f13.net

PSG - WTF?

Are Barcelona done? Can anyone stop Madrid in the CL?

lolarsenal

Go Huddersfield. Weareallterriers

Oh Spurs/Fuck you Alonso.

Man U or Man City, who's the favourite?

etc.

If I had to put a bet down now, it would go on Man U. That lineup is goddamn insanely good, it's year 2 of Mourinho so he's not due to start pissing everyone off until April when the title is well-sealed and if he's in first place with more than 6 points on January 1st, he'll park 7 buses in front of the goal the rest of the stretch. Having one of the world's best keepers in DeGea (and the only reason United didn't drop below 8th in the post-Fergie years) means their defense will be better than the individual defenders in it (though Bailly is a beast). Of course, West Ham and Swansea are both not good teams so this could be premature.

The Neymar saga just gobsmacked me. Why would you leave Barca for PSG other than money? I guess once you've played at Barca, everything else is a step down so why not go for all the Euros?

It does appear though that the atmosphere at Barca is getting a might toxic, almost Real Madrid like only without 2 of the last 3 Champions' League trophies. I only hope that they don't manage to sway Liverpool off their conviction that Coutinho is staying because holy shit, Liverpool needs to be ADDING players, not letting their best player go somewhere else.

Chelsea needs to sort out its fucking soap opera but they will still challenge because that's a good team. Man City will buy 200 million quid worth of defenders and still be shit at the back.

Arsenal. LAUGH OUT LOUD.

I don't follow soccer but I'm in the "Neymar wanted his own team (and didn't want to wait for Messi to retire)" camp.

liverpool problem was defense, their big spending was for salah. Better hope for a miracle with joe gomez.
City's problem was kompany having injury problems and josh stones being bad, buying two extremely expensive full backs don't fix it.
Spurs like their ajax defenders, good starting 11 but very thin squad.
Chelsea had a good team, bought the type of players they need.
Manchester united needed a solid defensive midfielder which is exactly what they got with Matic.
Arsenal, wtf!

Lets all agree that it's: #lolarsenal

Blood, are you kidding me, fam?  :why_so_serious:

Liverpool's defense improves mightily when that wee twat Alberto Moreno isn't playing at left back. Andy Robertson was man of the match, IMO on Saturday against Palace. Unlike Moreno, who tries to provide offense (and fails) and leaves himself unable to defend, Robertson can do both better. Yes, it was Palace, still, he never looked out of position like Moreno who just likes to go walkabout for no good goddamn reason. Don't know what would help their goddamn corners though, other than a new keeper, man-marking and putting someone on either post. Since none of those things will happen, a 4th place finish will be the best we can hope for.

Still don't understand what the fuck Chelsea were thinking selling Matic to United. Yes, let's give Mourinho exactly the type and quality of player he was missing last season.

The defensive pair tends to be up and down, matip and lovren are bit too aggressive defensively and can open themselves up , klavan looked really good last season until he had some games where he looked like an amateur, sakho would be a good combination with matip but that's not going to happen.

Robertson is a far better overall left back, milner had problems going forward and moreno never understood defense. There was a very good reason why Rodgers preferred Joe gomez over moreno in the start of 15/16 season but then came the awful injury. We saw the same thing on the right side, much stronger defense with him instead of alexander-arnold, but not the same offense. Alexander-arnold is still young and it was obvious when hoffenheim scored, he should have protected the goal instead of waving his hand like a sissy and hoping for offside.

The corner problem is partially because we have so many short players, a bunch of 5'9 players like firmino, coutinho, salah, mane, wiynaldum, clyne, moreno, alexander-arnold and milner.

Nailed it, not looking forward to post January if we do happen to be in pole position, so basking in the warm glow of 8 goals in two games which United fans haven't had in a while. Two bad teams maybe but also two teams that managed to grind out draws last season. Removing Carrick and Rooney has really brought a better sense of urgency to the team, although it's nice to see Rooney doing well in a team with less expectation and bring out his love of the game again. Then you have Matic, who is a big upgrade on Carrick.

Rooney is still talented, but just his presence last year was a HUGE drag on United. You have to play him, or answer to the press and fans why not, but it's not like he really did much all year to justify taking someone else's position. He'll do fine at Everton where he can be a focal point and even at his age, be a better player than most of his team. Matic is just... 40 fucking million is way too cheap in this market for what he brings to an Prem side. I've become convinced that the holding midfielder role is the most important (and completely underrated) position in England right now. It's no coincidence that the last two champions had N'Golo Kante in their midfield. Matic at ManU would have given them at least 4th place last season, IMO, and I say that as someone who actually thought Carrick was worth having even at his level of play. Still don't understand what Mourinho sees in Fellaini other than a target dummy.

Swansea selling Sigurdson to Everton was just... oof. I can feel comfortable saying that is the move that will ensure their relegation this year. 50 million quid is not going to be enough to replace that guy in a team that has trouble scoring goals. With Mike Ashley's (lack of) help, I think Newcastle is going to flirt with relegation all season and only Rafa's defensive skills are going to keep them up. I haven't seen any of the newly promoted sides play yet but I think at least one of them goes down, with my money being on Brighton. Chris Hughton is a serviceable manager but his ceiling is based on the players he has, and that's likely a Championship level club. I think Huddersfield stays up.

