It Could Get A Bit Messi In Here - The Football Thread.

wokeupnew said:
Yeah games are coming hard and fast, it’s almost too much. Also City seems to have got the league in the bag so I don’t know why everyone else is still trying 😓
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18 games left, de Bruyne injured, the games coming hard and fast, Europe about to come back and a harder run of games next month.
 
Joe Mac said:
18 games left, de Bruyne injured, the games coming hard and fast, Europe about to come back and a harder run of games next month.
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Lol I completely forgot about De Bruyne out. They’ve got a stacked bench, Gundogan is playing out of his skin. I think it’s theirs until they slip up. But this season is crazy anything can happen.
 
wokeupnew said:
Lol I completely forgot about De Bruyne out. They’ve got a stacked bench, Gundogan is playing out of his skin. I think it’s theirs until they slip up. But this season is crazy anything can happen.
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They may well win it but I’d never call a season this early unless it’s like last year. In my experience when it’s this tight it’s usually won by the team that either gets knocked out of Europe/cups early or the team who can grind out a run of one goal wins when the games are coming so hard and fast that you can’t rely on performance every match, it’s more about attitude and desire and finding a way to win 1-0 or 2-1 when you’re playing shit.
 
Messi, holy shit. Can this be real!? It looks like Barca’s unsustainable financial situation is going to get even worse. (If I could read spanish better, I would have realized that this was his expiring contract, not a new one)

 
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Joe Mac said:
When your sole tactic is “Kane will win it for us” it starts to unravel when he’s not around...

A back 5 against Brighton though, man is that negative against a bottom 4 team...
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There’s enough quality in the team to get a result without Kane. We shouldn’t need to rely on him but we do.

it’s seems whatever tactics José is trying is just plain garbage. Poch had us playing 2+2=5 at the best of that era, right now Joséball is 2+2=3. I don’t know how they’re this bad. Our form is so shit, there’s lots of deadwood but this team is not this bad. I can’t defend some of these choices it’s just awful.
 
wokeupnew said:
There’s enough quality in the team to get a result without Kane. We shouldn’t need to rely on him but we do.

it’s seems whatever tactics José is trying is just plain garbage. Poch had us playing 2+2=5 at the best of that era, right now Joséball is 2+2=3. I don’t know how they’re this bad. Our form is so shit, there’s lots of deadwood but this team is not this bad. I can’t defend some of these choices it’s just awful.
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I agree but that’s not how you’re being set up. Everything goes though him, he’s playing as the 9 and 10. It’s inevitable that there’s going to be a huge drop off when he is not about.

Mourinho plays not to lose its unrelentingly negative and painful to watch but I think the reason he’s been SO negative is something I thought at the start of the season, your centre of defence is really poor and needs protecting. With Mourinho being a naturally defensive coach he’s gone ultra conservative on the this and tried to rely on your two match winners. This worked early when they were fit/in form but seems to be falling away recently. It also is probably the right approach against the other “big 6” but against Brighton? You’ve got to take the risk of conceding to blow them away surely?
 
Joe Mac said:
I agree but that’s not how you’re being set up. Everything goes though him, he’s playing as the 9 and 10. It’s inevitable that there’s going to be a huge drop off when he is about.

Mourinho plays not to lose its unrelentingly negative and painful to watch but I think the reason he’s been SO negative is something I thought at the start of the season, your centre of defence is really poor and needs protecting. With Mourinho being a naturally defensive coach he’s gone ultra conservative on the this and tried to rely on your two match winners. This worked early when they were fit/in form but seems to be falling away recently. It also is probably the right approach against the other “big 6” but against Brighton? You’ve got to take the risk of conceding to blow them away surely?
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Being overly defensive works when the team works together and our defense is competent. Our match versus City was magnificent for exactly how Mourinho wants to play and a good example of that.

I think because our defense is so shit, don’t let “the buck stop with them” to prevent goals because they’ll make too many individual errors. See last week vs. Liverpool. Take back some possession, keep the ball. Make offense the best defense. We did that up until the West Ham game. Conceding 3 in 8 minutes really traumatized José and made us change our play style. I just don’t know how this continues without a massive shift in personnel, play style, system, or manager. If we keep playing like this we’ll be 14th at the end of the season.
 
wokeupnew said:
Being overly defensive works when the team works together and our defense is competent. Our match versus City was magnificent for exactly how Mourinho wants to play and a good example of that.

I think because our defense is so shit, don’t let “the buck stop with them” to prevent goals because they’ll make too many individual errors. See last week vs. Liverpool. Take back some possession, keep the ball. Make offense the best defense. We did that up until the West Ham game. Conceding 3 in 8 minutes really traumatized José and made us change our play style. I just don’t know how this continues without a massive shift in personnel, play style, system, or manager. If we keep playing like this we’ll be 14th at the end of the season.
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Your forwards are ultimately too good for this. I said at the start of the season that I felt 5-7 was right for your side as it stood and with the manager. I stand by that, I still think that’s where you’ll end up. I was eating my words before Christmas whilst actually also not understanding why because what I was seeing on the pitch wasn’t tallying with your results. I equally don’t think you’re overall as bad as you played today.

