FOOTBALL - 2020/21 EFL League 1 & 2, National Leagues and Regional Leagues

[El Pibe]

13 hours ago, neoELITE said:

@El Pibe- if Ollie Watkins goes to Villa for £30m, how much is that going to make for Exeter? There must have been a sell on clause.

 

EDIT - 15%  that'll pay the wage bill easily for a whole season.

 

He's gone! Amazing news for Exeter and should keep us going for a while.

 

Excited for Watkins, as well. Need to fight the urge to put him and Ampadu in my FPL team just because they're City alumni.

[Billy Brown]

Very excited with a couple of minutes to go until the big kick off. Good transfer business for Crewe in the summer but a few injuries and a very difficult first few games. No idea which way things will go this year but can’t wait to find out. 

[neoELITE]

We're joint-ish top of the league!

 

We scored just 3 minutes in and held on for an hour but finished strongly. Weird watching it in my living room. With that R rate going up, this might be it for a while. 

 

League 1 isn't League 2. The standard is quite the step up. 

 

Sunderland did well again 

 

 

[Billy Brown]

Not a great start (2-0 home loss to Charlton) but we didn't embarrass ourselves. Couple of key players missing didn't help either (although I understand they weren't at their strongest either). I just hope our young team gets through what will likely be a rough first few games without being too disheartened.

[Angles Morts]

Took the lead twice but got pegged back twice against the newly promoted Northampton. Frustrating, and could prove costly because I suspect they’re going to be one of our fellow relegation battlers.

[Coltrane]

Dull, uninspiring start to the season for Pompey. Didn't seem to have much of a cutting edge. As early as it is, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a change of manager at some point in the next few months. Much depends on how things pan out in the first 5-10 games. I seem to remember we started slowly last season but made up ground with a strong latter half. I'm not convinced that will happen this time.

[merman]

Ouch, poor Wigan.

[Fatsam]

Wrexham have had an offer of a full takeover. It is being put to a Supporters Trust vote to pursue discussions, so it must be worth considering because the board have simply dismissed  approaches before without getting to that stage in the past . After being fucked over by our two previous owners, my instincts are for us to remain fan owned, but they are described as "two extremely well-known individuals of high net worth" which is certainly intriguing. Names revealed if the WST vote to consider the offer.

 

We've assembled a solid looking squad for next season now with the last addition of Macclesfield player of the season Fiacre Kelleher. A really decent centre back at our level. We're told there is a reduced playing budget, but I think there's been a surprising lack of caution in signing players given the uncertainties ahead. It does make me wonder if this is linked to a potential sale. They've promised an immediate injection of 2 million. 

 

We'll see.

[Plissken]

I saw this elsewhere - not wanting to piss on your chips, but someone looking to put £2m into a Conference side in the middle of a pandemic when there isn't even a guarantee when clubs will be allowed to let paying spectators in... I'd be very, very careful.

 

Especially as Stephen Vaughans 12 year ban from being a company director ends in two months.  

[Fatsam]

Oh definitely, my immediate instinct is to question what they are getting out of it. We don't own any land now thanks to our previous owners, so we can cross that off the list, but I'm still cautious. And I like fan ownership. We don't need saving or anything, so why gamble?

[neoELITE]

After being 0-2 up at half time, we just lost to Leyton Orient reserves in the League Cup 3-2 

 

I'm glad as we're playing enough games as it is. Our online fans are bemoaning not playing Spurs in the next round at home in a game we cannot attend where Spurs play mostly under 23 players nobody has heard of but we've "missed out on a pay day".

One fan watching on iFollow remarked that it was "disgusting".

 

Does anyone really care about the League Cup other than Man City?

[Guest]

This Saturday sees our annual "walk to the first away game of the season". Luckily we've got Mossley so it's only 30 miles. Workington would've been dreadful.

Anyway, we do it for charity. 50% of the money raised goes to the club to help pay for away travel for the season (one club in our league has already had to fold this season due to lack of funds - non-league is a harsh environment), and 50% goes to Andy's Man Club, a charity supporting mental health in men.

If you fancy making a small contribution, the link is below. No obligation, but it'd be nice

 

https://gf.me/u/ywfin7

 

#Itsoktotalk

[neoELITE]

@tbb- done.

 

What a great idea 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, neoELITE said:

@tbb- done.

 

What a great idea 

Thanks so much

[Ork1927]

On 15/09/2020 at 22:00, neoELITE said:

After being 0-2 up at half time, we just lost to Leyton Orient reserves in the League Cup 3-2 

 

I'm glad as we're playing enough games as it is. Our online fans are bemoaning not playing Spurs in the next round at home in a game we cannot attend where Spurs play mostly under 23 players nobody has heard of but we've "missed out on a pay day".

One fan watching on iFollow remarked that it was "disgusting".

 

Does anyone really care about the League Cup other than Man City?

 

League Cup games behind closed doors seem especially 'sad' during all this.

 

Lincoln drawing Liverpool (kids) in the League Cup isn't really of interest to anyone else under normal cirecumstances except for Lincoln fans who would have been packing the ground for the game and looking forward to it. It might be Liverpool reserves, but it would still be a cup game against Liverpool. If those Lincoln fans can't go, then whats the point of it?

