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Football Thread 2017/18 |OT| Relegated to Community

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D

DBT85

Member
brokenbeans said:
I know United fans who are not happy about Matic. They think he is past it which is daft OK he was expensive but he's proven in the Prem and from a top rival he ain't gonna be cheap.
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They are batty then.

£35m rising to £40m isn't even that bad for a 29 year old proven pl player.

When you then consider this current market where lesser players are selling for more, it's a good deal.
 
Z

Zasa

Member
ambar_hitman said:
Baka is younger is better going forward so I hope he comes good. It looks like Matic really wanted to leave, so board let him go. Strange that Conte couldn't or didn't convince him to stay. Maybe because of his age?
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A Serious Man said:
Bakayoko has a pretty high upside, if Conte can get the best out of him he could be a force.
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I'm not sure Bakayoko is better going forward at all tbh, that's really not his game. His skillset is a bit more limited offensively than Matic's, imo. Matic's ability in the build-up, to play the first pass forward, make the quick turn for the difficult angled pass, to break a press once he recovers the ball, is underrated. Extremely consistent at it as well. Though I'd definitely say Bakayoko is more versatile defensively.

All things considered, a Bakayoko & Kanté midfield would play drastically different than one with Matic as the main ball-carrier.
 
M

Moobabe

Member
Zasa said:
I'm not sure Bakayoko is better going forward at all tbh, that's really not his game. His skillset is a bit more limited offensively than Matic's, imo. Matic's ability in the build-up, to play the first pass forward, make the quick turn for the difficult angled pass, to break a press once he recovers the ball, is underrated. Extremely consistent at it as well. Though I'd definitely say Bakayoko is more versatile defensively.

All things considered, a Bakayoko & Kanté midfield would play drastically different than one with Matic as the main ball-carrier.
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I think I watched 90% of our games last season and Matic declined pretty hard. If not for his wonder strike against Spurs I think he might have had more of a spotlight on him.

I'm not convinced selling him to United was a great idea, but I wasn't against selling him full stop. He was exposed repeatedly as the season went on and became less and less effective in matches, relying on Kante more frequently to do his work as well.
 
K

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
I wonder if Real will be motivated today, they never looked to be back from holidays in any of the pre-season games.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
Moobabe said:
I think I watched 90% of our games last season and Matic declined pretty hard. If not for his wonder strike against Spurs I think he might have had more of a spotlight on him.

I'm not convinced selling him to United was a great idea, but I wasn't against selling him full stop. He was exposed repeatedly as the season went on and became less and less effective in matches, relying on Kante more frequently to do his work as well.
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Agreed. Haven't seen Bakayoko play yet but it became increasingly clear that we needed an upgrade over Matic.
 
Z

Zasa

Member
Moobabe said:
I think I watched 90% of our games last season and Matic declined pretty hard. If not for his wonder strike against Spurs I think he might have had more of a spotlight on him.

I'm not convinced selling him to United was a great idea, but I wasn't against selling him full stop. He was exposed repeatedly as the season went on and became less and less effective in matches, relying on Kante more frequently to do his work as well.
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Disagree, may not be as mobile as he was in the 14/15 season. But he was still stellar last season, & consistent.
 
Lashley

Lashley

Why does he wear the mask!?
Labadal said:
Well, there it is: Klopp confirms that Coutinho is not for sale.
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JtWSyBk.gif
 
M

Moobabe

Member
His Majesty said:
Agreed. Haven't seen Bakayoko play yet but it became increasingly clear that we needed an upgrade over Matic.
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Yep, I saw a little of Bakayoko last season in the CL but not much else.

Zasa said:
Disagree, may not be as mobile as he was in the 14/15 season. But he was still stellar last season, & consistent.
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Time will tell I suppose. I wish him well and he was a great servant for the club, but I'm not sure we're going to miss him.
 
T

TeddyBoy

Member
Unreal Champ said:
If the club does sell Coutinho, I hope Klopp leaves. Nothing worst than making a grown man look like a liar.
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I hope you've got a guaranteed manager lined up to replace Klopp in case Coutinho does leave then.

Wanting Klopp to leave for this is crazy.

TimmmV said:
The owners only let him spend £20m in that instance because Roma still owed money for Riise's transfer, and they could use that against the difference and keep the cash going to Roma down. They did the same with signing Johnson from Portsmouth too (who owed money for Crouch still)

So Benitez had the choice of a talented but injury prone player in Aquilani, or have like £15m to sign a replacement with from another club instead - so he was kind of hamstrung from the get go that summer.

Hicks and Gilette really fucked things up financially at Liverpool, and at the worst possible time too. We are still playing catch up now because of it
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Your being way to kind on the owners pre-H&G, the Moore's are the route cause of our current financial situation.

In a time when Man Utd were exploding commercially and the Premier League was lifting off in the mid 90s, the Moore's did nothing for the club in these areas. We should have exploited our commercial might then and our dominance in the years prior to put ourselves in a financial situation much more dominant than we are now. We could have had finances rivalling United's right now, but instead we're stuck millions behind because of incompetence during those crucial years.

