English Premier League thread

beachryan said:
Was thinking that, has he replaced Steklenberg for Holland? Don't really see the top 4 making any changes to their GK, Liverpool just got Mignolet and Spurs have Lloris. He might have to go abroad to move 'up' a level.
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aye, in a way he's been the number 1 for a while now but a series of injuries haven't helped him. Always thought Stekelenburg was decent only for a very short amount of time..following in the footsteps of Van der Sar, De Goey and Van Breukelen I guess the Dutch were bound to have a period of having an average no.1
Krul, when fit, is leaps and bounds ahead of Stekelenburg at any point in the latter's career IMO.

Apparently btw the young goalie of Ajax (Jasper Cillessen) will be first choice for the Netherland's upcoming exhibition games. Haven't really seen anything from him but I assume he is decent to be given that kind of trust..even though those games count for little.
 
again, a controversial penalty in the last minute, yesterday for Chelsea against WBA, today for Stoke against Swansea, and both penalties resulted an unfair draw.
 
jihado86 said:
again, a controversial penalty in the last minute, yesterday for Chelsea against WBA, today for Stoke against Swansea, and both penalties resulted an unfair draw.
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I just don't understand why there isn't pressure in the game to review all penalties. It'd be so easy, take 30 seconds. 4th official has a tablet, ref can go over and watch it again, makes his mind up.

If it's indeed a pen, great, go for it. If not, it's a goal kick- the defending team will happily take that.

What if Chelsea win the league by 1 point? What if Swansea are relegated by a point, or Stoke go above someone else to avoid relegation by a point?

That's the size of these mistakes. 10s of millions of pounds.
 
beachryan said:
I just don't understand why there isn't pressure in the game to review all penalties. It'd be so easy, take 30 seconds. 4th official has a tablet, ref can go over and watch it again, makes his mind up.

If it's indeed a pen, great, go for it. If not, it's a goal kick- the defending team will happily take that.

What if Chelsea win the league by 1 point? What if Swansea are relegated by a point, or Stoke go above someone else to avoid relegation by a point?

That's the size of these mistakes. 10s of millions of pounds.
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+1

and the most important, a team gives his best to win, but the ref steals the three points from them, or at least two points.
all what have they done during the game , all the effort, the concentration, the fight for the ball, the tactics , all of it was trashed with just a whistle.
 
it sometimes even itself out though, like ashley williams should of been red carded in 1st half for the studs up to the ankle of n'zonzi, being 2-0 up at the time stoke would of most probably gone on to win the game.
reviewing every penalty is too far and it's a waste of time because even with video sometimes it's still difficult to decide if penalty or not and you would most likely need to see it from many angles to be sure so it would probably take more than 30 seconds, what would fans be doing during this time? we pay to watch football not referees fucking about. at least with the goal line tech you can see if the ball is in the goal or not and the video gives a definitive result.

delighted to see rodriguez and lallana called up to england squad, with soton being 3rd in league they definitely deserve it.
 
Agree with Dazzla.
If Swansea relegate with one point, this has nothing to see with this match.
You don't win or loose thiongs like that in one match. Never.
 
Not all the time, but each team should have 3 challenges, like in a tennis match, to be used at their manager's discretion.

The evolution of sports go hand in hand with technology, so why not include video evidence? All American sports use it, and the NBA for instance still is considered great to watch. Of course football won't be stopping that often, it doesn't have time outs, only 2 halves. And then if they gave 3 challenges to each team, it would go a long way to repairing these injustices.
In fact, it would take a lot from the refs to rob a team with 3 challenges.
 
Football doesn't need challenges, it would take up too much time and disturb the flow of the game, the ball should always be active on the pitch. there would be so much more stoppage time, i guess each challenge would take about 2-3 minutes and you know what some players are like these days, they will still dispute the decision causing even further delay. and of course all football games should last for about the same amount of time because of last game of the season scenarios where teams have equal points and also in group stages of world cups etc.. there shouldn't ever be more than 5 minutes of stoppages imo unless there was a massive injury and also even after watching the video replay the referee can still make a wrong decision, when making a decision in football there are more factors to consider when comparing to tennis. i think it would create more problems than it would solve. the topic after the game would always be about why this team never challenged at a certain point instead of talking about the football which is what should be discussed, the game would be focusing even more on the referee, it is already too much focused on the referee especially in the premier league, also i can see teams abusing the challenges especially in the latter stages of the match, if they have some spare challenge they will use them all up for no reason but just because of desperation and/or time wasting.
 
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I'm really late to this, but this was a red card this weekend:

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?
 
So, 4th place is there for someone new. Enjoy it y'all.

United will be back, but it might be 5 years down the line once the Glazers have cashed out and we've been through a long session of mid-table mediocrity.

