Football Season 2017-18

[Hero-of-Time]

Yet another pen not given. Luckily we are 2-0 up now and the Toon are winning, who also had a pen waved away. Seems like the refs have clocked off early.  

[Hero-of-Time]

Salah broke the record. We won 4-0. Toon beat Chelsea 3-0. Good day for Liverpool.  

Crazy to see City reach the 100 points mark.

[Julius]

What a poor showing from us. The board will point fingers at Conte, and while he can certainly be blamed for getting the tactics wrong today and at other times this season, the biggest problem this season have come from a clear lack of conviction from the higher-ups. We needed to sign more players. I wonder if winning the FA Cup would prove anything to the board?

Well done to Liverpool for qualifying for the UCL, because they’ve had a brilliant season with some spectacular football. The same goes for Tottenham too, even if they have fallen off in recent weeks.

Oh, and thank goodness City scored that last minute winner. Nothing would have annoyed me more than them drawing to a relegation candidate on the final day of the season and not being the first team to reach 100 points in PL history. 

Its been a great season with some great moments. The FA Cup final and the final round of the season in all of the other major European leagues next weekend, the UCL final the following weekend, and the start of the World Cup three weeks later should tie a bow on a memorable season of football quite nicely!  

Edited May 13, 2018 by Julius Caesar

[nekunando]

Really happy with the results today.. now let's go and win the Champions League

[Ramar]

Hey everyone, sorry I’ve neglected this place recently.

We’ve had an atrocious season. Just on my way home from Huddersfield, mixed emotions really. Glad the season is over, sad that Wenger leaves this way. But grateful and appreciative of all he achieved for us.

Looking forward to getting a new man in charge and enjoying going to matches again.

[Fierce_LiNk]

26 minutes ago, Ramar said:

Hey everyone, sorry I’ve neglected this place recently.

We’ve had an atrocious season. Just on my way home from Huddersfield, mixed emotions really. Glad the season is over, sad that Wenger leaves this way. But grateful and appreciative of all he achieved for us.

Looking forward to getting a new man in charge and enjoying going to matches again.

Do you think it's time for a new manager? Has he stayed on too long or is this the right time?

I'm not sure what to make of our season. On paper, it sounds fantastic. Second behind a great Man City team and FA Cup Final. But, the reality is that the football hasn't been amazing to watch this season. It's been a tricky one for United fans to evaluate. Finishing second (highest finish post-Ferguson) is a huge achievement and we're now back to competing for trophies (bar the Champions League), so I would class it as a successful season results wise. Guess it's all about how Mourinho builds from this. The quality of football has to get better.

[killthenet]

I think it has to be considered a successful season for Man Utd, you have definitely made progress from last year despite the fact you won a the league cup and a major European trophy last season, finishing 4 places higher in the league and having the chance to win an FA cup is definitely an impressive return. I don't think United will ever play really attractive, expansive football under Mourinho, it's just not his forte. Ferguson was capable of getting his squad playing exciting football and managed to rebuild the team on multiple occasions. Mourinho is great at building a successful team but has shown he is incapable of reinventing a team once the project has reached its conclusion. I fully expect Mourinho to win the league or the Champions League in the next two seasons and put United in a strong position for his successor to take the reins. Under Moyes and Van Gaal United were perennially a team in transition but under Mourinho I can see that they have made real steps forward.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Second behind a great Man City team and FA Cup Final. But, the reality is that the football hasn't been amazing to watch this season. It's been a tricky one for United fans to evaluate. Finishing second (highest finish post-Ferguson) is a huge achievement and we're now back to competing for trophies (bar the Champions League), so I would class it as a successful season results wise. Guess it's all about how Mourinho builds from this. The quality of football has to get better.

What blows my mind is that a quick glance at the final league table shows us that United (81 pts) were closer to Arsenal (6th, 63 pts) than they were to City (1st, 100 pts). As great as Man City have been this season, and as beautiful as their football has been, it’s their consistency (and a great attitude to be so consistent) which has set them apart. Sure, I suppose you could say that about any team that wins the Premier League (especially in recent years, where pole position has been claimed several games prior to May more than I can remember happening before), but I think it shows the difference in attitude (if not personnel) between the title winners and everyone else.

United and Liverpool have been woefully inconsistent this season, despite both of them making it to a major cup final. They’d play some brilliant football at times, and the latter in particular have been great to watch, but they just drop far too many points against the smaller teams on a regular basis - especially so in the second half of the season. 

