WSL chat - but mostly United miscellaneous

How realistic is it that London City win the title this year with their spending?
 
SilentWitness said:
How realistic is it that London City win the title this year with their spending?
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Its hard to say exactly but I think even if all the new signings settle brilliantly and the players they signed last summer do better, which I was expecting them to last year... I think they'd still be competing with us for 4th

Last season they made impressive signings but it didnt result in them being among the top teams. Some more this summer yeah but like last seasons players they might not do as well as we'd expect in their team.
 
Ekeke said:
Its hard to say exactly but I think even if all the new signings settle brilliantly and the players they signed last summer do better, which I was expecting them to last year... I think they'd still be competing with us for 4th

Last season they made impressive signings but it didnt result in them being among the top teams. Some more this summer yeah but like last seasons players they might not do as well as we'd expect in their team.
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Yeah, I think 4th or 5th is most likely for them. 3rd at the absolute best. They've spent a hell of a lot of money recruiting aging superstars (and weakening Barcelona so that Lyon can finally win the CL again), but the top 3 have a much better squad than they do. Even if things go well for them this season, to even make it into the top 3 they have to hope that one of Chelsea/City/Arsenal drop off a bit somewhere while juggling CL and league football, and we don't recover from our end of season slump.
 
SilentWitness said:
How realistic is it that London City win the title this year with their spending?
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On paper their side is quite good, but it rarely works out like that. The new players will take some time to find their feet and adjust to their team mates and the roles plus some of those star players are a little past their absolute peak. I think they won't win the league or anything like that but equally I reckon they'll get a few good results along the way. Investment like this will pay off eventually I think.
 
Earps
Batlle Mannion Turner Blundell
Zelem Naalsund.
Garcia. Clinton Malard
Russo​

Subs: Rabjohn, Barry, Ladd, Geyse, Williams, Thomas

Manager: Casey Stoney

Not a bad side actually.
 
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Ekeke said:
Some more big moves

Arsenal sign Reuteler one of the best midfielders in germany for many seasons. To go with Caldentey and Stanway thats huge depth or a top midfield 3

Bayern sign Sophie Proost she looks a good young player

Leuchter a Dutch striker is set to sign for Chelsea. She got 18 goals for PSG last season so will likely outdo Kerr's 7 goals
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This one fell through.

Meanwhile London continue to sign good players. Kafaji was good last season on loan.
While we lose Malard to Chelsea.
Maybe they will finish ahead of us
 
Switching topics for a moment, and acknowledging that the topic isn't directly WSL-related or United-related, I thought I'd post this article that I just came across regarding UEFA's recent re-evaluation of VAR:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cm2gyzme6gno

As the "Analysis" section of the article points out, this seems like a reasonable and welcome attempt to restore VAR to the (limited) purposes for which it was intended, but it probably looks better on paper than it will in practice because there isn't a clear-and-obvious way to determine what is a clear-and-obvious error. Interested in others' thoughts....
 
We had our first pre-season game today against Leicester behind closed doors, and like the men's team today it ended in a 1-1 draw with Terland scoring late on. The teams played 40 minute halves. Medina played the first half at centre back next to Le Tissier. All the youngsters in the squad got a run out, including a couple of under 18 players: Evie Mitchell in goal, and Olivia Turner at right-back. Seems like Olid went with a 4-2-3-1 formation in the first half, and a 4-4-2 in the second.

The full squad that played:

Middleton-Patel / Mitchell (60)

Riviere / Lundkvist (41)
Le Tissier / Newell (60)
Medina / Janssen (41)
Simpson / Turner (60)

Drury / Anderson (41)
Toone / Miyazawa (41)
Zigiotti / Hill (41)
Griffiths / Park (41)

Watson / Wangerheim (41)
Schuller / Terland (41)

Those not in the squad: Tullis-Joyce, Leitzig, Sandberg, Awujo, Rolfo, Bizet
 
Maestro14 said:
We had our first pre-season game today against Leicester behind closed doors, and like the men's team today it ended in a 1-1 draw with Terland scoring late on. The teams played 40 minute halves. Medina played the first half at centre back next to Le Tissier. All the youngsters in the squad got a run out, including a couple of under 18 players: Evie Mitchell in goal, and Olivia Turner at right-back. Seems like Olid went with a 4-2-3-1 formation in the first half, and a 4-4-2 in the second.

The full squad that played:

Middleton-Patel / Mitchell (60)

Riviere / Lundkvist (41)
Le Tissier / Newell (60)
Medina / Janssen (41)
Simpson / Turner (60)

Drury / Anderson (41)
Toone / Miyazawa (41)
Zigiotti / Hill (41)
Griffiths / Park (41)

Watson / Wangerheim (41)
Schuller / Terland (41)

Those not in the squad: Tullis-Joyce, Leitzig, Sandberg, Awujo, Rolfo, Bizet
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Thanks for that. Good to see the younger ones getting minites. Sounds like Jess Simpson played really well, according to the match report.
 
