Football 2015/16

[ThomThomDrum]

If memory serves I believe a certain Gabriel Antoine Obertan was being touted as the new Zidane!

[ThomThomDrum]

But after Muller now?

 

Apparently a £60m bid has been lodged...........thats some chunk of change

[pryce]

looks like they meant Mane not Muller

[kingcrawler]

I like Mane and think he offers something not many players currently at Man Utd do but he's a bit of a downgrade on Muller/Pedro. I think he'd do well there though.

[thetime]

So United are supposed to have made a bid for Mane last week and its only come out now? Ok then.

[pink_triangle]

Get your facts right. The new Zidane was Bruno Cheyrou!

I forgot he even existed. I wonder where Lucas will end up, while he is no world beater, Im not convinced he is worse than most of the other Liverpool central midfielder. IN fact many of the better Liverpool performances I have seen in recent years was when he was on the pitch.

[kaosmark2]

Thauvin confirmed. Cabella loaned the other way and fee agreed for the end of the season.

 

Seems early to give up on Cabella, but Thauvin definitely seems like a better player, and younger, so makes sense to me. Still feel we'd have been better off making a defensive signing, but it's nice to have some attacking options!

[WS_Jack_III]

Thauvin confirmed. Cabella loaned the other way and fee agreed for the end of the season.

Seems early to give up on Cabella, but Thauvin definitely seems like a better player, and younger, so makes sense to me. Still feel we'd have been better off making a defensive signing, but it's nice to have some attacking options!

Coloccini signing on another year closes the door to another defensive signing i think.

Lots of people saying it's a like for like swap but we now have a player with a worse attitude. Maybe Cabella should have been given another year but i have read that Thauvin has a decent set piece delivery and we really could do with that.

[kaosmark2]

Coloccini signing on another year closes the door to another defensive signing i think.

Lots of people saying it's a like for like swap but we now have a player with a worse attitude. Maybe Cabella should have been given another year but i have read that Thauvin has a decent set piece delivery and we really could do with that.

You're probably right, really hope Lascalles is good enough to be our 3rd CB though, as Williamson was just so bad last season and Saylor's never fit. Concerns at LB as well, Dummett and Haidara both look decent, but they're both naturally attacking, and unless Tiote and Anita are both fit and playing, I feel we've not got the cover in midfield. I like Colback and he offers a lot, but he doesn't cover the gaps that aggressive fullbacks leave.

 

Set pieces have been such a problem in recent years, supposedly De Jong and Wijnaldum have decent delivery as well though, so hopefully between the 3 one of them actually will!

[Wooderson]

Bullishness of Utd fans on here. Giving it billy big balls again. Haha

[ThomThomDrum]

Man the wall, United are coming! pic.twitter.com/gDeTIgPxoc

— JOE.co.uk (@JOE_co_uk)

August 19, 2015

[The Nal]

So is Willian gone from Chelsea then? Pedro, Hazard and Costa up top?

[TheGayTent]

So is Willian gone from Chelsea then? Pedro, Hazard and Costa up top?

Cuadrado definitely must be off?

Edited August 20, 2015 by TheGayTent

[TheGayTent]

Enjoyable game at Molineux last night. Got to see 5 goals and a few promising youngsters. Can't see either side getting promotion this season mind.

[Andre91]

City sign Otamendi on a five year deal. That's a massive signing, from what I saw of him in La Liga last season he is an absolute beast of a CB. With Kompany looking back to his old self in the two games so far this season, that's one fierce pair of CBs.

[TheGayTent]

I like what I've seen of Otamendi. Is he fast enough for english football though?

[Gucci Piggy]

So is Willian gone from Chelsea then? Pedro, Hazard and Costa up top?

He'll get plenty of game time with him, Pedro, Oscar and Hazard rotating between three positions behind the striker. Also seen talk of him being converted to a box to box midfielder because he has the attributes to do so, but yeah I'm sure he'll be fine. Pedro isn't even guaranteed to automatically oust him from the XI anyway, especially if he doesn't match Willian's defensive work rate.

Edit: But yeah, doesn't look good for Cuadrado.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Will-2609

[DomDom1984]

Just back from the first Renfrewshire Derby in the league for over 15 years between Morton and St. Mirren and as expected, it was a fairly entertaining affair. Frustrating from a Morton perspective, because we missed chance after chance and St. Mirren just couldn't handle us going forward. Some horrendous misses and some great goalkeeping kept us at bay, as well as the referee being a total imbecile.

 

How that ended 0-0 I'll never know.

