2021/22 Premier League & General Football Discussion

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Famine
FPL: Mane and Salah aren't playing because of AFCON.
Liverpool: Have a game. Never mind that, have a goal each, guys.


FFS.
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That saved my team as I have Salah as captain, but made Lukaku Vice Captain this week :banghead:
 
Brentford 2-1 Villa
Leeds 3-1 Burnley
Everton 2-3 Brighton
Chelsea 2-2 Liverpool

A point apiece at Stamford Bridge in a thrilling game, some great goals from Pulisic and Salah and a banging volley from Kovacic, both keepers had to make some big saves as well, it was a depleted Liverpool team due to injury and Covid and Klopp had to miss out because of a positive test, Lukaku was dropped by Tuchel for being a ****, real winners here are Man City who are now 10 points clear.

Brentford came from behind to beat Villa, comfortable win for Leeds and a back and forth game between Everton and Brighton with Brighton just edging it.

Carabao Cup semi finals this week with FA Cup third round next weekend.
 
Man United 0-1 Wolves.

Didn't see the game...and I'm glad I didn't! Heard it was shocking from United....
 
MUSC4EVER
Man United 0-1 Wolves.

Didn't see the game...and I'm glad I didn't! Heard it was shocking from United....
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To be honest it wasn't good, but we've played much worse. First half we were poor, didn't control the game at all, it was all Wolves. Second half we actually started to create chances, Bruno made an impact when he came on, and I felt like a goal might be coming. Then Rashford came on and we lost the attacking intent down our left and Wolves scored against the run of play at that time (though thoroughly deserved overall).

As usual, we lost the game in midfield. McTominay keeps getting picked yet he's had 2 (maybe 3) decent games all season. I genuinely don't understand why we haven't given Donny a run there. Matic was poor also. We were late to every loose ball, didn't press as a team and didn't cut off the pass.

Defensively we played well, Jones played well albeit had a hand in the goal, a poor header from him. Shaw played very well. Varane and Wan-Bissaka both played well too. The goal was a good shot right on the inside of the far post, nothing De Gea could do about it. But no midfielders tracked back, so when Jones misplaced his header there was no one busting a gut to get back in case they needed to help out.

We desperately need a midfielder or two who don't mind pressing, have good positional awareness and are willing to put effort in for the full 90 minutes. I don't know where Matic and McTominay were for large periods as there was a gaping hole in the middle between our attacking 4 and defence that Wolves had free reign over.

Same old, same old.
 
Return of the Prodigal Son

 
I missed the Utd v Wolves game because I didn't realise how early it was on. 🙄
 
Liverpool have sent a request to the Football League to postpone their Carabao Cup semi final first leg against Arsenal on Thursday, they have suffered another Covid outbreak and had to cancel training today. they also have players injured and players taking part in AFCON.

Romelu Lukaku has issued a statement apologising and Tuchel has said that he is back in the squad, that should be the end of that matter now.

Newcastle have agreed a deal worth £12 million with Atletico Madrid for left back Kieran Trippier, Trippier will now travel to Newcastle for medical and to agree personal terms.

Southampton are under new ownership, they have confirmed a Serbian-born cable TV tycoon has agreed a £100 million takeover of the club.
 
Liverpool v Arsenal Carabao Cup ties have been rescheduled due to Liverpool's Covid outbreak, their assistant manager Pep Ljinders has tested positive and he would have taken charge for Liverpool due to Klopp's positive test and Liverpool have closed their training ground.

First leg will now be at Anfield on the 13th with the second leg at the Emirates on the 20th, the other semi final first leg between Chelsea and Spurs is going ahead tonight as planned despite reports of Covid issues at Spurs.
 
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Where's Neil Critchley and his under-23 players this time?
 
Pretty sure Critchley is Blackpool manager now...
 
daan
Where's Neil Critchley and his under-23 players this time?
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I saw this somewhere else too. Having to put a largely reserve/U23 team out with their coach in charge, whilst the main bulk of the first team squad and coaching staff is thousands miles away the night before in a FIFA mandated games is one thing. They could just have said **** the domestic cup competition, and then been hammered for not showing 'respect' by pulling out. 🤔 🙄

It is a bit different from a squad suffering with injuries, Covid cases to playing and support staff, past, current and those hopefully returning who may still be feeling the effects of it. The training ground being shut down to stop Covid spreading to even more of the staff, and some players going to the Africa Cup of Nations to reduce numbers available even more.

Ah, but Liverpool are a big team, so they should just be able to cope shouldn't they. 🙄 :banghead:

As it is, the EFL have made their decision, and they have been privy to the actual details of the situation.

