Fierce_LiNk

There is absolutely no way that a new season can start until the current one is finished. It's really as simple as that. There's too much at stake with relegation places, promotion spots, European positions, etc. This all has to be cleared up when it is safe to do so, but there's no way that the new season can start before this one is finished. Neither should this season be considered a write-off, either. I say this as a die-hard Man Utd fan on the verge of seeing Liverpool win their first Premier League title. The remaining games have to be played at the first opportunity of doing so. There are implications, of course. Players will have to find ways to train at home and they won't be as sharp as they would be if the games were to be played tomorrow. But, unfortunately, there's no logical way around that. What is logical is that each team is given the opportunity to play against each other team in the league both at home and away, at some point during the season. There are always unknown variables to take into account to some extent, such as players picking up injuries at unfortunate times (e.g. if a team was about to play their local rivals), or suspensions, or freak weather events such as snow or flooding. Of course, this is a whole other level that we have never experienced before. The safety of the fans, players and anyone involved in the game is paramount, for sure. So, I fully understand why the season has been stopped. But, at some point, it needs to be finished for the simple sake of closure. Yes, there will need to be some additional thought to cup fixtures, Euros/international fixtures, etc. They will need to be moved/rescheduled/rearranged. The worst case scenario for me is that this season is classed as a write-off and void. It can't and shouldn't happen.

Definitely! Followed the game with the RedCafe lot and it was just an insane rollercoaster of emotions. Lots of great performers today. Bruno (what a player he's been since he joined!), Fred (most improved player this season), Wan-Bissaka and Matic. We let them have the ball and they ran out of ideas eventually. Delighted with the win but there were a few moments in the second half where I thought they would score, notably after their double change with Mahrez and Jesus coming on. I know goalkeepers receive a lot of grief, but Ederson was at fault for both goals. The Martial goal should have been saveable (I would have been annoyed had De Gea let that one in) and he basically gifted the ball to McTominay at the end for his goal. Aside from that, we got the ball into decent areas but didn't make enough out of it. Daniel James had about 3 opportunities to play someone in and then fluffed it each time! Overall, great game. Intense! Much improved in midfield and can already tell that Bruno will be a huge player for us in the long-term. Excited about the future of a Bruno-Fred-McTominay midfield. There's finally some fight there. Every team needs a bit of grit.

Yeah, I have to agree that the 5-6 range really works well for me. We've bought some incremental weight plates in 0.25kg, 0.5kg, 0.75kg and 1kg sizes and I'm starting to see the benefits of using those already. I'm hoping that being able to increase the weight in these smaller sizes will help me break through my overhead press plateau. I feel that my chest has developed nicely but the shoulders have lagged behind, so I need to bring those up.

I liked Coronavirus before it got big. Far too mainstream now.

My numbers are steadily increasing. Up to 95kg squats, which apparently I've not hit since January 2016. Surprising! Looking at my old numbers, it's interesting to see that I've spent the last 3 years or so focusing on banging out more reps but at lower weight. Overall, I think my body performs better when I'm focusing on the 5 rep range with higher weight. It's interesting. The trade-off is that I think my stamina for cardio is much better than it used to be, so there are pluses and minuses. The one lift that I've always been a bit shit with is my standing overhead press. Need to put a lot of work into my shoulders.

It's probably better made and more fun than the trash that we actually got that was Fallout 4. Yes, I disliked it a little.

It's more fun for everyone that way. It's more fun for the people creating the awards because there are no preconceptions about what the awards have to be for. You are literally in charge of your own destiny with that one. You can be as outlandish as you want or can be more conservative with the award titles. I think the quirkier the awards, the more fun the viewer will have with it and the more likely it will make you stand out, as opposed to just a straight forward top 10 list. There's already a sea of podcasts out there, with every sucker becoming a youtuber or thinking that they can do it themselves, so it's all about having that something different. N-E's strength is its people and it's community-feel, so it makes sense to harness that in some way.

