KaKa

Potter to get sacked before the World Cup?! Sweden look awful. Norway do look dangerous though.

Sweden looking a mess here with Elanga in this front two striker pairing.

Oh my God ... sign Nusa before the World Cup please

Norway are going to be fun to watch in the World Cup with Nusa and Bobb out wide, and their towering strikers in the middle.

Norway vs Sweden about to start. Quite eager to see what Elanga looks like for them against a decent Norway side.

Anthony Gordon's Agency - Same as Thiaw, Ramsey and Miley. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/unique-sports-group/beraterfirma/berater/4142 They also represent Matias Fernandez-Pardo and Bazoumana Touré.

Chelsea have the Mike Penders guy at Strasbourg already. This would be comical man

Good to make an early call one way or the other.

PSG, Bayern and Flick's Barca all keep the ball well and pass it well too, and if there's an opportunity and space to exploit they play with more urgency in those moments to exploit it. I think this is the sort of football we'll see from Iraola at Liverpool. Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool this past season all wanted to suffocate teams by trying to keep the ball all game, aiming to pin the opposition in their own box. Passing the ball side to side until they can just about walk the ball into the net. They regularly pass up the opportunities to play their forward players in behind even when there's a ton of grass for them to run into. So just to be clear, that is the differentiation I'm making, when I refer to keeping possession for the sake of it.

We were much worse this season, but generally people have always complained about how well the team passes the ball and keeps the ball, particularly against teams that sit deeper and are better organised defensively.

There's a difference between taken the sting out of a game momentarily, and playing a style of football that is centred around very slow progression and passing the ball from side to side the majority of the time. Yesterday Arsenal played like Wolves would in the Premier League. They sat back and completely ceded territory to PSG, which is why they had so much possession and recycled the ball so much. When PSG played Bayern who didn't cede possession to them. They punished them in behind constantly and didn't play the same way.

I've addressed all this in my last post. Bournemouth do not simply play chaotic basketball football they use the ball much better than Newcastle do. They do not keep possession for possession sake. At Bournemouth less teams are going to setup to sit back against them and so they punish teams in behind more often. This does not mean they don't pass the ball well or keep the ball well. It does mean though, that their possession numbers are not necessarily going to be as high, because like I said they don't keep the ball for the sake of it. At a more prominent club like Liverpool and with better players more teams are going to sit back against his teams and their possession numbers will be higher. This doesn't suddenly mean he has changed the style of play with more control. It will mean they have more of the ball because teams are ceding territory, but I would expect his teams to still cause the opposition problems because from what I've seen of his Bournemouth teams they are good with the ball and play combinations that open teams up.

I'd say it's a combination of players not good enough with the ball, and yes, to some extent how well the team is coached to use the ball. I don't see too many great passing patterns out there tbh. It was a big call by the ownership for sure and me personally, I'm nervous about it. Hopefully if we at least can improve the quality of players that are brought in that should help, but the manager also still has to come up with a better setup and plan for how we function with the ball.

For some reason you seem to think playing high intensity football means shit passing and not controlling games, because Newcastle have this issue. The problem is with the Newcastle team's use of the ball. When Klopp did play high intensity football, his teams kept the ball well and passed it well within that system, because he better coaches that style and he had the players capable of passing the ball well within that system. I see similar traits with Iraola. Howe plays high intensity, but he hasn't signed enough players that keep the ball well enough or pass the ball well enough, and to be honest I'm not sure he does as good a job of coaching passing patterns or combinations either. For some reason you're trying to claim Klopp didn't play a high intensity style because they kept the ball well, but that is flat out wrong. When they faced smaller teams that just sat deep, obviously they're going to have to play with more patience as the opposition are more defensive, and his teams were still able to find solutions in these instances because they are better with the ball and are better coached. In contrast when Newcastle face the same situation, they cannot find solutions because the team does not have enough players that are capable passers and we don't seem to have much of a clue when it comes to coming up with combinations to open teams up. This inevitably leads to them losing the ball more in silly situations and the games becoming more end to end. The end to end nature of things is due to Newcastle being rubbish with the ball for the most part.

They don't have to do anything of the sort. Most of them have more possession because teams tend to sit deep against them in a very defensive shape and don't commit as many players forward. It's not some big team formula of playing in order to stop "chaos" football, or more running or more injuries. That may be Pep's style and all of his minions, but Klopp didn't think like that, neither did Mourinho or countless other managers who all have different approaches to the game.

There's managers that would better set the team up to hide Barnes' weaknesses and find ways to get him into positions to be a goal threat more often, for sure. Unfortunately, Howe is yet to manage it consistently enough, and so Barnes goes through too many long stretches completely invisible. There were signs in the one game he started int he 4-2-3-1, on the right ironically, that perhaps he'd look better in that setup, but we only saw that once and so who the heck knows if we had found something there or not. They're going to have to make a big call either way this summer now.

2 years left on his contract. Sell or new contract. Has to be one or the other. Not sure how I feel about putting him in the £100,000 a week bracket and handing him a starting berth, especially on that left side where he looks more and more limited.

Personally, I would never compare Bournemouth's use of the ball and passing combinations and patterns to ours. They are miles better. Newcastle struggle to progress the ball up the pitch most games, unless the opposition completely sits off them, and then when they get to the final third it's just random, sloppy and indecisive play. It's also not just down to possession stats because they are not trying to pass the ball side to side all game. Playing that goofy style does not mean you are automatically going to be better against low blocks. It's the reason Slot is gone after trying to implement more of that style this last season, having spent £450 million last summer.

Lens were fun to watch this past season, and pushed PSG right to the end and won the cup. More and more good managers coming into the league at teams people will tell you are "small clubs". I really hope Eddie Howe gets it together this summer.

Howe often mentioned how they had to manage his training due to that groin issue. Hopefully no one gives Iraola the memo.

Too cool for school that guy man. Ridiculous penalty.

Why Gabriel is trying to lash it top bins in that situation only God knows. You are a big goofy defender. Just pick a spot and drive it low. That PSG keeper looked useless on pens. Absolute clown man

Imagine coming all this way to start doing this goofy run up and missing man