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The 2014-2015 Football Thread

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I am looking forward to the derby against Frankfurt on Saturday and if one will see a big difference with Martin Schmidt (Mainz's new coach).

The regional TV channel (of the state, that Mainz is the capitol of) has a poll on their website and the result seems very interesting. :)

you could answer
a) Yes, Mainz were bound to fall into the second league, thee decision was right - 35%
b) No, Hjulmand had worked decently and they would have stayed in the 1st league. - 38%
c) Doesn't matter, with this team, only fighting to just stay in the league is possible. The new coach will ralize this as well. - 27%

Looks like people accept Hjulmand for the professional he seems to be, but also see that the team didn't fit him.

It is said, that Martin Schmidt's "philosophy" or "tactics" is much like Tuchel's was. That wouldn't be bad, because I find Tuchel was able to take the max out of limited recources.
 
Some pretty exciting matches in the Europa League today - Celtic/Inter and YoungBoys/Young Boys were goalfests. Celtic gave up three away goals though - that's a bad situation to be in if you have a return leg in Italy.

Liverpool huffed and puffed against a fired-up Besiktas but just couldn't break them down. Then Jordon Ibe stepped in and singlehandedly won a penalty. The only time you can ever use "reliable" in a sentence with "Mario Balotelli" is if said sentence also includes "penalty."

...and so it proved. Liverpool go into the away leg with an advantage since they didn't give up an away goal. Not a great performance by any stretch, though to be fair Besiktas worked really hard. the next round will be tough - it's never easy to go win away in Turkey.

It always feels good to beat Slaven Bilic. He's such an unlikeable guy.
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
Some pretty exciting matches in the Europa League today - Celtic/Inter and YoungBoys/Young Boys were goalfests. Celtic gave up three away goals though - that's a bad situation to be in if you have a return leg in Italy.

Liverpool huffed and puffed against a fired-up Besiktas but just couldn't break them down. Then Jordon Ibe stepped in and singlehandedly won a penalty. The only time you can ever use "reliable" in a sentence with "Mario Balotelli" is if said sentence also includes "penalty."

...and so it proved. Liverpool go into the away leg with an advantage since they didn't give up an away goal. Not a great performance by any stretch, though to be fair Besiktas worked really hard. the next round will be tough - it's never easy to go win away in Turkey.

It always feels good to beat Slaven Bilic. He's such an unlikeable guy.
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What did you think of Balotelli taking the ball from the team captain to take the penalty shot?
 
Some big results today. Man City hammering Newcastle, but Chelsea draw and Man Utd are beaten by Burnley.

Looks like the red card against Matic was a bit harsh, Barnes could have snapped his leg in half with a bad tackle and Matic lashed out. Probably should have been two reds or a red for Barnes and a yellow for Matic.

Liverpool can gain some ground in the table but they have a very tough match tomorrow against Southampton. I'm hoping for a win but expect a draw.
 
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everytime falcao is benched Man u loses...anybody noticed that
 

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Correlation...or coincidence?

There was a long stretch where Tottenham never won whenever this young fella Gareth Bale played. We all know how that turned out. ;)

Looking at the comments under the match reports, I see some Man Utd fans seriously suggesting dumping LvG for Pulis. Tony Pulis. How times have changed.
 
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Man U playing leap frog with Arsenal, dropping to the 4th position with loss to Swansea. van Persie was seen leaving the stadium on crutches, not a good sign.

Barcelona's loss to Malaga, 1-0, allowed Real Madrid to climb closer to them.
 
Good weekend for Pool and the Arse then. S'oton have forgotten how to score. United given a taste of their own medicine, played decent but sucker punched. Spurs luck still keeping them in touch but didn't deserve anything today and Big Sam has to look to the heavens.

Tough fixtures still incoming, so the race for a 3rd/4th place finish is looking even more interesting.

Mourinho has a right to be aggrieved and you can understand Matic's response. Atkinson was shocking yet again. But Mou is milking it, its crystal clear he is under massive pressure with City keeping touch.
 
Big weekends for Liverpool and Arsenal, Man City keep pace while Chelsea, Man Utd and Southampton all stumble. Liverpool are now unbeaten in 10 matches and have lost just once in the last 18 matches. Huge improvement from the start of the campaign.

