Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 272

his arm blocked a pass, imo

 

I meant to say isn’t given** as a penalty

 

ahh, yes i agree haha

 

de bruyne is so good

 

ppl are saying it hit Silva’s hand first before TAA? NBC gave us no replays

 

thats game

 

The ball ricochets off Silva's arm first. I'm not sure how they can give that penalty when they've also been ruling out goals when any touch of an arm in the build up to a goal is considered a foul by VAR.

 

handballs are cool

 

Excellent result, good performance. I actually thought it was a relatively even game. We were ruthlessly efficient with our final ball and our finishing. City seemed more rushed and less composed in the box even though their build up was often good.

I think occupying our full backs is now pretty much a requirement if you want to get anything from a game.

 

On another day, City get more out of that game. They made chances, but were so wasteful. Liverpool seemed to play quite calmly and just pick their moments to sucker punch City.

That Fabihno strike was bloody lovely though.

 

I thought tonight proved Liverpool can be got at. They’ll win the league but I don’t think it is as clear cut as people think.

 

I’m curious how that wasn’t already known

 

I still don't see Poch leaving unless it's his decision to go, but the clickbaits have been saying Julian Nagelsmann is the top target if Poch does leave. I'd be cool with that if he brought Werner with him.

 

Nagelsmann is who I want at Arsenal. Would be a good get for Spurs.

 

I don't know if I'm just being blindly optimistic, but I think Poch's job is still safe. The current issues are not completely his fault. The lack of activity in the 2018 season windows has really hit the club hard. We have 3 key players with contracts running out and we didn't really do much to have replacements ready for when they leave. Now we're going to scrambling the next couple windows to put together a team. With how slowly Poch likes to implement new signings it's going to be a difficult process. It's just a very awkward setting right now but I think once Jan, Toby, Eriksen, Rose are gone and replaced the team will start to look like the old Poch Spurs teams. He warned everyone before the season started of a "painful rebuild" and he was right. I just hope everyone (including him) can avoid making short-sighted decisions and just wait for the roster turnover to happen.

With that said, if Levy can't deliver in the next couple transfer windows I don't blame Poch for leaving. I think he anticipated a frustrating season this year but with the idea that he'd have Levy's support in revamping the team. If he doesn't get that support then he likely sees no point in staying. Levy did a good job securing Ndombele, Lo Celso, and Sessgonon. All seem like great signings. But his job is far from over and the next two windows are crucial.

 

Uh oh...

 

This all sounds like a bit of a storm in a teacup at the moment. I'm not sure why they've gone public with it.

 

Not an issue. Shouldn't have gone public.

 

And it kinda feels obvious to say that if the opponent were of any higher caliber, you're not sending Sterling home in an official match, no matter what was said between them.

 

The rumour doing the rounds is that it got vaguely physical and they had to be separated. Sterling apparently the aggressor, but I haven't seen it reported by anything reputable.

 

Imo Southgate made it public to try and keep control of the situation and how it is reported on. Smart considering how harsh the media has been towards Sterling in the past, if it was someone like the sun breaking the story they could make things seem worse than they actually are/were

 

I think there’s a positive spin on this that Southgate could’ve gone with. Talking about how the clash was representative of an elite winning mentality between two high performers playing for England’s best two teams, and arguably the top two teams in Europe.

 

Hard to say - overall I agree, their desire to win that game was what started the situation, but if (big if) the reports are true that Gomez offered a handshake but Sterling escalated by trying to grab his throat, then I think that's one step too far and a player of his stature and status as a role model can't be doing that!

 

From what we know, I think Southgate's dealt with it very sensibly. He hasn't overreacted and sent anyone home and he hasn't let the media dictate the initial stage of the story.