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2015/16 Soccer Thread.


Lemonade

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22 hours ago, Soda van Jerk said:

Klopp might even have the stones to throw Ward in against United this weekend. He has form for dropping underperforming names for young players in big games. Rodgers did it too, when Jones started against United at Old Trafford, after Mignolet had an iffy few weeks.

I think it unlikely that Ward will be thrown into such a big game. If it goes badly I suppose it has the potential to really knock his confidence. I imagine that if Klopp's long-term plan is to bring Ward in, the Exeter replay at Anfield is the best place to start, followed by Norwich in the league.

22 hours ago, Lemonade said:

Good lunchtime reading. It's on the Kindle store for £2.

Great stuff - thanks for the heads up!

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Probably the worst North-West derby in recent times. The first half was like a battle of who could be the shittest. United won that. United were the shittest. Less shit in the 2nd half, for about 15 minutes, when Liverpool ran out of steam. The last 10 minutes were some of the worst football of the season, from anyone. Liverpool knackered from the full-pitch press, United too shite to put together a meaningful attack.

United were fortunate Jordan Henderson was in hero-mode. He was desperate to be the man. Every time Liverpool put together a meaningful attack, he's pelting it from 30 yards and floating it out of the stands instead of playing someone in.

Klopp should have started Ibe over Lallana or Milner. The latter two were getting a lot of joy down their right, but neither were good enough to take advantage. Ibe would have had shredded an uncomfortable Darmian. United were more comfortable when BoJack came on. An actual left back, and the actual right back going to right back. It's funny what playing players in their positions can do.

 

Fellaini and Lucas aren't footballers. They should have just been allowed to have a scrap infront of the dugout for the full 90 minutes.

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2 hours ago, waltz said:

That Liverpool v Norwich game has to be one of the best of all time in the Premier League era. 

No, it has to be.

There is no subjectivity here.

It was fairly crazy, though partly because both teams didn't seem to bother with old-fashioned conventions like defending.  Some good finishing too though.  Klopp's going to have a big bill for glasses if they carry on like that.

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From a technical perspective, the game was awful. Neither side could string a pass together, lots of goals caused by stupid avoidable errors. It had thrills and spills but no quality football. 

I would rank the 4-4 Arsenal/Liverpool much higher. The one where Arshavin scored 4. Great football all round. Good defences demolished by Arshavin and Torres, back when Torres was incredible to watch and didn't have knees made of dog biscuits. His pace was stupid. 

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Dimitar Berbatov interviews himself.

Quote

The former Bulgaria international, who now plays in Greece for PAOK Salonika, has always been a little, well, unpredictable.

But his chat with himself - the ultimate exclusive, perhaps - is no move to fashion a position in the media upon retirement. Instead, he is taking a swipe at the journalists he has accused of coming up with "stupid things".

Berbatov the footballer had a bad Sunday. PAOK lost their Greek Super League fixture with AEK Athens. He was a substitute and, when introduced, lasted 38 minutes before being sent off.

In his defence, being sent off for the first time in 13 years may be unsettling. He followed it up by taking to Facebook to post an interview between Journalist Dimitar Berbatov (JDB) and Dimitar Berbatov (DB). Here's how it went.

JDB: Hi. How are you feeling?

DB: Hi. I am fine but disappointed. We lost against AEK, and I received a red card.

JDB: Do you think it was a red card?

DB: Yes. The player from AEK was holding and preventing me from positioning myself better in the box and this, and the fact, I was angry and nervous, made me hit him.

JDB: Why were you so nervous and angry?

DB: Because of the fact that I was watching the game, and even though AEK were not the better team, they still scored a goal. Because I was not playing and I could do nothing to help. This was a derby and I came here to play exactly in these kind of games, where my quality and experience can help the team, and not for me to stay on the bench and do nothing. But the opposite happened.

JDB: And you are disappointed because of this?

DB: Yes. When I don't play, I can't be happy. The problem is that, in this case I took it out on the colleague from the other team. And I am not one of this players looking for a conflict, this is a well-known fact, but in this case the opposite happened, for which I am sorry.

In about four hours, Berbatov's interview with 'journalist Dimitar Berbatov' was liked more than 4,500 times on Facebook.

The former Tottenham and Fulham forward was welcomed by 10,000 fans at PAOK's stadium upon joining from Monaco last summer and he has gone on to score four goals since.

But Sunday's dismissal has seen some factions of the media question his commitment.

JDB: Some media say you don't want to play for PAOK any more?