Chelsea weren’t woefully inconsistent, but we were consistently woeful from the turn of the year up until spring; I point at the higher-ups not sanctioning more transfers last summer and during January when it comes to that particular slump, considering that we were 3rd - just 1 point shy of United in second - on Boxing Day. Our team was very clearly exhausted at times this season, and when we did get out of our rut, it was one game too late. 

Tottenham ran out of steam towards the end of the season, but that’s not too surprising. Their team is still relatively young and inexperienced, but they were quite lucky in hanging onto that Champions League spot in the end. 

I’m not sure where to begin with Arsenal. Fingers can be pointed at almost everyone - the team is frontloaded in that it has excellent attackers, but relatively poor/inconsistent defenders; Wenger’s tactics have once again been off throughout much of the season; fans calling for Wenger to leave throughout the season deflated the morale of almost everyone involved with the club - and I don’t know where they go from here. They need a relatively young manager who isn’t satisfied with just Champions League qualification when it comes to league positioning; they need someone like an Allegri or a Simeone to light a fire under everyone’s behinds and get this defence organised. 

I don’t really have feelings for Stoke or West Brom going down, but I do feel sorry for Swansea, and wish they would have stayed up (though, the same goes for Southampton). They’ve played some stunning football whilst in the Prem, and I don’t think anyone will forget the time of Laudrup’s managing and Michu and Bony’s wonderful striking just a few years back. I wish them the best in the Championship, and I’m sure they’ll be back soon. 

Also, an honourable mention to Newcastle and Burnley this season, who have played well beyond everyone’s expectations and finished much higher than many would have thought at the start of the season.

What a year. With as many as 13 managerial positions likely to swap hands this summer, next season should be all the more interesting. Here’s hoping for a tighter contest  

[killthenet]

Villa have completed the first part of the task after we beat Middlesbrough to reach the play off final. I don't really know what to expect from the final, Fulham are a really good side and absolutely dominated us in our last meeting but Grealish is in great form and our defence has looked pretty solid over the two legs against Boro so I'm optimistic but expecting a nervy afternoon on the 26th.

Southgate has announced the England squad, I'm a bit disappointed that Ryan Sessegnon hasn't been selected after his fantastic season but otherwise it seems pretty good. Alexander-Arnold has definitely deserved a call up and England's midfield looks like it could be pretty solid, it'll be interesting to see England actually going into a tournament with a gameplan for once. I remember before the Euro's Hodgson had no clue on what his first 11 would be and the friendly's in the build up to the tournament were an absolute fiasco, its nice to have some confidence in the managers ability and his choice of youth over experience (leaving out Hart and Wilshire) has shown he's more willing to rely on in form players than previous managers have.

[Emerald Emblem]

The major doubt I have with the England selection is the lack of creative midfielder, it's putting a lot of pressure on Loftus Cheek. Being an Arsenal fan and Wilshere aside, I'd have taken Shelvey as his passing range would have been perfect for the pace we have up front. We're never winning the World Cup but I have a feeling it's going to be a very low scoring one for England.

[Hero-of-Time]

7 hours ago, Emerald Emblem said:

The major doubt I have with the England selection is the lack of creative midfielder, it's putting a lot of pressure on Loftus Cheek. Being an Arsenal fan and Wilshere aside, I'd have taken Shelvey as his passing range would have been perfect for the pace we have up front. We're never winning the World Cup but I have a feeling it's going to be a very low scoring one for England.

Yup. I was thinking the same thing when the team got announced. Shelvey has been a key part of Newcastle's success this season and really commanded the midfield area. The only issue would be that he could lose his cool and get sent off, although he seemed to have calmed down during the second half of the season.

I am happy that Southgate is giving some youngsters a turn. I'm even more delighted that Joe Hart has finally been dropped from the squad. The guy has been a waste of space for a long time now and the rough season he had at West Ham meant that he had no business being part of this squad, especially when there were far better options available.

[killthenet]

I think Henderson and Delph are pretty capable of providing killer balls but I think Southgate will be using Alli a little deeper than he plays for Spurs so much of the creativity will be expected from him. I think the first 11 is pretty strong on paper for England but they don't have much depth on the bench to change the game outside of bringing on Rashford and Lingard to exploit the counter attack against the bigger teams, I would totally expect them to dominate games against the weaker opposition though, they should be able to win the first two games without much trouble and then the Belgium game will be a test of their resolve because you'd expect Belgium to completely control the game. 

[Julius]

Pep has signed a two-year contract extension to remain with City until 2021. 

So, uh, see you all in May 2022, when the Premier League is next won by a team that isn’t City  

Edited May 17, 2018 by Julius Caesar

[Ramar]

On 13/05/2018 at 8:56 PM, Fierce_LiNk said:

Do you think it's time for a new manager? Has he stayed on too long or is this the right time?

