2022/23 Soccer Thread: Finals Week(s)

What Atleti has done with Griezmann should probably be illegal, but it's absolutely hilarious, so whatever.

Come on you Spurs, Richarlison crying while celebrating with his family after netting a brace on his Champions League debut. Oh what a night!

bbk1980 wrote:

Obviously Klopp has built up Wenger like unsackabiity ( there’s a new word) but this must be causing some concern?

I would say that there's concern, and then there's concern. Plus apart from questionable sponsorship and Super League greed, our owners aren't quite as insane as some others you could mention.

In terms of how the team is playing though? Our midfield is non-functional at the moment due to injuries. Elliot looks like the real deal, as does Carvalho, but they both need time and better players around them to learn. It's just making everything else look so disjointed that it's impacting everyone.

I love James Milner, but he's far too old for it now bless him, and Hendo isn't quite what he was. Everyone else is apparently made of wet tissue paper. That concerns me more to be honest, fantastic players who can't see out a season. It's not that having them is all bad, but it is when you apparently have so many of them.

Lastly someone really does need to Trent Alexander Arnold to one side and tell him not to become the next Delli Ali, because it's really starting to look like he's heading that way.

A bad result but Napoli were well up for it and we weren't.

I don't think you can summarize Liverpool's midfield issues better than "they started Milner in a CL match."

And what the hell has happened to Van Dijk this season? Gomez has been crap, but Van Dijk has not been good, and I'm idly wondering if the people saying he's never been the same since his knee injury might be right.

I think Van Djik's problem is probably also "they started Milner in midfield." We've seen this before with Kompany in a demanding syst + really high line + questionable midfield and the issue wasn't Kompany.

I can believe Van Dijk isn't at his absolute peak anymore but I doubt he's not good.

Potter to be next Chelsea manager.

Happy it wasn't Poch.

I wonder if one the interview questions was just. Ronaldo?

Roke wrote:

I think Van Djik's problem is probably also "they started Milner in midfield." We've seen this before with Kompany in a demanding syst + really high line + questionable midfield and the issue wasn't Kompany.

I can believe Van Dijk isn't at his absolute peak anymore but I doubt he's not good.

Agreed. When the midfield at Saints started to get bad, even Virgil couldn't save us.

Big loss for Brighton.

slazev wrote:

Big loss for Brighton.

I agree. It's too bad we (and moreso, they) don't get to see what this season could have been. I mean, they lost Cucurella and Bissouma to the big spending, vulturish clubs, and they were still flying! I honestly hope they hire well.

Well, there's no good way to say this, but do we think there will be games this weekend? I'm thinking probably not.

Yeap.

UK only, of course.

I spoke to soon.
It's still being decided.
You can follow it here.

Premier and football league games all cancelled.

The Cricket is suspended today but will resume tomorrow as will the PGA Golf and - apparently - most of the Rugby league stuff. Even the Great North Run is going ahead, but they’ve cancelled the kids race. I can’t figure that one out.

The next feasible window for slotting in this weekends program isn’t until the end of January next year. And that’ll depend on cup runs and what have you.

While I understand the sentiment, they should be playing after a minute silence, have everyone play wearing black armbands and possible sing ‘God save the King’ before the match starts. I think that would have done.

I agree with you, Sorbicol. And if the funeral is next weekend, they will have to cancel those fixtures, too.

Sorbicol wrote:

While I understand the sentiment, they should be playing after a minute silence, have everyone play wearing black armbands and possible sing ‘God save the King’ before the match starts. I think that would have done.

The Football Supporters’ Association agrees with you.

EDIT: Wait, Cricket and Rugby are going ahead? Then.... why is the football....

....there's a larger socioeconomic analysis that could be made here, huh?

I'm a staunch Constitutional Monarchist but the FA/PL should have only moved the games on the days of the funeral and Coronation instead of shutting things down.

That sort of mourning might have made sense in a 9-5/M-F society but it's not 70 years ago. Charles wants a slimmed down, more modern Coronation and I think modernizing mourning would have made sense too.

@AmosMurphy_ wrote:

So this weekend in the UK, shopping centres, theatres, cinemas, cafés, pubs, gyms, rugby grounds and horse racing meets will all be open, but football stadiums won’t.

Just let the absurdity of that sink in.

He is amazing in that Leeds movie.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcVn-tGWYAACfQ4?format=png&name=small)

@MattDoyle76 wrote:

In some cultures this is considered a hat-trick.

Looks like all games in London will be cancelled this weekend due to policing the mourning / Funeral for Queen Elizabeth II.

Going to be a mess of a schedule again this year.

Edit: Chelsea v Liverpool and Manchester United v Leeds Are off, but all other games on. Including Brentford v Arsenal.

That’s deeply unfair to those four teams. I get the reasons why but that a fixture pile up writ large

Eh, everyone's schedules will be less and less symmetrical as the season goes on because of who goes deeper in Europe and the cup tournaments. Canceling the whole weekend because of two games would only create more congestion and difficulty next Spring.

f*ck this idea. To hell with this guy.

American who doesn't understand football in the UK - Or the nature of the North / South divide - makes statement that proves he doesn't know anything about how the clubs work.

Muppet.

Also Todd Boehly (probably): What? It's a great idea! Tottenham and Arsenal, Liverpool and ManU on the same team, the fans will love it! Also, what if we introduced a shot clock like the NBA?

FWIW, I now TOTALLY believe the "4-4-3" rumor.

Perfect. The data points that he doesn't get it are confirmed.

Chelsea are going to be a hot mess. United are probably going to get 100m+ for Ronaldo in the winter window because this guy will say so.

What if we made the game sixty minutes long with a clock that stopped when the ball goes out of play and we split those sixty minutes into four 15 minute periods and during the breaks teams could bring in as many substitutes as they liked, including players who had been substituted out earlier in the game and each of the four periods had a mandated timeout for tactical discussion and for our partners to show advertisements and also the sport is now called Verizonball®.

Terrific game between Liverpool & Ajax. Liverpool much better than against Napoli, tremendous finish by Kudus for the equaliser. Top notch entertainment!