Soccer/football thread 2022

[Priller]

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Gutted!

He said in his press conference that he's just tired. I wouldn't be surprised to see him at some national side in few years, probably for the Germans if they have any brain left.

As for who's next for us...don't know man. Hope they don't go with some alumni players like Gerrard or something silly like that.

I hated that Gerrard went to Rangers, a club diametrically opposed to what LFC represents, but he did a decent job there. He never clicked at Villa, especially with their supporters who always felt he was treating their club as a stepping stone to Liverpool. His time in Saudi Arabia has been an unmitigated disaster, and combined with Emery's incredible success taking over Villa, has really dropped his standing in the sport. He hasn't endeared himself to the city lately, either, palling around with an Irish family with organised crime connections via his daughter. The only way I see Gerrard in charge is if whoever takes over is a disaster, and he comes in as a caretaker.

It's way easier to screw up the transition from an iconic manager than it is to get right. For every Shankly to Paisley success, there's many more Ferguson to Moyes catastrophes. Lijnders would be the obvious Paisley equivalent, carrying on the traditions set by the previous boss, so it's odd that he's been ruled out so early. Alonso was naturally inundated with questions at his Leverkusen press conference today, and did a lot of "I can neither confirm nor deny" answering.

 

[Jayv]

Excellent weekend, Fulham beat United and Liverpool's B team win the cup over Chelsea.

Premier league a 3 team battle, Arsenal seem to be red hot right now.

 

[jc100]

Excellent weekend, Fulham beat United and Liverpool's B team win the cup over Chelsea.

Premier league a 3 team battle, Arsenal seem to be red hot right now.

I liked the photo I saw at the end of the match. Looked like a high school team! The youngsters will do well!

 

[Priller]

Excellent weekend, Fulham beat United and Liverpool's B team win the cup over Chelsea.

Premier league a 3 team battle, Arsenal seem to be red hot right now.

Wasn't even the B team, it was the U21s! Average age on the pitch at the final whistle was 21, and that included a 32-year-old Van Dijk and 31-year-old Endo. (who were both immense today, by the way, really carried the team, along with Kelleher).

Both Gravenberch and Endo left on crutches, so the infirmary now has 12 first teamers out, I think? Includes nailed-on starters like Salah, Nunez, Jota, TAA, Alisson, Szoboszlai and Jones, as well as Matip and Thiago. At this point it's just a matter of survival until the potential title-decider against City at Anfield on March 10th. I'd say they should play the kids against Southampton in the FA Cup, but they're already playing the U21s, they'll have to play the U17s.

Either way, it's all gravy from here for me. Klopp goes out with at least one more trophy, and sets the side side up for the future. He sounded very proud but very, very tired in the post-match press conference, and it was clear why he's stepping down. The YNWA with the crowd afterwards only matched the one after the Barcelona comeback for me for emotion. I know it's only the League Cup, but it felt like a big deal today.

Oh, and Caicedo got away with murder today. Glad he went to the 'blue billion-pound bottle-jobs' as my man Gary Neville so succinctly put it...

 

[Jayv]

One of the rare times I've ever questioned Klopp's moves. Taking Salah and Robinson off was one of the reasons we lost that game yesterday. Gomez was a liability all game.

Can't believe after that much domination in the second half we still lost, credit to United, they hung in there despite being out classed and made the most of their chances.

 

[jc100]

One of the rare times I've ever questioned Klopp's moves. Taking Salah and Robinson off was one of the reasons we lost that game yesterday. Gomez was a liability all game.

Can't believe after that much domination in the second half we still lost, credit to United, they hung in there despite being out classed and made the most of their chances.

When that 5 on 1 didn’t produce anything I thought it could be a bad day and I thought Rashford will eventually not miss.

Didn’t think Gapco did a lot. Nunez was industrious. Salah scored one but didn’t seem too hungry otherwise. Robinson is sadly past his due date and a couple of the youngsters seemed a bit overwhelmed with the atmosphere at Old Trafford.

