2021/22 Premier League & General Football Discussion

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Following on from the Belenenses v Benfica farce, it seems that it has now been confirmed all 13 Belenenses players have the Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa last week, accounting for every known case currently in Portugal.

Defender Cafu Phete, one of those to have tested positive, recently returned from South Africa having played for his country during the international break. So it does not take Poirot to work out the source of infection in the team. ;) 🙄 Wonder how that has gone down in the squad. 🤔
 
Messi has won his seventh Balon D'or, Lewandowski second and Jorginho third, Ronaldo was only 6th meaning its the first time he has finished outside top three since 2010!, Kante 5th, Salah 7th and Mbappe 9th. Donnarumma won the Lev Yashin award for goalkeeper of the year and Lewandowski won the new Striker of the year award.

Ralf Rangnick was officially appointed Man united interim manager earlier today, he will take up a consultancy role in the Summer, most of the existing United backroom staff will stay for now. Rangnick still waiting on a visa and will hopefully be in charge for the Arsenal game on Thursday.

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Midweek Premier League games.

Tuesday.
Leeds v Crystal Palace (8.15)
Newcastle v Norwich

Wednesday.
Aston Villa v Man City (8.15)
Everton v Liverpool (8.15)
Southampton v Leicester
Watford v Chelsea
West Ham v Brighton
Wolves v Burnley

Thursday.
Man United v Arsenal (8.15)
Tottenham v Brentford

Kick offs are 7.30pm unless otherwise stated

All games are streamed live on Amazon Prime.
 
Ridiculous Ballon D’Or results. How is Haaland 11th?? Messi seems to be the default choice as they clearly couldn’t award it to Jorginho. :lol:
 
OooAhh Cantona
Ridiculous Ballon D’Or results. How is Haaland 11th?? Messi seems to be the default choice as they clearly couldn’t award it to Jorginho. :lol:
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Messi did break some all time records this year, but he hasn't actually been the best player in the world this year IMO. I was hoping it'd go to Lewandowski, he more than deserved it last year when it was cancelled, and he's not been too shabby this year either.
 
Messi pressuring France Football to retroactively reward Lewandowski with the Balloon for the 2020 season. What a lad.
 
I'm struggling to understand what is the criteria to win a ballon d'or now. It's not goals scored nor trophies... If they kept the criteria that gave the ballon d'or to Modric in 2018, then Jorginho would have won. But apparently, winning Copa America is more important than the UCL and Euro in the same year. If they are based on individual performances/goals, then Lewa should have won it.

But, the award was given by France Football... to a player that plays in France...
 
7 is a lot. To think that he should be on 10, but 7 will do.
 
andrea
7 is a lot. To think that he should be on 10, but 7 will do.
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Totally unbiased opinion, right? :lol:

To think that Iniesta, Sneijder and now Lewandowski should have one each. I'm pretty sure I'm forgeting someone... oh, Van Dijk in 2019.
 
dacc10
Totally unbiased opinion, right? :lol:

To think that Iniesta, Sneijder and now Lewandowski should have one each. I'm pretty sure I'm forgeting someone... oh, Van Dijk in 2019.
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He is just incredible.
 
andrea
3hxd5Zj.jpg


He is just incredible.
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He is, but Lewandowski should've won this year. Messi will rightly go down as one of the best players in history. But he's won 2 or 3 Ballon d'Ors too many. As @dacc10 said, there have been other standout players in some seasons who perhaps deserved to win.
 
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I mean, if the award was straight up given to the best/most decisive player, then the last 12 years should have been given to either Ronaldo or Messi, depending on preference, as those two have been above everyone else when it comes to consistency. If that's the case, then 2018 should have gone to Ronaldo. If the Modric Ballon d'Or is to be taken seriously and as the standard to achieve such award, then Jorginho should have won it based on the Euro's and UCL wins, and the same goes for Van Dijk in 2019, Sneijder in 2010 and Iniesta in 2012. If being the best goalscorer in the year is used as the metric, then it's Lewa.

I still find it weird that it only counts from January 1st, and not the entirity of the previous season. If the ballon d'or is given in November, then in the very least, should count with the stats since the same month from the previous year. If it's just the calendar year and not the season, then give the award in January. If it's for the season, give the award in the Summer.

And some of those stats are kind of irrelevant. 2.5k passes for a Barcelona player is very different to a striker from any other team. I'm more impressed by Benzema in that regard. Any other player playing for a team that has a lot less ball possession, won't make as many passes. Almost every stat relies on ball possession. A more accurate metric would be X stat per touch or possession.

