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Football Thread 13/14 |OT17| I'm Spartacus

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Lakitu

st5fu
The league is unpredictable and it's a big statement to say Liverpool won't be involved in any other title races in the foreseeable future, anything can happen but unless your Mystic Meg, no one knows, which makes it utter crap to me. I do believe that should we not win it this year, we'll still have other chances over the next few years.

The only thing that can possibly change is Man Utd getting back in the hunt, which will happen once they actually get a decent manager. Chelsea, City have unlimited spending power. Fat lot of good that's done for Chelsea and Man City against Man Utd and Liverpool this year, who've gelled as a team and have been better as a attacking unit. But as I said, football is unpredictable, I'd like to believe we will sustain a good era over the next few years of challenging for the league.
 

Blablurn

Member
2,w=993,c=0.bild.jpg


lol matthäus

Matthäus: "Drmic's wife is looking for a house in london"

Drmic: "I'm solo"

"Experts" these days.
 

TeddyBoy

Member
I'll get jumped for saying this but if Liverpool don't win the league this season then they may not for a much while longer.

I'm with Odd, I don't think this is a controversial opinion. Liverpool's starting eleven is still pretty much the same eleven as the team that finished 7th last year (except Mignolet). We'll also have Champions league next season and Rodgers doesn't rotate too much.

However if you look at Liverpool's results overall, they are winning the matchs they have to and so are City, Chelsea and Arsenal (up until very recently). The competition was also winning well, it wasn't that everyone was inconsistent and Liverpool was the least inconsistent. Liverpool just won consistently.

The average age of the squad is quite young too, these players can only get better.

Chelsea, City and United will strengthen in key areas in the summer (CB for City, striker for Chelsea, Baines for United), if we're going to win the league now is the time.
 

Walshy

Member
Hope Liverpool got the inevitable bad performance out of the way against Sunderland midweek.

Can't afford anything less than a win today, hopefully Sterling starts to expose their fullbacks. I'd start Lucas over Allen too.
 

subtles

Member
Carlinhos confirms he's been in talks with Inter Milan.

It seems like Italy is still the preferred destination for South American players.
 

Cheers. Cissokho would have scored that :p

I will be on a plane :/

What will the banner say?

Hope Liverpool got the inevitable bad performance out of the way against Sunderland midweek.

Can't afford anything less than a win today, hopefully Sterling starts to expose their fullbacks. I'd start Lucas over Allen too.

Yep. I'm fucking done with the 'it doesn't matter that we dropped points, our rivals did as well so things are as the were at the beginning of the weekend' attitude. win win win win win win win. The oppurtunity is in our hands, we have to take it.


Worth noting that every time City drop points (and Chelsea to a lesser extent), their goal difference is either sitting still or going backwards. Not only do we have a chance to take the mathematical driving seat in this title race, we can also possibly overhaul the goal difference disadvantage with 2 or 3 great results. Have to play it smart though regarding that, can't afford to go gung-ho if we're 1-0 up in the 90th minute
 

Wilbur

Banned
That Gareth Bale goal.. that...that shouldn't have been possible in real life even against a lowly team like Rayo. And I guess Rayo isn't even completely terrible this year to make it that much better.

Isco is wasted there. :(

:lol Meierperbole. I love it.
 

Wilbur

Banned
Hitcher as well, oh man

"Interesting to note that when Chelsea drop points, they don't improve their goal difference"

Boys what's going on :lol
 
Hitcher as well, oh man

"Interesting to note that when Chelsea drop points, they don't improve their goal difference"

Boys what's going on :lol

I said it's worth noting, not that it's interesting :p

Just haven't heard it mentioned yet, even though it could easily go down to GD. It's like having a tenth of a point added onto the number of points dropped :p

@Sal, do you mean the machine that converts small coins into notes/larger coins? I think it takes a pretty big percentage, like 20%. Probably best off waiting til it's quiet, and either using the selfscan, or getting it exchanged at the tobacco desk.

Depending how much it comes to, obviously.
 

Suen

Member
That Gareth Bale goal.. that...that shouldn't have been possible in real life even against a lowly team like Rayo. And I guess Rayo isn't even completely terrible this year to make it that much better.



Isco is wasted there. :(
Isco is alive, Morata is alive.

#TheFutureOfMadrid
 

Wilbur

Banned
So is 'Moyes should be sacked' yet we still go on about it in no great detail a lot of the time :p

I wish we'd stop

We were talking about something so stunningly erotic in whatsapp the other day and then kipless pipes in with "Moyes Moyes etc etc"

Took me right out of the moment
 
Enjoying the Liverpool creative passing compilation.

Hnnnggnhhh

The backline+Gerrard still give me a heart attack when they triangle their way out of defense when being closed down. Wonder if it's because I don't think we have the players to get away with it a comfortable percentage of the time, or if it's because I'm just not used to it.

@Barca/Bayern/Arsenal fans, do you still get worried when you play the ball out of defense and into midfield with intricate short passes, where you're open to an attack if one of the passes/touches goes slightly wrong?
 

Salazar

Member
@Barca/Bayern/Arsenal fans, do you still get worried when you play the ball out of defense and into midfield with intricate short passes, where you're open to an attack if one of the passes/touches goes slightly wrong?

As opposed to Vidic or Ferdinand pumping it over Rooney's head, and Chris Waddle piping up with "oh, that Darren Fletcher. See, he can get the ball back, he's a good retriever, you might say, but he doesn't want the ball".

