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lebron

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  • Birthday 30/05/1974

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  1. I'm actually nearly over this one, the 1-1 draw with City rankles me a lot more if I'm honest. Just watched the gloss-over by Webb and Owen on the pen incident, and I'm fuming more about that. Might have something to do with me being happy with the club, our team and how our outlook is. Might be that I just value the league so much more these days I guess. Winning the league cup was great, and winning the fa cup would have been great too, but if we want to win the league I think having two Wembley trips (with one of them being against the cheats) might have been too much to handle. We'll get a bit more rest than City now, and on paper a better run-in than both them and Arsenal. I agree wholeheartedly with Dave on Utd's shitness. This loss was much more on Nunez and Salah than it was on Gakpo though. Shocking performances from the both of them, I don't think they made one correct decision between them over the 90 mins. If they did, we would have won 5/6-1, as they had just about given up, we only needed to take care of one of the breaks they offered us. Both Nunez and Salah were on the pitch in that period, Gakpo wasn't. I'm not saying he had a good game, far from it, but I think pinning the blame on him is a bit cheap. Anyway, the future is still bright for us, while I don't think we'll see our red rivals doing anything useful for the foreseeable future. Hopefully Ratcliffe keeps ten Hag in the hot seat, as they are going absolutely nowhere with him at the helm. Even better would be if they brought in Southgate of course.
  2. Should not have watched that either, blood boiling again now, much more than on Sunday if I'm honest. Two things. 1. How dismissive is Oliver? Not for me, mate blah-blah 2. With the length of every VAR check routinely taking a couple of minutes, how come they dismiss this one out of hand in about 40 seconds. The AVAR is the only one seemingly not completely happy with the outcome, Atwell and Oliver couldn't be more enthusiastic with their non-calls. As others have hinted, there might not be actual money changing hands over this isolated game, but there is no way a few of the important calls that have gone against us this season isn't influenced by some sort of shenanigans, either through natural bias (the Manc refs, South Yorkshire head of refs), or the greasing of palms from Abu Dhabi.
  3. Shocking loss, so many players out of sorts. Let’s repay them in the league, it’s the one we’ve all been wanting all along. Get angry and take it out of Brighton after the break.
  4. Best possible outcome this, I think.
  5. Not sure I like the inclusion of Endo, he put in a monumental effort on Sunday, and I don’t really think he needs the “rhythm”. Darwin is a bit different, as he could use the shooting practice. Hopefully we keep them out/score first, run up a 2 goal lead and let the bench take it from there. The 5 subs makes it a bit more feasible to change players early, I guess we will see 55-60 mins from Endo, Nunez, Salah and 70-75 from Gomez and Robertson
  6. I can see where Code is coming from with the psychology stuff, but accumulated fatigue is a much bigger thing in my opinion, especially for a high energy team like Arsenal. There's only so many times you can go to the well and have the players performing over their limit, much like we experienced in the season where we won 2 cups but ultimately fell short in our hunt for the league and CL. Arsenal have barely changed up their team and as others have noted, didn't trust their bench last night when the chips were down. I know they are a good team, but they rely heavily on Saka and Martinelli's pace down the wings, as well as playing extremely physically (Saliba, Gabriel, Rice) and exploiting the refs' leniency on set pieces. I don't think they'll crumble as such, but their PL run-in (esp the next few games) look really tough, and having CL obligations smack in the middle will have them finish a distant 3rd in my opinion. To give them credit (and avoid egg on my face), I'm no longer 100 pct sure I want them to win at City in the league, more like 99 pct. I don't think they are able to do so, so the point is probably moot anyway. I think the percentages for the league given the respective clubs run-in should be City 45, Liverpool 40 and Arsenal 15 pct chance of winning it
  7. Incredibly proud of the players, the manager and coaching staff, and of course the supporters! Less said about Oliver and his PGMOL VAR-abusing colleagues the better. Not sure what to feel right now. Would have taken a point before the game (most others thought differently). I still think we have a great chance, as both City and Arsenal have just as bad a remaining schedule as us. I actually think we can win all our remaining games given the effort these players seem willing to put in. Will have to read the thread back later to see what others think.
  8. There’s absolutely no point to it is there? When you can’t use it to correct the type of mistake Oliver did today, it ONLY takes AWAY from the game, adds nothing positive to it. Some clubs in Norway (our version of it is a Lidl-type - predictably at least as bad as everywhere else) have started to fight back. The members at Rosenborg BK (Norway’s biggest club) and Strømsgodset have both gotten board resolutions to start working actively to remove it from the league. Hopefully other clubs here follow suit, and we can get rid of it . Wishful thinking perhaps, but hopefully Klopp leaves with a few barrels aimed at both the PGMOL and the decision-makers thinking VAR was a good idea.
