Football Soccer Football Soccer Football Soccer

[Phenom]

Must say it does make me laugh that Barca are crying over this Neymar to PSG business..

Madrid and barca have been allowed to get away with stuff for ages now.. they don't like the shoe being on the other foot

Wondering what winger United will buy as the last transfer.. still happy about Matic. Inproving your team while weakening your rivals was another jose masterstroke

United paid £40M for 29 year old matic who had an average season at best
Bakayoko > Matic

United are ******

[El Fenomeno]

What's the reason he wasn't an automatic starter?.

Wasn't it the general consensus amongst the French that he should be starting?.

How many of the dominant teams in the past 10-15 years have had a pure ball winner consistently in the team? Not many, because they don't contribute enough to a possession based football team.

Possession based football isn't even relevant anymore. I don't have the reason why but it's done. Teams who want to retain possession don't win anymore, simple as that. So why not want a ball winner?

Many things also deal with roles of positions. Maybe for City it's different as y'all tend to buy for the sake of buying but I think under Pep, you guys are actually buying players with an intended purpose. Whether they prove success or not, I don't know but we can clearly tell Pep's buys have specialized roles.

What do you think of Busquets then? Not to misdirect but really, that's another pure holding player who has a very specialized role but is world class.

And I'm sure if Zidane really wanted Kante he would buy him but then again football doesn't work like that. Many times it's what do I already have, who would be replaced, who fits where, and the flow of the team play. Again, not many clubs buy for the sake of buying like City often does.

That is nonsense. Every CL winner of this decade (barring Chelsea) have been possession-heavy teams.

Pep is a well known lover of players who can play a variety of positions and aren't limited to 1 specific role (Lahm/Alaba/Kimmich/Fernandinho/Mascherano, even Messi).
Even with signing Danilo to play in multiple positions, literally the opposite of what you're saying is true.

Pep has never played with a pure ball winner and I highly doubt he ever will, simply put his style of play requires a higher caliber of footballer.

Busquets is the best DM of his generation, the complete holding midfielder. You're getting pure DM mixed up with ball winner, winning the ball back is one of many jobs a top DM like Busquets is able to do amongst everything else he brings to the game. Busquets has absolutely no relevance to my previous comments on limited ball winners like Kante.


You said Zidane would celebrate if they had Kante in midfield, so surely there'd be no issue of who fits where and the flow of the team if the introduction of Kante to a side is so seemless?

The reality in my mind is that they'd have to drop Isco and in turn lose so much of their creativity in order to accommodate Kante who'd be rendered useless for the most part anyway as Real Madrid will dominate possession in 99% of instances.

Also feel free to let me know which signings City have made 'for the sake of it'. Bernando Silva is really the only one you could argue but even then, with the rate we're selling midfielders you'd say we would've been signing one either way.

[Sparked_26]

I don't think Kante is just a specialised ball winner. He drives forward with the ball at times and obviously him turning over ball high up the pitch a good platform to actually score goals.

I think all El Fenomeno's criticism comes from the fact Chelsea have 33.3333% less players in midfield than most teams. Of course they are gonna pass around Kante at times. They counter point is they likely can't get around the back of Chelsea in a system that turns into a back 5.

It's a system thing. And likely a 3-5-2 will need to be the alternative against elite European teams.

Remains to be seen if there are any of them in the premiership

System-wise only Spurs showed real weakness in Chelsea's system and personell.

There was stray average performances which is normal but nothing that ever made Conte revise tactics. It will happen in the CL at least. Plenty of better teams than Chelsea in there but that's not to say Chelsea can't beat them.

[El Fenomeno]

I don't think Kante is just a specialised ball winner. He drives forward with the ball at times and obviously him turning over ball high up the pitch a good platform to actually score goals.

I think all El Fenomeno's criticism comes from the fact Chelsea have 33.3333% less players in midfield than most teams. Of course they are gonna pass around Kante at times. They counter point is they likely can't get around the back of Chelsea in a system that turns into a back 5.

It's a system thing. And likely a 3-5-2 will need to be the alternative against elite European teams.

Remains to be seen if there are any of them in the premiership

System-wise only Spurs showed real weakness in Chelsea's system and personell.

There was stray average performances which is normal but nothing that ever made Conte revise tactics. It will happen in the CL at least. Plenty of better teams than Chelsea in there but that's not to say Chelsea can't beat them.

The same thing has happened playing for France in a 3! I'm actually confident he's gonna look a bit out of his depth this year against top sides, if not fair play I'll hold my hands up.

Your game against us at the Etihad was one of the most one sided games I saw us play in last year. We should've been 3 up and Luiz sent off before you had your first shot.

[*OG Wenger*]

It is deffo your year

Are you the guy that sent **** pics to a ******?

[Sparked_26]

The same thing has happened playing for France in a 3! I'm actually confident he's gonna look a bit out of his depth this year against top sides, if not fair play I'll hold my hands up.

Your game against us at the Etihad was one of the most one sided games I saw us play in last year. We should've been 3 up and Luiz sent off before you had your first shot.

I disagree on your assessment of that game to some extent. Chelsea played poorly and scored 3 and probably could have scored more and there were multiple break outs where a poor pass was played. I don't think it was a game that could be flagged up to say City were a particularly strong side. They didn't defend at all.