I'm only passing through this thread briefly. I don't listen to any podcasts because I don't tend to have the opportunity to do so. I'm not sure my group of 10 year olds would appreciate me listening to discussions about games when I'm trying to teach them about sex education. The only thing I'm going to add is... @Hero-of-Time plays a lot of games. A LOT. Certainly more than anyone that I've ever come across. The obvious thing to do here would be to get him involved in the podcast in some sort of capacity, or at least maybe some sort of segment so that he can pass off his knowledge on to others. There are tons of games that I ended up pursuing because he tipped me off that fence and tempted me enough to purchase whatever it was that he was playing or talking about at the time. Seems like everyone is missing a trick here. What will keep people coming back is that they know that they'll be gaining something every time they visit. If they listen to the podcast and decide that they like the interplay between the commentators, then they'll come back. If they like the discussion being had, they'll come back. If they know that they'll listen to a podcast and get at least one decent shout of a game suggestion that they had no previous knowledge of (or were on that fence), then they'll come back. These best of lists are boring as fuck now, tbh. Everybody is doing them and it just becomes "oh, which important game did they leave off this time?" kinda stuff. Plus, it becomes contrived, because a gamer will have needed to play x amount of games in the first place to make it worth while. You're better off having multiple categories but then choosing one game per category. E.g. which game made us want to break our controller in 2019?

Enjoy! I think any locals in any country will always be pleased when visitors attempt to speak the language, even if it is only through a few words or phrases. It shows that you're trying to respect the language/culture, which is nice.

Great result against Chelsea yesterday. I don't think either side performed that well and they had a load of chances that they simply didn't take. However, I will concede that I do think that their first goal should have stood. It was softly disallowed and we did just as many wrong things in that incident as they did. I'm not even sure if our lot even complained that it should have been disallowed before it went to VAR. Fred was immense. Didn't stop working for the entire game and was everywhere. I'm liking the look of him and Bruno Fernandes together, so it just leaves that other midfield spot to be sorted. A midfield of Fred-McTominay-Bruno could look decent. Also pleased that we kept a clean sheet. The game itself wasn't fantastic and it's quite clear to see just how average we're both becoming/are. Very little star quality on the field and it was hard to see (besides one or two) which players could elevate their sides. On the plus side, it was open and chances were created, so it wasn't a dull game by any means. But, I think both sides are in that 4-8th category and quite comfortably so.

This is now fact. Maybe it can become an urban legend. We could be famous on the internets! How are you finding Hungarian?

Props for even attempting Hungarian, @bob. I've heard that it is notoriously difficult. Not going anywhere near that.

Happy Birthday, @Ashley!

I can confirm that she had variable amounts of those three things.

Now that's what I call a close encounter.

Time for the Government and for the Brexiteers to now stand up and deliver. I will certainly look forward to seeing them being held to account and scrutinised over the many decision making processes that will take place over the coming years. There are certainly many divisions that are felt across the UK and it's going to become very clear that the EU is actually not the cause of many of these. I am still waiting to see how leaving the EU is going to solve these problems.

Let's be real here for a second. Pogba is our most creative player and arguably our best one and he's been out for most of the season. We sold our top scoring striker, let go of our best performing midfielder (Herrera) for free (fucking madness) and didn't replace Fellaini or Sanchez. Losing McTominay a few weeks ago and now Rashford to injury is just the icing on the cake. The upper management of the club have been complete tripe. Really fucking stupid footballing decisions with no forward thinking behind any of it. Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho and now Ole have all struggled, with the common link between them being Ed Woodward. He has royally screwed the club over. If Ole goes, he should also go, too. Without a doubt. This just proves that you need to have people who know the game at least on some sort of level when appointing the upper management. Bankers only care about staying in the black. As long as United continues to turn over a profit, Woodward will continue to not give a shit.

