Football 2021/2022

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Mental that Klopp got it, failed in his task. Eddie was clearly the winner. Won the fan vote but counts for 5% apparently.

Fan vote is pointless as it would work against team like Brentford with less fans. Cant agree with Howe. I think Franks should be rewarded for doing it over a full season. I think Brentford coming 13th is one of the best achievements not just this season, but in several years.

[WS_Jack_III]

22 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Fan vote is pointless as it would work against team like Brentford with less fans. Cant agree with Howe. I think Franks should be rewarded for doing it over a full season. I think Brentford coming 13th is one of the best achievements not just this season, but in several years.

Fair enough but no team had ever stayed up after no win in 14, Howe changed that. 

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Fair enough but no team had ever stayed up after no win in 14, Howe changed that. 

I would argue that no newly promoted team with a squad and wage Budget of Brentford has finished as high as 13th in recent memory. Really blows out of the water those argument that the likes of Norwich, Watford, Fulham etc are destined to fail.

[WS_Jack_III]

I just don't get why Klopp won it, he fail his objective. 

[DareToDibble]

2 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

I just don't get why Klopp won it, he fail his objective. 

I think it has to be taken into account what he's up against in Man City.

He is the first manager to get his team into every possible game in a season. Won 2 cups, into the CL final and took the league to the final day.

NOTE: I'm referring to the LMA Manager of the Year that he won. Agree I'm not sure why he won PL manager of the year.

Edited May 25, 2022 by DareToDibble

[pink_triangle]

14 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

 

He is the first manager to get his team into every possible game in a season. 

That's impossible for most of the managers though. The cups are so heavily dominated by the big teams now.

[TheGayTent]

33 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I would argue that no newly promoted team with a squad and wage Budget of Brentford has finished as high as 13th in recent memory. Really blows out of the water those argument that the likes of Norwich, Watford, Fulham etc are destined to fail.

I don’t think it’s that unusual. It’s repeating the trick that is. 

[DareToDibble]

5 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

That's impossible for most of the managers though. The cups are so heavily dominated by the big teams now.

I agree, but it's still commendable. I can't think of the last time anyone has gotten that close to a quadruple (I imagine United in 99 or City in the last couple of years would have been closest).

[pink_triangle]

4 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

I don’t think it’s that unusual. It’s repeating the trick that is. 

I think that Brentford squad is one of the weakest in recent times, maybe I'm also influenced by thinking of Brentford as a league 1/League 2 team as they were most of my life. Your right about repeating, I remember Ipswich finishing high (I think top 6)  with Marcus Stewart banging them in, then relegated the next season.

[TheGayTent]

13 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I think that Brentford squad is one of the weakest in recent times, maybe I'm also influenced by thinking of Brentford as a league 1/League 2 team as they were most of my life. Your right about repeating, I remember Ipswich finishing high (I think top 6)  with Marcus Stewart banging them in, then relegated the next season.

Brentford have basically been playing moneyball for ages - be interesting to see if they can continue it.

Southampton I’d guess usually finish higher than their wage bill should naturally see them place too. 

To be honest, I don’t think it’s that hard. There’s usually a good number of clubs that are run so poorly as to not make it much of a challenge. 

Remember that Ipswich side well if only because we were linked to with Stewart heavily over the summer - turns out boards of directors do get some decisions right occasionally…

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

Fan vote is pointless as it would work against team like Brentford with less fans. Cant agree with Howe. I think Franks should be rewarded for doing it over a full season. I think Brentford coming 13th is one of the best achievements not just this season, but in several years.

Well that and with fan votes, they tend to end up being spammed to fuck with large fanbase teams. Goal of the Month voting was always like that - never necessarily the best goal, just whose fanbases were committed to swamp the Match of the Day voting portal.

I think Howe and Frank are both valid shouts tbf. Certainly I'm not sure these were the best seasons ever seen from Klopp or Guardiola, but equally, both were still streets ahead of the rest of the league. Maybe we just get used to them being so good that I can say "Eh, they could do better" even after a season where both eclipsed the 90 point barrier.

