Football (Soccer)

[BlackFox]

Crazy game at Newcastle yesterday, West Ham were the better side for large parts of it and to get 3-1 up youd like to think you would hold on but credit to Newcastle and Howe he made the changes that made a difference. They were helped with a couple of soft pen decisions which were highly sus' but thats not their fault the refs and VAR are so unpredictable you dont know what you are going to get one game to the next.

As for United, sheesh, a similar tale but this time instead of snatching a win we managed to bungle it in the last few minutes. A truelly horrible performance again and Brentford really should have been 3 or 4 up before we snatched a goal out of nothing in the last 10 minutes anyway but a better side would have dispatched us the amount of chances we gift sides. Going forward was non existent its hardly worth talking about, terrible passing, terrible decision making just dire all round from a footballing perspective. That Liverpool result has taken all of a couple of weeks to show how much of a freak result that was.

 

[Zantera]

The most unexpected thing about our game yesterday is that it ended up a draw rather than a loss (considering our stats this season). There's not much to say anymore it's just same old story really. Until we change in the squad I don't see much changing. And as soon as the game ends the pundits are in full motion again about how ETH should get the sack. The problem is that our hottest rumor for a new manager is Gareth Southgate - one of the most mediocre managers ever who is squandering one of the best England teams in a long time. If it's between him or giving ETH a 20 year contract, sign me up for the latter every day of the week. I would honestly rather have Steve Bruce or Frank Lampard than Southgate.

 

[Iceman]

Brighton take an unexpected early lead against Liverpool. I hope Liverpool win as I want the title race to go full pelt between the 3 of them. Really need Arsenal to turn up against City.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Big blow for Liverpool fans. If he stays at Leverkusen then I hope he has a good season again to show it wasn't a complete freak. I think there will be many interested parties for Florian Wirtz, also very much looking forward to seeing him at the Euros.

Wirtz is my favourite non United player and frankly been my standout player in Europe this season, hopefully Alonso staying means he'll stay too and they'll both want to have a go at the CL with Leverkusen next season. Wirtz and Musiala for Germany at the Euros should be great, shame they lack a #9.

Totally agreed. This is also why IMO 4-4-2 got phased out. You can't have 2 strikers too often nowadays if that means you're up against a team where you're outnumbered in the central midfield battle which is the most important fight in dictating which team gets the upper hand and control of the match. Once you lose the CM battle you're going to spend more time without the ball meaning your strikers get isolated and can't contribute as much as the added midfielder for the opposition who is in the heart of the battle. Hopefully Mainoo can develop into a complete midfielder and be a key figure for Utd and England for the next 15 years.

Spot on mate, it's why you also see less pure #10's these days, players that often would be close to that type player now often plays off the wing as a floating playmaker, especially when they are younger and not as rounded positionally out of possession.

Proper late smash and grab job there by Utd! 1-0 with Mount getting the winner after Brentford had had a lot of chances.

Edit: spoke too soon, still time for Brentford to get an equaliser!!

That was a soul destroying performance, we made Brentford look like title contenders rather than a team trying to get clear of the relegation zone. I felt bad for Mainoo in that midfield, this nonsense regarding McTominay needs to stop and Bruno never being dropped has to end, they offered nothing in trying to help control the game and dictate the tempo, they aren't even good defensively. The lack of midfield protection and CB merry-go-round makes it hard to gauge the defence but AWB showed again that when he's not just on man marking duty and we need to be on the front foot he's just not a good footballer.

I usually try to find some positives in any match but here the only thing I've got is Mount took his goal really well and hopefully that will give him a kick-start going into the next 10 games. Beyond that I've got nothing, I just want this season to end and see if Ineos are genuine or all mouth, when it comes to a rebuild.

 

[Iceman]

Liverpool now 2-1 up through Diaz and Salah.

 

[B]

We were right back to form yesterday, I'm not even mad about conceding almost immediately after scoring ourselves in stoppage time, firstly because it seems like we concede all the time after scoring ourselves & secondly because we were very fortunate that the game wasn't already comfortably beyond our reach. We were lucky Brentford weren't 3, 4 or 5 goals up with some of the chances they spurned.

