The English Football Thread

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Well Jose was right that a big team without a European competition will be a threat. Let's see how they perform next season with a more busy schedules.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Mourinho in the organised attacks department offers nothing and that's how it's been all of his career. That's why he's thrived more with the less technical, talented teams he's had and had the most success with the physical and robust teams because those teams are very comfortable playing direct, rudimentary football.

The only way I see Mourinho's 2nd coming being a long, fruitful relationship is if he gets an attacking coach, who knows what he's doing and who he'll let work his stuff. I think the PSG tie as a whole showed all the weaknesses of Mourinho as a manager for all to see.

Zola'd be nice. However, Mou has still got us the title. Can't moan about everything, lol.

[Rom2013 446]

And it only took him what? 6 months. He's not winning big matches by parking the bus either.

It's like when they won against Real Madrid in te pre season... It was incradible. And now is the same.

200M£ of net spending to be out of every competition in the first 2 months and without playing Champions League because United played at least 10 less games than us (maybe even more).

It's incredible. Like the way Manchester City played in the first 10 minutes... and you were saying how amazing they were. The thing you like the most (you 2) is moaning about everything no matter how it ends. I hope it doesn'0t hurt you that much when we win the league.

[lionsden 4,689]

It's like when they won against Real Madrid in te pre season... It was incradible. And now is the same.

200M£ of net spending to be out of every competition in the first 2 months and without playing Champions League because United played at least 10 less games than us (maybe even more).

It's incredible. Like the way Manchester City played in the first 10 minutes... and you were saying how amazing they were. The thing you like the most (you 2) is moaning about everything no matter how it ends. I hope it doesn'0t hurt you that much when we win the league.

You are portuguese so It makes sense why you are so butt hurt over mourinho criticism. Don't take it personal sunshine.

[Rom2013 446]

Well Arsenal and United will be much stronger next year. Think Mou wont get away with the football we are playing for a while now.

ANd Liverpool also when we looked at them last season... look at Liverpool today.

The strange thing about United it's how they couldn't fight for any of the 2 last Leagues with a net spending of almost 300M£.

[DYC. 7,542]

Bye Pellegrino. You won't be missed. Oh and please take Lampard with you.

Couldn't help but smile like a maniac when he came on. I hope Lamps enjoyed his time in City colours.

[Rom2013 446]

You are portuguese so It makes sense why you are so butt hurt over mourinho criticism. Don't take it personal sunshine.

Not personal... it's just that you really moan at everything and at the end of the season the only one parking the bus will be you... the bus of our celebration. I hope it doesn't hurt you that much.

ABout your opinions... when you say that Man City has a great aproach to a game that they lost 4-2... we know how much you know about football... sunshine.

[lionsden 4,689]

Not personal... it's just that you really moan at everything and at the end of the season the only one parking the bus will be you... the bus of our celebration. I hope it doesn't hurt you that much.

ABout your opinions... when you say that Man City has a great aproach to a game that they lost 4-2... we know how much you know about football... sunshine.

My God. I'm not having a go at you but that was an awful/atrocious comeback. You need to work on your put down game honestly.

[Rom2013 446]

My God. I'm not having a go at you but that was an awful/atrocious comeback. You need to work on your put down game honestly.

Like Mourinho... at the end I win. Bye.

[The Chels 2,502]

There was nothing wrong with their approach. It was the shocking defending and individual defensive mistakes that cost them this game. Clichy was directly responsible for the first two goals they conceded for example and Magala was beyond shocking. When your defenders are defending like amateurs. that's not the fault of tactics. They could have parked the bus and still lose badly with the way they their defenders defended.

We barely tested that defence in 180 minutes of football. Mangala started in the away game and we made him look world class! A positive and proactive approach would have completely ruined him.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

I think people get a bit carried away with the form United are in right now. I dont think their football is "beautiful" or dominant enough just yet, if they look like that next season i dont think its a PL winner team.. what im saying is that they're playing well and Van Gaal did established his system, they are in the right direction, but still needs more imo, more big signings and better attacking game.

And yes (before someone jumps of his chair), we are playing poorly the last few months, and we do need to look a lot better next season, but we're still getting results because of the quality we have and some little spells of good football we create during the game (dont think United can trust those things when they play poorly, not enough top class players in their line up), and our preformences in the first half of our season were better than how United or Arsenal perform right now.