[charlierc]

35 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

Southampton I’d guess usually finish higher than their wage bill should naturally see them place too. 

On the note of the Saints, is Ralph Hassenhuttl good?

Putting aside the attention grabbing 9-0 stuff and it is odd how up and down he is. But maybe it's easy to have a downer interpretation right now given it was 1 win in 12 to end the season, and the fact he no longer seems to have that "midfield manager making a push to a bigger name" conversation like Graham Potter. Second successive 15th place finish as well.

[kaosmark2]

Didn't only the top 2 teams get more PL points than Newcastle in 2022? 

I know people point the the January spend, but the upturn in results happened before most of those players even arrived, let alone before Guimares played. The improvement of the team was noticeable before any signings.

Lots of promoted teams have a good first season where they finish 8th-13th on a low wage bill. Brentford have also had the benefit of Eriksen - who's ridiculously good. I'm not saying Frank's not done a very good job, but as TGT pointed out, it'd be doing it again that would be remarkable.

If Liverpool win the CL then there's a fair claim to Klopp being manager of the season, but surely not PL manager of the season?

[pryce]

20 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I would argue that no newly promoted team with a squad and wage Budget of Brentford has finished as high as 13th in recent memory. Really blows out of the water those argument that the likes of Norwich, Watford, Fulham etc are destined to fail.

id argue Sheff utd and wilder did a better job a few seasons back and leeds would of finsihed 6 this season with last seasons total with a poorer squad, but it still argue he deserves it more than Klopp and Pep who are where they were expected to be.

 

Moyes needs a bit more respect with the season he had with west ham, the non big 6 are always going to struggle to keep up towards the end of a season.

 

Potter as well, but they underperformed last year, should of finished where they did this season, played really good stuff 2 years in a row 

 

 

[lost]

3 minutes ago, pryce said:

Moyes needs a bit more respect with the season he had with west ham, the non big 6 are always going to struggle to keep up towards the end of a season.

Especially with a European run. I can't think of a time the club without a super league 6 size squad qualifies for Europe and then doesn't go onto have a terrible season the year after. Ipswich already mentioned but also Burnley only got out of the bottom 3 one year after being knocked out. Those Sunday games after Thursdays trip to Europe always seem to be rich pickings for opposition teams.

[TheGayTent]

 

6 hours ago, lost said:

Especially with a European run. I can't think of a time the club without a super league 6 size squad qualifies for Europe and then doesn't go onto have a terrible season the year after. Ipswich already mentioned but also Burnley only got out of the bottom 3 one year after being knocked out. Those Sunday games after Thursdays trip to Europe always seem to be rich pickings for opposition teams.

If we’d made the right two transfers in January I’m convinced we’d now be qualified for the champions league. 

Instead we didn’t make any signings…coulda, woulda, shoulda. 

Anyway, that’s just my opinion - and as we know opinions are like arseholes, everybody has one. 

[Neil]

9 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

 

If we’d made the right two transfers in January I’m convinced we’d now be qualified for the champions league. 

Instead we didn’t make any signings…coulda, woulda, shoulda. 

Anyway, that’s just my opinion - and as we know opinions are like arseholes, everybody has one. 

lots of opinions at the time said whu messed up badly by not signing.

[charlierc]

On 5/26/2022 at 1:49 PM, kaosmark2 said:

Didn't only the top 2 teams get more PL points than Newcastle in 2022? 

I know people point the the January spend, but the upturn in results happened before most of those players even arrived, let alone before Guimares played. The improvement of the team was noticeable before any signings.

Lots of promoted teams have a good first season where they finish 8th-13th on a low wage bill. Brentford have also had the benefit of Eriksen - who's ridiculously good. I'm not saying Frank's not done a very good job, but as TGT pointed out, it'd be doing it again that would be remarkable.

If Liverpool win the CL then there's a fair claim to Klopp being manager of the season, but surely not PL manager of the season?

Something like that.

