2019/20 Premier League & General Football Discussion

[MUSC4EVER]

Games this weekend.

Saturday
Bournemouth v Aston Villa
Crystal Palace v Sheffield United
Leicester v Chelsea (12.30 BT)
Liverpool v Southampton
Man United v Wolves (5.30 Sky)
Newcastle v Norwich
Watford v Everton
West Ham v Brighton

Sunday
Burnley v Arsenal (2pm Sky)
Tottenham v Man City (4.30 Sky)

Some big games this weekend, at both ends of the table.

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Transfer stuff.

Arsenal sign Cedric Soares on loan from Southampton.
Bournemouth reject £20 million bid from Man United for striker Joshua King.
Frank Lampard rules out Olivier Giroud departure in this window.
Jarrod Bowen set for a West Ham medical ahead of a £25 million move from Hull
Wigan defender Antonee Robinson having AC Milan medical ahead of a £10 million move.
Real Sociedad rule out striker Willian Jose's departure, he has been linked with Man United and Tottenham.

 

[Jimlaad43]

So Chelsea went through all that bother to remove their transfer ban early to not buy anyone in January. What?

 

[Jezza819]

So Chelsea went through all that bother to remove their transfer ban early to not buy anyone in January. What?

Why did they not allow Giroud to leave? He's barely played.

 

[Hasnain282]

Why did they not allow Giroud to leave? He's barely played.

They didn't buy a replacement for him

 

[Jezza819]

They didn't buy a replacement for him

Yeah I just heard about that. Something to do with Cavanni not leaving PSG for Chelsea.

 

[Famine]

Despite all criticisms about us being top heavy - with Fletcher, Winnall, Rhodes, Nuhiu, technically Forestieri* - we've signed THREE MORE STRIKERS, all on loan. Connor Wickham from Palace (back at Hillsborough after a loan from Sunderland in 2013-14), Josh Windass from Wigan, and Alessio Da Cruz from Parma.

*Though Winnall has sucked consistently, Rhodes has been off and on and not getting many chances, Nuhiu is a lumbering perma-suck (with occasional awesome), Fletcher is injured enough for Chris Sutton not to be on his case, and Forestieri can't breathe without a 3-game ban from the EFL.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Todays results.

Leicester 2-2 Chelsea
Liverpool 4-0 Southampton
Bournemouth 2-1 Aston Villa
West Ham 3-3 Brighton
Crystal Palace 0-1 Sheffield United
Newcastle 0-0 Norwich
Watford 2-3 Everton

Bags of goals today, West Ham were 3-1 up v Brighton but Brighton have a great comeback and Everton were 2-0 down at Watford, it was 0-0 in the first half of Leicester-Chelsea but it came alive in the second half.

Man United v Wolves to come, Bruno Fernandes starts for United.

 

[Touring Mars]

Liverpool are now 10 pts clear... of the largest EPL lead loss in history.

Most bookmakers now have Liverpool at 500-1 on to win the league... Man City are 100/1.

 

[Famine]

Liverpool are now 10 pts clear... of the largest EPL lead loss in history.

Most bookmakers now have Liverpool at 500-1 on to win the league... Man City are 100/1.

The points-per-game gap between Liverpool and the best-placed team in the relegation zone is 1.92. If that was the gap in the Championship, the team in 22nd would be on -1.6pt.

The PPG gap between Liverpool and Manchester City in 2nd is 0.898. If applied to the Championship, that gap would take you from West Brom on top down to Wigan in 22nd.

 

[redhed17]

Very flattering result for Liverpool. Southampton played well, and had too many chances in the first half. Second half Liverpool stepped up a gear or two, and could have had a few more. Southampton still had chances too. Joe Gomez is immense atm. Long may it continue after his bad luck with injuries.

The coverage switched to West Ham after the Liverpool game ended, and I couldn't believe how many fans had left before the end when it was still 3 - 3.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

West Ham fans are unhappy at the owners, they have been in charge for 10 years now and when they took over they promised to take the club into the Champions League amongst other things, plus it turns out that they have paid themselves some massive bonuses last year.

