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The 2015-2016 Football Thread

Hi twietee,

Di Maria; originally wanted to go to PSG, Financial Fair Play stepped in leaving Manchester United - Real Madrid pushing him out, started well, house broken into, injured, seemed to lose heart, PSG came in/back for him and it is what DM desired? Maybe he only intended to stay a season knowing PSG would come calling?

Schweinsteiger was purchased for the short term to rotate with Carrick - a long term replacement penciled in for this summer.

Squad balance; the top is light but the rest was fine for the season - now 8 defenders on the injury list. Think the summer will see them go after Carrick's replacement, another mid, a centre back, and one or two forwards.

Cheers,
OW
 
Lol. "The day I've earned 55K the week instead of 40K changed my whole life!"

Man, I wish such typos would happen to me once..
 
Pellegrini put out a team of children and got hammered. This is what happens when your manager becomes a dead man walking half way through the season. The players don't care anymore, and Pellegrini is probably going to focus on the CL to put himself in the ship window.

Chelsea are back to their annoying old selves, but it's too late for them to get anything out of this season apart from a cup win. Looks like either Arsenal or Chelsea will be lifting the cup this year, probably Chelsea.

Crystal Palace with something of a shock win over Spurs, though the latter have much bigger fish to fry and, frankly, cup matches are a waste of their resources.
 
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2016 Centennial Copa America...June 3-26, 2016
For the first time it will be held in the US.
Group A has been revealed:

USA
Colombia
Costa Rica
Paraguay
 
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Centaurr said:
2016 Centennial Copa America...June 3-26, 2016
For the first time it will be held in the US.
Group A has been revealed:

USA
Colombia
Costa Rica
Paraguay
Click to expand...

On current evidence, there is no way USA will make it through. Klinsmann has his work cut out for him. I am pessimistic about our chances of making an impression on the tournament.
 
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Man Utd triumph over the might of Shrewsbury Town 3-0.

LVG is in something of an impossible position at the moment - lose to Shrewsbury town or Midtjylland and he will be roasted, but wins over such markedly inferior opposition won't buy him much credit either.

pachyderm said:
We will win our group.
Click to expand...

I admire your optimism. ;)
 
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Arsenal had four clear chances to score, two of them pretty much sitters. They didn't take their chances!!

Barca's defense can look pretty dodgy when under pressure, but there are so few teams that can really get at them without conceding.

The Three Amigos in attack are just on another level.

Maybe Wenger will pull a Pellegrini and play children in the second leg - they're doomed anyway.
 
It was a closer match than the scoreline suggested, but when Arsenal started passing backwards just before Barca scored the opener you could hear groans running all around the stadium. The fans knew what was going to happen. You can't afford to dilly-dally with the ball in the middle of the pitch like that against Barca. You need to attack quickly and then immediately get back into a sound defensive shape if the attack fails. No farting around in midfield where Suarez/Messi/Neymar are just waiting to break.

Still, the Ox and Giroud should have done better with their chances. It could have ended 2-2 or 3-2 to either side...

EDIT: Man City got the emphatic win they needed in the CL. It still doesn't justify putting out a skeleton crew against Chelsea.
 
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oscillatewildly said:
Both sides' finishing was poor - Suarez hitting the post :eek:. FC Barcelona's front 3 had an off day and they still won by 2.
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Give credit to Cech though. If you look at this (crappy) screen grab below you can see that in the time it took Suarez to take the touch needed to settle the ball, Cech has managed to block pretty much the entire goal with his legs (on the ground at least).

One of the many amazing things about Suarez is his ability to shoot from impossibly tight angles. He scored many goals at Liverpool from places he had no right to. But this time Cech did just enough to shut the door.

Still, had he chipped it to the far post he might have scored.
 

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Job done for Liverpool against Augsburg. Augsburg defended pretty stoutly but Liverpool were unable to turn their first half dominance into a comfortable margin. In the second half Augsburg tested 'Pool's defense with long balls and things got nervous! But at the end of the day Augsburg just didn't have enough offensive firepower to get a goal (missing their best attacker for most of the tie clearly hurt their game). They did come very close to going through with a last-second free kick that went barely wide though.

Mignolet had a good match. Firmino, Sturridge and Coutinho linked up nicely on many occasions but the final killer ball was missing. The penalty call was slightly harsh but the defender's hands were raised and that is always risky.

