The General Motors Domestic Football Thread. 21/22 (NO SHIT BANTER)

[Keith Houchen]

5 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Thought United were playing Palace?

At least the away fans won’t have far to go to get home etc. 

[Carbomb]

24 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

At least the away fans won’t have far to go to get home etc. 

Don't be ridiculous. Palace is in south London.

[air_raid]

7 hours ago, johnnyboy said:

Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a Spurs fan like controlling our own destiny against the worst team in the league.

…..

On 5/12/2022 at 7:25 PM, air_raid said:

(grumble grumble) 2016 (grumble) getting humped 5-1 by relegated Newcastle on final day (grumble)

This is not the foregone conclusion people think it is, Nicko’s boys will probably do us.

[Mr_Danger]

I hope Arsenal pinch it because it’ll be even funnier when they get knocked out in the qualifiers whereas Spurs will probably do alright with their defensive style in Europe.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Mr_Danger

[Factotum]

Arsenal just ran out of steam this season (utter roller coaster of a season for us) Still lots there to be encouraged by this year and a big summer for us to add what we need. Gary Neville's pathetic post match analysis yet again showing he's a dead horse these days.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, Factotum said:

Arsenal just ran out of steam this season (utter roller coaster of a season for us) Still lots there to be encouraged by this year and a big summer for us to add what we need. Gary Neville's pathetic post match analysis yet again showing he's a dead horse these days.

What was he wrong about?

[PunkStep]

5 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

qualifiers

4th placed teams no longer have to qualify, they go straight through. Have done for a good few years now I think. Good old UEFA bending over to the big clubs.

[Mr_Danger]

24 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

4th placed teams no longer have to qualify, they go straight through. Have done for a good few years now I think. Good old UEFA bending over to the big clubs.

You’ve talked me back on to the fence.

[PunkStep]

2 hours ago, Factotum said:

Arsenal just ran out of steam this season (utter roller coaster of a season for us) Still lots there to be encouraged by this year and a big summer for us to add what we need.

How we have ended the season is pretty disastrous but when you look at the season overall it's clear progression. 5th, with a mathematical chance of top 4 on the final day? Let's be honest nobody expected that going into the season, even before the opening three games. 

There's clearly work needed. We need a striker desperately and have gone through an entire season without really having a decent option. We need better depth across our defence (Saliba is a good start to addressing that) and I think we would benefit from signing a midfielder to help improve that area of the pitch rather than rely on Xhaka and Partey every game given their respective indiscipline and injuries. 

But the positives- Saka has had a brilliant season, Smith Rowe has scored a decent amount of goals given his diminished playing time, Martinelli is back and settled after missing most of last season, Odegaard has been excellent. Those attacking players behind/either side of the striker have been key to this season. And then at the back,  Ramsdale and the new look back four look settled. Problem is, the next choice in each position is scary (Holding aside, who apart from the Spurs game is a reliable back up option). And this squad is the youngest in the league by a year.

Arteta and Edu clearly know what is needed to take this team to the next level (securing a top 4 spot), so this summer is massive. Jesus will be a brilliant start but another striker will be needed for sure. Thank god Liverpool signed Diaz in January and are getting that young lad from Fulham because otherwise I could see them luring Martinelli, especially after Klopp's very public tapping-up comments every time we have played them. 

Roll on the fucking documentary...😕

[Mr_Danger]

I don’t think Klopp was tapping up Martinelli. He loves Patrick Bamford and Traore too but we’re never going to sign them either. Might wanna keep an eye on Saka though if that release clause rumour is true and Salah ends up fucking off.

I wouldn’t sell any of our forwards but if Mane is insistent on leaving for whatever reason and Arsenal wanna throw one of their £300k a week contracts at him I couldn’t think of a better player they could sign but I’m guessing he’ll be out of their range.

[Factotum]

2 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

What was he wrong about?

On the Xhaka thing he was either deliberately misinterpreting him or he's too much of an idiot to understand what Xhaka was saying.

