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The 2015-2016 Football Thread
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well we thrashed Everton which is always nice, but the shine was taken off by the tackle on Origi. Surely that's an extended ban? You just can't have players performing those types of tackles. I hope it doesn't take him long to come back.
Ahhh you're a Liverpool fan.
Yup and stats are balls it's all about the points booby
Don't quite agree.
Stats can be very useful, but they cannot measure stuff such as pride, motivation and team spirit.
Origi out for six weeks. This is a huge blow for Liverpools's Europa League campaign, what with Can and Henderson already out.
Luckily Sturridge is fit, and Liverpool have already knocked out a Dortmund side who were, arguably, the best team in the competition.
But it leaves Klopp shorn of three very hard-working and effective players at a crucial moment, and there is no depth at striker now - except for Benteke.
EDIT: More bad news - apparently Sakho failed a drugs test after the Man Utd Europa League match, and Liverpool have taken him out of the squad for the immediate future. Details are still sketchy, but if true it's another key loss of an important starting player.
No word on whether it was a sloppy mistake with some sort of supplement or something more deliberate - I'm not even sure if they've tested his B sample yet - either way a very stupid thing for Sakho to do.
Skrtel is going to have to come back in and be at his very best now, and there is no margin for more injuries.
Luckily Sturridge is fit, and Liverpool have already knocked out a Dortmund side who were, arguably, the best team in the competition.
But it leaves Klopp shorn of three very hard-working and effective players at a crucial moment, and there is no depth at striker now - except for Benteke.
EDIT: More bad news - apparently Sakho failed a drugs test after the Man Utd Europa League match, and Liverpool have taken him out of the squad for the immediate future. Details are still sketchy, but if true it's another key loss of an important starting player.
No word on whether it was a sloppy mistake with some sort of supplement or something more deliberate - I'm not even sure if they've tested his B sample yet - either way a very stupid thing for Sakho to do.
Skrtel is going to have to come back in and be at his very best now, and there is no margin for more injuries.
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Correction - Toure is in today, (for some reason I thought he was injured), so there is still a bit of depth at center back.
Sturridge win an early goal today against Newcastle. I don't think Rafa will get the favor he needs from Klopp.
EDIT: Or maybe Rafa will get that favor after all. Sakho's absence could be a factor here -any time you score two goals and draw 2-2 the defense has to be seen as the issue.
It was a largely meaningless game given the league situation, but Klopp would have wanted to keep up momentum for the Europa league and this is a setback...we have to assume Villareal will be better opponents than Newcastle - though, to be fair, they have been showing real improvement under Benitez.
Sturridge win an early goal today against Newcastle. I don't think Rafa will get the favor he needs from Klopp.
EDIT: Or maybe Rafa will get that favor after all. Sakho's absence could be a factor here -any time you score two goals and draw 2-2 the defense has to be seen as the issue.
It was a largely meaningless game given the league situation, but Klopp would have wanted to keep up momentum for the Europa league and this is a setback...we have to assume Villareal will be better opponents than Newcastle - though, to be fair, they have been showing real improvement under Benitez.
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Columbus 1-0 Houston
Columbus beat Own Coyle's Houston 1-0 in a fantastically boring match. Houstin's keeper got sent off in the 18th minute for taking out Higuain in the box, Kamara scored the PK and the next 75 minutes might as well not have happened...
I just renewed my subscription with MLS Live to watch this match - and the feed cut out for the red car - which was the only interesting part of the entire match.
Columbus beat Own Coyle's Houston 1-0 in a fantastically boring match. Houstin's keeper got sent off in the 18th minute for taking out Higuain in the box, Kamara scored the PK and the next 75 minutes might as well not have happened...
I just renewed my subscription with MLS Live to watch this match - and the feed cut out for the red car - which was the only interesting part of the entire match.
So, Sunderland salvage a draw (0-0) at the Stadium of Light, - against Arsenal - allowing them to crawl just above Norwich and barely out of the zone of relegation danger and immediate threat. Tonight, they lie fourth from the bottom of the table, separated from Norwich solely by goal difference.
In truth, Sunderland could have won the game - and - possibly should have won. Both sides had penalty appeals denied. Moreover, Sunderland fought ferociously, but then, I suppose that the threat of relegation does serve to concentrate the mind.