Liverpool will have to be markedly better in the next round, especially in terms of taking their chances. There are some very dangerous teams still in this competition.

A good result though - Sturridge got in a good hour of play, no major injuries suffered and it didn't go to extra time/pens. Klopp has options for Wembley.

EDIT: Midtylland just put one past Man Utd! 3-1 to the Danes on aggregate but there is over an hour left to play...

EDIT2: Looks like LVG's call for the team to be more "horny" has paid off with an orgy of goals, as Man Utd thrash Midtylland 5-1, with the teams newest savior Rashford grabbing a pair.
 
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Liverpool draw Man Utd in the Europa League.

This is Klopp's chance to prove his European pedigree and knock Man Utd out of Europe, but despite all of Man Utd's failings this season they still did the double over Liverpool and are above us in the league. It's not a good draw for Liverpool. I would have preferred one of the truly weak opponents or Dortmund as the glamor tie.

LVG will be confident he can beat us a third time. If Sturridge stays healthy I give us a chance.
 
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Not exactly Liverpool v Nottingham Forest.

Your lot will be okay, they'll be playing against U11s by then. I'll miss the first leg and I'm not sure I can be bothered with the effort in taking the What Ever Happened To The Likely Lads? route; recording the game and trying to avoid the score.

Cheers,
OW
 
oscillatewildly said:
Not exactly Liverpool v Nottingham Forest.

Your lot will be okay, they'll be playing against U11s by then. I'll miss the first leg and I'm not sure I can be bothered with the effort in taking the What Ever Happened To The Likely Lads? route; recording the game and trying to avoid the score.

Cheers,
OW
Click to expand...

LVG claimed that the Europa league was the "best" chance they had of getting into the CL; will he show that to be true by putting out his strongest possible side against Liverpool, or is he looking over his shoulder at West Ham and Southampton in the league? Or does he not give a damn because he knows he's out in the summer?

Liverpool's team has changed too much; there are no players that really get hyped up against Man Utd like there used to be.
 
I read that LVGs "leave-now-cash" decreases substantially in case he can't possibly reach the CL anymore.

Anyway, interesting draw for Dortmund. Porto had no chance at all but it seemed they weren't half as sharp as they are known for - guess changing half the team didn't work out so well. The woes of smaller clubs losing top players for top pay.

Wondering whether Spurs will give 100% in both matches since they are fighting in the League for a top spot and English teams are notorious to send B-Squads (if at all) to EL duties (if they have a chance to do good in the League). I'd say a slight advantage for Dortmund but 50/50 mostly.
 
The truth is, it is very hard to win the Europa League; no side who truly wants to win it can afford to put out weakened squads in these later rounds; the quality of opposition is far too high.
 
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That's what I'm saying. It remains to be seen whether Tottenham (for example) are willing to go the extra mile in order to have a shot at the title. Dortmund is already save in the CL, save on the second spot being 15 points (!) ahead of the third. They have only minor chances at the title though, Bayern would have to massively drop the ball here so there is no real reason to not give 100% in the EL.
 
Finishing fourth in the Premier League is easier than winning the Europa League. Liverpool probably need to win the Europa League to get to the CL; Man Utd could go either way (but not both), but Tottenham could lose their shot at the league title if they try too hard in Europe.
 
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oscillatewildly said:
Henderson and Lucas?
Click to expand...

Hardly a crowd, is it? And Lucas is not even a regular starter anymore. Hendo feels too strong a weight on his shoulders, always trying to be Gerrard 2.0.

I should have added in my previous post that finishing fourth in the Premier league is also more lucrative than winning the Europa League: you only get about 5 million GBP for winning the Europa League, but each league place is worth about 2 million GBP of additional TV money.

So, (for example) Liverpool would gain 5 million pounds and a CL spot if they win the Europa league and finish in the present position (8th) in the league. But if they were to finish fourth and ignore the Europa League they would gain a CL spot plus 8 million pounds of TV money - playing a lot fewer matches to get there.

4th place in the league is the third biggest trophy an English club can win behind the Champions league and Premier league titles.

EDIT: Gianni Infantino is the new FIFA president. He looks to be just as corrupt, just as old and just as tainted as his predecessors. UEFA's failure to control the influence of money in the game, and their half-assed "stands" against racism, sexism and homophobia demonstrate that Infantino is probably not going to be able to implement meaningful reform, even if we naively assume he really wants to.
 
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