Football 2022/23

[kaosmark2]

He's shown glimpses before, but this is a whole different level.

Serious credit to Howe, look at the difference of players like Almiron, Joelinton, Wilson, to before. Good, targeted recruitment, and has uplifted all the players that were useless under old cabbage face.

[charlierc]

23 hours ago, charlierc said:

Some are saying it's game over for Hassenhutl and he'll likely be fired either this week or just paraded out for one final game at Liverpool before being replaced over the World Cup hiatus. Southampton didn't play too badly in fairness but they really let us off the hook with 2 chances that could've crept in at 1-0. But it is what it is.

As it turned out, that was game over for Hasenhuttl. It's unusual to a degree as he seemed to periodically surface as a name in the running for something up the food chain despite the double dose of 9-0 losses. But their form since February has been pretty terrible.

Nathan Jones is apparently first in the running. Interesting pick - done phenomenally well in his two spells at Luton but was found wanting at Stoke and has not managed PL before.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

He's shown glimpses before, but this is a whole different level.

Serious credit to Howe, look at the difference of players like Almiron, Joelinton, Wilson, to before. Good, targeted recruitment, and has uplifted all the players that were useless under old cabbage face.

Oh totally. Like, Emery seems like he'd have been a good choice given winning the Europa League and getting CL last four with Villarreal and while it's only one game so far, Aston Villa made a brilliant start in his first game (or got lucky with playing Man United when they were missing a few through injury and had Europa fatigue).

But we've lucked in with how good Howe has been. It's this week when he'll have been officially a year on from his appointment and I know a few were not 100% sure on it, but he's done exceptionally well to get a tune out of the squad players we had and partner them with the right signings in the right places. Certainly, Joelinton and Almiron are perhaps the two biggest to pivot from being lower midtable calibre to genuine key cogs in this machine. It's pretty cool.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Oh totally. Like, Emery seems like he'd have been a good choice given winning the Europa League and getting CL last four with Villarreal and while it's only one game so far, Aston Villa made a brilliant start in his first game (or got lucky with playing Man United when they were missing a few through injury and had Europa fatigue).

But we've lucked in with how good Howe has been. It's this week when he'll have been officially a year on from his appointment and I know a few were not 100% sure on it, but he's done exceptionally well to get a tune out of the squad players we had and partner them with the right signings in the right places. Certainly, Joelinton and Almiron are perhaps the two biggest to pivot from being lower midtable calibre to genuine key cogs in this machine. It's pretty cool.

I'd say Joelinton pivoted from Championship tier to top quality. He was so bad before Howe.

[DareToDibble]

21 hours ago, charlierc said:

Well in fairness they've got just cause to be excited to see Wales in a World Cup given it's been a minute since their last visit.

Shame it's the one in Qatar we qualify for but you're right, it's been so long we're all very excited.

So important we get a result v USA. I would hate to be going into the final group game against England needing something.

[chris_nre]

The comments from the Qatar "so called" World Cup Ambassador should be enough for FIFA to pull this corrupt World Cup right now.

But they won't.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63554507

[kaosmark2]

46 minutes ago, chris_nre said:

The comments from the Qatar "so called" World Cup Ambassador should be enough for FIFA to pull this corrupt World Cup right now.

But they won't.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63554507

Consequences, meet actions.

[DareToDibble]

1 hour ago, chris_nre said:

The comments from the Qatar "so called" World Cup Ambassador should be enough for FIFA to pull this corrupt World Cup right now.

But they won't.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63554507

Horrendous.

Sepp Blatter trying to claim that the World Cup being in Qatar isn't his fault is laughable too.

[charlierc]

53 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

Horrendous.

Sepp Blatter trying to claim that the World Cup being in Qatar isn't his fault is laughable too.

It's not the first time he's claimed this tbf - five years ago he said his vote for 2022 was to award that year's World Cup to the USA and claimed that hsi right-hand man and then-UEFA President Platini got lobbied by then-French President Sarkozy to get UEFA to give Qatar the World Cup to boost French-Qatari trading relations (something that included the purchase of French fighter jets and a certain PSG). Indeed, he repeated this claim in his interview.

But equally, he clearly didn't want to bring the house of cards crashing down and re-investigate the 2018/22 World Cup bidding process, which a better President would've done given it was pretty clear how much of a fucking mess that whole thing was.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, chris_nre said:

The comments from the Qatar "so called" World Cup Ambassador should be enough for FIFA to pull this corrupt World Cup right now.

But they won't.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63554507

There have been so many lamentable comments by people with official connections to the tournament but that one takes the piss to the extreme.

[Crazyfool01]

what to do ? cant really get excited about it  although ill probably end up watching 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Crazyfool01

[philipsteak]

2 hours ago, Crazyfool01 said:

what to do ? cant really get excited about it  although ill probably end up watching 

I've already decided that I won't. 

[charlierc]

5 hours ago, Crazyfool01 said:

what to do ? cant really get excited about it  although ill probably end up watching 

It's difficult to know and I don't think anyone can pretend there's a good answer here. I mean, other World Cups had their pre-tournament trouble and behind-the-scenes bidding war shenanigans, but this one is just off the scale.

Certainly there's a difference between getting stoked about seeing the World Cup in prior years and this one, where it almost feels like any viewing of games is going to be watching almost out of obligation or just wanting to see big games in the absence of the Premier League/Champions League. 

To a lesser extent, it also really doesn't help the prospect of the future of this thing that the next World Cup in 2026 is taking place in the shape of a rather unwieldly looking 48 team format using 3 team groups. But then given UEFA are also mangling the Champions League with a ridiculous new group stage format, they're not alone in that.

