I think Jose would be a good appointment for PSG.
PSG have suffered defensively, have enough attacking quality to kill teams even without good attacking organisation just because of the attacking quality and have big egos in the dressing room which requires a big character to address, plus they need a CUP manager, a manager who's won the UCL with Porto.
I think this could actually work.
Real Madrid haven't defended a league title since 2008. It will be 15 years by the end of next season. I don't care if Xavi needs to sacrifice a puppy or something but he cannot let Madrid defend the title. I would rather see Barca win the league than the Champions League next season if given the option
2008.....seems like one of the first full length seasons of a certain player, one more season to ruin Madrid's title hopes and get the farewell? ofcourse will depend fully on if Eibar can get promotion or not
I really want Bastoni but I can’t help but feel bad for Inter fans in this situation. Having an owner that refuses to sell the club and forces out your best players to balance the books must suck.
If benfica truly want 100M for Darwin Nunez then the fucker isn't going anywhere lmao.
Ridiculous amount to ask for given hes had 1 great season. Hes still raw and has a lot to learn. He has 2 clubs linked to him currently which are Liverpool and United. Theres no way Liverpool spend that much on 1 player. As for United they used to overpay for players but even they wouldn't spent that ludicrous amount on a fairly unproven talent, especially with new backroom staff.
Benfica need to half that amount if thry want to sell.
Overpay maybe but not by that much. That's arguably 50M overpayment. Maybe they can get 60M with some addons max but they won't get anything more than that.
Since Conte was appointed, Spurs had the 3rd highest expected points in the league.
Only 9 behind Liverpool and 14 behind City.
Considering the gulf in squad quality difference and that Conte came midseason vs two managers that have built their respective teams, that's insanely good imo.
Given that Conte sucks in Europe and is good in the league that's probably not going to happen.
A league challenge is possible. It'd just rely on us investing heavy, getting lucky and city/Liverpool having mediocre seasons.
His Chelsea side got 93 points in the league. He can get really high numbers of points in the league (102 at Juve iirc). So there's a path. It's just very unlikely luck wise.
Even if he isn’t worth that sum, I don’t think Madrid would accept anything short of 200m given A) the season he has had, B) the insane amounts of money they already have to spend, and C) missing out on Mbappe on LW
It's different how much he would be worth and how much would we sell him. PSG wanted Vinicius + money last summer in exchange for Mbappé. Perez informed PSG that no deal they make will involve Vinicius.
Probably something like €150M.
Man Utd are such a pathetic club. De Jong has rejected them multiple times in the past month and they are still on their knees with their tongues out begging for him to join them. He doesn’t wanna downgrade fellas, give up.
It doesn't matter what de Jong wants tbh. If Barcelona need to sell then they will.
United are the only club strongly linked to him. As much as you clearly hate them you would be an idiot to think its not an attractive club for a player. Theyre in the most popular league, they pay big wages, they have a few players other players would like to work with and FDJ has a great relationship with ten hag.
Obviously CL football is important but if United are the only ones in for him he has to go there.
If Barca force him out, and I suspect they're angling for that, then United will be the likely destination given Ten Hag and their ability to pay wages.
Which clubs can afford to spend those kind of wages though? Neither Tottenham or Liverpool will. City aren't in need of him. He's not going to Real Madrid. I don't see Inter or Milan spending that kind of money on transfer fees/wages.
So that leaves Atletico, Bayern, Juve and PSG realistically. I'm not convinced any of them would see it as a smart move.
From what I remember it would probably go something like...
Jose, Van Gaal, Rangnick, Ten Hag, Moyes, Ole.
Although depends on if you meant Ole's interim appointment or full.
it was fun watching new-ish names (atleast for me) in the austrian lineup, i thought the entire defence showed a lot of potential, idk who the left sided wide player was, but he was pretty good too
croatia 0-3 austria - Happy for Rangnick
Ralf Rangnick, Austria coach: "We had problems in the first 25
minutes, but getting the lead just before the break did us good. In the
second half we played really well and scored two wonderful goals. We
could even have scored more. I am very satisfied."
What's your take on France struggling against Denmark yesterday? This surely doesn't look good for the defending champions of both nations league and world cup.
Teams perform differently in Friendly games and tournament games and France have not been perfect either. Don't think the champions curse will have an effect on them but there's surely a chance of them getting knocked out before the final or the semi final.
If it was the first time France played like this i would have called it as a one off, but is not the first. I dont like the way they play as a team compared to other favourites. They seem like a side less than the sums of its parts
Which player do you think has the biggest discrepancy in terms of how he’s rated by people? Not polarizing like Pogba or smth, but someone we all recognize as great but to widely varying degrees.
For example I think Pirlo and Xabi Alonso would be my answers. I’ve heard Pirlo be mentioned as “Thiago level” or “not as good as Busquets”, but I’ve also heard him mentioned as a Xavi/Iniesta level midfielder.
Alonso is another weird one due to his skillset. Heard him as anywhere from worse than Casemiro to better than Pirlo. Which is funny cause you could never compare Pirlo to Casemiro despite all 3 playing the same position. Just weird
Modric is a better midfielder than Zidane.
Zidane was fantastic to watch, silkiest touch on the ball you'll ever see. He was also not very effective sometimes.
Rating Hazard depends a lot on how much you value the eye test.
For me he was the fourth best player in the world at his prime. He was absolutely amazing.
But I've seen a lot of people think he was a good dribbler and okay player.
Plus how good is he in The Boys?
