The anti-American snobbery among English (European?) football fans is bizarre to me. The U.S. has been a competent force for quarter-of-a-century now, and they currently sit ahead of Croatia, Switzerland and Colombia in the FIFA World Rankings. If a Premier League club appointed a manager from any of those three countries, no one would bat an eyelid, but the moment an American is appointed, he's assumed to have Ted Lasso-levels of cluelessness.
BBK is probably right that the attitude is a hangover from when the U.S. didn't really "do" football. But that's not been the case for a long time.
Game on...
Fedaykin98 wrote:Yeah, tomorrow's fixture is a winner for neutrals any way you slice it.
Now guaranteed to be a an utterly terrible 0-0 draw.
Just bringing these predictions back up. 
That goal from Sancho was one of the most composed, courageous moves I've seen. Just masterful.
Kinda pulling for a draw here.
LOL
Gotta admit, if United winning fairly easily after dropping Maguire and Ronaldo is probably the maximum chaos result.
If nothing else, I think this has largely proven what Klopp mentioned before the game though, Liverpool DESPERATELY need another midfielder.
EDIT: Also, so has TAA just said "screw it" to the entire concept of defending?
The anti-American snobbery among English (European?) football fans is bizarre to me. The U.S. has been a competent force for quarter-of-a-century now, and they currently sit ahead of Croatia, Switzerland and Colombia in the FIFA World Rankings. If a Premier League club appointed a manager from any of those three countries, no one would bat an eyelid, but the moment an American is appointed, he's assumed to have Ted Lasso-levels of cluelessness.
BBK is probably right that the attitude is a hangover from when the U.S. didn't really "do" football. But that's not been the case for a long time.
To be fair, don't think we should be trusting those FIFA rankings...
It's not just USA. Anything outside UEFA and CONMEBOL usually isn't taken seriously.
Is Gareth Southgate at the game today? Any chance he sees this and decides to ditch Harry Maguire as well?
I can only imagine how much Ronaldo is fuming right now.
I can only imagine how much Ronaldo is fuming right now.
That’s on of the few things that’s keeping me sane at the moment.
Someone need to take Trent to one side and show him a video of Deli Ali. And tell him that’ll be him soon if he doesn’t buck his ideas up.
I’m worried I saw this coming. We’ve been poor for a while now. It’s only City that can shake us out of our arrogance/lethargy when playing other teams.
Welp.
Two draws and a loss to United. 1 point off the relegation places. 7 off the top of the table.
Liverpool claims the "X in crisis!" crown from Manchester United.
Can ManU repeat that intensity consistently? That is the question going forward.
Things to take from that game:
1. Man U weren't that good. Much like the Palace game, we present a few chances and they took some of them. Is that harsh? Maybe a little, but with players caliber of Rashford and Sancho, you'd expect it. Fernandez was a disgrace. 2 blatant dives and all that rubbish with keeping the ball in extra time. he should have been off. Don't get me wrong they were night and day compared to how they were against Brentford, but a team not resting on it's laurels would have comfortably beaten them.
2. Right now our high press line is well off. That's always a mistake waiting to happen. It's happening. We need to slack off a little.
3. Our midfield. Milner is - and I hate saying this - past it. Certainly for the premier league. We have far too many players who are consistently injured rather than consistently playing. Henderson isn't far behind. He's been a magnificent servant but time is clearly coming to a close. Klopp needs to lean in to our youth players more or do something about it.
4. Klopp. He got every tactical decision wrong tonight. Hopefully this is the Shockabuku he needs to get his head straight.
5. We're 3 games into the season. it's not good, neither it is a crisis the English media will portray is it.
5. Sometimes, football sucks. It's why we all love it.
I said it was gonna be a win for the neutrals, and by gracious, it was.
Don't get me wrong, the last thing I want is a re-ascendant Manchester United. Well second to last thing, I suppose. The last thing would be those Woolwich scum in
/dies
Ha-ha! Boy howdy, look at Aston Villa struggling with Bolton, or Crystal Palace at 0-0 with Oxford. Man, I'd really hate to be a fan of a PL team currently struggling with lower-league opposition. Totally sucks to be them right now.
UPDATE:
Well, in happier news, Happy Anniversary to the day Ricardo Fuller (19 PL goals from 141 games) suddenly turned into Dennis f*ckin' Bergkamp.
It's sacrilegious, but you could claim this is better than the Dutchman's, as there's zero question Fuller meant every single moment of it and arguably had a better finish.
If we're talking about magical touches that take a defender out of the game, then this is the best goal I have ever seen, and no one remembers it or talks about it:
Three games in is obviously WAY too soon, but this is a smidge curious.
I didn't even realize it's already been 7 years but ya that checks out. I actually had to confirm via wiki.
Wow, Delli Alli's really off to Besiktas.
Like, no shade to the Turkish league (okay, fine, shade) but I can't think of an player in recent memory who went there and came back better. Like, it's go there, then to the MLS or China, then maybe a Gulf league or Australia, and then retirement. Dude's career is done.
EDIT: Also, Newcastle throwing £59m on Real Sociedad’s Alexander Isak is a straight-out-of FM 20 transfer.
Gers in the Group Stage of the Champions League!
Champions League draw is out!
Tottenham's path looks pretty reasonable.
Watched the first two episodes of Welcome to Wrexham last night. It's not bad!
It did make me think, however, about how I would NEVER be cut out to run a club.
Like, in FM, especially in LLM games, I have been absolutely vicious about who I keep and who I let go, I'd release players just because they had one sh*t game. but that's because they're all just numbers in FM. I don't think I'd be capable of making some of those truly ruthless decisions when it's not just numbers, but real people with real lives, real faces, and real families.
Lower league football life is brutal. The glamour of life at the top really is for the very few and the rest are fighting for a career. The amount of people dropped and losing out on their lifelong dream is heartbreaking. It’s the same as any sport But I think our perception is warped by the largesse on display at the top.
I did have a bit of a chuckle at their ambition for the club. Like, they're not being ridiculously unrealistic, but if they can get Wrexham into "safely League One" territory in five years, that'd be a COLOSSAL success.
But the two of those dudes are rich and they're not even close to having PL money.
So, Champions League draw:
Group A: Ajax, Liverpool, Napoli, Rangers
Group B: Porto, Atletico Madrid, Leverkusen, Club Brugge
Group C: Bayern, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Viktoria Plzen (Poor Poor Plzen)
Group D: Eintracht Frankfurt, Spurs, Sporting, Marseille
Group E: AC Milan, Chelsea, Salzburg, Dinamo
Group F: Real Madrid, RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk, Celtic
Group G: Man City, Sevilla, Dortmund, FC Copenhagen
Group H: PSG, Juventus, Benfica, Maccabi Haifa.
Immediate thoughts are none of the English teams will be unhappy, Group C is one of the best I've seen in a while but Barcelona are going to find it hard, Celtic will be happy with a trip to Real. And Haaland back to Dortmund.
All the group games are to be played before the World Cup so from now on I think it's at least 2 games a week for pretty much everyone. There's going to be a lot of football this year, again.
I don't hate more football especially mid week. I do enjoy the 12pm Pacific Time games that are on during lunch when they occur.
I don't hate more football especially mid week. I do enjoy the 12pm Pacific Time games that are on during lunch when they occur.
Unfortunately, the first of Tottenham's midweek games comes next week when I may have a work meeting. I haven't visited the Houston Spurs since before Covid.
I'd forgotten about that Ben Thatcher foul until they mentioned it. I remember seeing it, and while it didn't have the lasting effects of some of the others, I think it's a fine choice for #1.
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