[kingcrawler]

I ended up going to the Morton v St. Mirren game too and quite enjoyed it from a neutral point of view. Thought Morton were the better side in the first half but didn't seem to create too many clear chances bar Denny Johnstone's miss near the end of the half. The second half was similar up until St. Mirren's sending off (which looked like a straight red to me though I've seen others who watched it on tv say otherwise) at which point they came into the game more with Gallagher looking more lively than Thompson did. The last 10-15 minutes were all Morton though and Langfield made a series of good saves and was lucky Morton didn't score from his once a game fuck up. Not convinced Thompson's goal in the first half should have been disallowed. 

 

They weren't really tested that much given McMullan was pretty quiet for most of the game but I thought the Morton defence were too casual in possession at times, particularly Lamie. Still not sure how he's good enough for the championship as he doesn't seem to have improved that much from when we released him in league one but fair play to him for becoming a regular at a full time club.

 

Thought before tonight that Morton would finish 9th and nothing's changed there. They didn't impress me last season and while the team has improved slightly they still have the same poor manager and until Duffy goes I don't see them doing particularly well. If they can keep Peter MacDonald fit then they might be ok but given his recent injury history that must be a worry. Johnstone looked like a handful tonight but not sure he can be relied upon if MacDonald picks up a serious injury.

[DomDom1984]

Johnstone missed a couple of big chances tonight and has been found wanting earlier in the season. I don't think he's up to much. We have young Orr in the development squad who's promising and must surely be worth a punt ahead of him.

 

The red card got mixed reactions from many neutrals that I seen, leaning towards not a red. Goodwin certainly should have walked, but then we wouldn't have seen his hilarious trip over the ball, that somehow wound up being a Pepper yellow card. Think seeing the fall made up for that one though.

 

Also agree that the goal was wrongly disallowed.

 

Both sides are pretty poor clearly, and should worry a fair bit. Looks like St Mirren might get Shankland and Webster though, which could be huge for them. Sometimes we pull a fast one out of the bag though at the end of the window, so here's hoping.

 

Oh, and I thought Bobby Barr and Conor Pepper were exceptional for us tonight.

[kingcrawler]

Yeah Webster especially coming in should help at the back given how inexperienced they are there. Shankland would at least offer some movement and is a decent finisher which is something they lack. I thought their main problem tonight was their lack of attacking options, every time Thompson knocked balls down there was no one to pick up on them and when McMullan is as quiet as he was tonight they'll struggle to create chances. 

 

I agree about Barr and Pepper. I was sceptical about the signing of Barr as he strikes me as a decent league one player but nothing more but if he can put in more performances like that he'll be a great addition. Is Pepper normally a left back? I always thought he was a midfielder but he looked good there tonight.

[DomDom1984]

I think Pepper has played everywhere other than where he should play, but has played those positions very well indeed. It'll probably turn out that he's shite in central midfield after all.

[eFestivals]

I see the Premier League has come out and said that Beneteke's goal last week shouldn't have stood, as it classes as offside under the revised rules - something that just about everyone else has already acknowledged.

 

It would be interesting to see what the ref's justification for the call he made was, tho I guess it can be just one of two things:-

 

1. the ref didn't see how close Coutinho was to the ball to see he was interfering.

2. the ref saw how close he was but didn't think he was close enough to class as interfering.

 

If it's the first then that's just how it goes. It's not possible for a ref to see everything that happens on a pitch.

(It could be claimed the ref was poorly positioned, tho he has no control over where the ball goes, and where the ball goes can cause him to be poorly positioned no matter where he might stand)

 

If it's the second then it's poor judgement - tho poor judgement over what is a new rule, where it takes highlighted wrong decisions such as this one to help define to refs what should be the right decision. With it being called-out as wrong, the ref knows he has to better learn what are the wrong and right calls.

 

I don't see how full public disclosure of the ref's take on things &/or any 'punishments' or advice dished out would lead to the ref having a better learning opportunity than exists for him already.

 

I feel very sorry for B'mouth tho, They're probably going to struggle and the lost point(s?) might make the difference between relegation or not. I hope a decision goes in the favour somewhen during the season to even things up.

Edited August 22, 2015 by eFestivals

[Wooderson]

Let's hope the knobs in the Premier League are forthcoming with clarification on all grey area decisions this season.

[thetime]

For fair play reasons they should award Bournemouth a point and deduct 2 from Liverpool hohoho.

The drama when Liverpool win the league by a point and Bournemouth relegated by a point.

Edited August 22, 2015 by thetime