Abu Dhabi is blue
Premier League Gameweek 1
- Thread starter top1whoisman
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
not as good without Gundo and Mahrez
Comfortable for City without having to get out of second gear due to Haaland's goals. Nothing we didn't expect.
City didn't even get out of first gear.
Along with City who else is being booted out to take it from 20 to 18?
they will play like prime Barca against us though.
I just hope all my fellows devils enjoy the supposed improvements in Manchester. It's the least they could for usurping our hegemony.
Antiemetic?
Of course counter attacking isn't the "gold standard", but teams aren't worried at all of pressing someone high up the pitch because keepers now will play 40 yards out in front of their own net to eliminate most balls over the top and any slick one touch move/dribble to beat a press will often just be fouled. I completely disagree with the notion that tactical fouls are punished quickly. Go watch the past years of Fabinho/Fernandinho/any other DM or defender for Liverpool and City at their best and it will often be a couple of fouls at minimum (if not more) before the card is brandished, and by that point it's not an issue as you can consider 2 or 3 potential chances to punish the press as being eliminated.
I think teams have gotten better at playing on the ball sure. But I think that's also a symptom of both technicality becoming more important in general in the modern game, and the game becoming much more system/structure oriented as most coaches seek to copy/imitate the top teams. It's much easier to create a progressive system where you just look for qualities to fit spaces on the pitch than it is find enough players that instinctively can play combination play and great attacking football off the cuff (a la Real Madrid).
This was boring like a training match.
Thanks
What?
‘He’s already trying to fecking leave Erling! Don’t encourage him!’
You’re welcome
Burnley/Kompany seem talented but very naive. Could easily finish 10th or 18th.
City will be worried with De Bruyne getting injured in his first match back from injury after spending the summer recovering. He's probably the still the biggest influence on that team judging by the two halves.
Is your memory really that bad? United fans were moaning about performances even in the Fergie years when we were winning titles. Winning doesn't always necessarily equal entertainment.
They are top quality obviously but City must be one of the most boring teams going. Had the match on but didn't engage in it at all.
Yeah we played some pretty dull football the last season we won the title. Zombie football I believe it was called.
If it’s long term then they’ll just go out and sign another CM. There’s still time for teams to do that if players get a big injury.
Going as expected.
They are boring in the sense that it's so easy for them to win the majority of their games. Barcelona quickly turned into the same beast, too, under Pep, but the novelty of their tactical set-up was still fresh back then.
It frustrates or even irks some fans, especially those who have been following and admiring English football, because Pep's sides gain control by annihilating one of the things that's always been associated with English football. The run n' gun game and the unpredictability that it brings. No matter how better a team is on the pitch, you can always count on the opponent to find a way to step it up for 15-20 minutes and turn the game into a rodeo.
When Burnley decided to up the tempo and give it a go, searching for the equaliser in the first half, City just slowed down everything and killed any kind of momentum. That's a Pep thing. Klopp can't do that regularly and it was almost an alien concept for most of Fergie's sides. I guess the irony is that, in different contexts and more as a means to an end, the Liverpool side that won the league as well as SAF's strongest sides (2007-08 & 2008-09) had found ways to do just that.
It frustrates or even irks some fans, especially those who have been following and admiring English football, because Pep's sides gain control by annihilating one of the things that's always been associated with English football. The run n' gun game and the unpredictability that it brings. No matter how better a team is on the pitch, you can always count on the opponent to find a way to step it up for 15-20 minutes and turn the game into a rodeo.
When Burnley decided to up the tempo and give it a go, searching for the equaliser in the first half, City just slowed down everything and killed any kind of momentum. That's a Pep thing. Klopp can't do that regularly and it was almost an alien concept for most of Fergie's sides. I guess the irony is that, in different contexts and more as a means to an end, the Liverpool side that won the league as well as SAF's strongest sides (2007-08 & 2008-09) had found ways to do just that.
No it very obviously hasn't.
Bayern have won over half of the titles since the its inception in '62. Half. 33 wins in 60 years.
Next best in the Bundesliga, Dortmund with 8 total wins, last win coming 11 years ago.
Even with City's domination, in 11 years there have been 5 different winners of the of PL, United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Leicester.
In nearly double the duration of league football format (not cup competition style/regional stuff pre-bundesliga),120 years of the English football league, the most wins one team has had is 20, followed by 19.
This defence of the Bundesliga is weird, as if one team having a 50% chance of winning is at all competitive in a league competition.
I certainly never moaned and can’t recall too many others.
The point was that before Bayern's current dominance, the Bundesliga wasn't any more one-sided than, say, the Premier League in its first 20 years. Manchester United won 13 out of the first 20 PL seasons - do you consider the first 20 years of the Premier League "uncompetitive"? It was, even then, marketed as the most exciting league in the world yet it was actually less competitive than any of the big ones.
Bayern were always the biggest, most successful club of the Bundesliga, that's true. But the league itself used to be a lot more competitive than it is now. Even as recently as the decade between 2000-2010 saw the likes of Dortmund, Stuttgart, Werder Bremen, and Wolfsburg all win league titles while both Schalke and Leverkusen came incredibly close (as in, "they bottled it on the final day" close). Hell, in 1998, a fecking newly promoted team won the league!
Pretending that it was always Bayern dominating without any competition is dishonest in the extreme.
13 out of 20 is not the same as 11 out of 11. Not remotely.
duffer, you usually know how to read.
"Before Bayern's current dominance". It's right there at the beginning.
Burnley looked ok, but if they're going to defend like that and then get themselves a petty sending off every other time they lose a game because of it, they might not be sticking around long.
So we need Turner to have a nightmare today right ?
Why can't we order our line ups like that?
Also, Forest are about to get pasted, aren't they?
Well that looks like a team set up for 20% position, park the bus, hope to pinch one on the break with pace. Let’s hope Arsenal leave their shooting boots at home!
3 v 0 to the team that‘ll never sing Champions of Europe.
After all that money spent, that doesn't look like a league winning bench even with Jesus out.
And the league was never a foregone conclusion like it is now or in the Bundesliga. Most years during our successful period we were “past it” and many predicted our downfall. Our squad was rarely, if ever, overwhelmingly better than the rest.
There’s a big difference between having a legendary manager bringing success and a club having success not matter what the team is or who is in charge.
So Arsenal rolling with a 3-2-2-3 I'm assuming and not playing Partey at the back.
-----White Saliba Timber-------
------------Rice Partey--------------
Saka-----------------------Martinelli
--------Odegaard Havertz---------
----------------Nketiah------------------
... something like that?
-----White Saliba Timber-------
------------Rice Partey--------------
Saka-----------------------Martinelli
--------Odegaard Havertz---------
----------------Nketiah------------------
... something like that?
As in positions? Surely Partey isn't at right back and it could be the app system of 3 cb and 2 cm?
Otherwise why didn't they just keep White right back and Gabriel at centre back?