If anyone ever questions Fergie's ability again, please see what happens when his mediocre squad is taken over by someone else.
 
beachryan said:
So, 4th place is there for someone new. Enjoy it y'all.

United will be back, but it might be 5 years down the line once the Glazers have cashed out and we've been through a long session of mid-table mediocrity.

If anyone ever questions Fergie's ability again, please see what happens when his mediocre squad is taken over by someone else.
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You're an optimistic one, aren't you? I honestly have no sympathy for United. I can empathize with you as a fan, but not United. The club has won 20 titles total and 13 since the inception of the Premier League. They have had more than their fair share of glory. It is no club's divine rite to be a league champion every year, and I for one, would love to see a new team emerge this season and every season.

Ferguson, Moyes, and Woodward are just as much to blame for their current position as the Glazers. Yes, Ferguson left Moyes with a championship-winning squad, but the majority of its players are on the decline and the glue of the team (Scholes) retired. Ferugson could have recruited players for the future, but he did not. Moyes and Woodward made a mess of the transfer market, but what did you expect with both of them entering a new, high-profile job where they have to get used to their surroundings?! Also, Ferguson should have anticipated the effect his leaving the club would have on recruiting talent. He is Manchester United and people will always associate his name with the club. It will take time to see if Moyes is a worthy replacement. The same thing can be said of Woodward who has huge shoes to fill as well. Ferguson did them no favors by recruiting for the future. He had his chance to make amends after Scholes came out of retirement. He had to have known that Scholes was going to play it one more year and call it quits. Even if he didn't know that he was going to retire after this last season, he still should have recruited for the future. Yet, I never saw or heard evidence of United trying to move in the transfer market for Scholes' replacement. There is no way that can be blamed solely on the Glazers.
 
Steve-O21 said:
You're an optimistic one, aren't you? I honestly have no sympathy for United. I can empathize with you as a fan, but not United. The club has won 20 titles total and 13 since the inception of the Premier League. They have had more than their fair share of glory. It is no club's divine rite to be a league champion every year, and I for one, would love to see a new team emerge this season and every season.

Ferguson, Moyes, and Woodward are just as much to blame for their current position as the Glazers. Yes, Ferguson left Moyes with a championship-winning squad, but the majority of its players are on the decline and the glue of the team (Scholes) retired. Ferugson could have recruited players for the future, but he did not. Moyes and Woodward made a mess of the transfer market, but what did you expect with both of them entering a new, high-profile job where they have to get used to their surroundings?! Also, Ferguson should have anticipated the effect his leaving the club would have on recruiting talent. He is Manchester United and people will always associate his name with the club. It will take time to see if Moyes is a worthy replacement. The same thing can be said of Woodward who has huge shoes to fill as well. Ferguson did them no favors by recruiting for the future. He had his chance to make amends after Scholes came out of retirement. He had to have known that Scholes was going to play it one more year and call it quits. Even if he didn't know that he was going to retire after this last season, he still should have recruited for the future. Yet, I never saw or heard evidence of United trying to move in the transfer market for Scholes' replacement. There is no way that can be blamed solely on the Glazers.
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I agree with all of that, especially that one team shouldn't win 13 of 20 championships in any sporting league.

And you're absolutely right that Fergie left United in a relatively poor position. You look at the quality of the players on the decline: Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Carrick and compare that with the 'up and coming' youth Fergie placed faith in: Welbeck, Cleverley, Smalling, Nani and you can see why United are struggling.

It leaves two mysteries for me:
1. What the hell was the rest of the league up to last year to enable this team to win it
2. Why would Fergie leave us in such a bad place?

If the answer to 2 turns out to be: because he got a massive fat pay out from the Joel and Malcolm Glazer, than I would be truly disappointed.
 
Think we re over dramatizing United s current situation way too much. Look at some of the other greats in club football: Juve, Milan, Ajax, or even a Gremio.. They ve all had their fair share of very shitty seasons.. Much more so than United has over the years. Hoping we don't necessarily suffer as much as they have from time to time but United having maintained it's supremacy in the league is quite unique and nothing that even the greatest clubs can expect to last forever and ever. We ll bounce back sooner rather than later.

