Football Season 2017-18

[killthenet]

I don't think there was any malice in Pogba's 'stamp' but the argument is he was reckless to be bringing his foot down onto the ball when Bellerin was sliding in. Yes he was only going for the ball but seeing Bellerin coming in he should have just tried to lift the ball over him with his toe rather than the bottom of his boot as he actually tried to do. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Not happy with all the changes Klopp has made for the game. We scored 12 goals in 2 matches. Why mess with that?

[Happenstance]

...fucking Lovren

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, Happenstance said:

...fucking Lovren

 I hate the bloke. I really do. How the hell is he still getting played?

I also blame Mane for being a ball greedy son of a bitch in the first half and not squaring it to one of the 3 players unmarked in the box.

[Happenstance]

I've been having fun just trying to watch the match. The snow messed up the signal from Sky so for the first half I was part watching it on a tablet, part trying to fix stuff work had broken.

[Hero-of-Time]

Lukaku gifted City that win. Both of his shoddy clearances/defensive errors allowed City to score. 

To be fair, City were the better team, so the result was probably a fair one.

[dwarf]

19 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Lukaku gifted City that win. Both of his shoddy clearances/defensive errors allowed City to score. 

To be fair, City were the better team, so the result was probably a fair one.

Not to mention the sitter he missed. I wanted Morata before the season started and feel the same way now.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I wasn't hugely confident going into that game and I feel roughly about the same now as I did beforehand. It's hard to see where City are going to drop points now and they're playing the best all-round football in the country, at the moment. Can't argue with the score line. But, what's clear to me is that our midfield needs more creativity to be able to compete with the likes of City. Pogba would've made a difference today, but it's dangerous to base an entire midfield around one person. We need more creativity in there to be able to get the ball to the strikers and to retain possession to enable us to build up attacks. City, at the moment, can break up attacks, retain the ball and build up the play better than United can, which is what is going to be the difference at the end of the season. 

In these sorts of games, you get punished for silly mistakes and you get punished for not taking your chances. Both happened today. We didn't get completely turned over and, on another day, we could potentially have taken a point as 1-2 is still only a difference of 1 goal. So, that's something. Still don't agree with how we approach the bigger games.

 

[Kav]

How’d we manage to play as badly to lose to a David Moyes led West Ham?! Haha

EDIT:

This will be the Chelsea team that Messi finally scores against... and he’ll probably make up for not doing in all the games against us beforehand!

Edited December 11, 2017 by Kav

[Kav]

Full draw:

 

[killthenet]

Most of the English clubs got good draws in the CL, obviously Chelsea and Spurs have the toughest. I'd expect Spurs to beat Juventus over two legs though, they have been pretty impressive at Wembley in Europe this season so it should be a huge advantage to have the last leg at home. Everyone is already writing Chelsea off but anything can happen in the knockout stages so it's not impossible.

It's a great draw for Ostersund getting Arsenal in the Europa League, the club were only formed in 1996 so Wenger has been at Arsenal for longer than their opponents have existed. They have written history in every round so far so I'd expect them to give Arsenal a tough tie. Celtic have been drawn against Zenit so it's a pretty big ask for them considering they haven't won a European game at Celtic Park for a few years

[Fierce_LiNk]

Lovely bit of consistent refereeing on display today at the Etihad. If Pogba's challenge was a red card, then both Kane and Alli should have been dismissed today for tackles which, imo, were both worse than the one was sent off for. Both only received yellow cards.

The lack of consistency across refereeing and across matches is what pisses me off. Both players will be available for the next lot of fixtures when they should be banned! 

[killthenet]

Only saw the first half so can only comment on the Kane challenge but that definitely should have been a red card. I was hopeful that Spurs might do something tonight but after a promising start the quality and confidence of City clearly showed. Their 3 fixtures before the end of the year are totally winnable so it's entirely possible they could finish the year with 19 wins in a row - that's a half season winning streak. 

I think Mark Hughes will lose his job overnight, Stoke have been dreadful this season and with the resurgence of Palace and West Ham it looks like they're going to be in a relegation battle if they don't change something soon. I think Rafa might be given the boot soon aswell, Newcastle haven't won in the league for 8 matches now and as much as they seem to worship Benitez on Tyneside I feel like the only reason he's keeping his job at the moment is because Mike Ashley is desperately trying to sell the club so isn't being too hands on at the moment.

[bob]

Two or three games ago, I was saying that I didn't think Man City would go the whole season unbeaten.

It's looking scarily likely now though. However, I think some scrappy, park the bus team might sneak a 1-0 against them.

