PL 2017-2018 Thread
- Thread starter lejackal
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Luckily, Stoke got what they deserved. The booing was ridiculous and indefensible, and apparently was supposed to stem from an incident involving Danny Rose in a game against them years ago!... Forgive and forget, eh? :roll:
As for the game itself, Spurs dominated, although as usual they took their foot off the gas and let Stoke come onto them at the end, which is infuriating, as when Spurs could be bothered to push forward, Stoke looked most unsteady. Lloris was also very unlucky with the goal he did concede as 99 times out of 100 his clearance would have sent the ball up the other end of the pitch instead of blasting point-blank into the Stoke player, who to his credit maintained enough composure to stick the ball in the back of the net before collapsing.
Bring on City! :-D
As for the game itself, Spurs dominated, although as usual they took their foot off the gas and let Stoke come onto them at the end, which is infuriating, as when Spurs could be bothered to push forward, Stoke looked most unsteady. Lloris was also very unlucky with the goal he did concede as 99 times out of 100 his clearance would have sent the ball up the other end of the pitch instead of blasting point-blank into the Stoke player, who to his credit maintained enough composure to stick the ball in the back of the net before collapsing.
Bring on City! :-D
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Everything whent out the window in the Manchester Derby! Load of nonsense really, City have still strolled the league, not sure why City fans are crying, we won our 5th league title in in 1957, the rest is history. :lol:
The truth from me is it feels completely wrong being happy delaying City winning the league and celebrating.
That said I still believe JM is the right man for Utd and I'm just happy that we're going into a 3rd season with a manager that has 2 seasons under his belt. Which hasn't happened since Fergie left.
The truth from me is it feels completely wrong being happy delaying City winning the league and celebrating.
That said I still believe JM is the right man for Utd and I'm just happy that we're going into a 3rd season with a manager that has 2 seasons under his belt. Which hasn't happened since Fergie left.
That Manchester derby was unreal.
HOW city lost I will never know. They should have been 5 up at HT, and that isn't an exaggeration. Utd had 3 chances in the second half and scored them all. That makes it sound like daylight robbery but it wasn't really. First half Utd were abysmal, for large chunks of the second half City were equally abysmal. Some of the defending by both sides wasn't even school boy level. Who the hell was supposed to be marking Smalling when he scored the winner?
As for Ashley Young. That was a clear a pen as you'll see, and prob a red card as well. He probably should have been booked in the first half when he climbed all over Sterling at one point too.
I don't think either manager will be happy with how their team played. Full credit to Utd for coming back from 2 down, but they are still very much a work in progress, and I'm far from convinced Jose is the right man to do it. But he is definitely a better man to do it than the last two idiots Utd have employed. As for City, some more woeful defending. Given how much they have spent on defenders over the last 2-3 years that issue should be sorted by now. Tuesday really is **** or bust for them now. If they don't get through their season is going to feel very anti climactic. They could/should have done better in CL and haven't and they could/should have won the league at home by beating their nearest and biggst rivals....and didn't. Chances to do either of those things, don't come along every year. Winning the PL any other way will just feel a bit of a let down. It's still a fantastic achievement and they are one of the best teams the PL has seen, but their season just feels like it is petering out when it could have been so much more.
HOW city lost I will never know. They should have been 5 up at HT, and that isn't an exaggeration. Utd had 3 chances in the second half and scored them all. That makes it sound like daylight robbery but it wasn't really. First half Utd were abysmal, for large chunks of the second half City were equally abysmal. Some of the defending by both sides wasn't even school boy level. Who the hell was supposed to be marking Smalling when he scored the winner?
As for Ashley Young. That was a clear a pen as you'll see, and prob a red card as well. He probably should have been booked in the first half when he climbed all over Sterling at one point too.
I don't think either manager will be happy with how their team played. Full credit to Utd for coming back from 2 down, but they are still very much a work in progress, and I'm far from convinced Jose is the right man to do it. But he is definitely a better man to do it than the last two idiots Utd have employed. As for City, some more woeful defending. Given how much they have spent on defenders over the last 2-3 years that issue should be sorted by now. Tuesday really is **** or bust for them now. If they don't get through their season is going to feel very anti climactic. They could/should have done better in CL and haven't and they could/should have won the league at home by beating their nearest and biggst rivals....and didn't. Chances to do either of those things, don't come along every year. Winning the PL any other way will just feel a bit of a let down. It's still a fantastic achievement and they are one of the best teams the PL has seen, but their season just feels like it is petering out when it could have been so much more.
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I was having a conversation with someone the other day about defending in general, the art of it is slowly being desolved with the modern player. Defenders these days have to be good on the ball and technically adept at passing and full backs basically have to be wingers as well. But pretty much all defenders now regularly switch off and struggle to read the game.
Pretty much every single game I watch now Spanish, Premiership or International, there is always a moment when I think how can they be defending like that. It could be that the attacking side of the game has improved over the last 10 or so years I suppose.
I think it's why I'm pro JM so much his teams 'usually' defend well and it's a dieing art.
Pretty much every single game I watch now Spanish, Premiership or International, there is always a moment when I think how can they be defending like that. It could be that the attacking side of the game has improved over the last 10 or so years I suppose.
I think it's why I'm pro JM so much his teams 'usually' defend well and it's a dieing art.
