Following Our Nearest And Dearest Rivals 2022/23

[Bob stark]

So far the two big signing performed as expected. Honestly not sure why people are talking about fluid 9,false 9. Those are irrelevant. Both city n pool played false 9 last season but you can clearly tel pool has no problem incorporating Nunez into the team and city has problem using Haaland. 

Haaland problem is similar to Lukaku last season. He want to run behind but city is a team who want to keep the ball all the time. It will take them time to adapt to each other.

Pool on the other hand play up tempo ball who attack quickly with pace. it is easy for Nunez to adapt. He had 2 chances to run behind in just 5 min after he entered the game. 

Edited July 30, 2022 by Bob stark

[The Rising Sun]

3 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

Nūnez celebrating like he won a significant trophy lol

He looks good though why can't they buy duffers like us ?

[The Rising Sun]

I reckon we got a good chance of the title after watching this

[strider6004]

Ake possibly an own goal though for the most played well.

Haaland a bad day, could have scored late on though City could not find him either in play or from set pieces. Either the team has not gelled with the player or is not following instructions.

He did do well in closing down the keeper who then seemed to kick out.

Liverpool looked good and the new kid Nunez looks to have replaced Mane early on.

On Grealish like Mahrez seems to have gone down at City. Grealish was a free-kick machine at Villa as they could not get him off the ball and he liked a dribble.

[Argo]

27 minutes ago, Snedger said:

Why can’t we sign a decent striker? These two don’t seem to struggle.

Yeah, mainly because they've both been playing without natural one's for years.

[Scott Harris]

54 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

On Grealish like Mahrez seems to have gone down at City. Grealish was a free-kick machine at Villa as they could not get him off the ball and he liked a dribble.

Grealish liked a dive more like. His dribbling wasn't very productive, he just looked like he was showing off.

[RMH]

I have to admit that having seen only this match of city and the scum, I don’t think we’ve lost too much terrain to them. City have lost their drive and Haaland and Grealish are holding them up. In the case of Haaland, he’s got time to show whether he’s going to cut it in the PL or if he’s going down Lukaku’s road. I think that Jesus and Sterling were better suited to their game. In the case of the scum, they’ve added new players up front, looking good, but we’ve contained them before and their midfield still stinks, really. The way they play is fast balls to their full backs or to the front line, midfield is there to injure players (Fabinho) or to fill up space (Henderson). @Argo has mentioned this already, but think that they are not going to be as strong as the last couple of seasons, and we would have a chance at putting pressure on the top if we could do the business with the signings. Unfortunately, the Spuds and maybe Utd are going to improve and mingle with us up there. It’s up to Boehly and TT to be able to get the targets and get the team to play good football.

[Chelsbear]

Missed a trick with Jesus. Scored about 5 already for them and looks great.

Why we have sat about not addressing the striker position is anyone's guess. 

 

[Argo]

4 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Missed a trick with Jesus. Scored about 5 already for them and looks great.

Why we have sat about not addressing the striker position is anyone's guess. 

 

We've invested in a wide forward who averages about 20 goals a season.

Thankfully we've learned from last summers mistake of just looking at the top line without factoring in stylistical fit and what they offer outside the numbers.

[Chelsbear]

4 minutes ago, Argo said:

We've invested in a wide forward who averages about 20 goals a season.

Thankfully we've learned from last summers mistake of just looking at the top line without factoring in stylistical fit and what they offer outside the numbers.

We have no natural finisher, Sterling is a fantastic footballer but misses chances by the bucket load like the others we already have. 

Lukaku was a poor fit from the start, his attitude, fitness and mentality was all wrong for us the first time never mind seeing it twice with other English teams then buying him again.

Jesus would have been perfect for us but like most of the window we have made a mess of it.

Our own fault and it will be why the likes of Spurs and Arsenal will leave us in their dust.

[Argo]

14 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

We have no natural finisher, Sterling is a fantastic footballer but misses chances by the bucket load like the others we already have. 

Lukaku was a poor fit from the start, his attitude, fitness and mentality was all wrong for us the first time never mind seeing it twice with other English teams then buying him again.

Jesus would have been perfect for us but like most of the window we have made a mess of it.