At times I thought Rooney looked a little disinterested and lacked confidence. But hey he's still one of the best centre forwards around. I wouldn't be surprised as the seasons go on Everton supported will see glimpses of the player that turned up in a United shirt the last few seasons.

Yeh Sigurdson has pretty much kept them out of the Championship for the last few seasons, can't see Swansea holding on without him, they look fairly average. Be interesting to see where Everton finish after their summer spending spree.

Do you think Coutinho will stay? I've no idea at this stage.

Reports are this morning that Barca's given up and Coutinho is going to have a meeting with Liverpool officials to make peace soon. I'm going to guess he stays this season and fucks off next season if he's still wanted, a la Suarez.

Todays rumor is that Barca is lining up £138M in a fourth offer for coutinho. I don't see liverpool letting him go regardless of what happens tonight.

Unless they completely shit the bed tonight (which I don't see happening), there is no way they let him go this year. They just can't afford it, especially since depth in quality was their big issue last season. That money won't buy them the players they need NOW, much less with yet one more guy to replace.

Champions league draw:
Grupp A: Benfica, Manchester United, Basel, CSKA Moskva
Grupp B: Bayern München, Paris Saint-Germain, Anderlecht, Celtic
Grupp C: Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Roma, Karabach
Grupp D: Juventus. Barcelona, Olympiakos, Sporting Lissabon
Grupp E: Spartak Moskva, Sevilla, Liverpool, Maribor
Grupp F: Sjaktar Donetsk, Manchester City, Napoli, Feyernoord
Grupp G: AS Monaco. Porto, Besiktas, RB Leipzig
Grupp H: Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham, Apoel

Liverpool lucked out SO HARD. That's an easily winnable group. Man U also got a decent draw. Poor Spurs.

Man United nearly always draw a Russian team and Basel were a bit of a bogey team under Fergie, hopefully not anymore. Sp Ibra just re-joined us and the squad is starting to look impressive, this is roughly our second string as of right now - Romero, Blind, Smalling, Lindelof, Darmian, Herrera, Carrick, Fellaini, Martial, Lingaard, Ibrahimovic. That's a very strong 11 in it's own right.

No actual easy groups there, I think Bayern and PSG probably have the best of it. United should go through, but going to Russia is always tough and Basel as I said are our bogey team in Europe. Liverpool struggled against Sevilla previously and Spartak are always a potential shock. But I still expect both teams will go through, not without some bumps along the way.

lol Group H, that's so spursy

Man City, Man U and Chelsea should all advance.

#lolarsenal

Excellent week for liverpool where they pummeled both hoffenheim and arsenal on anfield. Huge improvement in central midfield with henderson, can and wiynaldum coming together, on the flanks mane and salah is striking terror with good support from the full backs and Firmino.

Wish they would play like this against bottom 6.

So much this. As good as Liverpool looked (except for Karius, WTF?), Arsenal looked infinitely as bad. There are non-league sides that would have whooped the shit out of Arsenal Sunday. I'm still not sure why Arsne started Welbeck up front over Lacazatte - Welbeck is fine but against a side with defenders like Liverpool's (i.e. ones who are horrible at defending swift defenders), Lacazette would have seemed to be the better choice. I'm not even sure if Arsene isn't just trolling the fans at this point.

My kids soccer team for the fall has been assigned the name Liverpool.  I've bought the cool glasses, am working on the German accent and instructed the kiddos to always lose to the crappest teams in our division.

Arsenal sold alex oxlade-chamberlain to liverpool, did a crazy attempt on thomas lemar that monaco agreed to but lemar said no, which stopped the sale of alexis sanchez to manchester city, that can leave for free next year. #lolarsenal

Liverpool bought 3 short quick players and sold sakho because they will never concede on a corner kick. Buying andrew robertson and still play alberto moreno as a "defender" shows the defensive genius strategy of Klopp.

Yeah, I can't understand why Moreno is still getting minutes.

However, it pales in comparison to the circus that Arsenal has become. Lemar apparently didn't want to go to Arsenal because it was a Europa league team. OUCH. And Sanchez, who chose Arsenal over Liverpool when he came there because he wanted to live in London, now is ready to get the fuck out.

Jeezus US soccer.

Premier league just voted that the transfer window will end before the first game of premier league next season. They can still sell players to other leagues beyond that point. This would be a lot worse if it hadn't been for the fact that premier league clubs have the greatest purchasing power except for crazy spenders like PSG so the risk of PL clubs losing players to foreign clubs beyond that point is small.

I get the feeling this is going to go badly for the PL clubs if for no other reason than the other big leagues in the world don't have this restriction.

Having your full team ready few days in advance instead of having to play 3 games and have an international break will make a huge difference. The only players PL teams will be ready to sell are the ones that are benched during the first three games unless PSG, BFC and RM put up silly money for a starter and there is a decent replacement.

There is no time to waste like spurs, arsenal and liverpool did this summer.

Fixed that for you.

And Liverpool are feeling the bumps I mentioned, while Man United play their best ever away game on Russian soil in my living memory.

Lukaku is not pretty, but damn is he effective. This is probably the strongest team we've had since 2008-2009. Just need to get Ronaldo back now  :grin:

Lukaku is likely the piece that's going to put Man U in the title this year, and make sure that you guys are challenging for the Champions League to at least the semis IMO. He's that good and Chelsea (coached by Mourinho at the time) were fucking idiots to let him get away TWICE.

