The English Football Thread

[Vesper 27,266]

Jordan Pickford coming like a boulder from an Indiana Jones movie    Definitely a scene from the first Merseyside derby of the season. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive Scott Murray SATURDAY NIGHT’S ALRIGHT FOR FIGHTING It’s the second Merseyside derby of the season on Saturday. You can be forgiven for forgetting what happened in the first one, what with this strange concertinaed season, the hectic schedule, the lockdown, the days and matches melding into one, the misery, the comfort eating, the drink, all that. It also doesn’t help that nobody ever refers back to the game in question, perhaps melodramatically framing it in terms of season-jiggering savagery, or refereeing atrocity that wholly justifies the subsequent Blackburnesque title defence. At least we’ve heard no word. So to jog the memory, at Goodison back in October, Jordan Pickford came at Virgil van Dijk like a boulder in an Indiana Jones movie, Jordan Henderson had a late winner disallowed because Sadio Mané forgot to file his toenails the night before, and Richarlison launched himself at Thiago with a rabid intensity that even $tevie Mbe would baulk at. Fair to say, then, that Liverpool may have issues for which they will be seeking closure. Throw in the fact that Everton are desperate to end an 11-year wait for victory in the derby, and we’ve got ourselves two cats in a bag. Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend Read more It’s at this point you’d expect the managers to pour oil on troubled waters. And to be fair, Jürgen Klopp has categorically promised that “nothing will be carried over” from Goodison. However, he followed that up with this sequence of glorious contradictions: “A week later, two or three when we got the diagnosis for Virgil van Dijk, it is good we didn’t play Everton straight away again, let me say it like this. But that’s long gone. Now we just don’t think about it.” Does that sound like the group have compartmentalised everything to you? The Fiver certainly isn’t 100% sure, and will be tuning in to tally the number of people involved in the bench-emptying homage to George Graham’s Arsenal, instigated at a corner when someone tries to slyly give Pickford a hot ear. Of course, nobody wants to see it, least of all The Fiver. Won’t somebody think of the kids? LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Scott Murray for hot MBM coverage of Wolves 0-0 Leeds in the Premier League from 8pm GMT. QUOTE OF THE DAY “I’m a Milan fan and he’s an Inter fan, so for us it was already a derby doing this mural with four hands belonging to two different teams. Our message is definitely a positive one. We hope that this mural can also encourage these champions towards a peaceful encounter in front of the mural” – artist Stefania Marchetto talks about the San Siro mural, created with Marco Mantovani, which shows Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming together in the kind of scenes that nobody wants to see, again least of all The Fiver. The teams meet again on Sunday.  San Siro, earlier. Photograph: Daniel Dal Zennaro/EPA FIVER LETTERS “The Fiver is only interested in competitions that Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool might (not) win, so it comes as no surprise that there was no mention of a much more important cup game that took place on Tuesday evening: the semi-final of the Papa John’s Trophy [is this a nickname we came up with that finally stuck? – Fiver Ed]. The mighty Oxford United were humiliated by League Two Tranmere Rovers, who are the third side of the Mersey (the other two being Everton and Everton Women). There was no report of the match on Big Website. But surely the fact that Rovers will grace Wembley for the fourth time in five years is, I think, worthy of mention” – Joy Clancy. “Reading about Spurs’ Big Vase tie versus Austrian village side Wolfsberger, not Bundesliga giants Wolfsburg, brings back memories of pre-pandemic away travel, when two Liverpool fans erroneously bought travel and tickets to Gent, not Genk, only to arrive at a dark and empty stadium in deepest Flanders. Imagine if they had a 10-day hotel quarantine thrown in today” – Steve Lewis. Send your letters to [email protected]. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day prize is … Joy Clancy. RECOMMENDED VOTING The Guardian, Football Weekly, The Fiver, David Conn, Jonathan Liew and Suzanne Wrack have all been nominated at the FSA Awards. Voting is open this week. Vote now! Vote Fiver! NEWS, BITS AND BOBS Poor Terence Kongolo is in the deep stuff after a surprise birthday shindig was thrown for the Fulham player, breaking lockdown rules. “It’s not acceptable,” sniffed boss Scott Parker. “The people who have planned this have put him in a very vulnerable position. It’s something that we will deal with as a football club in-house and that’s the nuts of it, really.”  A belated happy birthday to Terence. Photograph: Matt West/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock Athletic Bilbao’s first-team squad have agreed to an 8.43% salary reduction because of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. “The step forward taken by the players, the second in less than 10 months, shows an exercising of responsibility and loyalty to our institution and its members,” said the club. Lots of buzzwords have clearly been thrown around behind the scenes at Morecambe, who have announced “an exciting new vision and strategy” at the League Two club under the banner of “Goodbye Little Old Morecambe”. Ryan Shawcross is headed for the USA! USA!! USA!!! after his 14-year spell with Stoke City was brought to an end. “He feels the time is right to explore new opportunities and leaves with our very best wishes,” cheered chief suit Tony Scholes. And Tottenham boss José Mourinho is still dialled in on making the top four this season, despite a run of three wins in 12 Premier League games. “It’s very premature to think about the table,” he cooed. “People still have matches in hand. In our case, we played already two matches against Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City. There are other teams that didn’t even play a second game against one of the top teams.” STILL WANT MORE? Jonathan Liew on that new Pelé film and how the Brazilian became more myth than man.  Shiny. Composite: Getty Images/Rex/Bettmann Archive Manchester City’s Alex Greenwood and Ellen White on the “brilliant, unbelievable mentality” of their USA! USA!! USA!!! World Cup-winning teammates and their impact on England. With Mee-lan and Inter facing off this weekend, Sam Brookes basks in five of the best goals the derby has thrown up this century. Premier League. This weekend. Ten things. You know the drill. Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! ‘WATCHED A FIGHT BETWEEN AN ARTSY COUPLE ESCALATE’

