The College Dropout

Spending energy on Steve Bruce is small time in my opinion.

I've always disagreed with that point but now the talent is clear for everyone to see. About 18-24 months ago I thought Vini was close to being an excellent player. He was like 20 years old beating players with genuine skilfulness, touch, dribbling, balance, agility etc. with ease. You could see the technique and ability was there. He ahd it - clearly. Just needed confidence, composure and to simplify his game. But with Rodrygo - I didn't see it. He didn't look like he excelled at anything in particular to me. He looked tidy and quick. But i've now seen a genuine killer instinct in the box, technique and now the balance, dribbling etc. is there to see. I can see him growing. His confidence is getting there. I can see him working as a centre forward. This might be bias. But La Liga needs to improve its YouTube presence. The highlights are super short and there's no commentary. And there's little content of note otherwise.

And also as a source of revenue.

Yeh it's difficult to get the right investment and coach. Based on your logic - having a good manager and £200m investment in less than 12 months - we should finish 7th easily right? Anything less must be a failure.

We don't need a play-off for anything. But I think it would make the league more exciting and it increases our chances of qualifying for Europe. 1 is an opinion and I think the other is a fact.

West Ham finished 6th the season prior and finished 7th while playing in Europe until April/May. West Ham have been a very good team for 2 years. Again, what's your actual point? We don't need a play-off for anything. But I think it would make the league more exciting and it increases our chances of qualifying for Europe. 1 is an opinion and I think the other is a fact.

What's the purpose of this question?

I was thinking 7-10 for Conference league. Gives most clubs in the league something to for fight for if they want it. I think finishing 6th and not qualifying for Europe at all is harsh. Plus I genuinely think only a few clubs actively want Conference League (from a board perspective). So let's give them a greater chance at qualification. I think soon the PL will have 5 CL places anyway. So 8th might be enough for Conference. Think that's next season? Based on 3 nations with highest co-efficient

But we finished 11th. We had top 5 form second half of last season. Top 6 a doddle then too?

I'm here.

It gets you qualification for the Europa League. I do think finishing 4th can sometimes be harder than winning the Europa depending on the route.

That's not for the PL to decide. I meant Conference League. Teams qualifying for Europe and getting knocked out straight away (Burnley and Wolves spring to mind) is bad for the league. A lot of clubs don't want it either, so gives them a get out. Selfishly it benefits us too. I think winning the Conference and Europa comps are good paths to CL qualification and upping our reputation across the world. But finishing 7th is difficult.

Play-off for relegation is a terrible idea. "The drop" is an exciting part of the league run. And it also limits "surprise relegations" like us. You want something that increases the randomness of results not something that entrenches current patterns.

Play-off somewhere is a decent idea. I think the last European competition spot to keep midtable teams engaged. It could also help because some teams don't want to qualify for Europa League and others would be desperate. So the team that actually wants to compete in it would take those play-offs more seriously. 7, 8, 9, 10. Keeping all top half teams with something to play for and gives teams 11-13 something to strive for.

The PL could do with a play-off game. But not for the 3rd relegation spot.

Like every few months the Arsenal Man Utd invincible 50 game trends on football Twitter. You don’t get refereeing performances as bad as that anymore. Ljungberg gets wiped out as the last man, about 3 red cars challenges and a pentalty for Arsenal. It’s not as bad as that these days.

More decisions now are right than before VAR. But it makes the bad decisions even harder to accept.

I don’t think he was subbed put in any of those key CL games except maybe the last 3 minutes of the final. Shows how important he is. I’ve always thought he’s the perfect Klopp #8. You’ll not out run or battle Valverde and he can play. He gets most of his minutes nominally at RW these days but I reckon he would be Kante-Esque given a proper run in CM.

Top city and people - Liverpool.

I love him. I put a lot of stocks in him when he was v. erratic but he's turned into an elite player. The first 3 goals here from Madrid are beautiful. And highlight 3 notable trends: - Fede Valverde is one of the most athletically gifted footballers i've ever seen and is getting better. - Vini with another highlight reel skill and finish. World class is the new normal. - Rodrygo has it all and is growing. He has the talent to replace Big Benz - this is his season to prove it. I didn't see it at first but I see it now.

That's not true at all man.

VVD was bad too.

Liverpool concede a goal where the Napoli attacker kicks the ball to the right, runs past TAA from the left - as in kicks it round him.. you know what... just watch this: He's not even in the box when the goal is scored. He gets pasted and doesn't even try to run back. It happened again in the second half, he paused, then suddenly remembered that he got bollocked for not running back in the first half and then he put in a mini sprint. He defends like a 10 year old. Like he's Mesut Ozil or Rui Costa filling in. Genuinely think Cristiano would put in more effort in that scenario.

I think broadly speaking - a club that is consistently succesful like Chelsea is less high-risk than a club that aims to punch above its weight (Leicester, Villa, Everton etc.). I take your point that Chelsea usually hire managers who have won things so they would get good jobs anyway - that is true. But you look at the managers they've had that haven't won things prior - Di Matteo, Lampard, Sarri - went on land to bigger jobs after Chelsea and all were fairly successful at Chelsea. You've typically had to be very bad at Chelsea not to win or come close to winning anything. It's probably a bigger risk for Chelsea than it is Potter.

No the hell he is not. He's nowhere near the level of footballer. He's RVN with the height of Zlatan and the peak physical capacity of Ronaldo. But he's not as skilled a player as the last 2.