This still leaves three teams - Sunderland, and Norwich (both on 31 points, Sunderland ahead on goal difference) and Newcastle (on 30 points) languishing, rooted to the bottom with two of them certain to relegate.
Although Sunderland have a game in hand, the teams above them - an astonishing cluster of six teams - starting with Crystal Palace, currently placed 16th, with 39 points, and ending with Everton, lying eleventh, on 41 points, with a mere two points between them - are too far ahead, and thus, none of the bottom three (Villa already having been relegated) have the remotest chance of catching up.
Thus, two out of the trio of Newcastle, Norwich and Sunderland are certain to relegate.
And Arsenal - dominating with an extraordinary degree of possession - have been held to a draw, and are still in fourth place.
In truth, Sunderland could have won the game - and - possibly should have won. Both sides had penalty appeals denied. Moreover, Sunderland fought ferociously, but then, I suppose that the threat of relegation does serve to concentrate the mind.
This still leaves three teams - Sunderland, and Norwich (both on 31 points, Sunderland ahead on goal difference) and Newcastle (on 30 points) languishing, rooted to the bottom with two of them certain to relegate.
Although Sunderland have a game in hand, the teams above them - an astonishing cluster of six teams - starting with Crystal Palace, currently placed 16th, with 39 points, and ending with Everton, lying eleventh, on 41 points, with a mere two points between them - are too far ahead, and thus, none of the bottom three (Villa already having been relegated) have the remotest chance of catching up.
Thus, two out of the trio of Newcastle, Norwich and Sunderland are certain to relegate.
And Arsenal - dominating with an extraordinary degree of possession - have been held to a draw, and are still in fourth place.
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Leicester City 2-0 up at half time against Swansea.
And, just now, it has become 3-0. Leicester are making the point that they are quite capable of scoring in the absence of Jamie Vardy, and - equally importantly - that they are capable of holding their nerve, and keeping their shape, as they approach the end of the season at the top of the table.
And, just now, it has become 3-0. Leicester are making the point that they are quite capable of scoring in the absence of Jamie Vardy, and - equally importantly - that they are capable of holding their nerve, and keeping their shape, as they approach the end of the season at the top of the table.
Columbus 1-0 Houston
Columbus beat Own Coyle's Houston 1-0 in a fantastically boring match. Houstin's keeper got sent off in the 18th minute for taking out Higuain in the box, Kamara scored the PK and the next 75 minutes might as well not have happened...
I just renewed my subscription with MLS Live to watch this match - and the feed cut out for the red car - which was the only interesting part of the entire match.
is that 2 wins in a row!?!?
Very satisfying 4-0 victory for Leicester City. Composure, and clinical finishing, and - crucially - three players other than Jamie Vardy able to put the ball in the net.
Oh, dear. An elegant, urbane gentleman such as Mr Wenger compared to Robert Mugabe? Is there not a little hyperbole in such a statement?
Daniel Taylor wrote a nice piece in the Guardian about how Arsène Wenger is a victim of what he has described as the game's vitriol, but he was also at pains to discuss - in a fair and balanced article - his flaws as a manager.
Oh, dear. An elegant, urbane gentleman such as Mr Wenger compared to Robert Mugabe? Is there not a little hyperbole in such a statement?
Daniel Taylor wrote a nice piece in the Guardian about how Arsène Wenger is a victim of what he has described as the game's vitriol, but he was also at pains to discuss - in a fair and balanced article - his flaws as a manager.
The comparison is based on tenure. Both have passed their sell by date. Wenger has nothing to offer Arsenal. Facts don't lie. No other top club would keep a manger in a job after a decade of no trophies.
I'd say Manchester United would be happy if Sir Alex was still around, and the definition of stagnation under Mr Wenger - a stagnation that almost invariably includes top four finishes - is a definition of stagnation that they may yet look back on fondly in years to come.
While I agree that he has his faults, (and his quite costly blind spots), I think the sort of instant inflamed outrage that the Twitter era has given rise to is misleading, too, - and may be given too much by way of attention, space and air time.
