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Fierce_LiNk

Football Season 2020-21

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Easy 3 points for Arsenal. Willian looks like a good acquisition for them already. Picked up 2 assists today. Fulham's defending for the goals was a bit bad. 

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Crazy Liverpool v Leeds match. Our defense was pretty terrible but gotta give credit to Leeds, they certainly brought it to us tonight.

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Couldn't tell which way that was going to go. Think Leeds can feel more than a little unlucky to score 3 goals against Liverpool away from home and end up with nothing. 

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United were bluddy awful yesterday. Mentally and physically didn't seem up for it. Glad that VDB got a goal on his debut, but that's the only plus that I can take from that game. I was optimistic before the transfer window opened, but we seem to be wasting time whilst other teams are strengthening. 

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Leeds look to be the neutral's team to watch this season! 14 goals in 2 matches!

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4 minutes ago, bob said:

Leeds look to be the neutral's team to watch this season! 14 goals in 2 matches!

I kinda love how every team just can't be arsed defending in these opening games. 

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5 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

I kinda love how every team just can't be arsed defending in these opening games. 

Classic Bielsa mind games :laughing:

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21 goals yesterday was apparently a Premier League record for a 4 match day. 

Listening to commentary for Chelsea vs Liverpool, sounds like Liverpool are very dominant again. I was a bit worried Chelsea would catch them off guard with all the new signings.

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If Kepa is still at Chelsea at the end of this window, then he should count himself lucky. He looks worse the more I see him. A dodgy keeper makes the entire back four nervous. 

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Chelsea have just signed Mendy. 

When Chelsea signed Kepa for £71 million, was he considered to have the same potential as Allison or was he very overpriced? Did Liverpool get a bit lucky with how good Allison turned out to be?

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1 minute ago, Mandalore said:

Chelsea have just signed Mendy. 

Great news, imagine that pretty much completes our business for the year. Kepa's confidence is rock bottom, I do feel sorry for him. 

Quote

When Chelsea signed Kepa for £71 million, was he considered to have the same potential as Allison or was he very overpriced? Did Liverpool get a bit lucky with how good Allison turned out to be?

Kepa is an example of one of those young players who just hasn't reached his potential for one reason or another (to me, it's clearly a confidence issue). Had a high potential and to become one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and was a favourite to take over as the next mainstay goalkeeper in the Spanish national team. 

In terms of pure potential I'd say that there were more expectations on Kepa joining Chelsea due to his age and price tag (he became the most expensive GK just a few weeks after Alisson had) than there was for Alisson going to Liverpool, but I do feel he had proved himself already at Roma as a solid goalkeeper. I think Alisson was better than Kepa when they arrived, but Kepa was expected to have a higher potential, it just unfortunately hasn't played out that way for us (and for him). 

And I do think Kepa was overpriced, but that couldn't be helped; that's business with Bilbao for you. They set a price tag with their release clauses and are very resistant to accepting a penny less. 

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I'm up to second in our Fantasy League, although I expect that my position will fluctuate a lot this season. 

Don't forget to join, people!

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I missed the United game yesterday as we were out, but catching the highlights and the discussion online, it seems that we were outplayed by Brighton. They hit the woodwork a ridiculous amount of times...so we got off lightly. I'm uncertain of the season ahead now as we look so fragile in defence that any team can open us up and score goals. In two games, we've conceded 5 goals and could/should have let in more. 

Sancho seems to be the one player we're linked with, but my biggest concern is that we need a better back four + defensive mid. I'm not sold on Wan-Bissaka on the right wing and we need more quality in the centre back positions, too. Matic is our best DM, but he hasn't got the legs to do it all and for the entire season, so we need to think about upgrading there.

In short, I think our lack of transfer activity this Summer will cost us a top four position. We've not done enough to improve things. 

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On 9/27/2020 at 10:50 AM, Fierce_LiNk said:

I missed the United game yesterday as we were out, but catching the highlights and the discussion online, it seems that we were outplayed by Brighton. They hit the woodwork a ridiculous amount of times...so we got off lightly. I'm uncertain of the season ahead now as we look so fragile in defence that any team can open us up and score goals. In two games, we've conceded 5 goals and could/should have let in more. 

Sancho seems to be the one player we're linked with, but my biggest concern is that we need a better back four + defensive mid. I'm not sold on Wan-Bissaka on the right wing and we need more quality in the centre back positions, too. Matic is our best DM, but he hasn't got the legs to do it all and for the entire season, so we need to think about upgrading there.

In short, I think our lack of transfer activity this Summer will cost us a top four position. We've not done enough to improve things. 

Solskjaer's whole thing is high energy - its a simple tactical philosophy, but that doesn't invalidate it in anyway. You have better players than the opponent, so work harder than them and you should win. Problem is we are fecking exhausted, something that is mirrored by others team around Europe at the moment who have played lots of games  - Munich and City being standouts. We haven't got the quality in depth to rotate, so we're kind of screwed.

