Neither does his wife
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Neither does his wife
He still has a wife?
It said a lot about Giggs that he would have taken the job at United to follow his own ambition rather than the greater good of the club over the summer bringing in a top coach. I was delighted he didn't get the job. As BoB said he needs to prove he can actually manage a club, any club first. If I was a Swansea fan I wouldn't want him either. He might turn out to be another Pep but it's too risky.
First decisive win for the new NL. Just in time to get our ass kicked by France.
Who the hell is this Eric Dier joker that's replaced the legend that is Wayne Rooney? Woeful display so far.
Southgate out.
Can always rely on Scotland to be Scotland.
Not gonna lie, I'm a Brit. I've backed England since the first tournament I cared about back in 96. But smurf me they make it hard sometimes. Maybe it's partly because Wales are on a good trot at the moment but I can't watch England anymore because they are just so, so dour, turgid and generally trout that just watching it on TV makes me angry at how football can be done so wrongly. It's not even like the 2004-2012 period where they were just bang average - England are rubbish.
That wouldn't necessarily be a cause for crisis in itself, if it wasn't for waking up the morning after every game and seeing the front page of BBC Sport plastered with pictures of Wayne Rooney with his hands on his hips and yet another article by Phil McNulty explaining how he is SHOCKED, JUST SHOCKED I TELL YOU at RUDDERLESS ENGLAND'S NEW NEW NEW ERA failing YET AGAIN. At least when England are bad at cricket (not an uncommon sight) it's always done with a tongue in cheek 'heh, typical England amirite?' slant. International football isn't particularly great to watch at the best of times but I'm caring for it less and less as time goes on.
I can't watch them either. And, welp, yeah, smurf any media coverage of England.
The sad thing is it really doesn't have to be like that. There's no superstars like the Golden Generation™ but that's good, there could be a focus on the team instead. There's a lot of good young attacking players there playing for good attacking league teams. But for some reason it all just goes to hell.
Simple solution I use: Don't watch international football. :D I mean I watch the odd game but I certainly don't watch it to support any particular team. Generally I just hope United players play well.
Don't watch games involving England anyway. Or Scotland.
Look how happy San Marino were when they scored last night:
https://twitter.com/NOT_MOTD/status/785941058861621249
I don't know about that, international tournament football is actually the best football there is! It's just a shame that qualifying for them is such a drudgery. It's particularly annoying that it keeps happening just as you're starting to get into the league's new season.
Qualifying for many tournaments is a chore. The actual World Cup is fun. But mostly I agree. Especially about England and Scotland.
The qualifiers themselves are a joke as well. Italy and Spain in the same group, but group D and E are all B-teams. Teams that would normally not ever make it in.
Yet in the Asian qualifiers teams like North Korea gets in. Or Iran. I suppose they need a few sacrifices for the opening game, so that the referee doesn't have to blatantly cheat *cough*Brazil*cough*
"This group has two big names, but this one doesn't" - they're all pulled out of hats in which they get into based on merit, last I checked. So I think that's pretty harsh to the teams that got in.
Hoo boy...
As far as I know, what they usually do is to put the top teams from the FIFA ranking into their own seperate group. Then all the other teams are drawn from a hat (although god knows that can't be cheated).
You do this to avoid having France, Italy, and Spain all being in the same group, of which a maximum of 2 can progress. You do this avoid having Finals-type games played out in the bloody primaries. As well as insuring that even if you are good enough to be there, the rules and luck in the draw determine whether you can or cannot.
That way you also avoid having a group of top-ranking teams like Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Denmark, Kazachstan, and Armenia. Where the top team (Montenegro) is 105th of the FIFA world ranking.
I think it's safe to say that Leicester City's 15 minutes of fame is over.
Indeed. Although even if relegation happens it'll have been worth it.
Everton - Man City was a good watch, though. Two stopped penalties, not what I'd thought would happen. Still, more stalling near the end, annoying.
I had a dream that Liverpool v United finished 3-2 to United with a late Wayne Rooney header being the decider. Posting this here so we know whether or not I'm psychic!
Poland - 21
Romania - 32
Denmark - 46
Montenegro - 74
Kazakhstan - 83
Armenia - 112
Just because Montenegro are top of the table after three games doesn't turn the whole group into a farce. They beat Denmark, drew with Romania, beat Kazakhstan. They are currently top on merit, and the group isn't lacking in competent teams. It is entirely possible for a low ranking team to perform well, and I love seeing it happen. Hell, I am so proud of NZ for finishing unbeaten at the 2010 World Cup. They drew with Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia when nobody really expected us to have a chance. No other team finished unbeaten. :D
"Small" teams should be applauded when they do well rather than their group derided.
