2018/19 Soccer Thread

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Another summer over, another season begins.

Welcome to another year of the soccer thread devoted to the latest gossip, conspiracy theories and general made-up transfer nonsense.

(Sort of) apologies for the banner, but I was bored of Collina and inspiration wasn't forthcoming. I didn't want a WC one as the focus of this thread is domestic football, rather than internationals.

So let the madness begin. Again.

I'm just here to establish my credibility so I don't get called out for only posting during the playoffs.

...wait, what's that?

Don't worry Fedaykin, there are many playoffs to which you might be referring

Sarri at Chelsea should be interesting.

Everton score 22 goals in their first pre-season friendly. They scored 27 under Fat Sam. It was against some 5th tier austrian side, but still.

22 goals.

I did see a quote from an Everton fan saying that BFS would have been happy to hold it to 1-1.

In fairness, the highlights (?!) on Sky made the opponents look like the sort of team playing in a pub league.

When playing Football Manager I always schedule my last friendly before the league opener to be against some tiny local side and I don't think I've ever had a team score 20 goals. How is playing opposition that bad good preparation?

I didn't watch the match yesterday but apparently Wayne Rooney played very well for DC United in his debut. Of course Alphonso Davies upstaged things with a wonderful consolation goal.

Sky showed some fairly brief highlights. Rooney's 'assist' was a simple give and go to the edge of the box, the no 7 did all the work.

I guess the friendly isn't too bad if it's the first one, just to get some of the rust off. Everton are in a tournament with Lille and Porto next week, and also have Valencia scheduled, so they should get a better workout.

City's preseason preparations are going to be chaotic, with so many players on rest after the WC. Still, would be nice to see some of the youth prospects (Foden, Diaz, Adebairyo etc) get a decent run out.

The friendly was against the team who has let them use their grounds for training in preseason. I am guessing they friendly was part of the deal.

As it is the first match, it stretches the legs and shakes off the rust. Never expected anything like this to happen. Highlights include an opponents midfielder lobbing his own keeper on a back pass for the 19th, and Niasse scoring a wonderful goal with his junk for the 21st.

Roke wrote:

When playing Football Manager I always schedule my last friendly before the league opener to be against some tiny local side and I don't think I've ever had a team score 20 goals.

In fairness, I've never seen a AI-controlled FM team replicate the kind of insane scoring Ronaldo/Messi have put up in recent years.

davet010 wrote:

Sky showed some fairly brief highlights. Rooney's 'assist' was a simple give and go to the edge of the box, the no 7 did all the work.

Hey, considering how he'd looked at the end of the PL season, that's fairly impressive.

Nice work with the thread banner as well.

The Premier League kicks off again in just 27 days. At least the layoff won't be too long!

Psych wrote:

Everton score 22 goals in their first pre-season friendly. They scored 27 under Fat Sam. It was against some 5th tier austrian side, but still.

22 goals.

Sounds like one of my rec league games. They should have subbed the keeper so he could come out and score.

Zidane goes to Juve as director... Secret agent who tapped up Ronaldo? I think so.

I still think there is much transfer hysteria to come. The one thing I'm curious about is if the club's are actually organized enough.

The Hazard to Real stuff is pretty funny as he's clearly not even close to a 33 year old Ronaldo and the rumored prices are crazy.

Alisson to Liverpool is the transfer I don't want to happen. The price is also crazy but I'm not sure how seriously I can rate a Liverpool team going into this season with their GK options.

Arsenal are still done besides the fake rumors. Welbeck and Ospina might still go.

jowner wrote:

Zidane goes to Juve as director... Secret agent who tapped up Ronaldo? I think so.

Oi - I do the conspiracy theories round here. So they say.

jowner wrote:

The Hazard to Real stuff is pretty funny as he's clearly not even close to a 33 year old Ronaldo and the rumored prices are crazy.

That would be hilariously underwhelming.

