Kav Posted October 14, 2017 Posted October 14, 2017 Of course it had to be us that Palace broke their duck against! We were laughably bad today... only positive was Musonda when he came on!
dwarf Posted October 14, 2017 Posted October 14, 2017 What's more important: football as a commodity, or football as a sport that's steeped in fairness and tradition? Thatcherism has well and truly prevailed if football fans have started to prioritise the former. Our Maggie once said creepily: Quote 'Economics are the method: the object is to change the soul' Football fans don't have souls anymore :-( 2
Ramar Posted October 15, 2017 Posted October 15, 2017 We are shit, I fear we will finish as low as 7th. Wenger should have walked away. We are weak in every aspect. Sad times.
Charlie Posted October 16, 2017 Posted October 16, 2017 On 05/10/2017 at 4:57 PM, killthenet said: Tonight's the night, a huge game for Scotland at Hampden Park, the biggest game for the country since qualifying for the World Cup in 1998. Preparation wasn't the best after Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong picked up injuries for Celtic but the mood is still buoyant and expectant. I just hope we don't end up worrying about bloody goal difference again, a very real possibility if we get a win and a draw. Are you going to the game @Charlie? I've given up on going to Hampden. You only experience disappointment! The Slovakia match obviously would've been good but Sunday proved the usual standard of Scottish football. Cheapest tickets for Slovakia were £35, that's about 10 pints in a pub or a really nice meal and a few drinks. I know which I'd prefer these days! Not at all surprised that Scotland only managed a draw away to Slovenia. Very tough place to go and Strachan has showed time and time again he's tactically inept. Glad he's left and I hope this can be a new chapter for Scottish football. We need to tag onto the success of Celtic's Scottish core and play them. Big Sam has ruled himself out of the job which I'm quite disappointed at. He's so experienced at doing well with squads of limited ability and he's just as Scottish as half of our team. I think we'll now get David Moyes (I'd be OK with this), Paul Lambert (hmmm) or Malky Mackay the reformed racist and sexist.
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 21, 2017 Author Posted October 21, 2017 Huddersfield were by far the better team today. They had so much more composure and were more comfortable with the ball and without it. Thoroughly deserved all of the points. A really poor performance from United today. Dreadful final ball and no real width. Pissed off at the amount of times we get the ball into good areas, only for a player to be in an offside position. Also, taking corner kicks that don't make it past the first man...shouldn't really be happening at this level.
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 22, 2017 Author Posted October 22, 2017 Man, Everton got smashed today. Think that'll be it for Koeman.
nekunando Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 1 hour ago, Fierce_LiNk said: Man, Everton got smashed today. Think that'll be it for Koeman. I think Liverpool might get smashed too, at this rate..
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 22, 2017 Author Posted October 22, 2017 2 minutes ago, nekunando said: I think Liverpool might get smashed too, at this rate.. I'm watching the game and it's been really enjoyable, so far. Lots of chances and a feeling that a goal could come at any moment. Think that there's at least another two in this. Could finish 5-2, as well!
nekunando Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 3 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said: I'm watching the game and it's been really enjoyable, so far. Lots of chances and a feeling that a goal could come at any moment. Think that there's at least another two in this. Could finish 5-2, as well! Or worse There's 4-1..
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 22, 2017 Author Posted October 22, 2017 1 minute ago, nekunando said: Or worse There's 4-1.. I can't think of one instance today where Liverpool looked comfortable defensively. I know United weren't great yesterday, but Liverpool are on a different level in that respect.
nekunando Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 Just now, Fierce_LiNk said: I can't think of one instance today where Liverpool looked comfortable defensively. I know United weren't great yesterday, but Liverpool are on a different level in that respect. It's been like this for seasons.. and it's somehow worse than ever! How we didn't buy a couple of solid defenders in the second half I'll never know As a person, I really like Klopp but I'm starting to question things..