Don't get me wrong, H&G continued this trend but they a marginal improvement over the Moore's'.
 
Z

Zasa

Member
Moobabe said:
Yep, I saw a little of Bakayoko last season in the CL but not much else.



Time will tell I suppose. I wish him well and he was a great servant for the club, but I'm not sure we're going to miss him.
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For sure, I'm more curious to see who you guys end up signing there. And hey, at least you still have Fab ;)
 
S

SplitYourInfinities

Member
If Barça wants Coutinho, then they will have Coutinho. The player wants to leave (he finally will have a proper shot to win a title) and Barça is overpaying for him, it's just matter of time until the Liverpool peeps realize there is nothing they can do.
 
1

11redder

Member
TeddyBoy said:
I hope you've got a guaranteed manager lined up to replace Klopp in case Coutinho does leave then.

Wanting Klopp to leave for this is crazy.



Your being way to kind on the owners pre-H&G, the Moore's are the route cause of our current financial situation.

In a time when Man Utd were exploding commercially and the Premier League was lifting off in the mid 90s, the Moore's did nothing for the club in these areas. We should have exploited our commercial might then and our dominance in the years prior to put ourselves in a financial situation much more dominant than we are now. We could have had finances rivalling United's right now, but instead we're stuck millions behind because of incompetence during those crucial years.

Don't get me wrong, H&G continued this trend but they a marginal improvement over the Moore's'.
Click to expand...
Nah, Moores used his own money to finance the centenary stand and various player signings (Collymore for example), before deciding to sell because he thought he had brought the club as far as he could with the new financial reality at the time.

He obviously fucked up majorly choosing to sell the club to Hicks and Gillette, and didn't exploit the clubs commercial potential anywhere near to the degree he should have done but I believe he always had the club's best interests at heart.

The two cowboys didn't give a single fuck about the club, saddled it with enormous debt, failed to fulfill their promises regarding expansion/new stadium (spade in the ground within 60 days), fucked over the one decent manager we'd had in 20 plus years (pre Klopp), replaced him with fucking Hodgson and ultimately brought the club to the brink of financial collapse.

There's a massive difference between trying to do the right thing and failing due to various shortcomings, and being nothing other than avaricious scum with no interest in anything other than your own material gain.
 
A

ambar_hitman

Member
Moobabe said:
I think I watched 90% of our games last season and Matic declined pretty hard. If not for his wonder strike against Spurs I think he might have had more of a spotlight on him.

I'm not convinced selling him to United was a great idea, but I wasn't against selling him full stop. He was exposed repeatedly as the season went on and became less and less effective in matches, relying on Kante more frequently to do his work as well.
Click to expand...

I watched all our games last season and I agree his form dropped. But still keeping him even if forcibly should have been a better option. However I don't think we forcefully keep any player no matter how good, so he had to be sold. Costa was almost out last season but he was somehow convinced to stay for one more year. We can still force him to play and he will perform for WC aspirations, but I don't think we will do that.
 
G

ghst

thanks for the laugh
look forward to seeing the scousers come and rattle the bins outside the athletics with the coutinho cash in a JD sports bag expecting anything more than a single hair off manu lanzini's ballbag for 100mil.
 
T

TeddyBoy

Member
11redder said:
Nah, Moores used his own money to finance the centenary stand and various player signings (Collymore for example), before deciding to sell because he thought he had brought the club as far as he could with the new financial reality at the time.

He obviously fucked up majorly choosing to sell the club to Hicks and Gillette, and didn't exploit the clubs commercial potential anywhere near to the degree he should have done but I believe he always had the club's best interests at heart.

The two cowboys didn't give a single fuck about the club, saddled it with enormous debt, failed to fulfill their promises regarding expansion/new stadium (spade in the ground within 60 days), fucked over the one decent manager we'd had in 20 plus years (pre Klopp), replaced him with fucking Hodgson and ultimately brought the club to the brink of financial collapse.

There's a massive difference between trying to do the right thing and failing due to various shortcomings, and being nothing other than avaricious scum with no interest in anything other than your own material gain.
Click to expand...

I still think Moore's has done more damage than he's accredited to get.

Moore's needed to sell earlier since he was out of his depth way before the eventual sale to H&G. Having the best interests of the club at heart is nice and all but his inability to act is what led to our current situation by being were it is now.

Your comments regarding H&G are true but it was still Moore's who sold us to them, they should have found someone else.

And that manager comment is harsh on Houllier.
 
N

NHale

Member
Pachimari said:
It also has to be said that we are in incredibly poor form for tonight's game. So it's gonna be a close match.
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Poor form is the true definition of a team starting Smalling, Lindelof, Darmian and Lingard.

At least after today maybe United will be convinced they need a left back a lot more than they need another right back like it seems they want in Aurier.

Gareth Bale might have the best game of his life playing against Darmian and Lindelof helping on the left side...
 
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