2020/21 Premier League & General Football Discussion

[Dave A]

Regarding the United v Leeds match, I'm not too bothered by the result, Leeds have been a good team and taken points in big games this season. But I am very dissapointed with the performance and with Ole for not changing things sooner.

He picked pretty much the same starting 11 as he did the last time around when we hammered Leeds, but lightening didn't strike twice and what followed was a slow and dull affair like most of our games that feature Maguire, Lindelof, Fred and McTominay all starting together. It picked up towards the end when he took James off who had a terrible game, but why he was still on the pitch after half time baffles me. He squandered our best chances including a 1 on 1 aganst the keeper that just need to be hit but instead tried to take touches and lost it to a defender who was bearing down on him.

Pogba came on for James late, then Cavani came on later and Van de Beek came on just before added time, the match was calling for those players much sooner.

I'm still very much a fan of Ole, he has us playing more consistent that we have done since SAF and this is looking to be the first time since then that we'll have finished top 4 two years on the run. But he got the big decisions wrong yesteday, I'll forgive the starting 11 since they thrashed Leeds last time round but it didn't work this time and he needed to make changes at half time and didn't. All the changes came far too late.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Leicester 2-1 Palace, Zaha gave Palace the lead in the first half but Leicester turned it around in the second. Castagne with a great finish before Iheanacho scored a superb winner 10 mins from time, Iheanacho is in fantastic form, most improved player in the league?! Leicester now seven points clear of fifth place West Ham and looking really good for a Champions League spot, Palace stay in 13th.

@Dave A I agree with everything you said, it was frustrating performance, and we actually had a full week to prepare too. Two big game coming up against Roma and Liverpool.

 

[andrea]

Caught in 4k

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann will join Bayern Munich on a five-year deal in the summer, at just 33 he is one of the most highly rated young manager in Europe and led Leipzig to he Champions League semi finals last season, they are currently second in the Bundesliga.

He will replace Hansi Flick who looks set to become new Germany national team coach once Joachim Loew leaves after the Euros.

Nagelsmann joining Bayern will be a bit of a blow for Spurs as he was linked with the job there, the only high profile manager they could really get who is available now is Allegri, Brendan Rodgers has also been heavily linked with the job but he has said that he is not interested in talking to them.

 

[andrea]

Except Perez then doubled down with another interview with another friendly show two nights later. Among the “highlights” were when he seemed to demonstrate trickle-down economics with hand gestures that showed how money would fall from the top of the pyramid in all directions. That of course involved the gall to claim this - the most self-servingly elitist project football has ever seen - was actually an entirely altruistic measure “to save football”.

 

[redhed17]

That's the problem, Madrid very rarely hear no, and think the (football) world revolves around them. Almost €1Billion in debt, and rather than taking the money they were hoping to get from this farce and reducing their debt, were planning on spending it all, initially at least, on two players, in the knowledge that the would be secure in the cash cow 'Super League' with no chance of losing out a revenue stream, because not only was there no relegation from that league for the chosen 15. But also, he would have been in charge of it too, and so could potentially change things again if things were not going Madrid's way. Cuckoo land.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

What I would like to know is how Real are doing up their stadium at great expense during a pandemic when every club is losing a lot of money..

 

[redhed17]

What I would like to know is how Real are doing up their stadium at great expense during a pandemic when every club is losing a lot of money..

Maybe they have another training ground to sell to the Madrid City Council! It was surprisingly lucrative in the past.

 

[Dave A]

What I would like to know is how Real are doing up their stadium at great expense during a pandemic when every club is losing a lot of money..

They probably sold the rights for the privilegde of arranging the rennovation to the council, honestly that wouldn't shock me given what has happened in the past.

 

[andrea]

 

[Touring Mars]

Liverpool's away kit... Salah's facial expression says it all really.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Pretty sure they have had that all season mate...

 

[Touring Mars]

Pretty sure they have had that all season mate...

Yeh, I figured they must have, but Salah's face is the take home message here... he looks like a lifeguard at Center Parcs.

 

[redhed17]

Speaking of kits, the good thing about Utd being at home is that you don't have to see this monstrosity. It's a personal choice thing, but I (just about) prefer the Liverpool kit. Nike do pretty bad designs in general, but I expect better of Adidas.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Games this weekend.