The differences between Liverpool and ManU right now are 3-fold: 1) Mourinho is a defensive minded coach, which is what is required in the Champions League, while Klopp is all attack all the time; 2) every year Mourinho's been there, they've bought at least one central defender - Bailly and then Lindeloff - both of which started that game in Moscow; 3) they have a dedicated striker with the killer instinct to just fucking score goals (they'll have 2 when Zlatan gets back). #1 is something that isn't really "fixable" - both approaches can work or fall flat depending on the players.

#2 is the biggest deal to me as far as both title aspirations and Champions League - Bailly looks to be raw but with the potential to be world class and even if Lindeloff isn't great, he's what - their 4th central defender (Jones, Smalling, Lindeloff and Bailly) and both Blind and Rojo can do decent duty in central defense in a pinch. Liverpool meanwhile have the good/steady but not great Matip, Lovren who is inconsistent and prone to just WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU TRYING TO DO THERE moments and after that is a wooden post with less character and marking ability in Klavan and a 20-year old kid coming back off two years worth of knee injuries and still without a firm decision on whether he's a center back, fullback or wingback. I'm not even saying Liverpool should spend 60 million quid on Van Dijk (he isn't worth THAT much) but shit, look at some of the decent English options that got sold to smaller clubs for less. Harry Maguire and Michael Keane were both good, steady options that went to lesser Prem clubs for peanuts.

#3 is just going to cost fuckloads of money, unless they have patience with a kid like Solanke and he develops into the next big thing. Which could happen - it might have happened with Sturridge if his legs weren't made of spun sugar.

Actually Mourinho isn't as defensive as I thought he would be, he definitely can go into siege mode in the big games but then Fergie used to do the same. I would say he's more pragmatic and plays to the oppositions traits, his use of substitutes is also straight from the Fergie handbook. Impressed with him a lot lately. I actually wanted Klopp at United because he would play exciting football, but now I realise he probably wouldn't have signed any defenders and we'd be left with another makeshift defense. Bailly has been a huge signing for us, but actually our defense is really shored up now with Matic, who is like Carrick Mk II, a better all round player.

I don't know why I forgot Matic, he is HUGE (both physically and his presence in a game). He's like a giant Kante with less offensive skill. He's another one I just don't understand - why would Chelsea sell him to United of all places?

Yeh I couldn't believe the Matic deal when it was being touted, I've always been a huge admirer, he has all the passing game and reading abilities of Carrick, but on top of that he can dribble, shoot and not afraid to put in a tackle, which puts him a station above him in my esteem. He reminds me a little of Didi Hamann and I'm sure will be equally underrated.

Liverpools defense looks a little fragile at times alright, but actually going forward they appear to be missing a lot of chances too, read an interesting stat earlier that they have the most chances of any top tier teams in Europe but are behind around ten of them in conversion rates. With Liverpool converting 5.55% of their shots and allowing the opposition to convert 24% of theirs. Luckily they have crapton of shots every game. Coutinho will add to that, cause I know he likes a shot. Not having a specialist striker could be a bit of a problem, Firmino being more of a false 9.

God, the Liverpool finishing. It's just WASTEFUL. I think they put up like 30+ shots against Burnley and the game finished 1-1. Mo Salah is an absolute nightmare for defenders, but he will easily miss at least 1-3 shots per game. It's entirely possible our defense is so bad because they are so rarely called on to do anything but cycle the ball back into the offense that by the time they do get attacked, they are half asleep. Of course, it may also be that Mignolet is a great shot stopper but utter shit at commanding the box or playing with the ball at his feet. The goals in both the Leicester games and the Sevilla game were mostly from defenders who just weren't prepared to defend when they needed to be, and the free kick that resulted in Spartak's goal was conceded because Can dawdled on the ball in midfield for way too long and someone ended up needed to foul a Spartak player to prevent a shot. Then Karius utterly chokes on a saveable free kick.

More liverpool inefficiency and both central defenders standing on their heels when there is no pressure on the ballholder. Sturridge got his chance to start the game and didn't take it.

Liverpool's defensive issues have nothing to do with the system and everything to do with personnel, I'm thoroughly convinced of that. Nothing about the system dictates you just let a dude stroll straight through 2 defenders like that. The only thing the system might have done is have the fullbacks a little closer to the back line so that one of them could have mopped up what the other two chucklefucks failed to do. But if you can't rely on your fucking center backs to stop one guy on a good pass directly through the middle of them, I don't know how you can ever expect not to ship goals.

They are on a run of cold scoring, despite getting about a billion chances a game. It happens but it'll turn back. That's where you have to be able to rely on your defense. Sturridge may be done as a starter. I just didn't see enough out of him to justify his place and frankly, I'd rather see Solanke at the striker spot over Firmino.

A solid holding midfielder would mean less opportunity to pass the ball straight between the defenders, a solid defender would make sure to take depth when there is no pressure in the midfield. The last time liverpool had both we had great defense, dortmund had both under Klopp.

Liverpool really needs a Julian Weigel/Ilkay Gundogan type. Instead we have Can/Henderson, neither of which are strong enough defensively for what's required.

I said at the time that Liverpool should sell Coutinho for 100-120m? to Barca. I still believe that, and then used the money to buy someone like Aubameyang for 100m. They really need a goal scorer leading the line, look at how Lukaku has already helped transform Uniteds habit of drawing games.

