The Evo-Web Football Thoughts Blog

@du0 - To be Fair Utd are better off without Maguire, he's an abysmal defender, slow, clumsy, doesn't read the game very well, tactically inept, as an opposition player i'd always want to see Maguire at the heart of your defence.

As for VDB - what a waste of a player, why sign him if you're never going to play him? Solksjaer has no clue!!!
 
xPJRx said:
@du0 - To be Fair Utd are better off without Maguire, he's an abysmal defender, slow, clumsy, doesn't read the game very well, tactically inept, as an opposition player i'd always want to see Maguire at the heart of your defence.

As for VDB - what a waste of a player, why sign him if you're never going to play him? Solksjaer has no clue!!!
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The rest of our center backs are twice as slow/clumsy/inept as Maguire at least

OGS isn't fit to lace Kloepp's boots. Look at how him and his team of assistants improve and elevate squads. Insanity is repeating something over and over again hoping for a different outcome, OGS and his gang are all asylum inmates
 
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From an entirely neutral perspective what a great penalty shoot out. It's probably been bettered at some point but that's the most consecutive penalties converted I've ever seen by far. Like @Flipper the Priest I wouldn't have watched it had it not been for the you tube stream.
 
Carles P. said:
12:11 I was so tired and want to going to sleep. Thank you De Gea for to bring this to an end. :D

But yea, if a spanish team is in the final, it will win the UEL/Uefa Cup. Thats the non written rules.
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Spanish teams really subscribe to EL.
Well done
 
I have zero expectations from United post SAF, so the loss didn't surprise me in the least. Ole has lost four semi-finals and now a final and has won absolutely nothing during his tenure. He has some of the worst game management "skills" I've ever witnessed from a top flight manager, it's truly something else. He's a coward when it comes to making changes. Rashford was absolutely atrocious (and has been for months), so of course he kept him on. Teacher's pet and all of that. I was lamenting the fact that Ole would most likely hook Greenwood before Rashford even though the former was in much better form both recently and during the match. Shock horror, that's exactly what happened.

Ole played for penalties before extra-time even began. We started to garner momentum after our equalizer and that's when we should have put the hammer down and went for it. Instead, this tactical "genius" didn't make a single change until the 100th minute, played for penalties, and then still elected to utilize David De Gea. Why? Everyone knows that statistically and anecdotally, De Gea is very poor at stopping penalties. We've known this for years. If the shootout is your endgame, why wouldn't you use Henderson who has an infinitely better record? He still had one substitition left. Makes no sense to me. Regardless, it should have never gotten to that point to begin with.

There's this recent phenomenon that's pushed by the likes of Rio and Scholes that Ole can't make any substitutions because our bench is lacking any quality. It's a ridiculous notion used to deflect any criticism away from Ole, simple as that. For one, very few teams have world class players littering their bench. Two, someone like Amad, VDB, James, or even pushing Pogba (who was quite poor as well) out wide would have been preferable to what Rashford served up. It's not like Villareal called upon Captain Tsubasa and Roy of the Rovers, is it? Most importantly, our manager is the one that signed our extended the contract of those players on the bench in the first place! If he doesn't trust them enough to utilize them, that's his fault! He brought them in! We've spent 279 million pounds since he took over.

By Rio's logic, SAF should have never even considered throwing on Kiko Macheda in 2009 when we were chasing a goal against Villa during our title race. After all, if your options off the bench are of "lesser" quality, they aren't even worth using regardless of what's occurring on the pitch. I can't believe people buy into this nonsense.
 
@Redhat I couldn't believe he took Greenwood off and not Rashford. It's like he thinks ah but he could come up with something special - yeah about twice a season at the current form - so he can't take him off. Greenwood was infinitely more likely to come up with a goal last night than Rashford was. The Villareal full back largely had him in his pocket. No doubt Southgate will start him ahead of Foden too.

