2015/16 Football/Soccer thread

[Milos]

Benitez isn't a good coach for them imo and they also didn't make any good transfers and didn't get De Gea so thy kinda lacc a very good goalie and that's why Real isn't S. I simply don't think their shot on winning this season is as good as Bayerns or Barcas but they're obviously a strong team so they are ranked in A+.

PSG and Atletico are simply not A+ material in my opinion and Atletico should maybe move down to A-.

keylor navas? he's an excellent goalkeeper. could be one of the best in the world. he had an amazing season in 2013/14 with LEVANTE of all teams. he was better that season than any other GK in la liga, even claudio bravo. then, he followed that up with an excellent world cup. the only reason why he's so underrated is because ancelotti wouldn't play him last season. i think even if RM don't get de gea, they've still got a world class goalkeeper.

psg have been getting stronger every year since zlatan joined them. last year they could've gone toe-to-toe with any team in the last 4 of the UCL. they were just unfortunate to get hit with injuries and suspensions and had to face barca. but this year, if di maria develops chemistry with the rest of the squad i feel they can go far into the champions league. but its a big if.

and atleti... atletico are not one of the best teams in the world on paper but simeone knows exactly how to get the best out of his players. they just thrashed sevilla 3-0 playing away from home. they have made great transfers this season. their defence is even better than the one they had in 2013/14, imo. their midfield is a little older yes, but their strikers are better than back then. maybe they aren't A+ right now, but i guarantee you they will get there at some point in this season

 

[No Luck Involved]

I have to say I love his name!

 

[manodelrey]

My name is Holland, and welcome to jackass

 

[Random Passerby]

UEFA Champions League 2015/16 Viability Rankings:

S Rank:

Barcelona
Bayern Munich

A Rank:

A+
Chelsea London
Manchester City
Real Madrid

A
Paris SG
Juventus
Manchester United
Arsenal

A-
Atl. Madrid
Sevilla
Wolfsburg
Roma
Porto
Valencia

B Rank

B+
Leverkusen
Donezk
Galatasaray
Zenit

B
Gladbach
ZSKA Moskau
Benfica
Lyon

B-
Piräus
Dyn. Kiew
Eindhoven
Zagreb

C Rank

C+
Malmö FF
Bate

C
FC Astana
Tel Aviv
KAA Gent

Man City (A+) : A little high for me. They haven't got past the Quarter-Finals of the UCL in 5 attempts so far. Probably down to A.

Man Utd (A) : I know they beat Club Brugge 4-0 but they really don't look anywhere near scoring goals both last season and this season. Plus, only having a 30-year-old Rooney as a recognized striker with 2 youngsters (Anthony Martial and Harry Wilson) simply doesn't cut it. They only scored 2 goals in 4 games this season (another one is an own goal). The midfield looks good on paper but they have been outplayed by Tottenham and Swansea already. A- or B+ for me.

Real Madrid (A+) : A matter of time before Benzema comes back and they will be firing again. Like it or not, Benitez was really good in Europe (won the UCL with an average Liverpool side and reached the final 2 years later). They also don't seem to lack direction as they just thrashed someone 5-0 in La Liga. Having stars in every position (Navas is actually quite good) makes this an easy S.

Ath Madrid (A-) : Underrated. They gave Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea headaches in the past 2 years and have only strengthened since then. They also thrashed Sevilla 3-0 and this is the Sevila who thrashed Barcelona 4-0 in the Super Cup. Simeone is a great motivator who makes his players play above their level. A+ for me.

PSG (A) : Looks really strong this year. They defeated Chelsea and gave Barca lots of trouble last season. The addition of Angel Di Maria have only bolstered their attacks more. (No idea why MU let him go. He's quality just going through a bad patch atm). Good shout for A+.

Wolfsburg (A-) : They lost their best player in Kevin De Bruyne to Manchester City but gained Draxler and Dante. Looks good and A- sounds about right.

Arsenal (A) : Giround is their only decent striker as Welbeck is still injured. The defense is also quite shaky and Coquelin was lucky to not be sent off against Crystal Palace and Liverpool. Wenger's strategy of "Attack! Attack! Attack! " may prove to be his undoing again. A-

Chelsea (A+) : Not to sure about this. Terry and Ivanovic looked off the pace while Cortouis is struggling. They have already lost 3-0 to Man City and 2-1 to Crystal Palace while not strengthening at all (no, signing Flopcao isn't considered an "improvement"). A at best.

