Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

No More Harry - Premier League 2020/21

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Rhys WIlliams is just a kid, and not a particularly exceptional one, and Matt Phillips is a 23 year old whose only match experience before the start of this season was 19 games in 2 bundesliga for stuttgart last season. It's not an ideal situation.

    Comment


      It's good to see Southampton's defence get all due recognition on here for their performance.

      Comment


        Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
        I would have thought that a big part of their problem is that over the last 10 games man utd have been on course for a 99 point season. How long they can keep that up is open for question, but they've made up a lot of ground in a relatively short space of time. As for liverpool last night, they looked exhausted. More mentally than physically. Passing teams all kind of look the same when they're in trouble. The players get too far apart, they start to look for the killer pass to force the goal. So instead of taking seven passes to set up a chance where each has a high probability of success, they try to do it in four with a riskier pass. Then there's the flip side of that where they take far too many passes and the thrust of the attack is lost. Getting it spot on requires enormous expenditure of mental effort game after game. That sometimes comes off, but more usually it doesn't. This is a separate issue from the injury problems, which make it a bit worse.

        To be fair it's kind of inevitable for a team that is basically in its fourth year together. They've been doing this for quite a while now, and while Liverpool will likely have another strong season out of this group of players,next season. but then a lot of hard decisions will have to be made in a relatively short period of time. A lot of these players will be 30 at the end of next season. This isn't a mistake, it's the inevitable consequence of what seems to be the optimal team building strategy, but it is tricky to deal with.
        It is almost as though it is more difficult to repeat winning a title as teams focus more how to play against the Champions than other teams.

        I am proud of this new idea digested from extended OTF pontifications.

        Comment


          Originally posted by pebblethefish View Post
          It's good to see Southampton's defence get all due recognition on here for their performance.
          I thought they were terrific - very high energy, no signs of burn-out there, they were swarming all over the box whenever Liverpool approached it. Ironically I'd looked at the line up and thought "Great, no Romeu, no Vestergaard!" Meh.

          Comment


            it switches to discussions about penalties, and now there's lads saying it's a refereeing stitch up.
            Just to be clear, I don't think for a second it's a stitch up. It's a result of playing style. You're more likely to get fouled moving quickly and you're more likely to get away with a dive too. While the truism is that it all looks worse in slo mo, in reality full speed is where pens are made.

            Comment


              Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
              Rhys WIlliams is just a kid, and not a particularly exceptional one, and Matt Phillips is a 23 year old whose only match experience before the start of this season was 19 games in 2 bundesliga for stuttgart last season. It's not an ideal situation.
              It's not but having two natural centre-backs playing there has got to be worth a go, surely?

              Comment


                Originally posted by hobbes View Post

                Just to be clear, I don't think for a second it's a stitch up. It's a result of playing style. You're more likely to get fouled moving quickly and you're more likely to get away with a dive too. While the truism is that it all looks worse in slo mo, in reality full speed is where pens are made.
                You wrote more or less what I was gong to write. I definitely wasn't talking about you. Even the people who bang on about that nonsense on RAWK are a small minority of the people on that board. Or they were before Kloppo jumped on the conspiracy train.
                Last edited by The Awesome Berbaslug!!!; 05-01-2021, 22:09.

                Comment


                  Originally posted by Third rate Leszno View Post
                  I thought they were terrific - very high energy, no signs of burn-out there, they were swarming all over the box whenever Liverpool approached it. Ironically I'd looked at the line up and thought "Great, no Romeu, no Vestergaard!" Meh.
                  No McCarthy or no adams either. It's like they had lost half their spine. I was particularly happy for hassenthutl, particularly when it seemed as though he had stopped crying seconds before the post match interview. I'm sure we'll discover over time that he's a cat murderer or something equally unsavoury but he seems like a fairly decent guy

                  Comment


                    Southampton thoroughly deserved the win. RAWK is full of dickheads, stay away from it.

                    Comment


                      Originally posted by 3 Colours Red View Post

                      It's not but having two natural centre-backs playing there has got to be worth a go, surely?
                      It really depends. Look at it this way. Fabinho has played enough games at centre half at this stage to count as a legitimate centre half. He may not be Virgil Van Dijk, but I've yet to see him do anything to suggest that he hasn't been a centre back all along. He was a right back for a long time so he has plenty of experience of being an actual defender, and he's been given a clear set of instructions and he can follow them. He's good enough as a centre half that the main problem for liverpool is that they can't pick him in midfield.

