PL 2015-16 Chat

[weasel]

Thought I'd start a thread for this season's PL.

Looks like Pool are going to spend £32.5 million on Benteke. I thought that was a fairly decent signing until I saw something the other day that said when Sherwood took over at Villa he sat down with Benteke and asked him what it would take to get him scoring again. Benteke said he fed off crosses. Hey presto Sherwood sets Villa up to get as many crosses in to Beneteke as possible, and he starts to score. During Sherwood's time at Villa they hit more crosses than any other team in the PL.
During that same time the side who made the least number of crosses was...................Liverpool! :roll:

So spending £32.5 million on someone who plays in a totally different style to the one you employ. That can mean only three things. 1) Rodgers is going to try and change the way Liverpool play, and go more direct. That would surprise me given he has always been a "get it down and pass it" manager, and Liverpool aren't famous for being a long ball team. 2) Benteke is going to suddenly become the sort of player who makes darting runs and works his socks of. He didn't exactly look like he was enjoying it/any good when Lambert played a different system at Villa, so I'm gonna rule that out. 3) Liverpool have just signed Andy Carroll mark two and in a year's time people will be looking back and wondering quite how anyone thought it would work.

 

[edd_jedi]

Ah my favourite thread is back :lol: I was surprised to see Liverpool let Stirling go but I guess if somebody wants to leave you can't stop them (or there's no point trying.) Benteke could be interesting, he's a bit hot or cold but has potential!

I hear Spurs have signed a central defender, somebody must finally have been reading the forum :lol:

When do we do this year's predictions?

 

[weasel]

Yeah WTF is going on? Spurs sign a CB? Next you'll be signing a striker!

I see you've started to shift some of the dead wood as well. Kaboul to Sunderland agreed i think.


As for Sterling, he made his position pretty untenable. I suspect the American owners would have happily let him rot in the reserves for the rest of his contract if they hadn't had an offer they considered fair. 49million is a lot more than he's worth. Though I suspect it includes the good old "English premium" especially given city have virtually no English players, as well as the "potential premium" amd the "you're Man City/we dnt actully want to sell premium."

I do feel a bit sorry for him though as he's been made to look like a **** by his agent. I fully understand him wanting to win stuff, and he's not gonna do that at Liverpool. i know he's ambitious, thats why he left QPR for Pool initially. BUT there are ways and means of engineering a move and he has literally ticked every box in the 'what not to do' section. If i was City I would have out a clause in his contract saying he had to get a new agent, cos your man is as bad as Yaya Toure's.

 

[Bootyhunter]

Let's just hope Sterling turns out to be another Torres :lol:

 

[theforceuk]

Going to be interesting, this might be the season four or five teams get their act together for the title. Will probably come down to City and Chelsea though. :roll:

 

[Bootyhunter]

If United were to sign half of the players they seem to be chasing they'll be in the mix but I think your biggest problem is the manager!
Chelsea I think will grind out results like last season, Liverpool will be my wildcard prediction for a good finish

 

[weasel]

Liverpool will be 5th-6th again.

Utd need to learn how to play football, not that GBH hump it up to Fellaini's head and hope BS they played last year.

 

[theforceuk]

I think Arsenal might come close this time, when you look at their squad it's arguably the best on paper. Keeper has been a soft spot and I think they have addressed that with Cech. I think Man Utd are closer than a lot give them credit for, but probably not close enough. The City and Liverpool situations will be interesting, my money is on one or both managers getting the boot before end of season.

 

[weasel]

Arsenal need a striker and a new/back up ball winning CM. Chelsea are still the best squad in the league, by a fair margin. City push them but Mourinho gets more out of his players.

Utd need time to gel and i'm still not convinced by Van Gaal. Plus their only fit and decent striker is a fat smoker who is the definition of "a form" player. Brilliant on his day. Woeful when it's not.

I'm amazed Peligrini is still there. He's a very lucky boy. I suspect it is because there is no one available who the City heirarchy deem is a sufficient improvement. Watch out for Guardiola getting a rather generous contract offer this summer when he leaves Bayern.