[efcfanwirral]

9 hours ago, charlierc said:

To a lesser extent, it also really doesn't help the prospect of the future of this thing that the next World Cup in 2026 is taking place in the shape of a rather unwieldly looking 48 team format using 3 team groups. But then given UEFA are also mangling the Champions League with a ridiculous new group stage format, they're not alone in that.

Got to make absolutely sure that the biggest teams play each other in the later rounds. Can't have some random teams in those prime TV slots can we...

[efcfanwirral]

Its pretty funny that my normal attitude towards the World Cup of ignoring it and wishing it would all go away now completely accidentally boycotts this one. I stay well away - I really don't like international football, am only interested in the domestic games and even then very narrowly to those that affect my own team both directly and indirectly. 

It's weird but for me I can't think of anything worse than England winning a major tournament, so I probably have the opposite feelings to the vast majority of the country when it's on. 

This mid season break might save Everton though. If we had a normal number of games between now and the transfer window we'd be miles adrift at the bottom by January but as its only 4 games, we can't be all that far behind. We need creative players and probably a goal scorer, if we can even afford to sign anyone. 

Edited November 9, 2022 by efcfanwirral

[thetime]

10 hours ago, charlierc said:

But then given UEFA are also mangling the Champions League with a ridiculous new group stage format, they're not alone in that.

That new format is horrendous, no point even putting a 1st team out until the play off. 

[Comfy Bean]

13 hours ago, thetime said:

That new format is horrendous, no point even putting a 1st team out until the play off. 

Yip, can’t understand the point of it from a sporting spectacle point of view. The answer is that an extra Premiership team will likely get in plus one from another big tv country.

[pink_triangle]

On 11/8/2022 at 11:36 PM, charlierc said:

I 

To a lesser extent, it also really doesn't help the prospect of the future of this thing that the next World Cup in 2026 is taking place in the shape of a rather unwieldly looking 48 team format using 3 team groups. But then given UEFA are also mangling the Champions League with a ridiculous new group stage format, they're not alone in that.

I can see how someone who supports a nation who qualifies every year under the current format won't like the change, but there are many (me included) who don't and the expansion is an opportunity.

[charlierc]

14 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I can see how someone who supports a nation who qualifies every year under the current format won't like the change, but there are many (me included) who don't and the expansion is an opportunity.

I can see it from that perspective tbf. The World Cup should not be contained to the same old names turning up every time and given this current 32 team format has only been in place since 1998, there is nothing to say it should stay that way forever.

If its 12 groups of 4, fine, that would work without too much difficulty, but the option FIFA is promoting at first is one of 16 groups with 3 team where the top 2 in each progressing, which both makes it harder to get knocked out in the group stage than progress, and feels like a really odd way to structure things that some would argue could be open to abuse. It's that which I had an issue with. It's not the "Swiss system" UEFA pulled together to expand the Champions League, but I fail to see how a 16x3 system is anything other than a mess in comparison to what we have now.

[charlierc]

On 11/9/2022 at 10:01 AM, thetime said:

That new format is horrendous, no point even putting a 1st team out until the play off. 

I've seen early players of Football Manager 2023 reach that new format, which I believe will kick in on season 3 when playing it, and realise just how ridiculous a format it is. Not least as there's the football calendar logistics question of where exactly UEFA thinks they have the space to fit in an extra 64 games.

[pink_triangle]

24 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I can see it from that perspective tbf. The World Cup should not be contained to the same old names turning up every time and given this current 32 team format has only been in place since 1998, there is nothing to say it should stay that way forever.

If its 12 groups of 4, fine, that would work without too much difficulty, but the option FIFA is promoting at first is one of 16 groups with 3 team where the top 2 in each progressing, which both makes it harder to get knocked out in the group stage than progress, and feels like a really odd way to structure things that some would argue could be open to abuse. It's that which I had an issue with. It's not the "Swiss system" UEFA pulled together to expand the Champions League, but I fail to see how a 16x3 system is anything other than a mess in comparison to what we have now.

I think the reason they don't do 12 groups of 4 is it would result in a big increase in games. I think I read 16x3 leaves the total games similar.

[charlierc]

On 11/10/2022 at 10:50 PM, pink_triangle said:

I think the reason they don't do 12 groups of 4 is it would result in a big increase in games. I think I read 16x3 leaves the total games similar.

I didn't think there'd be much in it - pretty sure the end result of the 16x3 group stage is that there's a round of 32 knockout stage, which will take about 8 days to go through if it's 2 games a day

[Neil]

yesterday was the day city handed the trophy to arsenal. can't believe arsenal are going to win the league, that's some big success for artetta.

[charlierc]

11 minutes ago, Neil said:

yesterday was the day city handed the trophy to arsenal. can't believe arsenal are going to win the league, that's some big success for artetta.

Still 24 games to go so not necessarily a done deal just yet.

Saying that, the prospect of Man City signing Haaland, who has already scored more league goals this season than some Premier League golden boot winners have in previous seasons, only to fail to win the Premier League is a spectacularly crazy one.

I saw the Man City game yesterday with an Arsenal fan and he was cheering Brentford almost as loudly as if Arsenal had beaten City. Was quite something to watch.

Edited November 13, 2022 by charlierc

[thetime]

Would be a right shot in the foot if arsenal did win it, hoping they do. 

Built slowly, majority of there side 25 and under. Spent about 400m in 3 years, which in todays game us chicken feed. Arsenal deserve credit sticking by him as well.