26/27 football thread

[westlondonmist]

5 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

It's early days, but I'm already feeling concerned about the Pocognoli experiment for Scotland. We've not played badly, but we've been very sloppy and I don't think we have the players capable of working with his preferred formation. We have a fantastic midfield, weak strikers, a liability of a goalkeeper and not enough in the way of strong centre backs for a three person defence to feel secure. 

We seem to miss chance after chance, conceding sloppy goal after sloppy goal - perhaps having McTominay and Shankland would have helped to a degree, but I don't feel confident in saying that. 

You can look at Steve Clarke's early results, awful. I think the 3-5-2 has to go though. I don't think our centre backs are good enough to not have full backs support them and our full backs aren't suited to being wing backs. I imagine the manager has little knowledge of many of the players and he'll make adjustments base on this. Hopefully plays Curtis and Doak as wingers in front of full backs.

I think you are also seeing how reliant Scotland are on McTominay for goals, and how reliant on the midfield for goals they've been for a while. The highest scoring players for Scotland in that squad are McGinn and Christie. They aren't getting any younger and Ferguson and Gilmour don't pose much of a goalthreat. You've then got McTominay and Adams out injured, and even Dykes. I'm not convinced by the three strikers that played, Bowie probably deserves more time but I don't think Ure is ready yet, and McBurnie has reminded me why he wasn't at the world cup. 

[RedTwoster]

48 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

You can look at Steve Clarke's early results, awful. I think the 3-5-2 has to go though.

That's true, but they were against stronger opposition. As much as I soured on his style of play, I'm not sure Steve Clarke's Scotland would have lost to Slovenia like that. 

That said, Poconogli has time on his side and I hope he adjusts his formation. What concerns me is that the warning signs were there from game one, and have been present throughout. It doesn't take a tactical genius to work out where our weak spots are; and as a result, we're playing reasonably well yet still conceding a lot of goals. 

51 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

I think you are also seeing how reliant Scotland are on McTominay for goals, and how reliant on the midfield for goals they've been for a while. The highest scoring players for Scotland in that squad are McGinn and Christie. They aren't getting any younger and Ferguson and Gilmour don't pose much of a goalthreat. You've then got McTominay and Adams out injured, and even Dykes. I'm not convinced by the three strikers that played, Bowie probably deserves more time but I don't think Ure is ready yet, and McBurnie has reminded me why he wasn't at the world cup. 

As far as Ure goes, I think the jury is out. McBurnie has been abysmal in each game and Bowie, as you say, hasn't been convincing. The finishing has been shocking, we're creating the opportunities but time and time again we squander them. 

I'd like to see more of Curtis and McPake, I thought they were both excellent when they came on. Gannon Doak is an odd one in that he's capable of getting past players and going on fantastic runs, yet the end product simply isn't there just yet. If he learns to swing in a decent cross, he'll be lethal. 

[Mr_Danger]

When Doak was getting the odd cameo for Liverpool you could see how good he could be but as you’ve pointed out even some years later it’s still the s same part of his game that’s missing. I wonder if his ceiling will end up being as a positive attacking player best served to occupy tired legs at the end of games in service to a better forward getting a bit more space because of him. Reminds me a bit of David Thompson when he looked quite exciting breaking though alongside Gerrard but that was as good as it ever got for him.

[Devon Malcolm]

Well the press conferences today were very disappointing. It's come to something when boring Michael Carrick has the most interesting things to say. Arteta was predictably pathetic.

[mim731]

55 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Well the press conferences today were very disappointing. It's come to something when boring Michael Carrick has the most interesting things to say. Arteta was predictably pathetic.

What did you want Arteta to do? Burn an effigy of Sheikh Mansour and call them all cheating cunts. Considering there's an ongoing legal appeal happening I imagine he figured it better to say fuck all, which I'm not sure is pathetic as so much prudent. 

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, mim731 said:

What did you want Arteta to do? Burn an effigy of Sheikh Mansour and call them all cheating cunts. 

I don't think for one second you think I'm suggesting that at all. But twerking for your nearest rival* when they've been found guilty of 114 major financial charges is the kind of behaviour I assumed even Arsenal fans would disapprove of. Just say nothing!