It seemed to me as if he thought I've got my strongest team out so I can't change it. Pogba must be one of the most frustrating players to manage. He has all the ability, two good feet, a good shot, great range of passing but other than a rare performance never seems to show it unless he's in a France shirt. Maybe they should get him to wear a France shirt underneath.

I don't think De Gea would have saved a penalty yet if they were still going on now. Bar one, he wasn't even close. Surely it's time to cash in while they can, that missed penalty really should be his last kick of a ball for the club. He was for a period brilliant but not for at least two seasons now.
 
The thing with Marcus Rashford, outside of playing with injuries, is that he thinks he's Messi when he's actually worse than Nani. His footballing IQ has peaked, the decision making is no better than it was in 2016
 
Thoroughly enjoyed that final. Tuchel would appear to have Guardiola's number. Beating him twice made Guardiola out think himself I think with his team selection. At the root of it all, football is so unnecessarily complicated these days I think, it's essentially a simple game.

Breaking news: Apparently they found Sterling after the game in Reece James' pocket.
 
Corona restrictions still alive and well in my Sweden,and today we played the cup final,which WE FUCKING WON!,in front of empty stands.
Didn't stop us from celebrating though...
 
mattmid said:
Thoroughly enjoyed that final. Tuchel would appear to have Guardiola's number. Beating him twice made Guardiola out think himself I think with his team selection. At the root of it all, football is so unnecessarily complicated these days I think, it's essentially a simple game.

Breaking news: Apparently they found Sterling after the game in Reece James' pocket.
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You can pretty much find Sterling in most PL right backs' pockets this year. He looks totally void of confidence, never the same player after that World Cup miss
 
du0 said:
You can pretty much find Sterling in most PL right backs' pockets this year. He looks totally void of confidence, never the same player after that World Cup miss
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I've always felt he was massively over rated. A good player, yes, but never world class IMO. The amount of times a Man City attack breaks down with him losing possession by either running into a defender or with a wayward pass I would say is more than any other player. And as you say he seems to have no confidence at the moment, I was really surprised he started him. Look at that awful touch yesterday when put clean through early on, I thought it was Werner for a minute


Thought the ref was really good last night too, loved his helping hand up to Rudiger while giving him a yellow with the other hand. Class :LOL: Also liked that he wasn't giving fouls for the blowing over of players at the slightest touch, particularly amusing was the handball free kick when Sterling tried it on.
 
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The words of an italian coach (De Zerbi) are trending now on Twitter because he said that "it's better to lose a Champions League with Guardiola than win it with another coach".

I don't think I've ever seen another manager who gave birth to so many columnists and football figures who literally worship his ideas to similar extremes. It all sounds a bit ridiculous, especially after a final in which he lost fair and square.
 
Madmac79 said:
The words of an italian coach (De Zerbi) are trending now on Twitter because he said that "it's better to lose a Champions League with Guardiola than win it with another coach".

I don't think I've ever seen another manager who gave birth to so many columnists and football figures who literally worship his ideas to similar extremes. It all sounds a bit ridiculous, especially after a final in which he lost fair and square.
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Totally agree. He turned an excellent squad into an excellent team at Barcelona, granted. The best team I've seen in my lifetime in terms of quality. But they were already pretty excellent before he took over!

I just don't get it. Perhaps I'm not involved enough with football to understand the appreciation, but on paper his achievements - while excellent - would surely have been within the grasp of any good coach.
 
It's hard to say really when all he's ever managed is elite teams or at least teams with the pick of the talent. He's won pretty much everything and his teams generally are entertaining to watch.

Is he the messiah though, or just a naughty boy?

As I've said before, put him in charge of Accrington Stanley, if he does as well or better than their current manager then fair enough.
 
Madmac79 said:
The words of an italian coach (De Zerbi) are trending now on Twitter because he said that "it's better to lose a Champions League with Guardiola than win it with another coach".

