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Football Thread |OT18| Have you ever seen a Mackem punch a horse?

Wilbur

Banned
Yurt baby, thanks for that post on the remaining fixtures earlier! Gonna be a close one. Think it would be better in footballing terms if Fiorentina get EL this year to be honest, CL might be a step too far. But the money is massive, and of course Montella deserves to manage there eventually. Still have a feeling he'll be at Roma next year.

That's not how you bargain.

looool
They're such an odd club.

So, I was wandering around whoscored and I noticed that we have some good strikers indeed: El Shaarawy scored 16 goals, Pazzini 15, Balotelli 8 (and we still have 4 games to play). When we won the Scudetto in 2010/2011, Ibra scored 14 goals, Pato 14 and Binho 14. It's pretty good considering that Balo came in three months ago, Pazzo was out for a month and El Shaa stopped scoring in 2013.

I also noticed something else - against the top 7 teams of the Serie A:

-from August to January we got 4 points out of 21 (Juve W, Napoli D) and lost 17 (Inter-Fiorentina-Udinese-Roma-Lazio L, Napoli D),
-then we got 9 points out of 18 vs 6 of them (Udinese-Lazio W, Inter-Fiorentina-Napoli D, Juve L, we still have to play the home game vs Roma).

This means that this year we got 13 points out of 39 with the big teams: we absolutely need to get back to win these games. I'm not saying that we could've won the Scudetto because the current team is clearly not ready, but at least we could've been at the 2nd spot and maybe have some points between us and Napoli. Next year is going to be vital to be more cynical.

Still a young team, which is really the most important thing about that cynicism and cutting edge you need. You have players like De Sciglio and El Sharaawy playing game after game and that includes scraps against teams fighting relegation, top of the table clashes and everything in between. There's a reason that all the old players stuck around for so long. For a team in transition with a coach that isn't necessarily a fantastic one, to be third behind such a strong Juve squad and a Napoli side with no European distractions is a pretty great feat, especially considering where Inter are with some similar problems to yours.

Is De Jong still injured? Very underrated part of the last few City squads I think.
 

Messi

Member
I'm taking a break from GAF for a while guys. Be good in my absence. Don't be JTs to one another, you hear? Good luck to all your teams in all their endeavours in the run in to the end of the season. Ciao.

I hope you come back soon dude :(
 

Linius

Member
I have 3D Land already! And I don't really like white as a colour :p


Yea, hopefully this month! Need to get Luigi's Mansion 2, looks great. How many members do you have already?

I know Sleepless has it, but we haven't played yet. Though I already understood the MP is pretty much made for four players. If you get it we'd have at least three.
 
Still a young team, which is really the most important thing about that cynicism and cutting edge you need. You have players like De Sciglio and El Sharaawy playing game after game and that includes scraps against teams fighting relegation, top of the table clashes and everything in between. There's a reason that all the old players stuck around for so long. For a team in transition with a coach that isn't necessarily a fantastic one, to be third behind such a strong Juve squad and a Napoli side with no European distractions is a pretty great feat, especially considering where Inter are with some similar problems to yours.
I agree on those youngsters like De Sciglio and El Shaa gaining experience game after game, top clubs and relegation teams likewise, things can't possibly be worse than this. I mean, they can't go back to what they were a year ago. The old players were kept both because they were experienced (almost everybody that left last year won two CL) and because it was cheaper to pay them instead of buying new players. But yeah, I'm happy with the third place, as I said before it would be a pretty amazing result considering how we started the season.

Is De Jong still injured? Very underrated part of the last few City squads I think.
Yeah, De Jong is still out, he'll be back next summer.
 

WJD

Member
Only player I really disagree with in the TOTY is Hazard. Could an argument be made for Fellaini even though his second half of the season hasn't been as impressive as the first?
 

Hixx

Member
KuGsj.gif
What the fuck. Lee Ryder has blocked me on twitter. I can't remember ever even fucking sending him a tweet
 

bjaelke

Member
Longy ‏@Longy_NUFC 9m
#isfootballbetterorworse @BBCSport football isnt a game anymore, its nothing more than a money making statistic! #NotSuchABeautifulGame
Retweeted by BBC Sport
Someone had a rough weekend...
Typical deluided NUFC Fan who enjoyes the occasion social beer and a game of golf!!
...oh.
 