  9. I know hyperbole comes easily when emotions are running high, but I think Macca will turn out to be our best midfielder since Alonso (I’m not counting Gerrard’s latter years). What a difference it makes having a player that can control the tempo of the game, and receive passes in tight spaces. Being great at set pieces helps too (can’t believe we didn’t let him take some of our corners today, Robbo’s attempts were atrocious).
  10. He’s been absolutely phenomenal. Playing to his best level in every game. There might still be games where we’ll need to set up an even more attacking midfield (Sczobo, Macca, Jones), but what a signing he has been! Probably up there with our best value-for-money deals we have ever done.
  11. Worked his ass off today. In these games he needs to take a bit better care of the ball, but he could easily had a goal and an assist because of his efforts.
  12. I don’t think Haaland is anywhere near as good as people are trying to build him up to be. Virgil is the only one I know of though that really exposes him as a one-trick pony. I had my doubts if Virgil would ever reach the heights he did prior to his injury, as nearly no-one comes back at more than 90 pct from that sort of. trauma. He looked way off it initially, neither looking comfortable physically nor mentally. Even at 90 pct he would still be the clear best defender in the world, but it actually seems he’s close to 100 pct now. It’s a magnificent watch, and I’d gladly make him the club’s biggest earner tomorrow if it meant he would stay with us for the next 5 years. He’s just ridiculously good.
  13. That distribution is so, so crucial to how they play though, and it makes it virtually impossible to get the ball off them once they decide to keep it. They’re practically playing 11 vs 9 (as most sides don’t like to go man for man at the back), and most of their players are extremely comfortable on the ball. It’s a pretty good set-up, and unfortunately most teams are now panicking because of the grock up front, meaning their other players are having even more time and space if they decide to not attack.
  14. I think our set-up has changed so much that those great early onslaughts isn’t really in our armory anymore. We don’t have the pressing machines up top that we used to, and our forwards aren’t really capable of the same type of blitz-style attacking that Mane-Firmino-Salah used to from 2017-2020. Winning the ball back from City is also a whole different kettle of fish than the opponents we’ve faced recently (where we have basically been given dozens of goals) If we go out 100 mph I’m actually afraid it won’t end well. Double-edged sword, but I fear we won’t be able to exploit our crowd to the extent we used to. I DO think we can beat City, but I think we’ll need to do it a different way. There will be plenty of occasions where we can hurt them in transition, and in periods of the game we should be able to establish some pressure on them. They are much more careful with the ball than us though, and if we miss our early chances as well as squander the ball on our way out, there’s a fair chance we will be thoroughly punished. De Bruyne is the big difference-maker for me. If we can get at him and get tight to him, they really aren’t THAT threatening. Give him time and space, and it’ll be a long afternoon for VVD and whoever partners him, running duels with Haaland isn’t something we should be exposing our CBs to too many times on Sunday. I’m normally more optimistic than most, but I’ll actually take a draw in this one. I think they will beat Arsenal, and I actually think we are capable of winning out. The rest of the league is lightyears away from the top 3, and with us regaining a full squad, I think we will overpower most sides over 90 minutes. Both City and Arsenal will have tough CL games over the next couple of months, more so than our EL adventures, so I reckon our chances are better at keeping up with them in the league than in a H2H on Sunday.
  15. Yeah, I'm normally one to not stress over contract stuff, but I hope Virgil is at the top of the list when sorting out our players with new deals. He's the only one that's still irreplaceable (and I like/love all of Gomez, Konate and Quansah). The difference in communication and organisation was palpable when he entered the pitch tonight, and the Sparta players that had seemed lively up to then just seemed to give up when he entered the pitch. I can't really see him wanting to leave us yet, unless he feels "disrespected" when we start sorting out the contract stuff. He's pretty much in the ideal situation when it comes to status amongst the players, club and supporters. I don't really get the vibe that he's seeking new adventures either. I think it will come down to money (as it nearly always does), and that he's back to being the top earner (or close to it) for him to feel that he's the main man at the club (which he will be now that Klopp leaves) until Alonso (hopefully) comes in. Seems a bit childish perhaps, but never underestimate how much sportsmen compare themselves to their peers in terms of earnings/deals they get at their clubs. I think there's a general understanding in the football community that the wages at City and PSG are unattainable for the other clubs, but they want to be top of the tree internally at least.
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