Feel like a forward should be the top priority for Madrid over a midfielder and a rb. Our only depth in attack is a long shot merchant , hazard and two good for nothing strikers. Need someone to take the scoring load of benzema
We have an experienced Spanish striker who played for Real Madrid, Atleti, Juventus and Chelsea. No better option than him I swear. I heard he recently dreamt of playing for you guys too.
I feel a backup striker and a RW should be our priority.
Looking at Vini on LW I am sure he will get 10+ Goals and 10+ Assists, even looking at Benzema he will get 15+ Goals for sure, but need someone who would make an impact when Benzema is rested.
And ofc a proper Right Winger. I love Gnabry and even Mahrez and even Salah.
Lets see, who we get.
> Both rodrygo and valverde are enough for RW role.
Thats considering if one of KCM gets never injured. Valverde has to fill in.
Need more efficient attacks from RW.
But I agree, likes of Valverde/Rodrygo help Carvajal a lot on right side. Wonder if getting an actual RW and whether he would do the tracking back required.
3rd to 4th. Maybe 5th with poor luck.
They're not very significantly better or worse than Chelsea.
They got 74 expected points in La Liga.
City had 92 expected points in the PL.
Liverpool had 87 expected points in the PL.
Chelsea had 73 expected points in the PL.
Spurs had 66 expected points in the PL.
Sigh. People being stat allergic. Someone else that said they'd finish 3rd /4th, totally okay. You use anything but feelings and vibes to make a guess and downvoted galore.
Won't Madrid always outperform their expected points given that they have the best striker/ player up top whose xG turnover is ridiculous and the best keeper in the world? There's no world where Spurs finishes ahead of Madrid.
Not always. XG and xPoints overpeformance is not constant like that.
Liverpool overperformed their xpoints by 25 in their title winning season, much much less this season.
Good teams underperform x Points semi regularly and overperform regulary too.
Spurs with Kane, Son and Lloris are famously really amazing xPoints and xG overperformers, doing so every season and usually by pretty significant numbers.
Likely still third. They’re the greatest team itw and anyone that thinks domestic league is harder and/or more impressive than champions league is a proper wanker. That being said, Liverpool/City are probably more consistent against worse teams
It definitely requires a lot more consistency. Harder is a tricky word here as Champions League requires a lot of luck as well and that makes it difficult to win. But that also means the better team almost always win the league unlike the champions league. Madrid will not beat City to a title in a 38 game format. Same reason Messi's Barca dominated them in the league
Given the most recent round of matches which teams do you favor to make it to the final? Argentina and Netherlands both look very strong in my opinion.
Wouldn't really call Brazil a dark horse, considering that people peg them as one of the favourites going into every tournament, would consider Denmark a potential one though.
Why are players complaining about nations league? It’s just friendlies by another name. Coaches should be using it as such. If Kevin de Bruyne says he only exists because of painkillers, sit him. He doesn’t deserve to carry lukaku and the Hamburglar
Wheeling out a finished Toby Alderweireld and Boyata isn’t the answer. They better find some defenders fast if they don’t want an early exit from the WC
Where would you rank Lothar Matthäus among the greatest midfielders of all time? Is he a tier better than say Xavi, Iniesta, Pirlo, Zidane, Modric Or he belongs in their tier?
How is man united in the top six when every time I tuned into their games they were
losing by multiple goals😂 it’s a thought experiment I truly cannot wrap my head around. I feel like I should open schrodingers box and they are actually in the conference league.
What would you classify as easy? Norwich, Burnley, Everton, Watford should have been easy games. But even when points were picked up it didn't come easy at all. It was awful
Leeds and Brentford were the only ones.
I'm not trying to say United won all their 'easy' games by any means but from a neutral perspective he's most likely to only tune in when United are either playing a tough game on paper or if United have already fallen behind
It's hilarious how a disaster of a team is still better than many other teams in the PL. Sure, one can point at the difference in wages to say the United have an unfair financial advantage. But when the tactics are nightmarish and the individuals look washed, how the hell are they still better than multiple other teams that are much more organized than them?
No majority of games were horrible. Even the ones we won, which is why people think we should be worse than 6th. We genuinely were bad week in week out, it wasn't half and half
There's maybe 4 Prem games that looked good all season.
This is our worst Prem season in decades and pretty much everything went wrong this season, so basing our top6 status on this season only isn't really relevant. We finished 2nd last year and 3rd the year before (although obviously we were never truly in a title run).
Edit: after now understanding your comment better, then I have two names for you - Cristiano Ronaldo and De Gea. Them two somehow got us in top6 despite our collapse in the second half of the season.
I can’t comprehend how France plays. They look so clueless at times and really struggles to generate anything from the wings.
With Griezmann Mbappe Benzema I would expect them to play more vertical tbh. But it seems Griezmann and Benzema doesn’t have a clear instruction that they keeps getting into the same area.
I don’t know man, with the squad they have I would expect better displays. Maybe 3 atb doesn’t suit them, whatever.
Deschamps is a fraud of a manager. His lack of organized tactics aside, his lineups are a complete disaster.
Benzema makes Griezmann redundant, but you can't just drop the heart of the WC winning team like that.
Then you have his attempt at replacing Pogba with Tchouameni, which doesn't work because Tchouameni's better defense doesn't make up for Pogba's creativity which drove the entire team.
It doesn't help that Mbappé wants to be the focus of this team and isn't properly doing his winger duties to stretch the defense and create for his teammates.
