triggs

Janmaat and Sissoko's chemistry

The last four games is the first time we've looked like a football team in years

3 at the back for us

It's a great idea but it doesn't break up the hold the mega rich teams have over the league itself. They'll just spend even more and hoard even more players to avoid 4th. I'm not worried about the CL, parity in England will sort the CL out in time. Parity in your league will make it easily the strongest league. Massive do or die fixtures beyond what most of the other teams in Europe could ever dream of participating in makes the EPL stronger. Hell, it might even improve your national team, ffs. Hardened English players knowing what it means to perform when it's all on the line year after year instead of on those infrequent occasions when they land a cup final. Each team plays each other home and away. Absolutely no need for playoffs. The issue of mega rich teams won't be solved by giving them an extra half a dozen or so games which would no doubt add to their already bursting coffers. But it solved it here. With 162 games, you could argue there's even less need for playoffs in baseball, but we've got them and it's possible for a (comparatively) poor team to topple the teams spending hundreds of millions of dollars. This is due to teams taking an active role in improving themselves year after year (which imo does not happen in the EPL. Most teams work to maintain the status quo) which spreads the top talent around, and affords more opportunities for talent to develop. They don't play each other the same amount of times, do they? Do each team play all of the others at all? There are two leagues. AL and NL. Every AL team plays each other an absolutely ungodly amount of times, and (I think) each division in the AL plays of the teams in a single division from the other league plus any local rival. This is relatively recent. Teams from the AL and NL never used to play at all unless they met in the World Series. So you've got all the AL teams going head to head over and over again, but we've still got playoffs and no one is upset. Because you have to get the National league and American league to send their best teams to the World Series. That's the elephant in the room. In the Premiership, the best team wins it. Except 95-96 that is. Each team has played the same fixtures. That isn't the same in American sport is it? It's the same in basketball. Each team plays one another at least twice. Also each team absolutely does not play the same season. Not from what I've seen. There are games where teams try, and there are games teams are happy to survive. I don't think any of the top teams regularly face teams that are actively trying to beat them. That's why they keep going to Europe and getting cracked. Disagree tbh. You rarely see smaller teams in the Premier League just roll over and die. The reason they are getting beaten in Europe is that they waste loads of money on the wrong players and just aren't as good as the best European teams

They just aren't that good. Pressing the opposition is a great philosophy but if you can't finish or defend set pieces it's not going to make much difference. So for me it's the Pardew argument, he's getting very little out of the players at his disposal due to his rigid attitude. Still once he gets £100m to spend I'm sure they'll be great. Disagree completely, Klopp hasnt needed super expensive squads in the past at all and I cant see any formation or tactics that could make that mongrel of a squad look any good, defenders too inconsistent to play on the counter, too easily out muscled to keep the ball possession wise and too blunt to be very direct Although I will say that to push forward without the firepower to kill games is a dangerous game. I still think Klopp is class personally but I think he needs players to suit his philosophy and Liverpool don't have the right balance. Klopp is the exact opposite of Pardew in the way he plays the game. Play the game in the opposition's half not your own. Sweat to god. He's class, but can't do anything other than one thing until he has the players for it? Might as well make me a manager, I'll get it right once they give me exactly what I want. Pep Guardiola is the same like. If that's the way you're going to play you may as well do it all the time so the players you will be keeping will get used to it and then you can add other more suitable players to it

As he opened the bottle of carbonated water which sprayed all over him and the seat back in front I gave him a tissue and jokingly commented, "I'll say nothing about your handling". He snapped back, "It had nothing to do with that!" Laugh a minute. You missed the best part of that post, after Ronaldo says the thing about his missus being off cheating again, someone(can't remember who) replied with "he's probably used to being second choice"

Haven't really been keeping up with the injuries this week. Are all of Mbabu, Anita, Colback, Dummett unavailable?

No brainer for him. Gets to live in the area he's lived his whole life, probably won't even have to play a game and a pathway into coaching

27 titles. Only seven in the....46 years since playoffs have existed. Two of those against the Braves, mind. You realise that in the NFL, the Seahawks have made it to the last two Superbowls (admittedly they didn't this season), and the Bronco's made it two seasons ago and have a chance again this year, the New England Patriots have made it the two of the last 4 and again have a chance of making it again this season, meaning the same team would have been in 3 out of 5 finals, both have one game (against each other) and they will make it to the Superbowl. How is it that this makes it unpredictable? They're successful because they're extraordinarily well-scouted and well-coached teams. Panthers were 7-8-1 last season, 15-1 and in the NFC Championship game this season. Chiefs lost their top RB and biggest weapon early in the season, and despite not having any outstanding players, managed to win 11 straight including the first playoff game. Minnesota was 7-9 last season, Washington 4-12. Seahawks were an average team before hiring their current HC, Broncos had 6 seasons of average results before getting one of the greatest QBs in NFL history. Extraordinary well scouted and well coached teams can also do well in football in Europe as I said with Atletico, Dortmund and Juventus winning leagues and getting to Champions League finals

Why are there so many games in American sports bar American football? What is the actual point in playing 82 games of basketball in a season even before playoffs?

