2014/15 Association Football (Soccer) thread

[tml]

Imanalt you just don't know what your talking about man. I am not giving an opinion, I am stating for a fact that we DO have the resources and signing a striker will not stop us from also strengthening Midfield along with a new RB. We can afford all 3 its not a hard concept to grasp. Well its not even worth answering about Henderson or Lucas tbh, if you think they are not good players then I doubt your knowledge of the game.

edit: and by the seems of things I reckon Brendan sees it your way on the striker front, like I say I like Ings but it will be a lot of pressure on him if he is leading the line. Fingers crossed he hits the ground running.

 

[Phadunk]

 

[manodelrey]

Imanalt you just don't know what your talking about man. I am not giving an opinion, I am stating for a fact that we DO have the resources and signing a striker will not stop us from also strengthening Midfield along with a new RB. We can afford all 3 its not a hard concept to grasp. Well its not even worth answering about Henderson or Lucas tbh, if you think they are not good players then I doubt your knowledge of the game.

edit: and by the seems of things I reckon Brendan sees it your way on the striker front, like I say I like Ings but it will be a lot of pressure on him if he is leading the line. Fingers crossed he hits the ground running.

Where are you getting these resources from? You spent all of your suarez money, no champions league money or money from europe, gerrard is leaving for free, and selling sterling would be your only option for decent money since no one is really going to touch the other players you could sell. Milner comes in for free but him, henderson, lucas, can, and coutinho probably aren't as good as united's midfield, let alone city, chelsea, and arsenal's midfield. You need a new right back but I don't see where a good right back will come from for cheap especially if you are looking for a good striker and midfielders that can strengthen and make your current midfield better than the top 4.

 

[No Luck Involved]

Eibar is back in La Liga after Elche got kicked out lol!

The Rodgers situation is very strange, all of his backroom staff sacked... He's been with them for a long time so I highly doubt it was entirely his choice. The cynic in me suggests they want Rodgers gone but it's cheaper to fire his backroom staff than to fire him and now they hope he'll walk.

Good luck to Benitez at RM, the only big names left out there is probably Wenger and Guardiola and they weren't gonna come so Benitez was probably the biggest name they could get. He's not a bad manager at all but sometimes I think he overcomplicates his tactics a bit, he'll be the opposite of Ancelotti in so many ways. I'm very excited to see Ronaldo up front though with Bale, Isco and James behind him. It feels like a natural progression and Benitez will rotate the fuck out of them so there's no way they'll get tired! De Gea would strengthen them massively but I'm not sure that deal will happen because they have Navas and Casillas doesn't wanna go anywhere.

I'm looking forward to seeing the magic front three in the CL final tonight, it's gonna be such an expensive game of attack vs defence!

 

[manodelrey]

Eibar is back in La Liga after Elche got kicked out lol!

The Rodgers situation is very strange, all of his backroom staff sacked... He's been with them for a long time so I highly doubt it was entirely his choice. The cynic in me suggests they want Rodgers gone but it's cheaper to fire his backroom staff than to fire him and now they hope he'll walk.

Good luck to Benitez at RM, the only big names left out there is probably Wenger and Guardiola and they weren't gonna come so Benitez was probably the biggest name they could get. He's not a bad manager at all but sometimes I think he overcomplicates his tactics a bit, he'll be the opposite of Ancelotti in so many ways. I'm very excited to see Ronaldo up front though with Bale, Isco and James behind him. It feels like a natural progression and Benitez will rotate the fuck out of them so there's no way they'll get tired! De Gea would strengthen them massively but I'm not sure that deal will happen because they have Navas and Casillas doesn't wanna go anywhere.

I'm looking forward to seeing the magic front three in the CL final tonight, it's gonna be such an expensive game of attack vs defence!

elche have until July to pay their debts I read from the bbc but I am not sure if la liga will take them up on it. Alegri from Juve as well as Klopp are other big names and the guy from Marseille could have been hired as well but it should be fun to see how someone who took 5th in serie A is going to win copa del rey, la liga, and champions league with a side that is most likely selling isco and benzema plus looking to offload bale for the right price. It looks like Real Madrid are falling for the same mistakes they made in the early 2000s. Plus champions league finals will always kick ass

 

[Sapientia]

Bielsa in Madrid would have been fun too watch. Benitez doesn't sound promising, but should be ok. They won't win the league with him tho :(
I hope they are stupid enough to sell Isco, we could really use this guy in Munich.

