Segun Oluwaniyi

Bailly with the John Mensah 2010 World Cup penalty runup. If you are a centreback, please just pick a side and hit the ball there.

Funny tournament, Egypt were terrible in the group stage; Nigeria should have put more past them, tbh, but they looked the better side today I favour them to make the final now. It's one of them, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, or Morocco going and I think they are the best of those teams.

Don't know if it speaks more poorly on football's handling of concussions or Senegal's medical staff that Mane was clearly knocked out in a brutal collision, was allowed back in the match despite this, then went on to score a wonderful goal before lying on the pitch and having to be substituted. Guy won't remember this match when his children ask about it.

Morocco down to Malawi, with the increased strength of minnows, equalising factors of poor pitch/conditions and general underperformance of the bigger sides, there is a lot of room for big upsets in African football now.

6 hours ago, HTT II said:

Get in Tunisia

What did Nigeria do to you? Rubbish performance out of nowhere from every player beside Ndidi. Tunisia spoiled the game after taking the lead, which is their specialty, credit to them. There are crucial WC qualifiers in two months and another AFCON in 18, so it does not hurt much. For those interested, Comoros do not have a keeper for today's match and will have an outfield player in goal against host and favourite Cameroon, sounds unfavourable.

Speaking of the qualifiers, the draw is out for the final round and they will be a bloodbath:

Algeria vs Cameroon, Senegal vs Egypt, Morocco vs DR Congo, Tunisia vs Mali, and Nigeria vs Ghana.

People will die over these Ghana matches, I am sure of it. This format of sending every team through a two match playoff is mad, tbh. Hard to understand that only one of two the best players in Africa, Salah or Mane, will be in Qatar, despite both sides dominating their groups.

Very odd to come here and levy criticism towards Chris Wood, tbh. Guy has not even been at the club 10 days, but has come in and played 180 minutes right away at a time where the alternative was Dwight Gayle or no striker. Club has gained 4 points in his 10 days contrasted against 11 total in the five prior months of the season.

Even a seasoned Premier League player like Wood will need to adjust to a new team. Hope is for more from him, but no problem thus far.

This is ridiculous. Matches take place in worse lighting every single night around the world. Just play football.

I don't want to hear anymore complaints about AFCON. Cameroon as a nation does not even have a functioning power grid and manages to keep the stadiums alight.

Unless the camera is playing tricks, the conditions seem fine to play, anyway.

I swear I have never seen Sargent score a purposeful goal. It is always a mishit or the ball bouncing off him in some nonsensical fashion.

1 hour ago, triggs said:

Algeria-Ivory Coast at 4 should be good. Algeria need a win

Algeria 3-0 down in the second half and heading out CIV tearing them apart in defense and Mahrez just smashed a penalty off the post. Algeria had been 36 matches unbeaten before this and have now lost consecutively to CIV and Equatorial Guinea. I suppose they were favourites, but I'd never select a North African side as my choice to win an AFCON in West Africa.

So, this means that Egypt will face CIV next round and Comoros Islands are now through. Crazy tournament.

23 minutes ago, TaylorJ_01 said:

Never seen him but, going by what you say, £3m is probably decent for a squad player with those attributes these days.

 

 

 

Possibly. 3 million is a bargain for anyone with experience at a decent level of football in 2022. He is not without talent, but if I was to make a prediction, it would be that he will be sent on loan to _______spor in 12-18 months time.

1 hour ago, joeyt said:

 

@Segun Oluwaniyiany good?

 

Honestly, this guy is nothing special to me. He is quick, hardworking, and a decent dribbler, but will not stand out in the Premier League, imo. Just not a decisive player; poor final ball most of the time, not very prolific, not the kind of player with very intelligent movement, etc. Even his speed is not impressive at this level. You never know for sure, I never thought Dennis would produce like this in England, and maybe he will benefit from playing with ten other Nigerians at Watford, but I prefer Moses Simon of Nantes to him in the national team and will prefer Ademola Lookman once he finishes his switch. That gives you an idea of how I view him.  

US have improved talent compared to 2018, but results wise it is the same as always for them, outside of a 2 very close wins over Mexico (who is no longer superior to them, tbf). They won Gold Cup, which was played at home with reserve players, and it has been the usual story in World Cup qualifying of easily winning in the US and struggling consistently in away journeys to Central America and the Caribbean. I find it hard to judge them as a team, rather than just names, tbh. Striker is easily the weakness in terms of talent.

Ghana      

Out of AFCON and last in their group after losing to Comoros.

Frankly, the relatively slow movement of this window was always going to be the case, unless the plan was just to buy every player available for an easy transfer or spend wildly on transfer fees and wages. NUFC is in possibly the worst position you can think of to complete the kind of signings it needs. January is always a very difficult period to buy in and is generally used to add couple of players or get a fee for someone who won't sign a contract, not to rebuild an entire side. With relegation looking likely, players in stable situations are going to be extremely hesitant to join. Wages usually trump anything, but top prospects and established players are not going to sign up to play against Wycombe next season. There is also the added difficulty of dealing with suddenly being the world's richest club. Premier League clubs likely will not want to sell to Newcastle at all and others will try to wildly drive up fees, especially in January.