I don't really see EPL teams make it very far this season though as they simply aren't as good as they used to be last time.

lolol... There were rumours that Utd got Navas while blocking De Gea. I hope this is true!

HAHA: "If Real Madrid miss out on De Gea, will Benitez's anti-United speech this time be "I want to talk about FAX" ? [@RobHarris]"

Well, it was really funny the first time he did it.

 

[No Luck Involved]

As long as Pellegrini doesn't play 4-4-2, City will have every chance to do well in CL. They have a frightening number of attacking options now and the only (relatively) weak areas in the squad is maybe left back and defensive mid. They've been stupid in the past playing 4-4-2 but on current evidence it seems they've learned their lesson.

Stoke is looking like a poor man's Barcelona this season, which is no bad thing:

Butland;
Johnson, Shawcross, Muniesa, Pieters;
Whelan;
Afellay, Van Ginkel, Shaqiri, Arnautovic;
Bojan.
​

Got one of the bright young English keepers and a strike force full of CL winners and Barca rejects, Glenn Whelan must be looking around him and thinking this is alright! Got rid of Nzonzi and got these guys in...

Also you have to feel for Bournemouth: Gradel out for 6 months and Mings out for the season. That's their two major summer signings both gone just as the transfer window closed!

 

[Random Passerby]

Dunno about that but Swansea will surprise some people this season (strong enough to push for Top 5, I think.) . The signing of Ayew , Montero and Gomis was a masterstroke and he is now reaping the benefits. Jonjo Shelvey also looked much better than he previously was at Liverpool.

Stoke City was alright but as a Liverpool fan, I know that playing Glen Johnson is like playing with 10 men (he was as bad as Lovren). Shaqiri was great but it was strange that both Bayern and Inter discarded him so early in his career. Probably a Balotelli clone as I read that he had a bad attitude in training. Also, wasn't Bojan injured?

 

[Milos]

Ath Madrid (A-) : Underrated. They gave Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea headaches in the past 2 years and have only strengthened since then. They also thrashed Sevilla 3-0 and this is the Sevila who thrashed Barcelona 4-0 in the Super Cup. Simeone is a great motivator who makes his players play above their level. A+ for me.

barca beat sevilla 5-4 in the european supercup, it was athletic bilbao who thrashed them 4-0

 

[Myzozoa]

The deal with shaqiri, imo, is that he didn't fit the style at Bayern or Inter, and he probably wont ever fit the style of the top continental clubs (because they rotate managers and a bunch of top managers dont use wingers much anymore). He is a winger so he had/has to choose between starting at a club that isn't one of the top clubs continentally, or else be a player that the top clubs use as a tactical sub (navas at man city is an example maybe). We'll see if it was a good decision or not to go to stoke. Either way Stoke can recoup on the 12 million quite easily imo if he doesnt turn out (valued at 17m rn), so its an ok deal for them imo.

 

[gvmgvm40]

Turkey 3-0 Netherlands

lol

 

[Aurious]

auf wiedersehn holland

 

[shade]

still madness that hal robson-kanu starts up front for a top 10 ranked national team in the world

 

[phalanx]

lol wales 0-0 at home to Israel that European (ahem) powerhouse of football

 

[tml]

Yeah Bale can't be a god every time. We rely so heavily on him, in fact Chris Coleman will probably get far too much credit when we qualify, the man failed at every team he managed, but he comes to Wales at the right time. It was frankly inevitable that we would become better just by having a few good players at the same time, one of which being a player who can win a game on his own.

 

[Tomahawk]

fuck blind why the fuck did van der wiel start why the fuck did narsingh start why the fuck did bruma start why the fuck did riedewald start

fuck all of this fucking stupid

 

[Random Passerby]

Turkey 3-0 Netherlands

lol

Tbf, Netherlands has been on the wane for quite some time. Yes, they got 3rd in the WC but their strategy has always been "hoof the ball to Robben" and that worked while he was in top form and is bound to get found out at some point.

lol wales 0-0 at home to Israel that European (ahem) powerhouse of football

There was just so much Bale can do by himself against a parked bus from minute one lol. Even Ryan Giggs didn't manage to make Wales qualify all by himself, didn't it?

 

[phalanx]

no excuse, they are in the top 10 of the rankings, and beat them away.

 

[Random Passerby]

no excuse, they are in the top 10 of the rankings, and beat them away.