 

[manodelrey]

Bielsa in Madrid would have been fun too watch. Benitez doesn't sound promising, but should be ok. They won't win the league with him tho :(
I hope they are stupid enough to sell Isco, we could really use this guy in Munich.

the rumor was man city was letting go of milner and replacing him with isco

 

[Sapientia]

If we really want him, I think he should prefer Bayern over City. But there are literally no rumors in Munich at the moment, so I am just guessing / dreaming

 

[manodelrey]

If we really want him, I think he should prefer Bayern over City. But there are literally no rumors in Munich at the moment, so I am just guessing / dreaming

munich are loaded with midfielders at this point. The only thing they have to improve upon at this point is not getting hurt at such important points in the season

 

[Sapientia]

The problem is, that we are heavily depending on Ribéry and Robben to create chances, but it is impossible to rely on them being fit in the crucial part of the season.
The most straight forward solution would be to buy another winger who can do the job if they are injured and take over the starting place when they quit. But I don't see any player fulfilling this profile on the market. Maybe Felipe Anderson or Julian Draxler. But Anderson already said, that he wants to stay in Rome, while Draxler is just recovering after a long injury and we don't need another guy for hospital.

So the idea I had - and should fit to Guardiola's idea of football - was to shift the focus of our game more to the center instead of the wings. Robben / Müller would play some kind of a second striker next to Lewandowski with Götze / Ribéry in the center behind them.
The midfield would be Alonso or Schweinsteiger as a holding 6, leaving Thiago, Lahm, Gaudino, Kimmich, Schweinsteiger (if Alonso starts) and maybe Alaba (if Bernats plays LB). Gaudino and Kimmich are obviously too young, Schweinsteiger, Alaba and Lahm are not the ones winning dribblings and therefore space, leaving a lot of the work to Thiago, who is another player who is injured way too often. Also Schweinsteiger is very unlikely to play a whole season, as he hasn't done this in a while. Therefore someone for this position could be needed. Candidates could be Isco, Kovacic, Rafinho Alcántara or Meyer.

Defense is pretty much the same

 

[tml]

manodelrey liverpool are a rich team thats where the resources are from.

football isn't a simple as FIFA manager, how do you expect a team to go out and sign a better midfield than the rest of the top 4 huh? maybe on fifa you can sell all your spare players that you dont need and then have some transfer budget and give big wages, that's not how the real world works.

Name me 1 midfielder that Liverpool could realistically sign that would make us better than the other teams.

The only hope is the players making a step up in their level and playing consistently in a consistent system.

During 2013/14 Suarez may have absolutely drove everyone on for sure, but imagine going from two world class strikers to 0, obviously that's gonna put a damper on you as a midfielder, and then when the guy in front of you doesnt move during a match there is another damper. And then you have a manager who changes the midfield and what he wants from them every single game. But during 2013/14 there is no question that Henderson and Allen proved themselves as talented enough midfielders, and this season Lucas has been excellent when Rodgers actually selects him. The fact is you don't become bad overnight, your form dips and there are many factors to this. Obviously they are not as good as the top midfields around but 4 years ago would you say Gabi and Tiago were? No, but they stepped up their game and now you would happily call them top midfielders.

BR needs to sort it out, you need to understand that the main issue is Brendan's poor decision making.

Just like when we needed a new CB; 2013 summer we sign Sakho a recognized coveted top defender, under Brendan totally lost. We sign another CB next summer Lovren, who in 2013/14 was one of the top performing CBs out there and was attracting tentative interest from Roma and Barcelona. Also poor under Brendan.

Lucas, Henderson, Milner, Can, Allen is a fine selection and if you can name me 1 player (excluding Kovacic who we are clearly already interested in) who Liverpool can realistically sign that will be a superb improvement to that, then I will salute you as a fine scout of talent.

It is Brendan to blame for Liverpools poor performances and tactics.

If Mourinho had this very same squad we would coast to top 4.

 

[manodelrey]

manodelrey liverpool are a rich team thats where the resources are from.

football isn't a simple as FIFA manager, how do you expect a team to go out and sign a better midfield than the rest of the top 4 huh? maybe on fifa you can sell all your spare players that you dont need and then have some transfer budget and give big wages, that's not how the real world works.

Name me 1 midfielder that Liverpool could realistically sign that would make us better than the other teams.

The only hope is the players making a step up in their level and playing consistently in a consistent system.

During 2013/14 Suarez may have absolutely drove everyone on for sure, but imagine going from two world class strikers to 0, obviously that's gonna put a damper on you as a midfielder, and then when the guy in front of you doesnt move during a match there is another damper. And then you have a manager who changes the midfield and what he wants from them every single game. But during 2013/14 there is no question that Henderson and Allen proved themselves as talented enough midfielders, and this season Lucas has been excellent when Rodgers actually selects him. The fact is you don't become bad overnight, your form dips and there are many factors to this. Obviously they are not as good as the top midfields around but 4 years ago would you say Gabi and Tiago were? No, but they stepped up their game and now you would happily call them top midfielders.