/signed the most disgustingly optimistic guy on this forum
 
beachryan said:
1. What the hell was the rest of the league up to last year to enable this team to win it?
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That's a great question. I, too, find it mind-boggling that so many teams capitulated against United, especially given how often Ferguson rotated the back four with the likes of Carrick, Evans, Jones, Smalling. However, he was always able to get the best out of his defenders no matter who was lined up in those positions, so I suppose the only logical explanation is that Ferguson was responsible for making it look like United were 11 points better than their nearest competitors. There were so few opportunities for the other clubs to make up ground because United rarely stumbled. Plus, any game that went deep into stoppage time was pretty much guaranteed to end up in United's favor.
beachryan said:
2. Why would Fergie leave us in such a bad place? If the answer to 2 turns out to be: because he got a massive fat pay out from the Joel and Malcolm Glazer, than I would be truly disappointed.
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Ferguson was maybe the most competitive manager in the world. Call me an optimist, but I cannot believe that he would allow his dignity to be bought so easily. I honestly think it's because he has always been unsure of himself in the transfer market when attempting to lure big-name players to Old Trafford. He gets cold feet, unless they are truly proven in the Premier League (Valencia, van Persie). That is why I believe he relied so heavily on the youth team...and rightly so. The Class of '92 set a precedent that I think made him believe that if he was going to purchase a player, they had to be young enough that he could integrate them with the youth sides and bring them through the system gradually. He thought that they would hopefully have an easier time integrating with the first team. Consider players like Ronaldo, the da Silvas, Macheda, Pogba, and now Henríquez, Januzaj, and Powell.
 
Wouldn't surprise me if the answer to 2 is that he didn't particularly want Utd to be as successful without him straight away. I suppose it's not his job to build a team for the next manager but a little dip would elevate his stature further and I doubt he'd mind that.
He knew for a long time that last season was his last. He knew it when he signed RVP and it's probably why he signed him

With that said, Utd could be 3rd or 2nd come New Year. I'd only worry about this season if you're still off the pace after that, not now.
 
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I guess the next one is going to be another Chelsea player, you know keep the tradition flowing. :LOL:

edit: Berahino's reaction

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Feels like it wasn't so long ago the Carling Cup was a competition for reserves and promising youth academy graduates. Not any more.

Boyata for City and Blackman for Chelsea. Tis it. Sad, I honestly don't know why promising young players would join either academy. Both have basically produced 0 first team players in recent memory (John Terry and Micah Richards I guess?)
 
I remember when people moaned that managers were devaluing domestic cups by filling their sides with youngsters

Didn't notice loads of youngsters playing for Sunderland or Leicester either.
 
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Yep, pressure on top clubs means can't even 'blood the youth' in the Carling Cup anymore. Something Fergie and Wenger were good at, but to be fair might just have been them. I don't think Chelsea ever took that approach since Abramovich took over. A trophy is trophy.

We'll see if Moyes fields any youth players tomorrow night. I'd expect a few, but I'm sure he views this is a viable trophy in a tough year, which could be important to his long term tenure.
 
I think it's a good thing that clubs play those cups with strong teams.
The immediate reason for me stopping to be a Man Utd fan was that after the treble year, they didn't play the FA Cup for that club World Cup in Brazil where they totally failed... Traditions are important in football, no club is bigger than tradition.
A club can't have a cult around a tragedy like the 6th february (that's my birthday) plane accident and then totally disrespect something massive like the FA CUP. There and then i had enough, the love was over...
So what is happening now is a good thing. If you really want to give youngster a chance, bring them in the first team in important matches...that is what Moyes did with Januzaj, that is what he did with Rooney when he was at Everton and that is wat Ferguson did with dozens of talented youth players...
 
@ Gerd - you do know the whole story of that right? Basically the FA hung United out to dry in the media. Maybe not for this thread, but worth reading up on it.
 
if we went by tradition we also wouldn't have bothered to enter the European Cup, tradition is important but so is evolution, I thought we made the right choice going to that tournament.
 
YoungGun_UK said:
if we went by tradition we also wouldn't have bothered to enter the European Cup, tradition is important but so is evolution, I thought we made the right choice going to that tournament.
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Bad analogy, because you did not forfeit another competition to enter the EC.
I understand you defend your club, but this is undefendable, best proof is the fact that since then United did participatie to the FA-cup. And this season you would be over the moon if they would win the FA-cup.
 
United were asked to go to Brazil by the UK government. Here's a quote from the then Sports minister:

“It is my estimation that a failure by Manchester United to go to the new competition in Brazil – particularly if they were replaced by Bayern Munich – would do irreparable damage to our 2006 campaign,” said Banks. “It is important for Manchester United – as perhaps the world’s most famous club – to hold the standard for England and Europe. These are extraordinary circumstances and it is an extraordinary decision to allow them to be exempt from next year’s FA Cup. But it is for one season and I do hope Manchester United supporters will realise the significance of what they and Manchester United are being asked to do.”

Basically the government and FA told United to go to Brazil. Not the other way around. Didn't help our 2006 World Cup bid in the end though.
 
If i had known that back, then i might have been a United fan now (that is a joke: this was not the real reason, i will tell my story one day, it's veru subjective and i admit now that i overreacted, but love for a football club is something very subjective).
 
Having beaten Utd, Everton, Arsenal, Spurs, Newcastle, Liverpool at home this season, I'm wondering if we can go the entire season winning every home game? And has this ever been done before?
 
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