I'd forgot Soldado even existed. There's one signing I thought would be a million times better than turned out.
The European and World Football Thread
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Originally Posted by batdude_uk1:
“Isn't that what Liverpool did in the Real Madrid away match?”
“Isn't that what Liverpool did in the Real Madrid away match?”
Considering our first team got battered 3-0 and it was only half time and then our 'reserves' went to Madrid and played much better and only got beat by the odd goal then it wasn't throwing anything away. We played much better in the Bernabeu against at the time a rampant Real Madrid than at Anfield.
Originally Posted by celesti:
“I'd forgot Soldado even existed. There's one signing I thought would be a million times better than turned out.”
“I'd forgot Soldado even existed. There's one signing I thought would be a million times better than turned out.”
It's amazing a) how poorly Spurs dealt with using the Bale money and b) how Liverpool essentially replicated the exact same blueprint following Suarez's sale.
Originally Posted by Draca_Noir:
“Considering our first team got battered 3-0 and it was only half time and then our 'reserves' went to Madrid and played much better and only got beat by the odd goal then it wasn't throwing anything away. We played much better in the Bernabeu against at the time a rampant Real Madrid than at Anfield.”
“Considering our first team got battered 3-0 and it was only half time and then our 'reserves' went to Madrid and played much better and only got beat by the odd goal then it wasn't throwing anything away. We played much better in the Bernabeu against at the time a rampant Real Madrid than at Anfield.”
You do not put out your second team against the best team in the world (at least they were back then). It's disrespectful and makes you look ridiculous.
Originally Posted by Xela M:
“You do not put out your second team against the best team in the world (at least they were back then). It's disrespectful and makes you look ridiculous.”
“You do not put out your second team against the best team in the world (at least they were back then). It's disrespectful and makes you look ridiculous.”
Except they didn't look ridiculous when the scoreline was better than the previous encounter.
the rest of Europe seem to get on just fine with the demands of the Europa League while everyone here kids themselves that the PL is just way too competitive and demanding for English teams to be able to have a serious go at it.
Sevilla were 10 mins away from snatching 4th place on the last day of the La Liga season, and yet they were still able to take the Europa League seriously, even though they also had to face both Barca and Real in their run-in, and still managed to win it. for the 4th time in a decade, no less. and that's despite losing important players at the end of last season. if anyone deserved a CL place via the Europa, then it's definitely them. I'd imagine they'll have a pretty decent coefficient next season too, which should get them into a decent pot.
this will surely be looked back on as a golden era for Spanish football, when all is said and done. in the last 10 years they've won the Europa League 6 times, the Champions League 4 (possibly 5), the World Cup, and two European Championships. that is dominance at both domestic and international levels.
Sevilla were 10 mins away from snatching 4th place on the last day of the La Liga season, and yet they were still able to take the Europa League seriously, even though they also had to face both Barca and Real in their run-in, and still managed to win it. for the 4th time in a decade, no less. and that's despite losing important players at the end of last season. if anyone deserved a CL place via the Europa, then it's definitely them. I'd imagine they'll have a pretty decent coefficient next season too, which should get them into a decent pot.
this will surely be looked back on as a golden era for Spanish football, when all is said and done. in the last 10 years they've won the Europa League 6 times, the Champions League 4 (possibly 5), the World Cup, and two European Championships. that is dominance at both domestic and international levels.
Originally Posted by FMKK:
“Except they didn't look ridiculous when the scoreline was better than the previous encounter.”
“Except they didn't look ridiculous when the scoreline was better than the previous encounter.”
But are you saying this was Brendan's master plan all along? He put out the second team not because he believedd they would do better but because he was resting his first team for the upcoming tie with Chelsea I believe. He basically surrendered at the Barnebau before the game even started, which is quite unheard of at this level and then they lost to Chelsea anyway if I'm not mistaken.
Originally Posted by Pee:
“the rest of Europe seem to get on just fine with the demands of the Europa League while everyone here kids themselves that the PL is just way too competitive and demanding for English teams to be able to have a serious go at it.
Sevilla were 10 mins away from snatching 4th place on the last day of the La Liga season, and yet they were still able to take the Europa League seriously, even though they also had to face both Barca and Real in their run-in, and still managed to win it. for the 4th time in a decade, no less. and that's despite losing important players at the end of last season. if anyone deserved a CL place via the Europa, then it's definitely them. I'd imagine they'll have a pretty decent coefficient next season too, which should get them into a decent pot.
this will surely be looked back on as a golden era for Spanish football, when all is said and done. in the last 10 years they've won the Europa League 6 times, the Champions League 4 (possibly 5), the World Cup, and two European Championships. that is dominance at both domestic and international levels.”
“the rest of Europe seem to get on just fine with the demands of the Europa League while everyone here kids themselves that the PL is just way too competitive and demanding for English teams to be able to have a serious go at it.
