Still not worthy of a thread

[1881]

Don’t understand why the referees get all the blame. It is the players who are cheating and the managers who are endorsing and I assume encouraging it.

[Holloway]

This just popped up on my fb saw it live.Tommy Cassidy,the most unlikely looking footballer,even in the 70's 😂

 

[madras]

7 minutes ago, Holloway said:

This just popped up on my fb saw it live.Tommy Cassidy,the most unlikely looking footballer,even in the 70's 😂

 

I was at both of those.

[Paully]

What a crock of shit 

 

 

[El Prontonise]

I like that actually, means I can plan Easter trip without worrying about nufc games.

[Kilcline]

"FIFA have shifted international break to include Easter weekend"  vintage Daily Mail

 

I mean, FIFA only publishes the International Match Calendar between four and eight years in advance the bastards, and there's been an international window the last full week in March for 10 or 12 years now, it's going to clash at some point. 

[Doctor Zaius]

Don't mind a two week international break tbh. Annoying when they come around but by the end you're sort of into it. Might as well get more games over and done with rather than stop/start in the earlier part of the season 

[Pixelphish]

7 minutes ago, Doctor Zaius said:

Don't mind a two week international break tbh. Annoying when they come around but by the end you're sort of into it. Might as well get more games over and done with rather than stop/start in the earlier part of the season 

It also means we’re going to be mint in the lead up and kill our momentum so I’m all for it. NUFC things.

[Kimbo]

I hate that September break, I’d rather they had it in August and just started the league a bit later.

[Kilcline]

8 minutes ago, Doctor Zaius said:

Don't mind a two week international break tbh. Annoying when they come around but by the end you're sort of into it. Might as well get more games over and done with rather than stop/start in the earlier part of the season 

Yeah, I like the idea of the longer one in September/October, if anything it's a bit annoying they didn't just tack the November one onto it aswell as it's still only five weeks between the October and November breaks 

[NE27]

Watching the old firm at the weekend made me realise how old our average match attending fan is, we are overrun with facking owld cants! 

 

I don't begrudge anyone going btw before anyone starts!

[gdm]

an almost month long international break

[r0cafella]

Just now, gdm said:

an almost month long international break

It's an improvement on what was done previously with 2 breaks in quick succession. All of this boring crap should be just played at the start or end of the season though. 

[Optimistic Nut]

7 hours ago, r0cafella said:

It's an improvement on what was done previously with 2 breaks in quick succession. All of this boring crap should be just played at the start or end of the season though. 

 

I'd sooner just start the season beginning of September with no interruptions (plus you'd have reached end of the transfer window) and get the internationals out of the way in August than this. 

[Optimistic Nut]

Where I am these days. Other than Newcastle & Hearts I can't remember the last time I sat down looking forward to watching football. 

[Guybrush]

Seeing a lot of this sentiment recently. People talking about individuality being coached out of players, with patterns of play and rigid adherence to formation being the cause. It works, otherwise teams wouldn't be doing it, but it's awful to watch. 

 

I think a lot of us are still stuck in a different era. When you go to the match you hear people shouting to take someone on, or beat a man, and the player is never going to do that at the expense of shape or losing the ball. That's partly down to tactics drilled into them in training, and partly down to 50,000+ people moaning when someone does try something and they lose the ball. 

 

It's a shame, because flair players are the reason we watch the game. Give us a tricky winger over a throw in every day of the week.

 

Part of me does wonder if a team had the bravery to focus more on individual brilliance at the expense of coached patterns of play, if we would see some shocks as other teams are pulled out of position or struggle to adapt to a winger forcing a one on one. Maybe it could be easily defended against in the modern era, or maybe not. 

 

To use management speak I hate but have to use, a focus on individual brilliance can give a player a higher ceiling but a lower floor, whereas focusing on systems and to an extent set pieces, gives a player a lower ceiling but a higher floor. And unfortunately in a team game, unless you really trust the individual brilliance of your players and coach and play to those strengths, you're much better off having everyone stick to patterns of play so your 'worst' is still better than other teams 'worst'. 