Its not looking good for them on the pitch either, they have Liverpool and Man City to come both away from home, Moyes has only just returned to the club but he is already third favourite to get the sack.

 

[redhed17]

West Ham fans are unhappy at the owners, they have been in charge for 10 years now and when they took over they promised to take the club into the Champions League amongst other things, plus it turns out that they have paid themselves some massive bonuses last year.

Its not looking good for them on the pitch either, they have Liverpool and Man City to come both away from home, Moyes has only just returned to the club but he is already third favourite to get the sack.

If the fans weren't there from the start, then fair enough, but if they left early when their team needed backing, then that would be quite poor imho. Stay away from the Liverpool game to make a point rather than against a team you're battling at the bottom. Making any protest in the Liverpool game could have had more impact in getting the grievances heard/noticed/publicised too, and possibly been less detrimental to the chances of West Ham getting points.

I thought it was mistake for West Ham to go back to Moyes, and a mistake on Moyes part to go back. Not sure too many were knocking on Moyes door though. Time will tell, but so far it is not looking like a good move.

 

[JohnBM01]

I saw a good majority of the Liverpool FC vs. Southampton FC match today. I mostly between the 34th Minute to the 48th Minute. I think Liverpool was up 1-0 around that time. I know I read Liverpool FC could win the title mathematically by the end of this month if all goes well. But still, Liverpool is having a crazy awesome 2019-2020 season so far in the Premier League. It's still not over yet, though.

 

[Dennisch]

Nice debut for Stephen Berkwine at Tottenham.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Burnley 0-0 Arsenal
Tottenham 2-0 Man City

Forget about the Burnley-Arsenal game as that was terrible.

In the first half of Spurs-City was VAR riddled, Man City were given a penalty three minutes after Sanchez's challenge on Sterling in the box, Lloris saved the Gundogon penalty but during the rebound he brought down Sterling and after another VAR check another penalty wasn't given, in the second half Steven Bergwijn scored with a lovely strike on his debut with Spurs first shot on target, Man City had dominated up until then, Zinchencko then got sent off for two yellows after which Son put Spurs 2-0 up, City pressed on to try and get into the game after but they were wasteful all game, City had 18 shot on goal with Spurs having only three, a Mourinho masterclass.

 

[Dennisch]

22 points ahead in the Premier League. On the way to become champions during the winter.

 

[Touring Mars]

Liverpool have now won 50% more games than their nearest rivals, and (staggeringly) 4 times as many games as Arsenal...

 

[MUSC4EVER]

FA Cup replays are this week.

Tuesday night.
Birmingham v Coventry
Cardiff v Reading
Derby v Northampton
Liverpool v Shrewsbury
Oxford v Newcastle (8.05 BBC)

Wednesday night.
Tottenham v Southampton (7.45 BT)

After this is the first winter break English Football have ever had (don't know if that's actually true or not!)

The next 10 Premier League games will be spread out over the next two weekends starting this weekend with only four league games scheduled and all of them will be televised (meaning no 3pm KO's), next weekend will have six games starting on the Friday 14th.

This should've meant that every team should have had around two weeks (give or take a couple of days) however they powers that be messed up the schedules by having the FA Cup replays on during the break, meaning Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton and Spurs will have their breaks cut short, Liverpool plan to remedy this by controversially playing their under-21's against Shrewsbury tomorrow night, even Klopp said he wont be there.

 

[Jimlaad43]

controversially playing their under-21's against Shrewsbury

There was nothing controversial when the under 21's beat the Everton first team

 

[Jezza819]

I looked at the schedule for this weekend's limited Premier League games and it looks like poor West Ham draws the short straw and goes to visit Man City after their 2-0 defeat to Spurs this past Sunday.

 

[Famine]

Liverpool plan to remedy this by controversially playing their under-21's against Shrewsbury tomorrow night, even Klopp said he wont be there.

