Football Season 2017-18

[drahkon]

3 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Well, you're going to have to get down there and sort them out...because it'll be absolute fucking hell for me if Liverpool go on to win this thing now.  

I'll be sure to let the team know

[Julius]

3 hours ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

He's getting an easy ride because (like I mentioned before) he's England's golden boy. If Ronaldo or any other foreign player were doing this, the media and fans would hang them out to dry. Can't believe he used the school yard "I swear on me family's life braaah, it came off me fam" line. Is he 8 or something?

He'll eventually leave Spurs for a big money move elsewhere. If he's being this petty about being top scorer and claiming every goal, what's he seriously going to do when the likes of Real Madrid come calling and offer him a serious chance to win the Champions League or La Liga? 

I think if anyone should have a right to be annoyed, it would be Eriksen, who I assume honestly doesn’t care too much either way. I have to assume that because I can’t imagine Tottenham wanting to go behind Eriksen’s back just to please Kane over a single goal (and the fact that, as a creative player, Eriksen might enjoy having an assist just as much).

If Kane genuinely believes it, because he is a talented and driven striker who keeps pushing himself harder and harder, I can understand why he might take this up with the higher-ups. He’s chasing goal-scoring records and is constantly self-improving, so if he really did touch it, I can understand wanting the goal accredited to him.

I kind of have to disagree with this idea that we’d hang Ronaldo out to dry for doing something like this. He still occasionally lashes out and gets frustrated with his teammates when they don’t pass the ball to him, and just the other week (maybe in the first leg against Juve?) he took a shot when the ball was clearly possessed by Benzema. Both Ronaldo and Kane are driven players, though, so I can understand why the might act the way that they do.

Because Kane’s so driven, I don’t think he’ll be leaving Tottenham until he either a) wins the Premier League with them, or b) beats Alan Shearer’s all-time goal-scoring Premier League record of 260 goals scored in the competition (which he seems well on his way to beating).

[Fierce_LiNk]

17 hours ago, Julius Caesar said:

I think if anyone should have a right to be annoyed, it would be Eriksen, who I assume honestly doesn’t care too much either way. I have to assume that because I can’t imagine Tottenham wanting to go behind Eriksen’s back just to please Kane over a single goal (and the fact that, as a creative player, Eriksen might enjoy having an assist just as much).

If Kane genuinely believes it, because he is a talented and driven striker who keeps pushing himself harder and harder, I can understand why he might take this up with the higher-ups. He’s chasing goal-scoring records and is constantly self-improving, so if he really did touch it, I can understand wanting the goal accredited to him.

I kind of have to disagree with this idea that we’d hang Ronaldo out to dry for doing something like this. He still occasionally lashes out and gets frustrated with his teammates when they don’t pass the ball to him, and just the other week (maybe in the first leg against Juve?) he took a shot when the ball was clearly possessed by Benzema. Both Ronaldo and Kane are driven players, though, so I can understand why the might act the way that they do.

Because Kane’s so driven, I don’t think he’ll be leaving Tottenham until he either a) wins the Premier League with them, or b) beats Alan Shearer’s all-time goal-scoring Premier League record of 260 goals scored in the competition (which he seems well on his way to beating).

Maybe Eriksen isn't publicly saying anything because he's a team player and doesn't want to cause internal friction at the club. It's what I would have expected Kane to do.

Every video and camera angle has shown that the path and trajectory of the ball doesn't change. There's not one that I've seen that has shown that Kane had any contact on the ball, especially not enough to divert it towards goal. The fact that he's been given it is an absolute shambles as there is no proof whatsoever, other than his word. 

Ronaldo would get hung out to dry for this, for sure. He would get labelled greedy, or "not a team player" or selfish or something along those lines. When he was at United, the press would come out with something every week to fling at him. For sure he'd get loads of shit over something like this.

Time will tell with Kane. But, as far as I know, the offers haven't been coming in yet. What happens if a club like Real bid something ridiculous as £150million for him, with the promise of paying him £500,000 a week? I think we over-estimate players' loyalty to their clubs. The shelf-life of a footballer is finite. Gareth Bale was around about this age when he left for Real Madrid and he's won the Champions League multiple times with that club. Why wouldn't Kane want that? As for Spurs winning the league, I think their time was when Leicester did it. City are now stronger, United are a better team since then and Liverpool have also improved. I can see him overtaking Shearer, if he stays long enough to do it.