Academic as De Bruyne missed from an inch and that would have been that. But City left Costa on on one with defenders all day long and at that point of the season City were doing stuff like that every week like that Lukaku goal for Everton.

Chelsea would have had to not turn up not to score at last 3 that day but timing of goals changes everything or rather missed chances. That game was done the moment Costa got his goal. And towards the end of that game it was open season for 10 minutes. Strange game, you say it was one sided. The flow of that game might have meant Chelsea absolutely smashed City.

I don't think City can play like that and beat anybody really good.

Debatable whether Chelsea are a really good side but I think Chelsea would take that same pattern of game against City every time. It was Spain vs Italy at the Euros. Like Amir Khan looking great and then pushing out one two many shots and getting chinned.

Conversely, Spurs dominated Chelsea in all 3 games physically. Which means that a personell change or system change needs to happen or that will keep happening and the results will have to change in their favor.

Chelsea will go again against City with the same system. City will blow Chelsea of the park now and again because that's football and they have good players but that pattern of game suits Chelsea. City have to be superb to win. Chelsea can be crap but have the wide open spaces to attack and they're bound to score at some stage.

[El Fenomeno]

I disagree on your assessment of that game to some extent. Chelsea played poorly and scored 3 and probably could have scored more and there were multiple break outs where a poor pass was played. I don't think it was a game that could be flagged up to say City were a particularly strong side. They didn't defend at all.

Academic as De Bruyne missed from an inch and that would have been that. But City left Costa on on one with defenders all day long and at that point of the season City were doing stuff like that every week like that Lukaku goal for Everton.

Chelsea would have had to not turn up not to score at last 3 that day but timing of goals changes everything or rather missed chances. That game was done the moment Costa got his goal. And towards the end of that game it was open season for 10 minutes. Strange game, you say it was one sided. The flow of that game might have meant Chelsea absolutely smashed City.

I don't think City can play like that and beat anybody really good.

Debatable whether Chelsea are a really good side but I think Chelsea would take that same pattern of game against City every time. It was Spain vs Italy at the Euros. Like Amir Khan looking great and then pushing out one two many shots and getting chinned.

Conversely, Spurs dominated Chelsea in all 3 games physically. Which means that a personell change or system change needs to happen or that will keep happening and the results will have to change in their favor.

Chelsea will go again against City with the same system. City will blow Chelsea of the park now and again because that's football and they have good players but that pattern of game suits Chelsea. City have to be superb to win. Chelsea can be crap but have the wide open spaces to attack and they're bound to score at some stage.

I disagree. We had 2 of the worst fullbacks in the prem last year and that was the reason we struggled at times with allowing so much space, it nulled the whole system. Even still we more than matched up, even at the bridge we were average and should've taken something if not for Stones missing a free header from about 4 yards out with the last kick.

The reason the last 10 mins at the Etihad were the way they were is because we were pushing ridiculous numbers of bodies forward (even more so than usual) and spaces were being left everywhere. Up till an hour in it was a game we were in complete control of, same as the Spurs game last season.

[Sparked_26]

I disagree. We had 2 of the worst fullbacks in the prem last year and that was the reason we struggled at times with allowing so much space, it nulled the whole system. Even still we more than matched up, even at the bridge we were average and should've taken something if not for Stones missing a free header from about 4 yards out with the last kick.

The reason the last 10 mins at the Etihad were the way they were is because we were pushing ridiculous numbers of bodies forward (even more so than usual) and spaces were being left everywhere. Up till an hour in it was a game we were in complete control of, same as the Spurs game last season.

Well, yeah goes without saying that if all the full backs you bought are a roaring success then you'll be a much better side.

The game at the Bridge was your standard tetchy end of season title chasing encounter.

I feel City have to be that much better than disciplined, top sides to win. Your new full backs are still going to have the same starting positions as the crap ones you had so I feel getting caught like you do is just the trade-off of the whole system. All systems have one.

I do think there is a pride thing with Pep too. Common sense said several times he could have went to a 5 against Monaco and they might have won that tie.

Those scenarios will rinse and repeat through out his whole tenure at City imp which is the price to pay of having that particular super coach.

We'll see what happens next season but I don't expect Chelsea to win it anyway so how City match up to us might not be decisive

[The Ox]

Talk to me about how y'all will replace coutinho bro.

100% not happening bro, ban me if I'm wrong. My source is legit, Coutinho is going nowhere.

[Sparked_26]

Barca are being such babies about that Neymar transfer.

Yeah, it's a grotesque fee by PSG and has likely ruined the transfer market forever but Barca and Real Madrid have been hiding from the tax man, cooking the books, getting funded by not only the Spanish government but also the EU tax payer. In many ways some Sheikh rocking up with his petrodollars is more legit than most of their transfer dealings.

I do think the money is such now that from a taxpayers perspective and British citizen we need to part nationalise the game and the English players.

City would spend £50 million on a toilet seat, Man U would spend £40 million, Chelsea would spend £30 million and so on. Local communities could benefit from that aside from agents. Let's say whatever local council in Barnsley had a 10% stake in future transfers and signing on fees of John Stones in exchange for providing training costs when he as a kid, that's £5 million pounds to build a leisure centre or some crap or affordable housing in Barnsely. I'm completely serious.

That money would only go into the pocket of some agent whose job could be done be a child. Neymar has it right by giving his dad the gig.

The transfer market is broken to such an extent that it could actually be useful.