Still, he could have just pulled the team out of the competition entirely...

 

[Dennisch]

Why is it allowed to let the under 21 play? Isn't there a limit to the amount of players you can use during a season?

 

[redhed17]

Why is it allowed to let the under 21 play? Isn't there a limit to the amount of players you can use during a season?

There isn't, and shouldn't be, a limit in the number of players you can use in a league campaign.

I think there are only squad limits for European competitions, and even then I think you can use youth players in addition to the normal 25 player squad list, if they have been registered and pass certain criteria.

Allowing youth players encourages teams to give them a chance.

Nobody can say Liverpool aren't giving youth a chance.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Liverpool's young side edged past Shrewsbury 1-0 thanks to a Ro-Shaun Williams own goal in the second half, there were four debutants in the team and Curtis jones is now Liverpool's youngest ever captain at just 19-years old.

Newcastle needed extra time to beat Oxford 2-3, Derby beat Northampton 4-2 to set up a reunion for Rooney against Man United in the next round, both Birmingham and Cardiff won on penalties.

 

[Famine]

and Cardiff won on penalties

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Yes I know I got that wrong!

Reading won 4-1 on penalties after the game finished 3-3.

 

[redhed17]

I went to the Liverpool v Shrewsbury game, my first non pre-season game in years, and the team were brilliant. It was a game of few chances, but Liverpool had the most chances. Liverpool had the bulk of possession, Shrewsbury didn't really turn up, and were a shadow of the team from the first game. Thankfully. There was a VAR decision, after Shrewsbury scored, and as it was the first time I have experienced it 'live', it was as bad as I thought it would be, with little information given as to what was going on. It doesn't help that Anfield doesn't have any large screens to show replays. I've seen brief highlights, without commentary, and I'm still not quite sure why their goal was disallowed.

The own goal was very unlucky, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

The average age of the team was 19 years and 102 days. And Curtis Jones was the youngest player to Captain the first team, at 19 years and 5 days. Nice for that to be a young chap from Liverpool, and from about a mile from where I live.

While I was on the Bus coming home, a chap got on and asked some other passengers whether Jones had played, and was told yes, and he had Captained the team, this chap then said Jones was his nephew. He said he was an Everton fan, though he wanted Liverpool to win. Now this is either not a close family, or BS. If I were Captaining Liverpool, everyone in the family, and everyone I know, or ever knew, would know about it, even if they weren't invited to the game.

It was great to see an almost full house, despite the younger team playing. No doubt aided by the club lowering the price of the tickets, but even so, still an almost full stadium. Shrewsbury brought about 8k fans as part of the 52k+ total. It must have been great for the players to experience that.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Tottenham 3-2 Southampton, a great game! A Jack Stephens own goal plus Shane Long's strike made it 1-1 at half time, Danny Ings puts Southampton 1-2 in front with just 15 minutes to go but Lucas Moura had a sweet strike just 3 minutes later and a Son penalty put Tottenham through with just five minutes left, a topsy-turvy game that was really open and great to watch, Southampton can feel disappointed as they had their chances, Tottenham to play Norwich in the next round.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Premier League clubs have decided to change their summer transfer window to bring it back in line with the rest of Europe, it meas this summers window will close on September 1st at 5pm for Premier League clubs, it was also confirmed that the 2020/21 season will start on August 8th.

In 2017 Premier League clubs voted to close the window a day before the start of the season. abandoning the European-wide deadline at the end of August, Premier League managers have bemoaned the changes, suggesting it leaves clubs in England at a disadvantage with European clubs still able to sign their players once the window has closed domestically

 

[redhed17]

Premier League managers have bemoaned the changes, suggesting it leaves clubs in England at a disadvantage with European clubs still able to sign their players once the window has closed domestically

They don't seem to remember that they can say no to a deal.

Seriously though, it is sensible news. If there has to be a transfer window, it needs to start and finish at the same time for every country if possible. Premier League teams could only be weakened after the UK transfer window closed last summer.