Jamie Redknapp hit the nail on the head about the lack of effort & will from some/most of the players in our side yesterday. Saw disjointed & random attempts to win the ball back, the only player with any level of consistency in that respect was Fernandes, if I were him I'd have got in the face of some of the players & screamed at them to wake the f up. Brentford had such an easy time playing through us & not only that, because sometimes you're just off a team just plays well against you, but being beat to the 2nd & 3rd ball is outright effort & that happened so many times yesterday.

Really woeful stuff.

 

[Iceman]

Liverpool win and City Arsenal ends in a draw keeping it all very much alive for now. Slight advantage Liverpool for now.

 

[BlackFox]

Good day for Liverpool in the end then with both Arsenal and City dropping points. Still very tight if they win their games in hand though. Going to the wire it seems with at least 2 possibly all 3 teams.

 

[B]

That was quite literally the perfect result for Liverpool.

I think Arsenal really had to win in order to stay in the title race as they've got probably the most difficult run in of the 3. City probably have the easiest run in, however Pep is more likely to need to rotate for Europe than Liverpool given tougher CL opposition, as I'd imagine while Klopp will want the Europa League also, he's probably going to rotate players in the EL than in the PL.. and they've a 3 point buffer over City.

It's Liverpool's to lose at the moment.

 

[Zantera]

Liverpool have it in their hands but they got a bunch of bumps along the way. They're playing us away next weekend and even though we've been dire this season we still beat them in the FA Cup and got a draw at Anfield. Their last 4 fixtures in the league this season are West Ham (away), Spurs (home), Villa (away) and Wolves (home). All it takes for them is to slip up in 1 or 2 of these games and Arsenal or City will come breathing down their necks.

City the biggest loser this weekend. They played terrible today and they needed the win. 1p at the Etihad is a fantastic result and Arsenal will be happy with that. If Arsenal don't end up winning PL, it wont be because of 1p away to City (considering they also beat them at home). Then you have to look at other results as the problem.

 

[Iceman]

Good day for Liverpool in the end then with both Arsenal and City dropping points. Still very tight if they win their games in hand though. Going to the wire it seems with at least 2 possibly all 3 teams.

That's all I ask for, oh that and for City not to win.

I don't mind City winning the CL, prefer Arsenal to win still though.

 

[Iceman]

That got me thinking, what will the 23 man squad be

Defenders - Stones/Gomez/Guéhi/Walker/Konsa/Maguire/Shaw/
Midfield - Rice/Bellingham/Mainoo/Trent/Palmer/Gallagher
Forwards - Kane/Saka/Gordon/Foden/Toney/Bowen

I put Gallagher in the midfield options simply because the other options are Phillips and Henderson haven't done anything this season to merit going, and in truth I think Rashford will get in ahead of either Bowen or Gordon.

Gray will be snapped up by one of the big Prem clubs for a big fee in the next couple of years Imo, he's actually really good at RB as well as a #6.

Saka would be more of an impact sub in that formation but in the one Southgate uses I agree he'll start and Trent would probably play in Mainoo's role in midfield if he's picked. I think Gomez will start the tournament at LB and they'll ease Shaw in with hopes of him being up to speed for the Knockout stages.





it's unlike Boehly to turn down the chance to buy somebody, must be why they are now interested in Estevão, to make up for it.



It's the smart move really, it's basically cutting out the middleman teams like Ajax, Dortmund, Benfica, Porto, Sporting etc....who buy loads of young talent in the hope one will develop into a player they can then sell for an extortionate amount to the big clubs. As you said Real and Barca have done a good job with this and City have followed suit with Alvarez and Echeverri from River Plate. The South American market is particularly ripe for this type of signing, next up is the aforementioned Estevão.







Really good player but he's either dumb or has an addiction problem, to make bets after already being banned for 10 months suggests the latter to me. With this news I think you have to keep hold of Bruno Guimeras, I know the collective has been greater than the sum of it's parts but longterm I think your owners will be looking to evolve the quality of the squad and I'd say only Guimeras, Isak, Gordon, Botman and Livramento are the only ones I think you can build around with obviously youngsters like Miley and Hall still developing.

I'd be happy with that squad. It's a shame we don't have the same depth in central midfield we have in some other positions. It feels like Gallagher might need to be in this time and if it's in place of Henderson and Phillips then maybe it's for the best. We need to develop some players who are suited to and totally happy playing 6, rather than eventually turning into 8s or 10s. We already have plenty who could play 10.

I'm looking forward to Gray making the breakthrough. It's been great seeing Cole Palmer this season, he's going to be a big one for the future and could play a role in this Euros.

