2019-2020 Football / Calcio / Futbol / Fußball Thread

[Mzilliox]

Originally Posted by Climb01742

Could someone please cut my love for Arsenal out of my heart? Norwich showed more fight against MC than the Gunners in the second half yesterday. Both literally and figuratively, there's no 'D' in Arsenal. Why, always, is their defense such a comedy of errors?

their defense is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. also, the first half was just as bad as the second only we manged to score twice. we still had no possesion and scored 2 goals on 3 shots while Watford had something like 9 shots. now their midfield is complete and utter **** and their coach is a fraud. when you cant possess the ball vs watford, the defense was not your problem, its your teams inability to control a match in the middle of the pitch.. we leave our CBs hung to dry every match by pretending granita xhaka is a CM worthy of the EPL. and Unai Emery is a total fraud, put that right in the bank today, he will not be here at the end of the season. this is the worst i have ever seen my beloved gunners play. they have no semblance of style or tactics.

[echappist]

Originally Posted by wc1934

Liverpool can relax as the visitors changing room will be ready (they won't have to dress on the bus). But as for the game - they definitely cannot relax. Should be a good match, but Napoli will be ready.
Forte Partenopei!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...arloancelotti/

You must be over the moon! Napoli played well. Hopefully it wasn't too stressful watching that.

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by echappist

You must be over the moon! Napoli played well. Hopefully it wasn't too stressful watching that.

Yup
I liked the way they pressed, but there were also some tense moments. Manolas defending gave me palpitations (deja vu Koulibaly/Juve 2 weeks ago). Koulibaly is a beast - not great with the ball at his feet, but so solid (out played his counterpart, VVD, who is a tremendous centre back - they might be 1-2). Allan had a good game and I was surprised when they took him out. The substitutions altered the style of play.
I was surprised that they called that PK - Napoli has not had great success with that ref - German guy- but Liverpool has.
Liverpool keeper kept them in the game - that save on Mertens shot, where he was falling to his left and saves it with his right was world class (and it looks like he got his hand on the PK shot too).

[echappist]

Originally Posted by wc1934

Yup
I liked the way they pressed, but there were also some tense moments. Manolas defending gave me palpitations (deja vu Koulibaly/Juve 2 weeks ago). Koulibaly is a beast - not great with the ball at his feet, but so solid (out played his counterpart, VVD, who is a tremendous centre back - they might be 1-2). Allan had a good game and I was surprised when they took him out. The substitutions altered the style of play.
I was surprised that they called that PK - Napoli has not had great success with that ref - German guy- but Liverpool has.
Liverpool keeper kept them in the game - that save on Mertens shot, where he was falling to his left and saves it with his right was world class (and it looks like he got his hand on the PK shot too).

I was not a fan of the PK call; no contact. That said, Mertens struck the PK well.

LFC's playing style led to its own downfall. Seems to lack concentration and a bit too cute at times. I didn't catch the highlights, but it appears there's trouble brewing amongst the wingers again?

In other news, BvB was unlucky not to get a goal out of that match against Barça. Sigh...

Also, the games are available on free on Bleacher Report live. I don't know why that's happening though. Went to pay for the monthly coverage, and there was no place for me to click on anything. Strange...

ETA: rules for penalties is just straight up terrible. LFC basically won the final against Spurs on a dubious call. Now they fall victim to a dubious call. I don't think either merited a penalty, but so it goes

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by echappist

I was not a fan of the PK call; no contact. That said, Mertens struck the PK well.

LFC's playing style led to its own downfall. Seems to lack concentration and a bit too cute at times. I didn't catch the highlights, but it appears there's trouble brewing amongst the wingers again?

In other news, BvB was unlucky not to get a goal out of that match against Barça. Sigh...

Also, the games are available on free on Bleacher Report live. I don't know why that's happening though. Went to pay for the monthly coverage, and there was no place for me to click on anything. Strange...

That entire group F tied.
Glad to see Ajax won as well.
Thanks - didnt know BR had games on live. I watched the Napoli game on TNT. Liverpool was the draw. Luckily they were playing Napoli so I was able to see them.

[martl]

Originally Posted by wc1934

I was surprised that they called that PK - Napoli has not had great success with that ref - German guy- but Liverpool has.

If you are implying Brych would be biased toward 'Pool because of Klopp, rest assured. a) Brych is from Munich, not from Dortmund (or Mainz). b) Kloppo is not very popular with many Refs, both because of his agitation during the match and because of his habit to blame everyone else if things don't go his way, with usually the refs being first choice. Actually, Klopps sideline antics have been a point of concern at youth coach and referee meetings
c) to prove point b), he *did* complain about Brych after yesterdays match (of course he would) d) both, Brych and Klopp, clashed in the past several times.

Now, i know there is cheating, bias and even bribery in all football, Germany being no exception, but such allegations coming from a match in which *Napoli* was involved, of all teams, is funny. The Camorra bought/bribed/bullied them to titles in the past.

Originally Posted by echappist

I was not a fan of the PK call; no contact. That said, Mertens struck the PK well.