Didn't even realize Poland had risen so far up the table, but that's beside the point.
The qualifiers are supposed to ensure that only the teams who have a certain standard of quality enter the world cup, so that every match is worth watching.. It's like the Champion's league in that sense.
By using a system that can set 2-3 teams that do have that quality in the same group, which ensures only 1 can pass, and 1 maybe, you are effectively eliminating strong teams before the tournament even starts. Having groups where if not the 1st, at least the 2nd place would be a doubtful team for the world cup (at best), makes it even more of an insult.
My point is that the randomness of the EU qualifiers, together with the qualifying system itself, can/will decrease the overall level, and therefore validity, of the "World cup".
I mean, you could have one group of France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, etc. And then another of a bunch of city states, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein, and you basically say that the winner of that group deserves to be in the world cup.
tl;dr: I don't care about the individual countries that may or may not be performing well. The system is silly, and decreases the validity of the world cup, in the same way that the Baseball world cup doesn't mean that much because the biggest baseball country (USA) doesn't allow their players to join (as far as I know).
I dunno man, looking at the system they used, it seems pretty legit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_F...A)#First_round
If anything, the surprise was that Romania was ranked 8th inEuropeTHE WORLD (!?) at the time.
The Fifa rankings have always been broadly accurate but have the potential to throw up a few anomalies. Most people who watch football don't really give any sort of a smurf about them.
Anyway, I've already put my skills as a psychic on the line, let's put my skills as a pundit too. Liverpool to dominate the game, De Gea to make a string of saves, Man United fans will be having a meltdown on Twitter at the utter destruction that is going on. Which is a bit silly, really, they should just enjoy watching the skill of De Gea at work.
Around the 65th minute mark Liverpool look slightly confused and out of ideas. This is the time. United will score either by lumping the ball into the box for a big lump (and they have a lot of them) to head it in or someone like Rashford, Martial or - just to smurfing spite me - Lingard will drive in a low shot into one of the corners. 0-1. Our Year will be cancelled until 2018.
Paul Scholes, conversely, thinks Liverpool will win. Well, of course he does.
It's a Liverpool vs. United game, so I'm predicting that something will happen and form will count for nothing. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
Lingard getting a goal would be awesome. Apparently he was the best player in the recent England game? No idea if true, didn't watch it.
Nah, you can easily predict Liverpool v United in the league. It's the same bloody thing every year. I saw a cheerful stat that the last 10 league match ups had 7 United wins, 2 Liverpool wins (in that one season we were good and had Suarez) and 1 draw. The Europa League tie was the wildcard, this is pure bread and butter. If Liverpool win you can give me a Jesse Lingard avatar.
Also, second best. The True Captain of England, Sir Jordan of Henderson won the MotM! :p
It's a strange one tonight. I'm normally dreading these games but I'm actually quite excited. I think it's because I'm certain Liverpool will win tonight. I will match you Psy and will agree to (once again) sport a Jordan Henderson avatar for a week if Utd win.
If it's a draw then BoB has to have a Nick Jonas avatar for a week for absolutely no reason.
I'll keep the unwavering faith over here on my own then. 2-1 United.
Always get pumped for this game, gives me a feeling no other game in the calendar does.
You normally smack us, what are you so scared of! :lol: I do know the feeling all too well though. There's no rivalry in English football quite like it.
I'm struggling to see past Man City, their recent blip aside.
Yeah, with you on that, my man. They're gonna walk it.
I'm not scared tonight. Well, I wasn't but now we've stared really well it's gonna make defeat even worse. You'll nick a goal when you've not deserved it and I'll be all depressed then turn up for work tomorrow hungover and unhappy.
I was totally wrong about the game. United playing at Anfield like Liverpool normally do with ridiculous pressing and Liverpool just forced to hopefully hoof it. First glimpse of what a Mourinho United might be capable of and it's ominous.
Well, it was a half of two-thirds. So... a third.
But yeah, opening half hour from us was great but there weren't many chances created. We needed to score during that time.
