leffe186

I think I understand your reasoning. I found it difficult to enjoy Leicester winning the league, because I was jealous. If Man City or Chelsea win it, I'm spared that 'it could have been us' feeling. Having said that, I feel exasperated by the amount of support that Man City are getting on this site. They've been caught cheating before, and it looks like they've been cheating again. If there's any hope of a club our size winning the league, the rules about Financial Fair Play have to be enforced, and suitable deterrents made (ie docking points, as when clubs go into administration) A club like Man City can't be allowed to kill off the competition by constantly pumping in money from outside the game, and cooking the books to hide it. I hate what Man City have done, but it's just the most recent and egregious variation on a theme. The "competition" has been dying a death for decades. I'm not supporting Man City because I approve of what they've done, or I support the Qatari regime or whatever - I just want them to beat Liverpool to the title because as a football fan (and not as a fan of the game, but as a fan of a team playing it) I am a child. I just got off the phone with my Dad who called me to wish me Happy Birthday. He's in his 70s, and lives back in North London with my Mom, who has had a series of TIAs and whose memory is nearly gone. He told me he'd been really depressed this weekend, but had cheered up this morning. My initial reaction was concern that Mom had had a bad week, but no, he got incredibly depressed during and after the Spurs match. He then avoided football all weekend. What cheered him up? He'd recorded the Arsenal match and only found out the result this morning, so he watched it . He is a child too. I got up on Saturday to watch our match - it's a 7:30am k-o here. I was incredibly angry and depressed after the match, and didn't want to see anybody or anything. Full-on rage and anguish. But it was my youngest's 8th birthday and I had to get the house ready for the family party and deal with my wife's stress and anger that always comes with that, and so on, and so on. I'm 46 now. It shouldn't hurt as much as it does, and it shouldn't impact on everyday life as much as it does. Supporting a football club is fucking stupid in many ways, and every once in a while life reminds you of that. I do it because I grew up with it and I grew up in the community around my club, both geographically and demographically. That was the one thing that sort of made sense about being a football fan, along with just general tribalism. I'm glad that HTT is well-adjusted enough to be able to forget about a Liverpool title win because he doesn't give a damn what others say, or he isn't bothered because he's not connected to them. I'm obviously not that well-adjusted, and I am connected to them in the same way that I'm connected to Newcastle fans or Villa fans or whoever supports a football team. I'm rather more connected to people who support their local team, but that's another discussion. I do give a damn what others say about me and my club, or else I probably wouldn't be on here, and I feel a bit miffed being told that I have no humanity on any level, but I'll get over it . Sadly a bit easier than I'll get over the game on Saturday, but hey-ho.

It’s not about preferring Man City per se. it’s about the fact that if my team can’t win it I want the title to be as meaningless as possible. Right now that means Man City. If they win it’s easier to dismiss it. The club itself had infinite money so, you know, well done. How much credit can fans take? If they were there from the beginning then they know what a farce the whole thing is, if they jumped on the bandwagon then again, you know, well done. I just want the fans of my team to be as happy as possible and to minimize the happiness of as many others as possible. Is that too much to ask?

It’s completely insane that we’re still in the top four. Man U and Arsenal should be ashamed of themselves .

Travers having a blinder, naturally.

Literally 90% of the articles on www.skysports.com are about how shit we are and how much work we need to do. This is nonsense. Hang on. It’s the tightest Premier League title race in years, there are two English clubs in the CL semis, two other clubs are probably about to contest the Europa League Final. None of these clubs are Manchester United, yet 90% of articles are about Man U. And this is your argument that they don’t love Man U in general and want them to do well?

I'd have said Maldini every time tbh. Or Chris Hughton.

Surely it's what all neutrals want (sorry Leffe) No problem, it clearly is the one all neutrals want.

It's just as bad in England btw, guessing your ignorant to the problem. Fuck me, Neesy, you naturalized quickly. I find that crazy coming from a spurs fan who are the worst team of the lot. You've seen El Clasico, surely?

It's just as bad in England btw, guessing your ignorant to the problem. Fuck me, Neesy, you naturalized quickly.

No worries! Honestly, I think I would have taken 0-1 beforehand. No Kane, no Son, Wanyama still working back from injury (and probably never going to be the player he was), Trippier out of form, Llorente up front. Everyone knackered. We’re not in anything like the shape or form we should be for any CL match let alone the semi-final and yet...and yet... It’s down to one game. We’ve got players who can pull this off, and we’re still in touch. I think 2-0 would have been game over, but if we can put some pressure on Ajax I genuinely think they may have issues.