The contact was up there on the hip. Plus challenging in such a clumsy way inside the own box warrants a pen for stupidity alone.

[goonster]

Fair play to Napoli. There was definitely contact on the penalty, and there are problems with VAR, but I don't think this was one of them.

I do hope Napoli advances, just not at the expense of Liverpool, please.

Should be interesting to see how good RB Salzburg really are, when they go up against the big guns. The Haland kid is a good story.

[echappist]

Originally Posted by goonster

Fair play to Napoli. There was definitely contact on the penalty, and there are problems with VAR, but I don't think this was one of them.

I do hope Napoli advances, just not at the expense of Liverpool, please.

Should be interesting to see how good RB Salzburg really are, when they go up against the big guns. The Haland kid is a good story.

What would be great is Salzburg knocking out ManU in Europa League, to the consternation of a certain Roy Keane

[goonster]

Originally Posted by echappist

What would be great is Salzburg knocking out ManU in Europa League, to the consternation of a certain Roy Keane

Let's not get ahead of ourselves . . .

Anyway, nothing can surpass the glory of Man U crashing out of the Champions League at the hands of F.C. Basel (featuring a certain Xherdan Shaqiri) in Ferguson's penultimate season.

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by martl

If you are implying Brych would be biased toward 'Pool because of Klopp, rest assured. a) Brych is from Munich, not from Dortmund (or Mainz). b) Kloppo is not very popular with many Refs, both because of his agitation during the match and because of his habit to blame everyone else if things don't go his way, with usually the refs being first choice. Actually, Klopps sideline antics have been a point of concern at youth coach and referee meetings
c) to prove point b), he *did* complain about Brych after yesterdays match (of course he would) d) both, Brych and Klopp, clashed in the past several times.

Now, i know there is cheating, bias and even bribery in all football, Germany being no exception, but such allegations coming from a match in which *Napoli* was involved, of all teams, is funny. The Camorra bought/bribed/bullied them to titles in the past.

The contact was up there on the hip. Plus challenging in such a clumsy way inside the own box warrants a pen for stupidity alone.

Just talking stats -
The entire officiating crew was German, including the VAR booth.
Liverpool with Brych is three wins, a draw and a defeat.
Napoli with Brych, won once (4-2 against Benfica) and lost twice.

[martl]

Originally Posted by wc1934

Just talking stats -
The entire officiating crew was German, including the VAR booth.
Liverpool with Brych is three wins, a draw and a defeat.
Napoli with Brych, won once (4-2 against Benfica) and lost twice.

Ref-teams are one-nation always (hence "team"). The VAR assistant was of the same nation as the on-pitch team in five of the eight matches last night.
I don't know details but i assume it has to do with domestic availability either of trained staff or technical ablities. This being UEFA they possibly have some harebrained criteria of their own for this.

Brych officialled 5 Klopp matches so far. After three of them, Klopp expressed the opinion of having been the victim of bad refereeing, including one which he won 5-2. Klopp shook everone's hand last night with the exception of Brychs. There is no known instance of a justified penalty or red card awarded againbst any Klopp team in history. He *is* a petty bastard and a sore loser for sure.

[echappist]

Originally Posted by wc1934

Just talking stats -
The entire officiating crew was German, including the VAR booth.
Liverpool with Brych is three wins, a draw and a defeat.
Napoli with Brych, won once (4-2 against Benfica) and lost twice.

that's not really enough of a data set to justify anything, not to mention that there is no indication that LFC's wins and Napoli's loses are attributed to dubious calls

Originally Posted by martl

Ref-teams are one-nation always (hence "team"). The VAR assistant was of the same nation as the on-pitch team in five of the eight matches last night.
I don't know details but i assume it has to do with domestic availability either of trained staff or technical ablities. This being UEFA they possibly have some harebrained criteria of their own for this.

Brych officialled 5 Klopp matches so far. After three of them, Klopp expressed the opinion of having been the victim of bad refereeing, including one which he won 5-2. Klopp shook everone's hand last night with the exception of Brychs. There is no known instance of a justified penalty or red card awarded againbst any Klopp team in history. He *is* a petty bastard and a sore loser for sure.

he might not be a petty bastard (that'd be Mourinho level), but he sure likes to whinge a lot. though one of my fav manager, that damn whinging really gets irksome some times...

[goonster]

Originally Posted by echappist

that's not really enough of a data set to justify anything

Ref paranoia is an Italian pastime. I seem to recall fairly elaborate referee stats on the weekly match previews in Gazzetta dello Sport.

[wc1934]

I am saying that I was surprised that the ref made the call given prior experiences.

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by echappist

that's not really enough of a data set to justify anything, not to mention that there is no indication that LFC's wins and Napoli's loses are attributed to dubious calls




he might not be a petty bastard (that'd be Mourinho level), but he sure likes to whinge a lot. though one of my fav manager, that damn whinging really gets irksome some times...

Those are the available stats. Nothing more. Doesnt have to be a dubious call - There are many more subtleties/nuances that dramatically effect play.