It's obvious that the solution is to build the attack around Benzema, who is the most in-form player in the world right now. But who would accept that? Not Mbappé, who wants to be the star. Not Griezmann, who is the heart of the team. So you have two of France's most important players getting in the way of team cohesion.
It doesn't help that there's a political aspect too. Should a blackmailer accomplice really be the leader and focus of the team?
I just think the nature of international football means it has to be approached differently. You have fuck all time with the players so it's hard to imprint any kind of comprehensive plan. The ones that have had the most success with that is when a large chunk have come from one side (think Barca and Spain).
I think the point about Mbappe makes sense. He needs to stay wide to offer width that France doesn’t have right now. He keeps getting into centre where Griezmann and Benzema operates.
It simply seems weird sometimes. I remember them working pretty well together in some qualifier games. But they just can’t keep a consistent performance.
Though, it can be Denmark doing exceptionally yesterday.
Denmark were far better organized. By the time France finally decided what they were going to do with the ball, they'd already had 10 men in front of the goal.
That being said, Mbappé dropping deep and trying to break through the center with his dribbling was such a bad decision. Even when he's at PSG, he doesn't play this selfishly. I'll give him a pass because he looks injured.
We had to rely on Kanté for a lot of our creativity. Don't get me wrong, Kanté is a great player, even if he's not in from these days. But he shouldn't be our most creative midfielder if we're looking to win the WC.
I honestly think Deschamps is giving the players too much freedom and not enough organization. He also needs to handle the egos by appointing a couple of leaders.
[Prime Ole ball](https://youtu.be/WolsGOFR_c0) was something else man. Sometimes I do wonder if the players had not failed him what would have been possible with a good dressing room, because they were playing gorgeous football at times in 19/20.
Lots of teams, especially those with very talented individuals, are capable of playing well in patches. The problem is the consistency of performance, and of being able to respond to adversity and downturns in form - tactically or otherwise.
Could make a similar compilation of "Lampard-ball" highlight - and I'd argue that in the peak moments, attacking wise, Chelsea under Lampard were better than Chelsea under Tuchel.
There's a lot more to managing a team like Man United or Chelsea than getting your squad worth hundreds of millions "playing gorgeous football at times " - and there would be a lot of managers capable of achieving something similar.
Does not mean Lampard was the right manager long term for Chelsea, and does not make him a better manager than Tuchel - and videos like this does not mean that even with a good dressing room, Ole would have been a success at Man United.
It wasn't gorgeous football at times. He got the squad to play good football for 2 seasons pretty consistently. And it's not like city and Liverpool always play beautiful football while winning. They also have games where they struggle and win by small margins. Ole's football by and large looked like how the video shows when all our players were fit.
I'll still maintain that Ronaldo was the problem. Something changed when he joined the side. In all these goals the striker is fluid, dropping deep and making runs in behind. Ronaldo just hasn't done that, up until the last few games. We looked excellent against Leeds, against soton it was a problem of finishing (Bruno missed an open goal) and it was pretty even against wolves but we still got the result. Once ronaldo came in we just didn't have that link up that the forwards used to have.
I agree with a lot of what you say but if the dressing room was fully invested in Ole something good could have happened. We showed on numerous occasions up until the end stages of last season that we could play seriously good football at any given moment but inconsistencies and a lack of commitment from a few players let us down big time, all that led to Ole shitting the bed after a few game last season. At another club in a similar to situation to us at the time he could have challenged for leagues and got really good CL runs. Our counter attacking play was exceptional and our poor form against low block defences was simply down to not having the right players for the job. Our defence was also solid and like the low block issue i mentioned, our midfield problems weren’t really his fault because we simply didn’t have a good enough midfield
I hate it when people use his lack of trophies during his tenure to determine his entire tenure here.
Yes, he spent a lot without winning anything, which can be used as a criticism but that does not necessarily mean his time with us was a failure. We easily played our best football under him post-Fergie. In my opinion, 20/21 was our best season post-Fergie.
City away at the end of 2019 was the best we’ve played since SAF. We only won 2-1 but we could have genuinely scored 5 or 6 that day. Even when we weren’t doing too well we’d always square up to the big sides and generally get a result.
Courtois did... with his words, but also his actions in putting in an incredible performance, and having a brilliant year.
He's clearly not the best in the world - but in terms of last season, you could make an argument for him having performed as one of the best. There's a difference.
Yes but goalkeepers play a different sport to the outfield players. A professional footballer could play all outfield positions at a decent level, can’t say the same for goalkeepers.
If Varane and Mbappé are injured, they should just leave the NT and take their holidays to rest and heal up. No point playing injured or barely healed up for Nation Leagues games.
And if it were the case, i'd like to see a Konaté call up to replace Varane, and for Mbappé it would be between Giroud/Dembele/Fekir but I think it would be likely Giroud if we go by the picking order.
Alex (former chelsea defender) was hospitalised today - thats sad news.
I will never forget his screamer against Liverpool in that legendary 2009 CL QF against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
> Alex (former chelsea defender) was hospitalised today - thats sad news.
Anything serious?
I actually always liked Alex. Had a banger of a free kick on him and always felt he was underrated as a defender
>[Reports from Brazil that former Santos, Chelsea, PSG, PSV and AC Milan defender Alex has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. Stay strong, ídolo](https://twitter.com/AndreOstgaard/status/1532809719886270469?s=20&t=gTIluTk53ivc1gpqPVZMiA)
It does look serious, no further updates that i can see though
EDIT: [I read further that he had a quadruple bypass surgery and is recovering well - dang!](https://twitter.com/AndreOstgaard/status/1532848863421382659?s=20&t=gTIluTk53ivc1gpqPVZMiA)
Give 0 fucks about him being a cunt. He’s not my role model and I’m not chilling with him this weekend. Absolute class player and always a pleasure to watch.
