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Football Thread 2014/15 |OT3| Got to be a top 5 worst thread title we've ever had.
- Thread starter Meier
- Start date
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FootballFan
Member
He beat yo champion ass when you had Cristiano in the CL final m8.
EPL is next on his list after Bundesliga, just wait.
Freewheelin'
Member
Speaking of FM, doing very well with Southampton (in the league, mind. Got knocked out of the FA Cup and League Cup very early by shit teams
). 5th after 21 games, 10 games unbeaten in a row, just beat Chelsea 3-1 at home and my top scorer is Pelle, I believe. My target at the start of the season was a top half finish, so in that respect, I think I'm doing quite well.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Did I fucking stutter when I said the league?
TheLucifer
Member
Milan Channel just confirmed that there's a deal going on between Liverpool and Milan for Balotelli. No loan, nothing like that. Simple transfer.
Seems like a brilliant idea selling our striker TWO WEEKS before the end of the transfer window. Brilliant.
Seems like a brilliant idea selling our striker TWO WEEKS before the end of the transfer window. Brilliant.
Speaking of FM, doing very well with Southampton (in the league, mind. Got knocked out of the FA Cup and League Cup very early by shit teams). 5th after 21 games, 10 games unbeaten in a row, just beat Chelsea 3-1 at home and my top scorer is Pelle, I believe. My target at the start of the season was a top half finish, so in that respect, I think I'm doing quite well.
Best thing about being Saints is the ridiculous regens you get. Normally at least 1 first teamer a season.
Finally got my first champions league points with Port Talbot beating Ateltico at home and drawing with Dinamo Kiev away.
Finding hard to keep hold of my star player, turned down a £12m bid from Celtic and he's not happy. Signed him for £750 from our Arch Rivals Afan Lido after spending a season unsettling him.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Even more brilliant to Liverpool to buy him
Freewheelin'
Member
What are regens? Sorry, I don't really know too much about the game despite playing them for years :lol
TheLucifer
Member
That still makes more sense to me than selling our youngest striker this close to the end of August.
I don't care if he leaves, but I really wanted to see this deal sorted out a month ago, not today.
Freewheelin'
Member
lol, so are they just made-up players with amazing stats?
How has he been at Milan?
TheLucifer
Member
Meh. First six months? Great. Last season? Mostly mediocre, some great goals here and there, not even a glimpse of teamwork for a lot of matches. Sure, the rest of the team was awful last year except for a few, but he stopped trying after a while.
At 24, Liverpool is going to be his last chance to become great. After that, it's going to be a Cassano-like career all over again.
Broder Salsa
Banned
I need a protective layer between me and my dirty ass sheets
Paul Scholes on United's decline
In the few weeks at the end of last season when I was part of Ryan Giggs’ coaching team at Manchester United, I was asked my opinion on whether the club should sign Cesc Fabregas or Toni Kroos this summer. I thought there was only one response to that difficult choice between two great players. I said United should sign them both.
I do not know what happened to the Kroos and Fabregas deals over the summer. The club were originally working on both of them. Perhaps the deal could not be done in the end. Either way, the situation now, with 11 days of the transfer window left, has become increasingly urgent for my former club. They have to sign some quality players.
I am scared for United. Genuinely scared that they could go into the wilderness in the same way that Liverpool did in the 1990s. I realise that it is just 15 months since United won the league for the 20th time in the club’s history. I know that it is still the most commercially successful club in the country. It has the biggest stadium in the Premier League, and the biggest match-day revenue. But ultimately all a club’s success and standing are built on the foundations of what happens on the pitch. After the defeat to Swansea City, and only one player signed since the end of June, I feel it is time for major change. What do United need? Five players. Not five players with potential. Five experienced players... for now. Five proper players who can hit the ground running and turn the situation around. United’s forwards are as good as any team in the league. The problem is what comes behind them.
My five would be: Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Raphaël Varane, Angel Di Maria and Mats Hummels. It would be one very big cheque for Real Madrid, given that four of them would come from that club. It would be hard to land them all. But that is the level that United need at this stage of the transfer window. I have not seen a lot of Marcos Rojo. He may fit the bill.