 

Not sure where that came from, but thank you for coming to my TED talk. 

 

 

Edited March 4 by Guybrush

[Dr.Spaceman]

20 hours ago, Kimbo said:

I hate that September break, I’d rather they had it in August and just started the league a bit later.

 

It's like "Get in the Premier League's back....aaaaand it's gone again."

 

 

Edited March 4 by Dr.Spaceman

[54]

I personally think this new longer international break is a step in the right direction, but doesn't go far enough. For me the ideal would be to have that longer break in November, so the season is a decent way started before the interruption, then combine the current November and March international breaks and have another 3 week break in March, so the season is only broken up twice, instead of 4 time this season and 3 next.

[The College Dropout]

Second half of wolves vs Liverpool was good last night.  Even the 0-0 between Brentford and Bournemouth was a decent game for a 0-0. 
 

Man U vs Bournemouth was excellent a few weeks ago
 

But there are a lot of bore fests. I like Arsenal personally but a lot of games involving them are super boring.  Even the Wolves game with the last minute equaliser. 
 

Theres a dozen reasons for it imo. Better teams lower in the PL, better defensive setup, better quality lower the league, robotic coached players, everyone a super athlete, ‘top’ teams playing crazy amount of games etc. 

 

The days of Man City regularly slapping teams 4-5-6 is over. The league is more competitive. But teams just stalling themselves out against each other is all too regular.  Even Arsenal slap up teams in Europe in entertaining fashion. 

[The College Dropout]

40 minutes ago, 54 said:

I personally think this new longer international break is a step in the right direction, but doesn't go far enough. For me the ideal would be to have that longer break in November, so the season is a decent way started before the interruption, then combine the current November and March international breaks and have another 3 week break in March, so the season is only broken up twice, instead of 4 time this season and 3 next.

Rather have all internationals in May/June & August/September.  Start and end the season. 

[Nucasol]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

Second half of wolves vs Liverpool was good last night.  Even the 0-0 between Brentford and Bournemouth was a decent game for a 0-0. 
 

Man U vs Bournemouth was excellent a few weeks ago
 

But there are a lot of bore fests. I like Arsenal personally but a lot of games involving them are super boring.  Even the Wolves game with the last minute equaliser. 
 

Theres a dozen reasons for it imo. Better teams lower in the PL, better defensive setup, better quality lower the league, robotic coached players, everyone a super athlete, ‘top’ teams playing crazy amount of games etc. 

 

The days of Man City regularly slapping teams 4-5-6 is over. The league is more competitive. But teams just stalling themselves out against each other is all too regular.  Even Arsenal slap up teams in Europe in entertaining fashion. 

Leeds v Sunderland was AIDs for the eyes. It made the Arsenal v Chelsea match seem like Liverpool 4-3 NUFC in 1995/96 by comparison.

[Mattoon]

The one thing we can be grateful for with Howe is that we will never be a souped-up version of Stoke City, give me high intensity "get after them" football over long throws and "get it in the mixer" every day of the week, please and thank you!

[Tross]

Football is terrible now compared to the 90's and even the early 00's. VAR has sucked the life out of it and shit referees giving shit fouls every 2 minutes makes it impossible for a match to flow properly.

 

[Dr.Spaceman]

Early 00's was the peak tbh. Nothing will ever come close to those Man Utd - Arsenal games with Vieira v Keane, Keown v Van Nistelrooy etc

[SteV]

6 minutes ago, Tross said:

Football is terrible now compared to the 90's and even the early 00's. VAR has sucked the life out of it and shit referees giving shit fouls every 2 minutes makes it impossible for a match to flow properly.

 

I think the some prior generations, particularly the 90’s, is looked on far too fondly. Underneath the very top level, there was bundles of absolute dross.

 

I know we all make references to Arsenal being ‘like watching Wimbledon in the 90’s’, but if you ever actually watched Wimbledon in the 90’s, you’ll know it’s still light years away from that.