Lads, it's the Premier League thread - EPL 2019/20

appalling decisiom not to award penalty, var surely will change it

frankly unbelievable from gazzaniga there

Yep

just unbelievable stupidity, the lack of intelligence or competence from the guys out there is a shocker

it's like each of them is leaning the wrong way, each time, when a ball comes. the opposite of anticipation.
it reminds me of national teams, the first time they play together after a while off

yeah, stuff as basic as that

son 100% deserved red there, what a car crash

reported monkey chants, tannoy announcements re: same?

nothing ive been able to hear on this stream tbh but i mean....fucks sake

Not good.

not a fan of GNev but the way he was laying into the hypocrisy of English fans re wanting the book thrown at the Bulgarian FA but turning a blind eye to this shit at home during the commentary was excellent

tbh, im now a fan of gnev.

his post election rant was killer

GNev: good on the systemic causes of racism, bad on the systemic causes of Manchester Utd being shit

one of his mates isnt currently in charge of racism tbf

Lol remember when United could have cashed in on De Gea?

just want see a remake of F.I.S.T. with both those Neville bros playing the Sylvester Stallone role and all the warehouse workers are on five grand an hour!

not to make light of the terrace racism, but you can't blame us plebs this time as market forces and ticket prices have turned it into almost wholly a middle class game.

one of his mates isnt currently in charge of racism tbf

― Banáná hÉireann (darraghmac), Sunday, 22 December 2019 22:38 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk Spurs seem to be going for a rebrand

Maguire hasn't been good really. AWB is a tremendous defender (although he had to get one of those slide tackles wrong eventually) but even worse in the attacking third than I suspected. I love James but he wasn't in the game today

nothing surprising about the result or performance. This is Ole's level

at least Pogba looked good. There's now no justification for starting Lingard ever again

― Number None, Sunday, December 22, 2019 4:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Wan Bissaka is an interesting case study as to the value of RB who is highly skilled defensively. Darrah having born witness to serge aurier may disagree but i'm not sure whether a team looking to be in the top 6 has much use for such a player unless they compensate by having a converted left winger at LB. Or they could play him as a right sided CB in a back 3. Haven't looked at stats for it but i would guess that Utd would be quite hard to counter attack against this season and if so that has some value to it at least. I mean even a team that takes defending as seriously as simeone's atleti has got trippier bombing down the wing for their RB.

i think that the necessity for a winger at rb is....not overstated, but yeah i guess the fashion to disregard the importance of a somewhat defensively-aware starting position or defensive ability (as opposed to recovery ability, eg pace, athleticism, strength, stamina) does seem to me to have gone far beyond what is effective at spurs, i genuinely watch so little of any other football these days i couldnt comment on much more than motd highlights

i know the game has moved on from deep crossing as an asset for those clubs "expected" to control possession and/or attack but i cant say ive ever seen the type of consistent payoff in having a technically-worse player abandon his primary duty in order to occupy space and possession that he will use less effectively than the players he is stifling by sitting high up the pitch

nb this wasnt just aurier, but it certainly is informed by watching spurs choke themselves with false width/attacking intent by throwing the full backs at the corner flag to no effect for years under poch.

wan bissaka seems unfairly maligned to me, plenty others not doing their job every week and not taking any stick for it, hes taking stick for not doing someone else's

but look trevor, im stuck in the 90s

wan bissaka seems unfairly maligned to me, plenty others not doing their job every week and not taking any stick for it, hes taking stick for not doing someone else's

yeah this is fair

lol i also don't watch enough other teams to have a broad overview tbh but with lfc it is glaring how hard it can be to break deep lying teams down when joe gomez (not a RB tbf to him) is playing at RB instead of trent, then again trent has got a very specific skill set not easily found imo.

also apologies for leaving the 'g' out of your name earlier.

I don't think he's getting much stick really. Utd fans generally love him

And yes, it wouldn't be an issue if we didn't have fatty Shaw on the other flank

By FAR the biggest issue for Utd in an attacking sense is Ole's insistence on playing a formation that requires a #10 without a player that's fit for purpose

Lingard has now not scored or assisted in the league since last Christmas, Mata's legs have gone, and it's not looking like Pereira will ever be good enough

Pogba looked approximately 1 million times better than any other player when he came on, so hopefully he can be that player but fuck knows at this point

probably prefers to be too deep for an orthodox number 10? plus as an outsider i would love him to step up and play to his ability but you have to wonder how long before he goes on another sulk

the g is optional, no bother

i thought of lfc, but dismissed those lads (either flank) as an aberration simply because

i. the lfc system works all over the pitch to harry and stifle to effectively pin the opposition back, and vvd in particular has the capability to deal with long counters. clubs aping the attacking full back commitment without first backfilling that weakness have cart before horse- liverpool are singular.