Friday.
Southampton v Leicester (8pm Sky)

Saturday.
Crystal Palace v Man City (12.30 BT)
Brighton v Leeds (3pm Amazon)
Chelsea v Fulham (5.30 Sky)
Everton v Aston Villa (8pm BT)

Sunday.
Newcastle v Arsenal (2pm Sky)
Man United v Liverpool (4.30 Sky)
Tottenham v Sheffield United (7.15 Sky)

Monday.
West Brom v Wolves (6pm Sky)
Burnley v West Ham (8.15 Sky)

Some big games at both ends of the table, Liverpool probably need the win more than United do given the fact that they are fighting for fourth and drew the last two games, United had a great win over Roma tonight. 👍

The big news from this week really has been the proposed Arsenal takeover bid from Swedish billionaire and Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek, The Kroenke's say the club isn't for sale but Ek says he has the money and backing.

Elsewhere the fantastic battle for the La Liga title took another twist as Barcelona lost 1-2 at home to Granada, Atletico currently just two points clear of both Real and Barca who are only separated by goal difference and Sevilla only a point behind in fourth, three points separate the top four!

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Southampton 1-1 Leicester
Palace 0-2 City
Brighton 2-0 Leeds
Chelsea 2-0 Fulham
Everton 1-2 Villa

Vestergaard was controversially sent off for Southampton in last nights game after just 10 minutes but they took the lead thanks to a Ward-Prowse penalty before Jonny Evans equalised for Leicester.

Comfortable predictable win for Man City and they can win the title if United lose to Liverpool tomorrow, Aguero and Ferran Torres with the two quick second half goals, Big win for Brighton in their battle to stay up, Pascal Gross with a penalty and Danny Welbeck with the second goal.

Comfortable win for Chelsea but Fulham had some good chances themselves, Kai Havertz continued his good run of form with two goals, Fulham now nine points adrift of safety with just four games left and it looks increasingly desperate for them. Everton-Villa just finished, Watkins gave Villa the lead before Calvert-Lewin equalised just a few mins later, El Ghazi got the Villa winner on 80 minutes.

 

[Famine]

Away from moneyball, nomoneyball's Championship bottom four looks like this tonight:

21 - Derby County - P45, 43pt, GD-22
22 - Rotherham United - P44, 40pt, GD-16
23 - Sheffield Wednesday - P45, 40pt, GD-21
24 - Wycombe Wanderers - P45, 40pt, GD-33

And the fun bit of that is Derby play Wednesday in the final game of the season next Saturday.

Rotherham have a game in hand - away to Luton - so we won't know how the final fixtures need to go until then. However, we do know that Wednesday need to beat Derby, Derby need to not lose to Wednesday, and Wycombe need Wednesday to beat Derby and then to beat Middlesbrough by at least 13 more goals than the margin Wednesday win by in order to survive, if Rotherham cannot get one win in their final two games.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Thought you weren't bothered about Football??

 

[Famine]

Thought you weren't bothered about Football??

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Big protest at Old Trafford and fans have somehow made their way on to the pitch, they don't look to be moving anytime soon. There is talk of the United-Liverpool game been delayed by an hour till 5.30pm.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Big protest at Old Trafford and fans have somehow made their way on to the pitch, they don't look to be moving anytime soon. There is talk of the United-Liverpool game been delayed by an hour till 5.30pm.

About the Super League? Or something else?

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Mostly about the Glazers but related to Super League as well.

There is now serious doubt about the game going ahead today. I like that the fans are protesting outside the ground but I think fans on the pitch are taking this a bit too far.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Fans now off the pitch, match will go ahead today but kick-off delayed and we are yet to know when it will kick off.

Both teams have yet to leave their respective hotels, the ref Michael Oliver is here though.

 

[Touring Mars]

Meanwhile, Stan Collymore posts the route of the Man Utd team bus on Twitter....

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Teams still haven't left the hotels, crowd outside has now been dispersed, no word on when the game will kick-off if it does today but you would think they will get the game going today, difficult to re-schedule when we are at the end of the season, United play in Europa League semi final this week.

 

[redhed17]

Meanwhile, Stan Collymore posts the route of the Man Utd team bus on Twitter....

He's an a******e, always has been, always will be.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Game has been postponed!

 

[Dave A]

Meanwhile, Stan Collymore posts the route of the Man Utd team bus on Twitter....

The word moron doesn't come close to describing that man.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal
Spurs 4-0 Sheff Utd

Some Football was played on Sunday away from the headlines, Elneny and Aubameyang scored for Arsenal in a routine win and Newcastle had Fabian Schar sent off late on, a Gareth Bale hat-trick and an nice finish from Son saw Spurs also have a routine win.

No idea when they can squeeze that postponed game in, bot United and Liverpool will be playing midweek every week from now till the end of the season, unless they play on Monday night, which I would be fine with.

 

[daan]

I think they should award Liverpool the 3 points.