2014/15 Association Football (Soccer) thread

[HBK]

I agree with Myzozoa tbh, Lampard's just being professional, he always has and always will love the club and no fan should hate on him for doing his job. It's the Chelsea board's fault for letting him go. tml, being a good and loyal servant is doesn't mean anything if you aren't good at what you do. Mikel can only do one thing and he's not even one of the best in the world at that. He's the embodiment of negative football. He can't pass, dribble or shoot but even his tackling and positional sense are average at best. We need someone better, someone more versatile like Matic.

 

[destinyunknown]

I really don't know what to make of Enrique at Barca so far.
Want to give him the benefit of the doubt but he hasn't help his case at all.

Reducing Rakatic to covering for Alves is madness of he highest order.

They haven't really played well as a team for the majority of this season. The team is dysfunctional and without messi i have no idea where they would be.

I really don't think Messi is going to put up with this mediocrity for much longer.
This poor excuse of a board is running the club into the ground before they are kicked out in 2016.

Luis Enrique is not a good manager, that's not new. He's good at working with young players and sub21 teams because he's good at motivating and rotates a lot, but he doesn't have what it takes (not right now, at least) to manage a top tier team. This was shown at Roma and at Celta last season (where he actually got a decent position in the league, but that was after a 1st half of the season where the team was 19th due to him leaving the best players on the bench without a reason)

Before yesterday's match, I read that he had used a different lineup for each of their 21 games this season. I knew he was making a lot of rotations, but I didn't notice it had gone to such an extent. Making rotations is good, especially on less important/easy games. But not sticking with a strategy or core of players is simply not good for the team, as the team doesn't really end up looking like one. It looks disjointed, and that's what's happening. Still, they have enormous individual quality, so it hasn't been a problem as in many games they have been able to just win thanks to a bright moment, but you're not winning any tournament that way. Besides, they could have even lost yesterday's game had it not been for the referee... And Enrique still had the guts to say that ''we deserved to win, we were better''. Great.

 

[tml]

Wow he wasnt joking lol...

I agree hbk he's not a great player but like I say, who is there in the world happy to take a squad role covering fabregas and matic when needed? Maybe that Lampard fella...

 

[Soul Fly]

LOL. This is trending all over social media atm.

 

[tml]

Brendan what the hell is wrong with him, Now is not the time to throw Brad Jones in, is he actually a retard..,..,..

I am all for giving him a chance but why would you unsettle the defence for this game after we only concede 2 in the last 4...

 

[phalanx]

Feed the Scousers?

even Tony V is beating defenders with ease

 

[X5Dragon]

What a fucking year man, look where we were and where we are now ^_^

Mario looks so pissed now he's actually playing well now O_o

 

[Nosferalto]

At least Man utd will slide back down to mediocrity once De gea goes to Real Madrid

 

[HBK]

So Balotelli's sucking a little less now, big deal. Never expected the scousers to win but didn't expect to see them completely outclassed either. They were unlucky to have not had Mata's goal disallowed, he was clearly offside. De Gea was undoubtedly the man of the match. Dare I say, could these idiots actually qualify for Champio....sorry, I just threw up in my mouth.

 

[Nosferalto]

didn't expect to see them completely outclassed either

except they didn't

 

[phalanx]

DDG... Thou shall not pass

 

[Soul Fly]

De Gea should be a condom brand ambassador. Damn.

 

[HBK]

except they didn't

The result speaks otherwise. I expected a draw or a 1-0, not a 3-0.

 

[Stallion]

What's the difference between a movie and Liverpool?

A movie actually finishes.

 

[ModestGarchomp]

De gea was great today but the fact still remains that liverpool finishing was dreadful whereas United was clinical played well overall.

tml Lampard leaving was his decision. Correct if i'm wrong but Chelsea did offer him a new contract but he still left to go to the MLS to join one of the City clubs, the american one. Then he went to the "main" City team and has justified it by saying he didn't have a choice, but he is now saying that he wants to stay with City for the rest of the season.

Anyways looking forward ti watching the Atletico and Villarreal game today. Villarreal has been one of the best teams to watch this season and should take the game to Atletico.

 

[tml]

wow HBK surely you know that the end result isn't always a reflection of the two teams performance. Man U once again didn't play well and were bailed out by the terrible finishing of their opponents. Goal one I believe Sterling can get some credit for a key pass to De Gea, he should finish that chance, Goal two was offside, Goal three the result of freak defensive incident. Obviously if you cannot finish and you cannot defend, you deserve to lose. But we were absolutely not outclassed.

Not gonna lie to you ModestG, I have no clue about what goes on at any other club because I really don't care, but what I do know is that If Chelsea wanted to keep Lampard, they easily could have.

 

[phalanx]

goal 1 was an accident... Tony V missed the defenders shins

 

[destinyunknown]

PSG - Chelsea
Man. City - Barcelona
Leverkusen - Atlético
Juventus - Dortmund
Schalke - Real Madrid
Shakhtar - Bayern
Arsenal - Monaco
Basel - Porto

Haven't I seen this pairings before?

 

[X5Dragon]

Interested in watching:

PSG - Chelsea
Man. City - Barcelona
Juventus - Dortmund

And prolly just because I'm a Real fan:

Schalke - Real Madrid

 

[HBK]

PSG vs Chelsea
Was hoping to avoid them and for a good reason. Certainly won't be easy but we should be able to do it again, if Costa stays fit.

