Leicester than zero? - Premier League 2018/19

[Sean of the Shed]

That shot by Sturridge was fantastic. Absolute pinpoint precision.

[hobbes]

That goal was so good you think it must have taken a deflection or the keeper made a mistake or something. Even when rewatching it.

[Toby Gymshorts]

That was quite something.

[hobbes]

The rest of the game was shit on a stick part 12 million, mind.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Oh, aye. Was resigned to the 1-0 well before that rabbit out of a hat.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

erm hobbes, I think that the passage of time has softened your memories of what those games were like 10 years ago. Since BT sport are already advertising next weekend's match between Newcastle and Man utd as Jose Vs Rafa, I suggest you tune in next week for a much better approximation, where a team without strikers will take on a team composed of players too tall to be defenders.

That was way more enjoyable as a spectacle than those matches. Liverpool were just lacking a bit more composure. a lot of passes were just a little heavy or the touches just took people out of their way. I think that it's a measure of how far liverpool have come over the summer that they have had the start they've had with Salah playing like a "dog". (only scoring a goal every two games)

[hobbes]

I think the problem is, after winning 6 on the bounce while not paying overly well, the team has settled into that mindset. They need to sort themselves the fuck out or it'll go badly wrong and soon.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Klopp's going to have to bite that Henderson bullet sooner or later. He looked as out of place in that midfield battle as Uncle Monty would have. He's grit in the machine in much the same way that fellaini was in van gaal's team, without any of the penalty area presence.

[Patrick Thistle]

Man United deserve to lose every game they play wearing that red-sock-in-the-white-wash pink shirt.

[Sits]

Whereas the Chelsea/Liverpool kits, while pleasing for the purists, would drive FIFA round the bend.

[Patrick Thistle]

Early odds on Newcastle getting relegated? I reckon they might.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Man United deserve to lose every game they play wearing that red-sock-in-the-white-wash pink shirt.

Bayern have the green version. It's just as bad.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

BT sport are advertising next weeks match between man utd and newcastle as Jose vs Rafa. Which just makes it so ultra grim. It's shit on a stick but at their age they need stool softener.

[ursus arctos]

Bayern have the green version. It's just as bad

Arguably worse.

[tee rex]

My local network picks one Sunday EPL game each week (delayed), and I couldn't understand why they opted for Cardiff v Burnley. Turns out it's the only one on offer.

The Champions League is ruining the great Premier League traditions, forcing teams to play on Saturday afternoons. Where will it end?

[jameswba]

Early odds on Newcastle getting relegated? I reckon they might.

I wonder how they feel about letting Dwight Gayle go in exchange for Solomon Rondon. They obviously did it because they knew they'd be defending a lot and needed someone strong to hold the ball up-front. Even so, it feels like Albion have had the better of the deal so far.

[Jah Womble]

Early odds on Newcastle getting relegated? I reckon they might.

Really sticking your neck out, huh?

[Janik]

I wonder how they feel about letting Dwight Gayle go in exchange for Solomon Rondon. They obviously did it because they knew they'd be defending a lot and needed someone strong to hold the ball up-front. Even so, it feels like Albion have had the better of the deal so far.

I think their fans are more exercised by the sale of Mitrovic, seeing as he is scoring in the Premiership which they didn't know he could do from his time at St. James', rather than in the Championship, which was an established ability for Gayle.

[Patrick Thistle]

Rafa Benitez at Newcastle was always a weird fit because, without wishing to offend, Newcastle aren't in that elite group of clubs he had previously been associated with. I can't see where he can go from here, which is probably why he has stayed so long. It's like looking at a work team where someone has got stuck at a certain level, can't progress, is afraid to leave, so stays in the same grinding job that turns them bitter and jaded.

[Snake Plissken]

The thing about Benitez is he is so good at playing the fans via the media. The various pieces in The Guardian about lack of spending could have been practically dictated by him.

[Gawpus]

It certainly helps that he gets to frame himself as being in opposition to charisma's Mike Ashley.

11/4 to be relegated at the moment btw. That's a bit narrower than I'd have guessed.

[Sporting]

The fact that his kids are at university/school (I'm not sure which) in (I think) Liverpool and evidently well entrenched in English life must have some bearing in his longer than expected stay in Newcastle. Not wanting to uproot or to be far from your children is something most of us can understand and Benitez doesn't have money problems (of his own) to complicate things.

[ursus arctos]

His elder daughter is at Warwick; the younger one is 16. The family seems very happy in England.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Didn't the family simply stay in liverpool all along, while he commuted to his various jobs like a 21st century Bothy? I don't think it's a question of the family being very happy in England, it's that at this point, his kids basically are english.

Anyway, I don't see why people are surprised that he's spent a long time at Newcastle. He's basically figured out that he is far too uncharismatic to manage at a big established club, and he needs to operate in a relatively small city, with a huge chip on his shoulder, where the people are so desperate, that a bit of success confers him with the status of charismatic messiah. and he can build from there. This is what links Valencia, Liverpool and Newcastle. While the clubs where they had some expectations of what a manager should look like or where the last title win wasn't a flicker of memory visible in the rheumy eyes of fading pensioners, looked at him and saw a negative manager, with a rather odd personality, who resolutely didn't cut any sort of dash.

At Newcastle he is allowed do whatever he wants, without interference, or money, but he's terrible at spending money anyway. All that Mike Ashley asks of him is not to get relegated, or not fuck up so badly that he has to be fired, and then Ashley has to engage in the fraught process of hiring another manager. There's no real evidence that Newcastle are going to fire Rafa. this is nowhere near as bad as it got at times last season. Between the end of october and the middle of december, Newcastle lost 8 of their nine league games, and drew the other, falling into the relegation zone, before reverting to the mean.

[Sporting]

In Valencia he would have been shown the door two seasons ago.