Lets Talk Football

It's probably a combination of the two, but I'd put the injury as the main reason. That said, he keeps getting into position but he's missing/forcing saves. Sometimes it goes like that. We had a striker about 13 years ago who took forever to score a goal (28 appearances, I think it was but he scored twice against Liverpool so we still sing Diego Forlan's name. ) We sold him to Villareal and then Atletico bought him (where Falcao really made his name) and went on to score lots of goals for both. Especially Atletico where he had a stirke rate of better than one in two. Not every player fits every team or plays for them at the right time. They're human and that's just how it is.

I agree that United will be fine without either of them. With the exception of Di Maria's first few weeks, neither has really earned a place in the side,let alone made themselves indispensible.

van Persie I was more than happy to get rid of last season. One of the things I didn't like about VG's arrival at United was that it meant that he'd be sticking around.

End of the season the team at the top wins. The places are as they sit after the last day of the season. First place wins the league. First through fourth qualify for next seasons champion's league (first three are automatic, while the fourth has to win one qualifying tie to be in the group stage next season) Fifth qualifies for next seasons Europa League, while other teams can qualify depending on who plays in/wins the Cups.

Were Arsenal to win the FA Cup and finish in the top four place, then the team they beat in the final would qualify for the Europa League (as one of the rewards for winning the FA Cup is qualifying for the Europa League. But Arsenal finishing in the top 4 would mean already qualifying for the Champion's League (the more prestigious competition)) Were both teams in the FA Cup final to've already quialified for Europe, then the place would go to the 6th placed team in the league.

It's an international week this week, so no club football.

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

I am ready for the football.

__________________
We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Good result for United even if we lose today. Should we win, as we are atm, that puts us 8 points ahead with 7 to play. I've seen better United teams than this throw a lead like that away, but you'd hope it'd be enough for fourth at least.

Always nice to see Liverpool lose and three in eight minutes was more than enough. 4-1? Thank you Arsenal.

2-0 and straight back to 2-1. Don't get sloppy United.

That's my accumulator down the drain - dam QPR!

And it's 3-1. Another for Herrera. Starting to become a cult hero at United already?

I think LVG has really found something with the lineup as it stands.They are really tough on both sides of the field. And now Di Maria has two really nice passes to set up goals in two straight weeks. I wish he could come in for someone other than Young though.

Manchester City has been in complete shambles since the start of 2015. A massive squad overhaul is needed in the summer.

__________________

[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Di Maria's assist was one in name only, really. That goal is all Rooney. It's a bad cross that he manages to control and score from. Great goal though in a weekend of them.
City's main problem, I think, is that their best team is, essentially, the team which won the title three years ago. Add to that a real Jose team at Chelsea (which he improved in the summer) a poor season from Kompany and only one striker that's really fired all season (when he hasn't been injured) and I don't think it's difficult to see why they're not challenging Chelsea. That's not even taking into consideration the post World Cup blues and City's inability to get themselves up for another season after winning the title.

Well, considering Atletico paid FC Porto 40M€ for Falcao, I'd say it was in Porto he made his name!

I take your point and you're right. Especially with football fans who look outside their own league, but with all due respect (i.e. none. ) doing it in Portugal at Porto isn't the same as doing it in La LIga at Atletico.

Well, you're right about the difference between La Liga and the Portuguese League! And Atletico surprised me that year... Because two years before ther were completely anihilated by FC Porto in the Champions League (Falcao scored a beautiful goal in that match). They have been playing really well since 2011-12, because they were not much of a threat before that... Villareal was probably the 3rd best team on Spain around that time. And before Villareal, probably Valencia...

But we still turn unknown players into top players and sell them to top clubs for great prices... We may not be the best or the richer, we may play in a ****** league where the 3rd best team is light years behind the first 2, but nobody in the world does business like we do! And we manage to win some european titles from time to time, so I have to be proud!

I agree with you about the business Porto (and other Portuguese teams) do, though I suspect the licensing laws help greatly there. Unless they're playing in 75% of their nations games (with exceptions) non-EU players can't play in England. Plus, of course, there's the close relations between S.American and Portugal (and Spain) which is a great advantage.

There's no doubt you punch above your weight though.

Well, benfica (which I refuse to write with capital letter) started to do some good business the past 4 or 5 years, but they buy 30 players at once, dismiss 15, sell 10 for peanuts, loan 4 and profit with one... Also, they should all suffer from horrible, slow and painful deaths...
And besides them, we have Sporting who has one of the best academies in the world but spends more money feeding that academy than gaining by selling players... They end leaving all the good ones go to other clubs by free or really cheap...

But I was thinking about what you mentioned about licensing laws and you're absolutely right! Portuguese football wouldn't survive with some law like that, though there are some idiots who are trying to implement it... I believe Spain as also some law like that... Not so strict though!

I mostly agree. The current City side are in desperate need of fresh blood in the ranks. For the last two summer transfer windows all of their buys have turned out to be disappointments (you can argue for a few of them). To make matters worse, they were hit with the FFP fine with severely limited their activity on the market. City's squad is also ageing pretty badly. The starting 11 are all older than 26, and that's depending on if Kun is healthy, in which case it is 27 or 28. This season is reminiscent to the 2012-13 season after the first win. The players just don't seem motivated and have taken the year off. Again, the World Cup didn't help matters either. Even so, you have a team like Chelsea who I believe had more players at the WC than City, and they've been pretty spot on for the most part.

This issue with City will take a couple years to heal itself. You can't overhaul your squad in one transfer window, especially with FFP implemented.

As is usual with Mourinho, he's always better in his second season. He also buys and sells intelligently, (Cesc, Diego Costa/David Luiz, Juan Mata). With a young squad like he currently has, I suspect it will be very tough for anyone to really go toe to toe with Chelsea next year.

I do not follow the league, but I've always been a huge fan of the way Porto manages to do business. Add to that some success here and there on the continental stage, and you have an overall success.

They just made a nice chunk of change off Real Madrid for the services of Danilo, a player I rate highly.

And I'm with you on Benfica; never liked them, never will.

Danilo is a foreign player who embraced FC Porto and its culture and tradition like very few in the past years! He's not only one of the best right backs of the world right now, he has the one thing I care more about a player: that look on his eyes... Focused and almost hateful! It doesn't matter if it's 5-0 and the match is at 89', he doesn't get sloppy!
We needed more players like him, specially this year with so many "interests" playing against us! I'm going to miss him a lot!

benfica will probably win this year's title. It'll be the first time in 30 years that another club that isn't FC Porto wins the title twice in a row. They should be 12 points behind with fair referees. They are 3 points ahead... Oh Portugal...

LVG made a few new MU supporters today! If he would have subbed Young again today, I was gonna poop my pants.

Champions League is back!

Atlético Madrid -v- Real Madrid
Monaco -v- Juventus

I hope Atlético takes the win.

No way!

I'm pulling for Real and Juve.