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The 2021-2022 Football Thread

Silencio said:
The more I watch Darwin Nunez, the more I'm convinced he has what it takes to thrive at the highest levels. He is strong enough to match up against central defenders like Konate and VVD, pacy and skilled enough to beat a fullback, and generally appears to make good decisions. He was the only real threat for Benfica, and I expect he'll open some more eyes at the World Cup coming up.
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Konate made a mistake for the Nunez goal but the finish was decisive and he caused plenty of problems in the match. Good player and certainly Premier League-quality by the looks of it. And as you point out, with the WC coming up he's going to attract plenty of attention.

Silencio said:
Title decider or not, Sunday's Pool / City match is must-see TV.
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Should be a good match barring a stupid red card or something (I've been there before, sigh). I can't see Liverpool keeping Man City from scoring, so my gut instinct is that Liverpool will need to score at least 3 goals to win and probably 2 to draw. We'll see.

Man City are the richest, deepest, most talented team in England and they should stroll to the title every season till Pep gets bored or the Sheik gets sanctioned. But Liverpool are not a small club and currently punching above their weight under one of their all-time-great mangers and squads, so this is a big season for Reds fans.
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
1-1. Not a bad result at all, especially with ten men for half the match. But the second leg will be hard.
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Agree. Once we got a player sent off I’d have taken the draw. But the away leg could be tough.
What I don’t get is our best chance of the second half was ruined when the ref stopped play because a West Ham player came on the pitch. Moron. At least he’ll be banned for life.
 
Extraordinary match at Goodison, two teams that did not want to win by the looks of it. Everton come out on top but in truth clinging on by your fingernails against this iteration of Man Utd is not necessarily something to crow about. But Everton needed those points very, very badly.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Extraordinary match at Goodison, two teams that did not want to win by the looks of it. Everton come out on top but in truth clinging on by your fingernails against this iteration of Man Utd is not necessarily something to crow about. But Everton needed those points very, very badly.
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Massive three points for Everton. I suspect they will push on now and be safe. A massive confidence boost.

Also did us a favour at the other end of the table.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Massive three points for Everton. I suspect they will push on now and be safe. A massive confidence boost.

Also did us a favour at the other end of the table.
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Man Utd fans are commenting below the line of todays match reports, hoping for an 8th place finish to avoid European ‘distractions.’ Light years away from the mood during the Ferguson era.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Greedy seven now surely? Newcastle might not have won anything yet, but they are a 'state club' now. If they are challenging for a European spot next season that will directly impact West Ham's next campaign.
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They will, but they didn’t try to form a breakaway league so it’s just the greedy six.
Spurs seem to be on fire again. Glad I put Son into my Fantasy team.
 
Usually when I put Son in my FPL team, he does the square root of absolute nada. He's had a pretty nice 2022 so far, so maybe that's one broken curse.

This is easily the worst United team I've seen in the 30 years I've been following them. An eighth place finish would flatter this absolutely rotten squad. It's going to be a very, very long road back.
 
Silencio said:
Usually when I put Son in my FPL team, he does the square root of absolute nada. He's had a pretty nice 2022 so far, so maybe that's one broken curse.

This is easily the worst United team I've seen in the 30 years I've been following them. An eighth place finish would flatter this absolutely rotten squad. It's going to be a very, very long road back.
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Agree. Another new manager and rebuilding project. But how many is that since Ferguson went upstairs? More than I remember. I wonder if one of those managers (Moyes for example), had been given the time if you’d have been much better off by now. Certainly you would have been financially!
 
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That went about as well as I expected. I figured it would be a tight match as both teams are on form, but with Man City having home advantage I gave 'Pool about a 20% chance to win. More important was avoiding a loss. Liverpool were a bit overwhelmed in the first half but they did not crack, and were able to respond to Man City's goals.

I am still convinced Man City will win the title but Liverpool will probably make them earn it. One howler, or one worldie, in one match, can decide it now, and there is plenty of time for that to happen.Though The Champions League may influence the outcome if either team gets knocked out before the final.

Oh, and we get to do this all over again in the cup!
 
Lord Blackadder said:
That went about as well as I expected. I figured it would be a tight match as both teams are on form, but with Man City having home advantage I gave 'Pool about a 20% chance to win. More important was avoiding a loss. Liverpool were a bit overwhelmed in the first half but they did not crack, and were able to respond to Man City's goals.

I am still convinced Man City will win the title but Liverpool will probably make them earn it. One howler, or one worldie, in one match, can decide it now, and there is plenty of time for that to happen.Though The Champions League may influence the outcome if either team gets knocked out before the final.

Oh, and we get to do this all over again in the cup!
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For the neutral this was probably the best result. But I don’t like either team so don’t really care for either of them to win or lose the league.

We had a tough game against Brentford. Really a distraction with the Europa league quarterfinal second leg this week.
 
Exciting back and forth at Anfield...I did not expect this two-legged CL tie to produce ten goals, but Liverpool scored six of them and so are off to face Villareal in the semis.
 
Silencio said:
In the end, Pep out-Simeone'd Simeone himself. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not.
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It just goes to show the strength of the Man City juggernaut. Whatever style you play against them, they have the talent and experience to beat you. You can't out-pass them, you can't outrun them, you can't out-bully them. And, to be fair, this is not a vintage Atleti team right now, yet they still gave City a really hard couple of matches and could have won the tie.

EDIT: It looks like we could see some retrospective punishments handed out to Atleti/Man City players or staff in the aftermath of all the tussles as UEFA reviews CCTV footage and the ref's report. This could be relevant to the competition if any Man City players get slapped with bans.

Liverpool also showed their strength in depth by getting past Benfica in the second leg with seven changes. On paper getting Villareal is an easier path to the final, but frankly if the choice was between on-form cup specialists Villareal and off-form but eternal winners Real Madrid, I'd say it was a coin toss from 'Pool's perspective.
 
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On to the next round for West Ham. And you won’t be facing Barcelona in the next round after their shock home defeat to Frankfurt.

Atalanta are also out, so I guess RB Leipzig will be seen as the favorites now, but the remaining teams seam fairly evenly matched.

Leicester won today setting up an intriguing semifinal with Roma in the Europa Conference League.
 
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FIFA just released a free App, FIFA+...while I am no fan of FIFA, it worth noting that this app allows you to watch full replays of every world cup final from 1966 onwards. Only on iOS and M1 Macs at the moment. It's pretty buggy but it does work.
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
On to the next round for West Ham. And you won’t be facing Barcelona in the next round after their shock home defeat to Frankfurt.

Atalanta are also out, so I guess RB Leipzig will be seen as the favorites now, but the remaining teams seam fairly evenly matched.

Leicester won today setting up an intriguing semifinal with Roma in the Europa Conference League.
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Yes the fact that Barcelona have gone was a good result as well. Although my German colleagues tell me Frankfurt are a good side. I’ll have everything crossed for the semi’s. Could this be our year?
 
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