The English Football Thread

[DDA 9,732]

Newcastle play such simple football but it's soo effective.... same as Arsenal tbh... but for some unbeknown reason our squad do not understand the concept of simple one/twos with give and go movement. 

 

Truly Bizarre. 

 

 

 

 

 

[NikkiCFC 8,089]

As I predicted Newcastle dropping points. If we won yesterday it would be 8 points to top4 but no, still 10. 

[Laylabelle 9,408]

Didn't realise Newcastle had lost one game so far..not bad

[NikkiCFC 8,089]

9 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Didn't realise Newcastle had lost one game so far..not bad

And that was like 96 minute goal back in August. 

Edited February 4, 2023 by NikkiCFC

[LAM09 6,845]

3 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

It's us and Liverpool competing for 9th place lol. 

As crazy as it sounds, we're "only" 10 points off Newcastle with 17 games remaining. I don't expect us to magically turn things around, but we aren't miles off their talent & still have to play them at the Bridge.

[Laylabelle 9,408]

6 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

As crazy as it sounds, we're "only" 10 points off Newcastle with 17 games remaining. I don't expect us to magically turn things around, but we aren't miles off their talent & still have to play them at the Bridge.

Nahh just they've been getting results where we've been iffy..and they have a goal difference of 20 over us..just depends. They need to go on a losing streak and we need to win and volia! It's the winning part for us that's issue as we haven't won back to back games since October and have only won 8 in total..

[LAM09 6,845]

1 minute ago, Laylabelle said:

Nahh just they've been getting results where we've been iffy..and they have a goal difference of 20 over us..just depends. They need to go on a losing streak and we need to win and volia! It's the winning part for us that's issue as we haven't won back to back games since October and have only won 8 in total..

We need someone who can remember where the back of the net is, and we might have a sliver of hope.

[Laylabelle 9,408]

6 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

We need someone who can remember where the back of the net is, and we might have a sliver of hope.

Yeahhh that would be handy..we know how go pass backwards to our goal..shame can't work out the other way! 

Or if we can change regulations..make the goals wider..higher all be fine! 

[LAM09 6,845]

15 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Yeahhh that would be handy..we know how go pass backwards to our goal..shame can't work out the other way! 

Or if we can change regulations..make the goals wider..higher all be fine! 

I still wouldn't have much hope for Havertz faring any better.

[Blue Armour 4,336]

1 hour ago, LAM09 said:

I still wouldn't have much hope for Havertz faring any better.

Can't believe that we used to mock Kalou once upon a time.

If we had Kalou today he would be a guaranteed starter. 100% a better finisher than what we have right now.

[Laylabelle 9,408]

6 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

Can't believe that we used to mock Kalou once upon a time.

If we had Kalou today he would be a guaranteed starter. 100% a better finisher than what we have right now.

'Kalou what did you do' he was frustrating at times but did try! And it paid off a fair few times

[Vesper 29,225]

4 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

'Kalou what did you do' he was frustrating at times but did try! And it paid off a fair few times

in his topflight career for club and country, he has played over 700 games, with 317 goals/assists combined

218 goals, 99 assists

Pulisic is at roughly half the amount of games, a little less

71 goals, 74 assist, with a greater chunk per minute coming from his national team

Kalou for clubs (and the vast bulk of his minutes were in big 5 leagues and in Europe, and often with far worse teammates than Puli has had, other than Kalou's Chels days)

189 goals,  93 assists

and Pulisic

59 goals, 60 assists

which translates out to

124 goals, 126 assists extrapolated out at his current rate for Kalou's amount of club minutes

7 goals, 4 assists per year for all club comps is a really shit rate of return for someone we will end up dropping over 100m quid on

 

[Vesper 29,225]

The Premier League Team of the Season – so far: Haaland, Casemiro… Cresswell

https://theathletic.com/4143178/202302/04/pl-team-of-the-season-so-far-haaland/

The second half of the Premier League is now underway. There have been some standout performances through the first 19 games, from Erling Haaland’s much-heralded goal-scoring feats to the resurgence of Marcus Rashford and a Newcastle defence that has laid the foundations of their Champions League charge.

Some of The Athletic’s Premier League writers wrestled with the difficult question of who makes the Team of the Season (So Far) — the variety of responses is wide, with only Kieran Trippier making every one of their XIs.

Let us know in the comments who would make yours.

---

I’ll be totally honest with you; I spent way too long picking this team, modifying it, starting again and then being struck by more second thoughts. These are infuriating exercises — good fun, but also quite taxing — and if you asked me again in a month’s time, I’m sure my line-up would look a bit different.