[Julius]

46 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Maybe Eriksen isn't publicly saying anything because he's a team player and doesn't want to cause internal friction at the club. It's what I would have expected Kane to do.

Every video and camera angle has shown that the path and trajectory of the ball doesn't change. There's not one that I've seen that has shown that Kane had any contact on the ball, especially not enough to divert it towards goal. The fact that he's been given it is an absolute shambles as there is no proof whatsoever, other than his word. 

Ronaldo would get hung out to dry for this, for sure. He would get labelled greedy, or "not a team player" or selfish or something along those lines. When he was at United, the press would come out with something every week to fling at him. For sure he'd get loads of shit over something like this.

Time will tell with Kane. But, as far as I know, the offers haven't been coming in yet. What happens if a club like Real bid something ridiculous as £150million for him, with the promise of paying him £500,000 a week? I think we over-estimate players' loyalty to their clubs. The shelf-life of a footballer is finite. Gareth Bale was around about this age when he left for Real Madrid and he's won the Champions League multiple times with that club. Why wouldn't Kane want that? As for Spurs winning the league, I think their time was when Leicester did it. City are now stronger, United are a better team since then and Liverpool have also improved. I can see him overtaking Shearer, if he stays long enough to do it.

I think it’s a little different because Kane was claiming it right after it went in. Because of that, if he asks for it he looks stupid, and if he doesn’t he also looks stupid. I think any striker who initially claimed it as a goal on the pitch should stick by it until it’s at least been looked at.

Plus, we get amazing things like this because of it:

And sure, Ronaldo would be hung out to dry for this; many players would, and Kane has been hung out to dry by fans and other players already. However, like I said before, arguing for a goal like this is within Ronaldo’s established nature as someone who wants to break records. Though, I do think it’s worth mentioning that much of the press held something against Ronaldo after what he did at the World Cup whilst at United, and just continued to paint him in a bad light thereafter. 

As for Kane moving, you’re right, we’ll have to wait and see; I can’t remember any offers coming in either. Though, I do think that he would want to win the Prem and beat Shearer’s record because of the kind of player that he is, and I don’t see Madrid making a move for him until Ronaldo’s ability begins to dull, because he’s a bit more than your typical 9. 

Completely unrelated: amazing turnaround by Chelsea, and showed a great attitude in doing so. 

Edited April 14, 2018 by Julius Caesar

[Hero-of-Time]

Giroud doing good work against Southampton. Big result for Chelsea and a good show of character after being 2-0 down.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Anyone watching the Spurs/City game? City's penalty was given for a challenge definitely outside of the box. Think there was a potential red card tackle from Spurs though, but I missed it because I was playing with the cats.

[Hero-of-Time]

4 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Anyone watching the Spurs/City game? City's penalty was given for a challenge definitely outside of the box. Think there was a potential red card tackle from Spurs though, but I missed it because I was playing with the cats.

Yeah, I've got it on. Nice to see Kane scoring again.  

Davies shouldn't be on the pitch. His tackle on Kompany was shocking.

 

[Fierce_LiNk]

3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, I've got it on. Nice to see Kane scoring again.  

Davies shouldn't be on the pitch. His tackle on Kompany was shocking.

 

I was very tempted to say something, but I thought I'd go easy on Kane tonight.

Hmm, so that's the third Spurs player this season who should have been sent off against City, but hasn't been. Hmmmmm.

[Julius]

Talking about Kane...  

 

[Hero-of-Time]

I was just about to laugh at Sterling but he finally buried one!

[Fierce_LiNk]

58 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I was just about to laugh at Sterling but he finally buried one!

Can't believe he was pissing about with the chance beforehand. Just whack it in the net! 

I'm hoping for a good United victory tomorrow, which should hopefully take us 4 points clear of Liverpool (with us having a game in hand) and 7 ahead of Spurs. Can't have any pissing about tomorrow, it needs to be a big performance and we need to win well. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Cracking win for the Toon. It's nuts how fast they have climbed up the league, especially after having a very rough period in the Winter.

[Julius]

WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON AT OLD TRAFFORD?!

A couple of minutes left to stop City from winning the title today. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Julius Caesar

[Hero-of-Time]

It's the complete opposite of what @Fierce_LiNk wanted.  Very rough performance by United. Crazy result.