The offer that Barcenlona had for Coutinho included addons that were close to impossible like ballon d'or, scoring most goals in la liga and other things, think the real sum was around €80M, with only €25M up front.

If they weren't going to take the first offer for Coutinho, there was no reason to take any of them, because they'd have needed all that time to actually spend that money. And even then, trying to find 1) a replacement for Coutinho that someone was willing to sell and 2) a proven striker in addition was not going to be easy, and likely would have failed no matter how much money they spent. Shit, Barca had to spend upwards of 115 Million just to get Dembele. We couldn't even get Keita until next summer despite throwing insane numbers around. Aubameyang would have cost all the Coutinho money. ALL OF IT. And we still would have a shitty defense, a shitty left back (since Klopp doesn't want to start Robertson for some inscrutable reason), a sketchy as fuck #1 and #2 goalkeeper (I'm to the point where I'd rather they just fucking start Danny Ward and suck up the inevitable fumbles he'll make learning) and no good holding/deep lying playmaker midfielder type.

I'm already a bit resigned to "next season" while hoping we can at least get into other group stages of the Champions league and finish top 4 but I'm not entirely sure we can do that right now.

Fuck you USA. Now we have to play Honduras.

What a complete shitshow. Fire everyone from Sunil down to the goddamned janitor and start over. Fucking disgraceful.

How the fuck do you lose to T&T?

Panama won their game by scoring a goal that went outside the post which ended up eliminating USA. Can't believe that they still have those sort of issues in football.

I blame Trump :grin:

This. I don't even get the pleasure of trash talking with my colleagues up to this tie. Now I only get to go into work and make fun of them today. This World Cup is going to blow.

I think FOX bought the US rights to the World Cup for $200M this year. They are going to lose half their money on that venture now.

Panamanians seemed pretty happy. (https://twitter.com/James_Dart/status/917989261500174337) Commentators sounded like they had a seizure, hilarious.

Australia makes the world cup.

Italy and the USA don't.


muahahahahahah. SUCK IT ITALY (no I haven't forgotten your shitty diving from 2006)


Also Arsenal and Spurs this weekend. How much with Arsenal lose by?

Having Italy miss out almost makes the US choke job worth it.

4 premier league teams won their group and all 5 advanced through the group stages in champions league. With liverpool you can never be sure what will happen, they can lead 3-0 and either they win with 7-0 or its a draw. Very different compared to how it has been before.

Still looks like Barca or PSG's title to win.

Can Man City compete with the big boys or can Man U pull it out of its butt, Mourinho bus parking style?

That's the only way I see an EPL team winning the thing.  Man City could win on talent alone.

I wish I could find a link to the article I read recently which pointed out, in face of all the criticism the EPL gets for its CL failures, that the EPL is actually a competitive league which takes a greater toll on its teams vs La Liga which is basically 2.5 teams, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga which are 1.5 teams and Serie A which is 1, maybe 2 depending on the financial solvency of your favourite team. EPL has 4 teams that could legitimately win the whole thing (CHE, MC, MU, TOT), 2 teams that can spoil those teams chance on any given match day (Liverpool, Arsenal) and a bunch of other teams that have can compete on a day with those teams.

tldr, fuck La Liga fanbois.

As a Liverpool fan, I'd be fine if we got out of the next stage, anything beyond that is gravy. I don't think any of the English teams are good bets to win it all - City is the only one I think has a reasonable chance but they've just never done all that well in the Champion's League. Last year's advance to the semis was a bit of an aberration (and ended with a flop) but they are better this year so who knows? Mourinho is more likely to get United farther than the team likely deserves, and you can never count out Chelsea. Spurs are just Spurs and are just as likely as Liverpool to be world-beaters one day before losing to Scunthorpe United 6-0.

EDIT: As for the Bundesliga, Bayern has kind of warped the perception of the league in the last few years thanks to buying up ALL the talent from the rest of the league, but as a competitive league, it's pretty damn good. The top 5 places are all up for grabs, it's just that Bayern has such a wealth of talent. I think both La Liga and Bundesliga teams do better in the Champion's League because they actually take a goddamn winter break rather than play 2-3 times the number of fixtures in December and January. English teams are just fucking decimated by the time the round of 16 starts up.

Confirmed that Liverpool has bought Virgil Van Dijk from Southampton. Telegraph mentions £75M transfer fee, not said if there is any addons included in that number.

I'm all for Liverpool buying a top defender, but fuck me, that's an insane amount of money to pay for one even one of his caliber. Plus, it's not like paying Southampton a fuckload of money for a defender has worked out so well in the past.  :oh_i_see:

If it helps us secure a champ league spot for next year its damn well worth it. Relying on just Matip, Lovren and Klavan for the rest of the season would have been a huge gamble, especially since matip have been away a bit due to injuries and lovren tends to be out due to injuries sometimes as well.

Viktor nilsson lindelöf cost something like £30M and mourinho keeps him on the bench for good reasons.

Liverpool agreed with barcelona on coutinho transfer, report of €160M including addons, regardless shitload of money for that sort of player. Coutinho is good but he aint that good.