I don't think I've ever seen another manager who gave birth to so many columnists and football figures who literally worship his ideas to similar extremes. It all sounds a bit ridiculous, especially after a final in which he lost fair and square.
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mattmid said:
It's hard to say really when all he's ever managed is elite teams or at least teams with the pick of the talent. He's won pretty much everything and his teams generally are entertaining to watch.

Is he the messiah though, or just a naughty boy?

As I've said before, put him in charge of Accrington Stanley, if he does as well or better than their current manager then fair enough.
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I know many will shoot me, and I have since years this in my mind, but I can't name him the GOAT as many people tend to.

Of course tiki-taka Barcelona was something spacestellar, but he was more a manager than a builder coach. I mean you don't need to be the master tactician to play prime Xavi, prime Iniesta, prime Villa, prime Alexis Sanchez, Prime Messi, etc, etc.

For me where he failed to seal his "godly" status, was his next team, although it was also an Overpowered team, Bayern München.

He received a fine tuned Bayern from Jupp Heynckes, playing a panzer style gegenpress physical foootball, accompanied by BvB, a style that was based more on, Teamgeist, stamina (despite people saying it was dependent on medicines) and less on technique, which lead in a dominant German football for 2 years, 2013 CL final BvB-FC Bayern, and 2014 WC conquest by Germany.

What Guardiola did to this? He shuttered completely the Bayern panzer mentality, forcing them to play tiki-taka, which never stack to Bayern, so he ruined the previous work.

Of course he dominatesd in Bundesliga, but in Champions League he failed hard, and was heavily criticized for his tactics, tiki-taka Bayern.

Then again in Man City, he won some more titles, but not the Champions League. Though he changed his tiki-taka only mentality, to something more mix and match with British high pressure and more direct attacking tendencies.

For me to consider him a Messiah, I would expect him to do what @mattmid said, or to take a lesser tier team, and while applying his mentality, do what Mourinho did with FC Porto.
 
slamsoze said:
I know many will shoot me, and I have since years this in my mind, but I can't name him the GOAT as many people tend to.

Of course tiki-taka Barcelona was something spacestellar, but he was more a manager than a builder coach. I mean you don't need to be the master tactician to play prime Xavi, prime Iniesta, prime Villa, prime Alexis Sanchez, Prime Messi, etc, etc.

For me where he failed to seal his "godly" status, was his next team, although it was also an Overpowered team, Bayern München.

He received a fine tuned Bayern from Jupp Heynckes, playing a panzer style gegenpress physical foootball, accompanied by BvB, a style that was based more on, Teamgeist, stamina (despite people saying it was dependent on medicines) and less on technique, which lead in a dominant German football for 2 years, 2013 CL final BvB-FC Bayern, and 2014 WC conquest by Germany.

What Guardiola did to this? He shuttered completely the Bayern panzer mentality, forcing them to play tiki-taka, which never stack to Bayern, so he ruined the previous work.

Of course he dominatesd in Bundesliga, but in Champions League he failed hard, and was heavily criticized for his tactics, tiki-taka Bayern.

Then again in Man City, he won some more titles, but not the Champions League. Though he changed his tiki-taka only mentality, to something more mix and match with British high pressure and more direct attacking tendencies.

For me to consider him a Messiah, I would expect him to do what @mattmid said, or to take a lesser tier team, and while applying his mentality, do what Mourinho did with FC Porto.
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I believe many more people than you think would agree with the last posts of this thread.

Barcelona, which was his best team and the most successful one he coached, had indeed an incredible number of godly football brains all togheter, all grown within the team. I'm no sport historian but I doubt there were many more teams in all the past football eras if any gifted with all that talent in those special circumstances.