The solution would be having a strong transfer window, with more purchases like VDB who we can rotate in to give players a rest - for example Pogba has been full garbage since the start of the season, but he shouldn't be playing anyway (he's just recovered from Corona). Problem is the Glazers are in full on skimp mode, like they were for the 8 years after they bought the club. They probably think they don't have to spend anything - we got 4th last year so just do it again with the same players. That's incredibly stupid, but by the looks of thing the children of Malcolm are typical rich kids - useless a c**k flavored lollipop. 

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On 29/09/2020 at 9:30 AM, LazyBoy said:

Solskjaer's whole thing is high energy - its a simple tactical philosophy, but that doesn't invalidate it in anyway. You have better players than the opponent, so work harder than them and you should win. Problem is we are fecking exhausted, something that is mirrored by others team around Europe at the moment who have played lots of games  - Munich and City being standouts. We haven't got the quality in depth to rotate, so we're kind of screwed.

The solution would be having a strong transfer window, with more purchases like VDB who we can rotate in to give players a rest - for example Pogba has been full garbage since the start of the season, but he shouldn't be playing anyway (he's just recovered from Corona). Problem is the Glazers are in full on skimp mode, like they were for the 8 years after they bought the club. They probably think they don't have to spend anything - we got 4th last year so just do it again with the same players. That's incredibly stupid, but by the looks of thing the children of Malcolm are typical rich kids - useless a c**k flavored lollipop. 

I get the whole high energy thing, but when you look at it closely it doesn't make too much sense. We're not an amazing team at pressing when we lose the ball (not too terrible, but not so clearly great at it that it justifies high energy) and we're not that great at passing and moving the ball around the pitch either. So, we're not really doing what we "think" we're doing. I would hazard a guess and say that last season we more often than not didn't play that way. 

We've wasted this window. VDB is the type of signing that we should be making, so I'm delighted with that. But, there are so many areas that need addressing. Liverpool getting Thiago is a big deal and is the type of signing we should have been making. I see the links with Cavani and I'm neither here nor there with that one. I understand the logic of getting him in to replace Ighalo as a bench/rotation option, but I'm not hugely convinced that he'll be a good fit for us. 

I just find our strategy muddled. It's very last minute/the club is about to close in 20 minutes and you're looking for somebody to take home, but most of the good looking ones went hours ago or aren't interested. 

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Disappointed we didn't get more to be honest, Liverpool looked all over the place from the very start. Delighted for Ollie Watkins, incredible way to get off the mark but the whole team was great today - they have been since the start of the season. Barkley should have had a hatrick, Watkins could have had 4, just a phenomenal performance all round.

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I’m pretty sure Villa cheated for every single goal. Liverpool should have won with our superior defending skills and world class goalkeeper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Amazing that Liverpool and United shipped 13 goals in one day. That's just nuts. I almost watched the Villa/Liverpool match but didn't, as I just thought it would be a routine tight-but-efficient away win for Liverpool. Shocked at that scoreline.

The less said about United the better. It's in the top 5 worst performances I've ever witnessed. We looked unprepared and we gave up after Spurs' second and third goals. Disgraceful performance, tbh. We have looked rubbish in our league games and lack any real idea or long-term plan of what we're doing. An absolute mess. 

You can lose matches, but losing the way they did today stings. It's not out of the blue, because we've been rubbish in the transfer window and have clearly prepared poorly for this season. It's all linked. After the way we finished last season, we could have really kicked it up a gear, done our business in the window early and gone into this season with an optimistic outlook. I can't see us matching last year's league position with the squad that we've got and with how other teams have improved, Chelsea for one. We are getting exactly what we deserve. 

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I'll need a week before I can comment on United. Turned off after 3 cause I knew where it was going, and I didn't want to bring the inevitable rage into my house. Went for a walk.

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26 minutes ago, LazyBoy said:

I'll need a week before I can comment on United. Turned off after 3 cause I knew where it was going, and I didn't want to bring the inevitable rage into my house. Went for a walk.

The third goal after the sending off was abysmal. What the hell was Bailly doing??!

Weird day yesterday. I hope this continues all season. I was mega impressed with how Leeds played against City, think we might have got the win had the crowd been there, we dominated large periods of the game and had City on the ropes. Feeling confident we can stay up this season and more performances like that should keep us in the top half. 

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I didn't watch the Man Utd game, and I understand that they were fairly poor, but what was that shit-show for the red card? This is what VAR is supposed to sort out. Either send them both off, or neither.

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The most bizarre thing about the weekend was Maguire pulling Luke Shaw, who was about to clear the ball, to the ground to let Ndombele score. I can't believe he's the worlds most expensive defender.

Jose showing the world that he might still know what he's doing.

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