Tc91

Member
OptaJoe ‏@OptaJoe 4m
243 - The number of corners Arsenal have taken in the Premier League, from which they have scored three goals. Practice. @nmanix #AskOpta

Now that's a horrible conversion rate.

When they score from a free kick the other week even Jack Wilshere said 'it's unusual for us to score from a set piece' :lol
 

Meier

Member
Rumored away shirt. HHHNNNNGGHHHHH, this is amazing if true.

ManCityAway.jpg


City have been awful at corners this year. Can't imagine our conversion rate is much better.
 

Tc91

Member
Foooook sake. The 8 on my Marchisio shirt has peeled off a bit in the wash. Any way to fix it?

It's like the top left corner of the 8.
 

Nyx

Member
I am surprised as well how good they are playing this season.Since all there top players were sold the last few years and they had huge financial problems.

Correct, no one expected this, props go out to Jan Wouters and the youth system which is turning out to be one of the best in The Netherlands.

It would be a damn shame though if we fuck it up in the Euro League playoffs and end up empty handed. When we end up in 9th place I love the playoffs, when we end up this far from the nr 7 and 8 in the league I don't like the playoffs at all haha.
 

Slizz

Member
Yo Slizz

Press is way overpowered for whatever dumb league she is running at the moment

http://i.imgur.com/XUbvpc7.gif[IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/WGelEkT.gif[/MG]



.[/QUOTE]

Shes a beaaast. She should come stateside but shes learning from Marta right now on her current team.
 

Tc91

Member
Real Madrid take on Borussia Dortmund at the Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday 30th April in the crucial second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final - and we’ve got a fantastic free bet offer to add to the excitement.

Place a pre-match bet on the Real Madrid v Borussia Dortmund game and we will give you a free In-Play bet to the same stake on the big match.

They are back with the free bet offer!

Edit: Thanks for the advice on the shirt btw, I'll try the iron on it later.
 

Meier

Member
Kondogbia says its his boyhood dream to play for Madrid. *begrudgingly wipes one name from the summer list*

Come on Patrick, work your magic.
 
So, I was wandering around whoscored and I noticed that we have some good strikers indeed: El Shaarawy scored 16 goals, Pazzini 15, Balotelli 8 (and we still have 4 games to play). When we won the Scudetto in 2010/2011, Ibra scored 14 goals, Pato 14 and Binho 14. It's pretty good considering that Balo came in three months ago, Pazzo was out for a month and El Shaa stopped scoring in 2013.

I also noticed something else - against the top 7 teams of the Serie A:

-from August to January we got 4 points out of 21 (Juve W, Napoli D) and lost 17 (Inter-Fiorentina-Udinese-Roma-Lazio L, Napoli D),
-then we got 9 points out of 18 vs 6 of them (Udinese-Lazio W, Inter-Fiorentina-Napoli D, Juve L, we still have to play the home game vs Roma).

This means that this year we got 13 points out of 39 with the big teams: we absolutely need to get back to win these games. I'm not saying that we could've won the Scudetto because the current team is clearly not ready, but at least we could've been at the 2nd spot and maybe have some points between us and Napoli. Next year is going to be vital to be more cynical.

imo our problem against the big sides has everything to do with:

1. our midfield. juve, napoli, fiorentina, maybe even roma and lazio all have better midfields than us. we have real quality players in montolivo and de jong but the former cannot do it all alone and the latter has been injured all season. and we still need at least one or two more class CMs (i'd take strootman and bonaventura, plz.)

2. our defense. we have trouble controlling certain games because our defense has been poor. control starts from the back, we need at least a new starting CB to play beside mexes who is intelligent and comfortable with the ball at his feet, like thiago silva was.

3. allegri. he gets outwitted every time we face a decent manager. the newspapers know every lineup days before each match, and you can bet the opposition managers do as well. and during the game, he is extremely slow to react to adversity. we really need a better manager.

hopefully next season this three issues will be fixed, and as you said we should at least get 2nd place comfortably.
 