And a little reminder, United are playing this way for only 4 GAMES. March 9 they lost 1-2 to Arsenal in the fa cup and looked bad. Arsenal for me are more like the real deal for now, playing well for about two months, they are the ones who play the beautiful football and dominate matches for a long time now.

[Barbara 15,149]

I thought this should bring some insight about Arsenal (this thread seriously needs this before someone gives the symbolic title to them).
United made serious progress this season and improved 10 points from the corresponding fixtures last season... I said early in the first two weeks or so of the season that van Gaal would take a while, but he would succeed in making them look like a team. I don't get why people are surprised by it. But my main point here isn't about United (after last season there was only room for improvement, as they were laughable). My main point is about Arsenal. I don't get the praise and sudden fear. Arsenal aren't like that every single year? They either take off as soon as the season begins and then starts to fade or they regroup at the second part when the 4th place title is under threat. I must admit they took it farther and now are fighting for second place, fact remains they're nowhere close to title contenders yet. If they prove to able to physically endure the high pressing throughout a whole season - something they added around December - maybe they'll stand a chance, until then, they're experimenting imo.
Comparing the corresponding fixtures from last season, believe or not, they're 2 points worse rather than better, so it just proves the same: Arsenal is the same old Arsenal. They may win their last 6 games, they may end second place, but I swear I don't see anything new except a less wild approach in bigger matches by Wenger.



I'm not taking away from Arsenal's current form, but I see nothing new from them. They have good sprints of form every season and that won them one FA title (and may win another) in 10 years. That's about it. I need to see a lot more improvement in their mentality and even the physicality of their game to honestly take them as serious title contenders next season.
But as the fashionable thing around here these days is praise our rivals and shit our team and manager (I even read in the Mourinho thread just now - reason why I left the place in a run, not believing I read someone suggesting we needed a coach in our staff like Pellegrino), Arsenal is the best thing since sliced bread and United is the new Bayern from 2 years ago. Oh, and we're the shit we normally are.




(this was supposed to be in the Mourinho or Run in threads, but after being a couple of minutes in the Mourinho thread I don't dare to stay around, so I'll just continue it here)
I miss the intelligent discussions - can't keep away completely - and I hope to have a nice one on this. I'm still not prepared mentally (just like Arsenal aren't) to really post in the Mourinho thread. That place is pathetic. People forget how this team attacked the first half of the season. Then shit happened and Mourinho was on pragmatic mode immediately. With the players he has at his squad, I'm 110% behind his pragmatic approach - even when I disagree about a few things. we don't have winners in the team yet except some from the old guard, but things may change now with how we've been playing.

I'm hopeful that they'll be adding a lot of baggage in that department. I feel like we've been scrapping results like champions do when they don't play well. That's the story of United ever since I watch the league - which isn't much, roughly 12 years. It doesn't make a team less deserving, smaller or worse. Sometimes in football that's just how it works. We've seen very few teams throughout the years keeping the level we played the first half throughout the whole season. Of course, many of them didn't fall as deep as we did in terms of performance, but at this point the most important thing is scrapping those results the best we can because this team, these players and this manager proved earlier in the season that they have all the tools to make it last longer. This is a learning place, a growing place, a maturing place we're now in terms of team experience and quality. We'll come out stronger and will be even stronger next season.

A lot of stick is given to Oscar and previously to him to Fabregas, but nearly the whole team stopped playing football ever since the new year. Surely they're tired (I suppose) and Mourinho could have rotated a bit more - but fact remains the same group that was killing it before aren't anymore. Cesc is only now regaining his best football after that Terry injury (although he was very bad today, but very good and ascending the last 2-3 matches). Oscar is terrible, but Matic is also much worse now and Terry had a really shaky period recently. Azpili had had ups and downs in recent months, Ivanovic despite the attacking moments of brilliance has been worse defensively too, Costa has been fighting injuries and bans as we know he's the kind of player that needs matches under his belt to be on his best form. So while Mourinho could try a few things (and I blame him, the board or whoever for letting Schurrle, and even Salah go in the summer window because we don't have ANYONE to try new things), is asking him to make a miracle if the players' form dropped a lot in general. Even Courtois is in worse form recently than he was the first half of the season. Some of those players are picking up form again such as Fabregas, but it must be said the moment both pivot players started struggling our slow and not that solid defense got exposed and we were caught. We should have better replacements for both Cesc and Matic. Willian improved while Eden got even better and Oscar went on his usual second half of the season stroll in the park performance. But when his replacement is Ramires or an useless Cuadrado, what else can Mourinho do? He improved us today when he came in, but seriously, we had Ramires in the wing, improving that isn't that hard. Still not enough (I actually agree with Mourinho that he hasn't been good enough as of lately, but unlike most here I don't downgrade how well he played the first half of the season). There's only so much Mourinho can do, but I'm happy with how the team have been scrapping those results that give you the title at the end.

