***Official*** English Football Season 2018-19

[sledger]

I remember once I actually provided a list of all the goals Henry had scored in big games/against big sides and Scaly went through all of then one by one to explain why they did not count.

 

[GIMH]

Are there any winners in that scenario?

 

[Furball]

Yeah I wasn't comparing Xavi and Bergkamp ftr. Just saying Xavi is both a very artistic and very effective footballer in one.


I actually don't think this Ajax side is that stacked with future superstars. de Jong and de Ligt are obviously destined for the top, but a lot of their best players are guys like Blind and Tadic who have played in the PL before without ever being regarded as more than decent. Ziyech is 26 and been getting linked with Arsenal/Spurs/Liverpool level clubs for years. van der Beek and Neres are 22 but from what I've seen I'd say they're just good players rather than greats in the making. Their strengths seems more to be their chemistry and play style than individual brilliance. Not sure that United or whoever poaching a couple of these guys would necessarily solve their issues.

Also think with Sanchez it's easy to look at it with hindsight and assume signing him was always going to be a disaster, but it's not really true. Sure with the wages and age it was always a questionable deal, but he's had one of the sharpest declines I've ever seen for a top player. His last full season at Arsenal was the best of his career and there were many Arsenal fans that preferred the idea of losing him on a free than selling him for £50m, if it meant we had him for another year. Then he went to United and his shooting numbers and creative stats halved almost instantly, and suddenly he wasn't even a first XI quality player anymore, let alone one of the best players in the league which he was at Arsenal.

Van De Beek reminds me a bit of Lampard. Will score loads of goals because he makes brilliant runs into the box and gets himself into great positions. He'll be a superstar in the right team with the right set up.

I've come to the conclusion over the last 3 years that the ideal balance for a midfield 3 is a tackler, a passer and a runner (by runner I mean a Lampard type who gets into great positions, not a Kante type who covers a **** load of ground) Obviously the more multi-faceted a player you have the better, but de Jong and van de Beek definitely fit the latter two roles.

 

[sledger]

Are there any winners in that scenario?

It was a moment of "deep personal regret".

 

[Uppercut]

Van De Beek reminds me a bit of Lampard. Will score loads of goals because he makes brilliant runs into the box and gets himself into great positions. He'll be a superstar in the right team with the right set up.

I've come to the conclusion over the last 3 years that the ideal balance for a midfield 3 is a tackler, a passer and a runner (by runner I mean a Lampard type who gets into great positions, not a Kante type who covers a **** load of ground) Obviously the more multi-faceted a player you have the better, but de Jong and van de Beek definitely fit the latter two roles.

I don't know about that. I think passers are more effective the more passers you add. Obviously they need to be able to do other stuff, 3 Granit Xhakas isn't going to work. But although Ajax's midfield have different strengths and weaknesses, they are all basically better at passing than they are at anything else.

Same goes for pressers, which is what you get at Liverpool.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

City's best midfield last season was Silva, de Bruyne and Fernandinho. All of them are very good passers but I can kinda see the basic outline of what he's saying in that. Passer is Silva, Runner is KDB and the tackler is Ferna.

All of them need to be able to pass but their other strengths need to be different.

 

[Cabinet96]

Think Chelsea's midfield is bad but basically not far away from being great because of that. They needed a runner instead of Kovacic basically.

 

[Uppercut]

Think Chelsea's midfield is bad but basically not far away from being great because of that. They needed a runner instead of Kovacic basically.

Barkley is a runner if he's anything and they're not much better when he's in there instead. I know that's mostly because he's ****e, but still.

I think its main problem is that Kante is being wasted playing horribly out of position. The balance might be fine if it was 2 CMs behind 1 rather than 1 behind 2. One of the risks when you bring in a very system-first manager like Sarri.

I do partly agree with Furball. I just think the similarities between midfielders are maybe slightly more important than the differences.

 

[Cabinet96]

I think passing is just the most important bit tbh. Or at least the foundation for the other stuff. Ramsey was always best for Arsenal when we had loads of great passers in the lineup.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Barkley is a runner if he's anything and they're not much better when he's in there instead. I know that's mostly because he's ****e, but still.

He's not saying you can throw any three ****s together and if they have different strengths the midfield will be great, though. They still need to be great players. Barkley's one of the worst midfielders in the top half of the league.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I've come to the conclusion over the last 3 years that the ideal balance for a midfield 3 is a tackler, a passer and a runner (by runner I mean a Lampard type who gets into great positions, not a Kante type who covers a **** load of ground) Obviously the more multi-faceted a player you have the better, but de Jong and van de Beek definitely fit the latter two roles.

so you're saying you need a 6, an 8 and a 10?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Those videos of Liverpool fans pushing random people into fountains and making racially insensitive remarks are err... a bit sickening tstl. Wtf is wrong with these people ffs.

 

[Uppercut]

I think passing is just the most important bit tbh. Or at least the foundation for the other stuff. Ramsey was always best for Arsenal when we had loads of great passers in the lineup.

Yeah I wouldn't argue with that. Though I think a midfield full of great pressers probably still works too. Wanyama+Dembele+Alli functioned really well and roughly fits Furball's bill without any particularly good passers.

 

[andmark]

Those videos of Liverpool fans pushing random people into fountains and making racially insensitive remarks are err... a bit sickening tstl. Wtf is wrong with these people ffs.

Yeah, I cringe whenever Liverpool fans do that sort of stuff.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Those videos of Liverpool fans pushing random people into fountains and making racially insensitive remarks are err... a bit sickening tstl. Wtf is wrong with these people ffs.

Ashamed of nothing, offended by everything that lot.

No surprise they are at it again and they wonder why neutral fans want them to lose.

 

[andmark]

Ashamed of nothing, offended by everything that lot.

No surprise they are at it again and they wonder why neutral fans want them to lose.

"Ashamed of nothing"- see my above post. "offended by everything"- offended by what?.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

"Ashamed of nothing"- see my above post. "offended by everything"- offended by what?.

Don't have a Twitter?

 

[Furball]

I think passing is just the most important bit tbh. Or at least the foundation for the other stuff. Ramsey was always best for Arsenal when we had loads of great passers in the lineup.

I agree that passing is the most important thing but you also need runners to get into areas where the guy who can pass really well can hurt the opposition. Özil for example is hopeless if you don't have guys like Ramsey making great runs.

 

[Furball]

Yeah I wouldn't argue with that. Though I think a midfield full of great pressers probably still works too. Wanyama+Dembele+Alli functioned really well and roughly fits Furball's bill without any particularly good passers.

Spurs created absolutely **** all though. It worked in terms of stopping Ajax but was of limited use because a) they were already 1-0 down and b) never really looked like scoring bar a lucky break in the box from a cross or set piece.

 

[andmark]

Don't have a Twitter?

No, although every team has idiots on Twitter. This guy was a single fan- it's unfair from Flibbertyjibber to use that fountain stuff as evidence for a cliche against a large group of people. I can't allow this **** to be associated with me.