Xhaka was measured and pretty credible in what he said, and included himself in the criticism (he constantly said 'we' not 'they' or named anyone) This is after Neville was just talking about accountability.

Given Neville has spent the season claiming he's unable to work out Arsenal's transfer strategy (we bought 5 players under 23 and shipped out the older players - its obvious to everyone) I would say he's being deliberately obtuse for responses or he's just dim.

He then made a rather bizarre comparison to OGS' United team losing the europa leage final and the current Arsenal side, ignoring the age of Arsenal's side as any sort of reason why they might have faltered. I have no problem with criticism of how we played etc, we weren't good enough. But its almost like he's bitter about something.

All this after defending OGS throughout his time at United and now coming up with demands from the club. He's a sixth former in his Dad's suit.

I'm calm now

[Devon Malcolm]

41 minutes ago, Factotum said:

On the Xhaka thing he was either deliberately misinterpreting him or he's too much of an idiot to understand what Xhaka was saying.

Xhaka was measured and pretty credible in what he said, and included himself in the criticism (he constantly said 'we' not 'they' or named anyone) This is after Neville was just talking about accountability.

Given Neville has spent the season claiming he's unable to work out Arsenal's transfer strategy (we bought 5 players under 23 and shipped out the older players - its obvious to everyone) I would say he's being deliberately obtuse for responses or he's just dim.

He then made a rather bizarre comparison to OGS' United team losing the europa leage final and the current Arsenal side, ignoring the age of Arsenal's side as any sort of reason why they might have faltered. I have no problem with criticism of how we played etc, we weren't good enough. But its almost like he's bitter about something.

All this after defending OGS throughout his time at United and now coming up with demands from the club. He's a sixth former in his Dad's suit.

I'm calm now

I don't disagree with a lot of what you say there and there's plenty of evidence to suggest that Neville has believed a bit too much of his own hype as an analyst and has regressed a lot this season especially.

I'm just not sure that Xhaka has enough good faith in the bank, nor is he a good enough player, to be making those statements about his teammates considering some of the stuff he's got up to in the past. He's improved this season, sure, but that's damning him with faint praise.

I think Neville is wrong about Arsenal's transfer strategy especially and it's clear what Arteta is trying to do. The problem Arsenal still have is that this season has taken the exact same path of almost every Arsenal season for the past 15 years. Not particularly good at the start, a stunning run somewhere in the middle, falls away miserably at the end. The blame for that lies halfway between the youth of the squad and Arsenal's recent history for me.

[stumobir]

I generally like Neville as a pundit but he’s become a bit insufferable when covering Utd games, as a commentator or analyst. It was a bit rich for him to criticise Xhaka for saying the team didn’t have the mentality to win the big games when he’s spent the last 10 years saying that about Utd. 

Edited May 17, 2022 by stumobir

[Factotum]

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I think Neville is wrong about Arsenal's transfer strategy especially and it's clear what Arteta is trying to do. The problem Arsenal still have is that this season has taken the exact same path of almost every Arsenal season for the past 15 years. Not particularly good at the start, a stunning run somewhere in the middle, falls away miserably at the end. The blame for that lies halfway between the youth of the squad and Arsenal's recent history for me.

I think you've offered more insightful analysis there then Neville has done and did. I may disagree with you on some points but its a thought out coherent argument.

On Xhaka, I really am not his biggest fan at all. I just thought the reaction to what he said was taken somewhat out of context

[PunkStep]

I think the one thing we never get to see, but hear from those close to the club, is that Xhaka is very much considered a leader by the players. He was their choice when he was appointed captain and they were not happy when he was stripped of it captaincy. He was still their go-to guy when Mr Sweg had the armband, strolling in to training at whatever time he fancied. He's basically the captain now, but without the armband. 

I don't think this season is reminiscent of every season for the past 15 years, but there are definitely parallels between this and 2008 & 2011- when we also had very young squads. I don't think we capitulated as badly as we did then. We started to after the losses to Brighton, Southampton and somebody else, but then managed three brilliant results by beating three top 7 sides on the bounce. Then it fell to shit at Spurs.