I'm also wondering what is labeled as a big chance missed.

Anyways, some journalist from France Football traded shots at Ronaldo, for some reason, which is just weird prior to a Ballon d'Or nomination. Blatter did something similar in the past. Either way, even pro-Messi pundits are against the nomination, which says a lot.
 
Messi bagged 40 goals and chipped in with 15 assists in the worst Barcelona team for what, 20-25 years? He also pretty much single-handedly won the Copa America for Argentina, so people can finally stop throwing "he's crap at international level" at him. The Ballon d'Or isn't awarded solely on one calendar year's effort so him not being the focal point of PSG is also irrelevant.

Should you be surprised that Messi won? No. Whether you think it's rigged or deserved, there's no surprise in this. What is surprising is why people care about awards like the Ballon d'Or anyway?

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The whole it's not really that important in the grand scheme of things therefore shouldn't be discussed is a weak argument. It's football, this is a football discussion, the Ballon d'Or is supposedly the most prestigious (supposedly) award that goes to an individual player each year.

Whether anyone thinks Messi deserves it or not, it's just an opinion and people are welcome to them whether they agree with one another or not. No one is claming it's an issue of universal importance and we should lobby world leaders to rectify it, they're just discussing it and who they think deserved it, be it Messi or not.
 
Newcastle 1-1 Norwich
Leeds 1-0 Palace

Not a lot to shout about tonight, Newcastle had Ciaran Clark sent off after he was last man and he pulled Pukki down, However Wilson gave Newcastle the lead from the penalty spot on the hour mark and then Pukki equalized with a great volley in added time. Leeds Palace was mostly dull affair, a Guehi handball led to a 92nd minute Leeds penalty which was scored by Raphinha. Newcastle stay bottom and winless in the league.

We don't talk about Women's football much on these threads but tonight England beat Latvia 20-0 in a qualifier! (not a typo!) There were hat-tricks for Mead, Russo and White who become England's all time female top scorer, Hemp scored four and Stanway had six assists, England had 30 shots on target and 86% possession!
 
Southampton 2-2 Leicester
Wolves 0-0 Burnley
West Ham 1-1 Brighton
Watford 1-2 Chelsea
Villa 1-2 Man City
Everton 1-4 Liverpool

Much more drama tonight than last night, firstly there were two medical emergencies involving fans, one at the Watford-Chelsea game were play was suspended for around 30 minutes after 13 minutes played when a fan suffered a cardiac arrest, the Watford fan is now thankfully stable in hospital and obviously credit goes to the medical team plus Marcos Alonso who alerted the ref to the situation, next in the Southampton game there was a delay to the start of the second half, not much is known about what happened there but the fan was conscious when he/she was taken away from the crowd.

And then to the Football, Liverpool battered Everton with goals from the 7th best player in the world Mo Salah (with two) Henderson and Jota, Gray made it 1-2 to Everton and they had their chances but there was a gulf in class, Benitez's job must be under some serious pressure now, Dias and Silva with City's goals over Villa (Silva's was a banger!) Watkins got Villa's goal. Mount and Ziyech with the Chelsea goals and Dennis scored for Watford who put up a fight. Neal Maupay with a 89th minute equalizer for Brighton with Soucek scoring early for West Ham. Bednarek and Adams put Southampton in front twice but were pegged back by goals from Evans and Maddison for Leicester.
 
I haven't really followed Premier League recently. Though today, I did see the second half of Everton hosting Liverpool. LIV was up 2-1 and hammered in two more goals. Good job overall by Liverpool FC. I did see someone throw a flare onto the pitch in the Everton vs. Liverpool game and even some guy arrested by police in the same game.
 
Much like David de Gea, the rumbling about that Emile Smith-Rowe goal isn't going to be stopping any time soon.
 
Spurs 2-0 Brentford
Man United 3-2 Arsenal

Slightly controversial first goal but I can see why it was given, Fred accidently trod on De Gea's foot which the ref didn't see so Smith Rowe put the ball in an empty net, goal was given via a VAR check. Fernandes equalized with a nice finish before half time and it was 1-1 at the break, Ronaldo scored his 800th career goal capping off a nice move with an assist from Rashford but Arsenal hit back just 98 seconds later thanks to Odegaard, Odegaard then went from hero to zero with a clumsy challenge on Fred in the penalty area, it wasn't given initially but the ref had a look on the monitor then gave the penalty which Ronaldo convincingly converted and that's how the game finished, and it was a great game too with both sides going for it, but united win at home!