I do agree the standard of defending in the PL is pish ATM and has been for a few years now. I dunno if it is because defenders are expected to be comfortable with the ball at their feet and pick a pass, rather than being allowed to hoof it away safety first style. Or, is it because the tempo of the PL and the skill level in general is so much higher now? Watch some of the old "classics" that Sky like to repeat every so often, the Pool V's Newcastle 4-3 is prime example, there are at least a dozen tackles that would be red cards now, but they weren't even free kicks in that game. That makes it even harder for defenders as players are all fitter and tackles now have to be absolutely perfect.
Alternatively it could just be a cycle where for no real reason there are no good defenders in the PL. Who knows.
Alternatively it could just be a cycle where for no real reason there are no good defenders in the PL. Who knows.
I think it's because there is no such thing as defenders in the modern game, they are all expected to be attacking wingers. As you say any defender that sits back and clears the ball just gets accused of playing "long ball." Even the keepers these days play outfield half the match! Most of the best pieces of defensive play I saw this weekend were by strikers and midfielders, says it all.
A lot of goals these days are from counter attacks, I would love to see a team run an experiment where they always keep one defender (with a bit of pace) back on the right side of the opposition. Obviously it will hamper their attack slightly, but it would cancel out most of the one on ones you regularly see.
The City Utd game was a joy to watch, even though as a Spurs fan I would have been quite happy to see City win it and Utd lose a bit of ground. I'll still be happy with third or fourth though.
A lot of goals these days are from counter attacks, I would love to see a team run an experiment where they always keep one defender (with a bit of pace) back on the right side of the opposition. Obviously it will hamper their attack slightly, but it would cancel out most of the one on ones you regularly see.
The City Utd game was a joy to watch, even though as a Spurs fan I would have been quite happy to see City win it and Utd lose a bit of ground. I'll still be happy with third or fourth though.
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I'm worried now, was counting on Barcelona, Madrid and Munich being in the semis with Liverpool. Not bloody Roma, I don't believe it, you watch Liverpool will get Roma. :roll: :lol:
The wife just walked in on me doubled over on the table with a glass of wine next to me and she said what's wrong, I said Liverpool are going to win CL!
The wife just walked in on me doubled over on the table with a glass of wine next to me and she said what's wrong, I said Liverpool are going to win CL!
Well, I did tell you Barca wouldn't get Real! :lol:
Amazing result for Roma, and nice to see someone different making the CL semis (along with Liverpool), it does get a bit dull when it's the same old sides. Fingers crossed Juve can hammer Real tonight, but I aint holding my breath.
As for Liverpool. That first half was the definition of a beating. I'm not sure Pool strung 100 passes together over the course of 45 mins. The offside goal was offside but it came off Milner so offside isn't an issue and it should have stood. No doubt that would have totally changed the dynamic of the game, but such is football. Plus Mane getting sent off in the PL game at Etihad totally changed that game as well so maybe these things do even themselves up. Saying that given how they had a couple of goals disallowed for very tight offside calls (all correctly, I think) and Salah was offside in the 1st leg, City can feel aggrieved. But then you need a bit of luck to win the CL and City haven't exactly had a bad season.
Amazing result for Roma, and nice to see someone different making the CL semis (along with Liverpool), it does get a bit dull when it's the same old sides. Fingers crossed Juve can hammer Real tonight, but I aint holding my breath.
As for Liverpool. That first half was the definition of a beating. I'm not sure Pool strung 100 passes together over the course of 45 mins. The offside goal was offside but it came off Milner so offside isn't an issue and it should have stood. No doubt that would have totally changed the dynamic of the game, but such is football. Plus Mane getting sent off in the PL game at Etihad totally changed that game as well so maybe these things do even themselves up. Saying that given how they had a couple of goals disallowed for very tight offside calls (all correctly, I think) and Salah was offside in the 1st leg, City can feel aggrieved. But then you need a bit of luck to win the CL and City haven't exactly had a bad season.
Very well done Liverpool. I certainly didn't expect them to beat City twice, but they were clearly the better side on both occasions.
Apologies for the poor taste, but I was just sent this and it did make me laugh! :lol:
Apologies for the poor taste, but I was just sent this and it did make me laugh! :lol:
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Unbelievable, how Jammy were Madrid! Bloody Ronaldo. :roll:
Ronaldo is a bit like Arsenal, hard to like because no matter how close he comes to failure still manages to land on his feet every time (in Arsenal's case still winning trophies while they're a mid table team.) He's being hailed a hero for somebody else's mistake, that's luck not talent.
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Told you, unbelievable. Liverpool or Roma in the final then, great for football, really bad for my mental health.
Great draw for Pool, the easiest/least difficult of the 3 sides left in. But Roma have nothing to lose, no one expected them to get this far.
As for Real, you knew they would score in the last minute and that it would be ballbag witht he goal. I despise Ronaldo, and have done for a long long time. He is a fantastic football but an absolute egotistical wanker. He HAS to be about him, and only him. He just wants the limelight for himself.
Messi scores and he points to the team mate who set him up. Ronaldo scores and the shirt comes off and he runs around like he's just saved the world. **** off you wanker.
Sad way for a legend like Buffon to bow out.
As for Real, you knew they would score in the last minute and that it would be ballbag witht he goal. I despise Ronaldo, and have done for a long long time. He is a fantastic football but an absolute egotistical wanker. He HAS to be about him, and only him. He just wants the limelight for himself.
Messi scores and he points to the team mate who set him up. Ronaldo scores and the shirt comes off and he runs around like he's just saved the world. **** off you wanker.
Sad way for a legend like Buffon to bow out.