Let us be clear about one thing. I am sick of having to criticise the club to which I gave my life as a footballer. But this is a United team that lost seven league games at Old Trafford last season and began on Saturday by losing at home to Swansea. United need to arrest their decline. In those years under Sir Alex Ferguson, when trophy followed trophy, this sort of mediocrity was unthinkable. But it is happening. Looking at those five players, the obvious issue with Alonso for United fans would be his past with Liverpool. So what? He has that quality United lack. He is not the quickest but then he never was. Neither is Andrea Pirlo but he can play a bit. Alonso has a superb range of passing. He can shoot too. I noticed he signed a contract extension in January but, with Kroos as well as Luka Modric at his club, perhaps now would be the time he would consider leaving. I like Khedira for his energy and his experience. He has won the World Cup with Germany and the Champions League with Madrid in the space of two months. This is a footballer with confidence. His passing is more limited than Alonso but he has great qualities. And it seems as if he is available.
As for Di Maria, I feel £50m is a lot but he has something that Old Trafford has lacked of late. He would bring that excitement to home games. When United play at home, they need to have players that have the pace and ability to go past opponents and lift the crowd. The club have always had them in their best years: Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, even Carlos Tevez. Antonio Valencia provided it, certainly in his early time there. Today you look around the squad and ask who will give United that impetus at home. Adnan Januzaj? Playing away from home is a different prospect. There is less pressure to attack. You keep the ball, quieten the home support and wait for your opportunity. At home it is a different proposition.
I like Varane, and I feel his chances might be limited again this season at Madrid. Hummels has said many times that he is committed to Borussia Dortmund, but he has the sort of experience that United need in defence. Watching them on Saturday I was struck that every time Swansea were in United’s half it looked like they could score.
My concern, as ever, is about the longterm fitness of Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. In the 3-5-2 system, Jones and Smalling never looked solid. Jones is another one of those for whom the question of “potential” comes up. He is 22 now and has been a United player for three years. I don’t feel that he senses danger in the way that a centre-half should do. I would prefer him to play at right-back, or in midfield.
As for Chris Smalling, he just looked exposed in the 3-5-2 formation. There were times when Wilfried Bony seemed to get the better of him physically. Neither Jones nor Smalling are great talkers on the pitch. Ideally, you would have liked Tyler Blackett to take his first steps in the senior team alongside Nemanja Vidic or Rio Ferdinand, but even saying that I find myself asking, why are United’s current centre-halves not up to it?
I still have my doubts about Van Gaal’s 3-5-2 formation. I did wonder during the World Cup whether he looked at the Netherlands squad available to him and decided that his best bet was to pack the midfield, make his side as tight as possible and hope Robin van Persie or Arjen Robben could get him goals. I wouldn’t say it was exciting football. I worry that he might be taking the same approach at United. It is not all Van Gaal’s fault. The problems have been there for a while. I suppose I should have realised that the very fact I was still playing for United at 38 years old was a sign that there was not enough pressure on us senior players from those coming into the side. It was the same last season with Ryan. At times last season he was the best player on the pitch, at the age of 40.
The sad, and worrying, aspect of it all, after watching Manchester City and Chelsea over the first three days of the season, is that United are not on that level. They may not even be on the same level as Arsenal and Liverpool, who I think are the next grade down. United must make some signings in the last two weeks of the transfer window. The club continues to be a commercial success. But that is based, like everything else at a football club, on what happens on the pitch. That is the simple basis of any great club and United are no different. We are told that the money is there. I would say that now is the time to start spending it.
TL;DR
Nothing we didnt already know, United are in trouble
In the few weeks at the end of last season when I was part of Ryan Giggs’ coaching team at Manchester United, I was asked my opinion on whether the club should sign Cesc Fabregas or Toni Kroos this summer. I thought there was only one response to that difficult choice between two great players. I said United should sign them both.
I do not know what happened to the Kroos and Fabregas deals over the summer. The club were originally working on both of them. Perhaps the deal could not be done in the end. Either way, the situation now, with 11 days of the transfer window left, has become increasingly urgent for my former club. They have to sign some quality players.
I am scared for United. Genuinely scared that they could go into the wilderness in the same way that Liverpool did in the 1990s. I realise that it is just 15 months since United won the league for the 20th time in the club’s history. I know that it is still the most commercially successful club in the country. It has the biggest stadium in the Premier League, and the biggest match-day revenue. But ultimately all a club’s success and standing are built on the foundations of what happens on the pitch. After the defeat to Swansea City, and only one player signed since the end of June, I feel it is time for major change. What do United need? Five players. Not five players with potential. Five experienced players... for now. Five proper players who can hit the ground running and turn the situation around. United’s forwards are as good as any team in the league. The problem is what comes behind them.
