The Football Thread

tut tut Chelsea......the question now is who will go down. My guess is in no particular order

Based on current form the relegated should be

Sunderland     33
Cardiff City     31
Fulham          29

The top 3 should be

Manchester City     85
Liverpool     83
Chelsea     82

But it was only last week I had Chelsea pegged for 1 and Man City do have to win 6 games based on everyone's present form consistency.

I watched (most) of the Man Utd v Bayern Champions League tie and would have to say that:

1 - Bayern should be disappointed not to have won against a very poor United side
2 - Kudos to Moyes for getting his tactics dead right (sit deep and feed Wellbeck when you can)
3 - I can't see much wrong with the disallowed Wellbeck goal?
3 - Martinez should have been sent off for his foul on Hernandez
4 - Rooney should have been booked for simulation re his dive from the tackle by Schweinsteiger
5 - Valencia should have been sent off for his foul on Boateng

United's much maligned central defensive pairing played well (Ferdinand and Vidic) as 'parking the bus' meant there was little space behind into which the Bavarians could sprint. Really strange to see Man Utd at home hanging on for a draw and everyone deeming such to be a praiseworthy result? (Possession stats read 75/25 in Bayern's favour, Oh how the game has changed - for the better, just like in legal precedents, possession is 9/10th of the law)




Edited by ExittheLemming - April 02 2014 at 07:50

aginor wrote: Man Utd is gonna be pulverised in Munich

If there's a God, then yes what you envisage will eventuate. As an Arsenal fan here's the nightmare agnostic scenario:

Arsenal hang on to 4th place in the EPL thus qualifying for the Champions League next season BUT
Man Utd (who finish outside the top 4 in the EPL) somehow win the Champions League and thus deny the Gooners their place in the competition

Please don't tell me where you live, I may have to torch your homestead (nothing personal)

The T wrote: FC Barcelona has been penalized by FIFA for some stupid recruiting of underage players for its minor divisions with one full year without the possibility of hiring new players. This is a tragedy. I hope this is appealed and solved. Tragedy. Tragedy.

If they are guilty as charged how can this flouting the rules be seen as a tragedy?

ExittheLemming wrote: The T wrote: FC Barcelona has been penalized by FIFA for some stupid recruiting of underage players for its minor divisions with one full year without the possibility of hiring new players. This is a tragedy. I hope this is appealed and solved. Tragedy. Tragedy.  If they are guilty as charged how can this flouting the rules be seen as a tragedy?

Sorry I'm a FCB fan and it's a tragedy that these idiots will cause the team not to be able to get the players it so desperately needs both in defense and for the goalie position. Tragedy. 

Edited by The T - April 02 2014 at 09:28

I'm loving all this complaining from Schweinsteiger & Guardiola about Rooney diving to get the red card. Don't they have Robben is their side? If you google "Robben diving" you get 500,000 results

^ yes I agree that Robben will fall over even if someone only breaks wind beside him in the penalty area BUT, Rooney milked the challenge from Schweinsteiger for all it was worth and for me, deliberately got his opponent red carded. Why?, because he's nowhere near world class and possibly the most overrated English player on the planet. If Rooney is the best England have to offer in Brazil 2014 they won't even get past the group stage.

With all due to respect to England which has given me football itself, Purcell Elgar, Britten, Vaughan-Williams, Genesis, Phil Collins , Shakespeare, BBC, etc etc etc etc etc: English football players and the English national team has never been anything to write home about. Since I'm alive at least (and the one WC England has is thanks to a good old CCCP referee), not the Owens, the Rooneys, the Beckhams, have been really best-in-class players. Man United was superb one time as a team; Arsenal had a bunch of French and Dutch; Liverpool had the Beatles , and well... No offense really. I love England. But it's the epitome of "football-overratedness." I abhor Italian catenaccio and its destruction of all good things but at least they have gotten the job done quite a few times.... 

ExittheLemming wrote: ^ I thought that's what you meant and yes I agree, it drives me to distraction when a club we like to believe embodies some credible values behaves so poorly.The current FCB directive is really trying to destroy all the great reputation that the team has gotten in the last 5 years with the idiotic Neymar transfer and now this FIFA sanction.And these morons didn't sign defenders or goalkeepers last year arguing "puyol will do" when he was already 34 years old and half-broken, and when they knew Valdes was leaving at the end of the year, and when they knew FIFA was studying this underage situation. Now they won't be able to sign and be forced to have as a goalkeeper an old guy with a broken back and a young keeper with zero experience. And the same bad defenders but even worse with Puyol gone. Awesome.  Just some thoughts on the Champions League games involving English clubs. The Chelsea v PSG tie is a long way from being over. I really believe that PSG wil have to perform at or very near their peak to preserve the 3-1 advantage in the second leg. Paradoxically, the likely absence through injury of Ibrahimovic may actually help their cause (as Cavani on his own up front gives them a better defensive base behind) Mourinho can't turn games around. If he loses big the first one, he's gone. And that I hope. I don't like PSG but everything Mourinho touches I despise, unless he was ever signed by FC Barcelona (an impossibility) in which case I would have to support him while suffering from stomach pains.  Bayern should thump Man Utd in Germany but stranger things have happened. United will not alter their tactics from the first leg i.e. they will continue to sit deep and lure the Bavarians into keeping a very high defensive line to exploit via counter attacking (a.k.a long balls up to Wellbeck whose pace can trouble Boateng/Alaba/Dante depending on the permutation chosen by Guardiola)I hope FCB2 wins. If FCBarcelona can't, then my second preference is FCBayern Munchen  Madrid are through already barring a seismic catastrophe in Dortmund sadly agreed while the Barca v Atletico tie is finely balanced ( I wouldn't dare call that one but Atletico strike me as being Spain's equivalent to Dortmund given the unrelenting pressure they exert on the opposition all over the pitch )Not at all. Atletico is not a flashy team. Is a workers' team. Simeone has pulled a miracle. And barca hasn't been able to beat them in a while. I will suffer through that game.