Our own fault and it will be why the likes of Spurs and Arsenal will leave us in their dust.

If that's the case then why didn't Arsenal leave us for dust when they had Aubameyang? Or why haven't Spurs done so of all the time they've had Kane and Son in their peak?

Despite the troubles of finding a consistent 20 plus goal player we actually hit our 3rd best PL tally last season with every outfielder bar Sarr scoring atleast once in all comps.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Argo

[RMH]

20 minutes ago, Argo said:

We've invested in a wide forward who averages about 20 goals a season.

Thankfully we've learned from last summers mistake of just looking at the top line without factoring in stylistical fit and what they offer outside the numbers.

While I agree with almost all that you comment, I think that Jesus would have been a good fit to TT’s style of football, a good false 9 and we should have gone all in for him.

[axman2526]

9 minutes ago, RMH said:

While I agree with almost all that you comment, I think that Jesus would have been a good fit to TT’s style of football, a good false 9 and we should have gone all in for him.

Exactly right mate. City have been very good with Gabriel Jesus linking up and pressing well. He is not a traditional 9 like Haaland.

Also early call mate, Pool winning this season title...

[JM7]

I thought Haaland looked dangerous and showed flashes. I think he’ll be fine. The community shield games are hard to judge. I was hoping Liverpool would tank after their long season but they seem ok. Unfortunately. 

[RMH]

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Exactly right mate. City have been very good with Gabriel Jesus linking up and pressing well. He is not a traditional 9 like Haaland.

Also early call mate, Pool winning this season title...

[Bob stark]

7 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

He looks good though why can't they buy duffers like us ?

He will look like a 10 m player playing for us

[Bob stark]

6 hours ago, RMH said:

While I agree with almost all that you comment, I think that Jesus would have been a good fit to TT’s style of football, a good false 9 and we should have gone all in for him.

Jesus didn't play false 9 in city, he played as a 9

[strider6004]

I really wanted City to play a good ball through the middle to let us see how good Haaland was on the ball on the run up against one defender. We never got to see it though remember one occasion where the passer was expecting him to move one way and he moved the other.

 

 

[ducavis]

51 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

I really wanted City to play a good ball through the middle to let us see how good Haaland was on the ball on the run up against one defender. We never got to see it though remember one occasion where the passer was expecting him to move one way and he moved the other.

 

 

That is where he will struggle in the league because the space he needs to thrive doesn’t exist in the league. Think the one time De Bruyne tried playing him through, he was already stuck offside and was struggling to get back onside. It was funny seeing De Bruyne leading the press because he wasn’t doing it effectively, and wasn’t dropping deep to link up play in contrast to Firmino. This is why Lukaku struggled also, not because he is a bad player. This is also why despite Ronnie saying he is willing to take a pay cut, top teams are avoiding him. In Ronnie’s case you can’t just carry a box player even if he scores 20 league goals as a top team.

[Argo]

 

 

[petre ispirescu]

Haaland will undoubtedly rip a new one to the lesser teams because of his predator skills and the quality of his team, but if the Liverpool game is an indication of how City is going to look against the bigger clubs, then I would be worried if I was a City fan. Clearly Guardiola's tactics do not fit a pure number 9 up front, it's either a false 9 or a midfielder in the mould of Fabregas there. Haaland is neither. He looked lost yesterday, just like Lukaku looked lost in Tuchel's formation for the whole season.

Haaland is the perfect striker if you give him acres of space to run in behind of defences. Something the clubs in PL won't give you. And he is also perfect on the counter. Something City never do.

Think he'd have been perfect for Real Madrid. That club fits him perfectly, they play to his strenghts.

[Snedger]

Just seen an interesting comment from a Liverpool supporter in reference to the mid season World Cup. They said that between players like Salah who won’t be there at all, and other players that are usually just unused squad players for their countries, that they will have four or five first team regulars that will more or less get a nice mid season break.

I really can’t be bothered to spend time working out if that is accurate and whether City can claim similar, but assuming that they’re not far from correct, it could possibly be a bit of an advantage in the two horse title race.

[Boyne]

Article is about a number of topics including taking the knee, the EFL Cup and us.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62387030

 

Premier League captains are in talks over the future of the pre-match anti-racism gesture of taking a knee before the new season begins on Friday.