My five would be: Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Raphaël Varane, Angel Di Maria and Mats Hummels. It would be one very big cheque for Real Madrid, given that four of them would come from that club. It would be hard to land them all. But that is the level that United need at this stage of the transfer window. I have not seen a lot of Marcos Rojo. He may fit the bill.
Let us be clear about one thing. I am sick of having to criticise the club to which I gave my life as a footballer. But this is a United team that lost seven league games at Old Trafford last season and began on Saturday by losing at home to Swansea. United need to arrest their decline. In those years under Sir Alex Ferguson, when trophy followed trophy, this sort of mediocrity was unthinkable. But it is happening. Looking at those five players, the obvious issue with Alonso for United fans would be his past with Liverpool. So what? He has that quality United lack. He is not the quickest but then he never was. Neither is Andrea Pirlo but he can play a bit. Alonso has a superb range of passing. He can shoot too. I noticed he signed a contract extension in January but, with Kroos as well as Luka Modric at his club, perhaps now would be the time he would consider leaving. I like Khedira for his energy and his experience. He has won the World Cup with Germany and the Champions League with Madrid in the space of two months. This is a footballer with confidence. His passing is more limited than Alonso but he has great qualities. And it seems as if he is available.
As for Di Maria, I feel £50m is a lot but he has something that Old Trafford has lacked of late. He would bring that excitement to home games. When United play at home, they need to have players that have the pace and ability to go past opponents and lift the crowd. The club have always had them in their best years: Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, even Carlos Tevez. Antonio Valencia provided it, certainly in his early time there. Today you look around the squad and ask who will give United that impetus at home. Adnan Januzaj? Playing away from home is a different prospect. There is less pressure to attack. You keep the ball, quieten the home support and wait for your opportunity. At home it is a different proposition.
I like Varane, and I feel his chances might be limited again this season at Madrid. Hummels has said many times that he is committed to Borussia Dortmund, but he has the sort of experience that United need in defence. Watching them on Saturday I was struck that every time Swansea were in United’s half it looked like they could score.
My concern, as ever, is about the longterm fitness of Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. In the 3-5-2 system, Jones and Smalling never looked solid. Jones is another one of those for whom the question of “potential” comes up. He is 22 now and has been a United player for three years. I don’t feel that he senses danger in the way that a centre-half should do. I would prefer him to play at right-back, or in midfield.
As for Chris Smalling, he just looked exposed in the 3-5-2 formation. There were times when Wilfried Bony seemed to get the better of him physically. Neither Jones nor Smalling are great talkers on the pitch. Ideally, you would have liked Tyler Blackett to take his first steps in the senior team alongside Nemanja Vidic or Rio Ferdinand, but even saying that I find myself asking, why are United’s current centre-halves not up to it?
I still have my doubts about Van Gaal’s 3-5-2 formation. I did wonder during the World Cup whether he looked at the Netherlands squad available to him and decided that his best bet was to pack the midfield, make his side as tight as possible and hope Robin van Persie or Arjen Robben could get him goals. I wouldn’t say it was exciting football. I worry that he might be taking the same approach at United. It is not all Van Gaal’s fault. The problems have been there for a while. I suppose I should have realised that the very fact I was still playing for United at 38 years old was a sign that there was not enough pressure on us senior players from those coming into the side. It was the same last season with Ryan. At times last season he was the best player on the pitch, at the age of 40.
The sad, and worrying, aspect of it all, after watching Manchester City and Chelsea over the first three days of the season, is that United are not on that level. They may not even be on the same level as Arsenal and Liverpool, who I think are the next grade down. United must make some signings in the last two weeks of the transfer window. The club continues to be a commercial success. But that is based, like everything else at a football club, on what happens on the pitch. That is the simple basis of any great club and United are no different. We are told that the money is there. I would say that now is the time to start spending it.
TL;DR
Nothing we didnt already know, United are in trouble
ShogunDarius
Member
so for LFC it's Falcao or Balo? a rock and a hard place.
Well they are shit at first because they are 15 but nurture them right and you can pretend to be wengy
Or Borini, i guess
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
9/10 regens are complete garbage, but the diamonds are easy to identify. Teams with better youth academies obviously have a higher chance of producing said diamonds.
I usually just buy them when they're young from other teams, I'm the true Wenger.