DB: This is why I am giving an interview to you, and not to people who are coming up with stupid things like this. This is not true, and with this kind of talk, some people are trying to harm the team. I still feel joy when I play football. I want to play. When this is not happening, I am angry and disappointed. There is no way to feel joy from the fact that I am not playing, and they are paying me good money amid all that is happening in Greece.

 

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Newcastle have spent the most of any club in the world in this window. Norwich are also in the top 6 January spending. The other 4 in the top 6 are Chinese clubs. Weird.

 

Shelvey will hopefully be a good signing for Newcastle. He's a talented player, but he needs to pull himself together. He often has games where he is all blood and thunder, dominating his opposite number, winning every second ball and scoring the occasional scorcher. Then he has games where he just trots around, looking disinterested. If he could keep the latter to a minimum, he'd be considered in the same bracket as Ross Barkley or Dele Alli.

If he had the application, I think he'd be better than Ross Barkley, comfortably. Not Dele Alli though. That kid is a freak.

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Okay, this is the way I see it:

Adam Rooney is brilliant. He is just a goalscorer. Doesn't really give you much else - he has tried (and relatively speaking failed) at being a 'target man', and he's certainly not a nippy little striker. Derek McInnes agrees with me that Roonz isn't a TM - evidenced by playing David Goodwillie away from home when we need a focal point to take the pressure off our defence (see European ties last year).

McInnes has tried, without success, to play two upfront (Rooney and Goodwillie). This on paper looks like it should work (big guy/little guy), but the problem is they are the wrong way round - Goodwillie is the hold up guy and Rooney is the finisher (traditionally you would see the big lump be the target for the little guy to finish - see Heskey/Owen). Church is a big lump that doesn't score many, but obviously has his own strengths (such as being the target man that brings others into play). A true target man in the Aberdeen team will, in my opinion, mean we firstly have the option of playing two upfront again, but more importantly will allow the likes of McLean, McGinn and Hayes flourish and allow Rooney to concentrate on what he does best - finishing things off in the box.

Shrewd signing IMO, hopefully it pays off.

Sounds like ICT royally screwed us over with the Tansey deal, too. We're a bit light in centre mid (and where's our right back cover?!) but we'll have to make do unless there's a reasonable free transfer available, which is probably conceivable. That said, I'd rather not sign anyone now than sign the wrong type of player now for the sake of getting bodies in.

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What the bollocks is going on in China right now? The Chinese Super League were the biggest spenders collectively in the January transfer window, and have now just nabbed Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid for £31m. Atletico made a profit, despite him only signing in the summer. It broke the Chinese transfer record. The previous record was set only one week ago, when Ramires signed a Chinese side for £25m!

Roma's Gervinho and Inter's Fredy Guarin have also moved to China, as has former Leverkusen midfielder Renato Augusto, who returned to Brazil a few years ago. The latter had been approached by Schalke and Dortmund last month, but chose China and money.

Normally footballers move to the money leagues when their knees are shot. Martinez is only 29, Ramires 28, Gervinho 28, Guarin 29, Augusto 27. prime footballers who could play in any top league.

 

Bloody China. coming over here, stealing our above-average footballers for way above their value. The nerve of it. Broken Europe.

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9 hours ago, Soda van Jerk said:

What the bollocks is going on in China right now? The Chinese Super League were the biggest spenders collectively in the January transfer window, and have now just nabbed Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid for £31m. Atletico made a profit, despite him only signing in the summer. It broke the Chinese transfer record. The previous record was set only one week ago, when Ramires signed a Chinese side for £25m!

Roma's Gervinho and Inter's Fredy Guarin have also moved to China, as has former Leverkusen midfielder Renato Augusto, who returned to Brazil a few years ago. The latter had been approached by Schalke and Dortmund last month, but chose China and money.

Normally footballers move to the money leagues when their knees are shot. Martinez is only 29, Ramires 28, Gervinho 28, Guarin 29, Augusto 27. prime footballers who could play in any top league.

 

Bloody China. coming over here, stealing our above-average footballers for way above their value. The nerve of it. Broken Europe.

I can't help but think we'll never see the day the Chinese league is competing with the Premier league/La Liga despite the fact it's the biggest untapped market in the world and on paper makes complete sense to invest heavily in. It'll take decades to get Chinese kids plastering their walls with club scarves/posters/calendars, if it happens at all and the money will run out long before then. I'm sure this whole thing is just a billionaire boys club plaything and will lose its novelty in a few years.

At least with the MLS they've been playing a long game (that's panning out pretty well, although slower than they'd hoped) and the money injections are a bit more staggered/understandable. This spree is just fucking nuts.

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