The football thread!

Kurz Weber said:
I will be amazed if this falls through though as way back before our US tour Brendan Rodgers said 'I can guarantee Balotelli will be at Liverpool next season'. An ye get Borini gone as he will never get used if it does go through. So many attacking options when everyone is fit. Balotelli, Sturridge, Lambert, Sterling, Lallana, Markovic, Assaidi, Ibe, Suso and if we really needed to get Origi back.
Not as many options as you think since Ibe is set for a loan deal (seems like Derby and Bolton are front runners at moment) and Suso has been linked with a possible loan deal several times this summer while Assaidi seems to be surplus to requirements (only his wages demands stopped a deal going through with Stoke).
 
mangaman74 said:
Kurz Weber said:
I will be amazed if this falls through though as way back before our US tour Brendan Rodgers said 'I can guarantee Balotelli will be at Liverpool next season'. An ye get Borini gone as he will never get used if it does go through. So many attacking options when everyone is fit. Balotelli, Sturridge, Lambert, Sterling, Lallana, Markovic, Assaidi, Ibe, Suso and if we really needed to get Origi back.
Not as many options as you think since Ibe is set for a loan deal (seems like Derby and Bolton are front runners at moment) and Suso has been linked with a possible loan deal several times this summer while Assaidi seems to be surplus to requirements (only his wages demands stopped a deal going through with Stoke).
Maybe the manager has changed his mind then because all's I heard throughout pre-season was the youngsters are going to be a 'big part of us going forward this year'. (Excluding Assaidi as i think he's mid 20's) I think though if the Balotelli deal does go through we will have two complete solid starting 11's which is a huge improvement as I want us to do well in Cup competitions this year.
 
Watched the cup football on TV tonight. Seeing Man Utd outplayed by MK Dons was very entertaining. Must say that LVG is doing a fine job of making Moyes look good. Also good to see Celtic take advantage of their Champions League reprieve by getting knocked out by losing at home in the next round.
 
mangaman74 said:
Watched the cup football on TV tonight. Seeing Man Utd outplayed by MK Dons was very entertaining. Must say that LVG is doing a fine job of making Moyes look good. Also good to see Celtic take advantage of their Champions League reprieve by getting knocked out by losing at home in the next round.

Did you expect anything else from Celtic?

When the first 1st diversion will be a better fight (rangers and the two Edinburgh clubs) than the premiership
 
Kite said:
mangaman74 said:
Watched the cup football on TV tonight. Seeing Man Utd outplayed by MK Dons was very entertaining. Must say that LVG is doing a fine job of making Moyes look good. Also good to see Celtic take advantage of their Champions League reprieve by getting knocked out by losing at home in the next round.

Did you expect anything else from Celtic?

When the first 1st diversion will be a better fight (rangers and the two Edinburgh clubs) than the premiership
Not really. In recent years Celtic seem to have been selling players and not properly replacing them (possibly due to a perceived lack of competition in the league) and it is coming back to haunt them now.

Continuing with the Champions League, has anyone else seen the draw for the group stage yet? Looks like, despite moving up to pot 2, Man City have drawn the short straw - Bayern Munich (3rd time in 4 years I think), CSKA Moscow and Roma (a reunion match for Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole).

The other English teams have (relatively) easier draws,
Real Madrid, FC Basel, Liverpool and Ludogorets Razgrad
Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray and Anderlecht
Chelsea, Schalke, Sporting Lisbon and Maribor
What will make Man City's task harder will be the reduced squad size due to the FFP punishment. For the record if Celtic had gone through they might have ended up in a different group since the seedings might have been different (not sure which pot Celtic would have been in).
 
Yeah this seeding crap is pure BS. Chelsea get a piss easy group again. Like the hell. City won the lge yet their seeded lower, yuck.

Decent draw for Kurz and Liverpool.

Arsenal eh, theyll probably finish second and lose to Bayern again heh.

Where's Man Utd? :p
 
Baggie_Saiyan said:
Yeah this seeding crap is pure BS. Chelsea get a piss easy group again. Like the hell. City won the lge yet their seeded lower, yuck.

Decent draw for Kurz and Liverpool.

Arsenal eh, theyll probably finish second and lose to Bayern again heh.

Where's Man Utd? :p
Winning the domestic league just gets you automatic qualification into the group stage (unless you are a club in a lesser league and have to qualify first).

The teams in pot 1, like Chelsea, Arsenal (and Man Utd when they were here last) are there due to regularly doing well in the Champions League. Liverpool were the top seeded team in 2009 but are now in pot 3 so a spell out of the competition (or poor performances in the competition) will reduce you ranking. At least Man City will avoid Bayern Munich in the next round if they qualify so it isn't all bad news.