I love Coutinho, but yeah, that kind of money is just fuckstupid. The whole transfer makes no logical sense especially now - Barca are well-clear of the La Liga title, Coutinho can't play in the Champions League so can't help them there (other than maybe weakening Liverpool's CL chances in case Barca plays against them). Liverpool, meanwhile, need Coutinho for securing next season's Champions League place, as well as FA cup runs and actual Champions League games. If I had been in Liverpool's shoes, I've have tried to set the transfer fee to take effect in the summer, like they did with RB Leipzig's Keita. I'm sure what happened here though was that Coutinho just didn't want that at all and was ready to start pitching a fit. So we basically got a situation that's probably bad for everyone involved.

Here's hoping Liverpool can convince Monaco to part with Thomas Lemarr or find someone of similar capabilities. Top 4 is going to be a tough struggle if they don't, as evidenced by needing a soft penalty and a corner to beat a really weak Everton side.

Much as I'd love it, that shit ain't happening. Dortmund is probably going to have to sell Aubamyeng so they'll need all the scorers they can get. If he was healthy, I'd say they should get Schurrle from Dortmund but I don't think that'll happen either.

Its minute 65 of the Liverpool City game and I just want to post here that I wouldn't be surprised at ALL if Liverpool gives up this lead.

Nevermind.  Salah!  :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill:

Who needs Coutinho eh  8-)

Waaaaiit

Who would have thought Salah would turn out the be the goal scorer Liverpool needed, beautiful finish that was.

That was clearly the best Premier League game of the season from any perspective except maybe that of a Man City fan. Liverpool tried to piss it away, they tried REALLY HARD. Ox was Man of the Match for my money, followed by Andy Robertson. Salah was actually muted most of the game but he's just too goddamn good. I expect him to be playing at the Bernebeau by Sept. 2019.

Karius is CLEARLY not good enough to be #1, as he's not even as good as Mignolet. While that first goal was set up by Gomez's insanely bad play on that lofted ball, Karius' just got his positioning all wrong, which he does often. His kicking is as bad as Mignolet's and he's no better on crosses into the box. Mignolet is actually a better shot stopper, but neither one is good enough at the level Liverpool want to be at.

Sanchez going to United most likely in the next 48 hours. Arsenal is currently Arsenaling it up and I think may finally have dropped themselves out of the annual race for the Arsene Wenger 4th Place Trophy.

Liverpool 2 - Tottenham 1 - Referees 2

Fuck Prem refs. Fuck them in their tiny little earholes. They deserve to have to deal with VAR.

It feels like our defense improved a lot lately with van dijk brought in and karius replacing mignolet. The defender that truly shines right now is andy robertson, his positioning is so much better than moreno and he adds a lot to our offense as well. Our defense can still screw up on things but 3 months ago I was a nervous wreck every time we conceded a corner.

This is true but I still think they should get a new keeper in the summer. Karius has gotten better but his kicking and distribution lacks something and he's still prone to some bad positioning. Robertson though may be the best money they spent in the summer other than Salah, of course (who is certainly the biggest value for money in the entire Prem). He's still young and prone to some fuckups like today against West Ham, but he's nothing like the utter colossal cluster in defense that Moreno is. And Alexander-Arnold on the other side has made Clyne's long-term injury immaterial. He's made a number of naive young player mistakes but what he offers on offense makes up for it most of the time.

Iran coach alleges Lionel Messi is not human (https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2018/02/28/messi-should-be-banned-until-fifa-proves-hes-human-says-iran-coach).

Ronaldo scored a good goal.

Agreed.

Also Zlatan's debut for the LA Galaxy   :drill:

Liverpool destroys Man City in Champions League. God that team is fun to watch.

They really are. Now I don't know how much different game will be at the Etihad but if Salah's injury keeps him out, I am in no way comfortable with a 3-0 lead. Especially considering Henderson will be suspended for that match. Hendo and Milner were just bossing that game in midfield right up until Salah went off and the Ox had to go forward. He's so much better in that midfield role than in the front three. Still, we managed a clean sheet so no away goals to worry about next week.

Every Liverpool fan has been dreading the moment we see Salah's hamstring snap because we all remember how good Torres was before his went. Sames goes for Sturridge. Seems like I've spent over a decade living and dying by the strength of someone's dodgy hammy.

That penalty call was stupid as fuck. No way that this was a penalty.

Champion’s League needs VAR

um. the fuck you say?

its controversial because any pk in stoppage time in a tied series where a team had to come back from down 3 in the first leg is going to be controversial but you have a player in front of goal with a clear chance who has a defender come from directly behind him, through/around him. saying no way that was a penalty is just retarded. its a call so close you have to spin it several angles and slow it down and then decide what does or doesn't constitute enough contact / resistance to going down.

which means its a close as fuck call that from a refs pov in real time is probably going to look like a penalty considering how alone in front of goal he was and how good the chance is if someone doesn't jump on his back and "knock" him down.

Lol it was a clear penalty.

That... was not a penalty. Especially not in a situation as big as that one. Jesus, I get more contact from people at the fucking grocers than happened in that penalty box. And then to send Buffon off for telling the ref what a dumb fucking call that was is just ridiculous.

Buffon pushed him, repeatedly. Ref had to send him off by this point, basically.

The "don't decide the game" argument means that its not a "not penalty" as much as a "light penalty you'd rather not decide a game by" for the record.