There is no doubt that Guardiola is great, and that he left his footprint on football as a whole. But best ever? Come on. Personally I wouldn't even ask him to win with a lesser team. Would have been enough, with the means he had, to win indeed at least a CL with both Bayern and City to enter in the conversation. Many other coaches were able to do the deed with a more classic playstyle and probably with less material than he had. For how good your football might look this is still a simple game in which you need to put the ball more times in than the opponent. I can't consider you better than all the other guys if your teams simply weren't able to.
 
Madmac79 said:
I believe many more people than you think would agree with the last posts of this thread.

Barcelona, which was his best team and the most successful one he coached, had indeed an incredible number of godly football brains all togheter, all grown within the team. I'm no sport historian but I doubt there were many more teams in all the past football eras if any gifted with all that talent in those special circumstances.

There is no doubt that Guardiola is great, and that he left his footprint on football as a whole. But best ever? Come on. Personally I wouldn't even ask him to win with a lesser team. Would have been enough, with the means he had, to win indeed at least a CL with both Bayern and City to enter in the conversation. Many other coaches were able to do the deed with a more classic playstyle and probably with less material than he had. For how good your football might look this is still a simple game in which you need to put the ball more times in than the opponent. I can't consider you better than all the other guys if your teams simply weren't able to.
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“Guys like Fabio Capello and Jose Mourinho are hailed as geniuses because they win. Well, they win because they have the best players, not because of what they do. I could put my dead grandfather in charge of their teams and they would still win.”

- Zdenek Zeman
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Brian Clough was one of the greatest managers of all time Brian Clough and his right hand man Peter Taylor, by all accounts Cloughie, as he was known, didn't get too involved with training leaving the hands on stuff to Taylor, who also had an eye for a player. Clough however was a masterful man manager. I've seen and read so many interviews from ex players over the years and none have a bad word to say about him. He was both genial and abrasive, didn't suffer fools and was very outspoken and back then the England manager that everyone wanted but the FA wouldn't give it to him. Anyone that can take Nottm Forest from Div 2 (current day Championship) to double European Cup winners in three years and break the league winning Liverpool monopoly of the late seventies is to my mind one hell of a manager. Sadly in his latter managerial years he suffered with alcoholism and his team began to fall away, particularly after falling out with Taylor but that shouldn't take away what he achieved.

There are also some hilarious stories that ex player's tell.
 
For me Rinus Michels Ernst Happel and Johan Cruijff are the most influential coaches ever. They developed 'Totaal voetbal' (Michels and Cruijff at Ajax and Barcelona and Happel at Feyenoord who won the ECI the year before Ajax' first win). and without them no Barcelona, no Pep, no Bielsa, no Wenger...

Ajax is a miracle club. Most influential football team in the history of football, perhaps together with Honved Budapest.
 
And about Guardiola, he is the postmodern coach, too clever for his own good and that of his players. IMO he is destroying KDB. Having the best midfielder in the world and playing him as a false 9 is madness.
 
mattmid said:
Brian Clough was one of the greatest managers of all time Brian Clough and his right hand man Peter Taylor, by all accounts Cloughie, as he was known, didn't get too involved with training leaving the hands on stuff to Taylor, who also had an eye for a player. Clough however was a masterful man manager. I've seen and read so many interviews from ex players over the years and none have a bad word to say about him. He was both genial and abrasive, didn't suffer fools and was very outspoken and back then the England manager that everyone wanted but the FA wouldn't give it to him. Anyone that can take Nottm Forest from Div 2 (current day Championship) to double European Cup winners in three years and break the league winning Liverpool monopoly of the late seventies is to my mind one hell of a manager. Sadly in his latter managerial years he suffered with alcoholism and his team began to fall away, particularly after falling out with Taylor but that shouldn't take away what he achieved.

There are also some hilarious stories that ex player's tell.
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Love The Damned United.
 
Italy is looking pretty pretty pretty good.
I wasn't pumped for the Euros,but this tournament started with a bang.
 
Here's the future ladies and gents.
Only a matter of time before our beloved video football games picks up on it.
Can't wait to unlock those Adidas
 
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