Lyon score a ridiculous one from the half way line only a few weeks ago?

Yeah, I agree on the Matic goal. One of these things is not like the others. Definitely the weakest of the ten. I also thought that Castellanos' goal (Venezuela women) was more keeper suckage than it was a great goal. The timing on that one (stoppage time to win the game) probably helped it some I guess.

By the way, I thought the compilation video is poorly done. On this YouTube channel you can see ten short videos, one of each goal. It's a much better look at each goal. Dembele's Celtic goal, for example, is extraordinary because they show the whole buildup, which includes about 20 passes all over the pitch before the final exchange near the goal.

I disagree - the Matic goal is better than at least half of the other strikes on there. If you see it from behind him, you can see how absolutely perfectly the ball was struck. Plus, I'm inclined to consider who he was playing against.

Superb performance by Everton to manage a 2-2 draw against a team from Cyprus. At home. And the Cypriot team were down to 10 men when they equalised.

Koeman will no doubt be spending this morning searching 'asbestos underwear' online.

In other news, City LB Mendy is now basically out for the rest of the season after doing his ACL. Still, at least he's keeping up his legendary tweets....his advice to anyone who gets his FIFA 18 'Up and Comers' card, which tracks player performance during the season, was to 'sell it'.

Prederick wrote:

bluuuuuuuuuh. 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough. 11 points from 9 games, and a distinct sense that it'll be mid-table mediocrity again this season. That said, the Championship season takes a billion years, so we could still go on a run and end up in the playoff places.

/wins two games in a row
//is suddenly 8th, a point off playoff places

The Championship everybody! Only 35 more games to go!

Chelsea - Man City was certainly interesting. It felt like City completely smothered them but I guess Chelsea unexpectedly playing strikerless after Morata got hurt didn't help them (though they could have just brought on Michy in a straight swap)

No Sergio Aguero.
Fabian Delph at LB.
Away at Chelsea.

IMAGE(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/624/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2017/9/30/098ff868-2bb0-4d72-8b8d-755fd14e46ef.jpg)

No worries. Should have been 2 or 3-0.

Thinks back to Camel Gob's pre-match 'analysis' - "Hazard and Morata will have too much for City".

Laughs.

That was a fun match to watch. City looking much better than the match I watched at the beginning of the year. They look to have a much better sense of how to attack together. Some really good combinations and movement now.

Paul Merson hitting new levels of Paul Merson on Sky Sports today, quoted as saying about Klopp:

"Why would anyone leave Liverpool for Bayern? What's he gonna win, the German league? Whupde do."

Definitely at the point now where Sky are pretty much feeding him stupid things to say. Sad, but they know terrible pundits sell more than good ones in this country.

There are a number of reasons why he might say that.

- The challenge of winning the Premiership is greater than winning the Bundesliga with FC Arrogant, who if they can't beat you to a signing, will hollow out your team from within (cf Lewandowski, Hummels, Gotze),

- There is little or any positive press to be gained from leading Bayern to the Bundesliga, but leading Liverpool to the Premiership...you'd have mawkish Scousers building shrines to you for centuries.

- Klopp has already won the Bundesliga with BD. He'd burnt out by the end of his tenure there. Would he want to go back to Germany having won nothing in England, and in reality not been that near to winning anything, apart from a League Cup final ?

- How would the Bayern fans react to him ? Sure, United fans like Mourinho's anti-football, but that's because they couldn't deal with not winning things, as under Moyes and van Gaal. Bayern won the Bundesliga last season under Ancelotti, and 3 under Pep before that. Is Klopp going to be the person to lead them to better CL performances....I'm not sure, and I doubt they will be either. Still, I'm reading that the current favourite for the job is Thomas Tuchel, who had a big fallout with the BD hierarchy before he left there. I'd love to see how he gets on with Clown.

I'm sure that little or none of this passed through Merson's sorely under-utilized mind before he spoke - and if it did, he would be equally unable to express it coherently.