ii. both robertson and tta are likewise excellent attacking options and would certainly make for very decent (or better) wide midfielders in an earlier era of the game (frankly not sure any epl club plays this position any more, even?)

tbh, and if im lol old im lol old, ive less and less patience with managers who have players with certain skillsets that seem unable to put into place a plan of action that suits those skillsets.

readily admit that actual achievement in the game is now more than ever the slavish execution of an intricate plan, but its not much fuckin fun to watch compared to....idk, steve guppy or whoever

TTA in particular, i mean point to him and say "look attacking fullbacks are worth giving up the other aspects for!" all you like, but hes a generational talent.

mostly, and again spurs sufferer here, its used as a gaslight to convince you that players that lack his delivery (walker, aurier) or his athleticism (trippier) can nevertheless do the job he does by dint of.....standing in the same place as he does

three centre halfs and two pretty deep-lying centre mids at Wolves allows Doherty and to a lesser extent Jonny/Vinagre to give us attacking width but the team structure is very specifically designed to reduce the defensive onus on our wing backs and both of them have great mobility/reasonable defensive chops anyway

yeah, the central response to a fullback being sprung is key ito defensive structure

ito attack, them being worth a damn is key

i think it was last season that number none said of the lfc midfield that there was nothing there which at the time i thought was harsh but not completely wrong . but obviously the thing is that given lfc's frwd 3 and full backs the job of the mf 3 has to be as it is. i'm not even sure if this is klopp's template or 'philosophy' or whatever or just a practical neccesity given our personnel ahead and behind.

theres something to that, i think

theres a three man unit in the centre that has quite a strange job, really. quite reactive, disciplined, still good footballers but their job is more about wheeling in around the gaps in their own line than anything else sometimes.

Is that what Ole is trying to ape with the Fred McTominay axis of evil? Albeit they're not as good or disciplined as Fabinho/Henderson/Winjaldum and Ole doesn't have the tactical nous to make it work. Can't see Pogba on the right of a midfield 3; if anything they could be a 4-2-1-3 but it still feels like they need a goal-scoring centre forward. And they need a replacement for fatty Shaw. What happened to Dalot?

these are all valid questions

Dalot has had a longish injury, but he's mainly played as a right-sided forward under Ole anyway

4-2-1-3 is our current formation and has been for most of Solskjaer's time as manager (apart from his initial winning run, funnily enough...)

I’m the midst of moving, but Pards to ADO is a go.

the lfc system works all over the pitch to harry and stifle to effectively pin the opposition back, and vvd in particular has the capability to deal with long counters. clubs aping the attacking full back commitment without first backfilling that weakness have cart before horse- liverpool are singular.

To be fair Liverpool had this particular cart absolutely bombing ahead of the horse before they signed Van Dijk.

All those five or six goal clown car derbies against Watford or Leicester or Bournemouth.

Also it may be time for us all to bite the bullet and admit that Jordan Henderson is a very good player and that's largely down to his almost superhuman levels of energy and his willingness to do exactly what's asked of him even when played out of position without being a dick about it.

it will have been wondered where lbi is moving to

Matt DC is otm. Hendo's always been dependable though. He does what's required of him and does it well.

Last season, Klopp had him playing in a more holding position and it was bloody infuriating watching him pass it back every time though.

Pards will be advised by the today appointed Martin Jol. Dream team.

Lol lj

lol was literally reading this second a report on Pards (with Powell as his no2!) rocking up at Den Haag!

Another joke of a VAR call, albeit technically correct.

Winks / Sissoko doesn’t work at all. The Winks ball through for the Kane ‘goal’ was great but Brighton have way too much space.

At this point you knew it was going to be called offside though

Yes, absolutely.

Glad I started on the wine early.

Mouout Chandon?

jesus id at least depended on jose to psychologically terrorise some of these utter cunts

Disappointed that once the Villa finally got to a run of seemingly winnable games they've all turned into pant-shitting relegation six-pointer banana skins

We'll be down by new year

when all you need is a finish then kane is still available to this team

otherwise, eesh

Winks should be off.

yep

absolutely ridiculous to concede that chance from a flat pass into connollys feet fifty yards from goal

so, so easy

the amount of our clearances that fall to opponents feet just outside our box is alarming, and has been for some time now.

alli has been a complete nothing all day, regardless of whether he pops up or not

lol