Still, at some point, the prevaricating must end, so here we are with this half a story. I found it very hard to leave out Marcus Rashford, who has scored 10 goals in his last 12 appearances in all competitions for Manchester United, but I like the make-up of my side.

I’ve only selected players from the top five teams. Perhaps I could be accused of playing it safe because there are some good candidates from elsewhere in the division — Moises Caicedo, the in-demand Brighton midfielder, has been excellent — but my choices have all played exceptionally.

It should be no surprise that Arsenal and Newcastle United, both surprises in their own way, feature heavily. Arsenal have been incredible, the league’s outstanding team, and they are represented through the spine of my side in William Saliba, Martin Odegaard, and Bukayo Saka. There could have been others too, such as Grant Xhaka and Thomas Partey.

 

(Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Newcastle have the tightest defence in the Premier League. Nick Pope has kept 10 clean sheets in a row in all competitions, so has to be in goal. Kieran Trippier contributes hugely at both ends of the pitch. Left-back isn’t Dan Burn’s preferred position, but he’s made it his own and deserves to be in there. It seems unfair to leave out their team-mate Sven Botman, but Saliba has been superb.

The spectacular Erling Haaland is a cert up front. I said before he signed for City that he’s capable of getting 40 goals a season for them and he’s on schedule for more than that. Maybe City are under-represented here, but by their own standards they have under-achieved this season so far.

GO DEEPER

Alan Shearer analyses Erling Haaland: The physicality, the speed and the world-class movement

Alan Shearer

If Bernd Leno’s advanced shot-stopping numbers were merely average instead of third-best in the league — and if he weren’t as valuable to his team’s passing game — nobody would be talking about Fulham right now. OK, we’re not anyway, but we should be.

Aaron Cresswell leads West Ham in progressive passing by a healthy margin, and he’s doing it as part of a back line that allows the league’s fourth-fewest expected goals per game. That’s right: West Ham are secretly decent.

Luke Shaw is a full-back who’s rediscovering himself as a centre-back. Ben White is a centre-back running the league as a full-back. Put them together and what do you get? Who knows, but it’s bound to be fun.

Eighteen-year-old Rico Lewis isn’t just another Pep Guardiola inside full-back — he’s way more interesting than that. Tactically flexible defenders are so hot right now.

Tyler Adams’ league-leading counter-pressing is a big part of why Leeds are better this season despite selling Kalvin Phillips in the summer. Plus he’s got a solid suburban-dad vinyl collection, which has to count for something.

Nobody at Brighton breaks lines more than Moises Caicedo. Nobody at Brighton breaks up attacks more than Moises Caicedo. Not unrelatedly, nobody at Brighton breaks transfer news more than Moises Caicedo.

 

Moises Caicedo’s impressive form for Brighton saw him linked with a move away (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)

Youri Tielemans is Leicester City’s leading passer, ball progressor, shot creator and ball-winner outside their own box. That seems good, right?

Only Jack Grealish adds more ‘value’ with his carries per 90 minutes than Kaoru Mitoma, who’s the 10th most ‘valuable’ player in the league according to the all-in-one stat Estimated Impact. No wonder the nerds at Brighton and Brentford fought over him.

Speaking of the Brentford nerds, they were smart to snatch Ivan Toney out of League One. Three seasons later, he’s got more non-penalty goals than anyone not named Erling Haaland or Harry Kane.

Kieran Trippier isn’t technically a winger. Who cares. He completes more open-play passes into the box than any winger in the league while playing full-back for the team with the fewest goals conceded. He can slot in wherever he wants.

John Muller

Pope notched up a 10th consecutive clean sheet in the first leg of Newcastle’s Carabao Cup semi-final last week, taking him to 16 in total this season (from 25 games). The closest keeper to him is Manchester United’s David de Gea, who has 13 in 29.

The defence is a Newcastle/Arsenal combo — unsurprising, given they are the two teams who have conceded the fewest goals (Newcastle 11, Arsenal 16). On his return to the Premier League after two and a half years in Spain, Kieran Trippier has shown not only his defensive quality (which, allied to the impressive form of summer signing Sven Botman at centre-back, has helped give Newcastle the league’s meanest defence) but also the value in his creativity from out wide. Oleksandr Zinchenko’s tactical intelligence, boundless energy and versatility have been key to Arsenal’s improvement this season following his move from Manchester City and Saliba has emerged as the ‘rock at the back’ the north London side have desperately needed.

A midfield three of Martin Odegaard, Casemiro and Alexis Mac Allister brings a heady mix of vision, tenacity and a World Cup winner who is capable of helping to build the play from deep and creating opportunities higher up the pitch.