This is could be a 0-0
One thing I'll say from experience of watching Liverpool is that playing at 100mph from the first whistle you can often gas early. Liverpool and Spurs both do it and both Klopp and Poch make them do double training sessions to boost the stamina. I don't know if Mourinho does the same and whether it's a good idea to do it right after the international break. Still, smurfing respect to him for having the balls to do that, that was impressive. I'm even impressed by the cynical gamebreaking fouls - this is not a dig - shades of Inter Milan Mourinho right there.
Liverpool look strong now. This'll be 2-0. Goal with about ten mins to go then another in stoppage time.
What
A
Save
What
A
Tackle
Well, that was utter bilge.
I was busy helping people in FFXIV and lost track of time. Started watching the game at 86 minutes.
So I missed nothing, really.
Ander Herrera MotM? Honestly, this is why Carragher > Neville. No I don't care if you can understand his accent or not, the man isn't delusional! Of United's 3 man midfield, he ranked at #3 for his performance today. Yes, behind even Fellaini!
I had a pretty trout day of my own as a pundit though so who am I to judge though! Well, I was right that United would gas and I was right that De Gea would pull off some sick saves but that's about it. Draw a fair result, really.
e: Also apparently I know nothing about football, United fans are praising Herrera to the rafters (I am a big fan of him, check my post history! Just thought he was guff tonight) and Liverpool fans are saying United played like dogtrout with 30% possession. I give up!
Also I like how many posts this one match generated despite it being one of the most dreary you'll see all year.
This was... bleh? Two giants lock horns and refuse to budge. Such events can be very boring.
tbf it's mostly Danny and you double posting. Or uhm. Septuple posting? I don't even know.
EDIT: Octuple, apparently.
Well I mean you didn't get us septuple posting about Middlesbrough v Watford and that was just as trout by all accounts.
I had one beer then took the rest out of the fridge and returned them to their box
Does Octuple posting warrant a ban?
It was a boring football game.
Why is your avatar on the bottom of my every post?
Liverpool/Man Utd was utter garbage for the most part, two decent stops from De Gea and a terrible header from big Zlat summed it up. Mourinho's Man Utd are not going to be pretty, he's trying to get them to be like his first Chelsea team, don't concede and pinch one if possible.
Their domestic season may be going down the toilet, but at least Leicester is managing to raise a few eyebrows and approving nods in the Champions League. Their victory again Copenhagen gives them 3 wins from 3 games, yet to concede a goal. So they're pretty much assured to move on to the next stage unless something very extraordinary happens.
So good for them, but seriously domestically they have a lot to answer for.
To be fair City haven't been awful in the league. Ranieri has clearly prioritised the Champions League and I say why not? It's a once in a lifetime thing, make the most of it and enjoy the party while it's lasting. Most City fans I know genuinely don't even care if relegation happens!
I think there will be at least three worse teams than Leciester anyway in the league this season.
Leicester's CL group is terrible, so not surprising they're doing well so far. But good on them anyway (rather them than Spurs), I can see them making the quarter-finals and having a whale of a time playing someone like Bayern.
It's not right, I tell you. Leicester shouldn't even be there. WE SHOULD BE THERE DAMMIT.
I didn't mind the Pool v United game actually. It was nice to see for the first time in years United have a team unit about them. Under LVG & Moyes there was no real purpose about us. Enjoyed it for that if anything else. Jose can deserve his stigma of parking the bus at times but Liverpool were just as cagey as us for most parts from what I seen. Paul, Herrera was my MOTM also! :shrug: Although I thought Young & Fellani did well too.
I don't expect us to be as cagey against Chelsea.
We never beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It would be great to do it with Mourinho at the helm. I can't see it though.
Any of the games today worth watching? Without spoiling, if you could.
The mighty Carlisle go marching on. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, I'd be more than happy to just reach the playoffs, but they just keep going!
Might try and get to the away day at Newport if I can.
Great point for Southampton. Thoroughly deserved.
Now for for the main event. 2-2 draw.
3-1 Utd.
I hope your prediction is right man.
Oh, my bad :shobon: I didn't check this thread in realtime. Still, he did say 3-1 Utd so if United manage to get one goal...!
EDIT: Never mind.
Also tbf whatever the criticisms you can make about 1990-2016 Liverpool, they never were so terrified that they came to Old Trafford and parked the bus. This is despite 1990-2016 United being infinitely better than 2016 Liverpool. Have some pride in yourselves ffs!
I guess that Mourinho bandwagon crashed and burned, eh?
