The English Football Thread

[Vesper 27,282]

ffs

538: Liverpool now 72% likely to win the Premier League

American statisticians FiveThirtyEight have a permanent Premier League table on their site with chances of winning the league, top four spots, Europa League places and who is most likely to go down.

Following the results on Boxing Day, Liverpool are now considered 72% likely to win the Premier League.

Manchester City are still considered the most likely challengers, with a 19% liklehood of winning the title.

Tottenham are rated at 7%.

All of the three top sides have a strong chance (over 90%) of finishing in the top four.

See a screenshot from the FiveThirtyEight table here:

[Unionjack 7,531]

45 minutes ago, Vesper said:

what do you think of Higuain?

 

I have my reservations too mate. But as you know I do think theres a good chance of him doing good.

You know that confidence and the trust of your manager is important to these likkle lambs and Sarri has all the faith and love for Higuain he will need.

 

The problem as I see it is that Sarri has told the board he wanted Icardi first and Higuain as backup.

But Granny being a business woman first and knowing fuck all about football thinks doing the loan deal wont cost us owt and in her likkle mind they are both strikers so SHOULD be doing the same job. And of course our board of sheepy yes men don't have the nous and balls to explain the difference and stand up to her!

I hope Hig does well for us but I'd dearly love Icardi or Martial. Dream on Uj mate!

[Laylabelle 9,292]

That's the thing liverpool have got the players they wanted and needed. Less faff around and what a difference its made. Plus the goalie is definitely worth what they paid.7 goals against... 43 scored.. Depressing 

[Unionjack 7,531]

You would think the £500k a week would be enough that he didn't need to gamble!

Alexis Sanchez: Man Utd star facing investigation after SHOCK Jose Mourinho bet

ALEXIS SANCHEZ is facing an investigation after betting on Jose Mourinho getting sacked with a Manchester United team-mate.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1062209/Alexis-Sanchez-Man-Utd-investigation-Jose-Mourinho-bet-Marcos-Rojo-WhatsApp-rumours-gossip?utm_source=traffic.outbrain&utm_medium=traffic.outbrain&utm_term=traffic.outbrain&utm_content=traffic.outbrain&utm_campaign=traffic.outbrain

[Magic Lamps 11,445]

Ofc, Salah does not get a ban for his obvious dive vs Newcastle. Media darlings and FA prodigies. 

[DDA 9,570]

35 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Ofc, Salah does not get a ban for his obvious dive vs Newcastle. Media darlings and FA prodigies. 

Hate them. It's unreal how the media are scared to death of upsetting the Scouse. 

[communicate 2,703]

49 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Ofc, Salah does not get a ban for his obvious dive vs Newcastle. Media darlings and FA prodigies. 

That was obvious dive.  But I knew he won't get ban. Salah and pool are kinda the darling of FA. 

If what salah did was not a dive, then we don't need Morata to get stronger, he can keep falling down under minimal contact but sadly we will not get any penalty 

[Johnnyeye 7,404]

57 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Ofc, Salah does not get a ban for his obvious dive vs Newcastle. Media darlings and FA prodigies. 

fucking media and FA darlings, what a load of shit , you can bet that if it was us we wouldn't hear the end of it. Hypocrites

FA( Fucking Assholes)

[Laylabelle 9,292]

Why has the Arsenal manager spoken about how Liverpool can go unbeaten all the way.. Before playing them.. Surely wait till you have then say. May not be wrong.. Hopefully wrong... 

The FA are just odd with what they do.. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

3 hours ago, DDA said:

Hate them. It's unreal how the media are scared to death of upsetting the Scouse. 

Really do hate Scosers! Hate their accents too. ALMOST as bad as a Brummie one.

3 hours ago, Johnnyeye said:

fucking media and FA darlings, what a load of shit , you can bet that if it was us we wouldn't hear the end of it. Hypocrites

FA( Fucking Assholes)

Victimpool and Shitty well both Manc clubs have always had the media stuck up their arses! Always been the same. Even when we were winning everything in sight you still felt this underlying thing of the media just waiting for us to fuck up and jump on us. We beat Shitty and I read headlines saying they were unlucky and hardly mentioning us in the write up. Mou mighta been a bit para and bonkers trying to do what Fergie did and make it a us Vs the world but hee never had to work hard to get the media to do it.

8 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Why has the Arsenal manager spoken about how Liverpool can go unbeaten all the way.. Before playing them.. Surely wait till you have then say. May not be wrong.. Hopefully wrong... 

The FA are just odd with what they do.. 

Its hard to even think it but might prefer the Scouse gits to beat the north Londoners.

[Laylabelle 9,292]

The media are funny with us. Any postive story is given its own negative twist. Someone pulls a face after a win.. Omg what does that mean?! 

Like you say the city result.. Yeah we had the racist or not racist incident but the football side. Nada. Win the league.. Mehhh what's this team doing. 

[BlueLyon 9,359]

On 12/26/2018 at 6:13 PM, Vesper said:

Fernandinho is a clear key to that team and Pep's whole style as a whole. They are insane to rely on a soon-to-be 34yo with zero back-up/replacement.