[Angles Morts]

4-4, bloody hell that was exhausting listening

[neoELITE]

2 hours ago, artz said:

4-4, bloody hell that was exhausting listening

 

I watched on iFollow. We missed an absolute sitter near the end and should've won. Wimbledon were pretty horrible. Pump it into the box seemed their game plan.

There were some great goals in that game. Our second was brilliant and your free kick was more than half decent.

[Coltrane]

15 hours ago, neoELITE said:

 

I watched on iFollow. We missed an absolute sitter near the end and should've won. Wimbledon were pretty horrible. Pump it into the box seemed their game plan.

There were some great goals in that game. Our second was brilliant and your free kick was more than half decent.

Hasn't that been their game plan since about 1978? 

[Angles Morts]

Not really.

[neoELITE]

To be fair, they do play but they play to their strengths and Piggot up front is an imposing nuisance. I think that's his name. I loved all the QPR flags around the stand. 

I did enjoy the game. There were 43 shots on goal. 

[Coltrane]

1 hour ago, artz said:

Not really.

Yeah, I'm just messing with you. To be honest,I would kill for Pompey to use a more effective style for L1. I mean it's great that the manager believes in the gospel according to 4-2-3-1 but I sometimes watch us and think that it's a bit of wishful thinking expecting players at this level to to have the kind of intelligence needed to play a system that relies on a keep ball, accurate passing system and effective, fast counter attacks. You have to have the players with the right skills to pull it off effectively and we have about half of those sort of players. The rest don't really do sophisticated and you can't really blame them sometimes.

[neoELITE]

@Coltrane that is exactly what my team are. A handful of players who are brilliant playing the system but 6 or 7 who struggle. When it clicks, we can beat most teams but when it doesn't, we lose heavily. 

We play with three at the back and our wing backs are more like wingers. It's fun but sometimes I wish we'd park the bus when we're winning.

So far we've had eleven different goal scorers.

[Coltrane]

@neoELITEYeah if you've got the players who can play your system, then great. The problem at this level is squad depth. Most clubs don't have the ability to deal adequately with an injury crisis when it occurs. Also, when it comes to match day, I think a lot of managers don't have a Plan B. Or if they do, it's just not different enough from Plan A. I think there's nothing wrong with falling back on a good old 4-4-2 from time to time. Pompey used it a few times last season and it seemed to work pretty well for us.

So..we've just finished against Rochdale..and it's another dull 0-0 draw. What a way to begin the season. I think the fans are getting pretty impatient now. KJ is one of those managers that looks like a wizard when his formation is working wonders. Problem is, he doesn't seem to know what to do when the opposition is just matching you up, formation wise and stifling your passing game. That's basically what Shrewsbury did last week and they were pretty effective at it. Looks like Rochdale just copied them today and...got the same result.

We've got two major issues. We haven't replaced Christian Burgess a key centre back and a guy who a lot of people basically thought wasn't good enough for League 1 and yet he knuckled down and improved his game to the extent that he was one of our best players last season. So, obviously we decide to sell him to a Belgian team. And we haven't replaced him, yet.

The owners are reluctant to spend much money right now. They also want a balance with bringing youngsters through from the academy/youth setup as well. And that has been partially successful. Conor Chaplin is playing in the championship now and Jack Whatmough is another player who came through the youth system but has had injury issues.

We need someone who knows where the back of the net is as well. Hopefully Marquis will wake up soon. He started slowly last season as well. 

[JohnC]

Drama in the seventh tier

 

 

 

[gospvg]

Robinson signs a new four year contract and we are off to a bad start, lost the first 2 games and bottom of the league.

 

[neoELITE]

12 hours ago, gospvg said:

Robinson signs a new four year contract and we are off to a bad start, lost the first 2 games and bottom of the league.

 

 

I was chatting to an Oxford fan today at work. I really like talking about football with realistic people. It's usually like this.

"You like football?"

"Yes."

"Do you support Liverpool?"

"No. Plymouth Argyle."

"Why?"

 

He was fairly optimistic even though you are bottom. There's only been two games. 

 

Leyton Orient players have tested positive. Our team are getting tested. This season is going to be a disaster with fixture congestion and scenarios where teams will end up with five or six games in hand.

 

It's unlikely we'll be in stadiums until January and February.

[BongoInferno]

23 minutes ago, neoELITE said:

 

I was chatting to an Oxford fan today at work. I really like talking about football with realistic people. It's usually like this.

"You like football?"

"Yes."

"Do you support Liverpool?"

"No. Plymouth Argyle."

"Why?"

 

He was fairly optimistic even though you are bottom. There's only been two games. 

 

Leyton Orient players have tested positive. Our team are getting tested. This season is going to be a disaster with fixture congestion and scenarios where teams will end up with five or six games in hand.

 

It's unlikely we'll be in stadiums until January and February.

What on earth happened to you so that Liverpool FC ended up living rent free in your head? It’s not just the bizarre reference here btw. I know you like to drop in to the LFC thread periodically and take a dump. 

[neoELITE]

Most people I know "support" Liverpool. We are quite a long way from there and not one of those people are scousers. They just happen to be the right age when Liverpool won the league regularly when they were at primary school.

[Mike1812]

Just for a change, the EFL are being incompetent

 

[neoELITE]

I don't understand that; other than iFollow give more to teams who generate more streams. 

Is the argument that the home team should keep all the revenue for home games including away fans streaming revenue?