The title is nailed on though.

[Hero-of-Time]

Well done to Bristol. I love a good cup upset.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Terrible performance from United tonight. Bristol City were well up for it and beat us to virtually every single ball or tackle in the game. We didn't compete. I couldn't work out if we were trying to play a back three or back four tonight and we looked all over the place in the last 15 minutes and for spells of the first half. You can't just blag your way into winning matches because "we're Man Utd" and these players are "superstars". There's no real resilience, confidence or determination in many of these players. 

The better team won tonight, and I hope they go on to win it. 

[drahkon]

https://streamable.com/kwup3

 

Happened yesterday during a DFB Pokal match.

[James]

8 hours ago, drahkon said:

https://streamable.com/kwup3

 

Happened yesterday during a DFB Pokal match.

Embarrassing when the managers are doing it as well. 

I like how he got a cup of beer straight at his head. 

[Fierce_LiNk]

Anybody watching Arsenal vs. Liverpool? It's brilliant. The game is literally "fuck defending" and there have been six goals, so far. 

[Hero-of-Time]

30 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Anybody watching Arsenal vs. Liverpool? It's brilliant. The game is literally "fuck defending" and there have been six goals, so far. 

I only watched up until we were 2-0 up. I had to drive me nephew home so I missed the rest of the game. Needless to say I wasn't at all surprised that we threw the game away.

The first half was standard Pool. We dominated the game but wasted all but 1 of our chances. 

[Fierce_LiNk]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I only watched up until we were 2-0 up. I had to drive me nephew home so I missed the rest of the game. Needless to say I wasn't at all surprised that we threw the game away.

The first half was standard Pool. We dominated the game but wasted all but 1 of our chances. 

Man, I would have hit the roof had that been United playing tonight. Awfuuuuul defending from both sides. It just became a farce at the end with Liverpool's third goal. 

I'm not sure who has come off worse. Liverpool because they let a two-nil goal slip, or Arsenal because they managed to get into a winning position from being 2-0 down, but then threw it away by conceding again. Plus, they were at home. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Speaking of throwing points away...  

Not being able to kill the game off against 10 men is inexcusable given the players they had on the pitch. 

[Fierce_LiNk]

We have so many players that just seem to lack footballing intelligence. Lukaku should have finished the night with three assists as Martial, Lingard and Mkhi all missed sitters. Poor finishing and decision making when it came to attacking play. We had a counter attack at the end of the game and the ball came to Rashford. Lukaku was busting his gut to get into space and Rashford doesn't play the pass. He then waits, holds onto the ball, waits some more and then passes it to Lukaku anyway, much later than he wanted it, and he's offside anyway by now! Just fucking stupid.

Criminal performance. Should have battered them by four, five or even six goals. Instead, we drew 2-2. 

Also, not a fan of when managers take off players who have scored and are playing well during the last 15/20 minutes of a game. What is all that about? Surely if you've worked hard to get into a winning position, you don't take your best players off and change it. It just seems utterly stupid to me and I don't understand why managers do this. Mata was flying today and Lingard was playing well - bar the miss. All of this talk about game management is too hyped up. 

This won't be the last time this happens this season. We'll end up finishing third and be out of all competitions by February. 

[Hero-of-Time]

 

2 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

We have so many players that just seem to lack footballing intelligence. Lukaku should have finished the night with three assists as Martial, Lingard and Mkhi all missed sitters. Poor finishing and decision making when it came to attacking play. We had a counter attack at the end of the game and the ball came to Rashford. Lukaku was busting his gut to get into space and Rashford doesn't play the pass. He then waits, holds onto the ball, waits some more and then passes it to Lukaku anyway, much later than he wanted it, and he's offside anyway by now! Just fucking stupid.

Criminal performance. Should have battered them by four, five or even six goals. Instead, we drew 2-2. 

Also, not a fan of when managers take off players who have scored and are playing well during the last 15/20 minutes of a game. What is all that about? Surely if you've worked hard to get into a winning position, you don't take your best players off and change it. It just seems utterly stupid to me and I don't understand why managers do this. Mata was flying today and Lingard was playing well - bar the miss. All of this talk about game management is too hyped up. 

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of that either. Klopp has a habit of doing that as well. It's baffling.

I felt sorry for Lukaku during the match. There were a few instances where he ran forward, was free but nobody passed to him. As you said, awful decision making.

[Hero-of-Time]

Also, I hate how City are running away with the league. It makes the whole thing incredibly boring when there are no stakes.