Didn't see the Spurs game, they won thanks to a Canos OG with the second goal from Son.
 
Michael Carrick has left Man United as first team coach, he was in caretaker charge more recently in the wake of Solskjaer sacking, it was his own decision which probably had to do with Rangnick coming in (he starts on Friday after his work permit come through on Thursday) and the fact that he will bring some of his own staff in.

Carrick had three games in charge against Chelsea Villareal and Arsenal all away from home and led the club to two wins and a draw which is admirable. he was of course a player at United from 06-18 and won five league titles and a champions league among other trophies, he moved into the coaching role after his retirement with Mourinho and then Solskjaer.
 
Serves players right for flopping to the floor and pretending they've had their foot amputated because someone lightly grazed them. I hope the giving of that first Arsenal goal is a wake up call for all the divers and play-actors that cry wolf in the hope of conning the referee.
 
Games this weekend.

Saturday.
Newcastle v Burnley
Southampton v Brighton
Watford v Man City (5.30 Sky)
West Ham v Chelsea (12.30 BT)
Wolves v Liverpool

Sunday.
Aston Villa v Leicester (4.30 Sky)
Leeds v Brentford
Man United v Crystal Palace
Tottenham v Norwich

Monday.
Everton v Arsenal (8pm Sky)

Weirdly only the one TV game on Sunday.
 
West Ham 3-2 Chelsea
Wolves 0-1 Liverpool
Southampton 1-1 Brighton
Newcastle 1-0 Burnley
Watford 1-3 Man City

Great win for West Ham in a thrilling game, they came from 0-1 and 1-2 down to win with a Masuaku winner in the 87th minute, great goals from Mount and Bowen, Man City now top the table after a routine win over Watford with Silva continuing his good form with two goals, Liverpool needed a 94th Origi winner to beat Wolves, Newcastle finally win a league game thanks to a Wilson strike on 40 minutes and they are now off the bottom.

West Ham have now beaten both Manchester clubs, Chelsea Liverpool and Leicester in the league this season....
 
A very solid first half performance from Manchester United today in the first game of Ralf’s red revolution. United ended up winning 1-0 against Palace.

The tempo from United did drop in the second half, but a fabulous goal by Fred sealed the win. Palace defended very well in the first half and it was very much attack v defence, you could see the higher tempo and pressing that was expected to come, but I think it’ll be a good few weeks before we can keep that up for a full game.
 
The fact that he named the same team that played two days before didn't help, the tiring was inevitable. Much improved performance though and early signs are encouraging.
 
MUSC4EVER
The fact that he named the same team that played two days before didn't help, the tiring was inevitable. Much improved performance though and early signs are encouraging.
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I agree, but I also expected it. With only 1 training session before the game I didn't think he would change the team.

Tiredness aside, I thought Telles had his best game for us and Dalot looks like he will suit the high press really well.

It could be tiredness, but McTominay looked like a weak link, he was nowhere near Fred's level of performance yesterday.
 
Everton 2-1 Arsenal.

Dramatic game, Odegaard took the lead for Arsenal but Richarlison had two goals chalked off for offside via VAR before he equalized, then a goal of the season contender from Demarai Gray in the 92nd minute got Everton a much needed win, it was a stunning strike, Godfrey had an accidental stamp on Tomiyasu's face which wasn't warranted a red card, there was a mass walk out scheduled by Everton fans on 27 minutes before the game but only a dozen or so left.

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FA Cup Third Round Draw.

Boreham Wood v AFC Wimbledon
Yeovil v Bournemouth
Stoke v Leyton Orient
Swansea v Southampton
Chelsea v Chesterfield
Liverpool v Shrewsbury
Cardiff v Preston
Coventry v Derby
Burnley v Huddersfield
West Brom v Brighton
Kidderminster v Reading
Leicester v Watford
Mansfield v Middlesbrough
Hartlepool v Blackpool
Hull v Everton
Bristol City v Fulham
Tottenham v Morcambe
Millwall v Crystal Palace
Port Vale v Brentford
Swindon v Man City
Wigan v Blackburn
Luton v Harrogate
Birmingham v Plymouth
Man United v Aston Villa
Wolves v Sheffield United
Newcastle v Cambridge
Barnsley v Ipswich/Barrow
Peterborough v Bristol Rovers
West Ham v Leeds
QPR v Rotherham
Charlton v Norwich
Notts Forest v Arsenal

@Famine are you doing an FA Cup thread this year??
 
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