Not really Aerith. I'm 100% behind Jose for the season. @Paul - Liverpool were just as defensive as United for many parts of the game last week, up until maybe the last 20-30 mins.
Bad result yesterday but gameplan went out the window with shambolic defending 30 seconds in. There is problems with our team in how we attack that will take time to iron out.
I disagree, I don't think this Liverpool team know how to play defensively. Which isn't praise! It's why that was the only clean sheet of the season and it'll be why there'll definitely be no title this year. Klopp always seeks to play the team to their own strengths rather than adapt to the opposition's weaknesses, similar to Monsieur Wenger.
In the game itself, Liverpool had two thirds of possession, more shots (off and on target), more corners and less fouls, all of which points to a much more attacking display. Liverpool didn't do much in the first half an hour because they were just trout and couldn't even string two passes together - it wasn't for a lack of intention, just a lack of application. Of course, you can also credit United's pressing of both players and the goalkeeper for the inability to retain possession and build from the back. Regardless, it certainly was not a 10 men behind the ball thing a la Mourinho.
http://spielverlagerung.com/2016/10/...s-klopps-side/ a nice tactical review!
And now for something completely different...
http://www.swanstrust.co.uk/2016/10/...forum-address/
So it's all (partly) come out in the past week for Swansea City. I've been following this whole farce for a while now, and my gut feeling over this American takeover being dodgy as all hell turned out to be true. I won't expect anyone to read the whole tract from that link so I'll give you the not-very-abridged version.
Wordy exposition for the unfamiliar:Ownership of SCFC was until fairly recently shared more or less equally between Martin Morgan, Brian Katzen, Huw Jenkins (chairman), Rob Davies and the Swansea City Supporters Trust. The Trust is made up of thousands of regular fans who pay an annual tenner and get to have a say in the goings on at the club through the fan director who sits on the club board. It had been this way (give or take a few individual other local businessmen involved in shareholding over the last ten years) since 2002 when all parties, including the trust, literally bought the club on a hail mary to save it from folding altogether. I remember the people shaking buckets on match days and the posters in shop windows calling out to people to join the trust and raise the money they needed to make the (at the time, completely doomed) investment.
Of course, everyone's wildest dreams actually happened and less than ten years later we were in the Premier League. The rest is fairly straightforward, so we'll zip forward in time to early 2015 and the first whisperings of a 'foreign investment' deal (ie. shares being sold), with all shareholding parties involved in talks. Those talks fell through, which is worth remembering for the moment when we consider what follows.
So earlier this year the Kaplan and Levien show were first announced to be coming to Swansea. During the negotiations, the Trust were suspicious only by their complete radio silence over the whole thing, with nary a statement, forum, or even a tweet as to what role they were playing in discussions. It turns out now that this is because they were not party to any of these discussions, deliberately. Yes, basically what happened was that the other board members had decided to sell up and didn't want the pesky Supporters Trust getting in the way of holla holla get dolla, so did it completely on the down low.
"But Manus, surely that must contravene some sort of agreement that was made at the start?" I hear you ask. Well, you'd be right! The 2002 Shareholder's Agreement signed by everybody mentioned above should have stopped this from happening, but Huw and the gang decided that all that didn't matter and even went as far as telling Kaplan and Levien that it was invalid and that they could forget about it. When the Trust caught up to this fact and confronted them over just what the hell they were playing at, they were asked to sign a new agreement which gave the Trust some pointless extra freebies and which also confirmed that said Shareholder's Agreement was no longer valid. Obviously the sellers got told to do one.
Hidden talks continued, and once the Trust managed to find out what had actually been happening, it was too late. Kaplan and Levien had bought out the previous shareholders' stakes, and now had a 75% grip on the voting rights of the club. The previous board members had made off with their millions and will probably never be seen again (and for their own safety, they probably don't want to). Francesco Guidolin was sacked, again without any consultation with the Trust, and an untested American was installed in his place. Welcome to the New Swansea City.
A word on our American overlords. For all the fanfare in the press releases about "being drawn to the community-based club" and "wanting to work with the Supporters Trust", in reality Kaplan and Levien's attitudes towards the Trust have been lukewarm to say the least. They didn't seem particularly bothered about the mountain of deception and collusion that took place in order to get the sale done, have only had a few face to face meetings with Trust board members, where they repeatedly give no guarantees over the Trust's stake and continuing role in the football club. At the same time they maintain that they are 'keen' to work with the Trust. To be frank, if you want my opinion, these are businessmen who come from a world of American sport where the concept of fan ownership (or even, really, "supporters" altogether) is a foreign and not altogether too appealing one. I'm not holding my breath.
