Football The 2020/2021 Season Thread

[Raven]

Jesus

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55420342

 

[Moriath]

Jesus

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55420342

What? A postponed footy match?
not unprecendented?

in more extraordinary news stevenage won today.

 

[Raven]

No, as in more and more teams having players catching it.

Sam Allardyce: West Brom boss calls for football 'circuit break'

West Brom boss Sam Allardyce says football needs a break after the Premier League returns its highest number of positive coronavirus tests.

www.bbc.co.uk

I tend to agree with him...

 

[Raven]

Edit timer. Not only is it the right thing to do, 'we're all in it together' etc but teams catching it and spreading it when windows between games are as little as 48 hours is going to be a huge problem, throw in Euro games etc.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[Embattle]

No, as in more and more teams having players catching it.

Sam Allardyce: West Brom boss calls for football 'circuit break'

West Brom boss Sam Allardyce says football needs a break after the Premier League returns its highest number of positive coronavirus tests.

www.bbc.co.uk

I tend to agree with him...

I would agree but I would also say he has another motive as well, some organisation time.

 

[caLLous]

Looks like it's off.

 

[Aoami]

Yep, official now.

 

[caLLous]

And, assuming various things happen in cup competitions, there could literally be no single opportunity to play this match between now and the end of the season, let alone any others that are going to be postponed over the next few months. How they intended to fit the remaining matches in with a 2 week break is beyond me.

City already have 2 games to fit in somewhere, their match vs. Chelsea is bound to be postponed and then what about the Carabao Cup semi and maybe even the FA Cup 3rd round? It's going to be a massive ballache. I thought the idea at the start of the season was to have the team with all the positive test results forfeit that match.



I didn't realise it was quite as packed as it is (the tweet after the one above), the first thing they need to do is fuck off the international matches at the end of March.

 

[Scouse]

And, assuming various things happen in cup competitions, there could literally be no single opportunity to play this match between now and the end of the season

Another season where Liverpool potentially winning the league might be scuppered by disease

Ah well.

 

[Embattle]

It has been rammed due to the late start, they just have to trim what they can or start handing out forfeitures to clubs.

 

[Moriath]

Another season where Liverpool potentially winning the league might be scuppered by disease

Ah well.

Despite being shite Man U is catchin you.

 

[caLLous]

Weird season. I genuinely didn't see Newcastle putting in a performance like that. I said the same about Fulham and West Brom but Newcastle?

 

[Scouse]

I thought we just went through the motions rather than really wanted it tbh.

 

[Moriath]

Cavani banned for 3 games and fined 100k.

 

[Ormorof]

So he gets to play sometime in April then at this rate

 

[Scouse]

Cavani's punishment is fucking bullshit.

This is a pretty big lesson - not just for Cavani and United but the whole of English football.

There is sympathy for the Uruguayan in what was an innocent personal post. However, there is simply no excuse for not being aware of the wider aspect of the society he is living in - and either he should have been aware, or the club should have made him aware of the offence it could cause.

1) Someone made him aware, so he apologised and deleted the post. That should have been it, end of. (Or, arguably, he should have said "fuck off - I'm not deleting it").
2) Who gives a fuck if it offends some people? What he said, in the context he used it, wasn't wrong. Because other wankers don't understand this Cavani gets punished? That's a disgrace.
3) Cavani owes "wider society" nothing. He doesn't have to be aware of anything, he doesn't have to contribute anything but his legal taxes. It's his perogative to be as ignorant as a pig if he wants to be - and he certainly shouldn't have to curb his cultural use of his own language because of the potential to offend people who don't understand his language or the context it's used in.

This is thought crime, pure and simple.

Be interesting to get @Gwadien's thoughts on this.

 

[Embattle]

Surely a thought crime isn't the case if you type/post it

 

[Scouse]

Surely a thought crime isn't the case if you type/post it

Yeah yeah.

Outside of the fictional construct of being able to monitor our actual thoughts and punish prohibited ideas, expressions or speech when you think them, it's the same thing really.