BR needs to sort it out, you need to understand that the main issue is Brendan's poor decision making.

Just like when we needed a new CB; 2013 summer we sign Sakho a recognized coveted top defender, under Brendan totally lost. We sign another CB next summer Lovren, who in 2013/14 was one of the top performing CBs out there and was attracting tentative interest from Roma and Barcelona. Also poor under Brendan.

Lucas, Henderson, Milner, Can, Allen is a fine selection and if you can name me 1 player (excluding Kovacic who we are clearly already interested in) who Liverpool can realistically sign that will be a superb improvement to that, then I will salute you as a fine scout of talent.

It is Brendan to blame for Liverpools poor performances and tactics.

If Mourinho had this very same squad we would coast to top 4.

Well for starters I am not going off of fifa, I am going off the fact that liverpool cannot afford to buy 3 high quality players in the summer like you suggested without going into debt, which can sink any club without extremely rich owners cough cough portsmouth. And realistically signing kovacic as you mentioned, most likely isco who is getting put out and real madrid, khedira, illarramendi, or Gael Kakuto who is a free transfer since his contract at chelsea is up right now, short term with cambiasso although that seems like a one season deal, yevhen konoplyanka on the wing, or andre ayew, and de jong is available as well since he wants to leave milan, and I don't know if gündogan has committed anywhere yet but again another good signing that improves liverpool. For a right back, I dont know if Lichsteiner signed a new deal but definitely better than Glen Johnson. And yes your defense needs a lot of work but there are plenty of midfielders that I just listed that would easily have you surpassing united's midfield which gets you top 4. And yes, anyone with some decent awareness could have kept liverpool in the top 4. It was there's to lose and they lost it.

 

[Phadunk]

Barca 4-1 Juventus

 

[manodelrey]

Barca 3- juve 1

 

[tml]

Illaramendi is not an improvement lol. Khedira recently rejected us. Kakuta cant even believe you mention him, not even close to good enough. De Jong not better than Lucas these days, Cambiasso is excellent but not realistic either just another name from mid air. Konoplyanka, Ayew are nothing to do with CM. Both of those players have stated in the past they fancy Liverpool so maybe we actually will keep Sterling since we haven't gone for either of those. Gundogan and Lichsteiner, are they realistic? CL teams will queue up for those we have no chance.

The fact is Man U were less shit than us. We were both shit, but they don't have more quality than us, the difference is they have Superman in goals. They will strengthen this summer too don't forget and they have the pull of giant contracts, CL football, and the fact that they are the 3rd biggest team in the world. Realistically they can challenge for the Title next year with good recruitment. It really should be this top 4 for a long time because all 4 clubs are in supremely advantageous positions, and imo they can all fight for the title next year.

We need a miracle of many circumstances falling together in our favour to get back into that top 4.

 

[manodelrey]

Illaramendi is not an improvement lol. Khedira recently rejected us. Kakuta cant even believe you mention him, not even close to good enough. De Jong not better than Lucas these days, Cambiasso is excellent but not realistic either just another name from mid air. Konoplyanka, Ayew are nothing to do with CM. Both of those players have stated in the past they fancy Liverpool so maybe we actually will keep Sterling since we haven't gone for either of those. Gundogan and Lichsteiner, are they realistic? CL teams will queue up for those we have no chance.

The fact is Man U were less shit than us. We were both shit, but they don't have more quality than us, the difference is they have Superman in goals. They will strengthen this summer too don't forget and they have the pull of giant contracts, CL football, and the fact that they are the 3rd biggest team in the world. Realistically they can challenge for the Title next year with good recruitment. It really should be this top 4 for a long time because all 4 clubs are in supremely advantageous positions, and imo they can all fight for the title next year.

We need a miracle of many circumstances falling together in our favour to get back into that top 4.

those are all pretty much free signings that will at minimum improve liverpool. And yeah Illaramendi wasn't great compared to the likes of kroos, xabi alonso, or modric, but compared to the midfield you guys already have its an improvement. Khedira I didn't know about and Kakuto would be a great signing as another young talent that could be snapped up and improve greatly at a top end premier league club (like emre can?) Konopiyanka and ayew aren't central midfielders but fantastic wingers that can patch up midfield holes that your center mids leave. Gundogan is probably not realistic but Lichsteiner maybe. I mean Cambiasso went to a club just promoted to the premier league from playing regular champions league not too long ago so why wouldn't lichsteiner consider it.