The fact is, the worst part of this whole sorry saga is not that the previous owners have sold up (they were a group of slightly-more-well-off fans who bought the club for a pittance and now have the chance to make some life-changing bucks, no fan would begrudge them), but the fact that they have gone behind the backs of the fans to do it. If the Trust knew that there were shares up for sale, they would have undoubtedly gone for them hammer and tongs, because the Trust's stated aim is to obtain a 25% stake and secure the future of the club.
Literally all the Trust cares about is the success of the club. It will still be there four years from now when we're back at the bottom of the Football League. It's especially sad because for the most part the sellers were genuine, lifelong fans of the club. Huw Jenkins continues to claim what he did was in SCFC's "best interests", but £7M makes people claim a lot of things. He's gone from dream chairman to local pariah in the space of 12 months.
By the way, all this intrigue was totally illegal, of course. The Trust is considering court action, but as stated earlier, all it cares about is the success of the club, and it also knows that senior exectives engaging in protracted court battles with its own fans is not going to be great for results on the pitch, so we'll see what happens.
All in all, depressing, infuriating, and sobering.
I bloody sympathise. We had some absolutely terrible American owners a few years ago that nearly put us out of business and definitely led to a huge decrease in on pitch performances. Hope it gets sorted out soon for you.
Nice article. I'll side with you on it. But I think the media have gone overboard. Whenever we did go forward there was 11 players behind United many times IIRC, but this was more down to how slow we are to attack I'm sure.
The LVG method hasn't washed away yet and we are so stationary when we try to attack. Look at Ibrahimovic. He is forced to play with his back to the goal at all times because there is not one player making runs either side of him to open space. It's all too isolated. I have belief that movement in our team will come back and no imaginary wand will fix it overnight. I looked at Chelsea counter-attacking yesterday. They played through the centre and had players moving either side and that's something we should be doing. It's why Liverpool are very good ATM because of how fluid the movement is up top. Anyway, sorry if I'm going off topic!
@Manus - I find it ridiculous how a group of small individuals can upset literally millions of fans for the sake of money! I think Swansea are safe this year in the EPL at the very least.
Sucks, Manus. I was actually really impressed by a team owned by people who cared. But greed always takes first place, for some reason. A real slap in the face for the fans, as well.
Surely the gravest punishment ever meted out for a footballing transgression.Quote:
Ex-England boss Allardyce in frame for Wolves job
You say that, but don't forget the man is from Dudley.
And can you imagine anything worse than being sent back to the West Midlands after having successfully escaped? I know I can't.
Guess what part of the country the England team is based? As a random fun fact for you all, I recently discovered one of my coworkers' mother-in-law works for the FA and sews the England badges onto their M&S suits. She has promised to bring us some spare ones in. I don't really know what I'd do with one but there you are.
Haha, our season is going from bad to worse! Herrera should never have been sent off and we've actually played really well. I honestly feel though that Tom Heaton's performance has earned Burnley their point. Well played, lad.
Seriously, 32 shots so far and a number of them were more than decent. Tom's been a monster.
EDIT: Oh man, Ibra, what the hell is wrong with you today? :( Rashford needs to start front and center, seriously.
EDITRA: 37 shots from us altogether. Ibra fluffed the easiest chance of those 37, probably. Mata hit the post. Crazy. Reminds me of a game against Sunderland back when they were fighting against relegation about a decade ago, back when Ruud just couldn't find net and Sunderland defended all match, was so gutted that day.
Zlatan's been kinda paff for a few weeks now tbh. tbf he is 35 and playing in one of the most physically demanding leagues there is. Give him a rest for a game or two!
EDIT: https://www.instagram.com/p/BMI1ef_hdJG/
I have no idea what the smurf the Liverpool official Instagram has been smoking but I never want to try it. Seriously, look at that gurning Klopp nightmare in the bottom right.
I'm not gonna say it could be your year because that might jinx it for you.
But yeah... it could be your year.
Arsenal, City or Liverpool.
I think City will take it personally. Arsenal will drop off, Liverpool will drop points.
Yeah, the "We'll score one more than you" strategy has never won the title. See: Keegan, Kevin and Rodgers, Brendan. We're riding our luck at the moment and it's scintillating to watch, but it ain't gonna last forever. Sooner or later it'll catch up to us and we'll spectacularly crash and burn. For now though, can't take my eyes off it. It's ridiculously entertaining football. The attacking play is so smurfing good.
