Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The 2016-2017 Football Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Alphazoid said:
They (arsenal) should've had a penalty and everton rode their luck towards the end.
Click to expand...

True, but Arsenal should have converted their chances; if you are bombarding an opponent's goalmouth, - and you are placed second in the Premiership (and your team are paid stupid money, although Arsenal are by no means the worst offenders in their regard), you really need to convert your chances and opportunities into goals.

Anyway, while I am an Arsenal supporter, I must give all credit to Everton for an insanely successful defence in the dying minutes of the game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamesMike
For teams that play a pressing or possession-based style, the possibility of leaking a few goals at a bad moment is always there. It's riskier than Mourinho's "19th century football", and harder to be successful with unless you have the best-paid squad on the planet. Oh wait... ;)

I've been amused at the Neville Bros vs Karius/Klopp tiff. Mostly at just how angry the Nevilles are over what was a very mild dig from Karius - who is, anyway, entitled to defend himself. I've listened to some seriously harsh criticism of Karius, some of it deserved, and I still think Klopp should stick with him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe and JamesMike
Not my team, but my local team (Stourbridge) got through to the third round of the FA cup last night for the first time in their history.
I could hear the cheers when I was putting the bins out.
Battle of the Claret and Blues tonight in the Premier league. Come on you Irons!
We need the points.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamesMike
Lord Blackadder said:
For teams that play a pressing or possession-based style, the possibility of leaking a few goals at a bad moment is always there. It's riskier than Mourinho's "19th century football", and harder to be successful with unless you have the best-paid squad on the planet. Oh wait... ;)

I've been amused at the Neville Bros vs Karius/Klopp tiff. Mostly at just how angry the Nevilles are over what was a very mild dig from Karius - who is, anyway, entitled to defend himself. I've listened to some seriously harsh criticism of Karius, some of it deserved, and I still think Klopp should stick with him.
Click to expand...

Yes, agreed, the spat between the Nevilles (who come across as a combination of the supercilious, the slightly-out-of-touch, defensive, judgmental, and very hierarchal, not to mention exceedingly thin-skinned), and Karius (who is more than perfectly entitled to defend himself, and his remarks were exceedingly mild), has been very funny.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: JamesMike
I imagine the dropping of Karius against Middlesbrough was done less to improve Liverpool's goalkeeping (Mignolet is not better, and the clean sheet was not his doing), but more to get Karius away from the microscope and let him clear his head.

Chelsea are six points ahead, but there are a lot of games left.

The Scottish FA have appointed mediocre football man and all-round bigot Malky Mackay as their new performance director. If you want to see where the problems with Scottish football lie, you simply need to look at who is running the show.
 
Manchester City (Citeh, as we say in London) have become the latest Chelsea, to me. They are simply annoying and frustrating. Maybe, just maybe I'm slightly jealous that they have more money/backing than we, Arsenal, do. Albeit, I'm sure our debt count is nowhere as high.

Anyway, all that to say I hope we beat them on Sunday...
 
afctee said:
Manchester City (Citeh, as we say in London) have become the latest Chelsea, to me. They are simply annoying and frustrating. Maybe, just maybe I'm slightly jealous that they have more money/backing than we, Arsenal, do. Albeit, I'm sure our debt count is nowhere as high.

Anyway, all that to say I hope we beat them on Sunday...
Click to expand...

Man City are too anodyne too be hateable. Pepe is cerebral and well-dressed, and the whole thing resebles a kind of corporate technocracy. I have no emotional reaction to them, apart from a vague sense of unease about the form neoliberal globalization has taken in the football world. Also, recognizing my own bias, they are direct rivals to Man Utd, so the enemy of my enemy and all that...

Chelsea, on the other hand, were classic villains. Skilled, but dirty and results-oriented, led by the hysterical and extraordinarily vindictive presence of Mourinho - and with the outwardly boyish and unassuming yet truly terrifying/Bond villain Russian oligarch owner looming in the VIP box.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe
I actually don't mind City because they have been a 'regular' club. Yes financially ridiculous but still beatable and don't cheat or abuse. Chelsea are more tolerable with Conte now. Costa has mellowed although David Luis still annoys me.

Liverpool is the one i'm most underwhelmed by...mostly because the media (consisting mostly of ex-liverpool players) give them/Klopp a free pass and overhype their activities. Karius being the exception.

United are no longer relevant to me, Spurs are still spurs, and Arsenal are still arsenal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe
afctee said:
Manchester City (Citeh, as we say in London) have become the latest Chelsea, to me. They are simply annoying and frustrating. Maybe, just maybe I'm slightly jealous that they have more money/backing than we, Arsenal, do. Albeit, I'm sure our debt count is nowhere as high.

