ponsaelius

VAR has simply made me like football a lot less than I used to. I always knew I'd hate it but it's been even worse than I ever imagined. I can't even fathom how they think the drawing lines on a pitch thing for multiple minutes is a good idea. It's as if nobody who is coming up with this stuff has ever actually understood why the offside rule exists. The acceptance of inherent subjectivity in decisions and common sense self-policing nature of the game has been completely thrown out of the window in pursuit of an unachievable end goal - to the terminal detriment of the entertainment and emotional value of the game.

Their form hasn't really fluctuated much when Zlatan has been out though which is weird. Not sure on the stats but I wouldn't be surprised if they've actually had better PPG without him. Which is weird - cos I agree they look blunt without him.

Wanted Juve to hang around so they're distracted in the league but can never be disappointed to see the most evil club in world football go out. Hopefully Inter can finish the job and Atalanta can beat them in the cup final. Difficult to see the Ronaldo signing as anything other than a massive failure in footballing terms.

The other thing I learned was Brazilian journos have great interior decor.

Yeah it was great. He gets a lot of stick for the daft goal total he keeps, but you can understand why. Santos were the best in the world at the time, and the games they played touring Europe could probably not be described as 'friendlies' in the same way we think of them now.

My thoughts the same - anyone but Juve Atalanta/Lazio has their chance last year to do something special - just fell away at the end Inter ground it out. Huge win - only Atalanta's second league away defeat in their last 23. Would take an unbelievable collapse for them not to win the league from here now.

Looking forward to Inter vs Atalanta tonight. The idealist in me wants an Atalanta win to blow things open and give them an outside chance of going for the title. The realist in me wants Inter to just finish the job and just make sure Juve don't win.

Bollocks I feckin forgot. ponsaelius[/member] how did you do? 30th out of 120 or so. Was top 10 for a while but fell away with some stinkers in the last round. Wish I'd done the Serie A quiz instead (you could only do one). Looked at the questions for that this morning and reckon I'd have pissed it.

In line with the above: Could be a decent side!

Cardiff City stadium would probably be big enough to be a small World Cup venue (e.g. look at Kalininingrad and Yektarinburg last time) but not really worth it since you've already got a stadium in Cardiff. There's surely a few GAA stadiums in Ireland that would be big enough to be a second venue. Either way you could still have stadiums from countries with the caveat of no automatic qualification for said country.

Assume Southgate has told him he’s not going to get picked. Good luck to him, seems a genuinely good (and funny) guy. With Demarai Gray playing alongside Leon Bailey now - wouldn't be surprised to see him go the same way considering the players in front of him. That would be a tasty front 3.

Would be fantastic. I'd be trying to get tickets left right and centre.

It's definitely gone massively under the radar the youngsters they've put together in recent years - behind all the nonsense signings.

Serie B has strict salary caps and much lower wages. The most a Serie B side can sign a player to is about 150k a year - then about the same again in bonuses. So considering his unglamorous position and being signed by Palermo from another smaller Serie B side when they were in Serie B - it is not unreasonable to imagine (without a new contract) that he was possibly only on about 1 or 2k a week when playing for Palermo in Serie A. What probably happened is we offered him a 5 year deal on 5 or 10x what he was previously earning. In doing so we gave him enough money to be completely financially secure for the rest of his life. Sometimes it's hard to know what that does to a player's motivation. Add in a year and a half of not playing and it's not hard to imagine he has stagnated completely as a player.

Yeah I was going to say. Problem at the moment is to get any kind of midfield foothold we need 3 in there. But to get the best out of our squad we really need ASM, Fraser, Almiron and Wilson all in the team and that requires a midfield two. We're desperate for at least one midfielder who can get hold of a midfield - at least physically.

I thought first half was a good continuation of the Everton game. Much quicker and sharper football than we've played all season. Nothing phenomenal but a huge improvement. We were quite unlucky to concede two goals from what seemed like nothing to be honest. Second half just fizzled out and the substitutions were that of a child playing FIFA.

What on earth is the thinking with letting in 10% capacity for the Libertadores Final, but then cramming them all into one tiny section of the stadium?

Think they'll miss Papu Gomez? Definitely. They're great in games like today still but run out of ideas against stubborn and organised teams. Genoa and Udinese in the last week grinding out draws. I really think with Gomez fully involved they could have won the Scudetto this year. The rest of the team is stronger than it has been in recent years.

Feel they blew it a bit with their start, albeit they can beat anyone in the league when on form. I'd usually say it opens it up for Juve but they don't have quite that level of consistency under Pirlo, so far anyway. Inter taking full advantage by currently drawing at Udinese. 6 good sides but they'll take points off each other all year and allow Juve to win the league with 75 points.

Would love to think Atalanta could win the league but unfortunately this just makes it more likely Juve will win the league. The league is so open it will clear a path for them.

yeah

I would disagree with that to be honest. Like you say he has become more efficient - that has involved shifts in playing style. When he was at Juve and Inter he was still very similar to the player he was at Ajax, lots of dribbling and skills on the ball. A lot of time spent drifting wide and taking people on 1v1. Dropping deep and admiring his own playmaking etc. Although Capello tried to give him that goalscoring motivation it wasn't the only feature of his game. Post Barca/Milan, during his time at PSG he become more and more focused on scoring goals and did less of the other stuff. He doesn't even try and dribble at all these days really - and understandably so at his age. He uses his body and strength in shielding the ball, bringing people into the game and allows everybody else to do the running. He's also far, far better in the air than he was when he was younger - regularly scoring headers where previously it was a genuine weakness for a guy his size. A totally unique player though. To play at this level in the modern game, in a position like centre forward, at the age of 39 - is completely unheard of (unless Ronaldo can manage to do it in a few years).

Not the player he was 3 years ago. Had loads of injuries.

Bloody hell

Rafa is good at signing players but probably needs a decent scouting network, a reasonable budget and maybe some degree of support/control. I always think his best transfer business was done at Napoli. Mertens €9.5 Million Callejon €9.5 Million Raúl Albiol €12 million Higuain €37 million Reina free Duvan Zapata €7.5 million Jorginho €5.5 million Ghoulam €5.5 million And in second season Koulibaly for €7.5 million. While there has obviously been inflation since that was an incredible haul of players in 12 months bought for basically what they received for Cavani. Most either went on to become club legends or be sold for big transfer fees. At the very worst they were well worth their money.