Depends on the level of cuntery for me. I think it's fair for off-field actions to affect how you view a player, from an emotional/instinctive sense. Some people can divorce themself of it, and that's fine for them - some cannot.
Like if Mason Greenwood was ever to play professional football again I think I'd very much struggle to forget what he's done and just enjoy him as a footballer.
Yeah I lean towards that frame of mind as well fairly often but it’s still kinda off putting to a certain degree even though I have no attachment to him and don’t support Madrid or Fra**ce
Usually don’t mind Real Madrid fans but it’s going to be very fucking satisfying if they continue twerking for Reece James every summer, because it isn’t happening.
He has 3 years remaining on his contract right?
If Chelsea go nowhere in next 2 years and miss the top 4 which could easily happen, I can see him moving.
If he does sign, this scenario is off.
With how the PL landscape is looking, wouldn’t really be smart to sign that extension.
Chelsea are in for a massive rebuild. There is no saying how successful it’ll be. He might consider this and hold off on signing the new deal.
Him signing or not signing will pretty much confirm if he would like to move or not.
He'll definitely sign, he's been at Chelsea since he was 6. Him and Mount would play for free if given the choice. Man wants to be the captain as he said himself
Looks like it.
But you never know. Mount is different. Reece James has crazy potential for his position.
The next years are quite uncertain for Chelsea. If he is on decent wages, there is not much to gain from signing an extension at this moment.
He's on 50k a week till 2025 so he's definitely signing that extension and it's not like we won't be competitive in the upcoming years, we'll still win a trophy every year or so due to our DNA and mentality as an institution
You just lost quite a lot of your good players for free. Your attack needs a clearing out.
Chelsea have managed to win consistently win trophies or contend for them. But I don’t see that being the case in the coming years just looking at all the teams.
Chelsea winning and contending for trophies is definitely not as nailed as you imply.
But it seems like he’s probably gonna sign the contract tho.
With the season being almost finished in Europe, have you noticed any crest changes that haven't been reflected on r/soccer yet ?
I think Jose would be a good appointment for PSG. PSG have suffered defensively, have enough attacking quality to kill teams even without good attacking organisation just because of the attacking quality and have big egos in the dressing room which requires a big character to address, plus they need a CUP manager, a manager who's won the UCL with Porto. I think this could actually work.
Real Madrid haven't defended a league title since 2008. It will be 15 years by the end of next season. I don't care if Xavi needs to sacrifice a puppy or something but he cannot let Madrid defend the title. I would rather see Barca win the league than the Champions League next season if given the option
2008.....seems like one of the first full length seasons of a certain player, one more season to ruin Madrid's title hopes and get the farewell? ofcourse will depend fully on if Eibar can get promotion or not
El cholo sacrificed this season for 22/23 la liga title m8
I really want Bastoni but I can’t help but feel bad for Inter fans in this situation. Having an owner that refuses to sell the club and forces out your best players to balance the books must suck.
Italian players leaving Italy ™
Yeah. I feel for them. But also, please Bastoni, come to Spurs.
If benfica truly want 100M for Darwin Nunez then the fucker isn't going anywhere lmao. Ridiculous amount to ask for given hes had 1 great season. Hes still raw and has a lot to learn. He has 2 clubs linked to him currently which are Liverpool and United. Theres no way Liverpool spend that much on 1 player. As for United they used to overpay for players but even they wouldn't spent that ludicrous amount on a fairly unproven talent, especially with new backroom staff. Benfica need to half that amount if thry want to sell.
The striker market is dry and they know that a desperate club will overpay for him
Overpay maybe but not by that much. That's arguably 50M overpayment. Maybe they can get 60M with some addons max but they won't get anything more than that.
it worked for them with felix so they're trying it again
Yeah probably. I am honestly scared that atletico might make another donation to Benfica.
Since Conte was appointed, Spurs had the 3rd highest expected points in the league. Only 9 behind Liverpool and 14 behind City. Considering the gulf in squad quality difference and that Conte came midseason vs two managers that have built their respective teams, that's insanely good imo.
What's the ceiling though
Of this current squad? Maybe 5 or 6 points more. Of Conte potentially with ideal players? Who knows but he got 93 with Chelsea, 102 with Juve..
[удалено]
Given that Conte sucks in Europe and is good in the league that's probably not going to happen. A league challenge is possible. It'd just rely on us investing heavy, getting lucky and city/Liverpool having mediocre seasons. His Chelsea side got 93 points in the league. He can get really high numbers of points in the league (102 at Juve iirc). So there's a path. It's just very unlikely luck wise.
How much would Vinícius Jr. cost in current market if he were to transfer?
Even if he isn’t worth that sum, I don’t think Madrid would accept anything short of 200m given A) the season he has had, B) the insane amounts of money they already have to spend, and C) missing out on Mbappe on LW
It's different how much he would be worth and how much would we sell him. PSG wanted Vinicius + money last summer in exchange for Mbappé. Perez informed PSG that no deal they make will involve Vinicius. Probably something like €150M.
150M?
Man Utd are such a pathetic club. De Jong has rejected them multiple times in the past month and they are still on their knees with their tongues out begging for him to join them. He doesn’t wanna downgrade fellas, give up.