Salazar

Member
Yet asked if the 24-year-old would like to play in the Premier League, Malik Barthel said: "I can tell you only one thing - Robert is interested in the future coming to the Premier League. The Premier League is very interesting for Robert. How long is the future, I cannot say to you. I think this summer is not the future."

Do one, Malik.

Gerry Cox ‏@GerryCox 1h
Ossie Ardiles says @GarethBale11 should stay at #THFC if he wants to get closer to #Messi and #Ronaldo:

fucking lol

I can smell ur fear Ardiles
 

Zabojnik

Member
imo our problem against the big sides has everything to do with:

1. our midfield. juve, napoli, fiorentina, maybe even roma and lazio all have better midfields than us. we have real quality players in montolivo and de jong but the former cannot do it all alone and the latter has been injured all season. and we still need at least one or two more class CMs (i'd take strootman and bonaventura, plz.)

What are your (and Lucifer's) thoughts on Boateng?
 
imo our problem against the big sides has everything to do with:

1. our midfield. juve, napoli, fiorentina, maybe even roma and lazio all have better midfields than us. we have real quality players in montolivo and de jong but the former cannot do it all alone and the latter has been injured all season. and we still need at least one or two more class CMs (i'd take strootman and bonaventura, plz.)
You and me both. The midfield has been a problem for a few years now, assuming that next year we'll have Monto and De Jong as starters, we still need another CM, and Strootman would be pretty much perfect. But he has a price tag that's pretty much out of our reach. And considering that we'll focus on the Primavera team now we'll probably see Cristante with the first team next year.
2. our defense. we have trouble controlling certain games because our defense has been poor. control starts from the back, we need at least a new starting CB to play beside mexes who is intelligent and comfortable with the ball at his feet, like thiago silva was.
I think that our defense needs somebody charismatic, with leadership skills. Once we get him, we'll be pretty much set. Mexes will simply do whatever he's being told, and Abate/De Sciglio will continue to do their work on the flanks. They still have to get better with their cross, though.
3. allegri. he gets outwitted every time we face a decent manager. the newspapers know every lineup days before each match, and you can bet the opposition managers do as well. and during the game, he is extremely slow to react to adversity. we really need a better manager.
Spot on. The Scudetto came after a really bad year from Inter, which helped him a lot, and some incredible performances from some of our players (Yepes, Nesta, MVB, Boateng and Robinho). When things started to get bad, especially with Boateng and Binho not performing like they did their first year, he started to have a really really bad time. Clearly, the way that we spent our 2012 summer was not exactly expected by anyone and he has done a good job in finding a decent line-up that could be useful for the players that we ended up having, but he still shows from time to time that he's far from being Milan material.
What are your (and Lucifer's) thoughts on Boateng?
As I wrote before, he had his best year when we won the Scudetto. After that, he has gone missing, basically. I'm not sure if I'd keep him for another year, he isn't realiable as two years ago and probably selling him next summer would be the best thing for us. Ibra was very important to him on the pitch, with him gone it's pretty difficult for Prince to perform as he did in 2011.
 
-----------Neymar------------
------------Messi--------------
-Bale-----------------Iniesta--
-------Biscuit--Xavi-----------
Alba--Hummels-PK--Alves---
-------A Goalkeeper----------

Can't wait.

Bale is an amazing player, but I have a feeling he will be a flop in Spain. Reminds me of McManaman; arrived at Madrid; granted he arrived as a free agent but was never used to his full potential due to the slower pace of the spanish league.

If he goes to Spain, it should be to Madrid, @ Barca his talent will be wasted; Barcelona doesnt use long passes to the space like it used to - in the days of Giuly -.

Also 4-3-3, never 4-2-3-1
 
Kondogbia says its his boyhood dream to play for Madrid. *begrudgingly wipes one name from the summer list*

Come on Patrick, work your magic.
He is a good player, but he is nowhere near the level Madrid newspapers are trying to sell him, As called him the next Vieira XD

There are better options for the same price, Inler, Nainggolan, Strootman, Jucilei, Fer, etc
 
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