 

[gmloki]

3 Points and an an ugly win against a much better Villa, I'll take that. Still think we are quite a bit off challenging Liverpool for the title and that's more to do with consistency than quality. But hey if anyone said you would be joint top of the prem with Liverpool on the 1st of Jan, i'd take it.

 

[Scouse]

Still think we are quite a bit off challenging Liverpool for the title and that's more to do with consistency than quality.

Rubbish - halfway through the season, even on points? That shows your consistency is as good as ours.

Bloody well should be. You've spent enough without having to sell to compensate.

 

[gmloki]

Rubbish - halfway through the season, even on points? That shows your consistency is as good as ours.

Bloody well should be. You've spent enough without having to sell to compensate.

When I say consistency, I mean more around our forwards. Martial from the back end of last season is certainly not the Martial showing up week in week out at the moment. Rashford looks shot at the moment. Granted, we are not as bad at the back as the media narrative around our defence. I guess my point we are in good form at the moment, games like last night under a relatively young squads belt gives them consistency but we are a way to go.

 

[Raven]

The fucking ref at the Newcastle, Leicester game thinks he's Messi

 

[Embattle]

Chelsea playing another game where they look shit and lack determination, just another shocking performance and a bad indicator for our next game against Fulham.

 

[Moriath]

Chelsea playing another game where they look shit and lack determination, just another shocking performance and a bad indicator for our next game against Fulham.

Probably wont be for weeks cause fulham cant field a team atm

 

[gmloki]

Wondering when the knives are going to be out for Frank in the press. Seems to get a lot of leeway compared to some other managers thats for sure.

 

[Aoami]

Wondering when the knives are going to be out for Frank in the press. Seems to get a lot of leeway compared to some other managers thats for sure.

They're being sharpened. You're right, he has had an easy ride so far (young English manager, club legend, good mates with or related to half of the people on sky, so no great surprise), but starting to see some dissenting voices around now.

2 more bad results and he will be off I think. He is trying to get Chelsea to play football like they're Barcelona in 2010. The problem with this is:

1. The players aren't as good
2. It doesn't suit the players he does have
3. Top teams stopped playing tiki-taka about 5 years ago because it got worked out.

Abramovich had always wanted a manager to imprint a certain style on Chelsea and give the team a "culture" so he may give him some extra leeway, but the best clubs at the moment are playing a variation of the gegenpress, or relying on quick transitional football/counters.

 

[caLLous]

He also acted like it was his lifelong dream to work with the youth last season but it turned out that was just a cover to try and make it look like they weren't bothered by the transfer ban as they went out and spent £200+ million last summer. It seems like he doesn't know what to do with half the players - there are reports that they're looking for yet another keeper, Werner has completely lost his spark and I don't even know where Havertz is supposed to play (I never watched him pre-Chelsea).

There has been some noise about Tuchel now that he's on the market but I don't know, he never struck me as being that impressive at PSG and, looking at the reactions he got from some of the more highly-strung players when he substituted them, he didn't seem respected there.

 

[Embattle]

Lampard will always be a Chelsea great as a player and nothing will change that, however his management career is 50/50 at the moment. I'm not convinced by the players at the moment with quite a few not looking good, time should help some of the acquisitions bed in but some of the choices Lampard makes are questionable.

 

[Aoami]

Lampard will always be a Chelsea great as a player and nothing will change that, however his management career is 50/50 at the moment. I'm not convinced by the players at the moment with quite a few not looking good, time should help some of the acquisitions bed in but some of the choices Lampard makes are questionable.

He has had the worst start of any manager under Abramovich, that's not 50/50 imo.

 

[DaGaffer]

He has had the worst start of any manager under Abramovich, that's not 50/50 imo.

He's the least experienced manager have had in the Abramovich era, by a country mile, so the stats aren't that surprising.

To be honest I'm not sure you can truly assess the long term capabilities of players or managers in the current circumstances; everything in life is so fucking weird at the moment.