Football 2022/23

[Neil]

On 9/14/2022 at 1:28 PM, Skip997 said:

As does Matip, the most underrated player in the PL.

a fantastic free signing.

[TheGayTent]

Looks like the top flight is losing a Russian and gaining another American

[Skip997]

The Premier league has become completely pointless.

Only Liverpool were making it interesting in the last few seasons.

[thetime]

5 hours ago, Skip997 said:

The Premier league has become completely pointless.

Only Liverpool were making it interesting in the last few seasons.

You would imagine only city are the only team to cope with the schedule from the start of october until the world cup break, where teams in europe will play 13 games in 6 weeks. 

[thetime]

Did you Newcastle fans expect more this season, with the cash you have spent? One win against forest on the opening day of the season.

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

You would imagine only city are the only team to cope with the schedule from the start of october until the world cup break, where teams in europe will play 13 games in 6 weeks. 

Haaland can have a good break as well!

[thetime]

10 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Haaland can have a good break as well!

Whilst are pulling hamstrings, Could be a record margin this season. Especially with Liverpool not being at it. 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

Did you Newcastle fans expect more this season, with the cash you have spent? One win against forest on the opening day of the season.

Would have expected to beat Bournemouth at home tbh, but I don't think there's many other results that have been actively bad. ASM, Guimares, Wilson are 3 big injury losses, our best midfielder, main creative force of last few seasons, and main goalscorer of last 2 seasons.

I think top half finish has to be the goal this season, with a nibble towards a Europa League spot if one of the big teams fucks up enough.

[charlierc]

21 hours ago, thetime said:

Did you Newcastle fans expect more this season, with the cash you have spent? One win against forest on the opening day of the season.

I mean, I can only speak for having wanted more yesterday but that's partly down to greed as I wanted a win at my first attended game at St James' Park in too long, and given Bournemouth were beaten 9-0 recently, I thought it was achievable.

As it was, I will say Bournemouth looked pretty switched on tbf. They got the low block just right to the point where Newcastle attackers just looked so slow and they had certainly threatened a few counters before their goal. Might even have won if not for VAR piping up (I was in the stand behind the goal with that penalty and wasn't sure about it from my seat).

Sure, I can see why some want more given we looked good last season between January and May and have spent big again, but as said above, ASM, Wilson and Bruno have been big recent misses and the bench is a definite step down in quality. We might be about right for points tbf - were unlucky with the VAR ruling out Isak's second at Liverpool (I can accept the added minutes thing in retrospect) and the own goal against Palace, but should probably have lost at Brighton and needed a wondergoal to draw at Wolves.

[charlierc]

On 9/17/2022 at 6:56 PM, thetime said:

You would imagine only city are the only team to cope with the schedule from the start of october until the world cup break, where teams in europe will play 13 games in 6 weeks. 

Even so, the fact they're behind Arsenal at this point having dropped points at Newcastle and Aston Villa and the fact that Borussia Dortmund did have some joy against them in spite of losing hints that this team may not necessarily be unbeatable.

Defeating them is unquestionably tough - Haaland in their team ramps up the difficulty level for any opponent - but we might yet have some competition for them. Could well require Arsenal to manage the somehwat un-Arsenal like feat of consistency, mind, seeing as Liverpool and Chelsea seem a bit hit-and-miss so far.

[thetime]

9 hours ago, charlierc said:

Even so, the fact they're behind Arsenal at this point having dropped points at Newcastle and Aston Villa and the fact that Borussia Dortmund did have some joy against them in spite of losing hints that this team may not necessarily be unbeatable.

Defeating them is unquestionably tough - Haaland in their team ramps up the difficulty level for any opponent - but we might yet have some competition for them. Could well require Arsenal to manage the somehwat un-Arsenal like feat of consistency, mind, seeing as Liverpool and Chelsea seem a bit hit-and-miss so far.

I'm thinking more so the squad city have, much deeper than any other side. 

We will see if Arsenal are the real deal by mid November, with much harder games and fixture congestion. 

I really can't see a title race happening. 

[charlierc]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:04 AM, thetime said:

I'm thinking more so the squad city have, much deeper than any other side. 

We will see if Arsenal are the real deal by mid November, with much harder games and fixture congestion. 

I really can't see a title race happening. 

