The English Football Thread

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Those fans who left the Southend play off a few days ago...woops!

nothing like the Turkish fans who left the Fenerbache game after 80 minutes

the most frantic stoppage time ever

???

[zolayes 14,489]

2 nil down with less than 10 mins to go .. equalised in stoppage time ,, gave away a penalty and had a man red carded... pen smashed way over the top ..

in a further 3 mins of stoppage time 4 more red cards and 2 yellows ,, god it was so boring ,, ended 2 2

[Jase 43,479]

Norwich in the Premier League...meh. Would have been nice to have all 3 Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the same division again.

[darrus 422]

Damn. Very upset for Boro, mostly because of Karanka and the way they played in a few matches I've watched them

But I guess they threw it away themselves dropping from fist place to playoffs zone in the first place.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

Wow.. look what i found on reddit/r/soccer.

Scary levels of accuracy from a Liverpool fan on RAWK as he calls the season perfectly way back in August 2014

Brentie said: ''I've said it before and I got pilloried for it, but I'll say it again.

This is going to be a car crash of a season.

Even had we not sold Suarez, I expected us to suffer a severe hangover from last season. I wrote in May that most teams similar to us (teams that punched above their weight and unexpectedly challenged for a league title but ended up failing), generally suffered from a hangover the season after. fecking hell, I'm nowhere near over not winning it last year. I don't have a clue how we can expect the players to be.

I just don't see, psychologically, how we can "go again". After such highs, can the players go through the mundane few weeks of the season without feeling a major difference? Take the opening game at Anfield vs Southampton. There'll be no welcoming parade. It's back to normality for everyone. Can they accept that without there being an impact?

We have a horrible start to the season, fixtures wise. 2 away trips to City and Spurs is the last thing this team needs so early on. If we have a bad start, I feel there will be a horrible sense of deflation within the fanbase and the squad- from the captain and everyone else. I feel they'll start feeling sorry for themselves over what happened in May, over losing Suarez and it will take a lot of time for us to recover.

Losing Suarez is an absolute nightmare for us. I strongly feel it will have hurt every single one of those players in the squad. A minority on here try to downplay Suarez's importance to us, but I'm sure the players know just how much he brought to the team. You do not lose a player like that and move forwards or sideways (unless you're a team that is used to winning trophies on a yearly basis). Suarez's contribution was not just about goals and assists: it was about fight, sacrifice, dedication and leadership.

I mean, look at this Coutinho interview:

Coutinho was asked what he felt when he was excluded from the Brazil World Cup squad: “Anger. Not because I’m selfish, but because I could have offered something.

I’m going to use this anger and push myself to my limits. I saw how Luisito (Suárez) was a maniac in training. At this point, my body and mind feel like clay. I will mold it the way I envision, and I will use my fire to make them harder.”

It's simple psychology. How much did a thumbs up from Luis push Raheem Sterling on? How much was Suarez's acceptance important for someone like Jordan Henderson? How much did Suarez's name on the team-sheet petrify opposing defenses, before a ball was even kicked?

Add that to a host of new players we need to bed in, Champions League football for the first time in 5 years (And the first time in Rodgers' career), and a horrific pre season where we lost key players to injuries, failed to bed in our 3 most expensive signings and missed out on our seemingly only 2 attacking replacements for Suarez (For different reasons), and it doesn't look good at all for us.

Not convinced by our signings at all too. Lovren has had 5 good months in the last 3 seasons (he was basically chased out of Lyon and was poor in the 2nd half of last season). Lambert is passable as a 3rd striker, but is nowhere near suitable for our style of play. We're a Sturridge nigggle away from having him lead the line at the Etihad and White Hart Lane, which would be horrific. Markovic and Can are exciting talents, but we surely can't expect too much from them in their first season at such young ages. Lallana will have missed all of pre season, have had no friendly games to adapt to the team and will be thrust in with a big price tag on his head. Far from ideal.

This term, we'll have the season we all expected us to have last year. We'll challenge for 4th but end up missing out. I'm fine with that, but I suspect the narrative will be that it was a failure and the fact is, that would mean that we went backwards. A bad start, and there will be a huge cloud around Anfield that won't be lifted for a while.

