Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 312

Never mind. Looks like the ref didn’t give it on replay. Mistook the thumbs up to the lino.

 

Barcelona already look so much more fluid under Setien.

 

They ruin everything. No one can afford players because clubs like City do this (if true).

 

Wouldn't be surprised if that's come from Sporting to try get United to up their bid.

I reckon United will still get him, and it'll be announced some time over the next couple of days. Made sense for Sporting to keep him for the Benfica match, then for United to announce him to deflect attention from the defeat. Plus with yet another injury, I can't see United being too fussed over the extra few million.

Of course, United are totally incompetent so who knows what might happen.

 

banter

 

Still took part in training this morning though!

 

Neville publicly coming out and saying Woodward is a hack that should be sacked is huge. Seen some other words in the media recently about how United are destined to fail unless they completely revamp their whole structure.

 

lol Luiz

 

Mustafa is astoundingly bad.

 

Newcastle getting a draw out of another stinking performance hahaha.

Never stop, Everton. Never stop.

 

LMAO Everton.

 

Chelsea's second goal is a bit of a weird one, would have thought it would be ruled out for offside since Abraham was clearly interfering with play? He moved out the way of the ball but just barely missed it, and you can tell the keeper was expecting him to touch it. Seems a strange one anyway.

 

Just came back from a great Anti-Flag show tonight and decided to watch the Everton game. Why am I even putting up with that shit still?

 

The new Anti-Flag record slaps

 

Not sure if "slaps" is positive or negative in that regard, but I really like the new album so far.

 

Positive. It’s something the youths say.

 

That's why I don't know about it, not my native language and then also something only the youths say. No wonder I was clueless

 

It's very clear what happened: Lejeune has been out injured for a while and so he's our only defender who hasn't been on the score sheet. He decided to use this substitute appearance as his chance to catch up.

No idea what the coaching at Newcastle is like though. Our centre back bangs in an overhead kick, but our forwards can't hit a barn door.

By the end of the game, we had 5 centre backs on the pitch, mainly because we don't have anything else left. Injury situation is pretty bad right now.

 

Also, what on earth is Pickford doing for the second goal? He's so far behind his line.

 

It was pretty quality management though. 2-0 down. Bring on 3 defenders. Finish 2-2.

 

I honestly don't know why anyone hasn't thought of it before. It's so simple.

Conceding goals? More defenders. If you have more defenders, you score the goals, right?

 

Only having two shots to the opponents 19 and getting a 2-2 draw is the very antithesis of Arsenal and I love it.

 

Interesting tactics yesterday.

Right from the start I thought Arteta set the team up badly. We looked to play our normal game, negating the fact that it played right into Chelsea's hands. They excel against teams who come out and play a passing game. Our midfield of Torreira, Xhaka and Ozil was always going to be overrun by Emerson, Kante and Jorginho. They were more mobile and combative and it showed with the early pressure.

Mustafi made a bad back pass and then Luiz stupidly hauled Tammy down, and then we are a man and a goal down, but funnily enough it changed the game. From then on we did what we should have done from the start, sat back and defended and asked Chelsea to break us down. they just can't do that to teams because they just don't have any creativity if you negate Hudson-Odoi.

We moved Xhaka into the centre back position and alongside Mustafi they were exceptional for the rest of the game. Not only was Xhaka brilliant at centre back, but so was Mustafi, who made up for his bad back pass with a brilliant display and some great tackles. He and Xhaka visibly and audibly led the defence through the rest of the match. He needs to take that and realise he CAN be a great defender. Every time he plays he looks scared and it means he makes mistakes. I don't think he can or should stay, but it proves if he gets his head right or gets a change of scenery he could do a good job.

Xhaka meanwhile continues to improve and is now being utilised properly, and actually showing that, hey, he is the player he looked like in the Bundesliga. Moving him further back so that the game happens in front of him, rather than having him play on the turn, is exactly what he needed and has seen him become not a part of the first team, but a key player. Also, it should be noted against Crystal Palace he was handed the armband at the end of the match, and despite offering it to other players, ended the match as our captain. Redemption.

Keeping Pepe and Martinelli on was crucial to give us an outlet and Arteta got every sub correct. Swapping Ozil for the more feisty and mobile Guendouzi after half time and then slowly swapping to a more defensive formation.

 

It does make sense when we consider the particular goalkeeper facing those shots though lol - Kepa ranks dead last in the PL and 127th in Europe for save percentage, Chelsea 2nd least shots conceded in the PL with 67 yet have conceded 30 of those