Jump to content

bobzy

Established Member
  • Posts

    17,272
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

Everything posted by bobzy

  1. bobzy

    Wolves

    Didn’t realise Pedro Neto was “only” 24. What a player - big loss for them.
  2. Champions League final is on the 1st June. Will English players be banned from competing there? Edit: FA Cup final is 25th May too. We’re ****!
  3. The games are right at the end of the season - 22nd and 24th May or something. Can’t see there being any real impact.
  4. I don't think it's necessarily a Western thing, I think it's a "strong league in <sport>" thing. China, India, South Korea et al all have national football teams, but not a league that is viewed globally and produces superstars. The same is true of Australian football. Whether or not Aussies were suddenly Millwall/Everton fans when Tim Cahill was there, who knows, but I think there's a natural interest in your "minority" superstar doing well in the big time. I can't think of many examples for English sportspeople... but maybe something like boxing, where people aren't fussed at all but then all of a sudden Tyson Fury is a champion and interest from very casual viewers increases massively.
  5. bobzy

    U.S. Politics

    It probably opens up a wider societal debate, but considering you've mentioned that this is a problem on "both sides", I actually don't see much reference to a drive for communism at all - and, really, I should see it because my blinkered, left-wing view would trigger all those algorithms to give me a load of communist content. But I just don't see any. Fascism though? Yeah, plenty of that is seen.
  6. bobzy

    Jhon Durán

    I'm not sure he was necessarily a complete disgrace for most of his career, but he was absolutely a guy who made the most of his main asset (pace). Could also finish relatively well and scored some hugely key goals for us. The partnership he had with Ashley Young was terrifying for defences, and it's not a coincidence that his form tailed off when Young left.
  7. bobzy

    Liverpool

    It got mentioned on Football Weekly that he was a prick and is known for being a prick, despite also having many good traits... ...they then compared him (very briefly) to Unai Emery who just talks about the games and seems like an all-round good guy.
  8. That's a big influence, in fairness. Before those games, they'd won 7 of the previous 9.
  9. It's only 2 games - one against Spurs. Arsenal women also going out there. Australian football is in a bit of a rut so possibly something to boost the league playing off the interest in Big Ange.
  10. bobzy

    Liverpool

    How is it a dumb question? It’s a perfectly reasonable one! ”You normally play with such intensity, what happened?” ”Well there’s a difference in resources and games played and I don’t know how many games Man Utd have played recently so yeah” ”So the players are tired then?” *storm off*
  11. Everton’s points deduction (already in place) was for the period before, wasn’t it? So not selling Richarlison. That’s for the next period… where they’ve failed again Edit: On no, that was the period in question. They must have been **** even with that transfer then.
  12. Hrmmmm… I don’t know. As I’ve said before, it depends what FFP/PSR are in place to achieve. Apparently it’s to prevent clubs going bust - if so, it’s entirely reasonable to say “we would’ve got £20m if we had to rush a sale, but instead we got £45m which is much better for the club”.
  13. Mitigation is presumably the Johnson sale point.
  14. bobzy

