Football 16-17

[mjsell]

12 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

Yes

Exactly 

Palace still have to play Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Man City, and Man United.

And Leicester. They will have to beat Burnley and Hull providing they don't pick up any points against those teams (which isn't a sure thing)

West Ham have Swansea and Sunderland next, 4 points they are safe, anything less they are in the mix for me.

 

[eastynh]

2 hours ago, Celery said:

Far better in both games? Really?

The home game that we somehow managed to lose we were far better. Luiz should have been off and KDB should have put the game to bed. Last night we did not play as good but should still never have lost. 

 

[Wooderson]

LFC won't make the Champo.

 

[Wooderson]

1-Chelski

2-Spurs

3-Shitteh

4-Arse

5-Reds

6-United, natch 

[eastynh]

3 hours ago, Wooderson said:

Limitless finances and his team are gash.

You talking abour Mourihno??

[Wooderson]

Just now, eastynh said:

You talking abour Mourihno??

Him too. Spent well over a billion in his career on player transfers. Utd have spent vast majority of this season in 6th. Not good enough.

[zahidf]

so, newcastle are 10 points ahead of the play off places and look like they will be back in the premiere league next year. Brighton will probably join them

[eastynh]

1 hour ago, TheGayTent said:

Yes

Exactly 

Palace still have to play Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Man City, and Man United. 

There is only one relegation place 'up for grabs' 

Word on the street is that you are getting Mancini and Zabaleta is a done deal. Mancini will whip you into shape and  Zaba is a warrior.

Biggest mistake City have made in the last 15 years was getting rid of Mancini. He would be fantastic for West Ham.

[Celery]

1 hour ago, eastynh said:

The home game that we somehow managed to lose we were far better. Luiz should have been off and KDB should have put the game to bed. Last night we did not play as good but should still never have lost. 

 

Couldn't disagree more mate. I thought we were better in the first match. Last night was more even though you didn't create enough to justify a win. That Stones miss though... Heart. in. mouth. Both games we sat back, let you do your thing and tried to pick you off on the counter attack. And it worked a treat. Didn't think we played particularly well last night. Putting Matic on at ht def helped our control of the game. 
Be interested to see what you do in the summer - it's been a very poor first season from Pep. Your team was crying out for defensive reinforcements (despite signing 3/5 most expensive defenders ever) and he went and spunked £200m on attackers and Bravo. 

[mjsell]

When was the last time Pep played the same back 4 in consecutive games?

I think he's not done a bad job offensively (Sterling and Sane specifically) but it's utterly biwildering to me that the positions that need the most consistancy are the positions he changes the most often.

[TheGayTent]

17 minutes ago, eastynh said:

Word on the street is that you are getting Mancini and Zabaleta is a done deal. Mancini will whip you into shape and  Zaba is a warrior.

Biggest mistake City have made in the last 15 years was getting rid of Mancini. He would be fantastic for West Ham.

Mancini has been at the last 4 home games and I've heard the same about Zabaleta. 

Were it to happen, and I remain highly sceptical, Mancini will do fuck all. You can't polish a turd. 

[JSmurphy]

If United win the Europa League, how will this affect CL spots? Will 4th placed team lose their spot if United don't make top 4?

[eastynh]

16 minutes ago, Celery said:

Couldn't disagree more mate. I thought we were better in the first match. Last night was more even though you didn't create enough to justify a win. That Stones miss though... Heart. in. mouth. Both games we sat back, let you do your thing and tried to pick you off on the counter attack. And it worked a treat. Didn't think we played particularly well last night. Putting Matic on at ht def helped our control of the game. 
Be interested to see what you do in the summer - it's been a very poor first season from Pep. Your team was crying out for defensive reinforcements (despite signing 3/5 most expensive defenders ever) and he went and spunked £200m on attackers and Bravo. 

Lets agree to disagree mate in regards to the performances mate. Imo you have been extremely fortunate against us this season.

The attackers we had to buy mate. You do not miss the opportunity to buy players like Sane and Jesus. They are the future of the club and we paid less for the pair of them than what Pogba cost. 

The defence is crap, that is for sure. Kompany has been missed that is for certain. Hes hardly played for a year yet we looked far more secure last nighy. We need full backs and unfortunately a reliable cb as Vincent can't be depended on. We also need to replace Yaya with Gundagon also unreliable. Fernandinho is also a liability. Hes a shit hot player but loses his head far too often. He got himself sent off in the first game against you and gave away the penalty last night when he did not have to.

Pep takes the blame for this season. He got it wrong from the off replacing Hart and he has not been quick enough to learn. This squad should be winning the league really.

Fair play to Chelsea though, Conte has shown himself to be a top class manager and Chelsea have been really consistent all year. They will be deserved winners of the title.

[eastynh]

11 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

Mancini has been at the last 4 home games and I've heard the same about Zabaleta. 