From what I remember Arnesen didn't really do that well (he was at either Chelsea or Spurs) - then I think he went on to Hamburg and did awful there too - sounds perfect for Man U!! Peps made (under the Laporta era at Barca) now work for Man City I think you're well wide of the mark here. He laid the foundation for what Spurs and Chelsea became. We got him in when we essentially rebooted the club in 2004 - he was instrumental in the Jol appointment and in changing the focus to youth developing both our own kids and recruiting relatively cheap young players like Dawson, Carrick etc. Chelsea saw his success and basically nicked him from us, he then revamped their youth policy and scouting, in their case developing into a money-making machine. I don't think you can characterize his work at either club as anything but a resounding success.

I’m horribly biased, but it feels like Liverpool are getting far more generous reffing than Man City this year. It’s only when technology gets involved that it evens out. No idea if that’s actually the case, but it reinforces my bias, so i’m going with it .

As long as we get top four I couldn't care less .

From when the shot is taken, not sure on the left/right footed one. Are people sure about that 11% btw? Seems a bit mad looking at that shot again That’s my point. I understand broadly how xG works and obviously that it doesn’t take into account the individual, but just looking at that Sissoko chance makes you question the maths.

That’s an exercise worth repeating for us and you guys tbh - might give it a think.

Exactly, its a 4% chance a normal player scores from there. It shows how good Messi is at finishing that people weren't surprised that he scored Doesn’t that rather highlight the xG score for the Sissoko chance as a problem though? How? Well people’s (tongue-in-cheek) argument about why the score for the Sissoko chance was so low was because he’s shite in those situations. The point is to rate the quality of the chance regardless of player, so that just makes 11% seem more erroneous.

Exactly, its a 4% chance a normal player scores from there. It shows how good Messi is at finishing that people weren't surprised that he scored Doesn’t that rather highlight the xG score for the Sissoko chance as a problem though?

Sounds a bit like you thought you could compete with a couple of defenders tbh.

It's the usual thing with youth/reserves - rarely do teams have a consistent line-up week-in and week-out. Players move up and down the age groups, international call-ups and the U19 cup get in the way, some teams loan everybody out and others regularly play first-teamers in P2 or whatever it's called now.

Nah he's been way more consistent this year, i've criticised him every year since he's been in England tbh but this year he genuinely performed to a standard worthy of the hype. Has he been as consistent as Mane, Aguero, and Sterling? Not for me, Jeff. I've still seen him have a fair few anonymous or ineffective performances too. Aguero is the one I'd question - not really convinced he's been that consistent. He scored three hat-tricks in his 19 goals, and wasn't great early on, largely scoring in blowouts against shite - although he has been really good lately. Like I say, I get that up front there's no real standout - you're picking between Aguero, Salah, Kane, and maybe Son and they're all much of a muchness this year. I'm behind a change to 4-2-4 with Hazard instead of Pogba, Alisson instead of Ederson (also much of a muchness) and Doherty in at full-back as the token "guy-from-an-also-ran".

OK. I agree with ON in that I don't think you can call Man U plucky underdogs precisely because they had a similar amount available for transfer fees to Man City and fucked it up. If you are happy to call Man U plucky underdogs simply because they're not as good then fair enough.

Well we know that . The point is that Team X and Team Y both had 300M or whatever to spend, you can't then say Team Y are plucky underdogs because they fucked up how to spend it. You say they're plucky underdogs because the players are not as good, not because the transfers were fucked up. Oh yeah, Smalling is a plucky underdog every time he walks on a pitch. Manchester United are not though. The team is. The point we're making is just that it's a bit rich (ahem) to call Man U plucky underdogs. It undermines the really plucky underdogs who have relatively miniscule resources - including those available for transfer fees - such as Burnley, say. Better to just call Man U incompetent twats. And nobody uses transfer fees to measure a team's abilities, they use transfer fees to highlight what a team's abilities should be in relation to others.

Well we know that . The point is that Team X and Team Y both had 300M or whatever to spend, you can't then say Team Y are plucky underdogs because they fucked up how to spend it. You say they're plucky underdogs because the players are not as good, not because the transfers were fucked up. Oh yeah, Smalling is a plucky underdog every time he walks on a pitch. Manchester United are not though.

Well we know that . The point is that Team X and Team Y both had 300M or whatever to spend, you can't then say Team Y are plucky underdogs because they fucked up how to spend it.

Apart from Pogba I'm not sure I'd argue with that, although I suppose part of the reason he's in is that there aren't too many outstanding CMs. I think Vertonghen should be in instead of LaPorte though. I'd probably try to shoehorn Hazard in instead of Pogba. The only other player with any doubt attached is Aguero, although there are probably four or five players at a similar level at CF and you may as well choose him.