Vivalaraza
Member
Booked my tickets to Brazil yeahhhhhh
Also id love Balotelli at my club. He's just hilarious. And he could be quite good. It's just money. I'd be excited if I were a Liverpool fan.
Also id love Balotelli at my club. He's just hilarious. And he could be quite good. It's just money. I'd be excited if I were a Liverpool fan.
My opinion of Balotelli is extremely low. When we were linked they were the darkest days.
At least he doesn't bite people. There's a positive.
Are you not a lil late to the party??
Vivalaraza
Member
He would be your guy though. Like he had to be the man, to carry the strike force and attack. I wouldn't want to rely on him.
I don't think that's the case for Liverpool. They can afford to take the good with the bad/hilarious.
cartoon_soldier
Member
No Lahm as LB?
I don't know, might be a bit toxic for the dressing room. I can see him clashing with Sturridge personality-wise. Best case scenerio would be they get competitive, but not sure about them working together really.
Wut. He is DM.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Damn son, that's a mighty fine vacation spot.
Assuming its for a vacation and not to scout and tap Lucas Silva for us.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Just a question, calm down. It's not like Lahm can't play a LB position.
I thought you wanted Lahm to play as a full back instead of DM?
FlutterPuffs
Member
Feel bad about all of those things I said about Vincent Tan.
Wonder why he didnt just tell the problems McKay was making to the press though?
cartoon_soldier
Member
I don't think anyone would have said last season they supported Tan's decision on McKay and it may have cost them by not staying up. Up good on him for not only getting rid of the disease but also reporting him to the FA.
Also, the whole Palace getting Cardiff's tactics and formations ordeal only leading to a 10000 pound fine? That's fucked up.
TheLucifer
Member
22m for Milan, Di Marzio says it could be over by tonight. And we might go for Negredo (according to SportMediased, so there's that).
I'm open to Balotelli as a backup to Falcao, I really am. He's much better than the other dross available, like Bony or Eto'o.
The big question here is whether Brendan can lassoo him into the ethos of the group and get him to seize the opportunity. Everyone here, myself includes, believes that's a step too far, even for Brendan.
Strangely the situation with Balotelli is very similar to Sturridge. Progressing into his 20s, one big move remaining for him, undoubted potential to be a truly class striker.
I believe Falcao will go to Real and thus I believe we'll pursue this one. If Brendan can extract the good from Balotelli it'll be a huge achievement.
Either way he's a fucking laugh and when he smiles, I smile. Football's meant to be enjoyed and Balotelli entertains the tits off me.
The big question here is whether Brendan can lassoo him into the ethos of the group and get him to seize the opportunity. Everyone here, myself includes, believes that's a step too far, even for Brendan.
Strangely the situation with Balotelli is very similar to Sturridge. Progressing into his 20s, one big move remaining for him, undoubted potential to be a truly class striker.
I believe Falcao will go to Real and thus I believe we'll pursue this one. If Brendan can extract the good from Balotelli it'll be a huge achievement.
Either way he's a fucking laugh and when he smiles, I smile. Football's meant to be enjoyed and Balotelli entertains the tits off me.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Agreed lol
There's no question that Mario brings the entertainment factor that walked out the door with Suarez. Maybe Liverpool is a boring enough place for him to calm down a bit?
Either way, fun times ahead. Viva your thoughts echo what I said as wellMario will probably do well in a situation where he doesn't have to be the main man all the time. When he has that pressure on him he just flips the table over and says fuck you, but if Brendan can manage him in ways Mancini and Allegri could not, well, he's clearly very talented and could bring us what we need.
Falcao was just a pipe dream anyway. FSG are too canny to bring in a player who will have no resale value after two years anyway.
Either way, fun times ahead. Viva your thoughts echo what I said as wellMario will probably do well in a situation where he doesn't have to be the main man all the time. When he has that pressure on him he just flips the table over and says fuck you, but if Brendan can manage him in ways Mancini and Allegri could not, well, he's clearly very talented and could bring us what we need.
Falcao was just a pipe dream anyway. FSG are too canny to bring in a player who will have no resale value after two years anyway.
Won't be done tonight.
As soon as the Falcao/Real situation is resolved our move for Balotelli will intensify.
You really think you can get both ? Get outta here :lol
FootballFan
Member
The press already painted him a villain and would never had sided with him though without something substantial like this.
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