Also the "don't decide the game" thing really shouldn't be applied to when a guy standing open on the 6 yard line goes to ground as he controls the ball right? That's a super golden scoring chance. That was taken away. By a light penalty you could live with not being called maybe. I can see that stance. Saying it should never have been called or that there's no way its a penalty is just bullshit

I wouldn't call that penalty in the first minute at the center circle, much less at such a crucial time in the game. It just wasn't a fucking penalty or a foul. Live speed I said it wasn't a foul. Hell, Raheem Sterling tossed Virgil Van Djik aside on the touchline and stole the ball which led to Man City's first goal on Tuesday night and it wasn't called a foul, despite having more clear contact and an attempt to win the ball by unfair means. And that's from a ref who just loves handing out cards based on how he reacted the rest of the game.

Its a 50/50 call at best.

That it gave shithead Madrid and shithead Ronaldo the victory just makes it terrible. That team and its fans can go suck it.

Penalty was harsh, Vazquez seemed to be already going down before contact was made. The red card for Buffon was egregious considering it was going to be his last game and the timing of the decision. Left a sour taste, but the penalty was impressive under the circumstances.

and Ronaldo was being a cunt about it afterwards, ripping his shirt of and flexing and celebrating like he just broke Apolllo Creeds back.

Buffon was out of line, but considering the circumstances - one of the all time great keepers playing his last CL game, never having won it. Faced with a dubious injury time penalty, after making a near historic coming back. It's quite an understandeable reaction. Oliver should portion some of the blame as he was the silent sullen little child he always is in these situations and had lost control.

Nothing wrong with a simple word and a yellow card, explain why you think it's a penalty even if you're wrong. Then another yellow if the outburst continues.

So now Liverpool gets Roma. To say that I'm happy with that choice would be an understatement. I did not want either Real or Bayern in the semis.

PLEASE BAYERN, BEAT THESE REAL MADRID FUCKERS.

Unlikely

In other news, the sun rose in the east today, and Donald Trump said something stupid.

After this weeks CL semis I have only three things to say:

- the semis have probably been the most appalling refereeing I have seen in a long time, maybe ever. So many shit calls, about 5 - 8 clear penalties not given and absolutely useless goal line referees. VAR can't come soon enough.
- fuck UEFA's/FIFA's interpretation of handballs. What gets and what doesn't get called a handball is utterly inconsistent. It's so fucked that the "rule" is not even consitently applied in a single game by the same Ref. Does there have to be a move towards the ball or not? Fuck if I know because the Refs clearly don't.
- Even a decidedly mediocre Real Madrid side is pretty much unbeatable and against the almost non-existant Liverpudlian defense they'll have a field day if they needed only 2 out of 2 shots on goal to sink Bayern. It's like playing FIFA on easy mode with all assists on.

Sometimes I think that they'd even win without a manager which makes me doubt that Zidane is actually the great manager people make him out to be or if it's simply a case of any old doofus being able to win with this team.

Ronaldo scores 55% of all goals Real makes. If he ever retires or has a career ending injury (he's 33, retirement is only a few years off, basically) Real are royally fucked. Ronaldo is basically worth 1 - 2 goals per match. Except when he doesn't even show up, like against Bayern.

The refs were fucking terrible in both the Liverpool/Roma games. Roma was gifted two handball penalties that should never have been fucking called. I'm not sure what the refs think a player is supposed to do with their hands in either of those situations, since their arms were at their sides and not moving forward when they were struck by the ball. The one against Klavan was fucking ridiculous.

I wouldn't be so sure that Real Madrid will roll over Liverpool, despite Liverpool's really shitty defense. For one thing, Bayern is good but they don't really have a player of Salah's capability in the front line. Lewandowski is getting a big long in the tooth and he's never been what I'd consider a great athlete that can break down good defensive lines like Salah/Firmino/Mane can. Also, Real Madrid's defense isn't that great either. Zidane is not a great coach, he's coaching a team full of superstars that rely on getting the ball to a superstar and hoping he hits the back of the net. Early in the season when Ronaldo couldn't score, the team wasn't playing well and it's why they didn't win the league. There was even talk of Zidane getting shitcanned, talk which stopped once Ronaldo started scoring again.

Liverpool's biggest problem isn't even defense these days - it's keeping a midfield healthy enough to field 3 players who won't trip over their own dicks. Henderson/Milner/Winaldjum are the only ones left standing. Fuck's sake, Klopp had to resort to putting a completely out of his depth Trent Alexander-Arnold into the central midfield 3 against Stoke so as to not wear James Milner out (and TAA played really bad in that role). If the midfield three pair can dominate like they did against Roma in the first leg, Real Madrid is going to have problems. Liverpool is about as deep as a puddle at every position. The starting XI are good if not great but take any of those out and UH-OH.

Another day another shit call in a semi. Ref gave a corner to Marseilles that wasn't one. Marseilles then scores the 2:1 in the 118' minute. Salzburg are furious.

THis shit is getting ridiculous.

My handball interpretation.

It's not just one rule it's two, hand to ball and ball to hand.

• First is mostly seen when a player jumps for the ball and swats the ball with his naturally swinging arm, this appears to be a penalty regardless of intent.
  
• Secondly it's intentionally leaving it in (an unnatural?) position if you have time to move it out of the way, here the ref needs to deduce intent which is very difficult.