                      If you think the young centre half has a future, then the best thing to do is to pick him. It's not clear that they think phillips or williams do. Phillips was 23 before he made his league debut for liverpool, and Williams' loan spell last season was at kidderminster in the national league. It's kind of complicated, but ultimately it just comes down to liverpool taking a chance on not replacing Lovren, and going into the season with three first team centre halves, and getting caught out horribly.

                      Comment


                        Maybe there's something in this b teams idea if clubs like Liverpool struggle to skill up players with their academies and suchlike. It's not as if they're full of top class coaches or anything.

                        Waaaaaaaaaiiiiitttt

                        Comment


                          Fabinho does look pretty damn good at CB granted but as has been said already, moving him back means moving Henderson into a more withdrawn role and wouldn't you rather have him driving on?

                          Comment


                            Philips is only there because the sale fell through at the last minute. Usually you wouldn't find a 23 year old still at a club who couldn't get a game. I'm not really sure how he hung on for so long.
                            And Williams is very green. I have more hope for him, but if you're 19 and can't displace Henderson at centre back, you're probably not going to be the next TAA. If he was 17 I'd be more convinced.

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                              If you think the young centre half has a future, then the best thing to do is to pick him. It's not clear that they think phillips or williams do. Phillips was 23 before he made his league debut for liverpool, and Williams' loan spell last season was at kidderminster in the national league. It's kind of complicated, but ultimately it just comes down to liverpool taking a chance on not replacing Lovren, and going into the season with three first team centre halves, and getting caught out horribly.
                              You would have to think that is a pretty foolish mistake, given that is pretty much a carbon copy of how Manchester City screwed up last year.

                              Comment


                                Originally posted by torres View Post
                                Southampton thoroughly deserved the win. RAWK is full of dickheads, stay away from it.
                                TAB's got a username on it. He's Nevillehaha.

                                Comment


                                  So Burnley have paid ?50m towards their own takeover with the new owners putting only ?15m up front? Unless there is some reassuring small print this looks worrying.

                                  Comment


                                    It's the standard way of taking clubs over. Millionaires don't become millionaires by spending their own money.

                                    Kind of surprised as the reaction around the place - who is stupid enough to put at least 200m of their own money into Burnley?

                                    (Doesn't mean I'm happy about it, by the way. But I am being realistic.)

                                    Comment


                                      The equity firm loans are standard but the selling club propping up the deal to this extent?

                                      Comment


                                        How does that element even work?

                                        Comment


                                          AIUI, the owners borrow the money from somewhere, buy the club and then take the money out of the club to pay back the loan in instalments. The kind of financial chicanery that isn't available to us mere mortals. Depending on who you listen to, the money taken out of the club matches the amount it had in the bank account after a few years profits.

                                          It's what the Glazers did, and I assume Hicks/Gillette, John Henry and however many other recent investors there were.

                                          Comment


                                            Ah, so some form of "leveraged buyout" or whatever? That wasn't clear from The Athletic tweet.

                                            Comment


                                              Yes, pretty much. Like I say, why this is coming as a surprise to anybody (everyone knows that ALK are an American hedge fund for crying out loud, so this is how they operate) I have no idea.

                                              The new chairman has been pretty upfront - the full interview is on YouTube. He's come in and said that the football side is going to be left to Dyche while he sorts out the commercial side, broadens the scouting and finds players to develop and sell on. I can't say I disagree with him that those parts of the club haven't really moved on in the last five years and are the most obvious places where they can make their money back.

                                              Comment


                                                If Aston Villa can field their kids against Liverpool in the Cup, won't it be harder to justify postponement of their following EPL games?

                                                Comment


                                                  Sean Dyche thinks footballers should be fast tracked for covid vaccinations.

                                                  Comment


                                                    It's what the Glazers did, and I assume Hicks/Gillette, John Henry and however many other recent investors there were.
                                                    Hicks and Gilette yes, John Henry no. NESV (latterly FSG) didn't leverage the purchase of either Liverpool or the Red Sox.
                                                    With Liverpool they picked up the club by paying off Tweedledumb and Tweedlecunts' ?300 million bank debt.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X