    Austin MacPhee

    Feels like it's going to an nth degree to find something wrong with the side IMO. Yes, we're weaker on dealing with aerial bombardments... but we don't play a style that involves much heading at all. We're possession based, pass it around, work clever set pieces, squeeze the pitch. We don't set up to give sides many crosses against us and we then also rely on Martinez claiming more crosses than with other sides who may have, say, tall, powerful defenders. Of the five sides who face the least crosses in the league (we face the 5th least), us and Arsenal have goalkeepers who claim the most. Now, Arsenal (and Gabriel in particular) are also very good in the air at both ends of the pitch, but it's a clear shift away from, essentially, facing headers. We want our defenders to be more comfortable with the ball at their feet than we do having them be aerially dominant. It doesn't mean we can completely avoid doing defensive set piece work to an extent, but I imagine we're not going to emphasise it.
  15. They've also lost 4 more games than us, though. I know what you're saying but if you look at where they've won games, they've had 0 surprising results outside of doing the double over some top 4 team... and maybe a 0-0 draw at Anfield. If you take the results of the reverse fixtures against the sides they have remaining, they got 13 points from those 10 games. They've also scraped past teams on so many occasions this season - 93rd and 97th minute goals to beat Brentford 2-1, a 91st minute goal to beat Fulham 1-0, 97th minute winner against Wolves, and 80+ minute winners against us. Their most recent win (home to Everton) was 2-0; both goals from penalties. It shows they're fighting, I guess, but I can't see them picking up 20+ points. Obviously they could but it feels farfetched. Their next game away at Brentford... they'll be marginal favourites and Brentford have looked relatively poor recently, but they're still scoring goals and are generally "in" games. For Man Utd to be finishing in a CL spot, they sort of need that as a banker win. Would you put money on it? I wouldn't.
  16. This is quite an interesting line. It could work either way; but definitely hints at nothing long term.
  17. Why I have a huge amount of respect for Jamie Vardy's celebrations He even got interviewed about it recently when Leicester played Hull; was asked something like "Celebrated in front of the Hull fans - is this something you like doing?" and he basically said "Yeah, they give me abuse all game long so, if I score, I'm going to rub it in. That's football."
  18. I think it's asking a lot for Man Utd to be getting 20 points from those games tbh. Just to lay them all out: Brentford (A), Chelsea (A), Liverpool (H), Bournemouth (A), Newcastle (H), Burnley (H), Palace (A), Arsenal (H), Brighton (A) and Sheff Utd (H). 6 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses. You'd hope (for them) that Burnley and Sheff Utd at home are bankers. Tough to really see a nailed on other 4 wins there. I guess you're looking at Brentford, Bournemouth and Palace (all away) as 3 wins. Then 1 win, 2 draws and 2 losses from Chelsea (A), Liverpool (H), Newcastle (H), Arsenal (H) and Brighton (A) - which is possible but... this Man Utd side? I don't know.
  19. Is it unnatural as he’s pointing? It’s a really weird one. I feel it’s given as handball 50% of the time but, like you, I’m just not sure it should be.
  20. The next 4 games are key - partly because they represent a large proportion of the remaining fixtures (), but also for the mental side of sides in the battle: Villa: Wolves (H), Man City (A), Brentford (H), Arsenal (A) (Lille tie either side of Arsenal game) Spurs: Luton (H), West Ham (A), Forest (H), Newcastle (A) Man Utd: Brentford (A), Chelsea (A), Liverpool (H), Bournemouth (A) As things stand, there are no games in hand being played during this 4 game period - so we have a 3 points lead over Spurs and 9 points over Man Utd. Obviously there's no easy game etc etc, but pessimistically (from a Villa POV, of course) I'd give each side: Villa - 4 points Spurs - 10 points Man Utd - 7 points This loosely assumes that we take 4 points from the two home games and lose the away ones. Spurs will drop 2 points at either West Ham or Newcastle (more likely than the home fixtures) and Man Utd beat both Brentford and Bournemouth away whilst taking a point elsewhere (feels unlikely, to be honest). We'd then have: Spurs - 63 points Villa - 60 points Man Utd - 54 points ...heading into the final few games. These are: Villa: Bournemouth (H), Chelsea (H), Brighton (A), Liverpool (H), Palace (A) Spurs: Man City (H), Arsenal (H), Liverpool (A), Burnley (H), Sheff Utd (A) and Chelsea (A) (to be arranged) Man Utd: Newcastle (H), Burnley (H), Palace (A), Arsenal (H), Brighton (A) and Sheff Utd (H) (to be arranged) Again, being pessimistic, let's assume we get 4 points, Spurs get 9 points and Man Utd get 12 points. End of the season table would be: Spurs - 72 points Man Utd - 66 points Villa - 64 points So whilst, yes, we may not finish 4th, I think it would need a fairly substantial shift in fortunes for both us and Man Utd for us not to finish 5th. This can obviously happen, but it just feels really unlikely.
  21. Ruling them out would be foolish, but their GD is poop and they’ve got several tricky games left (Chelsea and Brighton away, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle at home).
  22. I doubt Mings will get that many minutes for us anymore - let alone be a first choice player. The thing is, you can’t be excellent at everything. Konsa and Torres as a centre back partnership seem very good at almost everything, bar dominating/heading - and that’s where Martinez comes in to try and claim crosses. We’re aiming to be (and basically are) a possession based side; those physical strengths are likely going to be a weakness for a while as they aren’t as important for how we play.
  23. All depends on how he is behind the scenes. As a loan on the pitch, he hasn’t been great at all. Some moments, but largely incredibly average. HOWEVER… …if he’s working well off the pitch and Emery is seeing an improvement, getting that potential calibre of player for £20-£30m is decent value these days. Much in the same way that Bailey wasn’t written off despite looking poor and has suddenly come into his own. All depends what’s happening off the pitch. There’s certainly a baller in there and he’s got plenty of years left (turns 25 in the summer).
×
×
  • Create New...
Â