My biggest problem with many people's opinions here continue to be how they unfairly criticize Mourinho (who deserves his fair share of criticism, just not to the extent some take it). And they even contradict themselves...The same people that blame Mourinho saying he isn't bold and attacking oriented enough are the same people saying his biggest fault was not rotating the squad enough. But we were the best attacking team of the league when it started and for a few months... why should he change? Do people stop to think why he changed? We were conceding too many goals at first, but then we weren't anymore and continued to dominate teams, then we stopped playing well altogether. Do you honestly believe he told the players to stop playing well? He insisted because the changes he made didn't bring impact and every team needs stability. We don't have players good enough in the bench as of now (except Luís and Zouma) and the fact that Schurrle was sidelined for illness for too long affected his form (still shouldn't have been sold, although we don't know if he wanted to leave or not). Mourinho was somehow a victim of a short squad with a few key-players getting injured (Costa, Fabregas) ever since the new year. It was downhill from there, but he coped, the team coped and we're evolving because this team didn't scrap results, this team didn't get last-15-minutes goals to seal a victory, but people clearly (and some I'm sure purposefully) ignore this. We are playing bad... but we're still winning and we're 7 points clear and one game in hand with only 6 games to go (for our rivals). Count your blessings and tone down the criticism because we DID evolve this season...

[Blue Armour 4,323]

And it only took him what? 6 months. He's not winning big matches by parking the bus either.

Tbh, I don't think Mourinho would have been afforded the luxury of having the kind of results United had in those 6 months to implement "his philosophy"

[Laylabelle 9,395]

Arsenal havent finished as high as second in 10 years or so so can understand the hype.To go on a run like this isnt like them at this stage usually its top 4 smash and grab.Next season all starts again so who knows but still a huge boost espically if they push us.If we'd drawn today and against Hull then be a slightly more ahhh story but so far...

[unitedkingpin 21]

I think people get a bit carried away with the form United are in right now. I dont think their football is "beautiful" or dominant enough just yet, if they look like that next season i dont think its a PL winner team.. what im saying is that they're playing well and Van Gaal did established his system, they are in the right direction, but still needs more imo, more big signings and better attacking game.

And yes (before someone jumps of his chair), we are playing poorly the last few months, and we do need to look a lot better next season, but we're still getting results because of the quality we have and some little spells of good football we create during the game (dont think United can trust those things when they play poorly, not enough top class players in their line up), and our preformences in the first half of our season were better than how United or Arsenal perform right now.

And a little reminder, United are playing this way for only 4 GAMES. March 9 they lost 1-2 to Arsenal in the fa cup and looked bad. Arsenal for me are more like the real deal for now, playing well for about two months, they are the ones who play the beautiful football and dominate matches for a long time now.

Gosh....when will people realise its not about world class players......united had about 100m worth of skills on the bench today!!!! The system>individual players and yes united will get better next season as the philosophy is only about 80% complete...

[unitedkingpin 21]

Gosh....when will people realise its not about world class players......united had about 100m worth of skills on the bench today!!!! The system>individual players and yes united will get better next season as the philosophy is only about 80% complete...

Oh...and I forgot to add, the team that started vs city is basically last season's team bar Herrera and blind.....

[hamad138 190]

Im worried about united, if they buy hummels gundogan pogba, they will be too big threat

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Gosh....when will people realise its not about world class players......united had about 100m worth of skills on the bench today!!!! The system>individual players and yes united will get better next season as the philosophy is only about 80% complete...

Its not about world class players for 4 games (nubmer of games the philosophy is on 80%, like you claim) , but for a full season? i doubt you can keep going like that for a full season and call yourself a contender.