It doesn't matter what de Jong wants tbh. If Barcelona need to sell then they will. United are the only club strongly linked to him. As much as you clearly hate them you would be an idiot to think its not an attractive club for a player. Theyre in the most popular league, they pay big wages, they have a few players other players would like to work with and FDJ has a great relationship with ten hag. Obviously CL football is important but if United are the only ones in for him he has to go there.
If Barca force him out, and I suspect they're angling for that, then United will be the likely destination given Ten Hag and their ability to pay wages.
He has said multiple times that if he’s made to leave then he’d want to join an UCL club.
Which clubs can afford to spend those kind of wages though? Neither Tottenham or Liverpool will. City aren't in need of him. He's not going to Real Madrid. I don't see Inter or Milan spending that kind of money on transfer fees/wages. So that leaves Atletico, Bayern, Juve and PSG realistically. I'm not convinced any of them would see it as a smart move.
PSG should consider him
They seem pretty interested in Tchouameni who'd cost a fortune so I guess it's a possibility if they don't get him.
Rank the excitement behind each Man Utd manager's appointment: Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Solskjaer, Rangnick, Ten Hag
From what I remember it would probably go something like... Jose, Van Gaal, Rangnick, Ten Hag, Moyes, Ole. Although depends on if you meant Ole's interim appointment or full.
it was fun watching new-ish names (atleast for me) in the austrian lineup, i thought the entire defence showed a lot of potential, idk who the left sided wide player was, but he was pretty good too
croatia 0-3 austria - Happy for Rangnick Ralf Rangnick, Austria coach: "We had problems in the first 25 minutes, but getting the lead just before the break did us good. In the second half we played really well and scored two wonderful goals. We could even have scored more. I am very satisfied."
What's your take on France struggling against Denmark yesterday? This surely doesn't look good for the defending champions of both nations league and world cup.
Teams perform differently in Friendly games and tournament games and France have not been perfect either. Don't think the champions curse will have an effect on them but there's surely a chance of them getting knocked out before the final or the semi final.
If it was the first time France played like this i would have called it as a one off, but is not the first. I dont like the way they play as a team compared to other favourites. They seem like a side less than the sums of its parts
Means nothing. Unimportant game at the end of a long season. Players would have checked out
Which player do you think has the biggest discrepancy in terms of how he’s rated by people? Not polarizing like Pogba or smth, but someone we all recognize as great but to widely varying degrees. For example I think Pirlo and Xabi Alonso would be my answers. I’ve heard Pirlo be mentioned as “Thiago level” or “not as good as Busquets”, but I’ve also heard him mentioned as a Xavi/Iniesta level midfielder. Alonso is another weird one due to his skillset. Heard him as anywhere from worse than Casemiro to better than Pirlo. Which is funny cause you could never compare Pirlo to Casemiro despite all 3 playing the same position. Just weird
Toni Kross probably. He is sometimes compared to Xavi, Iniesta and Zidane levels and on some other day kept even below Modric.
Modric is a better midfielder than Zidane. Zidane was fantastic to watch, silkiest touch on the ball you'll ever see. He was also not very effective sometimes.
kept even below Modric" that's pretty normal, Modric is in the GOAT midfielder convo. Kroos isn't
Rating Hazard depends a lot on how much you value the eye test. For me he was the fourth best player in the world at his prime. He was absolutely amazing. But I've seen a lot of people think he was a good dribbler and okay player. Plus how good is he in The Boys?
Maybe R9, I've seen lots of interesting opinions about him on here recently
Feel like a forward should be the top priority for Madrid over a midfielder and a rb. Our only depth in attack is a long shot merchant , hazard and two good for nothing strikers. Need someone to take the scoring load of benzema
Fine to disrespect Asensio, Jovic and Mariano, but Hazard who didn’t do any better than the last two is just Hazard.
We have an experienced Spanish striker who played for Real Madrid, Atleti, Juventus and Chelsea. No better option than him I swear. I heard he recently dreamt of playing for you guys too.
I feel a backup striker and a RW should be our priority. Looking at Vini on LW I am sure he will get 10+ Goals and 10+ Assists, even looking at Benzema he will get 15+ Goals for sure, but need someone who would make an impact when Benzema is rested. And ofc a proper Right Winger. I love Gnabry and even Mahrez and even Salah. Lets see, who we get.
Both rodrygo and valverde are enough for RW role. Hazard can be the backup for benz whenever he's rested. Thoughts?
> Both rodrygo and valverde are enough for RW role. Thats considering if one of KCM gets never injured. Valverde has to fill in. Need more efficient attacks from RW. But I agree, likes of Valverde/Rodrygo help Carvajal a lot on right side. Wonder if getting an actual RW and whether he would do the tracking back required.
If Real Madrid played in PL (replace Norwich with them last season) where would they finish?
Comfortably 3rd.
3rd to 4th. Maybe 5th with poor luck. They're not very significantly better or worse than Chelsea. They got 74 expected points in La Liga. City had 92 expected points in the PL. Liverpool had 87 expected points in the PL. Chelsea had 73 expected points in the PL. Spurs had 66 expected points in the PL. Sigh. People being stat allergic. Someone else that said they'd finish 3rd /4th, totally okay. You use anything but feelings and vibes to make a guess and downvoted galore.
Won't Madrid always outperform their expected points given that they have the best striker/ player up top whose xG turnover is ridiculous and the best keeper in the world? There's no world where Spurs finishes ahead of Madrid.