I'm not sure what to make of our season. On paper, it sounds fantastic. Second behind a great Man City team and FA Cup Final. But, the reality is that the football hasn't been amazing to watch this season. It's been a tricky one for United fans to evaluate. Finishing second (highest finish post-Ferguson) is a huge achievement and we're now back to competing for trophies (bar the Champions League), so I would class it as a successful season results wise. Guess it's all about how Mourinho builds from this. The quality of football has to get better.

Absolutely the right time for Arsene to move on. There was an unrepairable rift amongst fans, that just grew bigger and bigger. By the end of it I’d say it was 80:20 in favour of wanting change. It really  did run the risk of turning sour. Luckily the club announced it early enough to take the pressure off and to ensure he had a fantastic send off.

For the last 10 minutes of the Huddersfield match we sang “49 unbeaten” over and over. I’m not going to lie I was holding back the emotions. But it’s the biggest compliment we could pay him. The man is a legend. And he achieved amazing things. I love him, I love what he done for us. 

But we need to move on.

If that’s Arteta, if that’s Allegri. I don’t care anymore. I want to get down The Arsenal with a fan base who are prepared to get behind the team without an agenda. I can only pray this brings down the fantv generation. I don’t see it happening. But football is meant to be a joyful past time. Over the last 18 months we lost that somewhere.

 

[Kav]

As always, I hope to see some youngsters in the first team at Chelsea next season.

I think Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi and Jay Dasilva could easily play a decent amount of first team minutes next season.

Would love to see Mason Mount be given a chance too, the lad has bags of talent!

[Julius]

Goal is reporting that Arteta has agreed to become Arsenal’s next manager in principle, with the announcement expected to be made in the next few days.

Personally, I think it’s a bit too early for him to be given such a role. Though, a trial by fire at the beginning of his managerial career could be a great way to kickstart it, and I do think that he has the potential to be a great manager, based purely on working with Guardiola and the way that he himself played during his career. 

I don’t think that it would be an appointment like Simeone or Allegri which could send shivers down other teams’ spines, but I do think that his appointment could make Arsenal something of a dark horse (not necessarily winning the league, but perhaps returning to their favourite position in the table) going into next season. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Awful first half in the FA Cup. It's boring as hell. I thought both teams would be having a right go but it seems to be business as usual.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I think the "Phil Jones experiment" has failed. He simply hasn't turned into the player that we all thought he would be and has barely progressed at all in the last few seasons. His time is up, in my opinion. He should be at his peak, yet I still feel that we're waiting for his potential to show. Defensively, he's not very good at reading the game.

[Fierce_LiNk]

For a team that is so reliant on getting the ball to the wing and crossing, we are remarkably shit at crossing. We've been noticeably terrible at that this season. I don't really get it. Surely that's one thing that a winger or left/right back would work on a lot in training. Same as when corners don't make it past the first man, which is insane to me as the ball is at a complete dead stop. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Much better from Man U in the second half. Terrible miss by Pogba, though.

[Fierce_LiNk]

The players aren't playing for Mourinho or aren't motivated by him. Less than 10 minutes left of an FA Cup Final and the crosses (bar the odd one or two, like the one that led to the Pogba chance) are still just as bad and too many players are still plodding around the field or doing triangles in pointless areas. The gameplan, whatever it was, has completely failed today. Nobody is busting a gut out there to make a difference and nobody is trying to lift the team. 

[Happenstance]

Just now, Fierce_LiNk said:

The players aren't playing for Mourinho or aren't motivated by him.

I don't know how anyone ever could be.

[Fierce_LiNk]

4 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

I don't know how anyone ever could be.

Let's not be daft now. That Inter Milan squad would have laid out flat on the train tracks if he had told them to. He had Samuel Eto'o playing right back in a Champions League final. He used to be a very, very good motivator and his teams would carry out his plans to perfection. Hence the Champions League victories or the titles with Chelsea and Real Madrid. However, with this current squad, he isn't able (for whatever reason) to do that. This team need discipline, motivation and someone who can get them playing quicker football. It's too slow and predictable. 

[Happenstance]

2 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Let's not be daft now.

I'm not being daft (or @Daft) Obviously I can only speak for myself but I could never have any respect for a person like Mourinho which is why I find it hard imagine anyone else respecting him either. His is a vile and arrogant person.

[Fierce_LiNk]

1 minute ago, Happenstance said:

I'm not being daft (or @Daft) Obviously I can only speak for myself but I could never have any respect for a person like Mourinho which is why I find it hard imagine anyone else respecting him either. His is a vile and arrogant person.

There are very few saints in football.