I truly have to believe they make a move for the DH DMF's I have listed for them repeatedly in the past:

 

I also absolutely think they make a move for Firpo or Chilwell or José Gayà or Alex Telles (those 4 are who we so need to grab one of as well), as they are getting killed at LB with Mendy out.

Ricardo ripped them up today (as I predicted, he is turning into a WC RB, he was always near the top of my buy list there, and Leicester stole him)

We have won title with Moses and Alonso on wings. Klopp continues to win with Lovren and Henderson in squad. Pep realy has no damn excuse with Fernandinho or Mendy backup. Best managers in the world can still win with one or two average players in squad because they know how to hide their weakness and work on their strenght. Pep needs two world class players for every spot to play well lol.

[Vesper 27,282]

4 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

We have won title with Moses and Alonso on wings. Klopp continues to win with Lovren and Henderson in squad. Pep realy has no damn excuse with Fernandinho or Mendy backup. Best managers in the world can still win with one or two average players in squad because they know how to hide their weakness and work on their strenght. Pep needs two world class players for every spot to play well lol.

Moses and Alonso played Wingback, not a trad fullback, so that is apples to oranges.

Pep has no real backup for Fernandinho, and Fernandinho is utterly key to his system. You are seeing it right now. Delph has been shambolic at multiple times at LB this year (Wednesday being a perfect example), again we are seeing that right now. Now he is stuck with Oleksandr Zinchenko, who he has never shown great faith in. Maybe Zinchenko finally comes good and the Mendy injury will be a blessing in disguise.

The other area I said Shitty would soon buy is a 3rd CB, as their backups to Stones and Laporte are a huge drop off. Otamendi is a fraud, and Kompany is closing in on being a 33yo spent force and is in the trainers room more than the pitch for years now.

I dont see Foden or Ilkay Gündogan as like for like replacements at DH DMF, that is neither's game at all.

At Victimpool, Lovren and Henderson have greatly diminished roles this year, although due to Gomez's injury Lovren now starts. Matip is also another option at CB as well.

If Jorginho went down and Cesc is not here,who takes over at DH DMF? Kovacic I would guess, but is that ideal? Maybe Drinkwater gets rehabbed. Maybe Ampadu gets plugged in. Lets hope we never have to find out.

At key positions, depth matters, especially when you are aiming to be the best club in the world like Shitty is. My whole point was that it was both arrogant and stupid of Pep to say they were complete and needed no adds. The last few weeks have shown this to be very much not true.

Time will tell if I am right or wrong. I like my chances.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

27 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Moses and Alonso played Wingback, not a trad fullback, so that is apples to oranges.

Pep has no real backup for Fernandinho, and Fernandinho is utterly key to his system. You are seeing it right now. Delph has been shambolic at multiple times at LB this year (Wednesday being a perfect example), again we are seeing that right now. Now he is stuck with Oleksandr Zinchenko, who he has never shown great faith in. Maybe Zinchenko finally comes good and the Mendy injury will be a blessing in disguise.

The other area I said Shitty would soon buy is a 3rd CB, as their backups to Stones and Laporte are a huge drop off. Otamendi is a fraud, and Kompany is closing in on being a 33yo spent force and is in the trainers room more than the pitch for years now.

I dont see Foden or Ilkay Gündogan as like for like replacements at DH DMF, that is neither's game at all.

At Victimpool, Lovren and Henderson have greatly diminished roles this year, although due to Gomez's injury Lovren now starts. Matip is also another option at CB as well.

If Jorginho went down and Cesc is not here,who takes over at DH DMF? Kovacic I would guess, but is that ideal? Maybe Drinkwater gets rehabbed. Maybe Ampadu gets plugged in. Lets hope we never have to find out.

At key positions, depth matters, especially when you are aiming to be the best club in the world like Shitty is. My whole point was that it was both arrogant and stupid of Pep to say they were complete and needed no adds. The last few weeks have shown this to be very much not true.

Time will tell if I am right or wrong. I like my chances.

Not sure why are u bringing all this up.

My point was that Pep is overrated coach and as soon he doesnt have allstar team, he sucks.

Each team faces injuries. Each team has weak spots. Quality managers manage to outcome those issues and still win games. Klopp had injured Gomez and he plays Lovren who is average player. But pool is still winning thanks to Klopp approach. 

Pep needs two world class players for each spot to win because he has no clue how to work on players like Delph, something Klopp or any great manager did. Zidane for example made Vazquez realy good player, despite he is rather average.

And regarding Fernandinho, Pep had two seasons to bring back up or something. Instead he wasted 50m on Mahrez who wasnt required anyway. 

Stop making exqueses for man who has the most expensive squad, endless pit of money and runs the club for third season with 100% support. Conte, Sarri, Klopp, Poch all have/had limits in the support. Conte had to work his best on Alonso, Moses, Klopp has to work with Henderson, Wijnaldum, Lovren,..Poch didnt get any new player last summer. City should be rolling through the league but they are not. Poor them. One injury and they suddenly cant do shit? Well Pep should think that before. Either change the plan or buy backup. Any manager with sense would bring backup DM if that spot is so important for them. We had to play games without key players in the past. And with good tactical approach, you can still win. Pep knows just one way and as soon it doesnt work, he is roasted.