YES HE FUCKING DOES YOU MAD, IDIOTIC, BORING TWAT
 
The backline+Gerrard still give me a heart attack when they triangle their way out of defense when being closed down. Wonder if it's because I don't think we have the players to get away with it a comfortable percentage of the time, or if it's because I'm just not used to it.

@Barca/Bayern/Arsenal fans, do you still get worried when you play the ball out of defense and into midfield with intricate short passes, where you're open to an attack if one of the passes/touches goes slightly wrong?

I think Ozil lost the ball twice causing a goal in the match against Liverpool because of this. Arsenal have been caught way too many times this way.
 
As opposed to Vidic or Ferdinand pumping it over Rooney's head, and Chris Waddle piping up with "oh, that Darren Fletcher. See, he can get the ball back, he's a good retriever, you might say, but he doesn't want the ball".

YES HE FUCKING DOES YOU MAD, IDIOTIC, BORING TWAT

Was it Waddle and Owen yesterday? I thought both were co-commentators?

Both are fucking turd at their jobs, either way. The word 'pelanty' is the only decent thing Waddle's ever done since hanging up his boots

@Bacon, that was the opposite, if anything. The ball was played out too slowly, with too many gaps between your players, covered by our players. When Ozil got the ball near the halfway line, he had nobody to pass to.
 

Salazar

Member
Was it Waddle and Owen yesterday? I thought both were co-commentators?

Both are fucking turd at their jobs, either way. The word 'pelanty' is the only decent thing Waddle's ever done since hanging up his boots

Waddle on NBC, Owen on BT

I switched at halftime. No real difference. Both total arses.
 

subtles

Member
It depends on the player/situation for me. I'm confident Joe Allen can maneuver in tight spaces and play quick short passes so don't worry as much when he's closed down compared to Henderson for example, even though Hendo has shown he's very good playing the ball first time.

I do however recall some of our blunders last season. :lol

Flano is the one player that has consistently surprised me when on the ball. If he had better play in the final third he'd be quite the FB imo.
 

GorillaJu

Member
I prefer we pass the ball out of defense, because nothing is more frustrating to me than clearing long balls straight to the opposition so they can attack again.

It can be nervy at times but its much more effective for counter-attacking then blasting it and praying Suarez can win the duel for the ball, though sometimes he does in laughable fashion. Love those goals where the defender just shits a brick as Suarez is closing in and then do something stupid with the ball and Suarez steals it and scores.
 
Well that's the downside of that type of play. If the opponent presses well and you can't get the ball out of midfield you're boned.

Yeah. I fucking hate watching football when your team is penned in and it feels like a goal is not only inevitable for them, but they're making it impossible to counterattack. Southampton at home felt a bit like that, they wouldn't give us 3 seconds on the damn ball :p

It's even worse when your team voluntarily plays like that, like we did against Italy at Euro 2012


@Odd, I love it when Suarez just stands under the ball with his arse shoved out, asking the defender to either foul him, or let him control the ball :D
 

Suen

Member
I just saw some of the highlights from Espanyol - Barcelona yesterday. The only right thing done yesterday was to give Casilla a red card for what he did outside the box.

Neymar handled a ball which went against Javi Lopez arm and instead of giving Neymar a yellow card and Espanyol a FK Barca gets a penalty.

Another incident was when Neymar and Javi Lopez were chasing the ball. Mascherano comes from inside the box, jumps past Lopez and put his arm out and slaps him in the face. Whether it was a penalty or not is very hard to say. Looking at the replays Mascherano does make the first contact with Javi Lopez outside the box but keeps pushing his arm as Lopez steps in the box. Deciding if it was a pen might not have been an easy decision for the ref but the least you'd expect is a FK for Espanyol and Mascherano sent off, not only for a late challenge but for not even having a good opportunity of cutting in between Neymar and Lopez to get the ball and intentionally slapping Lopez. So what did the ref do? Nothing, he told them to play on.

You can't make this shit up, another ref-handed victory in a big clash for Barca :lol

For those interested the the video of this incident is (unfortunately) only available at Marca but let's focus on the content and not the source.
 
I just saw some of the highlights from Espanyol - Barcelona yesterday. The only right thing done yesterday was to give Casilla a red card for what he did outside the box.

Neymar handled a ball which went against Javi Lopez arm and instead of giving Neymar a yellow card and Espanyol a FK Barca gets a penalty.

Another incident was when Neymar and Javi Lopez were chasing the ball. Mascherano comes from inside the box, jumps past Lopez and put his arm out and slaps him in the face. Whether it was a penalty or not is very hard to say. Looking at the replays Mascherano does make the first contact with Javi Lopez outside the box but keeps pushing his arm as Lopez steps in the box. Deciding if it was a pen might not have been an easy decision for the ref but the least you'd expect is a FK for Espanyol and Mascherano sent off, not only for a late challenge but for not even having a good opportunity of cutting in between Neymar and Lopez to get the ball and intentionally slapping Lopez. So what did the ref do? Nothing, he told them to play on.

You can't make this shit up, another ref-handed victory in a big clash for Barca :lol

For those interested the the video of this incident is (unfortunately) only available at Marca but let's focus on the content and not the source.

Too difficult to tell if that's intentional imo

Certainly a free kick and a booking.
 

subtles

Member
Looking at the squad we don't really have a player that can carry the ball up the field with the same conviction as Coutinho. The speed at which our play transitions when he's on the ball isn't even matched by Sterling's pace imo.
 
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