MW 4 : August 27-28 Dog Days
- Thread starter Mighty Joe Young
- Start date
That Chelsea-Leicester match was wild. Gallagher sent off early for two dumb fouls, Sterling gets a brace in the second half, Barnes pulls one back and the last half hour is a series of decent to good chances for Leicester to level, with Chelsea desperately holding on.
Subplot of course is the Fofana transfer looks like it’s just about done, fee agreed to and should be wrapped up soon.
Subplot of course is the Fofana transfer looks like it’s just about done, fee agreed to and should be wrapped up soon.
Good thing there has never been a super talented footballer who tailed off quickly due to injuries.
Arteta and Pep made the same sub pattern (replace LB with attacker) with immediate returns - new trend with 5 subs this season?
And both their goals were very lucky.
PL timekeeping - the injury in stoppage time took two full minutes to resolve - and then the substitution another full minute . And the ref blows a full minute early
You're more likely to be the beneficiary of luck when you've got a 3:1 possession advantage.
Yeah, Arsenal maybe had two "lucky" goals in that one was a deflection that went in and the other was a scrappy goal off a corner, but they created a lot of chances and actually underperformed their xG.
View: https://twitter.com/xGPhilosophy/status/1563593690043404289?s=20&t=zwfwxz6v6kNIUUHQfIFDuA
I wonder if Chelsea have inquired about Abraham this summer.
Also, I’ll always wonder if Dybala was just unlucky to get displaced from his best role by Ronaldo at Juve and Messi with Argentina…or if Dybala is just one of those eternal teases that flashes incredible skill but would never be able to dominate.
Also, I’ll always wonder if Dybala was just unlucky to get displaced from his best role by Ronaldo at Juve and Messi with Argentina…or if Dybala is just one of those eternal teases that flashes incredible skill but would never be able to dominate.
Dybala was criminally misused at Juventus. He should have been the next Big Thing, and that’s what I blame Ronaldo for more than anything else. La Joya was incredible to watch when on top of his game and absolutely poured his soul into the shirt. He loved every second on the pitch. It was heartbreaking seeing him displaced by CR7 when he should have been breaking through.
I haven’t followed Mourinho’s Roma much, but my bias against the guy assumes that he won’t figure out how to use Dybala, either.
He’s not Messi and can’t be used in the same role. I don’t know much about how Argentina lined him up, but I’m assuming if he played a backup or similar role he’d fall flat on his face.
I haven’t followed Mourinho’s Roma much, but my bias against the guy assumes that he won’t figure out how to use Dybala, either.
He’s not Messi and can’t be used in the same role. I don’t know much about how Argentina lined him up, but I’m assuming if he played a backup or similar role he’d fall flat on his face.
Obviously you can’t score 9 goals on purpose but pretty awesome that after honoring 9 year old Olivia Pratt in the 9th minute, Liverpool went on to win 9-0 while Hendo was wearing this.
@Zososoxfan will be able to say a lot more, but my general impression is that Messi and Dybala want to operate in similar spaces and want to have the ball on their foot to create…and no one is going to be better than Messi, so Dybala has to fit his game around that. And in the limited training time national team get…
Dybala had a few options for national teams to play for, including Poland. It’s fun to imagine what Dybala might have done playing the 10 behind Lewandowski.
I finished watching the game this morning. Sheraldo Becker is just on another level right now. I managed to score a ticket (much to the aggravation of my wife, who had a nice outing planned for Saturday) for Union vs. Bayern in a battle of the top two teams in the league.
Watching the highlights of the other games, and I can’t stop watching Haaland’s goals. The third one, the way he shields the defender from the ball like he’s a child.
Brennan Johnson is the real deal. If he was from England instead of Wales he’d already be in every transfer rumor.
Richarlison also got nut shot and provoked a yellow card challenge by doing keepie uppies. Getting a full spectrum performance from him.
I’ve told this story before but I remember watching him at Salzburg when it looked like you guys were going to get him and being absolutely mortified because it was clear he’d be great. That combination of size and speed is so rare. I’m so glad he’s at City and it’s surreal to get to watch him. He’s going to be a force wherever he plays but I hope we find as many ways as possible to play that ball on the counter because it’s a dead simple goal that’s nearly unstoppable if you get the defenders on his back. He just ragdolls people
I think, and I’m not sure, the plan before last season’s debacle was to have Ole continue to progress the team and use his connections as well as Sancho to convince Haaland to come to us.