In some respects its a shame that Arsenal v Man City at the Emirates has to be pushed back due to the rearrangement of Arsenal's Europa League match with PSV Eindhoven. That would've been a full-on examination to see if Arsenal really are good enough to go toe-to-toe with such a borderline unstoppable side.

[Neil]

58 minutes ago, charlierc said:

 a borderline unstoppable side.

not when it comes to the champions league. 😛 

[Ryan1984]

What’s happened to England? Need to shake off this Euro handover.

[pink_triangle]

12 hours ago, Ryan1984 said:

What’s happened to England? Need to shake off this Euro handover.

I don't think the fans/players care about the nation's league, Wales are going to get relegated as well and couldn't care less.

[Neil]

12 hours ago, Ryan1984 said:

What’s happened to England? Need to shake off this Euro handover.

they were never good, just had a lucky chain of wins.

[Comfy Bean]

1 hour ago, pink_triangle said:

I don't think the fans/players care about the nation's league, Wales are going to get relegated as well and couldn't care less.

Disagree.

[pink_triangle]

23 minutes ago, Comfy Bean said:

Disagree.

I have seen my club relegated 3 times and its rubbish, Wales will probably get relegated this weekend and it won't impact on me in the slightest. I haven't noted a single Wales fan who is slightly bothered.

I still don't support the nation's league. I have such a strong memory of World cup and European cup finals, can't remember the 2 nation's league finals, couldn't remember the current champions until I read today. It also in my view maintains the current gap between European and non European teams, by stopping non European playing European teams outside tournaments.

 

[DareToDibble]

I’m with @pink_triangle on this one. Couldn’t tell you who own the Nations League and don’t care Wales are likely to be relegated.

The only negative I guess is that it can get you ranking entries in the World Cup and Euros playoffs I believe?

[charlierc]

5 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I don't think the fans/players care about the nation's league, Wales are going to get relegated as well and couldn't care less.

Ordinarily, I'd say yes, however, 5 in a row without a win going into the World Cup and possibly 6 in a row if they fail to beat Germany on Monday is a real cause for concern. Going the entire thing without a win, whichever you slice it, is pretty shit going.

[DareToDibble]

3 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Ordinarily, I'd say yes, however, 5 in a row without a win going into the World Cup and possibly 6 in a row if they fail to beat Germany on Monday is a real cause for concern. Going the entire thing without a win, whichever you slice it, is pretty shit going.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they were high scoring games. The losses don’t really matter as much as the fact England haven’t scored a goal from open play in any of those games. 

Is Southgate too defensive? I don’t really watch England outside of big tournaments so don’t know. Although even if he is it worked at the Euros.

[Dan R]

There doesn't seem to be any plan or structure for how to attack, and teams know that so they can put pressure on without worrying.

[charlierc]

23 hours ago, DareToDibble said:

It wouldn’t be so bad if they were high scoring games. The losses don’t really matter as much as the fact England haven’t scored a goal from open play in any of those games. 

Is Southgate too defensive? I don’t really watch England outside of big tournaments so don’t know. Although even if he is it worked at the Euros.

On the subject of the Euros, I still keep seeing people downplay the success of that tournament and the run to the semis in 2018 as "Oh, England had an easy draw". Except they didn't - Germany had good players and caused some trouble in the R16 tie, while Denmark took the lead and forced extra time in the semi (Ukraine in the quarters being a 4-0 was perhaps the exception). Even in 2018, Colombia went to penalties and Sweden asked questions of Pickford.

Something has gone wrong in the last year though. Losing 4-0 at home to Hungary is almost an anomaly but the others have all been quite tight games where a front line valued in the hundreds of millions just ain't clicked. That much is clear if England have scored just 1 penalty in 5 games against teams that are of probably a similar level.

[pink_triangle]

38 minutes ago, charlierc said:

On the subject of the Euros, I still keep seeing people downplay the success of that tournament and the run to the semis in 2018 as "Oh, England had an easy draw". Except they didn't - Germany had good players and caused some trouble in the R16 tie, while Denmark took the lead and forced extra time in the semi (Ukraine in the quarters being a 4-0 was perhaps the exception). Even in 2018, Colombia went to penalties and Sweden asked questions of Pickford

Having home advantage was big though. I think because of the strange shared format people forget it was effectively a home tournament for England.

[Comfy Bean]

The Welsh anthem is magnificent 👏