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The 2021-2022 Football Thread

Apple fanboy said:
I don’t think it’s an either or situation. Probably both. But who will join them?
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I think it's too early to say - there are four or five other teams in the relegation battle.

Apple fanboy said:
Not feeling confident against City tomorrow.
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Nobody ever feels confident against City. Though they've dropped a clunker here and there. You just have to hope they have a bad day and you have a good one.

Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Hmm... most re-branding are horrible and often unecessary... this one though - and bear in mind I'm not a Norwich-fan, and I'm just looking at the design job - seems to have been done very well...
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I think it looks OK but I'd question the necessity of doing it. More often than not, messing with the crest makes it worse.
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
I think it's too early to say - there are four or five other teams in the relegation battle.



Nobody ever feels confident against City. Though they've dropped a clunker here and there. You just have to hope they have a bad day and you have a good one.



I think it looks OK but I'd question the necessity of doing it. More often than not, messing with the crest makes it worse.
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An off day for City and a win for us would suit Chelsea and Liverpool fans. For Man Utd and Arsenal fans they may prefer it the other way around.
 
Apple fanboy said:
An off day for City and a win for us would suit Chelsea and Liverpool fans. For Man Utd and Arsenal fans they may prefer it the other way around.
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Liverpool need to bank as many points as possible right now because The AFCON is going to hit Liverpool hard, Mané and Salah are irreplaceable. Origi and Minamino are just not going to be able to maintain the same level. Even if those two avoid injury during the tournament and come back firing their absence will cost points in the league, without a doubt.

I think that could be a real factor in Liverpool's title campaign. Chelsea and Man City won't lose any key players to the AFCON (Mahrez is a great player but not critical to Man City's campaign) and they have deeper squads anyway.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Liverpool need to bank as many points as possible right now because The AFCON is going to hit Liverpool hard, Mané and Salah are irreplaceable. Origi and Minamino are just not going to be able to maintain the same level. Even if those two avoid injury during the tournament and come back firing their absence will cost points in the league, without a doubt.

I think that could be a real factor in Liverpool's title campaign. Chelsea and Man City won't lose any key players to the AFCON (Mahrez is a great player but not critical to Man City's campaign) and they have deeper squads anyway.
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Agree Liverpool without Salah are not the same animal. I'll have to give some serious thought as to who to swap him for in my FF team? KDB isn't the force he was this year. I already have Son in midfield.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Agree Liverpool without Salah are not the same animal. I'll have to give some serious thought as to who to swap him for in my FF team? KDB isn't the force he was this year. I already have Son in midfield.
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Salah is a goal-per-game player right now, you can't ask for better. Liverpool are currently winning most games by 2+ goals these days, which is incredible, but does suggest that they are not reliant solely on Salah for wins. But without him I think some wins become draws, and maybe a loss here or there. That could easily be the difference in the league title race.

Scepticalscribe said:
A win, and my French bread has been collected from the French bakery.
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You could always bake it at home AND watch the match. Though, to be fair, even the French buy it from a baker. Proper baguettes are above my skill level.
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
You could always bake it at home AND watch the match. Though, to be fair, even the French buy it from a baker. Proper baguettes are above my skill level.
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This is a French run, French owned, French standards, bakery, the kind of place that almost always has queues out the door (as was the case today), and is often sold out of some of the more popular baguette breads by 9 a.m.

I phone ahead (I phoned yesterday, asking that they put bread - a campagne baguette and their stunning rye bread aside for me today).

Re Salah, yes, he is critically important for Liverpool, but I also think that van Dijk is of almost equal importance for the success and balance of the team.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
This is a French run, French owned, French standards, bakery, the kind of place that almost always has queues out the door (as was the case today), and is often sold out of some of the more popular baguette breads by 9 a.m.
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Sounds delicious!

Virgil remains an absolutely key player. His form has been good if not at his absolute best, but without him I don't think Liverpool can sustain a league title challenge. When Mané and Salah head off to AFCON he will need to step up because Liverpool will need to keep clean sheets to win matches some of the time.
 
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CR7 has been benched for the Chelsea match and it is breaking the internet.

Scepticalscribe said:
A very impressive victory for Liverpool today - one cannot argue with 4-0.
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Some sketchy defending again at certain moments, But Virgil and Alisson mopped up very well.

Against a team at Southampton's level, Liverpool will generally be able to win by outscoring the opposition. That won't be the case in the Champions League knockout rounds, nor will it work against the top half dozen teams in the league. But overall it was another very good performance and the front three remain absolutely on fire.
 