As for Brendan, he has no excuses for failure now. He prob has to make CL or win a competiton ( worthless/carling/coca cola cup doesn't count) this season or he's out. He's had time and he's had plenty of money. Another 6th place won't be accapeted by the Board. TBF he can't have any real complaints if he does get the boot after another "poor"season.

 

[theforceuk]

I really don't think Chelsea have got the best squad, more best sqaud/manager. I mean Mourihno could probably take on any of last seasons top four and win the league in 2 seasons. The football would be boreing and he would leave the club in a bad way, but he get's the best out of what he has. Just my opinion, the Falcao situation will be interesting as he scored a lot of goals playing with Costa at Atletico Madrid and Mourihno likes to play with one main striker.

 

[edd_jedi]

Full list here, interesting stuff:

http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/21476/9893206/premier-league-ins-and-outs-all-the-top-flight-moves-in-the-2015-summer-transfer-window-plus-what-your-club-needs

I didn't know Spurs had let Paulhino go, hopefully it's a hard lesson learned, Spurs don't need lazy established international players, more young keen players please.

Good old Arsene has only signed one player I see, well that's one more than most seasons I guess :lol:

Worried about Bournemouth, would love to see them do well as it's my home town but there's not a single "big league" player in their squad still. I think they should sign at least one ageing experienced player.

 

[weasel]

Stomboli is away as well Edd. Not sure how Spurs will cope without him. Such a massive player for them, with all those ehhh goals, the wonder tackles, his box to box running for 90 mins and his incredible repertoire of passing. Spurs will do well to stay up without him! Lol

I dunno what to make of Bournemouth. I saw them play Liverpool last year and they looked like a quality side. Ok, Liverpool aren't brilliant and were in the middle of their worst (of many) bad patch(es) but Bournemouth played some good football and bar the difference in the quality of finishing they could well have won. I think a lot will depend on how they cope mentally with the PL. If they can get a goal scorer in, or if one of thier forwards hits a purple patch I could see them doing a Swnasea. Maybe not to the same extent, but they are good enough to stay up.
On the other hand if they can't score goals and start to get down about losing a heck of a lot more than they are used to they could be a Blackpool. By that I mean play well but go down, not be left with 1 professional player two years down the line.

 

[edd_jedi]

Yeah I think a decent championship side can give most PL teams a good game simply because they often have team stability and the will to win. There's nothing worse (Spurs) than a team full of players who don't even know the name of the team they play for, let alone care if they win or not.

 

[Bootyhunter]

BTW can we lay off the Chelsea bashing a bit this season

 

[theforceuk]

Chelsea bashing? Their the champions, what do you expect? :lol:

 

[Bootyhunter]

Chelsea bashing? Their the champions, what do you expect? :lol:

Fair comment but we weren't last year and that didn't stop it :lol:

 

[weasel]

I've nothing against Chelsea as a club. I quite liked Frank Lampard and no one dislikes wee Gianfranco Zola. However, I DESPISE Jose Mourinho. There is more class is a used condom than in that man. He may be a fantastic, if horribly boring, manager but he is as classless as they come.
I'm not a massive fan of John Terry either, but I don't know many who are.

 

[theforceuk]

If I was in charge at Liverpool i.e owner, their's only one man I would be after and that's Mourinho. He would end Liverpools 26 year league droubt within 3 seasons. His ego would be to big to turn the job down if it all goes tit's up at Chelsea.

 

[Bootyhunter]

If I was in charge at Liverpool i.e owner, their's only one man I would be after and that's Mourinho. He would end Liverpools 26 year league droubt within 3 seasons. His ego would be to big to turn the job down if it all goes tit's up at Chelsea.

Yup and he'd probably stick Terry straight in to sort out that defence :wink:

 

[weasel]

And I'd still hate him.

Fantastic manager but his teams play horrible football. Can anyone ever say they have watched a Mourinho team and thought "this is exciting"?
Then there's the fact the guy is a prime bell end.