Football 2015/16

[pink_triangle]

Now the Euro line up is complete I think my dream group for wales would be spain, Austria and Hungary.

[LondonTom]

47 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

A goalie can normally catch the ball, friendly or not.

But I feel bad for how my words might look, its not how it was meant. Perhaps there's other reasons tonight, but he's been a long way from his best.

Yeah I think it might be other reasons, given England looked a half decent side tonight.

Was nice to see the fans respect all the stuff before the game, even if expectations of England fans being able to sing french weren't quite met

Edited November 17, 2015 by LondonTom

[eFestivals]

What I meant last night was that Lloris is normally a great goalie, but he made a load of untypical errors last night.

Perhaps it was the occasion getting to him, or just a bad night for him - but he wasn't up to his normal standards.

[eFestivals]

So anyway....

Del Alli, the future of English football? Or not?

I know almost nothing about him, tho from last night's commentary I know he's got a lot of (lower level) games under his belt, which doesn't tend to be the case with younger players who come up thru Prem clubs.

There's also a number of other players in the Prem at the mo who haven't only had the cosseted high life of the Prem, including Lalana who was also on the field last night, and Vardy who would have been if not injured.

Is this starting to expose the failure of the academy system, that was meant to be the salvation of English football?

 

[pink_triangle]

7 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

So anyway....

Del Alli, the future of English football? Or not?

 

 

I thought that was Andros Townsend!

[eFestivals]

9 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I thought that was Andros Townsend!

Was it?

I can see there's something to Alli, tho whether that comes properly good only time will tell.

I'm actually more interested in the route he's come up via tho. How many English players come up thru just Prem clubs nowadays? Even Arsenal seem to have mostly stopped bringing them thru (and I'm wondering if that's Wenger doing similar to Fergie of settling on a final batch of players for his last years).

Oh, and i'd just like to point out that Sterling has no left foot and can't cross. :P

[JoeyT]

Alli like many of the young English players to show potential will probably by extremely hyped up then fail to live with the public & media expectation placed on him.

Barkley is a prime example of this. 2 seasons ago he was being touted as the next gazza (not his drinking ability) then last season failed to live up to the hype and now having had a relatively average season last year whilst not being in the headlines he's beginning to show signs of flourishing again.

As mentioned above Townsend fell in to the same trap and I'm sure we could all name others.

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

Alli like many of the young English players to show potential will probably by extremely hyped up then fail to live with the public & media expectation placed on him.

Barkley is a prime example of this. 2 seasons ago he was being touted as the next gazza (not his drinking ability) then last season failed to live up to the hype and now having had a relatively average season last year whilst not being in the headlines he's beginning to show signs of flourishing again.

As mentioned above Townsend fell in to the same trap and I'm sure we could all name others.

I agree with what you say about Barkley, that's for sure. He's good enough when playing well, but he doesn't play well for enough of the time.

 

[mjsell]

I'm more impressed currently with the progress of Eric Dier than Alli. In a position that England are lacking in he is quickly becoming one of the better options. Certainly an upgrade on Carrick, how he keeps getting games for England having never so much as had a singular good game for them I will never understand. 

[5co77ie]

still doesn't explain why Everton are always towards the end of the programme:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/match-of-the-day-running-order-chelsea-appear-first-more-times-than-any-other-club-but-heres-why-its-a6740226.html

[eFestivals]

Just now, 5co77ie said:

still doesn't explain why Everton are always towards the end of the programme:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/match-of-the-day-running-order-chelsea-appear-first-more-times-than-any-other-club-but-heres-why-its-a6740226.html

cos they're not the best at scoring goals or conceding them?

If you look at the running orders, they always put the games with the highest number of goals at the beginning and the least goals at the end. There's then a little bit of manipulation around that, to put the 'interesting' games before the less-interesting ones - so (for example, based on this season) there's been a lot of Chelsea games put on first because everyone loves to see them suffer.