I can't help but feel PSG's big spending has disrupted Real Madrid the most (well, outside of France). Madrid were really good at recycling players - selling guys later in or past their prime for a decent enough fee and then buying up younger, prime or just before prime age players to be the key to the team. Mbappé would be a typical Real Madrid signing - a young star who just had a breakout tournament - but they were beaten to him.

Keeping Ronaldo as long as they did made sense because he's still incredible but with Bale and Benzema they've kept them until they got old and noticeably declined.

MLS stuff good here too? Friends and I have gone to the last couple of Atlanta United games and I’m getting MLS fever.

Definitely welcome here.

I've heard pretty great things about Atlanta's support, which is impressive for such a new team.

I'm hoping to make it up to a Minnesota United game at some point, but it won't be this season I think.

thejustinbot wrote:

MLS stuff good here too? Friends and I have gone to the last couple of Atlanta United games and I’m getting MLS fever.

I went to Atlanta's first game of the season and it was awesome in every respect! The Atlanta supporters were very impressive.

Spoiler:

Houston won 4-0.

Both the games we’ve been to have been ones where they open the upper level. First one was 71,300ish folks and Sunday ended up being 72,200 some which was an MLS record. Even as a casual fan I will see the fan base is loud and energetic. It helps that the team is good, has some great and fun players, and the stadium is super nice. Being one of only two teams in the SE helps as well, our group travels in from two and a half hours away, and the whole drive in and out we see other United fans.

The first game we went to was especially great as they beat Orlando 4-0. Even better was the folks behind us who had never watched MLS before and were constantly comparing the players to top European team players.

This past game was still fun but agonizing as the red lost control of the game completely. Seattle got an iffy penalty and while Atlanta equalized nothing they could do would get a second goal in. A stadium full of people holding their breathe and then groaning as every shot narrowly missed or deflected was its own kind of fun.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

I'm hoping to make it up to a Minnesota United game at some point, but it won't be this season I think.

My friend and I are planning to make either a Red Bulls or NYCFC game in the next month or two, rather than getting charged exorbitant prices to watch jetlagged European teams missing anyone who didn't play in the World Cup jog through the ICC games.

In other news, Liverpool are apparently going to pay £62m to get a decent keeper, and I am again reminded that modern transfer fees no longer make sense.

Like, this has to be a bubble, right? Because prices like this cannot last, can they?

Prederick wrote:
Dimmerswitch wrote:

I'm hoping to make it up to a Minnesota United game at some point, but it won't be this season I think.

My friend and I are planning to make either a Red Bulls or NYCFC game in the next month or two, rather than getting charged exorbitant prices to watch jetlagged European teams missing anyone who didn't play in the World Cup jog through the ICC games.

In other news, Liverpool are apparently going to pay £62m to get a decent keeper, and I am again reminded that modern transfer fees no longer make sense.

Like, this has to be a bubble, right? Because prices like this cannot last, can they?

The historically low prices for a keeper never made sense.

If you look at DeGea he's essentially been their best player for 4+ years?

If Mahrez is 60m and might bounce between starting and the bench then 62m is fine for a 25 year old keeper who might hold the job for 7 years before you need to seriously look again.

£62m is what, about 15% of Liverpool's turnover? For a big signing that's fine. I think the reason goalkeepers were under-priced for so long is their contribution has been hard to measure beyond basic shots-topping but at least in the public sphere analytics work has gotten a lot more sophisticated.

I think non-concussed Karius is a fine enough goalkeeper, even for Liverpool, but they've already upgraded the midfield, and they got the attacking midfield depth they needed in Shaqiri. Liverpool's biggest weakness pre-Alisson is what, Robertson at leftback or backup striker? May as well get the goalkeeper in.

Seeing Bournemouth and Brighton outspend Newcastle in the transfer market is frustrating. I'm not expecting to compete with the likes of Everton or Leicester but come on.

Seems nailed on for Rafa to leave at the end of the season unless Ashley suddenly sells the club. Just penny wise, pound foolish nonsense.