Arsenal’s captain, Odegaard has shown a clinical edge in attack (eight goals and five assists in 18 league appearances), but his commitment to the defensive cause is equally impressive, often recovering possession deep in their half.

New Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag described Casemiro as “the cement between the stones” he had been looking for and the Brazilian summer buy has backed that up, bringing tactical knowledge and strong decision-making to their midfield. And Mac Allister? Well, the Argentinian has become an integral part of Brighton’s midfield in recent seasons and has shown there is more to his game than his usual deep-lying role.

The front three need little by way of explanation. Quality on the ball, hard work off it. And so. Many. Goals.

Sarah Shephard

By far the hardest part of this exercise was the midfield. Other selections were fairly easy, but how do you pick just three from Casemiro, Rodri, Moises Caicedo, Granit Xhaka, Alexis Mac Allister, Bruno Guimaraes, Kevin De Bruyne and Martin Odegaard?

All nine of them would be in my top 15 players of the season so far, but only three will make this line-up, so let’s say Guimaraes and Odegaard for certain and… Casemiro. That means leaving out Rodri, who is always disgracefully overlooked in these discussions. It’s quite possible I’ll be back pushing for Rodri again in a week but for now, it’s Casemiro. He’s made a huge impact.

There are cases for Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Miguel Almiron and one or two others further forward, but I’m happy with a front three of Bukayo Saka, Erling Haaland and Gabriel Martinelli. I can’t see much cause to quibble with Nick Pope in goal or Kieran Trippier and Oleksandr Zinchenko in the full-back positions.

 

Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier has contributed in defence and attack (Photo: George Wood/Getty Images)

Central defence was less straightforward. There have been two outstanding partnerships: Fabian Schar and Sven Botman at Newcastle United and William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes at Arsenal. I could easily have gone Botman/Saliba, but I’ll go Schar/Gabriel while giving a respectful nod to Ben Mee, the best of the rest.

So that’s four Newcastle, five Arsenal, one Manchester United and one Manchester City. Maybe that indicates how many of City’s players have been performing below their usual high standards — even if, compared to most of Liverpool’s and Chelsea’s players, they’ve been impeccable.

Oliver Kay

I had to squeeze Ivan Toney in, and only a fool would leave Erling Haaland out, so a 4-4-2 formation is the best fit for my title-challenging team.

Toney’s performances have reached a new level and he has already scored more goals this season (13) than he did during 2021-22 (12). His ability to hold up the ball and thread passes in behind the opposition defence would neatly complement Haaland’s blistering pace too.

Nick Pope has been phenomenal for Newcastle, but I prefer my goalkeepers to have a little more finesse. David Raya’s slick distribution and speed off his line secure his spot. Before I get accused of having some sort of strange bias towards Brentford, Raya has made the most saves (86) in the top flight as well.

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My centre-backs have a combined age of 68, but Ben Mee and Tim Ream have performed superbly for Brentford and Fulham.

Everybody knows Mee as a rugged defender but against Leeds United last weekend, he nutmegged Tyler Adams to demonstrate there is much more to his game. For Fulham, Ream has been the heartbeat of a side that has surpassed everyone’s expectations. If Chelsea were slightly higher in the table, the indefatigable Thiago Silva would have been in.

Kieran Trippier is a no-brainer at right-back and takes the captain’s armband too. Joao Cancelo is no more at Manchester City, yet he was still the most talented left-back in the division for the first half of the season — though he obviously won’t make my team of the season in May.

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Casemiro is unlucky to miss out in central midfield, but it has to be Bruno Guimaraes and Martin Odegaard. The rejuvenated Marcus Rashford can cause havoc on the left wing and his England team-mate Bukayo Saka can dazzle on the right.

Jay Harris

This was much harder an exercise than it seems. I left out players who I think are having a better season than ones in the line-up, but I wanted to go with a balanced team.

Let’s start with the goalkeeper. Liverpool are just ninth but it could have been much worse without Alisson. Nick Pope runs him a close second.

In defence, there were many options at all four positions.

At right-back, I could have gone with Ben White, but Kieran Trippier’s overlapping threat and inch-perfect set pieces are something not to be missed. On the other side, Oleksandr Zinchenko’s ability on the ball gets Arsenal out of sticky situations when pressed and the left-side rotations with Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Martinelli are key to Arsenal’s attack this season. Oh and counter-pressing! Sorry, Luke Shaw.

At centre-back, it’s Lisandro Martinez and William Saliba. The two Premier League newcomers have elevated their sides’ defensive units with consistently impressive performances. Shoutouts to Sven Botman, Fabian Schar, Raphael Varane and Gabriel Magalhaes, who weren’t that far off.