Then we signed Ronaldo and it all went to shit.
But yeah, he’s so freakishly athletic. He looks like someone who plays D1 and went back home to play in a pay for play league. Except he’s doing it to Premier league defenders…
Then we signed Ronaldo and it all went to shit.
But yeah, he’s so freakishly athletic. He looks like someone who plays D1 and went back home to play in a pay for play league. Except he’s doing it to Premier league defenders…
I dunno, i watched yesterday's game and all i could think about was Lindgard getting £200k P/w and is he worth it?
It's going to take time for these new signings to get to know each other...they seem pretty good tee to green, but not so clever in the box. To be fair there wasn't much space in the box, but they had a couple of very good chances that they need to be taking.
I thnk they could finish 16th and push on.
Seems to me they’ve negated one of the advantages of a promoted side, cohesion and a sense of shared purpose from coming out winners in the brutal Championship promotion fight. Every side needs to add some new talent but now you’ve got a dozen guys who weren’t on the pitch or in the dressing room when they beat Huddersfield (which they frankly shouldn’t have, the officiating in that one was horrible and Huddersfield got screwed but even that is a bonding experience right, yo live through that hell 30 minutes and end up on the podium?
dunno. Bournemouthhave added zero and are awful, but adding a whole new XI seems I’ll advised.
dunno. Bournemouthhave added zero and are awful, but adding a whole new XI seems I’ll advised.
Didn't they promote from a side of mostly loanees? Seemed hard to keep them. Can an "expansion" team stay in the PL vs the long-term floaters? Interesting experiment this season
Truth be told, Dybala hasn't played much at all in the NT the last year or two. Argentina's a fairly rigid 4-3-3 with the front 3 best XI clearly ADM-Lautaro-Messi. When someone else comes in, it's usually Papu Gomez or Nico Gonzalez. Even the two Correas have gotten in ahead of Dybala. With Julian Alvarez getting up to speed, is it getting late early for La Joya?
I think it comes down to system over player. Argentina have enough quality all over the pitch (finally) that Scaloni could basically pick any formation he wanted. His choice almost certainly came down to getting the most out of Messi and Scaloni's familiarity with the system so he could coach it effectively. If Argentina want to be more compact but keep their attacking threat Scaloni could do a 4-4-2 with Dybala behind Lautaro or at the top of the diamond, but those are really the only roles Dybala seems adept at. He's been tried on the wings and it hasn't gone that well. He's not the most mobile player and I don't know about his pressing ability, but he just seems like the kind of player that needs to be built around (shades of Riquelme here) but if he's not, then he doesn't slot in too well. All that said, Dybala's quality is undeniable, and it's not hard to see a situation in which injuries or tactics result in Scaloni putting him on the field, but I think it would require a change in shape. The one exception would be if Scaloni plays Dybala as the false 9 in the front 3, with speed in front of him (almost like a 4-3-1-2), but we haven't seen that yet.
Re Haaland, the scariest part about his game is that he's strong and mobile enough to boss the EPL (already) but he also has the touch and skill to probably do this against the best in Spain. The guy is a video game cheat code and has the opportunity to do insane things in his career. Here's to hoping he ends up at Barca instead of tormenting them.
Haaland's stat line for that game is pretty remarkable.
-Three goals
-Seven total passes
-Zero defensive actions (interceptions, blocks, tackles, clearances)
-Three times possession lost
-Five duels contested, one won
-Three fouls
He does one thing and he does it really, really, really well.
-Three goals
-Seven total passes
-Zero defensive actions (interceptions, blocks, tackles, clearances)
-Three times possession lost
-Five duels contested, one won
-Three fouls
He does one thing and he does it really, really, really well.
You'd think this would lessen the effectiveness of their swarming "oops all midfielders" press, but so far, not really.
Sacked after four games - one win and three blowout losses to three of the best teams on the league. You have to think the behind the scenes relationship was already pretty rocky.