Roke wrote:

I think non-concussed Karius is a fine enough goalkeeper, even for Liverpool

Given the additions we’ve made elsewhere, he might have been good enough if he were able to shake off the psychological effects of having done so poorly in the CL final, but on the strength of his pre season appearances that appears to manifestly not be the case.

Can I just say that I'm definitely not in favour of this 'Liverpool signing good players' malarkey.

Roke, the way it's reading in the papers at the moment, I'd be surprised if Rafa was still at St James Park at the start of the season, let alone the end. The Times this morning was reporting that he's been told that he'll have to sell before spending money.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

Definitely welcome here.

I've heard pretty great things about Atlanta's support, which is impressive for such a new team.

I'm hoping to make it up to a Minnesota United game at some point, but it won't be this season I think.

The new stadium next year will be a HOT item. I've been by the construction a couple of times and it looks really good.

IMAGE(https://www.twincities.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/jea-2245-aerials-april-2018.jpg?w=935)

davet010 wrote:

Can I just say that I'm definitely not in favour of this 'Liverpool signing good players' malarkey.

I'm just happy they've at least temporarily left the south coast.

Speaking of the south coast - what's Lemina like? Asking for a friend.

I was a bit wishy-washy on Shaqiri-to-Liverpool based on playing time, but finding out that Oxlade-Chamberlain is going to miss all of the upcoming season makes it a significantly better deal (not to mention the paltry £13M fee).

I spent the last year working with some Stoke fans. None of them were sad to see him leave. It'll be interesting to see how he deals with being a rotation option, rather than the big man on the team.

Prederick wrote:

I was a bit wishy-washy on Shaqiri-to-Liverpool based on playing time, but finding out that Oxlade-Chamberlain is going to miss all of the upcoming season makes it a significantly better deal (not to mention the paltry £13M fee).

13m was surprising.

Not exact matches in style but Mahrez 60m v Shaqiri 13m? I'll take the latter for cover and blow the savings on the goalie.

Next question about goalies is analytics are helping now better rate them. But my question would be when changing leagues and y2y how consistent are those metrics. I wouldn't be surprised if they are pretty accurate.

That said I'm terrified Liverpool are about to land Courtois/DeGea 2.0 quality and Arsenal were forced to sign someone who is maybe no better than Fabianski/Szczęsny.

davet010 wrote:

Can I just say that I'm definitely not in favour of this 'Liverpool signing good players' malarkey.

If City didn't have Pep I'd be picking Liverpool to win the league.

Roke, the way it's reading in the papers at the moment, I'd be surprised if Rafa was still at St James Park at the start of the season, let alone the end. The Times this morning was reporting that he's been told that he'll have to sell before spending money.

That's possible, I think he'll see out his contract because there isn't a big opportunity out there for him to jump straight into. But he's certainly not getting access to "every penny" the club is generating.

Even when he sells to buy - Mitrovic to Fulham seems close to be doing done and there's the oft-rumored Ritchie to Stoke to buy Townsend (selling to a Championship club to generate funds says lot) - the players we're being linked with are so incredibly underwhelming. Almost all in their late-20s coming off mediocre seasons.

jowner wrote:

Next question about goalies is analytics are helping now better rate them. But my question would be when changing leagues and y2y how consistent are those metrics. I wouldn't be surprised if they are pretty accurate.

I don't keep up with goalkeeping stuff - that's the hockey in me with "Goalies are voodoo" but year-to-year variation seems to be more under control with the newer stuff than crude things like save percentage and data's good enough where smart clubs (which Liverpool are) can look statistically for attributes like claiming crosses and playing out with their feet. That sort of stuff carries over, and leagues are more similar than they used to be.

I'm not seeing an easy path forward for Arsenal, at least this season. City and Liverpool are pretty much top-4 locks and Chelsea beefed up their midfield with Jorginho and I expect they'll be a bit rejuvenated with a new manager as is the Chelsea way. Spurs players being tired from the World Cup and Kane's injury troubles or Mourinho imploding seem like the best hope and one of those things happening would not be surprising to me but both seems unlikely. But you already know all that.

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