2017/18 (Soccer) Football Thread

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
Ulreich makes Mignolet look like peak Neuer. I wonder why a massive club like Bayern cannot have a better No.2
Outside of the games against Real Madrid Ulreich has been solid throughout the season, with some game winning performances in the Bundesliga in fact. He's obviously not a top keeper, but which team has a top level backup keeper? Not even that, which team has a significantly better backup keeper than Ulreich?

Maybe Manchester City (though Bravo has been declining for a while) and Arsenal, other than that I can't think of many. In fact, if you look at some top teams, you might see that even their starting keeper isnt much better than Ulreich (look at Liverpool for instance)
 
Outside of the games against Real Madrid Ulreich has been solid throughout the season, with some game winning performances in the Bundesliga in fact. He's obviously not a top keeper, but which team has a top level backup keeper? Not even that, which team has a significantly better backup keeper than Ulreich?

Maybe Manchester City (though Bravo has been declining for a while) and Arsenal, other than that I can't think of many. In fact, if you look at some top teams, you might see that even their starting keeper isnt much better than Ulreich (look at Liverpool for instance)
Huh? I don't follow the Bundesliga much but from what I have seen of him, he has had quite a few howlers. Unless I remember wrongly, he was poor against Sevilla and Wolfsburg.

That's the problem. He is a backup player, not first 11 quality. Since Bayern knew early that Neuer will be out for the season, they could have got someone more reliable.

As for the CL Final, I don't think Liverpool stand much of a chance. Liverpool's front 3 is great but a defence which contains a 19 year old and Dejan Lovren is going to concede quite a few.
 
If Madrid play like they have the last two rounds they will get destroyed. Liverpool need to get it done early though, they always run out of steam at about 70 mins and Madrid have a much better bench. You also gotta expect a Ronaldo / Ramos stoppage time goal or penalty.
 
twitter is just full of liverpool fans crying and being incredibly emotional over going to a final.. holy shit, wait til you win it, if you do.

so much cringe.

" looked in the mirror and i look high af bc i’ve been crying lmao. but then i just started crying again bc i’m so proud of hendo. so so proud. i would walk the earth for that man. "


the fuck..
 
twitter is just full of liverpool fans crying and being incredibly emotional over going to a final.. holy shit, wait til you win it, if you do.

so much cringe.

" looked in the mirror and i look high af bc i’ve been crying lmao. but then i just started crying again bc i’m so proud of hendo. so so proud. i would walk the earth for that man. "


the fuck..
Yeah that's really fucking weird...

I get being hyped and everything cause our seasons have gone No European football -> Europa League Final -> Champions League qualification -> Champions League FInal. All within like 3 years. But pretty sure those people claiming they're crying are just looking for attention.

In terms of the final, I don't actually see us winning it. I think it'll be a low scoring affair settled by a late Ronaldo winner. 2-1's the prediction presuming no more big players get injured for either side
 
twitter is just full of liverpool fans crying and being incredibly emotional over going to a final.. holy shit, wait til you win it, if you do.

so much cringe.

" looked in the mirror and i look high af bc i’ve been crying lmao. but then i just started crying again bc i’m so proud of hendo. so so proud. i would walk the earth for that man. "


the fuck..
Every fanbase has some attention seekers. Arsenal has Arsenal Fan TV while Liverpool has RAWK. Just ignore them lol.
 
Liverpool haaaaaaaaaaas to win this man. What a fucking insane story if they pull it off.

Do we give all the glory to Klopp.. or Salah for this season? Sure it's both.. but you think Klopp could make this squad ball out without Salah?
 
I'm not sure Salah is even the best Liverpool player. Take Firmino out their whole game falls apart (I expect him to replace Benzema at Madrid). For all the goals replace Salah with a good winger and they are still very dangerous.

Its starting to get really boring, this trend of a players ability being rated solely on how many goals they score. Its why Neymar is overated and probably why Ronaldo will pick up his third undeserved Ballon D'Or next year.
 
Last edited:
Huh? I don't follow the Bundesliga much but from what I have seen of him, he has had quite a few howlers. Unless I remember wrongly, he was poor against Sevilla and Wolfsburg.

That's the problem. He is a backup player, not first 11 quality. Since Bayern knew early that Neuer will be out for the season, they could have got someone more reliable.

As for the CL Final, I don't think Liverpool stand much of a chance. Liverpool's front 3 is great but a defence which contains a 19 year old and Dejan Lovren is going to concede quite a few.
Ulreich has done an amazing job overall this season. You're right that he made a mistake that cost us the game (we drawed) vs Wolfsburg but iirc this was the first game after Neuer's injury, so he really lacked practice in that game. I don't remember any significant mistakes vs Sevilla. In general he's of course no Neuer, especially not in his passing game and dominance in the box, but he is a great goalie on the line and his reflexes saved us a lot of games this season. The mistake vs Real is of course incredibly dumb, but I think that can really happen to anyone in such a game, I wouldn't blame him too much for that. I agree with Dunk that there is definetely no better No. 2 available to us.