With just the finals left for this club seasons I guess its time to sum up PL

I was wrong on ManC, didn't expect them to be this dominant in the league, a complete team except when it comes to champions league. Five seasons without Ferguson and fifth season behind ManC. Kane did a great season but the star of this season was Salah. Wtf is it with chelsea the year after they win the league.. Its a shame that the Arsene Wenger era ended the way it did #lolarsenal

Chelsea's biggest problem is they can't be happy with a manager for longer than it takes to win one title. Conte is a prickly fucker and he was really stupid to feud with Diego Costa but he got results. Now that Abramovich isn't the biggest spender in the Premier League, he's finding it difficult to compete and I love it. Arsenal is suffering for their reluctance to fire Wenger last season when they had the chance. Kroenke is a cheap piece of shit and unless they get an absolute gem of a manager, I think their decline is going to be longer and harder than both Liverpool and Man U.'s.

Next season we get to see Mourinho's inevitable flameout, only this time it won't come after a title. He's already been throwing his players under the bus this year and teams have mostly figured out his tactics enough to knick a 1-0 win or a draw enough times to keep Man U from winning the title. I'm hoping Liverpool manages to keep Salah (because holy shit is he amazing), manages to add quality and depth to the midfield, and hope that next season doesn't rely on Liverpool supporters praying to the Gods for Salah's hamstrings (like we did for Torres and Suarez and Sturridge).

AND THEN LOLSPURS who will not challenge for a title because they are Spurs.

We already signed Naby Keita for next season while Emre Can will head to Italy on a free transfer. Its a good thing that  africa cup of nations happens during summer but the big question mark is how much game time players will have during world cup.

Sergio Ramos being a grade A cunt. Should probably get into Judo instead. Also should have seen Red.

edit: Stands there and grins right after. He knew exactly what he did at that moment.

Without Karius it would still be 1:1.

I can’t imagine how he’ll recover from that.

Salah out of the World Cup, dislocated shoulder. Egypt must be gutted

Replay right now. Ramos elbow smashes Loris Karius right on the head in the 49th Minute about a minute before his first mistake. Knocks him right the fuck down.

Edit: https://mobile.twitter.com/danielmack/status/1000484285172895747
https://streamable.com/i60jl

Ref is right there and doesn’t throw him off

Sorry for the post storm.
Ronaldo being the always classy twat basically announces his resignation right after the win. With his team mates calling him out on Twitter.

Holy shit was that an amazingly horrible fucking game. FUCK SERGIO RAMOS. FUCK HIM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HARD. That diving, whining piss baby has the gall to complain about niggling fouls on him after the goddamn rugby tackle he does on Salah to take him out of the game. And SUPER FUCK those idiot refs who continually just let shit go for Real Madrid.

And I just read Ronaldo's comments. Fuck that whiny diving twatty little fucking cunt. Was he even playing today?

You could see how miffed he was that Bale stole the fucking show with that one in a million bicycle kick

Rumor has it that he wants to leave Spain because he’s miffed that he had to pay nearly 20 million in back taxes he defrauded Spain out of to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. Because the Spanish tax authority raided his yacht and because club president didn’t defend him against the Spanish authorities.

First time in ages I watched anything to do with soccer and I picked this?  This is supposedly the best soccer has to offer?  Apart from the insane bicycle kick goal, this game was dog shit.

This would have been the best soccer has to offer if Sergio Ramos wasn't a dirty shitgibbon. Mo Salah is one of the most exciting players on the planet and when he, Mane and Firmino are clicking, they are electric to watch. When refs don't protect those guys from constant, intentional fouls, there is no greater 3-man front line available, IMO.

Also, Loris Karius is shit. Liverpool fans have been asking "Do we need to buy a new goalkeeper in the summer?" That question has now been answered with an emphatic "OH HELL YES." He had gotten better lately but neither he nor his backup (who used to be #1) Simon Mignolet are Champions League caliber keepers. My god, that was just fucking horrible.

Yeah, that goalkeeper was awful.  Nothing he could have done for the bicycle kick goal, but the other two were all on him.  He literally cost them the game.

Mignolet is orders of magnitude worse than Karius. Also Karius has played an exceptional season and PL campaign up to his two mistakes. He kept more clean sheets in the CL than any other GK up to the final. He's not bad. Maybe not CL level but not bad either
Also Klopp has a new GK on his list of purchases for next season even before the CL final.

Yeah, I'm not saying Karius has been bad because he certainly got better. But he's like Everton level of good, not for a team that wants to win the Prem and/or the CL. And frankly, you just can't recover from the kinds of huge mental errors he made in this game. I'd actually be happier with Danny Ward in goal than him or Mignolet. At least Ward has youth and inexperience as an excuse. Neither Karius or Mignolet can do that with the amount of experience they have. They both just make absolute boneheaded decisions at the worst times.

Gotta love Sergio Ramos for being so good at being a bastard  :heart:

To wheel out the old phrase - it's a mans game, and it was men against boys last night. Modric wow, gotta be the best midfielder in the world right now.

Thank god that shitty season is over, probably the worst Premier league I have witnessed. Zero excitement, especially if you’re a United fan.

Your manager is Jose Mourinho. He sucks the fun out of football for everyone.

Watching the Mourinho style is what gave SAF the brain hemorrhage.

A follow up to Karius and the CL final

According to his post game medical Karius had 26 of 30 indicators pointing to a concussion.
https://www.massgeneral.org/News/newsarticle.aspx?id=6792

So Ramos‘ elbow to the head gave Karius a concussion which very likely contributed to his mistakes following the incident.