Worst comedy duo ever.Quote:
Kevin and Rodgers
I would love outstanding character.
I think if Keegan didn't have the mental stability of a speedfreak, Newcastle would have won the title that year. After the 1-0 defeat to Man Utd, he was constantly making terrible choices in terms of substitutions and tactics and after a while you knew it was all going to fall apart.
I think Man City might be able to do it as nobody else in the league is convincing in the slightest. Man Utd are unbalanced, Spurs don't score enough, Arsenal are well, Arsenal and Liverpool aren't quite a title challenging side yet.
City are the favourites at the moment mostly because they have a team who have, for the most part, proven they can win the PL, and they are sitting at the top. But after Leicester showed what can happen in the PL last year, I won't be counting out anyone just yet, and I'd say all of the top four are in a pretty excellent position.
But no club is really slamming down their claim. I mean, if you go by current form, the top side is Chelsea (four wins in a row), then Stoke (three) then Liverpool (two) and no other club has two consecutive wins in a row at present. It's a very open league, again!
You know this poppy business is out of control when FIFA are the reasonable side in a dispute. Hope they deduct 50 points each from England and Scotland.
I actually think it's fine for the players to decide what they want to do in these instances. I think a black armband should be something that every player in the world can have the option of adding to their kit to show an act of mourning the loss of anyone they bloody well please. Dead uncle? Wear an armband, whatever man. Players should ultimately be the ones to decide all this kind of thing, nobody else. And if a German wants to wear an armband for the same reason as the British players do (or don't), then power to them. Every death is a death in the end.
But yeah. Either never wear a black armband, or wear it as often as you like, that's my personal stance.
Chelsea just needed to give a few of their players massive kicks up the arse as they massively underachieved last season.Quote:
But no club is really slamming down their claim. I mean, if you go by current form, the top side is Chelsea (four wins in a row), then Stoke (three) then Liverpool (two) and no other club has two consecutive wins in a row at present. It's a very open league, again!
They're still a threat to anyone on their day and Conte is a clever manager. I wouldn't be surprised if they were top four once again this year.
dimitar smurfing berbatov
Emmanuel Adebayor is a free agent too while you're at it.
But who has £250,000 a week to spend on two past it lazy bags of troute?
Good old Swansea! They certainly know how to make a sh*te team feel better about themselves.
Paul Scholes will be inconsolable.
Best goal this week was by Middlesbrough. Talk about underdog rising above the ranks.
Great goal by Pogba, and a good game overall for us. First half could have had 5 or 6.
Definitely feel sorry for Swansea fans though, if any premier league club deserves better, it's them....apart from Sunderland, they deserve to be out of the relegation zone :shifty:
Not too happy about having the international break though! Wouldn't mind riding this momentum into the Arsenal game, especially after their second half.
Absolute garbage, the worst I've seen since, uh, last week. Brad Bobley better be pulling something out of the bag sharpish or I will lose any faith I had left in the hope that he was appointed for a single reason other than just being American.
Even Ibra scored.
Ugh, the friendly game against Belgium is just turning out to be the worst. Nothing of the previous' generation of football excellence is basically gone. Watered down, at least.
USA are playing Mexico in a World Cup qualifier tomorrow. That should be fun in the current climate.
I sincerely hope Mexico score a tasty free kick by floating the ball right over the USA wall.
Such a grave insult, they would certainly pay for that!
Scotland are so bad they make England look good.
I don't think Scotland played too badly, particularly in the first half. They just have zero quality in their team.
Holland currently making heavy weather of Luxembourg.
In regards to the England game, we generally did okay. We're just utter gash in the areas where it matters.
what the smurf even is iago aspas
Iago Aspas scored against England
These are truly dark times
It was great to see Ander Herrera get his first cap for Spain. Thoroughly deserved!
Conceding two late goals isn't great but I was impressed by our performance overall.
Oh my god, 97th minute Carlisle winner. Almost makes up for the Utd game. At the start of the season I'd have been happy with sneaking into the playoffs, and now we're 10 points clear and 4 from top!
https://twitter.com/WengerTactic/sta...01696755843072
I hate West Ham and their awful fans so, so much.
Remember Ali Dia?
https://www.theguardian.com/football...P=share_btn_tw
I had no idea who he was haha. Read up about him a little there, what a hero.