Bayer Leverkusen vs Atletico De Madrid
Bayer are okay but Atletico are just too good for them

Schalke 04 vs Real Madrid
Bye bye Di Matteo

Manchester City vs Barcelona
One of the highlight matches, City have improved on their dreadful form in Europe but Barcelona should still be able to pull through.

AS Monaco vs Arsenal
Arsenal should cruise at home and they're certainly capable of getting a draw in France if push comes to shove.

Juventus vs Borussia Dortmund
Another great match up, Dortmund's poor domestic form hasn't exactly translated to their Champions League campaign so I'd expect them to go through.

Basel vs Porto
Porto have been in great form and will have no trouble dispatching the Swiss outfit.

Shakhtar Donetsk vs Bayern Munchen
Piece of cake for Bayern.

PSG vs Chelsea, City vs Barcelona and Juventus vs Dortmund are the ones to look forward to.

 

[destinyunknown]

Some really interesting matches in the Europa League draw, looking forward to these:

Sevilla - Mönchengladbach
Two of the favorites to win the tournament this year, Sevilla have been playing more consistently than last season, while Mönchengladbach have the second-best defense in the Bundesliga. Should make for really competitive games (though there might not be many goals)

Wolfsburg - Sporting Portugal
Wolfsburg are sitting comfortably at the second place of the Bundesliga and have been really solid these season while playing attractive offensive football. They have many exciting players such as De Bruyne or Ricardo Rodriguez, while Sporting almost qualified for the 1/8 round of the Champions League, and are also an attacking side with quality upfront. Even if Wolfsburg are probably better, there should be a ton of goals!

Villarreal - Salzburg
Villarreal are in a great run of form (they won at Atletico yesterday, for example) and have been playing quality football this season. Salzburg are no slouch either and were one of the most entertaining teams in the Europa League last season, so this should make for even, entertaining matches.

Liverpool - Beşiktaş
By February, Liverpool should have already solved all the problems they have, and the Europa League might be their opportunity to 'save' the season. However Beşiktaş are a difficult side (which has defeated Tottenham and gave Arsenal problems this season) and will definitely give Liverpool trouble.

Might also be fun:

PSV Eindhoven-Zenit
Tottenham-Fiorentina

 

[Phadunk]

How..did..we...avoid...them all...

Monaco!

We might possibly make it 1 step further into the CL. Which will be more than enough to secure Wenger's job regardless of PL performance!

I'm exctied about the draw though..the stars have aligned and we avoided the 2 clubs that constantly badger us.

 

[Milos]

anyone else kinda dissapointed at the UCL draw? i wanted to see new matchups, not rematches of last year, especially in the same stage of the tournament.

granted, they are still good matchups. psg vs chelsea will be interesting, however chelsea has gotten a lot better than last season while psg have remained the same.

messi will terrorize man city once again...

and real madrid get schalke... easy draw.

arsenal fans should be happy that they didnt draw bayern or barca for the first time in a long time lol

 

[Imanalt]

cl draw sucked dick.

PSG - Chelsea - could be a good game i guess, but chelsea should have it pretty solidly.
Man. City - Barcelona - lol rip city
Leverkusen - Atlético - this game will be rly interesting. two very different pretty uncommon tactical systems, and atletico is probably better, but the tactical matchup will matter more than the quality of teams.
Juventus - Dortmund - dortmund is better than in league
Schalke - Real Madrid - lol
Shakhtar - Bayern - lol
Arsenal - Monaco - Monaco is aids
Basel - Porto - idk enough about either, both have some good wins in europe over last couple years, but both also have some poor losses and just not enough games against good opposition to be able to say.


euro league liverpool won't lose to besiktas, besiktas was probably worse than spurs' b team. I guess fiorentina isn't too bad of a draw for spurs, so I guess I'm not too unhappy.

 

[ModestGarchomp]

PSG vs Chelsea
This is exactly the team i wanted. Good(decent team) that should produce two decent games. Chelsea is a better team and should beat them over the two leagues. They might get lucky again like last year but we should still progress.

Man. City vs Barcelona
This is really a great tie. Barca has the better players but City have the better manager. However i really think Barca's aura is going to get them through this tie.

Leverkusen vs Atlético
Atletico should win this but leverkusen should be able to match them for at least one tie. Hopefully Atletico do what they are good at and press the living hell out of leverkusen so it is at least interesting or fun to watch because one thing is for sure, Leverkusen aren't going to sit back in both matches.
Juventus vs Dortmund- Juventus is the better team and needs to play like it. Dortmund need a fully fit Reus to stand a chance of making it to the next round. Really looking forward to this game though.

Schalke vs Real Madrid- bullshit tie and Madrid will go through. Ronaldo will score or at least try to score enough to catch up to Messi.

Shakhtar vs Bayern- Haven't watched Shaaktar at all this season but have only heard nothing but great things about their team. Byern is the other best team in the world at the moment and should win.
Arsenal vs Monaco- This is going to be dreadful. Arsenall should win but wont be surprised if they managed to fuck up at least on of the legs.

Basel vs Porto - I have Only watch basel this season and only one game from porto(yesterday against Benfica). Hopefuly they provide drama. That's all really. Last year round of 16 didn't have any and was 'boring'.