2020/21 Soccer Thread: Messxit?

Still pretty open. Saints current PL form is LLLLLL and we're only 10 points ahead of you. CP has been right with us heading down the flume.

Tottenham wins, United wins, Arsenal gets an away draw, and Rangers played the most interesting game of the day.

Prederick wrote:

Tottenham wins, United wins, Arsenal gets an away draw, and Rangers played the most interesting game of the day.

Spurs and USWNT win, and my power has been on for 24 hours! What a day!

Prederick wrote:

Tottenham wins, United wins, Arsenal gets an away draw, and Rangers played the most interesting game of the day.

Antwerp has a trademark on European games like this:

Lovely play from Minamino to sit the defence down so he can roll the ball in.

Saints will almost certainly throw the lead away, but that was nice.

Prederick wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Anyway, I believe we are now at "Liverpool in crisis!" time.

After going almost four years without a home defeat in the league, Liverpool have now lost four in a row. That is utterly bonkers.

Half the first team is on the treatment table with Henderson joining them tonight. The penalty was just a joke - now being given for the attacking player running into someone lying on the ground - even after VAR told him to look at it again, and still made the wrong decision.

I’m not saying this slump isn’t now deeply concerning but it’s not like it’s unexplainable. The problem now is how to Liverpool alter their game style to cope with it? That’s where Klopp just hasn’t got it right yet. Still I think Jota isn’t too fair from coming back and VVD is now back at Melwood. If I were Liverpool I’d also be making sure the entire team suffer an injury crisis over the summer so none of them have to play in the Euros or any other cup competition. Collectively they need a time out. Something this season isn’t big on.

And I had to laugh at the city fan saying we’ve got no depth. That’s because we don’t have billions being poured in to cover the cost of 2 first teams. Neither does anyone else in the league.

Sorbicol wrote:

And I had to laugh at the city fan saying we’ve got no depth. That’s because we don’t have billions being poured in to cover the cost of 2 first teams. Neither does anyone else in the league.

Preach!

Roke wrote:

I'm starting to get nervous, Pred. Saw a projection yesterday that had Fulham finishing just 3 points behind Newcastle.

IMAGE(https://media1.tenor.com/images/a06e7cbba4924e68690cac8e8d7e7abb/tenor.gif?itemid=4793051)

I've seen portions of maybe half of Fulham's last half dozen matches and they have consistently looked solid. So much better than two years ago. Huge win today! Now just need Newcastle to drop points tomorrow.

Things in your rear-view mirror are closer than they appear.

Sorbicol wrote:

The penalty was just a joke - now being given for the attacking player running into someone lying on the ground - even after VAR told him to look at it again, and still made the wrong decision.

Suffice to say we disagree - though had Alexander-Arnold not raised his leg to ensure DCL went down, I think there'd be a case to be made there.

As it is, DOGSO and he was lucky to remain on the pitch.

I love this because the prices are just so quaint these days.

Anyway, we'll see if they do it continentally, but they could just hand the title to City right now, right?

Arsenal made it interesting for themselves.

Prederick wrote:

Arsenal made it interesting for themselves.

I'll take it!

Never know what can happen in cup competitions (last year FA Cup).

The Saka to Auba stuff was fun. I can tolerate Arsenal being erratic if I get to watch some good football occasionally and a dollop of David Luiz hilarity.

Benfica has been dreadful this season. Arsenal can only blame themselves.

Almiron and Saint-Maximin both out 4-6 weeks (ligament damage and groin tear respectively). And that's on top of Wilson already out. Getting excited yet Pred?

Wish Newcastle had a docuseries this year so the muppets in charge would be exposed. So much praise and tut-tutting from pundits early on when it was clear we were bad but getting lucky.

Would be more excited if we'd gotten the three points we deserved vs. Palace. That was one of those FM results that'd have you throwing the desktop out a window. Poor, poor finishing.

A Guardian commenter wrote:

You get the feeling that a Brighton v Fulham game could take place without goalkeepers at all, and it would still finish 0-0. Oddly, that has been the score in both fixtures, which backs up this theory.

Meanwhile, Palace: two shots on goal in the last two games, four points won.

Liverpool, Leicester and Newcastle have been absolutely shafted by injuries this season. It’s mostly bad luck but you can’t help thinking Newcastle are going to suffer most for it ultimately.

I saw "Chelsea 2-0 Atletico" today and thought the CL was back this week until I saw photos of the game.

Palace with yet ANOTHER 0-0 draw, meaning the gap to City is now 14 points. I hadn't realized it was that huge, and we can just call it now, yes?

Finally got around to reading this. We all know I'm anti-FFP but this is one thing Financial Fair Play actually does prevent.

Sorbicol wrote:

Liverpool, Leicester and Newcastle have been absolutely shafted by injuries this season. It’s mostly bad luck but you can’t help thinking Newcastle are going to suffer most for it ultimately.

I have a fair bit of sympathy for Liverpool, they've played a tonne of football over the last three seasons and running up those miles without much rest last summer has probably played a big part in their injury crisis.

On the other hand Newcastle would probably be a lot better on the injury front if they didn't have a dinosaur in charge who admits to "taking risks" with playing players in matches when they're not fit.

Aaaahhhhhhh crud. Played quite well, but once again, that lack of edge in the final third.

Also, I just noticed that Liverpool are now closer to Fulham in 18th than they are to City in 1st.

Spurs: Welcome, friend!

Liverpool are broken.

Yeah, I am thrilled to get the three points, but this is now well past "slump" and into "something is fundamentally wrong."

I can't believe I'm asking this, but they might need to fire Klopp.

Prederick wrote:

Yeah, I am thrilled to get the three points, but this is now well past "slump" and into "something is fundamentally wrong."

I can't believe I'm asking this, but they might need to fire Klopp.

Yeah. Klopp out!

I jest to be honest, but something has been lost from the team. It’s a culmination of factors at the end of the day - as previously discussed but now it’s down to players getting out of their headspace at the moment, and reminding themselves just how good they can be. There is some rebuilding to be done now though, that should be obvious.

We’re not going to get relegated and Fulham should stay up now, they are a good team and I’m mightily impressed with the work Scott Parker has done this season. Newcastle are an objectively worse team at the moment with their own injury crisis being even more damaging than ours.

Won’t say it’s very disappointing for sure but I honestly think Klopp should tell Trent, Salah and a few others now to just expect to play champions league and give them break otherwise. They all need a serious break.

Can it be as simple as they lost van Dijk to injury, he is the key to them being able to play their high line which allows them to play the way they do at their best, and they don't have an adequate backup for him (not that that's an easy thing to do)?