[eFestivals]

rumours abound that some gay footballers are thinking of going public, and Scudamore of the Prem reckons they'd get respect now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34862989

I hope he's right. Society's attitudes towards gays has changed massively in the last two decades, but football is the final frontier.

As it happens I personally know of one very well known Prem footballer (perhaps now retired, i'm not sure) who was also an England regular at the height of his career, who suggested to his club about coming out the best part of a decade ago but his club said they wouldn't support him if he did, so he changed his mind. It seems things are changing, and about time too.

[pryce]

premier league playing the French national anthem before the games this weekend....Wembley was perfectly done, this just seems like they don't want to be seen missing out...which Is doing it for the wrong reasons

[TheGayTent]

Bundesliga weekend starts in the morning! 

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, pryce said:

premier league playing the French national anthem before the games this weekend....Wembley was perfectly done, this just seems like they don't want to be seen missing out...which Is doing it for the wrong reasons

Agreed less is more when it comes to these things. Will we have more anthems when it inevitably happens elsewhere.

[ThomThomDrum]

17 hours ago, pryce said:

premier league playing the French national anthem before the games this weekend....Wembley was perfectly done, this just seems like they don't want to be seen missing out...which Is doing it for the wrong reasons

They just want to keep reminding folk of the terrorism threat so you dont blink when they erode more of your civil liberties in the name of security. 

[Wooderson]

What about that run of away games for LFC, tho. Shocking.

[pink_triangle]

Cracking win for Liverpool, despite their strengths and weaknesses, you always feel they are a team who can raise their game in the big matches. Am I the only person starting to get worried that Man Utd may grind their way to the title?

[thetime]

1 minute ago, pink_triangle said:

Am I the only person starting to get worried that Man Utd may grind their way to the title?

Top of the table clash next week.

Leicester v Utd

[Gucci Piggy]

22 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Cracking win for Liverpool, despite their strengths and weaknesses, you always feel they are a team who can raise their game in the big matches. Am I the only person starting to get worried that Man Utd may grind their way to the title?

I've been thinking the same.

The league is dumb as fuck this season.

Leicester's next 6 games: United, Swansea, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, City.

As impressive as their position is, the only good team they've actually played is Arsenal and they got spanked.

[Wooderson]

The league is truly shite. Exciting, but shit.

[eFestivals]

13 hours ago, Wooderson said:

What about that run of away games for LFC, tho. Shocking.

yep, it's been a terrible run of games, hasn't it?

I'm quite amused at all of the Klopp hype tho... I've even seen (Guardian comments) a shit load of Man Utd fans praising Liverpool to the high heavens, which I've never seen before in my whole life (tho I suspect the opposition might have had something to do with it).

And yet .... it was about this time last year that Rodgers' tinkering got them playing very well (as it happens also against a Manc team, tho the result didn't go Liverpool's way that day due to DdG), and by playing in about the same way too.

So I'm not sure that yesterday can really be chalked up as as "Klopp did what Rodgers couldn't" thing.

Tho, to be fair, it's probably the case that Rodgers would have taken longer to find the right combination, due to the investment he has in the squad that Klopp doesn't have, which would probably have had Rodgers sticking with Benteke for a while yet.

That 3rd goal yesterday was one of the best team goals I can remember seeing if you include the first part of the attack which had Hart knock it away only for Liverpool to come back at him again. Poetry in motion. :)

[pink_triangle]

I think that's the most dangerous I have seen Firminio looked, I had been underwhelmed in previous games.  I hope he continues like that.

[eFestivals]

PS: hats off to Leicester, and particularly to Vardy - who just 4 seasons ago aged 24 was playing in the conference. An absolutely stunning rise to the top of English football.

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I think that's the most dangerous I have seen Firminio looked, I had been underwhelmed in previous games.  I hope he continues like that.

he defo showed why his stats in Germany were impressive. More of that, please.

To be fair to him, he's basically been injured since he's been at Liverpool (tho he's also been played out of his preferred position), so that could be why he's had a sluggish start.