There is a chance things may be not back to a situation where they may have the training ground open, and so are able to train, and have enough players for their next few games. Time will tell. And with the way the Omicron variant is spreading, there may be a lot more teams affected in similar ways over the next few months, and with how packed the schedule is for games, some games may have to be forfeited unless extreme changes to the length of the season are implemented. Hopefully things start to ease up for Covid cases at least. Again, time will tell.
 
Chelsea beat Spurs 2-0, Spurs were their own enemies again as they contributed to both goals, first goal looked like an own goal but was given to Havertz and the second was very much an own goal when Tanganga sliced a clearance which came of Ben Davies head and went in! It was all Chelsea in the first half with Spurs having zero shots on goal, a bit better from Spurs in the second half but not much, both Kane and a returning Lukaku had quiet nights.
 
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So its the FA Cup third round this weekend, I'm not going to post all the game as there are loads of them so instead I'll post the games that are on TV.

Friday.
Swindon v Man City (8pm ITV)

Saturday.
Millwall v Crystal Palace (12.45 ITV)
Swansea v Southampton (5.30 BBC Two Wales, BBC iPlayer)
Hull v Everton (5.30 BBC One, BBC iPlayer)

Sunday.
West Ham v Leeds (2pm ITV)
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal (5.10 ITV)

Monday.
Man United v Aston Villa (7.55 BBC One BBC iPlayer)

With regards to the other games there is one at 12.15 on Saturday, 4 at 12.30 Saturday, 10 at 3pm, 2 at 5.30 and one at 5.45. Sunday there one at 12.30 and six at 2pm.

ITV have taken over from BT Sport as one of the broadcasters, All the games at the moment are scheduled to go ahead with no news of any postponements yet ( that can change easily though!) the matchday squad rules for the Cup are less stringent than they are for the league so the message is you have youth players so use them.
 
MUSC4EVER
the games that are on TV
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Which are, predictably, a disgrace.

Anyone 'member when they put some minnows on the TV for the FA Cup Third Round, for some vital exposure, TV money, and one-off big crowds, and not just Premier League clubs and all-PL ties? I 'member.

Barnsley - Barrow, Kidderminster - Reading, or Luton - Harrogate would all be ideal. But no, got to keep the Prems happy.
 
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In 4 years, Phillips Coutinho has gone from a £120million signing to Barcelona to now being loaned out to an Aston Villa side that are 13th in the League. Wow.
Good signing and coup for Gerrard though
 
Famine
Which are, predictably, a disgrace.

Anyone 'member when they put some minnows on the TV for the FA Cup Third Round, for some vital exposure, TV money, and one-off big crowds, and not just Premier League clubs and all-PL ties? I 'member.

Barnsley - Barrow, Kidderminster - Reading, or Luton - Harrogate would all be ideal. But no, got to keep the Prems happy.
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It's all about keeping the rich rich and the poor poor.

For all the talk the PL does about money being passed down the leages they do pretty well at preventing them from getting exposure and funding that could really help them at times.
 
Kieran Trippier completes Newcastle move for around £12 million as they make an improved offer for Lille defender Sven Botman.

Rafa Benitez has said that Lucas Digne has told him he wants to leave Everton.
 
Famine
Which are, predictably, a disgrace.

Anyone 'member when they put some minnows on the TV for the FA Cup Third Round, for some vital exposure, TV money, and one-off big crowds, and not just Premier League clubs and all-PL ties? I 'member.

Barnsley - Barrow, Kidderminster - Reading, or Luton - Harrogate would all be ideal. But no, got to keep the Prems happy.
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Nice thought, but these company's pay for the rights, and have to get a return on their investment via advertising, BBC aside. The game on Saturday night as an example, I watched the game because it was Cit€h playing Swindon, if it were Luton v Swindon, I doubt I would have bothered. Long gone are the days I would watch all football on TV. The chance of a 'giant' being 'killed', is what attracts the casual viewer, and footy fan of neither of the teams involved.

The BBC also have to justify number of viewers too, but they have more options to choose 'interesting' games. But same deal with attracting most viewers.

With the situation Liverpool are in atm, the game against Shrewsbury Town could be a 'giant killing', but it hasn't been chosen as a televised game for this round. 🙄

Jimlaad43
In 4 years, Phillips Coutinho has gone from a £120million signing to Barcelona to now being loaned out to an Aston Villa side that are 13th in the League. Wow.
Good signing and coup for Gerrard though
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I thought it was £142m. ;) And because of the deal Barca gave Coutinho, they will apparently be paying over 50% of his wages while on loan. 😲 They would have to sell him for very little for someone to take on his expected wages, should he be a success for the rest of the season.