Sevilla were 10 mins away from snatching 4th place on the last day of the La Liga season, and yet they were still able to take the Europa League seriously, even though they also had to face both Barca and Real in their run-in, and still managed to win it. for the 4th time in a decade, no less. and that's despite losing important players at the end of last season. if anyone deserved a CL place via the Europa, then it's definitely them. I'd imagine they'll have a pretty decent coefficient next season too, which should get them into a decent pot.
this will surely be looked back on as a golden era for Spanish football, when all is said and done. in the last 10 years they've won the Europa League 6 times, the Champions League 4 (possibly 5), the World Cup, and two European Championships. that is dominance at both domestic and international levels.”
Agree, it's a pretty special time right now, both Real and Barca have kicked on from what Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal were doing in the mid-2000s. I used to love having 3 English teams in the CL semis, it was just a shame our national team couldn't do anything.
Originally Posted by Pee:
“the rest of Europe seem to get on just fine with the demands of the Europa League while everyone here kids themselves that the PL is just way too competitive and demanding for English teams to be able to have a serious go at it.”
“the rest of Europe seem to get on just fine with the demands of the Europa League while everyone here kids themselves that the PL is just way too competitive and demanding for English teams to be able to have a serious go at it.”
People aren't kidding themselves. Its happening before our eyes. Clubs are struggling to compete in the Premier League and the Europa League. If it was actually not a problem then clubs wouldn't need to juggle their squads and they would actually compete on both fronts but they don't seem to be able to do that so games have to be prioritised. It makes far more sense to prioritise a league campaign where a bad result it not terminal over an elongated cup competition where even after 10+ matches you can have one bad game and be out. This is just the way it is.
Im not saying its because the Premier League is superior entirely. Maybe it is more physically demanding I don't know. Maybe the opposite is true though and outside of the CL teams the Europa standard teams just don't have the squad depth and quality to compete at the top level in a 60 game season.
it's a well-known fact though that even the bottom-placed team in the PL makes way more TV money than the majority of clubs elsewhere, outside of the obvious few exceptions, so is the squad issue really an excuse? you can make a case for a team like Everton, in relation to the Citys and Chelseas of this world, but Tottenham have been in this competition year-in year-out for pretty much the same time as Sevilla have, and never make any sort of impression. we weren't ever in serious Top 4 contention this year, yet exited so feebly. we were absolutely woeful over the last third of the PL season too, so is it that it was just impossible to compete on both fronts, or were we not just rubbish?
only two games had anything riding on them on the last day of the PL, which kinda disproves the ultra-competitive myth, for this season at least. the title was all but wrapped up ages ago, Top 4 places all sorted, and the EL ones too. even though most of the teams involved were poor for long stretches, there was no real danger of the teams below them being able to catch them. what's so competitive about that? and this was in a season where the clubs all performed terribly in Europe too, so in theory had the time they supposedly required to be able to focus on the league. other than the title race which was still up in the air until the end of Week 36, most of the La Liga games had something riding on them on the final day, and Sevilla would have taken 4th had Valencia (who weren't in Europe at all) not gotten a late winner in their game. all this is not to argue about which league is better, but if anyone had an excuse not to go for it, Sevilla's was at least as good as anyone else's.
only two games had anything riding on them on the last day of the PL, which kinda disproves the ultra-competitive myth, for this season at least. the title was all but wrapped up ages ago, Top 4 places all sorted, and the EL ones too. even though most of the teams involved were poor for long stretches, there was no real danger of the teams below them being able to catch them. what's so competitive about that? and this was in a season where the clubs all performed terribly in Europe too, so in theory had the time they supposedly required to be able to focus on the league. other than the title race which was still up in the air until the end of Week 36, most of the La Liga games had something riding on them on the final day, and Sevilla would have taken 4th had Valencia (who weren't in Europe at all) not gotten a late winner in their game. all this is not to argue about which league is better, but if anyone had an excuse not to go for it, Sevilla's was at least as good as anyone else's.
It will be interesting to see how Everton get on next season as the main excuse given for their patchy efforts last season (from the manager to the media) was simply that they couldn't cope with Europe.
The pressure will increase if they start badly again...
The pressure will increase if they start badly again...
