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The 2020-2021 Football Thread
- Thread starter Scepticalscribe
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Lol. Still we managed a draw so I’m happy with that at Southampton.
Arsenal managed an unconvincing victory against Brighton. Should keep @Scepticalscribe happy.
Nothing unconvinicng about a football in the net, a few decent shots on target (from play), a bit of confidence on the pitch, and three points to the good at the end.
As my mother (herself an excellent sportswoman in her youth) used to say, in the days before she lost her mind and marbles to dementia, "it's the scoreboard that counts".
A beer beckons, presently, I think.
But, yes, I can class myself content, this evening.
A beer, a book and three points. What more could you want.
Exactly.
A content and comfortable evening ahead.
A beer, a book, (which I must return to) and three points.
This applies 100% to today's United / Wolves match. Not a great performance at all, and Wolves were very solid throughout and looked a threat themselves at times, but Rashford found a way to put the ball in the net in stoppage time — off Romain Saïss's back.
United have not been very good at grinding out these types of results over the past few years, so this is a very good sign. Second place, two points behind Liverpool is the reward.
An impressive, solid, ground out victory for Manchester United against a very good Wolves side.
Grinding out those sort of ghastly (yet necessary) victories is a skill that any side with aspirations to winning the Premiership must master.
Thorsten Fink looks like a frontrunner for THE MASSIVE WEDNESDAY job...
www.thestar.co.uk
en.wikipedia.org
Former Bayern Munich man in the running for Sheffield Wednesday job and is keen on the role
German manager, Thorsten Fink, is thought to be on Sheffield Wednesday’s radar.
Thorsten Fink - Wikipedia
Thorsten Fink looks like a frontrunner for THE MASSIVE WEDNESDAY job...
Former Bayern Munich man in the running for Sheffield Wednesday job and is keen on the role
German manager, Thorsten Fink, is thought to be on Sheffield Wednesday’s radar.
Thorsten Fink - Wikipedia
Do you think you can avoid relegation? During our relegation season (Ipswich), Once we went bottom we never looked like saving ourselves. I was resigned to relegation in November that season.
Last night's win was huge for you guys. Gives a good platform for the new manager to start off from.
There was a lot of talk about how last season might be fundamentally effected by COVID. But in reality, this season is far more defined by the pandemic than last season - very high injury rates, extreme fixture congestion, players dropping out with COVID, matches postponed...that's why the table is so open right now.
It could be a perfect year for an outsider to win the title. Unfortunately for the neutral, "outsider" this year probably means Man Utd, Manc City, or Chelsea, rather than Spurs, Leicester, Aston Villa, Southampton or Leeds.
It could be a perfect year for an outsider to win the title. Unfortunately for the neutral, "outsider" this year probably means Man Utd, Manc City, or Chelsea, rather than Spurs, Leicester, Aston Villa, Southampton or Leeds.
Spurs game is off tonight. Trouble is the more games postponed, the worse fixture congestion will be later on in the season. Also what’s the threshold for postponing a game? 3 players, 4 players? It’s really not clear.
Not sure what the situation is in the Premier League but in the EFL the club has to request a postponement and then the EFL say they 'investigate' the circumstances. The average for clubs to start calling games off has been 2 or 3. Although our game with Peterborough last week was called off the day before because they had 1 player test positive, but their squad were isolating. We've had 11 cases at Ipswich and 3 postponements (2 of our own requesting). No word yet on if our game at Fleetwood on Saturday is on but we're trying to move it to Tuesday. The players are all fine now apparently but Paul Lambert & our MD have been laid low with it. If we continue to postpone games then our fear is we could be hit with a points reduction, in an already vitally important season to get out of L1.
I do.
Sounds crazy but I do.
We're already off the very bottom. IF we hadn't been docked, first 12, then lessened to 6 points, we'd be around 18th or 19th right now.
We had a pretty decent mid-table side before it all hit the fan, IMHO.
I see us finishing 17th.
Our problem is our owner. He is insanely out of his depth.
Bear in mind, also, that the "new" variant - or mutation - of Covid-19 (the one recently encountered - or evolved - in the UK) is considered a lot more contagious and infectious than the earlier variants, or versions.
That means that transmission and infection may well increase.
It is. But I still think some clear guidelines from the PL on how many players are infected should be issued.
Needless to say, agree completely.
But, this is not the only place where we can see a striking lack of clear guidelines re Covid.
That is true sadly. We have moved to tier 3 today.
If I’m honest a full lockdown would make more sense. But with the football I understand this will lead to issues later in the season.
Indeed.
I imagine the fact that we are in the depths of both winter (which means that any sort of gathering will be indoors by definition) and have just celebrated Christmas will lead to an increase in the numbers infected - and that is even before the development or evolution of this new, even more contagious and infectious variant of the virus has been taken into account.
And, then, the transfer window opens on Friday.
And, furthermore, within the world of football, you see a spectrum of behaviour, where you have the dignity and decency and empathy of someone such as the utterly impressive and profoundly responsible Marcus Rashford, on the one hand, and the cynical, selfish and self-serving outrageous entitlement of someone such as Neymar, on the other.
The governing bodies will want to avoid a pause at all costs, because that could play havoc with the already-postponed-Euros.
Of course they may have no choice if things get bad enough. in reality there is no good option. The easiest option is just to try and muddle through, dealing with wave after wave of injuries and infections, insane fixture schedules, no crowds and everyone losing money. And that's what they are doing. It does not inspire confidence.
If enough postponements happen, the schedule will become an utter farce. Some teams could end up with a dozen points-worth of games in hand.