I predict 6th. No doubt that many will call me a moaning and negative bastard but that's what I expect. Hopefully we'll get a cup run to set the pulses racing, but I foresee a season of transition for us.''

This was his response when recently being acclaimed for being right..

''Thanks all. I'm certainly unhappy about being proven right. I was very bitter at how everyone reacted but even more pissed off at the club for putting us in this position. What worries me greatly is that I'm just an idiot living in Beirut with no football experience bar watching the game for the last 30 years or so. These people are supposed to be professionals. If from my couch an amateur like me could see how badly we'd fucked up in the Summer, how could these idiots not? How in the hell could they put an entire season at the mercy of an injury prone player's fitness? How could they spend so much money on a defender without doing their homework? How could they replace the most hyperactive sportsman in the world with the slowest player in Liverpool history and the laziest striker we've ever had?I said in the Summer that I wanted Brendan to come out and downplay expectations. He didn't.

I think that was a massive mistake on his part. Too many people had their heads in the sand, too many were still on a high from the euphoria of last season (witness the anfield wrap going on about not taking 84 points all Summer). That left Brendan very much isolated and in danger, because a lot of people genuinely expected us to have a season like we did last year.There needed to be more talk in the Summer of the challenges ahead, more downplaying of expectations and the club should have been very clear, from the outset, that Brendan would be safe whatever happened. I think he made a lot of mistakes this year based on his fear or losing his job (for Brendan to play old teams, defensive teams and slow teams, trying to grind out results... that is in complete contrast with who he is as a manager just like Houllier playing a gung ho style would be for him).

The saddest thing for me is that this season did not get me down. Part of it is because last season caused me so much pain, I think anything else football related will always pale in comparison. I'm still not over last season (just like the players, visibly). Part of it is I saw all of it coming, and thus was no shocked or disappointed when it did. The anger people felt during this season, I felt when I saw us fuck up in the Summer. By the time we lost to Villa, I made my peace with this season.I hope Liverpool will be OK. Concurrently, I hope RAWK will start acting like grown ups when someone has an opinion that goes against the tide.''

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=315071.msg13875283#msg13875283

[Special Juan 27,099]

That Liverpool result was on par with our bus parade.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Wow.. look what i found on reddit/r/soccer.

Scary levels of accuracy from a Liverpool fan on RAWK as he calls the season perfectly way back in August 2014

This was his response when recently being acclaimed for being right..

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=315071.msg13875283#msg13875283

While the rest of RAWK thought they are gonna win the league.

[Special Juan 27,099]

Bournemouth have signed Boruc on a free transfer.

[Laylabelle 9,296]

???

During Southend play off.1-0 down extra time and few mins to go so lot started to leave.Southampton then scored and and the ones realised what had happened and legged it back.They then went on to win on pens.The ones who left and didn't realise must been gutted.get home and find out been promoted.That's why leaving early is daft

[Jase 43,479]

West Ham join Liverpool and Tottenham in the Europa League next season qualifying for it via the Fair Play league. Downside for them? They enter in the first qualifying round and their season starts in 37 days. Yikes!

[ulvhedin 473]

Bournemouth have signed Boruc on a free transfer.

? He has played whole last season for them

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

? He has played whole last season for them

Was a loan.

[KevinAshburner 1,270]

Premier League Winners and Losers 2015

UPLOADED 9 MINUTES AGO BY TYTSPORTS

[Kezza 1,965]

Wtf is a fair play league? we are 14th on it apparently..lucky you don't win the PL based on being nice

[mikeholiday 209]

West Ham join Liverpool and Tottenham in the Europa League next season qualifying for it via the Fair Play league. Downside for them? They enter in the first qualifying round and their season starts in 37 days. Yikes!

How much does a club get for qualifying?

[Jase 43,479]

How much does a club get for qualifying?

Not sure. Think the amount will depend on how far the club progress in the competition.

[Special Juan 27,099]

Carlo to WHU would be fucking hilarious.

[Kezza 1,965]

How much does a club get for qualifying?

You don't earn anything until the quater finals I believe. This can be terrible for west ham as it could affect their PL run this season. With them moving to the Olympic Stadium they need to stay up.

Their season starts in like 4 and a 1/2 weeks or something. Lol