On Bayerns squad next season, especially on the winger issue: It really depends on whether Robben will extend his contract or not. If he extends it, then our squad pretty much stands for the next season and we'll just sell a few players. If not, then we'll probably sign another winger, probably a talent like Pulisic, Bailey or Thauvin (I know he isn't really a talent anymore). On the wings we would have Coman, Gnabry, Ribery and Robben / newcomer then, with Müller as an option there too, in a more asymmetrical system then. Pretty much all of them except for Müller are really prone to injuries, so 5 players for 2 positions are definetely needed.

As for departures, I'm pretty sure Sanches (who's on loan atm) and Vidal (linked to Atletico and Chelsea) will go, because atm we have more than enough rather phyisically orientated midfielders. Our midfield would be Thiago, James and one out of Martinez / Coco / Goretzka then, with only Rudy as clear backup.

As CF Lewy will still be the man to go with Wagner as backup, as I'm pretty sure the former will (have to) stay.

The defense is also pretty much fixed, maybe Rafi or Bernat will go, then we would have to find new backups. Alaba and Kimmich are our first options on these positions of course. As for Centre Backs, there were rumours about Boateng, but I'm pretty sure he'll stay now. Then we'd have Hummels and Boateng with Süle as our first backup and Mai as a promising youth player.

In general, I think this squad should definetely win the league again, even if Kovac really fucks it up. As for the Cl, that really depends on Kovac and how he'll handle the whole situation. With some luck and good coaching (which I'm sceptical about) we should have a shot there, too.
 
As for departures, I'm pretty sure Sanches (who's on loan atm) and Vidal (linked to Atletico and Chelsea) will go, because atm we have more than enough rather phyisically orientated midfielders. Our midfield would be Thiago, James and one out of Martinez / Coco / Goretzka then, with only Rudy as clear backup.
So I don't really pay attention to the Premier League, but is Sanches just not up to par? Or is he just expendable?

Also I really don't want to see Vidal go. Hated playing him when he was with Juve (I'm a Roma fan) so I was glad to finally be able to root for him.
 
Sanches is one of the worst midfielders in the PL league that he couldn't get a game for Swansea, who rose from bottom to 18th after he was dropped. Swansea even tried to terminate his loan early but Bayern doesn't allow it.

Just google up Renato Sanches's performances for Swansea and you can see how he was utterly out of his depth. Sure, his teammates are bad but the fact that his bad performances stood out is more alarming.

Imo, he has been badly managed and believes his own hype after the Euro. He didn't improve his techniques and rely solely on his physical gifts, which shows him up when mixed with the big boys.
 
So I don't really pay attention to the Premier League, but is Sanches just not up to par? Or is he just expendable?

Also I really don't want to see Vidal go. Hated playing him when he was with Juve (I'm a Roma fan) so I was glad to finally be able to root for him.
Like Random Passerby said, the chance for Sanches to still have is breakthrough at Bayern, is extremely small. I agree that he was very poorly coached in his first season at Bayern to the point where it was basically a lost year for him, because he didn't get any playing time. Then he was loaned off to Swansea, a religation candidate in the Pl, which isn't exactly the place for young talents to prosper as well. So that's two years lost for a young talent, coming back after that rarely happens. Right now he'd have no chance to get any playing time at Bayern once again, because like I said our midfield is very crowded already and we have two very talented players with Goretzka and Tolisso, who are very similar player types and are far above him right now. That's why I think it would make absolutely no sense for him to stay.

As for Vidal, yes he can still be world class on good days and he'd definetely be one who could still help us next season. However, his contract runs out next season and his age is slowly paying its tribute. It would make little sense to extend it at his age when we have Goretzka and Tolisso in the back, who will sooner or later replace him anyway. That's why I think we should take the money we can still get for him and give our talents some more playing time. Like I said our midfield is crowded and with James, Thiago, Tolisso, Martinez, Vidal, Goretzka and Rudy there is the danger that one of these players might get little to no playing time.
 
Anyways we can definitely use another winger (or two) but I don't think we should let Vidal go. James can be pushed up the field if we don't get a winger (because of how injury-prone Robbery are and Coman/Gnabry still being relatively young). That leaves Thiago, Martinez, Goretzka, Vidal in midfield and honestly Tolisso/Rudy aren't quite up to par yet IMO. Every year I can't help but think that we burn out our players despite the Bundesliga playing fewer games.

Idk how Kovac will do but basically I just really like how we can plug in so many players everywhere. But yeah Renato Sanches can just be sold for cheap for all I care.

And my goodness, we definitely need some reinforcements in the back.
 
Last edited:
Is there going to be a separate World Cup thread? Rosters are due in soon and some teams have started to release their provisional squad that will be further cut down before the deadline.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top