I've recently got back into learning Italian and am enjoying it again. The Dutch and Spanish alongside this is still ticking along nicely, although I'm mostly leaning towards Dutch these days due to having more opportunities to use it. I still use Spanish occasionally at work when we have Spanish children come to visit, but my opportunities for using Italian are going to be sparse, unless we plan more holidays there.

I had it down as a clear and obvious foul from the beginning and was a bit shocked that the referee initially allowed play to go on! Seemed like a clear foul to me. Whether that goal stood or not, I don't think it would have had any bearing on the game, thankfully or not. Liverpool looked 2 or 3 levels better than us and looked like they could really have destroyed us had they wanted to. Aside from 15-20 minutes in the second half, we were second best everywhere.

We played terrible in the first half and then alright in the second. Midway through the second half, we started to create a few chances and Martial and Fred both missed amazing opportunities. At that point, Ole should have made a sub and brought on Greenwood. He waited too long, imo. Had the subs happened 10 minutes earlier, we could have turned the 2-0 loss into a 1-1. All three of our Summer signings looked dire today. Maguire has been quite disappointing, tbh. Probably the worst out of the three.

Haha, we were talking about this yesterday! I think I've got 3 versions of that game. 1 on WiiU (lol), another disc on PS4 and then I think I've got it on PS+. In fairness, it's a fantastic game.

Physical media is sooooo last generation. I think I purchased a PS4 about a year or so after launch, and I may do the same again, depending on cost and launch lineup. Not quite in a rush for a new console just yet.

I'll post about the VAR stuff a bit later as I have a fair bit to say about it. But I'll talk about United first. We are such a mess and the only real way we're going to get out of it is by heavily investing (again) in new, better players. But, above all, the tactics, strategy and direction that the club seems to be going in really has me worried. We are so incredibly inconsistent for starters, but there are certain aspects of our play that seem to be happening in most games. The passing is slow and we seem to take an age making decisions. When we get the ball out wide and pump it into the box, the cross is usually poor. When a cross happens to be good, there's no one in there as we never overload the box. We don't have a creative midfield, so our strikers don't get the ball. Rashford is having his best season yet, but there is so much that is asked of him, yet very little seems to be asked of our other players. If he and Martial don't score, we have very few other players who can chip in. The results worry me, but the lack of learning worries me more. When a human being makes a mistake, you expect them to learn from it and to improve. But, our players seem incapable of doing this. It's the same mistakes over and over again. The crossing is the worst facet of our game and it really has to be seen to be believed, but the decision making by our players at times (and also those at management and boardroom level) is shocking. We're looking at maybe 6 or 7 players coming in to improve this squad, maybe even more. I like what I've seen from Fred and McTominay this season, but they need to be working alongside a more creative midfielder. Not convinced by Luke Shaw at left back, who looked absolutely awful the other night. We still don't look great in defence and so maybe another player to either challenge for a spot or to play alongside Maguire is a must. We also need more attacking players who can come on and make a difference during a game, as our bench is pretty poor. The standard of the Premier League has improved and you see so many teams filled with players who are confident on the ball, can pick out a pass, and can move the ball quickly in order to create chances. Our movement is diabolical in comparison to so many other teams in the league. Looking at that top 10, I would say the majority of those teams play better football than we do. It is a game, after all, but we're not playing the game well. I do think a large part of this is down to coaching and maybe we need to be working the players harder. But the squad isn't a huge one to begin with and it's not packed with quality. There is a lot of inexperienced, younger players. Sometimes this is good, but only when they have the right training. I question that.

I thought it would make sense this time around to un-date this thread, so that we could just have a continuation year-on-year. I'm quite conscious that I didn't get as much exercise done last year as I had hoped, usually due to work. I'm trying to make a deal this time around to leave work sooner so that I can come home and get my exercise done and out of the way. I'm also looking to re-join a squash club, partly for the cardio, but also because it was quite fun and I miss playing it. Already got my third workout in of the new year, but my legs took a hammering the day before yesterday and are still quite sore now. I don't think I worked out legs for about 3 weeks, so I was anticipating this. It's a nice feeling to get back into it!