In midfield, it’s Kevin De Bruyne, Casemiro and Martin Odegaard. Two selfless creators who also put in defensive shifts when they don’t have the ball, and Casemiro, who will be surrounded by a team whose ability on the ball is something else. Bruno Guimaraes would be on the bench to sub in for Casemiro when playing against high-pressing teams.

Up front is where it gets messy. Two wide players are needed, and despite Harry Kane and Gabriel Jesus having good seasons, I am opting for Miguel Almiron and Bukayo Saka as the wingers. A Newcastle connection on the right and an Arsenal connection on the left. Between them is Erling ‘Cyborg’ Haaland.

Ahmed Walid

OK, so there are a lot of Arsenal players in there but why shouldn’t there be? There probably aren’t enough Newcastle ones but then Pope’s typical 90 minutes have been very different from Alisson’s. One has had a superbly organised and disciplined defence sat in front of him and, well, let’s just say the other has not. You wonder how badly Liverpool’s season would have gone without the best goalkeeper in the league.

In defence, Oleksandr Zinchenko’s missed a chunk of his first Arsenal season through injury but the influence he has exerted on the league leaders on and off the pitch has been remarkable. William Saliba has earned all the plaudits coming his way but Gabriel Magalhaes’ performances have been even more impressive. John Stones has quietly shown the type of consistency that makes you think, on his day, he is one of the most complete centre-halves around. There simply can be no arguments over Kieran Trippier at right-back.

Casemiro edges out Bruno Guimaraes at the deepest point of my midfield. Playing them together was tempting but would be a little too conservative, so instead, there is a place for the rejuvenated Granit Xhaka.

Then there’s the player of the season — it’s going to be a Norwegian.

Realistically, even if Manchester City do not win their third straight title, Erling Haaland has marmalised defences to such an extent that he should be considered head and shoulders above everyone else when awards season comes around, but Martin Odegaard’s leap to becoming an elite talent is powering this remarkable Arsenal charge and you can see narrative swinging his way if it is sustained.

Bukayo Saka is on the same trajectory. And if he can keep this form up, who knows what Marcus Rashford is capable of?

Mark Critchley

Joao Palhinha has very much become the apple of my eye and he’ll be my captain, my team’s beating heart and, if necessary, its Nasty Man too. Like a lumberjack swinging gleefully at a forest of redwoods, I don’t think I can remember a player relishing life in a Premier League midfield in quite the same way.

Palhinha and his axe have been cutting down ball-carriers all season. Put Moises Caicedo alongside him and that’s as steady and as rounded a base as you could ask for.

 

Joao Palhinha, Fulham’s human axe (Photo: Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

Erling Haaland gets in — obviously, boring — and so do the Arsenal trio of Martin Odegaard, William Saliba and Bukayo Saka.

Brighton’s Pervis Estupinan just edges out Oleksandr Zinchenko, and only because I’m after a more traditional left-back. Zinchenko has been so much more than that for Arsenal, whereas Estupinan offers more regimented qualities: he’s skilful, smart off the ball and always seems to be in exactly the right place at the right time.

His team-mate Kaoru Mitoma gets in too — Brighton’s left flank has been so good this season that I’m importing it wholesale. Mitoma is a marvel; he is a joy to watch and a terrible danger to opposition defences.

Sven Botman has been outstanding and that’s despite the concerns about his lack of pace. Credit Eddie Howe for ensuring that hasn’t mattered, but also Botman for making as quick a defensive transition to English football as I can recall. Kieran Trippier is another pick to salute just how good Newcastle have been without the ball. A record of 11 goals conceded in 20 games is remarkable.

And David Raya. Is Brentford’s goalkeeper the best shot-stopper in the league now? If not, it’s close.

Aaron Ramsdale and Nick Pope have enjoyed super seasons too but it feels as if we’re still discovering the range of Raya’s abilities — match-by-match — so he edges ahead on novelty value.

Seb Stafford-Bloor

[Vesper 29,225]

 15:00 - 16:45 | CET

PREMIER LEAGUE | NOTTINGHAM FOREST VS LEEDS UNITED – S1

[Vesper 29,225]

1 nil Forest

[LAM09 6,845]

17 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Can't believe that we used to mock Kalou once upon a time.

If we had Kalou today he would be a guaranteed starter. 100% a better finisher than what we have right now.

He scored some vital goals during his time here.

[Vesper 29,225]

bloody hell, FOREST are now only 6 points behind us

[Vesper 29,225]

2022-23 English Premier League

Tottenham Hotspur    
Manchester City          

https://www.topsporter.net/sports/2023/tot-vs-mci/