 

[xfactor]

One of the rare times I've ever questioned Klopp's moves. Taking Salah and Robinson off was one of the reasons we lost that game yesterday. Gomez was a liability all game.

Can't believe after that much domination in the second half we still lost, credit to United, they hung in there despite being out classed and made the most of their chances.

Yea, not sure what the strategy there was. When then played in Europa against Sparta Prague, I was shocked that the A team was there as starters and kept on the for the entire game to dominated. These things do happen in sports I guess, good chance for ManUre vs ManShitty finals.

Go Coventry

 

[jc100]

 

[Priller]

Yeah, pretty much a worst case scenario for the weekend. I was actually hoping he'd play the kids, as having the League Cup means the FA Cup is a distant third priority compared to the League and Europa. With all the injuries, essentially dropping out of the competition could have benefits for rest compared to City and Arsenal having some tough Champions League ties ahead.

While they did drop out, it was in the worst way possible. Gifted dirty ManU a boost (though keeping ETH around might have a net positive effect, long term), exhausted a bunch of players by having to play 120 minutes, and picked up three injuries, two to the forward line.

Maybe it was the reality check the side needed, that good vibes aren't going to win everything and they need to tighten their boots. Get that league, so Liverpool can have the party with Klopp that was so cruelly robbed of them by Covid. I thought losing to Arsenal would be bearable, but then I saw those pics of Arteta gagging for Salt Bae in Dubai and it crystallised why I find Lego Head so intensely unlikeable. It's going to be a tough summer if he's a PL winner or if City set the record with four titles in a row.

None of this to mention that while Liverpool supporters were so excited that FSG lured Michael Edwards back, it was revealed that his new role was partly to start acquiring other clubs a la City Group. One less bit of moral high ground held, one step closer to football truly being ruined by money. I always told myself that if the PL continues down this path of revolting wealth that I'd start following clubs further down the chain. Now, everywhere you look is some City-owned club, whether it's Girona in Spain, Palermo in Italy, NYCFC in MLS, etc. Even the CPL has Atletico Ottawa, owned by Atletico Madrid. Bah humbug.

 

[Priller]

Resurrecting this one to say,

Allez, allez, allez
Arne Slot, na naaaa, na na na
With a Liverbird upon my chest
He's Virgil Van Dijk, he's Virgil Van Diiiiijjjk
Mo Salah, Mo Salah, running down the wing
He's Luis Diaz, he's from Barrancas, and he plays for Liverpool...
Etc.

Watching the side celebrate with the Kop is one of those sporting moments to savour and that's unique to football/soccer. I don't think much will match up to the sheer drama of the Champion's League run in 18/19, but there's a sense of relief attached to this one that feels special.

There's nothing like this anywhere...

 

[Jayv]

Liverpool barely missed a beat all season, a little hiccup after losing to Plymouth and having a couple of shakey games right after that. Good chance of repeating next year. TAA might be gone, but the core of the squad remains , I think City and Chelsea will be stronger. SAF must be hating what he is seeing right now, United keep going backwards.

 

[Priller]

Liverpool barely missed a beat all season, a little hiccup after losing to Plymouth and having a couple of shakey games right after that. Good chance of repeating next year. TAA might be gone, but the core of the squad remains , I think City and Chelsea will be stronger. SAF must be hating what he is seeing right now, United keep going backwards.

Drawing PSG in the CL after topping the league stage was a rotten bit of luck, otherwise things have largely gone their way. The Plymouth loss was one of those, where kids and backups just didn't gel against a motivated and organised side. Losing to Newcastle in the League Cup final was just as much about motivation as anything, and was probably the one loss that was down to lack of effort.