Tbf FIFA rankings are a bit weird. Belgium (no.2) ahead of Germany (the current world champions) , and Wales ahead of Spain, Croatia and Italy are just some examples. Romania at #7 is also laughable.

Another thing I never understood about FIFA is their hate of video replays. I mean, it can show so many things like diving, offsides or any incidents in the penalty box. Instead, we have an extra official there instead. Goal-line technology is good but not all tournaments use it either. It's baffling when there are a lot of money involved in the sport and calls are more controversial than ever.

 

[HBK]

still madness that hal robson-kanu starts up front for a top 10 ranked national team in the world

 

[manodelrey]

Tbf FIFA rankings are a bit weird. Belgium (no.2) ahead of Germany (the current world champions) , and Wales ahead of Spain, Croatia and Italy are just some examples. Romania at #7 is also laughable.

Another thing I never understood about FIFA is their hate of video replays. I mean, it can show so many things like diving, offsides or any incidents in the penalty box. Instead, we have an extra official there instead. Goal-line technology is good but not all tournaments use it either. It's baffling when there are a lot of money involved in the sport and calls are more controversial than ever.

look at how slow american sports move when video replay is used. And they still get that wrong. I don't want the game to get slowed down to that point. Especially when a game is going great and is very entertaining. If you slow it down to see if something was correct, its almost like committing a crime. Officials are humans and make mistakes, its part of the game.

 

[No Luck Involved]

Doesn't have to be every incident. You could give managers 1 or 2 challenges a match, if it's wrong they lose a challenge. It would affect the flow a bit but if justice is served then it's worth it imo.

 

[Random Passerby]

Doesn't have to be every incident. You could give managers 1 or 2 challenges a match, if it's wrong they lose a challenge. It would affect the flow a bit but if justice is served then it's worth it imo.

Agreed. It would reduce a lot of hotly debated decisions (such as those that Liverpool have benefited from this season and Man Utd have been accused of in the past).

 

[manodelrey]

Doesn't have to be every incident. You could give managers 1 or 2 challenges a match, if it's wrong they lose a challenge. It would affect the flow a bit but if justice is served then it's worth it imo.

and what happens if they get the replay wrong? How long do they have for the replay? If the incident in question was whether there was a foul but the ref decides not to call the foul and the other team is breaking does the break stop because a manager threw his challenge flag? If the break continues and a goal is scored but the challenge flag is thrown and the call overturned, what about the goal that was scored in play? What if he throws the challenge flag to prevent a goal scoring opportunity to question an offside call? It completely changes the game and makes the game worse. Replays are something that can be done when the sport has pauses built into them. Football/soccer does not have such pauses

 

[manodelrey]

Agreed. It would reduce a lot of hotly debated decisions (such as those that Liverpool have benefited from this season and Man Utd have been accused of in the past).

you mean the hotly debated issues that have half the people on one side and half on the other? You want to have a ref look in depth at that and still have his decision criticized while slowing down the game?

 

[shade]

and what happens if they get the replay wrong? How long do they have for the replay? If the incident in question was whether there was a foul but the ref decides not to call the foul and the other team is breaking does the break stop because a manager threw his challenge flag? If the break continues and a goal is scored but the challenge flag is thrown and the call overturned, what about the goal that was scored in play? What if he throws the challenge flag to prevent a goal scoring opportunity to question an offside call? It completely changes the game and makes the game worse. Replays are something that can be done when the sport has pauses built into them. Football/soccer does not have such pauses

that's why you wait until the goal is scored and then referee could refer the decision up to a video referee like in rugby league and rugby union. its best not to use american sports like american football as an example because that game has natural breaks between plays. the two rugby games are undeniably faster paced sports than both american and world football and utilising this break in play (the pause after a goal is scored) to ensure we get the correct decision on field seems like a no-brainer to me. the argument that using video technology will 'slow the game down' is an absolute non-starter.

 

[No Luck Involved]

It could be implemented like Shade said but I also don't see a big problem if it can be used to interrupt play: if one team is attacking and they lose the ball, their manager could make a challenge to stop a counter attack by the opposing team. If there really was a foul then justice has been served. If there wasn't then that team has no more challenges for the rest of the match. It could add another tactical tool.

It would definitely change football but if you allow just one challenge per match then I think there won't be too much disruption and there's a fine balance of risk/reward. The benefits could potentially be less sneaky fouls and feigning injury because you know you can be caught. As for technology failing us then that would be terrible but I think technology will be introduced sooner or later, potentially even as soon as Platini's time in office.