While Man City got the group of death this year Liverpool could have been in that situation but got lucky. For Man City to avoid teams like Bayern Munich in the group stage, they would probably need to win it or at least get to the semi finals 4 or 5 years in a row.
 
Baggie_Saiyan said:
Yeah this seeding crap is pure BS. Chelsea get a piss easy group again. Like the hell. City won the lge yet their seeded lower, yuck.

Decent draw for Kurz and Liverpool.

Arsenal eh, theyll probably finish second and lose to Bayern again heh.

Where's Man Utd? :p
Ye I'm happy with that draw, we definitely should advance through the group stage. Also we have never lost to Real Madrid. (Can't see that happening this time)
 
Pleased with the weekend results - Liverpool won comfortably against Spurs, Man City lost while Arsenal and Man Utd drew.

What signings do people want to see their club make on deadline day? So far it is looking like most of the Liverpool business involves moving fringe players out (on loan or permanent) like Coates and possibly Borini.
 
mangaman74 said:
While Man City got the group of death this year Liverpool could have been in that situation but got lucky. For Man City to avoid teams like Bayern Munich in the group stage, they would probably need to win it or at least get to the semi finals 4 or 5 years in a row.

Not from next season, they're changing the way the seeds are decided from next season, and the Champions in each of the 7 leading leagues in Europe as well as the holders will be in the first pot

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news ... ing-system

So if City win this season they'll be in the first pot, but could still hypothetically meet Bayern Munich if they fail to win the Bundesliga. I'm all for this system, it's called the "Champions" League, imo the champs should get better treatment. Needs to be signed off at next UEFA Exec comitte in mid september.
 
britguy said:
mangaman74 said:
While Man City got the group of death this year Liverpool could have been in that situation but got lucky. For Man City to avoid teams like Bayern Munich in the group stage, they would probably need to win it or at least get to the semi finals 4 or 5 years in a row.

Not from next season, they're changing the way the seeds are decided from next season, and the Champions in each of the 7 leading leagues in Europe as well as the holders will be in the first pot

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news ... ing-system

So if City win this season they'll be in the first pot, but could still hypothetically meet Bayern Munich if they fail to win the Bundesliga. I'm all for this system, it's called the "Champions" League, imo the champs should get better treatment. Needs to be signed off at next UEFA Exec comitte in mid september.
I heard about that later on after I had posted. It is better this way as it rewards teams for winning their own league. How many years have Arsenal been a pot 1 seed without even being in the top two in the Premier League? Of course it doesn't stop you meeting a stong team in the next round (if you under perform in you group and finish second you still have a chance of meeting a Bayern Munich or Real Madrid for instance). I alway say that to win it you must be prepared to face a few of the top tier sides on the way.
 
Liverpool lost 3 - 1 to West Ham on Saturday :( . On Sunday Man Utd surrendered a 3 - 1 lead to lose 5 - 3 (and have a player sent off for the last goal) away to newly promoted Leicester City :lol: .
 
Kite said:
It's all going wrong for man utd, hehe
Liverpool have gone through the same thing, they were dominant in the 70s and 80s but fell by the wayside in the 90s due to not replacing an aging team quickly enough or well enough. In the same way part of Man United's problem is Fergie's fault for not replacing some of the older players (losing 3 of the back 4 at the same time is never good). It took Brendan Rogers half a season to get rid of the dead wood and get the players playing how he wanted. Saying that I don't think David Moyes did enough in the two transfer windows he had. If he wanted to get the players doing what he wanted he need to stamp his authority by getting rid of a few more of the senior players early on and sign a few more of his own players at the same time. At the moment there is enought attacking talent there (although I am not fully convinced about Rooney or RVP) but there at serious issues with the defence and defensive midfield positions. I look at your current defenders and I would not want any of them at Liverpool (saying that Sakho has not convinced me yet for what he cost us).

At least Liverpool are through to the next round of the Capital One Cup after one hell of a penalty shoot out against Middlesborough. Liverpool won by 14 - 13 with 30 taken in all - all 22 players took a penalty including the goalies plus several had to take a second one (Patrick Bamford took three for Middlesborough since he took one in extra time as well).
 
I did not see us beating Spurs and White Heart Lane, foolishly turned down a ticket thinking we gonna get battered 5 or 6, oh how I regret that :| Hopefully we can follow that and yesterdays win with a win against Burnley (Sky moving the game to Sunday at 4 is so annoying especially since all the games they moved this season for us (so far) are home games, I am gonna watch the home games anyway, dont go to away games be nice if some were on TV!)
 
Back
Top