Worse, this has allowed a tone that resembles a sort of splenetic fury - rage summoned on demand - to enter into discussions of football (or other areas in the public space).
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Top four is not a trophy. Sorry. LCFC is about to win the title, Wenger with better players is 10+ points behind. It's another terrible season for Arsenal. He refused to by a world class striker.
Although I am an Arsenal supporter, I would probably be classed as a somewhat desultory one. Maybe even a dilettante, at times.
Agreed, top four is not a trophy, but it is a Champions League place, and that is what the remaining teams are fighting for.
Nevertheless, for the first time in an absolute age, I am somewhat - I hesitate to use an emotionally loaded word such as 'excited' - but yes, I am delighted that Leicester are doing so well, and I sincerely hope and fervently wish for them to win the Premier League.
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Well, I refuse to get too worked up about it; I'll be happy - content is probably a better word - if they finish the season in fourth place, though, obviously, I'd prefer third.
So fourth place for the next 10 years. You don't want to lift the BPL trophy?
I'll admit that this year, my ardent hopes, devout aspirations and loudest cheers will be reserved for Leicester.
Arsenal have had the longest continuous membership of the top flight of any team in the Premiership (that includes when it was the old First Division); they have been in the top tier of the league since 1919, longer than anyone else - and, I remember earlier years and decades when a top four place was a dream, and was by no means the almost predictable prize that it currently is each year nowadays.
I suppose that it is the nature of ambition not to be satisfied with what you have, but - casting my memory back a few decades to when I was a kid, a semi permanent place in the top four, is not the worst form of stability or stagnation imaginable. For now, this year, given that wining the title is an impossibility, I'll rest content with fourth place, though, as mentioned earlier, third would be nice.
And, besides, I rather like Arsène Wenger, and deplore the howling yelps and instant inflamed outrage of the Twitter generation. Much of this anger seems to me to have been fuelled by a sort of sense of entitlement.
Now, I'll concede that Mr Wenger would do well to heed the sound advice of some of his advisors, but, at the close of this season, I'll not waste tears of any description on this. It is just an excuse for an expression of anger, and other emotions that strike me as excessive.
This year, my heart lies with Leicester, in the interests of idealism, and - I suppose - a lurking long buried remnant of romanticism that hopes to see that the 'Underdog' (of Leicester) gets his or her day in the sun.
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Arsenal are a joke, they have a 200 million transfer kitty and they never use it
Higuain, Reus & Hummels all could be had for that money and Arsenal would be champions.
They are one of the most profitable clubs in the world and they never use it to the max.
A joke? Or, to take a rather irrational comparison, Robert Mugabe, (who was a complete power-mad psychopath from early in his rule) as described by another poster?
No, they are neither.
Some time ago, not long after it was published, I recall reading Nick Hornby's powerful and quite excellent book 'Fever Pitch' in which he explained that football had come to fill the void left by the departure of his father, who had walked out on his mother. The expressions of wild rage at matches at first bewildered him, but he came to realise that this fusion of pleasure and pain - indeed, this very confusion of pleasure as pain - lay at the heart of football's enduring emotional appeal and added that 'this was an idea I felt I had been waiting all my life for'.
Well, while I see the emotions, and the expressions of rage, I see no reason to expend mine on anything other than Leicester until the season is over.
I'll grant that were I to be in a position to sit down and have a chat with M. Wenger, I might try to point to him that the sort of aggressive, tough, competitive, borderline thuggish players that he inherited when he first came to Arsenal (Tony Adams and his ilk) whom he converted to heretical notions such as healthy eating and a professional attitude to diet and exercise, (and alcohol - sipping glasses of wine rather than buckets of beer), are not those that he has ben trained to look out for, and it is perfectly possible that he simply does not see them.
This is not an argument to sack Mr Wenger, but I accept that it may be an argument for him to be required to pay closer heed to those who have an expertise and an eye for players that differs from his own preferences and prejudices. And yes, there are players that he might profitably consider. But those are discussions for the summer.
For now, Arsenal stand a good chance of coming fourth, and are in contention for third place. Seriously searching questions will only be asked (of the players, and M. Wenger) if Arsenal fail to secure fourth place.
Yes, it could be better, but it could be an awful lot worse.