ponsaelius

Was offside like. It hasn't helped that the new system is supposed to significantly reduce VAR timescales and need for replays. Made it look like they were just hiding the decision.

Howay mate have you watched football before? The goalkeeper is in front.

Seriously need another replay mind.

Belgium's squad couldn't be any more 'last dance' if they tried like.

It's a superb documentary. Best footy one since Kapadia's Maradona film. BBC have got a few on iPlayer. The Cameroon 1990 one is also a DAZN production and worth a watch. The Messi one is a BBC job but also decent I thought.

The atmosphere at a lot of games will definitely be weird I think. Prohibitive cost of travel/accomodation will make it more middle class than usual. Crowds will be boosted by a lot of expats who live and work in the gulf, with a lot of neutralsl football fans in amongst that. That said, a lot of the same was said beforehand about Russia but this was from a UK/Euro centric perspective. What actually happened was you still had loads of Mexicans, South Americans etc travelling who didn't see what all of the fuss was about. Argentina - Saudi Arabia on Tuesday morning will be interesting from an atmosphere perspective. That's in the main stadium and both of those are expected to have very big followings. If it's crap then you probably can write off any hope of the usual colour.

That Linfield result is a bit of a shocker but it is just a friendly and they've had some decent results over the last few years in competitive games. Winning the Asian Cup and getting to the semis of the Gold Cup. They weren't totally battered in the Copa America either the other year with a draw and a couple of narrow defeats. Think the biggest likelihood is they'll simply be physically overwhelmed by all three teams in the group. Unless they're sufficiently juiced up like the Russians were.

For what it's worth that account has seemingly already been proved in the past to be a disinformation account with geopolitical motives. Not uncommon between the gulf states. That being said, it's certainly hard to deflect an accusation like that when the very awarding of the tournament is based on corruption and money being no object.

The cross field passes are unreal but the most shocking thing to me is still the ease to which Trippier beings them down. I keep expecting them to end up out of play. It's very hard getting used to having good players.

Tbf of all the things wrong with hosting a world cup in Qatar not serving overpriced pisswater in the grounds at the last minute is basically bottom of the list.

I'm looking forward to it starting now, mind. I'm scum though tbf.

Couldn't care less who makes the kits. They're all a much of a muchness these days, producing bland crap with stick-on club badges, none of which I'll buy. Some of the smaller brands tend to make a better effort in terms of design - but fall foul of the same cheap production. Just get whoever gives us the most money.

Tbf it's not completely controversial to not sell proper beer in stadiums. UEFA only lifted their ban in 2018 - in the past CL/EL and major tournaments you couldn't get booze in the grounds. I'm more surprised they ever went with this in the first place considering the laws of the country. But doing an about turn 2 days before the tournament kicks off is ridiculous.

Do remember somebody posting on Twitter about a month back that his dad was at SJP as we were trying to sign him.

To be honest I had similar feelings in the build up to Russia World Cup (obvious reasons) and again to the Euros last year (COVID stuff, being hosted all over Europe) but once they got started the football was great in both tournaments so you quickly forgot. It will be interesting to see if that happens again - because there's far more issues this time than before. While I far prefer NUFC to England I do think international tournaments are better than club football. Love the concentrated nature of the games and the more chaotic nature of how the teams are assembled. It is an antidote to the money dominated nature of club football and squad building - which is ironic considering all the other issues with how international football is organised.

It is but it's a bit of luck too. He only ended up back in the Georgian league because his contract in Russia was annulled. If you're buying from oligarch backed teams the fee is always going to be daft. Shakhtar don't sell low usually - and especially won't want to now after they had to lose a load of players on the cheap due to the war.

They allowed to replace him? Maybe a reprieve for Diaby.

I agree with this. Personally wouldn't expect any South American teenager signed (e.g. Santos, Angelo, Perrone) to be involved in the squad from January for example.

Yeah he's basically never played wide in his whole career. That surprised me because watching him he definitely seemed to occupy those spaces often during games. Guess it's something that could be tried if he has the skillset to do it.

Good post. Wahhabism is the most destructive of ideologies and it is birthed and spread by the Saudi state. Enforcing it both in terms of ideology and laws is key to allowing the dictatorship to retain control over the populace. PIF is undisputably the direct investment arm of the state - with the dual purpose of diversifying their economy away from oil and gaining soft power globally. The idea that some kind of holistic cross-pollination of ideas through PIF's investment in global capitalism will lead to advances in KSA society is fanciful in the extreme. It is by design far more likely to tighten the regime's grip on power and further entrench the status quo. It is in most NUFC fans interests to turn a blind eye to the above because lets honest the last thing any of us want to do is 'scare' away such investment in something we love. My way of rationalising it is a combination of fully appreciating the involvement of those owners directly involved in running the club (Staveley, RB, even PIF employees) - and convincing myself there is actually little we can do as individuals to stop the cold hand of investment in a global market (if it wasn't us - there's no doubt it would be somebody else).

We've already adapted our playing style quite significantly from the end of last season to now. Yes the intensity is ever present ideologically but we're looking to get a much clearer foothold in terms of possession and dominating teams - particularly at home. One thing we do still lack in my opinion is technical creativity to break teams down from both midfield and wide areas. The dropped points to Bournemouth and Palace happened because we lacked game breaking players. I have my doubts about how Maddison fits into the current system and way of playing too but he would definitely give us something we don't have. And going forward I also think that the current intensity of our gameplan is probably unsustainable every single week - particularly once we're in Europe and start playing two games a week. We will need slightly different ways of playing and winning.

Yeah the guy protesting was very good tbh. Really good answers to all the questions and I have full respect for any fan not only willing to take a moral stance but having the balls to stand there on matchday and protest. It's not for me, but they have every right to air their views in public.

Yeah they were storing the materials there for that site

Was worst individual performance of the season by a long way.

One real quality midfielder/winger for me to give us a boost but not rock the boat. Only other thing would be a backup right back - as the drop off to Manquillo the other night was mortifying.