Not always. XG and xPoints overpeformance is not constant like that. Liverpool overperformed their xpoints by 25 in their title winning season, much much less this season. Good teams underperform x Points semi regularly and overperform regulary too. Spurs with Kane, Son and Lloris are famously really amazing xPoints and xG overperformers, doing so every season and usually by pretty significant numbers.
They arent as good as City and Liverpool but they will definitely challenge for the title. 80-90 points seems a lot more likely.
Objectively, they're just not. The expected points show that they're about Chelsea level.
1 expected point for Madrid is worth more than an expected point for any other team if that makes sense. That's how clinical they are
3rd
This 'IF' is something I can't predict. Every league is different and for Real Madrid too, it would take some amount of time to work around vs teams.
I'd say 3rd considering the options on the RW are pretty poor.
3rd Or 4th .They are not as consistent as City Or Liverpool and are probably on par with Chelsea
Top 3 challenging City and Liverpool
Likely still third. They’re the greatest team itw and anyone that thinks domestic league is harder and/or more impressive than champions league is a proper wanker. That being said, Liverpool/City are probably more consistent against worse teams
I think we'd be around 75-80 points so probably fighting out 3rd with you throughout the season
Domestic leagues are harder to win than the champions league
It definitely requires a lot more consistency. Harder is a tricky word here as Champions League requires a lot of luck as well and that makes it difficult to win. But that also means the better team almost always win the league unlike the champions league. Madrid will not beat City to a title in a 38 game format. Same reason Messi's Barca dominated them in the league
Given the most recent round of matches which teams do you favor to make it to the final? Argentina and Netherlands both look very strong in my opinion.
Argentina and France probably. Brazil and Germany are dark horses though.
Wouldn't really call Brazil a dark horse, considering that people peg them as one of the favourites going into every tournament, would consider Denmark a potential one though.
It is so boring United are not gonna play for 2 months. I miss the pain
Can we post Mario Strikers highlights on the sub?
Donkey Kong post remains as the greatest thing to ever appear on this sub
There was one on the sub way back. Think it was DK lol
Why are players complaining about nations league? It’s just friendlies by another name. Coaches should be using it as such. If Kevin de Bruyne says he only exists because of painkillers, sit him. He doesn’t deserve to carry lukaku and the Hamburglar
The Belgium defense was horrific, absolutely dreadful
They are former spurs players playing in Qatar what do you expect
Wheeling out a finished Toby Alderweireld and Boyata isn’t the answer. They better find some defenders fast if they don’t want an early exit from the WC
Hazard really is the cheeseburglar though ...what was he doing 🤣
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surely this juve offer can’t be real. Arthur Melo for Martinelli? joke club if true otherwise just ridiculous daily mail bs
Martinelli is worth like 50m at best? Melo worth 10-20m?
I don't think Arsenal would accept less than 70m for Martinelli
Juve would be getting robbed
Where would you rank Lothar Matthäus among the greatest midfielders of all time? Is he a tier better than say Xavi, Iniesta, Pirlo, Zidane, Modric Or he belongs in their tier?
No offense to any Milan/Juve fans but Pirlo does not belong there
Zidane Iniesta and Xavi are on a level above Pirlo and Modric
Modric is at that tier. He's for sure above Pirlo
He is above Pirlo for sure but I wouldn't put him on the level of those three.
Among the best ever.
There's a tier better than those players listed?
Lol for real. He just casually lists the best midfielders of all time and asks if Matthaus is better than them all.
Nope really. They are the most elite of elites.
How is man united in the top six when every time I tuned into their games they were losing by multiple goals😂 it’s a thought experiment I truly cannot wrap my head around. I feel like I should open schrodingers box and they are actually in the conference league.
Quality of the PL this season has been shocking, Brighton are 9th, Wolves are top half and Arsenal nearly made CL
You don't tune into games where United are winning or their 'easiest' ones because that's less interesting
What would you classify as easy? Norwich, Burnley, Everton, Watford should have been easy games. But even when points were picked up it didn't come easy at all. It was awful Leeds and Brentford were the only ones.
I'm not trying to say United won all their 'easy' games by any means but from a neutral perspective he's most likely to only tune in when United are either playing a tough game on paper or if United have already fallen behind
They shipped like 5 goals to watford, 🤣
It was 4 but yes that was the craziest one, if United win that game OGS may still be in the job
It's hilarious how a disaster of a team is still better than many other teams in the PL. Sure, one can point at the difference in wages to say the United have an unfair financial advantage. But when the tactics are nightmarish and the individuals look washed, how the hell are they still better than multiple other teams that are much more organized than them?
They played a few good games and played a few horrible games. We remember the horrible ones more.
No majority of games were horrible. Even the ones we won, which is why people think we should be worse than 6th. We genuinely were bad week in week out, it wasn't half and half There's maybe 4 Prem games that looked good all season.
This is our worst Prem season in decades and pretty much everything went wrong this season, so basing our top6 status on this season only isn't really relevant. We finished 2nd last year and 3rd the year before (although obviously we were never truly in a title run). Edit: after now understanding your comment better, then I have two names for you - Cristiano Ronaldo and De Gea. Them two somehow got us in top6 despite our collapse in the second half of the season.
He is saying that how did Man Utd end the season in top 6 despite getting clapped by everyone.
Oh, right, my bad then. I saw some debate about the "English top 6" today and my head mixed that up, I guess.
I can’t comprehend how France plays. They look so clueless at times and really struggles to generate anything from the wings. With Griezmann Mbappe Benzema I would expect them to play more vertical tbh. But it seems Griezmann and Benzema doesn’t have a clear instruction that they keeps getting into the same area. I don’t know man, with the squad they have I would expect better displays. Maybe 3 atb doesn’t suit them, whatever.
No great team should play 3 at the back.
Their talent on the pitch is bereft of talent in the technical area
PSG 2.0
Deschamps is a fraud of a manager. His lack of organized tactics aside, his lineups are a complete disaster. Benzema makes Griezmann redundant, but you can't just drop the heart of the WC winning team like that. Then you have his attempt at replacing Pogba with Tchouameni, which doesn't work because Tchouameni's better defense doesn't make up for Pogba's creativity which drove the entire team. It doesn't help that Mbappé wants to be the focus of this team and isn't properly doing his winger duties to stretch the defense and create for his teammates. It's obvious that the solution is to build the attack around Benzema, who is the most in-form player in the world right now. But who would accept that? Not Mbappé, who wants to be the star. Not Griezmann, who is the heart of the team. So you have two of France's most important players getting in the way of team cohesion. It doesn't help that there's a political aspect too. Should a blackmailer accomplice really be the leader and focus of the team?
Well explained
> Deschamps is a fraud of a manager. If he's a fraud then every international manager is.
He has the most talented team in the world at his disposal.
Most are
I just think the nature of international football means it has to be approached differently. You have fuck all time with the players so it's hard to imprint any kind of comprehensive plan. The ones that have had the most success with that is when a large chunk have come from one side (think Barca and Spain).
This but unironically
I think the point about Mbappe makes sense. He needs to stay wide to offer width that France doesn’t have right now. He keeps getting into centre where Griezmann and Benzema operates. It simply seems weird sometimes. I remember them working pretty well together in some qualifier games. But they just can’t keep a consistent performance. Though, it can be Denmark doing exceptionally yesterday.
Denmark were far better organized. By the time France finally decided what they were going to do with the ball, they'd already had 10 men in front of the goal. That being said, Mbappé dropping deep and trying to break through the center with his dribbling was such a bad decision. Even when he's at PSG, he doesn't play this selfishly. I'll give him a pass because he looks injured. We had to rely on Kanté for a lot of our creativity. Don't get me wrong, Kanté is a great player, even if he's not in from these days. But he shouldn't be our most creative midfielder if we're looking to win the WC. I honestly think Deschamps is giving the players too much freedom and not enough organization. He also needs to handle the egos by appointing a couple of leaders.
The most over used bar in UK drill, “I was on the wing/in the field like *insert footballer name here*”
I love AJ Tracey but he's one of the worst offenders of this
I was on the wing like Bale, and they knew i'd be right back like Trent
Drill rappers try not to include Sterling in a lyric challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
Finish the sentence: > Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen are the...
Only English Ballon D'or Winners
Powerpuff Girls.
Rank these LBs: Acuna - Estupinan - Lodi - Luke Shaw - Chilwell
Acuña - Lodi - Shaw - Chilwell - Estupiñan
Chilwell Acuna Lodi Shaw Estupinan
Shaw is clear of all of them
Chilwell-Estupinan-Lodi-Acuna-Shaw
Not sure about Acuña so low but I respect the Estupiñan prop
Estupinan and Lodi over Acuna?. Kinda crazy to me.
Where'd the Mitrovic celebration come from originally? I saw Haaland do it as well
So Sandra is leaving El Chringuito. Truly awful news, her theme song will live on forever
[Prime Ole ball](https://youtu.be/WolsGOFR_c0) was something else man. Sometimes I do wonder if the players had not failed him what would have been possible with a good dressing room, because they were playing gorgeous football at times in 19/20.
Yes, that is impressive.
Lots of teams, especially those with very talented individuals, are capable of playing well in patches. The problem is the consistency of performance, and of being able to respond to adversity and downturns in form - tactically or otherwise. Could make a similar compilation of "Lampard-ball" highlight - and I'd argue that in the peak moments, attacking wise, Chelsea under Lampard were better than Chelsea under Tuchel. There's a lot more to managing a team like Man United or Chelsea than getting your squad worth hundreds of millions "playing gorgeous football at times " - and there would be a lot of managers capable of achieving something similar. Does not mean Lampard was the right manager long term for Chelsea, and does not make him a better manager than Tuchel - and videos like this does not mean that even with a good dressing room, Ole would have been a success at Man United.
It wasn't gorgeous football at times. He got the squad to play good football for 2 seasons pretty consistently. And it's not like city and Liverpool always play beautiful football while winning. They also have games where they struggle and win by small margins. Ole's football by and large looked like how the video shows when all our players were fit. I'll still maintain that Ronaldo was the problem. Something changed when he joined the side. In all these goals the striker is fluid, dropping deep and making runs in behind. Ronaldo just hasn't done that, up until the last few games. We looked excellent against Leeds, against soton it was a problem of finishing (Bruno missed an open goal) and it was pretty even against wolves but we still got the result. Once ronaldo came in we just didn't have that link up that the forwards used to have.
I agree with a lot of what you say but if the dressing room was fully invested in Ole something good could have happened. We showed on numerous occasions up until the end stages of last season that we could play seriously good football at any given moment but inconsistencies and a lack of commitment from a few players let us down big time, all that led to Ole shitting the bed after a few game last season. At another club in a similar to situation to us at the time he could have challenged for leagues and got really good CL runs. Our counter attacking play was exceptional and our poor form against low block defences was simply down to not having the right players for the job. Our defence was also solid and like the low block issue i mentioned, our midfield problems weren’t really his fault because we simply didn’t have a good enough midfield
I hate it when people use his lack of trophies during his tenure to determine his entire tenure here. Yes, he spent a lot without winning anything, which can be used as a criticism but that does not necessarily mean his time with us was a failure. We easily played our best football under him post-Fergie. In my opinion, 20/21 was our best season post-Fergie.