Coutinho is at the major crossroads of his career after a few very disappointing years. Very wise of Villa to get an option to buy, rather than a commitment to buy as part of the loan.
Dave A
It's all about keeping the rich rich and the poor poor.

For all the talk the PL does about money being passed down the leages they do pretty well at preventing them from getting exposure and funding that could really help them at times.
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Don't know how the Premier League control what games the media company's choose to show in the FA Cup, or League Cup! 🤔
 
redhed17
Don't know how the Premier League control what games the media company's choose to show in the FA Cup, or League Cup! 🤔
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I don't know either, not sure why I connected the PL with the FA cup :lol:, but it is designed to keep the rich clubs rich.
 
redhed17
Nice thought, but
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It's more than a nice thought - it's literally what happened for 80 years. This is the first "first" weekend of FA Cup football I can remember where there's no "Division 3" or lower team picked for a Saturday/Sunday TV game. Swindon - Man City is the only one involving a lower-tier team, and that was on Friday night.

For 2020/21 it was Chorley, Crawley, and Marine, in 2019/20 we got Rochdale and Gillingham, and in 2018/19 it was Woking and Newport.
 
I will do a proper round up of todays FA Cup games after the 5.30 kick-offs but the big news is that Newcastle have been knocked out by Cambridge!
 
Mansfield 2-3 Middlesbrough
Hartlepool 2-1 Blackpool
Coventry 1-0 Derby
Burnley 1-2 Huddersfield
Bristol City 0-1 Fulham (after extra time)
Millwall 1-2 Palace
West Brom 1-2 Brighton
Boreham Wood 2-0 Wimbledon
QPR 1-1 Rotherham (QPR won 8-7 on pens)
Port Vale 1-4 Brentford
Peterborough 2-1 Bristol Rovers
Newcastle 0-1 Cambridge
Leicester 4-1 Watford
Kidderminster 2-1 Reading
Barnsley 5-4 Barrow (after extra time)
Wigan 3-2 Blackburn
Swansea 2-3 Southampton (after extra time)
Hull 2-3 Everton (after extra time)
Chelsea 5-1 Chesterfield
Birmingham 0-1 Plymouth (after extra time)
Yeovil 1-3 Bournemouth

So the upsets were Newcastle knocked out by league two Cambridge, Huddersfield knocking out Burnley, Hartlepool knocking out Blackpool, non league sides Kidderminster and Boreham Wood beating league sides and both Wigan and Plymouth beating teams a division or two above them.
 
Luton 4-0 Harrogate
Wolves 3-0 Sheff United
West Ham 2-0 Leeds
Spurs 3-1 Morecambe
Stoke 2-0 Leyton Orient
Liverpool 4-1 Shrewsbury
Charlton 0-1 Norwich
Cardiff 2-1 Preston (after extra time)
Nott Forest 1-0 Arsenal

One upset being Forest beating a flat Arsenal team who didn't really do a lot, credit to Forest though who were great, Spurs and Liverpool survive scares as they were both 1-0 down.

FA Cup Fourth Round Draw.
Crystal Palace v Hartlepool
Bournemouth v Boreham Wood
Everton v Brentford
Southampton v Crawley
Kidderminster v West Ham
Cambridge v Luton
Peterborough v QPR
Huddersfield v Barnsley
Liverpool v Cardiff
Stoke v Wigan
Tottenham v Brighton
Man United v Middlesbrough
Nott Forest v Leicester
Chelsea v Plymouth
Man City v Fulham
Wolves v Norwich
 
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MUSC4EVER
Luton 4-0 Harrogate
Wolves 3-0 Sheff United
West Ham 2-0 Leeds
Spurs 3-1 Morecambe
Stoke 2-0 Leyton Orient
Liverpool 4-1 Shrewsbury
Charlton 0-1 Norwich
Cardiff 2-1 Preston (after extra time)
Nott Forest 1-0 Arsenal

One upset being Forest beating a flat Arsenal team who didn't really do a lot, credit to Forest though who were great, Spurs and Liverpool survive scares as they were both 1-0 down.

FA Cup Fourth Round Draw.
Crystal Palace v Hartlepool
Bournemouth v Boreham Wood
Everton v Brentford
Southampton v Crawley
Kidderminster v West Ham
Cambridge v Luton
Peterborough v QPR
Huddersfield v Barnsley
Liverpool v Cardiff
Stoke v Wigan
Tottenham v Brighton
Man United/Aston Villa v Middlesbrough
Nott Forest v Leicester
Man City v Fulham
Wolves v Norwich
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*Chelsea and Plymouth Argyle would like to mention that they are in the 4th round as well. ;)
 
Must have skipped that one!