Yeah, Southgate will surely stick with 4-3-3 with Saka's place on the right ironclad. I'd love if Mainoo could get into the starting lineup but would be just as happy if Trent made it in there (but not as a right back). Seems like Gomez could be a very important squad player covering numerous positions, and also have a chance of playing. I think with Kyle Walker at RB and Foden on left wing we could really do with Luke Shaw back to attack down the left with Walker covering as 3rd CB when he goes forward, and allowing Foden to play his natural game and looking to come inside and more central.

I love the skills on that Estevão! Hopefully he turns into a top player. I love seeing flair players like this, makes watching the sport so much more fun over just functional wins. You seem to be on the ball/up to date with emerging talents, keep 'em coming! Endrick, Arda Guler, Lamine Yamal, Vitor Roque and Estevão can show there's more to the post Ronaldo-Messi future than just Mbappe/Haaland/Vinicius/Bellingham (all who could be at Madrid!). Barca and Real can get back to the top if they keep getting these super kids without having to pay the earth for them.

I'm pretty sure Tonali has a pretty severe addiction at this point. He has barely played and is exacerbating a long ban by diving back in, crazy and can only be explained by not being able to control himself on this front. Bruno is the player I'd be most upset to lose, but as you say we need to build around Botman, Bruno, Isak, Gordon and Livramento. Miley has had a very promising start and hopefully will develop further and hopefully we can see Lewis Hall making strides in future. If we can finish in the ECL place (might need the PL getting the 5th CL place to allow us to get ECL by finishing 8th) this season I will be very happy given how hard we fell off after the injuries started piling up. It's only really possible due to Chelsea still not sorting themselves out but I can't see that going on yet another season.

 

[Iceman]

Tuchel concedes the Bundesliga title after a home loss to Dortmund. Great for Leverkusen and Alonso.

I’m sure there are many fans who will find it hilarious that Kane goes to a team that won the title every year for a decade and fails as soon as he arrives, but I like the dude (especially compared to the average footballer) and hope he wins something soon. Certainly not down to him either given his goal scoring records in his first season.

'I have no hope anymore' - Thomas Tuchel concedes title to Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen after Bayern suffer shock defeat to Dortmund | Goal.com UK

Thomas Tuchel admitted that Bayern Munich are out of the Bundesliga title race after the 2-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker.

www.goal.com

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Iceman]

I don’t know a whole lot about him but if he’s better than what Utd have at CB (not difficult) then getting anything for Greenwood would make it a win on both fronts.

 

[B]

Jason Wilcox: Manchester United make approach for Southampton director of football

Apparently we're looking to make him a technical director to be part of a new recruitment team with Dan Ashworth heading it up, not sure if that means Darren Fletcher is being ousted as he's also a technical director last I heard.

I still remember him from his Blackburn Rovers playing days, but apparently he's forged a reputable career for himself post-playing. I'll at least give INEOS their credit, they're actually trying to make changes to benefit the club behind the scenes, whether things work out & improve are another thing, but they're at least trying, which is more than could be said for the Glazers.

 

[Iceman]

Really good goal by Isak (against Everton). Many strikers would have mucked this one up. Many chances to give it away but he kept his composure throughout. Let's build some momentum finally after that West ham comeback!

 

[Iceman]

Isak sets up Burn for a second, loving this after weeks/months of underperforming.

Oh edit: ruled out, still 1-0.

 

[Iceman]

Oh well, a late penalty scuppers us. 1-1 final score.

West Ham also drew 1-1 with Spurs.

 

[BlackFox]

1-0 Chelsea - Gallagher puts the Blues up early against us. Poor from Onana.

 

[BlackFox]

2-0 Chelsea - Palmer from the pen given away by a clumsy challenge by Antony. This makeshift United side looks just that at the moment, hopeless and without a clue.

 

[BlackFox]

2-1 Garnacho pulls one back and suddenly we are back in it out of absolutely nothing. Horrific error at the back by Chelsea to let us in.

 

[BlackFox]

Sheff Utd equalize against Liverpool 1-1 at the moment.

 

[Iceman]

Utd come back from 2-0 down to make it 2-2!

 

[BlackFox]

2-2 - Fernandez gets the equalizer before HT with a lovely header from a great Dalot cross. Somehow we are level, crazy game.