Next year will be very interesting. After some promising signs, Chelsea seems to be moving backwards and may fire Maresca with the fans in open revolt. ManU have hired a coach with a specific style but not the players to execute it, and have overspent on so many duds that they can't fix the issues without being very clever in the market, which they've shown zero capacity to do. Spurs are a catastrophe, and much as I like Big Ange's style, watching them try to play out from the back today was farcical. City has run into the issue Liverpool had a couple years ago, where a whole bunch of players and most of the midfield aged a decade in a year. They spent large in the winter with Marmoush already looking excellent, and will continue that trend in the summer, so I have to expect they'll be back in the title race next year. Forest and Bournemouth have both regressed a bit to the mean as the season has worn on, but Villa and Newcastle have come back strong and will definitely be fighting for a CL spot. Arsenal, who knows? If they win the CL this year, then like Liverpool in 2019, I think that validates the manager and propels them on. If not, I think Arteta will start to come under fire for being Mr Runner Up. For Liverpool, the consensus seems to be that this was a transition year for Slot, and that he wants to make changes to the play style and squad, so we'll see how that plays out. They've been talking a big game about splashing cash this summer, but I've heard that before (not that I'm complaining!).

 

[Jayv]

Rodri Man City's engine will be back, i think KDB will be gone, and Pep will need a couple more changes. I think Chelsea did well considering how the new the entire squad is. Newcastle, they could be the boogey team, but they need consistency, one game they play excellent, then follow it up with a dud. Add Fulham and Wolves into the Bournemouth/ Forest conversation, both teams are better on paper than the results this year.

 

[Jayv]

What a season....unless you support ManU lol.

Spurs finally wins a trophy, add Palace, Newcastle and Harry Kane into that mix also.

Arsenal still needs a #9, will they finally address that?

Is a healthy Rodri enough to get City back to winning ways, this year exposed Pep as not being the messiah that many claimed him to be.

Will this be a big turnover for Managers in the offseason, does Ange and Arteta hold onto their jobs and will Slot fall into a sophomore jinx, Liverpool already making tidy tweaks already.

 

[Priller]

What a season....unless you support ManU lol.

Spurs finally wins a trophy, add Palace, Newcastle and Harry Kane into that mix also.

Don't forget Bologna winning the Coppa Italia and a DFB-Pokal final between minnows Arminia Bielefeld and the faded glory of Stuttgart.

The Champions League final will also have intrigue, whether it's the aging underdogs of Inter or the fresh-faced and moneyed PSG winning in their first year without Mbappe et al.

Arsenal still needs a #9, will they finally address that?

They have to, but the curious bit will be whether Arteta can get them over the hump like Klopp did, or if he's starting to wear on the players. He comes across as the ultimate plonker, but the team seems to like him, so who knows?

Is a healthy Rodri enough to get City back to winning ways, this year exposed Pep as not being the messiah that many claimed him to be.

I hope we've seen the best of Pep's City, but I suspect Club 115 isn't done just yet. They spent big in January, have a feeling they're not done for the summer. They've net spent very little over the past few years, on the books at least, plus they have all those UAE-linked sponsors to puff up the revenue side, so there's a few hundred million ready to go, I'm sure.

Will this be a big turnover for Managers in the offseason, does Ange and Arteta hold onto their jobs and will Slot fall into a sophomore jinx, Liverpool already making tidy tweaks already.

I'm not getting my hopes up over Wirtz, have a feeling Liverpool are useful to Leverkusen in driving the price to Bayern up. That said, I don't see why they have to strengthen a rival. If I were them, and the player was happy going to either club, I'd sell to someone outside my league for a discount. It's strange how all the other clubs in the Bundesliga bow down when Bayern comes calling.

Happy to see them move on from Trent so quickly with Frimpong, and sounds like Kerkez from Bournemouth is next. If they can pick up a solid CB (keeping Quansah, though), along with a Nunez replacement who is more creative, then they're in good shape for next year. The core of the side is very young, with the experience of Van Dijk and Salah at opposite ends of the pitch, plus Alisson hopefully playing there until he's 100.

Turned out to be a heck of a year, despite the lack of drama at the top of the PL. So many interesting outcomes...

Go Arminia and forza Inter!

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