Anyway, all that to say I hope we beat them on Sunday...
Click to expand...

No, even though I support Arsenal, contempt, loathing and the indulgence of venomous bile should be directed elsewhere other than Manchester City. They are not the villains of this piece.

However, agree - it would be nice to beat them this coming week-end.

Lord Blackadder said:
Man City are too anodyne too be hateable. Pepe is cerebral and well-dressed, and the whole thing resebles a kind of corporate technocracy. I have no emotional reaction to them, apart from a vague sense of unease about the form neoliberal globalization has taken in the football world. Also, recognizing my own bias, they are direct rivals to Man Utd, so the enemy of my enemy and all that...

Chelsea, on the other hand, were classic villains. Skilled, but dirty and results-oriented, led by the hysterical and extraordinarily vindictive presence of Mourinho - and with the outwardly boyish and unassuming yet truly terrifying/Bond villain Russian oligarch owner looming in the VIP box.
Click to expand...

Excellent, well written, & well argued post; I like the sentence describing Mr Guardiola and his team as a "corporate technocracy" - very elegantly expressed.

Moreover, agree completely re the toxicity (for football) - of Chelsea in their former incarnation (realised not once but twice), their ambition, expressed with brisk, confident, dirty football, overseen by the pairing of the nasty, needy and - yes - destructive and vindictive - Mr Mourinho with the ('outwardly boyish' - oh, yes) and profoundly disturbing character of Mr Abramovich.

After that, Mr Conte can only represent an enormous improvement.
 
JamesMike said:
Glad for the Man U win but I think Zlatan should have been red carded instead of getting the yellow.
Click to expand...

Well said.

Actually, I like to see a bit of objectivity on such things.

The Observer report where they tried to argue that it - the offence - lay "somewhere between a yellow and a red" left me baffled. If a given offence is considerably worse than a yellow, then it merits a red.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamesMike
afctee said:
Zlatan was rather lucky, versus Vardy being instantly sent off.
Click to expand...

There is truth in this: This is because you think 'polecat' when you see Vardy - despite the fact that Leicester are the reigning champions, whereas Ibrahimovic always gives the impression of resembling an exiled prince, who is deigning to grace the world with his gifted self, someone whose lapses are always explained away with a forgiving and understanding shrug.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ivanwi11iams and JamesMike
...and with that, it became a one-horse race.

They've returned to regular scheduled programming this season in the EPL.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamesMike
Yes, I had glanced at the match coverage early on, to see Arsenal comfortably in the lead, and when I return to check, I find a most unwelcome transformation.

Two consecutive defeats. Not nice. And not good.
[doublepost=1482088434][/doublepost]
Lord Blackadder said:
Rojo and Ibrahimovic should both have been sent off; Vardy should have gotten a yellow. Man Ut got really lucky with those calls.

Meanwhile, Arsenal are about to lose to Man City if they don't score quick.
Click to expand...

Yes, and it would be nice, as a consequence, to see Mr Mourinho cut back a little on his petulant whinging, - although he has been mercifully silent on these recent refereeing decisions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamesMike
*sigh* bored of this...in fact I'm bored of football in general. Same ol same ol. Think I'm gonna take an extended break...or start watching lower leagues.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pachyderm
daneoni said:
*sigh* bored of this...in fact I'm bored of football in general. Same ol same ol. Think I'm gonna take an extended break...or start watching lower leagues.
Click to expand...

Actually, I beg to differ.

It is not quite 'same ol, same ol'.

For one thing, there are fascinating tactical battles - or a sort unknown to the Premiership before now - between a new generation of continent classy managers, (Mr Conte, Mr Guardiola, Mr Klopp, for example, - and the older hands, Mr Wenger, and the tarnished but still effective Mr Mourinho), who, themselves, - especially those who have recently come to the Premiership - have come to belatedly realise that they have still more to learn to blend continental sophistication seamlessly with the 'traditional' elements of the English game.

They have brought much to the Premiership, yet they still have to learn how to adapt to its specific challenges.

The evolution of their tactical understanding is extraordinarily interesting, at an intellectual level.

And the other story - which will, historically prove to be the story of 2016 (despite Leicester's success in winning the Premiership) - and which will rock the game from top to bottom - and change it, too, as a consequence - is the gradually unfolding series of sexual abuse scandals, the details of which are only slowly seeping out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamesMike
Leicester being top was interesting. Liverpool early season were interesting, even if i don't particularly like them.

Chelsea/City being top this season is boring, and illustrates the return to normal paradigm...regardless of Managers.

Just my opinion though.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back