[Vesper 27,266]

Wednesday February 17 2021 Matt Law's Chelsea briefing

Chelsea need to set out to win Champions League, not just make money from it By Matt Law, Football News Correspondent It has been seven long years since Chelsea last progressed further than the last 16 of the Champions League. Atletico Madrid knocked Chelsea out at the semi-final stage in 2014 and since then they have been eliminated in each of their four last-16 ties. In the seven years before their last semi-final appearance, Chelsea had reached two finals, winning the tournament in 2012, two semi-finals and a quarter-final. So it’s high time Chelsea got past the first knockout stage and proved that the Champions League is a competition they set out to win, rather than to make money from. It should be noted that they have not been fortunate with their draws, having been knocked out by Paris Saint-Germain, twice, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but Chelsea have not been competitive in Europe’s top competition for too long. Thomas Tuchel faces a tough task to become the first head coach since Jose Mourinho to get past the last-16 with Chelsea, as La Liga leaders Atletico lie in wait. Next Tuesday’s trip to face Atletico in Bucharest represents the first big challenge of Tuchel’s reign and progression over the two legs would no doubt be seen as a major success. Atletico have lost only one La Liga game all season, although they were also thrashed 4-0 by Bayern in the Champions League group stages. Bayern brushed Chelsea aside – 7-1 on aggregate – at this stage last season on their way to winning the Champions League and the Germans are once again the favourites to go all the way. Chelsea can take encouragement from the fact they are a team in form since Tuchel’s arrival and success in the Champions League owes much to timing as they proved themselves in 2012 under then interim manager Roberto Di Matteo. Atletico have also, much to their dismay, lost home advantage because of the coronavirus travel restrictions which should benefit Chelsea, even if there will be no home crowd in the return leg at Stamford Bridge. The big unknown for Chelsea is how their inexperienced players – many of whom are unproven at this level – will perform in the most cut-throat of environments. Timo Werner will not be able to afford to miss two great chances before taking one, as he did against Newcastle United, while the defence can be sure that even the slightest of mistakes at the back will be punished. Tuchel, though, has Champions League pedigree, having guided PSG to last season’s final, and it will be interesting to see whether or not he sticks with what has worked in the Premier League or comes up with something special in Europe. In terms of whether or not his squad are in the best possible form to face Atletico, Tuchel said: “You need to ask me next Monday. We will be prepared and, hopefully, I will tell you that we are well prepared. We will do everything to go through but you know very well that Atletico are top of the league and are by far the top of the league in Spain. They are one of the toughest teams in Spain and are still a challenge. It is a two-match elimination as you know well. “We will focus on Southampton and the best way to arrive in the Champions League with a good performance. Hopefully another win, we will see on Monday who we can count on and who is ready to play. “We are self-confident enough to say we play these two games to get to the next round but it will be super hard.” For a club so consumed by winning under owner Roman Abramovich, Chelsea need to stop accepting second best in Europe.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

17 hours ago, Vesper said:

how the fuck is it a disgrace???

seriously, wtf!  🤬

That came out wrong Vesper, what I meant was it shoudnt be going on forever.

[Vesper 27,266]

2020-21 English Premier League

Burnley                                
West Bromwich Albion      

http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/premier-league-burnley-vs-west-bromwich-albion-s1/#!

https://www.totalsportek.com/page-4/

[Laylabelle 9,293]

Dont expect Liverpool to drop points again..though still be in 4th depending how many goals they score...somehow

Edited February 20, 2021 by Laylabelle

[Azul 1,615]

Don Carlo we need you!!!

[Vesper 27,266]

2020-21 English Premier League

Liverpool              
Everton                 

http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/premier-league-liverpool-vs-everton-s1/#!

https://www.totalsportek.com/page-3/

[Milan 17,835]

Everton lead!

[Azul 1,615]

17 minutes ago, Azul said:

Don Carlo we need you!!!

Good start😂

[Vesper 27,266]

yes!

[Milan 17,835]

Henderson out injured. They are officially cursed.

[Vesper 27,266]

Henderson did his hammy

[Vesper 27,266]

1 minute ago, Milan said:

Henderson out injured. They are officially cursed.

looks like he is going to continue on

[Milan 17,835]

Just now, Vesper said:

looks like he is going to continue on

Nah he is done.

[Vesper 27,266]

now he is off for sure

[Vesper 27,266]

Just now, Milan said:

Nah he is done.

he did play after for 2 minutes (stupidly)

[Jase 43,479]

Okay, I thought our muscle injury problems under Lampard were bad but christ, looks like it's 100x worse at Liverpool!

[killer1257 3,282]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

Okay, I thought our muscle injury problems under Lampard were bad but christ, looks like it's 100x worse at Liverpool!

Klopp probably just overtrains them just like Lampard did with Pulisic. Klopp needs to work on his training methods 😏