Soccer/Footy 2015-2016

He's also younger. Doesn't have dubious knees. Played in a harder league and had a worse team around him. But yeah good point.

I have been impressed with Arsenal's pre-season so far. Sure its only pre-season but the team really looks like they are gelling and everyone already looks fairly fit. I have high hopes for Theo & Ox this season, as long as they don't get injured. I highly doubt we'll bring in another striker, but I am convinced Theo can play there in some games where speed is more important then Giroud's strength. Ozil/Santi can find his runs all day long. Not to mention that if he is playing through the middle you'll have Sanchez/Ox on the flanks. That's fucking blistering speed right there.

Community shield on Sunday. I am cautiously optimistic about this game. Can Wenger finally get the monkey off his back against Mourinho? And if Arsenal do win, would that be considered an actual win against Mourinho or is this still considered "pre-season"? For me it would 100% be the monkey off his back. Last year City didn't even show up for the game and we destroyed them. I think Chelsea will take this game a lot more seriously.

Off to the stadium tonight to watch the Young Boys take on Monaco in the Champions League Qualifiers. I really don't rate our chances all that high, but you never know. On paper it's no contest, but I guess that's why they play the games. Only shitty thing is there will be no alcohol in the stadium tonight, as it is with all UEFA games.

At any rate, the atmosphere should be good and I look forward to watching a top team from another league in Europe. HOPP YB!

Pyratec_sl said:

Only shitty thing is there will be no alcohol in the stadium tonight, as it is with all UEFA games.

Click to expand...

Wtf?

Div_sl said:

Wtf?

Click to expand...

There is no alcohol sold at any Champions or Europa league games, it's a UEFA rule. It's meant to cut down on violence at the games but really it just makes the games shittier to watch in person. Ah well, I can live without a beer at the game for once.

Edit: nil-nil at the half, neither team looks like they really want it, hope we see some more effort in the second half.

Pyratec_sl said:

There is no alcohol sold at any Champions or Europa league games, it's a UEFA rule. It's meant to cut down on violence at the games but really it just makes the games shittier to watch in person. Ah well, I can live without a beer at the game for once.

Edit: nil-nil at the half, neither team looks like they really want it, hope we see some more effort in the second half.

Click to expand...

Didn't really work out for you guys unfortunately.

Yeah no alcohol at games is a little ridiculous. The fans meet up a day or whatever prior to the game anyways and cause destruction regardless.

Div_sl said:

Didn't really work out for you guys unfortunately.

Yeah no alcohol at games is a little ridiculous. The fans meet up a day or whatever prior to the game anyways and cause destruction regardless.

Click to expand...

Honestly, I think it even makes things worse, as people just get shit faced before even going into the stadium as they know they won't be able to get a drink once inside. Maybe with 100k and the right words in Sepp's ear we could get it changed.....

As to the game, we had our chances at the beginning of the second half, but you can't blow 3-4 great scoring chances against a team like that, they will make you pay eventually. All in all an expected result, and if I'm perfectly honest we have no place in the Champion's League, we would just get destroyed in the group phase there. It's no fun watching your team lose 7-1, even if it is against Chelsea or Bayern.

Our European adventures also aren't over yet, we still have the playoff round for the Europa League now, a competition we've done fairly well in the past few years, drawing away against Liverpool and beating Napoli at home amongst other highlights. We made it out of the group phase last year, but Everton beat us quite soundly in the round of 32. At any rate, you never know what can happen, and as they say in German, hope is the last to die.

Why are Manchester City so horrible? I thought that team is really expensive.

Slow decline over the last few years or so after going crazy buying superstars. They either win 5-3 or get crushed.

Brando_sl said:

Slow decline being 1st, 2nd, 1st and 2nd place finishes in the last 4 years? I do think they could struggle this year though as I think they're waiting to see if Guardiola will join next year who they'll entrust with revamping the squad. Therefore I'm hopeful they'll be the most likely team LFC can overtake for top 4 as the team stagnates under Pelligrini who will be out after this year. Granted LvG seems to want to get in the mix with his bizarre setup, still possible sale of De Gea, and only Rooney as an actual striker.

Click to expand...

As in quality of squad overall and investment, rather than buying every merc they could in the first two years. Their performances are either hot or cold.

Not every club needs 6+ strikers like liverpool. Seems to be working great for you though.

Brando_sl said:

LOL? Lets look at who they signed the last two years not including this summer:
Bacary Sagna Free
Fernando ?12,000,000
Willy Caballero ?6,000,000
Bruno Zuculini ?1,500,000
Eliaquim Mangala ?40,000,000
Wilfried Bony ?28,000,000
Jesus Navas ?22,900,000
Fernandinho ?30,000,000
?lvaro Negredo ?20,600,000
Stevan Jovetic ?25,800,000
Zacharias Faour ?400,000
Mart?n Demichelis ?3,500,000

I think it would be fair to argue they've spent poorly, not that they haven't spent.

As far as LFC, new Rodgers tactics where we play 1 GK, 1 CB and 9 strikers. Way of the future bro.

Click to expand...

Exactly, average players at inflated prices. Poor quality. Almost seems like they have given up untill they overpaid for Sterling, defensively they are extremely poor.

Rumours that Di Maria is having a medical at PSG on bbc at the moment, ?47million.

Fuck you Mourinho. QQ

Brando_sl said:

At this point I'm just going to chalk this discussion up to one person cheering for the red side of Manchester and it's understandable not being able to say anything good about the blue side. As an LFC fan I get this, though in all honesty if ManC is defensively poor then ManU is defensively handicapped. LvG is talking about partnering Blind with Jones, dear god....

Click to expand...

Pretty sure no United fan would disagree that our CB's are hilariously poor, Darmain looks good though so far, who can't be happy about him replacing Valencia.

The predictions for the next season are in... as well as the 999 seasons that follow them.

THE MILLENIAL SIM IS HERE. 1000 years of simming the English Football Pyramid : footballmanagergames

So after 1000 years of Premier League football, the most successful club will apparently be Sheffield United, Burnley manage to stay in the PL for 982 seasons, the Metropolitan Police win the FA Cup and 683,000 people attend the Europa League final between Celtic and APOEL.