Everton v Leicester game this week has been postponed again, it was rescheduled for Tuesday night but Leicester have injuries and Covid cases in their camp so cant put out a full team. Southampton v Brentford and West Ham v Norwich are playing on Tuesday and Wednesday, league cup second leg between Spurs and Chelsea is also on Wednesday and the rescheduled league cup game between Liverpool and Arsenal is on Thursday night and Klopp has said that during Liverpool's recent Covid troubles that there were a lot of false positives tests.
 
Man United 1-0 Aston Villa.

McTominay header in the 8th minute puts United in the fourth round, Villa were unlucky as they did really well in possession and had some great chances and you could definitely say that they were the better team, they had a goal controversially ruled out via VAR as Ramsey was in an offside position initially and then was deemed to have fouled Cavani, it was Okay from us and just that really, played pretty well at times but nothing amazing, body language of a few players still bad and I'm worried about Rashford as he just looks so despondent and down, hope everything is okay with him.

I have updated my post with the fourth round draw from yesterday and included Chelsea v Plymouth which I accidently left out.
 
We did what we needed to do today in many ways, it wasn't a terrible performance, pretty even in the first half, but Villa were better in the second half until they ran out of steam. It was one of those games that could've finished 4-4 or anything in between, but Villa switched off for the goal and that was the difference.

I'm not sure the VAR call was controversial, the player was offside then blocked Cavani's run towards the ball. Cavani may or may not have got to the ball, but he certainly would have had a chance, letter of the law that was the right decision. But had Villa been able to finish better they could well have taken it to extra time.

Not sure why McTominay got man of the match, he scored the winning goal and played well in the first 20-30 mins in my opinion, but I also think as a holding midfielder his job is in a large part to control the game, shut out the opposition and link the defence to attack. He is far too inconsistent and not just game to game, but within the same game, and Villa controlled the midfield tonight, so how does McTominay deserve man of the match? It was Varane for me, De Gea a close second.

We have two main problems that I can see, firstly that hole in the middle needs filling, we desperately need a proper defensive midfielder, someone with a better first touch than Fred. We can't keep playing box-to-box midfielders there.

Another problem is that our wide forwards are far too selfish. Every time Rashford and Greenwood get the ball, thier heads go sdown, they cut in and look for a shot. They ignore the overlap from the wing-backs and restrict the amount of chances our strikers get. You need to create chances for Ronaldo and Cavani (obviousely Ronaldo wasn't playing tonight but we don't create many chances for him whenhe's playing either). If we start to use the overlap we'll see more balls coming in from wide areas to our strikers.

Rashford definitely looks like something is wrong, he's playing like he needs to take everyone on, but he just needs to be consistent.
 
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Southampton thrashed Brentford 4-1 in one of the rearranged PL games tonight and we are going to get through those games as there is another one tomorrow in West Ham v Norwich and there is two more next Tuesday and another two next Wednesday.

Burnley's Chris Wood is heading to Newcastle for a medical after they triggered Wood's release clause...which it £25 million.

£25 MILLION FOR CHRIS WOOD!!!!
 
MUSC4EVER
Southampton thrashed Brentford 4-1 in one of the rearranged PL games tonight and we are going to get through those games as there is another one tomorrow in West Ham v Norwich and there is two more next Tuesday and another two next Wednesday.

Burnley's Chris Wood is heading to Newcastle for a medical after they triggered Wood's release clause...which it £25 million.

£25 MILLION FOR CHRIS WOOD!!!!
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Have to admit I did say the exact same thing to myself when I saw the news :lol:.

But after thinking about it. It's overall a good deal. We don't have a striker, he knows the league, he will put in the effort (not just here for the paycheck).

Given the shambolic way, Ashely and bruce left the team and club in we are in a desperate position and will have to make some questionable decisions. We are not going to attract the top players yet and most of those who will come will most likely be coming for the paycheck. We have taken a relegation rivals top goalscorer away from them, weaken them. However, it would be hilarious if they spend the 25mil on some unknown striker who bangs them in for them and keeps them up :lol:. 10mil would have been a better more realistic price for Wood, but Burnley would never sell for that to a rival.

I would like us to buy another striker and have Wood as a backup, late in the game player to come on and rustle some feathers, plus with Tripper being a hell of a crosser and wood getting on the end of them, who knows he could become prolific :lol: He actually has a similar if not better record than Wilson.

We still need another striker, midfielder, and a whole new defense minus tripper if we are to have a shot of staying up. This weekend's game against Watford is such an important game.
 
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