LondonLax

3-3 

Amazing game in Madrid 

What a game in Madrid 

Wow

What a goal from Foden

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

1 goal behind Watkins. 

He’s not the force of nature he was last season, just an average striker for a club that has a ton of the ball every match. 

Have other teams found him out or is he just going through a down period of form?

What has happened to Haaland these days?

Not ideal as things stand. 

Just now, MachoFantastico said:

That's shocking defending from City. Awful from the keeper too.

2 deflected goals for Madrid

10 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

Man City dominating. 

Now 2-1 down

Man City dominating. 

1 hour ago, pas5898 said:

Tin hat time. But I think you are incredibly naive if you don't believe there is some sort of favouritism in the Premier League. I don't think the refs are "corrupt" but the system behind them definitely is, and ensures biased decisions in favour of the Sky 6.

The Premier League is a business. there's billions and billions of pounds at stake, specifically with the international audiences. More money is made to have the "bigger" teams fighting for trophies and the top 4. Asia and emerging markets like Africa do not care one bit about Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle, West Ham etc.

If it was us vs West Ham for the PL, hardly no one abroad would tune in or care. However if its Arsenal V Liverpool last day of the season for the PL, half the world tunes in.

Money talks

Man City winning season after season is actually not very good for the business model. If they were rigging the competition they are doing a bad job of it. 

They are still in a decent position to stay up from here. 

2 minutes ago, tom_avfc said:

Shots from distance? They’ve had 12 shots from inside the box.

They have not been desperate saves from Onana. He’s been pretty comfortable. 

2 minutes ago, Genie said:

14-0 in shots at half time, and losing after 68 mins. Madness.

It’s the way they play. Allow shots from distance then attack on the counter. 

1 minute ago, Raymond said:

Not to give the pundits any ideas, but Unai would win the league with this United squad. 

I would despise ten Hag if I supported United. I would also hate myself, but ten Hag more. 

No, Man City would win the league. Like they did when Emery was Arsenal manager. 

2 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

He's an £80m shit version of Ollie, he's a warning to all those who wanted Ollie replaced last summer 

I think he’s a very good player but he’s more a secondary striker than the guy to lead the line. 

2 minutes ago, AndyM3000 said:

They are, they have the 6th worst xGA in the league.

When it happens week after week it stops being luck. 

20 minutes ago, meregreen said:

Liverpools finishing is shit. They should be out of sight.

We say this every week with United. Clearly the chances they are allowing are not actually as good opportunities as they seem. 

29 minutes ago, andym said:

Bloody Liverpool always clinical against us, missing great chances against Man U

There must be something in the way Man U defend. They give up a lot of chances but they must be difficult chances that they are giving away. 

It’s the same story every week, a lot of ‘chances’ but not actually that many goals from them. It can’t just be luck.

The crowd doesn’t even sound upset. It’s just expected now. 

1 minute ago, Mantis said:

Diaby and Rogers have been just as good as Bailey lately so the decision to rest the latter made sense even without considering the rotation.

At the end of the day, we didn't "throw in the towel". We just didn't. Resting two players who would otherwise play is something teams do all the time. When you're playing as many games as we are and juggling that many injuries it's essential to rotate.

I agree it’s essential to rotate. Usually when you rotate though you try to keep as strong as possible throughout the season.

This match seems to have been a case of ‘well some key players are out so bugger it, let’s just take out some more and make this match a rest match’. 

Again, I don’t necessarily disagree, we were likely to lose anyway. 

8 hours ago, Mantis said:

How did we throw in the towel? Because we played Lenglet instead of Torres and Iroegbunam instead of Tielemans? Because literally all the other would be starters who didn't feature were out through injury/illness/suspension.

And "giving yourself the best chance you can in every game" sounds nice in theory but is impossible in practice. You have to rotate - it's impossible not to do with the number of games we have.

We dropped Bailey as well, he would have started in our best 11 but was brought on late to try and rescue something from the match.

We had a few injuries and suspensions so it seems the manager essentially decided it was not going to be worth putting out our best 11 and to write off the fixture instead. 

I’m not saying I disagree with that decision but I can see arguments both ways.

There is a psychological impact of essentially ‘throwing in the towel’ and that is difficult to gage compared with the physical advantage of Bailey, Torres and Tielemans getting to play fewer minutes.

Guardiola’s ‘pep’ talk he other week seems to have done the trick

12 hours ago, villa89 said:

Isn't 25% of the Chinese economy their construction sector? Also the one child policy will lead to disaster. 

They got rid of the one child policy a decade ago but it hasn’t really changed anything. Just like South Korea or Japan (or indeed many western countries) birth rates are below replacement levels.