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Right, bringing Ronaldo on kind of killed United's momentum. I did like seeing the aggressive sub from Carrick, though.

That first half was some of the worst football I've seen from United in many years, but somehow they didn't concede. The second half performance is something to build on — I have a feeling it was Rangnick whispering into Darren Fletcher's wired Apple earbuds.

Rangnick is officially the interim manager. I don't think his work visa will be sorted in time for the Arsenal match, though. I guess we'll see how quickly he can get the squad organized, but I wouldn't expect instant miracles or anything.
 
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Silencio said:
Rangnick is officially the interim manager. I don't think his work visa will be sorted in time for the Arsenal match, though. I guess we'll see how quickly he can get the squad organized, but I wouldn't expect instant miracles or anything.
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I hate to say it but - lads, it's Arsenal. They are good but not ruthless. I am not expecting them to beat Man Utd and after that the schedule gets easy.

I don't want to defend OGS but Rangnick's early tenure will be judged on way easier matches than the ones that got OGS finally canned.
 
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Can't help but feel that Saints are at a turning point right now. Having been thoroughly beaten by a far better team in Liverpool, we now have to back up from two losses on the trot (one of those humiliatingly to Norwich) and play Leicester and then Brighton in quick succession.
Neither are easy games for us and our strikers lack confidence and, it seems, ability.

Ralph has come out and said that we won't be looking for a striker in January, but tellingly, he stated it's the cost and lack of options. He didn't give the current crop of forwards a vote of confidence.

This season is very close though - except at the very pinnacle.
7 Points separates 7th and 17th. That's a fairly small margin for error in the mid-table stakes.
A bad run could see Tottenham fighting a relegation battle and a good run could see Leeds in European contention.

Now back to the Neymar thing.
I blame his handlers. He's been told his whole life how amazing he is and has never really needed to step up to the greatness that he is capable of. I still think of him as being young and impetuous, but at 30, he's in the mid-late stages of his career. He should be doing amazing things, but really isn't.
I feel he's almost...almost a wasted talent.
 
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All right, that's it....I am officially, definitely, 100% tired of Messi or Ronaldo winning the Ballon d'Or. They have, for many years, been the best players on the planet (and going by career achievements they probably will remain so for the rest of their lives)...But both are now well into their 30s and clearly no longer at their peak.

Or maybe I'm just tired of the Ballon d'Or. It's a kind of silly award.
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
All right, that's it....I am officially, definitely, 100% tired of Messi or Ronaldo winning the Ballon d'Or. They have, for many years, been the best players on the planet (and going by career achievements they probably will remain so for the rest of their lives)...But both are now well into their 30s and clearly no longer at their peak.

Or maybe I'm just tired of the Ballon d'Or. It's a kind of silly award.
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Not really into awards. But clearly Declan Rice should have won!
 
HandsomeDanNZ said:
I like the Greatest Goals of the Decade...so good to see the differences in style from the 40's to the current day.
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The ball weight had a lot to do with that. And the state of those pitches back then. Sometimes they looked like a plough had been through the 18 yard box.
But yes there are some greats pre PL. obviously I like to watch Bobby Moore.
Sometimes I think the younger generation think football started with the PL.
 
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Just saw an interesting tweet that FIFA have confirmed that from 2026, Oceania will have 1.5 places in the WC finals.
We've always had just 0.5 places and that meant the winner of Oceania (usually NZ) had to enter an inter-continental playoff. Usually against Asia, Conmebol or Concacaf.
This will mean that theoretically, NZ go to every WC finals and it's then between The Samoas, Tonga, New Caledonia, Tahiti, PNG, Fiji and Vanuatu over who gets the playoff place.
Powerhouses of football, obviously - NZ included.
 
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HandsomeDanNZ said:
Just saw an interesting tweet that FIFA have confirmed that from 2026, Oceania will have 1.5 places in the WC finals.
We've always had just 0.5 places and that meant the winner of Oceania (usually NZ) had to enter an inter-continental playoff. Usually against Asia, Conmebol or Concacaf.
This will mean that theoretically, NZ go to every WC finals and it's then between The Samoas, Tonga, New Caledonia, Tahiti, PNG, Fiji and Vanuatu over who gets the playoff place.
Powerhouses of football, obviously - NZ included.
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Unless Australia "comes home" and starts qualifying through Oceania, again. Then you'll have a two horse race every qualification and "the consolation prize" is the 0.5 play-off-
 
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