One thing is to have world class 11 which is normal for best clubs in world. But to buy and buy and buy almost equaly good backups, only Pep. And even then he loses on regular basis to any team with some quality like Lyon, Monaco, Chelsea, Liverpool. The guy is a fraud. He turned german made bayern into spanish colony with bunch of players and tactics that dont fit them. He got spanked every year in CL. And his legacy is absolutely awful there. Their board is dying to bring more players with german mentality and return to Heynckess tactics. 

That said he is still ok manager, but nowhere near what people talk. Best english team, best team in the world,...my ass. Soon as his favourite Stones or Walker or Laporte or any other player he brought isnt at 100%, he will ditch him and buy another one for 80m. Rinse and repeat. He can only dream of making average player into star like every other top manager did at least once in their career. 

[Vesper 27,282]

3 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

Not sure why are u bringing all this up.

My point was that Pep is overrated coach and as soon he doesnt have allstar team, he sucks.

Each team faces injuries. Each team has weak spots. Quality managers manage to outcome those issues and still win games. Klopp had injured Gomez and he plays Lovren who is average player. But pool is still winning thanks to Klopp approach. 

Pep needs two world class players for each spot to win because he has no clue how to work on players like Delph, something Klopp or any great manager did. Zidane for example made Vazquez realy good player, despite he is rather average.

And regarding Fernandinho, Pep had two seasons to bring back up or something. Instead he wasted 50m on Mahrez who wasnt required anyway. 

Stop making exqueses for man who has the most expensive squad, endless pit of money and runs the club for third season with 100% support. Conte, Sarri, Klopp, Poch all have/had limits in the support. Conte had to work his best on Alonso, Moses, Klopp has to work with Henderson, Wijnaldum, Lovren,..Poch didnt get any new player last summer. City should be rolling through the league but they are not. Poor them. One injury and they suddenly cant do shit? Well Pep should think that before. Either change the plan or buy backup. Any manager with sense would bring backup DM if that spot is so important for them. We had to play games without key players in the past. And with good tactical approach, you can still win. Pep knows just one way and as soon it doesnt work, he is roasted.

One thing is to have world class 11 which is normal for best clubs in world. But to buy and buy and buy almost equaly good backups, only Pep. And even then he loses on regular basis to any team with some quality like Lyon, Monaco, Chelsea, Liverpool. The guy is a fraud. He turned german made bayern into spanish colony with bunch of players and tactics that dont fit them. He got spanked every year in CL. And his legacy is absolutely awful there. Their board is dying to bring more players with german mentality and return to Heynckess tactics. 

That said he is still ok manager, but nowhere near what people talk. Best english team, best team in the world,...my ass. Soon as his favourite Stones or Walker or Laporte or any other player he brought isnt at 100%, he will ditch him and buy another one for 80m. Rinse and repeat. He can only dream of making average player into star like every other top manager did at least once in their career. 

Not making excuses for Pep, lol, that is ridiculous, merely commenting on the state of the team at a couple positions. 

I get it, you hate Pep.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Not making excuses for Pep, lol, that is ridiculous, merely commenting on the state of the team at a couple positions. 

I get it, you hate Pep.

I just disgree that you need superb backups in top team. Their team is fine. Should have another DM indeed but not necessary someone for 50m. Could be effing Mikel. Their backline is also more than fine. Kompany and Otamendi as backups is absolute luxury. As for LB they have Danilo. Peps fault if he thought he can be good enough to use him on left and right. 

What you do need in top team though is a manager who can make the likes of Kompany, Otamendi, Danilo, Delph work. Something Pep doesnt. 

Its just downright ridiculous someone needs to spend another 50m on Chilwell or Firpo or whoever just to be BACKUP to Mendy and use him when Mendy injures himself.  

Not having quality back up isnt an issue. Issue is when injury occurs and your coach has zero clue how to make that average backup work for couple of games. 

With this team, they should be top of the table. With Mendy and Fernandinho injured or not.

[Vesper 27,282]

40 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

 

With this team, they should be top of the table. With Mendy and Fernandinho injured or not.

Absolutely disagree on Fernandinho. That DH DMF position is massively key to their team (same as it is for us) and they literally have no player other than Fernandinho who can function there well.

He is also soon 34yo, and it is simply not reflective of today's market that they can just plug in a player there for under 50m. Jorginho cost us more than that. DH DMF is the hardest potions to fill at WC level, they are so rare.

Danilo is not ambipedal btw, so obviously he is primarily a RB. None of the top fullbacks in the world function equally well on either side, none. We went through that shit with Azpi several years ago.

Real Madrid have three great RB's (one on loan) All of them in the top 15-20 or so in world. It isnt like Shitty is only team who stocks up on players.

 

[Unionjack 7,531]

COMON WOLVES Amazing header.