We could've gone more mental tbf. 5 new signings, but Trippier spent most of the time injured and Bruno G was a sub for most of the first 2 months. A lot of the time, the main people in play were Burn, Targett and Wood, the latter of whom only scored twice (even if both were winning goals). That and, as I've said before, we could've still been shit and gone down even after spending all that money, as happened when we spent £70M+ in 2015/16.

Joelinton winning the Player of the Season is proof about how much the improvement has worked. Same as well with Krafth and Schar - both were fairly error prone but in the Howe period they've both stepped up well. Ryan Fraser also looked good after not doing so under Bruce. That and I still love how we make Fraser and Burn stand next to each other pre-game in the line-up stuff.

I think Frank is still a worthy shout tbf - Eriksen was a cheat code, sure, but Brentford surviving despite not being in the PL for decades and on a squad with minimal PL experience while Watford and Norwich just continued their yo-yo trend is something that deserves recognition.

[charlierc]

I think we can safely say that Courtois won the Champions League for Real Madrid. Great goalkeeper and some great saves. Only seen highlights but so much of it was his saves.

It is quite something in some respects as I don't think this Madrid side were as good as the one that won 3 in a row in 2016-18, and they nearly got knocked out in all knockout rounds, but clearly this version just had the will and reserves.

On the note that will no doubt dominate discussion, the stories from outside the Stade de France don't look flattering on the organisation of this event at all. Something looks to have been misjudged in the planning of how to get everyone in.

[lost]

18 minutes ago, charlierc said:

 

On the note that will no doubt dominate discussion, the stories from outside the Stade de France don't look flattering on the organisation of this event at all. Something looks to have been misjudged in the planning of how to get everyone in.

Seem to be suggestions from UEFA fans with fake tickets were causing the turnstiles to error meaning the legitimate ticket holders couldn't get it. If that's the case I'm not sure what the organisers can do? 

But yes probably a combination of fans with and without tickets then getting frustrated at the queues and crowds building. As we saw from the yellow vest & lockdown protests the French police don't piss about when a disturbance starts.

Edited May 29, 2022 by lost

[Dan R]

1 hour ago, lost said:

Seem to be suggestions from UEFA fans with fake tickets were causing the turnstiles to error meaning the legitimate ticket holders couldn't get it. If that's the case I'm not sure what the organisers can do? 

But yes probably a combination of fans with and without tickets then getting frustrated at the queues and crowds building. As we saw from the yellow vest & lockdown protests the French police don't piss about when a disturbance starts.

Sounds like the problems started well before people got anywhere near the turnstiles. Plus it seems plenty of legit tickets weren't being recognised.

The organisation just sounds a total shambles.

[thetime]

On 5/26/2022 at 2:34 PM, pryce said:

Moyes needs a bit more respect with the season he had with west ham, the non big 6 are always going to struggle to keep up towards the end of a season.

They are around where they should be I would of thought, going by wage bills. Around the Eurooa conference league qualification is where they should be finishing.

[The Nal]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

I think we can safely say that Courtois won the Champions League for Real Madrid. Great goalkeeper and some great saves. Only seen highlights but so much of it was his saves.

One really good save, the others you'd expect him to make. LFC hit the bar aswell. But Madrid had that weird goal ruled out aswell.

3 finals for LFC this season and no goals. Very odd considering the power up front. 

[Comfy Bean]

2 hours ago, The Nal said:

One really good save, the others you'd expect him to make. LFC hit the bar aswell. But Madrid had that weird goal ruled out aswell.

3 finals for LFC this season and no goals. Very odd considering the power up front. 

Aye, that no finals goal stat is bonkers all things considered. Thought Liverpool were poor 2nd half. Lacked ideas.

[Comfy Bean]

4 hours ago, Dan R said:

Sounds like the problems started well before people got anywhere near the turnstiles. Plus it seems plenty of legit tickets weren't being recognised.

The organisation just sounds a total shambles.

The technology for scanning tickets/ qr codes should be pretty straightforward in this day and age but I’ve seen lots of problems with legit tickets not being recognised. 
When it happens you then get huge queues quickly building up as the aggrieved punter obviously wants to make their case. Had a few mates at the last Scotland game that didn’t get in till halftime. In their case the machine showed they were already in the stadium.