EDIT: So read up a bit more about this subject. Anyone hear of Carlos Kaiser? He's was footballs ultimate conman. His story is hilarious.
Feyenoord fans making a lot of racket outside my office window. Should be a decent atmosphere for the game.
We've been piss-poor in Europe so far. It'd be nice to at least make the knock-out stages.
I'll say what I said last year, the Europa is what you make of it. If you throw yourself into it wholeheartedly it's a hell of a lot of fun. ...until you inevitably lose to Sevilla in the final and then it feels like trout.
Yeah, I've kind of made my peace with it now. I really don't think the players have though. They just seem to have no desire to be playing in at all. It's a shame because it's probably our most realistic chance of getting Champions League football next season!
Best two things about tonight - The return of Rooney's confidence and Mkhitaryan.
That was United's best game of the season so far for me. All goals from play and a great TEAM performance.
Yeah, fantastic performance. It was a pretty poor Feyenoord team that turned up but some of our football was sublime. Still missing too many chances though... even though we took four!
At least we're creating plenty unlike Van Gaal's three chances per game.
Makes a mockery of Mourinho's camp's spin that the squad isn't good enough. It really bloody is.
the premier league
thank you based murica for saving our season
No matter how bad it looks lads, it can always be worse. I spend half an hour watching some middling USA teams yesterday. Downright embarrassing, that was.
It's bad. Lots of fans on Twitter saying we need to focus on the Europa League in order to get Champions League football next year. Christ... we're already getting embarrassed in the Europa League, it'd be even worse if we were playing the likes of Barca, Munich et al.
Mourinho has had a shocking 18 months. Someone like Simeone would be top of the league with the same players.
Doesn't help that the FA seem to bloody hate him. Graham Poll suggested a 6 game touchline ban. :p
In other managerial news, David Moyes, fresh from extending his record high score of never winning at Anfield to 13 games, had this to say. “If I was a foreign coach I would’ve been praised for that.” What, losing 2-0 with 20% possession? Jesus wept.
Mourinho out?
I don't know about that, but I do think he shouldn't get the hundreds of millions that he keeps angling for through his friends in the media. He's spent £150m already! Let's see him get the most out of these players before throwing even more money at him. He has to show he can be trusted with it. Maybe start actually using Mkhitaryan for one, the guy is a total boss.
I think the problem lies with practice. You see wonderful combinations played every now and then, but it happens so rarely. Maybe after a year of practice together they'll get a feel for the team. Of course, by that time the coach and players will have switched again, so that'll be out the window.
Yeah but then you look at Conte - he's been there as long as Mourinho and look what he's done. He's even found an unwanted Victor Moses down the back of the sofa and found a way to make him into a Premier League footballer.
Mourinho has a huge rebuilding job to do. Ferguson knew exactly when to quit as the squad he left was out on it's arse. Moyes go no backing so LVG and Mourinho are burning money trying to paper over the cracks.
Still think Man Utd will finish top 6 and get in the Europa League again, which makes me smile just to see that.
I'll quote Football365 here:
Fewer points in their last ten Premier League games than Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Watford, Stoke, Everton, Southampton, Bournemouth and West Brom. The squad is not perfect, but it’s nowhere this bad.
At the start of the season, Mourinho talked about winning the title and many pundits backed them to do it too. As is it with football, everyone's immediately forgotten that. I also don't think Fergie left a bad squad at all - they were the Premier League champions, after all! Also most of the top teams have entirely rebuilt their First XI's since then anyway - using Liverpool as an example, only Henderson remains of Ferguson's era.
Outside the Premier League, my club Reading are flying in the Championship under the leadership of one Jaap Stam. His first ever senior managerial role as well!
Just having a quick look at that squad now, the main points:
De Gea: At this point still green, but improving.
Rafael: Decent, but easily rattled and mistake prone.
Evra: Very good, but starting to wane.
Jones: Capable of more than three games in a row?
Ferdinand: Another one towards the end of his career.
Evans: Solid, but hardly a world beater.
Valencia: An honest, but pacy mediocrity.
Berbatov: Played 0 games.
Rooney: Can't argue with this one.
Giggs: another on his way out.
Smalling: Still learning at this point.
Lindegaard: Barely played.
Hernandez: the super sub, underrated.
Vidic: Another guy moving towards injury prone twilight.
Carrick: No arguments over what he brings to a team.
Nani: Erratic, occasionally brilliant, often not.