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 22, 2017 Author Posted October 22, 2017 Just now, nekunando said: It's been like this for seasons.. and it's somehow worse than ever! How we didn't buy a couple of solid defenders in the second half I'll never know As a person, I really like Klopp but I'm starting to question things.. In fairness to Klopp, he identified the player who he knew would improve the defence (Van Dijk) and just couldn't get the deal over the line. It looked like it would go through, but Southampton stayed strong and blocked it. Getting a top quality centre-back isn't easy. We should know...Lindelof looks like an absolute limp-nut of a signing. Where are all the good defenders?!
nekunando Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 8 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said: In fairness to Klopp, he identified the player who he knew would improve the defence (Van Dijk) and just couldn't get the deal over the line. It looked like it would go through, but Southampton stayed strong and blocked it. Getting a top quality centre-back isn't easy. We should know...Lindelof looks like an absolute limp-nut of a signing. Where are all the good defenders?! Van Dijk would help but I don't think he'd have come in and suddenly solved all of our problems. There are much deeper issues and I'm not sure how they'll be solved
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 22, 2017 Author Posted October 22, 2017 7 minutes ago, nekunando said: Van Dijk would help but I don't think he'd have come in and suddenly solved all of our problems. There are much deeper issues and I'm not sure how they'll be solved He wouldn't solve all of them, but he might have solved some of them. The issue is mainly that the players just aren't good enough defensively and are making stupid mistakes. Part of that will be solved through coaching (how to defend from set pieces, etc), and part of that is through getting better defenders.
Phube Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 That'll be Leicester, Everton and West Ham all looking for a manager in the next next few days!
killthenet Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 I think Everton will wait until they're officially out of the Europa League before they sack him, but the writing is certainly on the wall for Koeman, things might have changed for him if they'd beaten Lyon and Arsenal but even wins in the next two games won't be enough to save him. As far as Bilic goes, I watched the West Ham v Brighton match on Friday night and they were really poor, the discontent from the fans was glaringly obvious so I think he's likely to go sooner than Koeman. Harry Redknapp has thrown his hat into the ring for the Scotland job, even the Scottish FA aren't dumb enough to employ him surely?
Hero-of-Time Posted October 23, 2017 Posted October 23, 2017 14 hours ago, nekunando said: It's been like this for seasons.. and it's somehow worse than ever! How we didn't buy a couple of solid defenders in the second half I'll never know As a person, I really like Klopp but I'm starting to question things.. Yup. It's absolutely crazy that the defensive issue has still not been addressed. I sat and watched the post match banter with the studio panel and Jamie Redknapp made a cracking point. He was saying that when you look at teams that have a strong defensive setup there is at least 1 leader among them. Liverpool don't have that leader in their back 4. Lovren has been a waste of space for seasons now but has never been replaced and Moreno is fine going forward but garbage when he has to get back. Hell, James Milner played left back most of last season and was much better than him. A lot of this is down to the lack of quality in players but it also comes down to coaching. Time and time again we are conceding goals from set pieces, whether its a corner or a freekick. Every time a ball gets whipped into our box there is nobody taking charge tell players where to be. It just ends up being a massive scramble, with someone frantically hoofing it away. Of course that's if it hasn't gone in the back of the net, which is where it ends up most of the time. These things need to be addressed on the training field and if they are been practiced then they need to either fire the coaches because what they are teaching the players clearly isn't working or get rid of the defenders because they aren't listening to what's been told to them. You can get away with a weak defence but only if you're attacking game is good, which ours isn't. Our finishing has been appalling this season, with so many chances going to waste. We really miss Mane and Lallana when those guys are out, but the other players should be able to create and finish something in their absence but most of the time they simply don't. A few of my mates were saying how good we looked in the 7-0 victory mid week and said I must be thrilled with that result. I honestly wasn't that bothered because I knew exactly what was going to happen on Sunday and said to them that we would get thrashed off Spurs. Our away form is abysmal, we have no consistency and Spurs are a MUCH better team than we are. We were always losing that match. On a brighter note, at least Kane banged a couple in. I wouldn't mind seeing him getting the record for most PL goals in a season.