Originally Posted by Pee:
“it's a well-known fact though that even the bottom-placed team in the PL makes way more TV money than the majority of clubs elsewhere, outside of the obvious few exceptions, so is the squad issue really an excuse? you can make a case for a team like Everton, in relation to the Citys and Chelseas of this world, but Tottenham have been in this competition year-in year-out for pretty much the same time as Sevilla have, and never make any sort of impression. we weren't ever in serious Top 4 contention this year, yet exited so feebly. we were absolutely woeful over the last third of the PL season too, so is it that it was just impossible to compete on both fronts, or were we not just rubbish?
only two games had anything riding on them on the last day of the PL, which kinda disproves the ultra-competitive myth, for this season at least. the title was all but wrapped up ages ago, Top 4 places all sorted, and the EL ones too. even though most of the teams involved were poor for long stretches, there was no real danger of the teams below them being able to catch them. what's so competitive about that? and this was in a season where the clubs all performed terribly in Europe too, so in theory had the time they supposedly required to be able to focus on the league. other than the title race which was still up in the air until the end of Week 36, most of the La Liga games had something riding on them on the final day, and Sevilla would have taken 4th had Valencia (who weren't in Europe at all) not gotten a late winner in their game. all this is not to argue about which league is better, but if anyone had an excuse not to go for it, Sevilla's was at least as good as anyone else's.”
“it's a well-known fact though that even the bottom-placed team in the PL makes way more TV money than the majority of clubs elsewhere, outside of the obvious few exceptions, so is the squad issue really an excuse? you can make a case for a team like Everton, in relation to the Citys and Chelseas of this world, but Tottenham have been in this competition year-in year-out for pretty much the same time as Sevilla have, and never make any sort of impression. we weren't ever in serious Top 4 contention this year, yet exited so feebly. we were absolutely woeful over the last third of the PL season too, so is it that it was just impossible to compete on both fronts, or were we not just rubbish?
only two games had anything riding on them on the last day of the PL, which kinda disproves the ultra-competitive myth, for this season at least. the title was all but wrapped up ages ago, Top 4 places all sorted, and the EL ones too. even though most of the teams involved were poor for long stretches, there was no real danger of the teams below them being able to catch them. what's so competitive about that? and this was in a season where the clubs all performed terribly in Europe too, so in theory had the time they supposedly required to be able to focus on the league. other than the title race which was still up in the air until the end of Week 36, most of the La Liga games had something riding on them on the final day, and Sevilla would have taken 4th had Valencia (who weren't in Europe at all) not gotten a late winner in their game. all this is not to argue about which league is better, but if anyone had an excuse not to go for it, Sevilla's was at least as good as anyone else's.”
Good post. I agree.
Wow,wow, wow, wow.
I know by now I shouldn't be shocked by a Messi goal, but that one tonight, is one of the best, he is the best player of all time, the world will be a far worse place once he stops playing.
He gives so much enjoyment to those watching him play.
I know by now I shouldn't be shocked by a Messi goal, but that one tonight, is one of the best, he is the best player of all time, the world will be a far worse place once he stops playing.
He gives so much enjoyment to those watching him play.
Its easy to take for granted how good he is, how he always scores 50 goals a season, big goals in big games. Fantastic goals too.
What an incredible talent this boy is, he's from another world surely!
I think in some ways, the Ronaldo competition has made them both better and it has made for some excellent viewing. If you look at past greats, they all had their own era. We don't realize how lucky we are to watch two greats go head-to-head in the same era, challenging each others records!
Enjoy them both while they last guys! we won't see anything like it ever again!
What an incredible talent this boy is, he's from another world surely!
I think in some ways, the Ronaldo competition has made them both better and it has made for some excellent viewing. If you look at past greats, they all had their own era. We don't realize how lucky we are to watch two greats go head-to-head in the same era, challenging each others records!
Enjoy them both while they last guys! we won't see anything like it ever again!
Originally Posted by clarky323:
“I think in some ways, the Ronaldo competition has made them both better and it has made for some excellent viewing. If you look at past greats, they all had their own era. We don't realize how lucky we are to watch two greats go head-to-head, challenging each others records!”
“I think in some ways, the Ronaldo competition has made them both better and it has made for some excellent viewing. If you look at past greats, they all had their own era. We don't realize how lucky we are to watch two greats go head-to-head, challenging each others records!”
I think this is spot on. They both seem to relish the competition with each other.
I think I will genuinely cry when Messi retires, as he is such a special talent that we will not see his ilk ever again.
I am just blessed to say that I lived through his era, and have personally seen him live in the flesh and scoring at the Camp Nou.
I am just blessed to say that I lived through his era, and have personally seen him live in the flesh and scoring at the Camp Nou.
Everything he touches seems to turn to gold, like a one man army. Privileged to watch both players during my lifetime.
Originally Posted by batdude_uk1:
“I think I will genuinely cry when Messi retires, as he is such a special talent that we will not see his ilk ever again.
I am just blessed to say that I lived through his era, and have personally seen him live in the flesh and scoring at the Camp Nou.”
“I think I will genuinely cry when Messi retires, as he is such a special talent that we will not see his ilk ever again.
I am just blessed to say that I lived through his era, and have personally seen him live in the flesh and scoring at the Camp Nou.”
Finally got to see Barca live in the flesh this year and Messi scored a hat-trick. No better player to go and see because it's basically guaranteed that you'll get to see him score, whatever the game.
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