Young: Dive happy but useful.
Wellbeck: Underrated but a troute finisher.
RVP: Fergie's last season was probably his best. More fragile than a SJW's emotions.
Kagawa: Quality, but a misfit in this side.
Other than De Gea, Vidic (for another season or so), Evra, Rooney, Carrick, RVP and Wellbeck there really was a shortfall of quality. I've not mentioned Fletcher, Cleverly, Januzaj or Zaha as they didn't emerge until later or were fading out of the first team picture.
Quote:
New England manager Gareth Southgate says his side have the potential to give him closure by winning the European Championship in 2020.
Aha, great way to lower expectations.
Chelsea going for another premier cup, the way they are playing.
The hell just happened? Two red cards. Wow.
Now that has been a long time coming.
...and West Ham capitulate at home to Arsenal. Urgh.
I'm sick of football ruining my weekends now.
We're gonna win 3-0 tonight.
God I love Mhkitaryan so much. Delighted he's getting the game time he deserves now.
I was close!
Not close enough. You have shamed your ancestors. What would Brian McClair say if he were still alive today?
That first Watford goal. Made it worth waiting out this boring game just for that one moment.
USA USA USA
Nothing more satisfying than a trouthouse dirty team parking the bus conceding a 95th minute goal.
Liverpool were easily the better team but it was a pretty trout game all round.
I thought it was funny to hear the likes of G Nev say Chelsea 'can do anything'. I've been more impressed with the likes of Arsenal & Liverpool this season to be honest. Only having 1 game a week is looking like a huge help.
Oh gosh, I didn't notice that. Hmm. How very strange.
Far too early to suggest this when they still haven't won anything yet. Also, Utd have looked great in the last month. We'll see if we can keep it up but the gulf is nowhere near as big as I thought it was.
To be fair though, Liverpool are by the far the best team to watch in the league this season. They were awesome tonight.
So we learn our lessons taking a punt on an unqualified outsider who's not managed in the Premier League before... by going for Paul Clement/Gary Rowett.
Still 0 votes for Chelsea, but boy do they look ominous this season.
What a night for Bournemouth. A hard defeat to swallow for Arseanal.
... :D
edit: Did I speak too soon?
edit2: I might've spoken too soon. But man, that was a weird offense for a red card.
edit3: I spoke too soon. Man, that was a weird last 30 minutes. Unsatisfying tie, although deserved on both sides.
wtf did you do that for
I'm sorry, I jinxed it.
You wanna make up for it by saying winning the title was such a wonderful thing for Chelsea?
Or that relegation is probably what Swansea needed?
Chelsea's a shoe in for the cup, I mean, they can't possibly lose it at this point. But Swansea's going down the drain. They'll never reach even 6th this season. And I have a bad feeling on Liverpool. They'll probably lose 4 out of the next 5 games.
I don't care as long as West Ham remain comfortably mid-table.
West Ham just need to go and sit in a corner and think about what they've done.
I'm currently enjoying reading wall-to-wall praise for England's Brave Wayne Rooney in the British media, who are making sure to universally condemn the British media for their ridiculous over-criticism of England's Brave Wayne Rooney in the last 12 months.
Newcastle had a 1-1 draw with Birmingham and Mitrovic injured.
WELL, COULD BE WORSE. Could definitely be worse.
I was more referring to the constant crowd troubles but yeah sure that too. ^^;
Having a stadium that wasn't really built with that in mind doesn't help either by all accounts.
So how many strings has BoB had to pull down in Zurich in order to get the WC expansion and ensure New Zealand will qualify again in 2026?
Pretty awful decision, as was expanding the Euros. Diluting the tournament with more participation award teams means less quality. It annoys me to no end that people are citing Wales and Iceland (both good teams that probably would've qualified anyway) as a reason why this is a good thing, as if the funeral dirge that was the group stages didn't happen.
I'm looking forward to getting drawn with the Falkland Islands and Chechnya for the group stage. The latter had a tough qualification group but just about managed to finished 7th out of 8 and secure their place at the finals that do not have a location yet.
I'm trying to figure out whether FIFA is being operated from Switzerland or the Persian Gulf. Think of all the extra advertising time for Qatar Airways and Coca-Cola!
I'm going to run for FIFA President with the promise that I'll make a 256 team World Cup.
Merge the European Championships and the Islands Games, can't wait for Shetland vs Spain and the Isle of Man vs Hungary.