At the end of the day you could say that you’re also a world class centre half and right winger (Bale clearly isn’t that anymore) away from being a really very good team indeed.

I think that last paragraph is one I could also apply to my team 😂
 
Joe Mac said:
I didn’t watch the game if I’m honest, was busy this evening and funnily enough after last night was feeling a bit footy fatigued 😂
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wokeupnew said:
Yeah games are coming hard and fast, it’s almost too much. Also City seems to have got the league in the bag so I don’t know why everyone else is still trying 😓
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I've been overwhelmed by games too. Plus, NBC is playing women's FA cup here too. In Nola's list of priorities, women's soccer is watched first.
 
Joe Mac said:
Poor Southampton. The young kid was clearly too hyped up on his debut and ooof terrible challenge. Down to 10 after 79 seconds didn’t stand a chance.
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Second time they’ve been spanked 9-0. Two red cards but still that’s really poor from them. I had Hasenhuttl pegged as a potential José replacement at the end of the season but I dunno 😱 When you go into halftime down by 4 and down to 10 men you can’t allow another red and 5 more goals. That’s just poor all around.
 
wokeupnew said:
Second time they’ve been spanked 9-0. Two red cards but still that’s really poor from them. I had Hasenhuttl pegged as a potential José replacement at the end of the season but I dunno 😱 When you go into halftime down by 4 and down to 10 men you can’t allow another red and 5 more goals. That’s just poor all around.
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89 minutes sat deep and shuffling side to side with a man short hammers the legs. It’s no coincidence that we filled our boots in the second half of each half. It’s kinda different if the red is later, I’d agree with you more then but they effectively played a whole match a man down and the last bit 2 men down. Also we played it perfectly by constantly switching the play to get in behind our wide rather than trying to force through the crowded middle.
 
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Joe Mac said:
89 minutes sat deep and shuffling side to side with a man short hammers the legs. It’s no coincidence that we filled our boots in the second half of each half. It’s kinda different if the red is later, I’d agree with you more then but they effectively played a whole match a man down and the last bit 2 men down. Also we played it perfectly by constantly switching the play to get in behind our wide rather than trying to force through the crowded middle.
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On the up side, when a team scores 9 times, at least it's a reason for the pundits to give Ipswich a mention.
It sure as hell wouldn't be for any other reason. Lowest league position in 65 years currently 😭
 
Englishbob said:
On the up side, when a team scores 9 times, at least it's a reason for the pundits to give Ipswich a mention.
It sure as hell wouldn't be for any other reason. Lowest league position in 65 years currently 😭
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Ouch! Good proper football club too Ipswich! Don’t rate Lambert as a manager though.
 
Joe Mac said:
Ouch! Good proper football club too Ipswich! Don’t rate Lambert as a manager though.
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Yeah, its shocking and sad. Check out these stats.

Since then, we have played 18 home games and lost a staggering 10 of them. In fact, in the three bit-part seasons that Lambert has been in charge, he has overseen 19 Portman Road defeats in 47 games, a loss ratio of 40%.

When we finished 11th last season, we were dumped there on a points per game system. We are there on our own merit now.

In 18 games since the 4-1 win at Blackpool on October 10, we have scored just three goals.

We have not led at half-time in 20 consecutive matches, and in a league table of games involving just the first-half, we are bottom of the league.

We are not capable of coming out of the blocks from the first whistle, getting at teams and setting an early platform to build on and giving ourselves a chance to win games.

We rarely score the first goal in a game with the only exception in the last 15 matches being both times against bottom club Burton Albion
But here is another of my own, in the 30 matches now played against the top ten sides to finish above us last season and the current top ten, our record now reads 4 wins in 30 matches and a paltry return of 22 points out of a total of 90 available.

We have scored just 14 goals too in those 30 games, in part, due to Lambert’s reluctance to very rarely switch to two up front in games.
 
Joe Mac said:
Fucking de Gea. It’s now time to step him down and let Henderson attempt to make himself number 1.
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Do you think United move on DDG in the summer? He's still young for a GK and a lot of clubs would be after him. It's difficult when your #2 should really be playing every game.
 
wokeupnew said:
Do you think United move on DDG in the summer? He's still young for a GK and a lot of clubs would be after him. It's difficult when your #2 should really be playing every game.
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I don’t know. I don’t think you can make that statement about Henderson yet. A year at Sheffield United is not the same as being Manchester United’s number 1. I think we’ve reached a point where de Gea has made enough fuck ups for him to deserve the opportunity to prove that.
 
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