The captains have already held one meeting on the subject without reaching a resolution.

Another will take place when they have consulted with their team-mates.

Players have been taking a knee before kick-off since the league restarted in June 2020 following the initial shutdown due to the Covid pandemic.

However, Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha stopped in February 2021, saying at the time that "at the moment it doesn't matter whether we kneel or stand, some of us still continue to receive abuse".

Several Championship clubs, including Derby, Brentford, Bournemouth and Queens Park Rangers, also stopped taking a knee around that time.

Many players now feel taking a knee has lost its impact in terms of pushing the anti-racism message.

The Premier League has pledged to follow the players' lead on the issue, with an announcement likely before Palace's encounter with Arsenal at Selhurst Park on Friday.

Tougher action on crowd disorder

Amid a worrying rise in incidents involving fans bringing flares and smoke bombs into stadiums, Premier League clubs have pledged a clampdown on them.

This will initially involve enhanced searches outside stadiums and the use of sniffer dogs, although judging by the flares that were let off during the Community Shield match between Manchester City and Liverpool at Leicester on Saturday and by visiting Rayo Vallecano fans during their friendly draw with Manchester United 24 hours later, it may not be enough.

"This is absolutely vital," said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.

"We saw some quite serious incidents across the game at the end of last season. We need to stop that and push it back to make sure it doesn't get out of control.

"We hope to see things improving by our shareholders' meeting in September but it will take time."

Chelsea turmoil

Since last season finished, Chelsea have new owners.

Todd Boehly's consortium took control of the Stamford Bridge club on 31 May following the imposing of UK government sanctions on former owner Roman Abramovich over alleged links with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Masters accepts there were "genuine concerns" a purchase would not be completed by the government's deadline of the end of May, although Boehly did meet it.

However, it does raise further questions about the effectiveness of the Premier League's owners' and directors' test - which assesses the suitability of those seeking to buy or help run a club.

"It is difficult to say with hindsight that it [the Abramovich era] has all been good given what has transpired over the last six to nine months," Masters said.

"There wasn't an O&D test when Roman Abramovich took over ownership of Chelsea. Had there been, you have to ask would it have happened and if so, what safeguards would you bring in the future?"

Masters also confirmed that within discussions about club ownerships, there was talk about leveraged buyouts - controversially used by the Glazer family to buy Manchester United and by Alan Pace to buy Burnley - and specifically around how much of a deal it could be used for.

EFL Cup to stay

Masters also confirmed the Premier League is committed to retaining the EFL Cup beyond 2024, despite the squeeze on the calendar caused by the increase in Champions League fixtures.

It is thought a number of leading clubs are concerned about the number of matches they will have to play.

However, Masters says the bulk of the 20 teams remain in favour of continuing the competition.

He said: "The League Cup is a vibrant competition, with a final at Wembley and a European place for the winner. We have to find a calendar solution to it.

"I am not saying these challenges are easy or there is an obvious answer. But we are not starting with a defeatist attitude that these things cannot be resolved.

"We have two cup competitions and the EFL Trophy. Those things should remain intact if at all possible."

Changes for the new Premier League season

• The multi-ball system - which allows the game to resume with another ball when the match ball goes out of play - is to return, partly as an effort to speed up the game. In-game time last season averaged 55 minutes 07 seconds, regarded as 'unacceptable'.
• Concussion trials are to continue for another season. Teams are allowed to make an extra substitution in the event of a suspected concussion. The Premier League is understood to be supportive of the idea of temporary substitutions, though, and is lobbying for it. It believes club medical staff should be given an amount of time to make a call without the substitute being permanent.
• Premier League clubs have been advised not to stop games for a medical emergency in the stands unless absolutely necessary.
• Assistant referees have been instructed to only delay raising their flag for an obvious offside when there is an immediate chance of a goal.
• Clubs will be allowed to play friendlies while the World Cup takes place in November and December.

[azpi28]

they lost that game 4-0

Edited August 3, 2022 by azpi28

[Argo]

19 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

they lost that game 4-0

The most hilarious thing is they were looking good for a point until Arteta went bonkers at Klopp and rilled the crowd up. He f**ked his own plan.