Realistically, this window was always going to be about just adding 4-6 quality players that will improve the team. It is likely this will still happen, NUFC and Villa are the only Premier League clubs to have spent substantial money in the window and that will not be the case by the end of it, most of the transfers that will occur in this window have yet to be completed in general. Rather than the speed of recruitment, the issue is that the expected lift from Howe's arrival and the excited atmosphere around the club has just not materialised. The standard of football has gone up, the atmosphere at the ground has improved markedly, but it has not translated into results, that is really the cause of the desperation here.

Seriously, this day of AFCON has been a disgrace They played the wrong anthem for Mauritania (the old one, it changed a few years ago) on three separate occasions, spent five minutes trying to find the new one and then told the players to sing it themselves and just started the match. These people are not right in their head.

Did not like Howe's description of Wilson's injury at all. Feeling a kick in the back of your leg when no one has touched you is the usual description of how it feels to tear your achilles.

12 minutes ago, Smal said:

This guy looked more like his old self athletically today. Got about, pressed well and got stuck in. More of that please.

 

Probably just needed some actual training.

Thought the opposite. Boy was class when he managed to get involved, but still seems very sluggish and laboured compared to when he first broke through. He is so often second to balls or trailing play. I like him, but he needs to sort out his physicality to be a consistent Premier League player.

Actually think Longstaff has been very good today in moments, but he seems physically incapable of completing at this level for some reason. It is a weird progression from age 20 to 23, it wasn't the case when he first broke through. I still have hope for him until a serious fitness regime. 

Not complaining in this instance, but is there any reason for six minutes extra time here? Hasn't been a large amount of injury or time wasting. 

Dwight Gayle, still here, five years after he was relevant to the level of football the club is completing at. 

19 minutes ago, thomas said:

  

I'll always love him for his time here and I think the Everton fan's reaction early in the season was all a bit OTT.

 

But at some point [narrator: "here thomas wraps up the win for Worst Poster 2021"] we may have to consider he's entered The Mourinho Zone - where once top managers are unable to replicate success and the line of saying it's all the players' fault wears thin.

Mourinho zone? This is flattery. He is in the Bruce zone. We do not have to euphemise because he is liked here. Guy is going to rightfully be sacked for taking a side that was challenging for Europe last season and sending them hurtling towards the relegation zone in haste. They were not even able to progress in the League Cup. Nothing in Mourinho's career has been anything like this disaster at Everton. 

He should just take whatever funds they will give him to go away, take a rest, and find new opportunity to start over. He is a proven manager; it will not be an issue for him. 

PSG are unbelievably terrible. It is an achievement to have this group of players and play this poorly. It is a shame they are winning Ligue 1 in such easy fashion; a statement to the quality of the sides below them rather than any credit to them. Messi is genuinely horrendous, and the side looks no better than the one from last season. The football they are playing is actually worse. There is more quality to bail them out of the consistently underwhelming league performances, but they will perform worse in the Champions League without some serious change. Nice are another side that frankly deserved to defeat them. 

1 minute ago, soyt said:

Dubs should catch that?

 

Catch it or push it behind for a corner. Either is preferable to pushing it directly back into a dangerous area.

Just now, Rafalove said:

Callum should have been stronger there

Looking for a penalty, rather than a goal, shows a lack of confidence. You have to expect the contact and try whatever you can to touch the ball in that situation.

Cameroon held on to beat CIV after a Toko-Ekambi goal, so the teams in the CAF playoffs till be as follows:

Seeded: Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Nigeria

Unseeded Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, and DR Congo

Draw is in December. Will be a very tough round, No weak teams at all, might just be the ten best period, imo.

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

I know the new format post-Qatar will open it up but it seems very harsh only five African nations making it into the World Cup. Some (what I assume are) very good teams will miss out. 

 

Was curious about how Nigeria might get on against Cape Verde. Heard that they were poor in their other recent game against Liberia so it sounds like you guys have snuck into the play-offs but will have to improve a lot to actually make it! 

It is a bad combination of fairly diffuse talent and bad performances at World Cups. We can't claim more teams, the only time more than one made it out the group was 2014, and 0 made it out last time as Senegal and Nigeria both wasted good chances. At the same time there are also significantly more strong teams than in Asia or North America, so it is difficult. Better qualifying will be the only benefit of the bastard 48 team World Cup. Nigeria has been awful in this qualification, but to be frank muddling through with mediocrity, despite an array of talent and resources, is the Nigerian way in all walks of life. The team is strong in terms of talent, I think we have a good chance still.

African qualifying is always heart-attack inducing. Every team guaranteed to face pressure matches because of this format, plus the usual factors that make playing on the continent difficult in general. The playoff teams will be set today. Nigeria barely survived to make the playoff after a terrible draw against Cape Verde at home, same for Algeria surviving with a 2-2 draw at home against Burkina Faso. Ghana advanced over South Africa based on this phantom penalty, who are appealing to FIFA:

Cameroon v. Côte d'Ivoire starting now, one will go to the playoff round and one will go home, CIV just need a draw.

2 hours ago, Ameritoon said:

 

I would take it, at the very least a draw. On top of the conditions, Canada are young and hungry and Mexico are old and facing a lot of adversity right now.

From what I've seen of the two, Canada may just be better at the moment. Mexico are laboured and seem poorly coached, while Davies, David, and Buchanan are all extremely fast and dangerous players.

1 minute ago, Conjo said:

 

Free header? Did you see how Clarke was literally pulled away?  

This was posted before it was disallowed on my slow stream of the match, tbf.