Football Thread 2018/19

[Azrael]

No point, can't rely on Everton to do us any favours. The fact they've drop their two top scorers for tonight's game shows they have no intention on getting a result anyway. 

[Stig]

Silva left Evertons two best players on the bench

[Stig]

1 hour ago, Shimmyhill said:

 

Everton fan tonight tho, right?  

 

I want every team to take points of City regardless of who they are. I wouldn't want Liverpool to lose at home to United to stop Everton staying top though. Fuck that.

[neoELITE]

I've never seen a live possession % bar graphic on the BBC so small as the Everton one. 

 

If anyone is expecting anything from Everton tonight, they probably didn't watch them play against Millwall in the FA Cup recently. 

[Adrock]

I'm watching the game and City definitely have all of the ball but at the moment they aren't creating too much during open play.

 

Saying that Everton have pretty much done nothing. They are trying though.

[Gotters]

Phew, thought Everton had forgotten they didn’t want to win this for a bit there.

[ryodi]

Maybe City will concede an equaliser due to an inability to defend set pieces

 

They won’t 

[Mr Do 71]

0-1 at HT.

[bradigor]

3 hours ago, Shimmyhill said:

 

Everton fan tonight tho, right?  

 

Of course. 

[neoELITE]

West Brom just scored a weird goal.

[Plissken]

Definitely one of the stranger ones that you'll see this season.  Good game, mind.

[ryodi]

Comedy defending for the equaliser.

[neoELITE]

I like the look of the two young lads for The Baggies - Tulloch and Harper.

[the_debaser]

The standard of the refereeing in the Aberdeen game was awful. 

[Mr Do 71]

6 minutes ago, the_debaser said:

The standard of the refereeing in the Aberdeen game was awful. 

 

The Ranger's goalkeeper should've walked for his sliding studs first save. He made sure he got his studs on the Aberdeen player's shin. 

[Dudley]

17 hours ago, Boothjan said:

Yeah, joking aside I'd never want my team to lose a game just to spite a rival.  That's just daft!

 

It happens though...

 

2010, Lazio losing this match would prevent Roma winning the league and hand it to Inter, a team the Lazio ultras are actually pretty fond of.

 

Inter go 2-0 up, the Lazio supporters unfurl this, proving the Italians get sarcasm.

 

 

 

 

 

[wev]

That's not entirely surprising. The Italians do love a bit of match fixing 

[Dudley]

To be fair, it's probably not fixing in this case, Inter were going for 1st, Lazio were sitting 16th.

 

But certainly the fans were not super devastated at the outcome.

[stefcha]

2 hours ago, wev said:

That's not entirely surprising. The Italians do love a bit of match fixing 

 

The Juve players were even taking a course on it the other day, no doubt to refresh their memory the cheating bastards

 

 

 

[Pants McSkill]

An argument in favour of the away goals rule (specifically in Champions League Knockout Matches).

 

 

[Gotters]

Away goals always feels a horribly artifical and meaningless way to decide a tie so I won’t be sad to see it go.

 

It generates some false tension with the ‘if they get 1 you then need 2’ scenarios but again its manufactured tension.

 

Suspect there will be a lot more penalty shoot outs

[Stig]

I've always hated the away goal, especially when it still applied in Extra Time. It gives the away team a massive advantage. I'll be happy to see it scrapped.

[DukeOfEarlsfield]

36 minutes ago, Stigweard said:

I've always hated the away goal, especially when it still applied in Extra Time. It gives the away team a massive advantage. I'll be happy to see it scrapped.

Except it doesn’t.

[Plissken]

It's one of those that feels unfair even if statistically it is a wash.

 

Especially when your Championship team pulls a 4-1 first leg deficit back against a Premier League side with a 3-0 home win in 90 minutes, only for the away goals rule to kick in after 120 and the Premier League manager (no names, no pack drill, let's call him... Twitchy McBung) gets to spend the next few years going "And I took them to the League Cup final, you know".

 

Yes, I am still bitter.

[Fry Crayola]

That twitter thread basically makes two arguments - one that extra time is often boring (in his opinion), and the other that away goals offer moments of drama as the tie swings from defeat to victory.

 

For the latter, as Gotters says it's a manufactured tension. You could achieve the same thing in a variety of ways, without addressing the argument that a team get penalised for putting in their better performace in the wrong leg. Fuck. That. May as well opt for disallowing goalkeepers over five feet tall if you want to get your kicks through artificial impositions.

 

For ther former, just do away with extra time if it bores you so much. If 180 minutes can't separate the teams, do you really need another half hour?

[Dudley]

I still like the idea of avoiding penalties and spicing up extra time by simply forcing both teams to remove a player (of their choice) every 5 minutes.  Once it's one on one, some fucker's gonna score.

 

But there's tactics to that, who you remove. If you're a lower league team maybe you remove the goalkeeper a little early and just fucking go for it.   You might think you should leave your best players on but then you might not have anything like a sensible team...

 

Worth a trial at least I'd say,

[Gotters]

Once you can't separate teams over 2 legs and replays are obviously not an option it all gets a bit unsatisfactory.

 

I know we always laugh at the americans but as a test of football skill the player being made to run up with the ball from a point with a timer going (ice hockey style) seems more a test of overall skill than just a penalty.

 

I always like the idea of reversing pens and ET so you do the shootout before but then play ET with both teams knowing what the result will be if they are still deadlocked - means a team can't just play for pens for the whole of ET (but they could of course try to park a bus) - problem with this is cramp and players stiffening up whilst you take pens at the end of normal time, then you expect them to play another 30m.

[Silent Runner]

12 minutes ago, Gotters said:

I know we always laugh at the americans but as a test of football skill the player being made to run up with the ball from a point with a timer going (ice hockey style) seems more a test of overall skill than just a penalty.

 

 

They tried this in Italy a few years back - the season Robbie Keane was there. Players start their run about halfway between the goal and the centre circle. Don't think it ever really took off.

[Dudley]

The body recovered from the plane has been confirmed as Sala.  No surprise, no less sad for it.

[Plissken]

At least the family will get some closure from it.  It's not much, but it's something.