The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Leif 6,006]

Atletico might be among the most boring teams on the planet. Simeone's not that great.

[Leif 6,006]

Roma whooped Lazio. 2-1, but should've been 2-0, as Manolas/Alisson both suffered a brain fart leading to a silly penalty. For Roma, otherwise keeping goals out vs. the joint-most potent attack in the league, is huge for them. They've not been known for their ability to defend at all well since the days of Aldair.

Perotti managed to prove once again to be one of the most underrated wingers of the past decade. I don't think anybody dribbles like him bar Hazard.

Jordan Lukaku, on Lazio's side, was Lazio's biggest threat. Incredible power, obviously his genetics, and him being a wing back essentially, creates a situation for the other team which they aren't used to. He was really, really impressive. Not an upgrade over Alonso, for he isn't the best at defending, but beating his man, brilliant. He dribbles & controls the ball like a forward. Genuinely more talented than Romelu.

De Rossi ran the most on the pitch. It shows how much these derbies still mean to him. Despite his age, most Roma fans believe he should be a regular starter for another 2 seasons presuming his fitness holds up. Strootman has become far too slow after a very bad injury, and they'd still like to get rid of him or at least phase him out onto the bench, but this game he was better than Ninja despite N's goal.

Dzeko was running around like a 20 year old. 

Really loving this revival. It's all down to the coach knowing just when and who to rotate. As people are realising now, this will be Napoli's downfall - 1 injury in Ghoulam was enough, but any other players losing their legs and they're finished.

So it's between Inter, Juventus, and Roma. 

I think Juventus will win the title, because of experience doing-so & their immense squad depth. Inter grind out their results, and there is a lack of quality despite being unbeaten. Roma just don't have the firepower up front to blow away the other big teams: can't expect them to beat Juventus, Inter or Napoli consistently yet. Such a shame they spunked 60m on Schick & Defrel - neither of whom play. After this great season, they could've attracted a very, very talented player next season for that sort of money. With the probable sale of Manolas, they could throw 90m at Suarez (a long shot, but there'd be a chance) or whoever. That blunder is shared between the manager & board, not Monchi. They wanted Schick before Monchi arrived, and Defrel worked with the coach before he was at Roma, and was specifically requested. This 1 big blunder of theirs I feel will set them back in the upcoming transfer windows, and I believe it'll be pivotal in them not winning the league any time soon - which they really could have aimed for with just slightly more ballsy recruitment. (All that said, in Serie A, every single season it seems, the team with the best defensive record wins. Roma have that claim - though it's slightly overblown, considering Napoli have only conceded 1 more goal than they have, while scoring almost double.)

Serie A, Serie A, Serie A. Making me fall in love with football all over again

[Leif 6,006]

AC Milan have the most entertaining forum this season. Meltdown after meltdown, abuse from members to eachother all round. Highly recommend taking a peek. 

'Well next season we'll likely have Conte.' (Majority of forum agrees, without a hint of irony.)

[Leif 6,006]

Sampdoria.

Beating Juventus 3-0, just minutes to go. (Buffon isn't playing, randomly rested, and all goals were saveable it looks like.)

Incredible team. Incredible young players every season. Can't believe i chose to pass on this game, thinking it'd be at least a draw.

The city of Genoa & the surrounding towns can finally feel proud of their football contribution.

[Leif 6,006]

6 minutes ago, Leif said:

Sampdoria.

Beating Juventus 3-0, just minutes to go. (Buffon isn't playing, randomly rested, and all goals were saveable it looks like.)

Incredible team. Incredible young players every season. Can't believe i chose to pass on this game, thinking it'd be at least a draw.

The city of Genoa & the surrounding towns can finally feel proud of their football contribution.

2 goals for Juventus in about 2 minutes in the last stages of the game. Makes half my post sound stupid.

[Leif 6,006]

Hardly anything more disgusting than seeing Liverpool do well against decent opponents. 

Seeing Arsenal do well isn't so bad - it's like after being their rival for so long, we've learned they actually have a severe mental disability, and so we humour their small wins with a smile. 

Seeing Liverpool conquer teams is like a guy at school who bragged for 3 years about having loads of money, despite being broke with nits in his hair, then seeing that snakey liar win the lottery.

[Leif 6,006]

Anyone know how well Tielemans is playing this season? He's a very hyped player, and I thought we could use him a few years ago in a sort of Xabi Alonso role.

Checking WhoScored, Monaco are 3-0 down, every other player with a rating hovering around 5.5, and yet Tiele is up at 6.4-or-so. I know it's just WhoScored, but I've never seen 1 player with a rating like that when the rest of the team is bombing.

[Blusan Alamb 295]

1 hour ago, Leif said:

Hardly anything more disgusting than seeing Liverpool do well against decent opponents. 

Seeing Arsenal do well isn't so bad - it's like after being their rival for so long, we've learned they actually have a severe mental disability, and so we humour their small wins with a smile. 

Seeing Liverpool conquer teams is like a guy at school who bragged for 3 years about having loads of money, despite being broke with nits in his hair, then seeing that snakey liar win the lottery.

1

You happy now?

[Georgy 439]

Let's take a moment together and laugh at Liverpool weren't they 3-0 up after the 1st half? 

[Blusan Alamb 295]

 

[Special Juan 27,092]

We need to just totally expose that Liverpool defence, it's absolute tosh.

[It's too big 625]

Sevilla were unfortunate not to score in the first half, just luck didn't go their way. Totally different team in the 2nd half. 

[Leif 6,006]

Just saw the next Monaco-PSG game billed as 'mecca'. Nope.
Somewhat depressing that Ligue 1 is already a 1-horse race again.

More interesting is Monaco/Marseille/Lyon competing for the other places, and seeing what sort of young talent they can churn out. I wish everyone would collectively agree to name whoever finishes 2nd as the unofficial league-winner. PSG are just completely non-French in how they run the club, and they offer nothing positive to the footballing landscape. 

[Leif 6,006]

I suggest watching Roma tonight, just to see how Gerson does. He's finally coming into his own as a winger, and there's a slither of a chance he could end up as good as the best wingers around today. 

Salah was a big loss for Roma, and his bloated stats make it look like an even worse loss, but Gerson is far more all rounded, and all he needs is complete confidence in himself to take on multiple players at once - and he'll succeed.

[Blusan Alamb 295]

The way PSG are playing..... 

[Leif 6,006]

Atletico are on an entirely different level to Roma. It says a lot about how bad we were vs. Roma, and how they weren't spectacular themselves. They aren't great.

Going forward, Roma are as predictable as we are - we simply have such outrageous quality in Hazard that even in knowing how he'll move, you can't stop him. 
But Roma. Painful lack of imagination. Lack of pace. The team rarely counter-attacks at full throttle together; they wait for Atletico to regain their shape, then try and break them down (the absolute worst way to try and deal with Atletico.)

As always, Manolas is braindead. 

It says a lot, even more-so, that Atletico look like they should've scored 10 goals this game. This is an ultra-defensive team. Carving Roma open again and again. Gonalons is certainly not good enough for Roma to my surprise. Gerson needs many more games. Dzeko is always good for Roma. Kolarov the best player for Roma. Pellegrini is a weak player, in all aspects; only bought out of sentimentality, which is insane. 

Torres was on fire for Atletico most of the game. Thomas their best player though in my opinion.

[Leif 6,006]

Perotti with a touch so perfect that Da Vinci would be impressed.

[Blusan Alamb 295]

1-0 Atleti...