Rmpr

It has nothing to do with being casuals or not. It is about the will to stay up late to watch it or not (like Greavsise explained with the NFL). Take Porto vs Juventus for example. If you are in Asia and doesnt root for either teams, do you think the majority of the football fanbase stayed up late on a week day? Or if you are in the USA where its in the middle of the work hours, do you think many people watched it? However, if we had more clashes between big traditional clubs more people worldwide would go out of their way to watch it and that is what UEFA is trying to do. They are not trying to create to the hardcore fans who are already tuning in every round because no matter who is playing they will watch it anyways... Just to be clear, I am not defending the changes. Only trying to explain the thought process behind it.

You are correct UEFA base their decisions on increasing revenue and television appeal but where you are completely wrong is that the source of those interests come outside of Europe. There is no agenda to make Russia a top league or anything because UEFA simply doenst care about the European market. UCL isnt big because europeans watch it. It is big because all other countries do and the biggest overseas revenue from UEFA comes from Asia and South America. Actually, only 35% of all tv quotas UEFA receives are from European countries, the rest come from all sorts of different places. So, for those markets, the size of the clubs participating in a match directly influences the tv ratings, no matter if such clubs are going through a good phase or not. Clubs like ManUtd, Milan, Inter and Chelsea (all out of UCL atm) bring way more public interest than the likes of Atletico Madrid, Borussia, Monaco, etc. Even if those clubs currently have the better teams/players. AND THATS WHATS THE FOCUS OF THIS NEW POLICY. UEFA is trying to appeal to more people by giving more seeds to the popular clubs. For instance, right now a match between PSG and BVB would be much better to watch than ManUtd vs Milan. However I can guarantee you the majority of overseas fans would prefer the latter because they dont know better. They dont follow European Leagues that closely to know those clubs are way past their prime so the historic background and past legends counts a lot. The ratings would easily be twice as high.

Verrati, Matuidi and Rabiot owning the game. What a 1st half performance!

It really isn't. We have a comfortable enough lead that we definitely dont need to win our next 6 matches no matter what... Of course it would be ideal to make 18/18 points due to the quality of the teams we will face, but we are 9 points ahead of second place and we can easily get away with a Stoke loss or an upsetting home draw.

Jesus is better than any English player. Really wish we had signed him.

Lol, Klopp has been heavily affected by Loserpool mentality. His rant when they lost Draxler to PSG shows how pathetic he has become.

Damm, what a shit coverage from Zouma. Completely lost Giroud there

Double agent Cech there!

Talk about a stealth free kick lol

Oh well, this beautiful thread again!

Exactly. Of course we are totally capable of winning and we shouldnt go out there and simply give up on attacking, but it is super important we dont revive Liverpool. I hope Conte asks his players to always be prepared for a counter and not go all in on corners/set pieces. As well as not letting Luiz go on his crazy attacking adventures. Lets be a little more safe than usual so we dont risk losing.

Playing with the rules to your advantage doesnt mean you are a coward. To the contrary... Trying to go for the win just for the sake of it might be quite dumb. It is way more important to not lose and give Liverpool 3 points than to win. It really, really is. There are appropriate times for being courageous and bold. This is not one of them.

Its his last name. His full name is Gabriel Fernando de Jesus. And thank you. Although Im just here since im on vacation and prob will go missing again once my last year of uni resumes and Im trying to find a job lol.

For some reason I believe he was only joking. Idk tho, if he was serious that is a good response and its how I view things as well. Also, apologies in advance if John1611 was serious...

Fuuuuuuuu... Its true, didnt realize it before. This could be great, takes the weight off our shoulders for thoese 2 derbys. Playing light is always good!

People, please learn the rules before starting a discussion. THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE FOR PENALTIES. Even if the play ends up in a goal, the correct thing is to give the penalty. I dont care what anyone thinks, that is the rule.

Dude there is no advantage on pen...

Dude that reply is so unnecessary. it is obvious no one can say how many points one will need. However, history does show a consistency on how many points the champion usually has and that is what coaches and fans work on...

Yep, pretty much what I think. Bar the unsual 2012 table where City and United both finished with 89, all other years you could win with 85-86. I reckon it wont be different this time. Obviously 88 would def seal the deal (like Fulham pointed out), but I still believe 85 grants us the title. Winning tomorrow will be HUGE as it would leave us with 55 and 10 wins away from reaching our goal. Plus the fact it would put immense pressure on our rivals. Im confident!

How many points you think we need to make in order to win it all? 85? So 11 more wins? I find it pretty doable to win 11 out of 17 imo. Even if we lose a couple of big matches against City or Liverpool...

Probably Spurs will indeed have their best season ever as their record is a 72 point campaign. However, I doubt Liverpool will surpass their 84pt second place in 2013 with Brendan Rodgers. Nevertheless, I agree we will win the league!

Anything but a Tottenham win. City is relatively far from us, has UCL to worry about and will fluctuate a lot due to players still adapting to Pep's style. Spurs are a much bigger threat this season. They are out of UCL, are more consistent than any other rival we have atm and are being lucky with(out) injuries.

Damm, this back 4 is atrocious! I like Pep, but geez. He is trying hard to lose...

Holly hell, Kolarov as a CB? LOL https://twitter.com/ManCity/status/822843720429146113/photo/1

Pep is still an excellent manager, people are always too eager to jump the gun. He has taken really shitty decisions at City, its true, but that doesnt discredit what he has already done. Guardiola revolutionized football tactics, anyone who knows a tiny bit of football can see it. He created variations and player distributions on the pitch that no one thought of doing before. Yes, he had the fortune to have Xavi, Messi and Iniesta who were capable of putting all of this in practice. But his greatness is unquestionable. Period. However, others have already figured his shit out, managers nowadays know very effective ways to counter Pep's style. He is not the king of the hill anymore. Specially in a so well trained league. EPL is full of top, top coaches. It is obviously he would have a harder time. So, yes, Guardiola's season is terrible and he is mostly the blame. But that doesnt mean he is a fraud nor that he is an average manager who had luck and nothing else. He can very well recover from this and evolve. He still deserves the benefit of the doubt for all he has done. At least 1 more season.