Were it to happen, and I remain highly sceptical, Mancini will do fuck all. You can't polish a turd. 

Mancini is the man, he will sort your defence out straight away and build from there. He won't take any shit and he will find diamonds in your shit.

I would have Mancini over Pep every day of the week.

[eastynh]

7 minutes ago, JSmurphy said:

If United win the Europa League, how will this affect CL spots? Will 4th placed team lose their spot if United don't make top 4?

No. 4th only loses spot if Leicester win it.

[TheGayTent]

5 minutes ago, eastynh said:

Mancini is the man, he will sort your defence out straight away and build from there. He won't take any shit and he will find diamonds in your shit.

I would have Mancini over Pep every day of the week.

The only way to sort out the defence is to wait until players are back fit (Reid and Ogbonna specifically) and identify new players to replace the shit (Byram specifically). 

He can't do anything about the first problem, and without funds, won't be able to much about the second. 

The funds won't be forthcoming - which is another huge reason why I can't see him wanting the job in the first place. 

[eastynh]

2 minutes ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

No. 4th only loses spot if Leicester win CL AND Man U win Europa and finish outside top 4. 

If Leicester win CL, there will be 5 English teams in CL.

I stand corrected 

[lost]

I sometimes wonder if Moyes ran over a clowder of black cats on his way out of Everton. Just when he probably thought the heat was off 

Jim Davidson backs David Moyes

Its like hilter coming back from South America to back ken livingstone

Edited April 6, 2017 by lost

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, lost said:

Its like hilter coming back from South America to back ken livingstone

 

[eastynh]

How is Moyes still in a job? If I threatened to slep anyone in work then I would be sacked.

Nice to see football is still virtuous and a bastion of society.

[eFestivals]

48 minutes ago, eastynh said:

How is Moyes still in a job? If I threatened to slep anyone in work then I would be sacked.

Nice to see football is still virtuous and a bastion of society.

I've not seen the vid of how he said it, but it was different to what the words themselves imply, supposedly.

That aside, and without defending the particular language used, I reckon it would be a worse world if journos are permitted to go in with knife-wielding questions and the person being questioned isn't allowed to knife back. Just because the journo might hide their knife in nice words shouldn't really matter.

[mjsell]

2 hours ago, TheGayTent said:

The only way to sort out the defence is to wait until players are back fit (Reid and Ogbonna specifically) and identify new players to replace the shit (Byram specifically).

Byram actually dealt with Sanchez a lot better than I was expecting last night, but I get your general point.

1 hour ago, eastynh said:

How is Moyes still in a job? If I threatened to slep anyone in work then I would be sacked.

Nice to see football is still virtuous and a bastion of society.

 

37 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

I've not seen the vid of how he said it, but it was different to what the words themselves imply, supposedly.

That aside, and without defending the particular language used, I reckon it would be a worse world if journos are permitted to go in with knife-wielding questions and the person being questioned isn't allowed to knife back. Just because the journo might hide their knife in nice words shouldn't really matter.

Yep watch the clip. It's not as bad as the written quotes suggest. He was clearly annoyed by her questions (which were probably goading and hugely loaded) and actually played it off in a joke-y manner, with a tiny amount of bite under the surface.

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, mjsell said:

Yep watch the clip. It's not as bad as the written quotes suggest. He was clearly annoyed by her questions (which were probably goading and hugely loaded) and actually played it off in a joke-y manner, with a tiny amount of bite under the surface.

'bite' - that's a better word than the 'knife' I used.

But yeah, she was goading, he bit back. While it would be better if he didn't bite back, I'm definitely not going to give her a free pass for her part in it 

 

[TheGayTent]

29 minutes ago, mjsell said:

Byram actually dealt with Sanchez a lot better than I was expecting last night, but I get your general point.

He's a walking penalty/red card - the foul on Monreal a case in point. 

His only defence is that he's been in and out himself and his defensive unit has consistently been different due to all the other injuries we've suffered at the back - Ogbonna, Reid, and Cresswell have all spent significant amounts of time sidelined. 

[DareToDibble]

A few hours before kick off last night I tweeted this:

I know Liverpool far, far too well. I wish I had put a bet on it, actually. 

It's been the same story for years now. We raise our game and more often than not do very well against the top 6. So why does it all fall apart against anyone else? Especially the teams in the bottom half. I used to think it was mentality and they just assumed they had won before a ball had been kicked but I don't even think it's that any more. It's happened through about 2 or 3 teams of different players/managers. It's just ingrained into the club now. The fans know all too well what is going to happen which probably transfers to the players. Even the year we nearly won the league it happened (Crystanbul). Very odd.

Having said that  - I love Klopp but his decision with 25-30 minutes left to take off an attacker and replace them with a defender baffled me. It's inviting pressure. With all respect to Bournemouth - you should be going for the 3rd. We were controlling the game until that point. From then on we had hardly any attacking impetus and just sat back. It was always going to happen.