We will soon find out whether Skinner was holding our Academy players back or if they simply aren't good enough
 
Maestro14 said:
We had our first pre-season game today against Leicester behind closed doors, and like the men's team today it ended in a 1-1 draw with Terland scoring late on. The teams played 40 minute halves. Medina played the first half at centre back next to Le Tissier. All the youngsters in the squad got a run out, including a couple of under 18 players: Evie Mitchell in goal, and Olivia Turner at right-back. Seems like Olid went with a 4-2-3-1 formation in the first half, and a 4-4-2 in the second.

The full squad that played:

Middleton-Patel / Mitchell (60)

Riviere / Lundkvist (41)
Le Tissier / Newell (60)
Medina / Janssen (41)
Simpson / Turner (60)

Drury / Anderson (41)
Toone / Miyazawa (41)
Zigiotti / Hill (41)
Griffiths / Park (41)

Watson / Wangerheim (41)
Schuller / Terland (41)

Those not in the squad: Tullis-Joyce, Leitzig, Sandberg, Awujo, Rolfo, Bizet
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Interesting thanks for the info. Seems like she isnt immediately trying to go to her formation from Hearts then
 
Ekeke said:
Interesting thanks for the info. Seems like she isnt immediately trying to go to her formation from Hearts then
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True, but get Leitzig, Sandberg, Awujo, Rolfo and Bizet into the.mix and it could be a different story.
 
Himannv said:
I think that's probably a good thing. I'm not a fan of that formation as you're essentially replacing an attacker with a CB.
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Me either, but if thats the formation she settled on to win the league at Hearts after 5 years there... I'd rather she play to her own strengths
 
Ekeke said:
Me either, but if thats the formation she settled on to win the league at Hearts after 5 years there... I'd rather she play to her own strengths
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No point if you don't have the players as we found with Amorim

Plus we don't know enough about Olid to hear if that is a system she is committed to or just decided was best for that group at Hearts
 
Rood said:
No point if you don't have the players as we found with Amorim

Plus we don't know enough about Olid to hear if that is a system she is committed to or just decided was best for that group at Hearts
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I think the whole point of signing her is letting her do her process which brings the youth players through matching what our owners want from the team. It took 5 years at Hearts to win the league doing that. I dont think she'll have 1 year here to just work with the players we already have. There were multiple 17 year olds, a 20 year old and some players around 22 and 23 in her team last year as well as some older ones.
 
Ekeke said:
I think the whole point of signing her is letting her do her process which brings the youth players through matching what our owners want from the team. It took 5 years at Hearts to win the league doing that. I dont think she'll have 1 year here to just work with the players we already have. There were multiple 17 year olds, a 20 year old and some players around 22 and 23 in her team last year as well as some older ones.
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Yes sure but I'm just saying we cant assume she's wedded to a 3 at the back like Amorim

Going to be very interesting to see how the Girls Academy develops - different project to Hearts of course and she'll not get 5 years to prove herself
 
Rood said:
Yes sure but I'm just saying we cant assume she's wedded to a 3 at the back like Amorim

Going to be very interesting to see how the Girls Academy develops - different project to Hearts of course and she'll not get 5 years to prove herself
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What I'm trying to say is that whatever system she wants to implement the current players wont be an issue longterm because she will develop young players into playing those roles. She didnt play the system she did at Hearts because of the players. So we might see her play what the players are familliar with for half a season or a full season and then go towards what she really wants, or she might play it from early on expecting the current players to adapt, or bringing in youngsters to do it instead

She likes 3 at the back, but its possible she wants to try something new for us
 
Ekeke said:
What I'm trying to say is that whatever system she wants to implement the current players wont be an issue longterm because she will develop young players into playing those roles. She didnt play the system she did at Hearts because of the players. So we might see her play what the players are familliar with for half a season or a full season and then go towards what she really wants, or she might play it from early on expecting the current players to adapt, or bringing in youngsters to do it instead

She likes 3 at the back, but its possible she wants to try something new for us
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From what I have read and heard from her she seems very smart and adaptable. In the behind-closed-doors game v Leicester she played 4231 in the first half and 442 in the second.

No doubt she will play 3 at the back as well - it worked for her at Hearts - but she is not welded to that formation like Amorim was. Plus, I think our current women's squad are perfectly capable of playing that way.

I do think we will see a fair mix of formations throughout the season, dependent on the.opposition and the state of each game.
 
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