Match Day Thread 2017/18 Premier League, Cups & Euro Watch

at the eithad or whatever the **** they call it now.

 

Chelsea are an odd one. One hand you could say they've bought and strengthened. However if you take into account their sales as well it looks more like all they've done is replace one player with another of a similar level.
Morata for Costa
Bakayoko for Matic
Rudiger for Terry
Caballero for Begovic

Don't think any are real improvements, just a younger version.

 

Its been quite.... odd. we broke with finding guys (anyone) with a running out contract which had been our mainstay and turned to two guys on fresh contracts and they sort of bid and sort of tapped them up and sort of didn't bid..

It seems to me our new CEO wants to distance himself from any transfers are much as possible do it SEEMS michael edwards is in charge of this area.. apparently.

I totally agree with you as well. standing still is regressing in competitive sport, is not succession planning and someone always goes off the boil or leaves and you end up with a hole to fill.

Spurs for sure look like they've made the same mistake.

 

13 shots on target to 1 against Palace

At least two of Watford's goals were offside

#lucky

 

i told you palace had zero intent. you have also ignore the fact that many of those "shots" were back passes and many occured after they git us the lead and started to come out... AND you ginored the fact that there are absolutely minging as i said.

BTW neither watford goal was offside, they also made terrible errors to gift us 2 goals AND then we fell back on our defence too deep and gifted them the cahances to score.

AND they are watford for chuff's sake.

 

Just read the BBC article about the hackers Fancy Bears.

They named three players that were representing their countries in the 2010 WC, two are pictured in their national kit and the other in a Liverpool kit

Looks like Dirk had toothache and got permission to take a prescribed drug because there were no alternatives.

Fake News.

Fancy Bears: Hackers name footballers given 2010 World Cup TUEs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41011854

 

A younger version is nowadays a more expensive one but also an improving and more lasting one. Their current or older ones were on the way down.

In my opinion all their new players are better than the ones who they sold. E.g Bakayoko >>> Matic, Rudinger >> Terry and Morata looks a better and more reliable player than costa.

 

That is why the last successful red manc manager replaced at least a couple of key players (and sometimes many more) at the beginning of each season. It gave the team a freshness which it wouldn't have otherwise.

 

yes.

you have to keep these guys on thier toes.

Bob paisley said let them go age elsewhere. There was always the next guy just coming through or bought 12months before

We still IMO do not have an 11 never mind a 16.

Mingolet - inconsistent is kind
TAA - might just make it. Clyne is decent
Matip- the lad is a good defender just not the man to look after his RB and LCB as well
Lovren/klavan. error strewn
Robertson? lets give him a chance i suppose
Henderson - not one jot of a no 6 in him. theres no awareness there
Can - engine?
Lallana/Wijnaldum - not up to it. I'd hopes for coutinho here
Mane - brilliant
Firmino - only suited to bigger games where he might get space
Salah - needs time too.

If we'd got keita and VVD as rumoured in ma we would be looking at a team where maybe we would be now thinking we can really do something. as it stands no 6 is an eye sore, gk is an eye sore and LCB is a disaster zone.

Thats too many issues.

If we were looking at strong CB partnership built over preseason, A bit of can/Henderson competition for one slot, a pair of no 8s in coutinho and keita... well at least we would be saying lets see how they progress over 2/3 months in coming together.

with 3 major issues in the team as above plus 3 lads in taa,robertson and salah needing to fit in thats more than half a team right there that won't be consistent.

Make no mistake mane will have to carry us this season..

 

I think cheslea are not as badly off as they want to pretend.... I'm not sure about bakayoko though.. he will take time to come good if he does at all. Morata is class. They mostly miss hazard.

 

I thought Bakayoko played pretty well. He started off a bit crap when he lost the ball but he showed his strength, speed, engine and awareness in that match even though he was only half fit.

He did give away quite a few fouls but i would say a third of them were dives from the players (eriksen, Alli).

Morata had a weird game, couldn't hold it up that well (don't blame him surrounded by aggresive spurs players), missed a sitter but then he outsprinted alderweireld, had some good defensive headers, played a few good passes. Looking forward to him when we control the play

 

I'm pretty sure Coutinho will still be with us.

 

All this talk about Matic being an awful sale is absolute tosh. By the look of things, Bakayoko is a great buy and is on the way up as he is about 6 years younger. He is fitter, faster and more agressive. Whereas Matic is on the way down and you got the same amount of money as you paid bakayoko.

 

Yes but will we trust him

 

He needs to settle in and be consistent. Get used to conte system

 

it's a good sale for someone trying to balance the books. 40m for a 29 year old is great.

The criticism is that 1. our team was short anyway especially since we bought bakayoko after a knee op so he was out for at least the first game.
2. We sold to United who were needing a solid but unspectacular player to hold the fort which he's doing brilliantly so far for united and just what Mourinho wanted. I think that was more down to the board for either more money or probably more like his loyalty ala cech

I think having swapped one for the other i'm very happy about it if we are trying to take financial independence seriously. No way would that deal have gone the other way though or from City as they basically have far more money than anyone else

 

Breaking News:

Barcelona suing Neymar for breach of contract.

They bloody lost a world class player and I think they should just give up in good grace. They look so petty and small and vindictive on front of the whole world.

 

What loyalty.

Wtf did he do.. bar get mourinho the sack.

Mourinho bought him in.. insisting on him and you got a couple years out if him.

 

to be fair they had to give neymar like 10m for loyalty bonus when there was none lol. It is pretty petty though

 

Its all very messy and imo its political and who is next barca president.

Utterly pointless law suit over a bonus wmand the only way to do it is go through european courts at huge expense.