From the official statement: „After carefully reviewing game film and integrating a detailed history – including his reported present and immediate post-contact subjective symptoms – physical examination and objective metrics, we have concluded that Mr. Karius sustained a concussion during the match May 26, 2018.
At the time of our evaluation, Mr. Karius’s principal residual symptoms and objective signs suggested that visual spatial dysfunction existed and likely occurred immediately following the event. Additional symptomatic and objectively noted areas of dysfunction also persisted. It could be possible that such deficits would affect performance.“

So Sergio Ramos MVP of the match for Real Madrid.

Sergio Ramos is a whiny, cheating cunt.

I smell bullshit.

I linked to the official Statement of the Massachusetts General one of the top medical institutions of the US. If this is bullshit to you then so be it.

I mean, the blunders he made could certainly be due to a concussion - they were certainly braindead enough.

I still want Liverpool to get another keeper because it's not like that was the first time he made a series of absolute howlers.

Holds about as much water as Trumps medical statement. They sent Karius over so they could fudge a medical report using one of their own doctors. No good brain injury doctors in England? Oh wait Karius was on holiday and got a migraine. Yeh right.

The owners of Liverpool also own the Boston Red Sox, and there have been multiple cases of them sending their injured players over to Massachusetts for special treatment, especially Daniel Sturridge. It's not that fucking strange, you yobbo.

Well that's in line with my point, and why I think it lacks credibility - it's their own bloody doctor. I'm not buying it. To boot, wasn't the elbow after the first goal? I think someone needs to check that.

No the elbow was less than two minutes before the goal

It's not like Liverpool fans or the team are searching for an excuse of why they lost - losing Salah to that fucking ridiculous tackle was probably enough to doom us. And Liverpool fans were not inclined to give Karius a lot of room for error despite his improved form over the last few months. The only reason to "fake" this would be as cover for not spending on a keeper this summer and I don't think Klopp is pigheaded enough to think that even a non-concussed Karius is better than someone like Oblak or Allison.

Well fake would be a bit harsh he did get a bit of a whack, fudging it a fair bit though. I doubt it was a serious concussion anymore than getting the ball in the head, and nothing we don't see every other odd game. To release a statement about it seven days later seems like there's an agenda.

Your tinfoil is showing. To what benefit?  :oh_i_see:

So we can still have faith in a goalie everyone thinks is rather useless?  :why_so_serious:

Retain some value when selling him on. Or if you don’t manage to sign anyone better.

Look, they won't be selling Karius this summer no matter who they bring in, IMO. His value, while it might have been a little higher with his recent run of form, was still not likely to be very high. They only paid 4 million quid for him to begin with, and even at his best, he's never covered himself in glory. The only reason his value would have improved is the natural inflation of the market. They'd get more from selling Mignolet, who has sat on the bench for the past 6 months, than they would Karius even though he started the last half of the season. Mignolet is on record as saying he is not there to be #2 so he's gone. Even if you pay big bucks for a keeper this summer, you keep Karius because he's relatively cheap and your next two options are Danny Ward (who does look good but has almost zero Prem experience) and another young guy they are high on but who also have little experience. Plus, Karius was Klopp's (bargain) choice, not Mignolet, so all signs point to Karius staying no matter what happened in the UCL final.

Liverpool fans don't want either of them, but if they are like me, they know this equation. It ain't hard. Mignolet is gone, Karius is staying. The only benefit to give him an excuse for such a series of howlers is to keep the fans off his back when he does play - and frankly, there ain't nothing anyone can do to make that happen. He and Mignolet both are on the fans' shit list and aren't getting off without MAJOR effort, by which I mean, be an instrumental part of bringing home the UCL or the Prem trophy.

Good points and yeh I'm clutching at straws as to the why they would release it, but it certainly wasn't for the benefit of mankind and just seems pretty much a PR stunt.  Now you have Courtois (https://www.football365.com/news/courtois-questions-whether-karius-really-had-concussion) and Toni Kroos both questioning it's viability, Courtois is a knobhead though.

Releasing injury news on players isn't that odd. I think it's more odd that every dickhead who wasn't even involved in the game like Courtois would have anything much to say about it.

Ramos can choke on all the dicks, everywhere, for all time. He is a cunt of the highest order.

First time I've ever seen a team release a post hoc concussion report on a player who got a bit of a whack. Eventually every time someone heads the ball they'll start releasing them to explain why they got a 5 out of ten instead of 7  :why_so_serious:

It's taking the piss and I'm not buying it, and Ramos is right that little pussy Salah should have got his injection and played on with his bust arm.

Piss off with that bullshit. Ramos tackled him like it was a rubgy pitch and Salah did try to play through the pain. Ramos needs to learn what sport he's playing or just, you know, stop being a whiny little bitch every time the ref calls him on a foul, or stop acting like he's been assaulted whenever someone gives him a slight nudge. He is a dirty tackler, almost as bad as his former teammate Pepe. At least Pepe had the balls to admit he was knocking motherfuckers around.

I think we've found the most obnoxious sport fan. Fucking Real Madrid fans make Yankees fans look nice.

Also Benzema was offside.

How dare you call me a Madrid fan, horrible thing to say.

Lets say I'm not a fan of Liverpool and their victim culture.

Or in other words, a Man U asshole.

A name calling now, smooth.

Yes I relished in Ramos tearing those Liverpool cry babies a new one.

If that makes me a horrible person, then so be it.

Well you are a Man U fan.  :why_so_serious:

True, I have a responsibility  :awesome_for_real: