No More Harry - Premier League 2020/21

[Diable Rouge]

Bale's return to Tottenham confirmed.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Man United have had a penalty turned DOWN by VAR. Truly these are strange times.

[EIM]

This is fun.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Bloody hell. How long does it take to have a penalty given against Man. U?

Also, I've just discovered that Johnny van der Beek comes from a little village that I cycled through for 15 years on my way to work.

Doesn't matter. He was a git because he played for Ajax. Now he's just a tw*t. Only Cantona, Best, Law, Charlton and Groenen get a pass.

[EIM]

Lindelof is known as Iceman because he melts under pressure.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Blimey.

[Guy Profumo]

Libel action pending?

[Satchmo Distel]

Sky apologized so I think that would end the matter, except that Evra might not be doing any more Sky work.

Meanwhile, what's the excuse for losing 3-1 at home to Palace when you're supposed to be closing the gap on the big two?

[Diable Rouge]

None - quite how Woodward hasn't gotten his P45 yet is another matter, however.

[RobW]

Glad I put Lindelof and Fernandes in my FL team. Patrice Evra must be protected at all costs, that apology was the funniest thing i've seen all year, bar a few dodgy reviews for LBW.

[Satchmo Distel]

To be fair, it took nine years for Liverpool to apologize to Evra for the racism he received from Suarez.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That looked exactly like the sort of game you would expect given that crystal palace started their preseason before man utd went on holiday, and that palace had two competitive games to get them up closer to full match speed. Palace were ready and man utd weren't They caught united cold, then sat there in their shape as man utd ponderously plodded around at preseason friendly pace while palace waited to pounce on the counterattack. They were much sharper, more precise and energetic than man utd, but that's kind of what you'd expect given their extra two or three weeks preparation.

I really wouldn't read too much more into it than that. It will take man utd a couple of games to get up to speed. Whatever else, this is not a situation that could have been fixed by a) signing more players b) having made diffferent tactical decisions because it's about the overall level of preparation rather than individuatl quality or tactics. Not that this mattered to Gary Neville. You really shouldn't give a manic miserablist a fucking microphone and tell him to fill 15 hours of airtime off the top of his fucking head. Weird shit will come out "I know that they haven't had a full pre-season or a chance to build up match fitness, but that's not an excuse." Said angry man whose powers of reason had leaked out his ear.

That Evra/zaha thing is properly unhinged. What was he thinking? Zaha has spoken about this topic before and apparently didn't know that moyes had a daughter until he heard about this rumour. He just signed for Man utd when he was too young, and too raw, and the manager changed, and moyes didn't feel like he could give him the game time he needed to develop because he was too desperate, so he kind of fell through the cracks, went back to palace and resumed his career very successfully. The time for him to join man utd was either at 15 and come up through the system or 23, when he was an established premer league player. Not 20. .

[Gangster Octopus]

I'm reading that as Manchester United are poor, have more injuries and are hard done to by The Establishment. You're the football equivalent of an anti-vaxer.

This, by the way, is a ridiculously over the top, late night Saturday post, and should be taken as such...

[Toby Gymshorts]

That looked exactly like the sort of game you would expect given that crystal palace started their preseason before man utd went on holiday, and that palace had two competitive games to get them up closer to full match speed. Palace were ready and man utd weren't They caught united cold, then sat there in their shape as man utd ponderously plodded around at preseason friendly pace while palace waited to pounce on the counterattack. They were much sharper, more precise and energetic than man utd, but that's kind of what you'd expect given their extra two or three weeks preparation.

I really wouldn't read too much more into it than that. It will take man utd a couple of games to get up to speed. Whatever else, this is not a situation that could have been fixed by a) signing more players b) having made diffferent tactical decisions because it's about the overall level of preparation rather than individuatl quality or tactics. Not that this mattered to Gary Neville. You really shouldn't give a manic miserablist a fucking microphone and tell him to fill 15 hours of airtime off the top of his fucking head. Weird shit will come out "I know that they haven't had a full pre-season or a chance to build up match fitness, but that's not an excuse." Said angry man whose powers of reason had leaked out his ear.

That Evra/zaha thing is properly unhinged. What was he thinking? Zaha has spoken about this topic before and apparently didn't know that moyes had a daughter until he heard about this rumour. He just signed for Man utd when he was too young, and too raw, and the manager changed, and moyes didn't feel like he could give him the game time he needed to develop because he was too desperate, so he kind of fell through the cracks, went back to palace and resumed his career very successfully. The time for him to join man utd was either at 15 and come up through the system or 23, when he was an established premer league player. Not 20. .

Thank you.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I'm reading that as Manchester United are poor, have more injuries and are hard done to by The Establishment. You're the football equivalent of an anti-vaxer.

This, by the way, is a ridiculously over the top, late night Saturday post, and should be taken as such...

Hah, You're just reading that man utd's europa league jaunt made shite of their preseason. Which is going to have inevitable consequences on their early season performances.

[Satchmo Distel]

I thought there was a 28 day rule for that reason; e.g. the players could have a fortnight off and a fortnight back. What you're really seeing is that Man U still don't have the depth to be consistent, despite their spending. They throw in a totally lousy performance every few games. The pattern has been going on too long to be blamed on short-term issues.

And how much match fitness can you actually lose in the 34 days between losing to Sevilla and losing this one? You knew what the dates were going to be and are a mega-club that could plan accordingly.

[EIM]

It's all part of Solskjaer's genius plan. Play Fosu-Mensah and James on the right wing, lose every game between now and deadline day, Woodward pays massively over the odds for Sancho in a blind panic.

[Sean of the Shed]

That plan sounds very familiar, did Mourinho leave some of his notebooks behind in the manager's office?

[Jumbo McGinnis]

That couldn’t have worked any better for Solskjaer yesterday. Now I’m not saying he wanted to lose but United actually losing has helped his cause. That defence is woeful. De Gea is hideously out of form, what the Christ is a Fosu-Mensah? It sounds like a rare debilitating disease you see on a feature on the local news. Maguire can’t even walk past the Greek yogurt in Waitrose without breaking into a cold sweat and I think Luke Shaw is 85% custard. They’re crying out for three defenders (at least) rather than Sancho, who they do also need but to a slightly lesser extent than sorting out their defence.

Also, Scott Parker’s interviews are bizarre. I had an image of him being quite intelligent but it’s very, very weird.

[pebblethefish]

Scott Parker is definitely confusing me. In the play off final he worked out the perfect way to defend against Brentford, his team put it into action perfectly, and they deservedly won. I was expecting similar this season, carefully watching how his opponents play and setting up his players accordingly. Instead, his team talks seem to be "Hey guys, we're in the Prem! Now go out there and rund around like primary school kids who've just had their Sunny D".

[Nesta]

Got strong Pardew vibes from that Parker interview. Also a lot of 'Blair hands'. My sig.oth said he looked like he was coked out of his gourd, but i have led a far too sheltered life etc

[Sean of the Shed]

In the space of a month Harry Maguire has been battered by the Police and the Palace.

[Tony C]

So this is the galvanising effect that signing Bale will have on Spurs.

[Satchmo Distel]

Maybe Bale gave the half-time team talk?

[Jah Womble]

Will Gareth be able to displace anyone?

(Clue: he will.)