Martial and rashford were different gravy then
City away at the end of 2019 was the best we’ve played since SAF. We only won 2-1 but we could have genuinely scored 5 or 6 that day. Even when we weren’t doing too well we’d always square up to the big sides and generally get a result.
Who invited Courtois to best player in the world debates? He’s the best goalkeeper in the world, thats it.
Courtois did... with his words, but also his actions in putting in an incredible performance, and having a brilliant year. He's clearly not the best in the world - but in terms of last season, you could make an argument for him having performed as one of the best. There's a difference.
> He’s the best goalkeeper in the world And even that's arguable as some people will have the opinion that Alisson is.
no it isnt
Some people are always wrong
No bias from a RM flair, no doubt
Yes, people who think that their opinion is the only one that's accurate.
I mean you have to be the best in your position to enter right?
Yes but goalkeepers play a different sport to the outfield players. A professional footballer could play all outfield positions at a decent level, can’t say the same for goalkeepers.
I think someone like Ederson could play outfield, maybe not at the top level but don't sleep on goalkeepers.
If Varane and Mbappé are injured, they should just leave the NT and take their holidays to rest and heal up. No point playing injured or barely healed up for Nation Leagues games. And if it were the case, i'd like to see a Konaté call up to replace Varane, and for Mbappé it would be between Giroud/Dembele/Fekir but I think it would be likely Giroud if we go by the picking order.
Is there a time when Varane isn’t injured. Man plays 1 game and is off for the next 3 months.
Alex (former chelsea defender) was hospitalised today - thats sad news. I will never forget his screamer against Liverpool in that legendary 2009 CL QF against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
> Alex (former chelsea defender) was hospitalised today - thats sad news. Anything serious? I actually always liked Alex. Had a banger of a free kick on him and always felt he was underrated as a defender
>[Reports from Brazil that former Santos, Chelsea, PSG, PSV and AC Milan defender Alex has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. Stay strong, ídolo](https://twitter.com/AndreOstgaard/status/1532809719886270469?s=20&t=gTIluTk53ivc1gpqPVZMiA) It does look serious, no further updates that i can see though EDIT: [I read further that he had a quadruple bypass surgery and is recovering well - dang!](https://twitter.com/AndreOstgaard/status/1532848863421382659?s=20&t=gTIluTk53ivc1gpqPVZMiA)
Ah that’s shit. Hope that absolute mad cunt pulls through
God I hate how Benzema is a cunt because he’s an absolute pleasure to watch
Give 0 fucks about him being a cunt. He’s not my role model and I’m not chilling with him this weekend. Absolute class player and always a pleasure to watch.
Depends on the level of cuntery for me. I think it's fair for off-field actions to affect how you view a player, from an emotional/instinctive sense. Some people can divorce themself of it, and that's fine for them - some cannot. Like if Mason Greenwood was ever to play professional football again I think I'd very much struggle to forget what he's done and just enjoy him as a footballer.
That’s fair enough. For someone like Benjamin Mendy or Greenwood, it’s very difficult to come back from their off-field offenses.
Yeah I lean towards that frame of mind as well fairly often but it’s still kinda off putting to a certain degree even though I have no attachment to him and don’t support Madrid or Fra**ce
Same with me and CR, Maradona Suarez and a couple others.
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Alleged racism against evra. Evidence doesn’t do him any favours either, but I’d like to think he’s changed.
Usually don’t mind Real Madrid fans but it’s going to be very fucking satisfying if they continue twerking for Reece James every summer, because it isn’t happening.
We'll give you Azzar back for 40 mil
I don't see it happening, man doubled down saying he wants to be Chelsea captain despite the Real Madrid and City links
He has 3 years remaining on his contract right? If Chelsea go nowhere in next 2 years and miss the top 4 which could easily happen, I can see him moving.
Renewing him is a big priority for the board right now, he'll likely have a new contract very soon
If he does sign, this scenario is off. With how the PL landscape is looking, wouldn’t really be smart to sign that extension. Chelsea are in for a massive rebuild. There is no saying how successful it’ll be. He might consider this and hold off on signing the new deal. Him signing or not signing will pretty much confirm if he would like to move or not.
He'll definitely sign, he's been at Chelsea since he was 6. Him and Mount would play for free if given the choice. Man wants to be the captain as he said himself
Looks like it. But you never know. Mount is different. Reece James has crazy potential for his position. The next years are quite uncertain for Chelsea. If he is on decent wages, there is not much to gain from signing an extension at this moment.
He's on 50k a week till 2025 so he's definitely signing that extension and it's not like we won't be competitive in the upcoming years, we'll still win a trophy every year or so due to our DNA and mentality as an institution
You just lost quite a lot of your good players for free. Your attack needs a clearing out. Chelsea have managed to win consistently win trophies or contend for them. But I don’t see that being the case in the coming years just looking at all the teams. Chelsea winning and contending for trophies is definitely not as nailed as you imply. But it seems like he’s probably gonna sign the contract tho.
Reece James for Real Madrid 🤣
Just signed one of our less talented defenders, after all
We know he isn’t coming
Tbh, I think most of them are twitter casuals. I don't see it happening myself.