[RedTwoster]

11 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I don't think for one second you think I'm suggesting that at all. But twerking for your nearest rival* when they've been found guilty of 114 major financial charges is the kind of behaviour I assumed even Arsenal fans would disapprove of. Just say nothing!

The wording of his answers, outside of the question on his conscience, made me think he’d been briefed and given wording to use from a PR person, and he gave variations of that throughout. I’m only going by the clips I’ve seen of course - maybe he said things I’m unaware of - but my guess is he was given pre-written phrases that were reviewed and signed off by a legal team and stuck to them. Given his connection with City, he’s surely followed carefully considered advice, which seems fair enough to me, even if the resulting press conference wasn’t particularly satisfying.

I can kind of understand why he might not want to say nothing, the fear there would presumably be that it would look like you have something to hide.

Edited Saturday at 07:42 AM by RedTwoster

[Mr_Danger]

All that shit at City would never have happened if Pep had stepped aside and let Arteta take control when he was at City. Even if the investigators had gotten through the work place puzzles there’s no way they’d have gotten through the six centre backs and three defensive midfielders guarding the computers.

[mim731]

8 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

The wording of his answers, outside of the question on his conscience, made me think he’d been briefed and given wording to use from a PR person, and he gave variations of that throughout. I’m only going by the clips I’ve seen of course - maybe he said things I’m unaware of - but my guess is he was given pre-written phrases that were reviewed and signed off by a legal team and stuck to them. Given his connection with City, he’s surely followed carefully considered advice, which seems fair enough to me, even if the resulting press conference wasn’t particularly satisfying.

I can kind of understand why he might not want to say nothing, the fear there would presumably be that it would look like you have something to hide.

This was very much how I took his comments too rather than "twerking" for anyone. Saying nothing by giving the answers legal have given him rather than actually saying nothing. He'd have been equally castigated if he refused to answer the question. 

[air_raid]

Congrats in advance to Man United, just seen our team sheet. A back four that’s never played together AGAIN, definitely not a game to hand Senesi a league debut. Bergvall & Gallagher in the same side screams that we’re going to be overran in the middle, if ever there was a situation and a fixture that needed Bentancur, it’s today.

I dunno. RDZ did brilliantly tail end last season but just like AVB after the Bale money was spent, it feels a bit like he’s throwing darts at a board to pick his team week in and week out.

[Jazzy G]

Rovers won again. They're outperforming expectations, but I can't see it lasting all season. Be nice if it did, but something will happen, whether that be half the squad getting snapped up by top half/Premier legue sides in January, or another raft of injuries. Still anticipating a relegation scrap at some point, but happy to be proven wrong. 

[Mr_Danger]

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Congrats in advance to Man United, just seen our team sheet. A back four that’s never played together AGAIN, definitely not a game to hand Senesi a league debut. Bergvall & Gallagher in the same side screams that we’re going to be overran in the middle, if ever there was a situation and a fixture that needed Bentancur, it’s today.

I dunno. RDZ did brilliantly tail end last season but just like AVB after the Bale money was spent, it feels a bit like he’s throwing darts at a board to pick his team week in and week out.

Amazing foreshadowing. Little did we know that De Zerbi would send him on to get a red card in ten minutes thus activating Man Utd’s weakness of turning to shit against ten men at Old Trafford.

[Devon Malcolm]

League goals this season:-

Kyle Wootton (Stockport County) - 7

Tottenham Hotspur - 3

[SuperBacon]

24 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

League goals this season:-

Kyle Wootton (Stockport County) - 7

Tottenham Hotspur - 3

No, no, no, no, no!

Punkstep tried this bollocks this season with rebooting "the spreadsheet" with "players who have left Spurs and scored before Spurs have scored" and then he was chucking in players scoring in the Championship, the Carabao Cup and all sorts and then would text me whenever Wi Lankshear scored (I just ignore him)

There have to be rules people! Top flight goals only count.

Anyway, when we remember to put away our 400 chances a game, it's over for the rest of the league 🙃

 

[mim731]

9 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

 

Anyway, when we remember to put away our 400 chances a game, it's over for the rest of the league 🙃

 

In mid July presumably.

I joke, but I do think De Zerbi will get you into a decent state given time, theres signs of it there. Then provided he doesn't blow his top (as per he will probably and flounce off) then you'll be back where you probably should be next year potentially if not sooner!