A lot of penalty shouts in the S'ton Liverpool match - after watching the replays I am convinced that the no-call on the Can/Djuricic incident was correct, but Allen definitely fouled Djuricic shortly after Coutinho's opener and that should have been a penalty/red card. As for the Mignolet handling call, he was right on the edge of his area so it's very, very close. I couldn't tell even from the replays.

Just four points separate 3rd place from 7th; those spots are still very much up for grabs.
 
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Simple really, if Pool win all their remaining fixtures they'll march into a top 4 finish. Its in their hands.
 
Was surprised to see relegation-threaten Leicester City get a 2-2 draw with Everton. Coutinho's first goal was very nice.
 
Kariya said:
Simple really, if Pool win all their remaining fixtures they'll march into a top 4 finish. Its in their hands.
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I like your optimism. But it's not going to happen like that. ;)

Liverpool have a decent chance in both the FA Cup and Europa League competitions, but that means playing more games. Squad depth is OK if not great, but some tough matches still to play in the league - notably Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in May and Man City in a week, just a few days after what should be a very tough match in Turkey. The Europa League is now a realistic way into the CL so Rogers will take it seriously.

I don't expect much against Chelsea and Man City, but if Liverpool can hammer Man Utd at Anfield and get a win away at the Emirates, they will be in with a really good chance of a top four finish. Those two games will be critical unless Man Utd or Arsenal suffer big slumps near the end.
 
JamesMike said:
... van Persie was seen leaving the stadium on crutches, not a good sign.
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I disagree, he stinks. Being in the match squad is laughable, let alone starting. If he was a horse, he'd be shot. Mata behind Rooney, Rooney behind Wilson, Mata behind Rooney and Wilson are all preferable to seeing RVP and Falcao.

Centaurr,

Currently, if RVP and/or Falcao are on the pitch, Manchester United's play suffers.

Lord Blackadder,

Matic and Barnes; agree on two reds. If Matic escapes, he can thank the Happy One - received an apology for the Fabregas dive when none was due, and no action re Ivanovic; FA used the team cop-out. Matic didn't just push Barnes, he charged over to do it.

Tony Pullis :D. I hope they recover.

---

The media are having a field day analysing Manchester United's defence and luck whilst ignoring RVP and Falcao. Analyse the defences of the top 8 and you get similar results. Luck? They did see Arsenal's and Liverpool's last 2 Premier League games? Manchester United have stopped scoring at the required rate. The RVP and Falcao with Rooney in midfield experiment has seen the safety margin disappear. They now go into a difficult run with no room for error.

On stinking; Lamela. Drifts in and doesn't track back - not available for the wide ball and doesn't provide cover for his full back. The odd occasion he stayed wide, Spurs looked good.

Cheers,
OW
 
At 29 RvP only had 1-3 good seasons left in him given his injury track record. One of those seasons he spent getting Arsenal into the top 4, the second he won Fergie the title and now he's tapped out and age is becoming a major issue.

Similar story for Falcao with his knee. Also, these two aren't ball players, they're finishers (at least used to be). But United still don't have the midfield to supply them appropriately. They are more suited to a Fabregas, Silva, Toure, Cazorla, Ozil.

Rooney fits United's current team as a forward more because he's a ball player who can drop deep to pick it up and bring others in.

United only have themselves to blame, they threw money at the problem instead of buying appropriately. And now its a concoction. They try to fit 3 marquee signings into the starting XI and it not quite coming off. Di Maria at 60m is starting to look like a bad expensive joke.
The 2 forwards are leggy and need pinpoint tap-in balls served to them and the defence is still dodgy partly because the manager changes systems as often as he changes underwear.
 
oscillatewildly said:
Centaurr,
Currently, if RVP and/or Falcao are on the pitch, Manchester United's play suffers.
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i disagree, look at my post #998 on the stats that i put up on falcao. its not the strikers fault, its van gaal's fault 100% he doesnt know what he is doing. he is even doing "experiments" with rooney at midfield. Van gaal should get fired from man u or retire. he is even doing formations that are not working at all with the team, im dying for falcao to leave man u to a team that will welcome him and appreciate him. The owner of Monaco said in a interview with BBC 2 days ago that he is NOT worried about falcao's future cause there are already 'big clubs' lined up for him at the end of the season if man u doesnt buy him...thank god i didnt buy a man u jersey
 
Breaking; FA have said they won't be taking any further action against Barnes for the Matic tackle.
 
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