Marathon analogy doesn't fly because the Kenyans running in the EPL are on fucking horses and no one cares. Teams choose when to care about the FA Cup. We choose to never care about it. It's nowhere near the same as a playoff, imo. This breaks up the entrenched top clubs. No it doesn't, you'll have Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs in it every year and two others that will maybe once in 50 years win it outside that group unless they spend enough to catch up So encouraging billionaires to spend some cash on their plaything and compete is bad? Playoffs make the buy in for success significantly cheaper, and the more teams vying for playoff glory means more talent on each team. I feel like it's like this in every sport we have. God damn you Kaizero. God damn you to hell, bumping this shit. But then you're bringing up the situation where you can only compete if you are a big brand like Man Utd or Liverpool or are taken over by a billionaire by Man City or Chelsea. I don't believe this to be the case even with the system the way it currently is. Atletico Madrid, Dortmund and Juventus have won major leagues and got to Champions League finals in the last 5 years without spending hundreds of millions.

If every team is taking the field week in and week out fully aware that it's realistically possible for them to actually win something, do you think the top teams would have as easy a time of things? Does anyone honestly think the top clubs play 38 competitive matches per year? You've got managers saying they'd take a draw days before the match and we're supposed to think the current system tells us in any way which team is best? That's exactly what it does

Marathon analogy doesn't fly because the Kenyans running in the EPL are on fucking horses and no one cares. Teams choose when to care about the FA Cup. We choose to never care about it. It's nowhere near the same as a playoff, imo. This breaks up the entrenched top clubs. No it doesn't, you'll have Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs in it every year and two others that will maybe once in 50 years win it outside that group unless they spend enough to catch up

Neville will be back on Sky soon enough

Presume relegation would stay the same

Playoffs would be pretty pointless without a draft and a draft is basically impossible in football

Was decent going forward until he went off at the weekend as well

Tbf Mascherano is one of the few footballers I could see that would thrive in prison

South American Barca players really do not like tax

Would the NFL players be better off without helmets? Seems guys put their head first into a lot of tackles which they probably wouldn't without them

On its current trajectory, MLS will be on par quality-wise with the PL in 20 years. Easy. Playoffs, mascots, hokey logos and team names n' all. And NFL's gonna have a permanent team in London within the next few years. We're coming. You taking the piss with the first paragraph? As someone who follows both the PL and MLS intently, nope. It's fact. You need loads of domestic players of decent quality to have a good domestic league. You'll also have to change the rules on only allowing teams to have 3 designated players. Also the draft system will have to move into academies for different teams rather than drafts which would be a big change in America I would imagine. That's without even getting into loads of other stuff like trying to coax ambitious European players in their prime into moving to America Ah yes, like the whopping 35% domestic talent in the Premier League, known for their fantastic escapades and world cup wins for their national team. You can't just buy hundreds of quality players in one season, you need a decent American player base. Let's say someone like Wijnaldum, gets approached to play for New York City, he's not going to go there if he looks at the rest of the squad and they're all shite. What you have to do is to get loads of good or at least decent American players there first and then foreign players might go. For example, I wasn't alive at the time but I've heard of guys like Ossie Ardiles going to Spurs back years ago when that wasn't the norm in England. Would be have stayed there if there wasn't English players like Glenn Hoddle there at the same time with similar quality? They're clearly improving though. I have no issues with thinking the US will be a powerhouse within football by 2035. The quality of the homegrown MLS players have increased massively in just the past five years. Aye well you'd know more than me about the quality of MLS but they still have a long way to go judging by how Robbie Keane seems to take the piss over there. 20 years isn't that long though to go from a poor league to a very good one but I guess we'll see in time who is correct

On its current trajectory, MLS will be on par quality-wise with the PL in 20 years. Easy. Playoffs, mascots, hokey logos and team names n' all. And NFL's gonna have a permanent team in London within the next few years. We're coming. You taking the piss with the first paragraph? As someone who follows both the PL and MLS intently, nope. It's fact. You need loads of domestic players of decent quality to have a good domestic league. You'll also have to change the rules on only allowing teams to have 3 designated players. Also the draft system will have to move into academies for different teams rather than drafts which would be a big change in America I would imagine. That's without even getting into loads of other stuff like trying to coax ambitious European players in their prime into moving to America Ah yes, like the whopping 35% domestic talent in the Premier League, known for their fantastic escapades and world cup wins for their national team. You can't just buy hundreds of quality players in one season, you need a decent American player base. Let's say someone like Wijnaldum, gets approached to play for New York City, he's not going to go there if he looks at the rest of the squad and they're all shite. What you have to do is to get loads of good or at least decent American players there first and then foreign players might go. For example, I wasn't alive at the time but I've heard of guys like Ossie Ardiles going to Spurs back years ago when that wasn't the norm in England. Would be have stayed there if there wasn't English players like Glenn Hoddle there at the same time with similar quality?

On its current trajectory, MLS will be on par quality-wise with the PL in 20 years. Easy. Playoffs, mascots, hokey logos and team names n' all. And NFL's gonna have a permanent team in London within the next few years. We're coming. You taking the piss with the first paragraph? As someone who follows both the PL and MLS intently, nope. It's fact. You need loads of domestic players of decent quality to have a good domestic league. You'll also have to change the rules on only allowing teams to have 3 designated players. Also the draft system will have to move into academies for different teams rather than drafts which would be a big change in America I would imagine. That's without even getting into loads of other stuff like trying to coax ambitious European players in their prime into moving to America

On its current trajectory, MLS will be on par quality-wise with the PL in 20 years. Easy. Playoffs, mascots, hokey logos and team names n' all. And NFL's gonna have a permanent team in London within the next few years. We're coming. You taking the piss with the first paragraph?