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It's the complete opposite of what @Fierce_LiNk wanted.  Very rough performance by United. Crazy result.

Questions really need to be asked of United this summer, I think. Crashed out of the Champions League in the silliest of ways, and they’ve been woefully inconsistent throughout much of the league season. 

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[bob]

I reckon they did it on purpose to spoil City's party and have them win it off the pitch.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Total disgrace of a performance. Mourinho and the players should be absolutely ashamed of themselves to lose a game of this magnitude, against the bottom club and at home. He's lost a lot of support today from the fans and the reaction they all received at full-time was, in my opinion, softer than it could have been. I don't think some of the players even broke into a sweat today and it was probably one of our poorest performances in recent times. The players won't give a shit, as they'll no doubt just go home and count their money and I've lost a lot of respect for them after today. 

Mourinho is far softer than I expected. I expected him to run a tougher regime and to absolutely lay down the law that performances like today's would be unacceptable. Today's performance is similar to some of the ones under Van Gaal. There is absolutely no spine or any guts to this team. Nobody there grabbing the players and forcing them to perform. Abysmal. 

[Emerald Emblem]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Cracking win for the Toon. It's nuts how fast they have climbed up the league, especially after having a very rough period in the Winter.

Whats even worse for Arsenal is that until Newcastle equalised, we looked in control of the match, then Shelvey was putting the strikers in with long balls time and time again and Mustafi lets Perez in front of him like Shane Long last week, we've spent £35 million and I feel as though we've been mugged off paying that. The second goal is unforgivable, from the defence as a whole, absolute disgrace that a 6 on 3 in Arsenals favour from a throw in a few passes becomes a 2 on 1 in Newcastle's favour.

The only team in the top 4 English divisions to not have any away points in 2018 sums up the season perfectly, the Emirates is a fortress but as soon as we leave go to someone elses yard and we don't look up for it, it's not fucking good enough.

[Iun]

9 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Cracking win for the Toon. It's nuts how fast they have climbed up the league, especially after having a very rough period in the Winter.

Aye, we have turned things around alright, but we need to sustain this into the next season and not lose any of our best players. Fingers crossed that Ashley will just sell up and piss off.

[Hero-of-Time]

5 hours ago, Iun said:

Aye, we have turned things around alright, but we need to sustain this into the next season and not lose any of our best players. Fingers crossed that Ashley will just sell up and piss off.

Yeah, the general feeling here in the North East is that with Newcastle doing well this will encourage Ashley to sell while the going is good. I imagine most fans are hoping a sale will happen in the Summer.

Shelvey has been key for you guys these past few weeks. He is commanding that midfield area and making some amazing passes. The problem is that you just don't know when he is going to just lose it again and act like an idiot and get sent off.  

[Kav]

Lukaku best score a hat-trick next match after I triple captained him in FPL! Haha

[Hero-of-Time]

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11881/11334284/mainz-and-freiburg-players-called-back-to-pitch-after-var-awarded-penalty-at-half-time

Absolutely nuts. Seriously, how hard is it to use a video system to call decisions? Every other sport seems to be able to handle it but for some reason football can't deal with it.

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11881/11334284/mainz-and-freiburg-players-called-back-to-pitch-after-var-awarded-penalty-at-half-time

Absolutely nuts. Seriously, how hard is it to use a video system to call decisions? Every other sport seems to be able to handle it but for some reason football can't deal with it.

It's a legit call and in accordance with the rules. Even if the players are off the pitch, as long as the ref didn't leave the pitch he can make another call. (not saying you don't know that; it just baffles me how many people in Germany say that the whole situation was against the rules...)

It was, however, a confusing situation. Apparently the VAR ref took too long to inform the ref on the field about the penalty...
Communication has to be improved a lot when it comes to VAR decisions. Absolutely everybody has to be in the clear seconds after a decision has been made.

Decisions have to be made faster, something I think could be achieved with intense training for the VAR refs. Additionally situations being decided by the VAR should be shown on the screens in the stadium so that fans, players, managers, etc have immediate feedback.

Edited April 17, 2018 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

I'm not disputing the call, just the way the decision has come about. It was left far too late and these things should be done pretty fast. If a pundit on Sky Sports can make a decision after seeing one replay then surely profession refs can. The whole VAR system is a joke at the moment.