United weren't less shit than you guys this season, they had a great goalkeeper and some good goalscorers. Their defense was god awful and their midfield fell apart when fricken Michael carrick wasn't in the lineup so they weren't great. It also looks ike their star goalkeeper is leaving and they have only managed to sign another winger because they don't have enough wingers/forwards in their squad already.

You need to sort the defense out primarily and your midfield and you could easily get back into top 4. Arsenal and Chelsea look solid but southampton will probably lose another star player or 2, united might not buy the right players, and a yaya toure less man city don't seem that threatening.

 

[Tomahawk]

I guess the finale really showed that one call by the referee (wrong or right) can decide the winner. We need video ref.

Also I don't know how this happened but I somehow dislike Barca more than Ajax.

 

[No Luck Involved]

Juventus gave a really good account of themselves. Ter Stegen was pretty bad lol! And maybe it's just coincidence or confirmation bias but every major european match now the favourite team seems to get the calls. Still a good match though and I hope Suarez isn't injured!

 

[Phadunk]

Pirlo. Pogba. Tears. :(

 

[latinoheat]

What bad call did the ref make that favored Barca exactly? the non existent penalty on Pogba? also the ref denied Neymar a perfectly legal goal. Suarez should have been carded for time wasting but the game was over at that point.

 

[SAGA]

Barca 3- juve 1

dude...

 

[manodelrey]

First off, called it. Second, who was the man who convinced juve to play an open style in the finals against barca so the game could be so entertaining? I want to thank them. Third, I think we can all agree that Thomas Vermaelen was the signing of the year. I mean how many teams wouldn't want a center back that doesn't misplay any passes, doesn't get beat on the dribble or the pass, isnt at fault for any goals, and doesn't make any tactical mistakes for an entire season? Barca had no better defenders than that. And finally, if your feeling diminished in your need for the sport, try the MLS or the womens world cup. Not the same quality as what we just saw, but its still a solid league that doesnt really have any favorites to win

 

[Tomahawk]

What bad call did the ref make that favored Barca exactly? the non existent penalty on Pogba? also the ref denied Neymar a perfectly legal goal. Suarez should have been carded for time wasting but the game was over at that point.

I'd say that was a penalty on Pogba yeah.

Though if you're really gonna say Neymar's goal was wrongfully disallowed you don't know what you're talking about, that was so obviously a handball.

 

[The Quasar]

The problem is, that we are heavily depending on Ribéry and Robben to create chances, but it is impossible to rely on them being fit in the crucial part of the season.
The most straight forward solution would be to buy another winger who can do the job if they are injured and take over the starting place when they quit. But I don't see any player fulfilling this profile on the market. Maybe Felipe Anderson or Julian Draxler. But Anderson already said, that he wants to stay in Rome, while Draxler is just recovering after a long injury and we don't need another guy for hospital.

So the idea I had - and should fit to Guardiola's idea of football - was to shift the focus of our game more to the center instead of the wings. Robben / Müller would play some kind of a second striker next to Lewandowski with Götze / Ribéry in the center behind them.
The midfield would be Alonso or Schweinsteiger as a holding 6, leaving Thiago, Lahm, Gaudino, Kimmich, Schweinsteiger (if Alonso starts) and maybe Alaba (if Bernats plays LB). Gaudino and Kimmich are obviously too young, Schweinsteiger, Alaba and Lahm are not the ones winning dribblings and therefore space, leaving a lot of the work to Thiago, who is another player who is injured way too often. Also Schweinsteiger is very unlikely to play a whole season, as he hasn't done this in a while. Therefore someone for this position could be needed. Candidates could be Isco, Kovacic, Rafinho Alcántara or Meyer.

Defense is pretty much the same

He's really good. I hope to watch Felipe play soccer with my football team a bit more time.

About Champions, I think Barcellona is too strong. But Juventus was able to keep up, and perhaps there is a penality kick on Pogba.

 

[Maestro Arena]

Sevilla also won last Europa League, becoming the team with more titles won with 4 (all 4 in last 10 years).

As spaniard, I'm proud of success of spanish teams in Europe: in this century 7 Champions League, 7 Europa League and 10 European Supercups have been won by 5 different teams (yeah, Real Madrid and Barcelona are over the rest, but Atletico and Sevilla have shown they are currently in Europe top-tier).

Can't wait for next CL season with 5 spanish teams competing (I'll be rooting for Sevilla since I'm Andalucian).