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 23, 2017 Author Posted October 23, 2017 I'm always sceptical about how much coaching players really need with regards to defending set pieces at this level. These guys are professionals, they're paid to play a game and you'd expect them (with all of the training, match experience and experience playing with others) to actually know how to defend corners, free kicks or crosses. If you tell schoolboys to mark goal-side, to catch or punch away the ball, the clear the ball away at the first opportunity, surely you'd expect professionals to do the same? That just doesn't make any sense to me. To me, that just seems to imply that the players aren't intelligent enough to play for such a high profile club. Some of the mistakes made yesterday were shocking and shouldn't be made at this level. Confidence does come into it, too. When you've got thousands of fans screaming at you and when you're coming up against world class players, then I understand that there are moments where you could panic or freeze, or something to that effect. That's the human element of the game. However, there needs to be a mental toughness that you need to be able to play at this level. Lovren clearly lacked it yesterday, hence why he was hooked off during the first half. I'm dubious about how much you can coach mental toughness.
Hero-of-Time Posted October 23, 2017 Posted October 23, 2017 22 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said: I'm always sceptical about how much coaching players really need with regards to defending set pieces at this level. These guys are professionals, they're paid to play a game and you'd expect them (with all of the training, match experience and experience playing with others) to actually know how to defend corners, free kicks or crosses. If you tell schoolboys to mark goal-side, to catch or punch away the ball, the clear the ball away at the first opportunity, surely you'd expect professionals to do the same? That just doesn't make any sense to me. To me, that just seems to imply that the players aren't intelligent enough to play for such a high profile club. Some of the mistakes made yesterday were shocking and shouldn't be made at this level. Confidence does come into it, too. When you've got thousands of fans screaming at you and when you're coming up against world class players, then I understand that there are moments where you could panic or freeze, or something to that effect. That's the human element of the game. However, there needs to be a mental toughness that you need to be able to play at this level. Lovren clearly lacked it yesterday, hence why he was hooked off during the first half. I'm dubious about how much you can coach mental toughness. These types of mistakes have been happening for a few seasons now though, especially by Lovren. He's always been garbage for us and struggles to play this this level of football. Mignolet is another who just simply isn't good enough to play at this level. I read the stat this morning that since his debut for Liverpool, he has now made more errors leading to a goal than any other player in the Premier League. That's just unacceptable for a goal keeper.
Hero-of-Time Posted October 23, 2017 Posted October 23, 2017 Koeman has been sacked. It was always coming.
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 23, 2017 Author Posted October 23, 2017 A shame as I feel that he is a good manager and just needed more time. However, the performances were simply not good enough. Not replacing Lukaku basically killed off his Everton career.
Blade Posted October 27, 2017 Posted October 27, 2017 We are top of the league For now. We spent 7 years in League 1 and just been promoted. 3
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 28, 2017 Author Posted October 28, 2017 If anyone can find the Ander Herrera of last season, please can you return him to Old Trafford for the second half. One of our best players last year. One of our worst this year. It's just not happening for him at the moment. Mkhitaryan is arguably worse...such a hit or miss player.
Hero-of-Time Posted October 28, 2017 Posted October 28, 2017 Can't believe you didn't bury that cock up by the Spurs keeper, as well as the chance after. Been a pretty flat game so far.
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 28, 2017 Author Posted October 28, 2017 3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Can't believe you didn't bury that cock up by the Spurs keeper, as well as the chance after. Been a pretty flat game so far. Yeah, should have scored from both of those situations. Although, think it was more Ben Davies defending really well in the first instance that saved it from being a goal. Final ball isn't good enough today. Also, delivery from corner and set pieces is terrible. No excuse for poor deliver from corners and free kicks, let alone crosses from wide areas.
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