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OK, it annoyed me when I saw it and it's annoyed me again now, so I'm going to point it out. Pele is holding the wrong versions of the World Cups he won in that photo.

Aaahhhhhhhh, that feels better.

Haha.



What's happened to VVD, @WrinkledMind ? Do you think he's still mentally affected by the injury? Luke Shaw was definitely not the same player after his bad leg break for a couple of years (arguably never will be depending on what you think of him). Has his hunger been sated by Liverpool's recent success? I can think of a couple of players I believe that's happened with. Has he just peaked? Or is the midfield not doing their job and the whole defence is getting exposed too often? Do you have another idea/reason? Anyone else?

Liverpool are reminding me of Klopp's team before Alisson and VVD were signed and his last year at Dortmund. Dortmund lost a couple of key players, the defence stopped working and they lost their key attackers. I've always thought that Klopp is too loyal to his team and doesn't move players on/refresh enough/too late and once the rot sets in it's hard to stop. If I'm right, that's what I think is happening now and it'll probably end with him leaving. Especially if the club is sold.
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5-time MoFo Award winner.



@honeykid
VVD has a lost a bit of pace. It was evident against Brentford too. A man who in the past casually caught up the likes of A Traore, Mbappe, Haaland, etc was struggling to keep up with Wissa (no disrespect to him).


That shouldn't be an issue. Hyypia was slow as a turtle & yet amazing. VVD still has good positional sense, but the biggest change in his game post injury is not tackling. He simply refuses to tackle. In the past he would bully people off the ball, even in the box. Now he tries to maneouver them away from the goal.


However, the reason we are struggling is the midfield - or the lack of it. Defence receives no protection from them.


It was the right time to bin Wijnaldum, but we should've moved on Milner, Henderson too. Fabinho's fall in form is worrying as well. Keita is a flop.


Curtis hasn't become the player we hoped he would. Elliott is good & shown really good potential but needs time, which leaves poor Thiago, who is still World class, to do a job of three.


We needed two new midifleders since the last three windows, but our transfer strategy of only signing our primary targets has ensured we are left hanging with none. Tchouameni & Bellingham were our primary targets. One chose Madrid at the last minute, & the other will do the same next summer.


It's baffling that club's unofficial mouthpieces like Melissa Reddy stated in the last summer that we also heavily scouted Enzo, Nunes & Caicedo, but decided to wait for Bellingham.


This strategy ensures you either get amazing players or no players, until you're forced to make emergency temporary loan moves like Arthur, or Kabak, etc.


Also, you are right, Klopp is no Fergie or Paisley, both of whom knew when to move players on. He is a bit too loyal.


I will be happy with a top four finish, but I won't be surprised if we miss out on it. You lot look settled under ETH & Newcastle seem to be playing with the same confidence as Arsenal (now) or Leicester (past).



It might not matter in the grander scheme of things, but if Qatar buys LFC (according to unconformed reports this morning), then I would stop supporting the club.


I hate everything that City & PSG stand for, & this would be no different.


I really, really hope the local fans group oppose this.



It might not matter in the grander scheme of things, but if Qatar buys LFC (according to unconformed reports this morning), then I would stop supporting the club.


I hate everything that City & PSG stand for, & this would be no different.


I really, really hope the local fans group oppose this.
I remember fearing this and wondering how I'd feel about United being owned by the Saudis when that kept coming up. Then the bought Newcastle and I was relieved, but sorry for those who'd always wanted that success and then saw this price. There's always a chance of someone/other state doing it. I honestly don't think I could stop supporting United unless I just stopped watching football, but I don't know how I'd feel about it.

I see Juve have been caught being the dodgy gits they are. It does make you wonder if they're the only team in Italy doing it because no one else seems to get caught.

Did anyone go with their gut and assume that Liverpool/Chelsea would be 0-0 or think that surely at least one of them would actually score a goal? I'm definitely in the latter category.

I'm enjoying United atm, but this talk of title challenge is silly, IMO and, even if we win tomorrow (which I don't think is likely, especially as Casemiro won't be in midfield) I don't think there's a title race in which United are a key unless this league is actually worse than I think it is.

That said, it is starting to feel a little like the 15/16 season when Leicester won, in that all the 'usual suspects' are tripping over each other to throw away any advantage they might've had. Even so, Arsenal do see to be the best of a bad bunch.



This season just keeps getting worse, & to make matters worse United are back on the ascendancy.


I am geniuely worried about losing Alisson, cause I reckon some clubs might come in for him if we don't finish in the top four, which is now looking like a certainty.



I was just wondering today, is this what it was like to be a Liverpool fan at the start of the season? Even I had Liverpool sneaking a 1-0 win, though 0-0 wouldn't have surprised me. But 3 agaiinst the lowest scoring club in the league? It was a strange weekend (so far) with Chelsea not beating Fulham, Arsenal and Liverpool losing to teams they should easily beat, Leicester putting four past Villa.

I hope the Casemiro red gets rescinded as that reverse shot showed he didn't have him by the neck but by the shirt. I don't blame the ref though, as that was the view he saw and it definitely looked like he held him by the neck. Three games without Casemiro could be troublesome even though two of them are agaisnt Leeds, that rivalry means it won't be as easy as the league might tell you. Leicester scoring 4 isn't calming nerves either. Still, if it isn't, at least he'll be fresh for the two games against Barca.

I've been hoping that the Bellingham hype train would capture all the rich top clubs so we could sneak in and have a (relatively) clear run at Osimhen. Today I see that Chelsea have made him their top priority so, depending on where they (and us to an extent) end up, that might not be the case. I heard someone say the other day that Napoli will want at least £90m for him and I thought, yeah, at least is right. If we can get him for £90m slap the money down now because I'm guessing we'll have to pay more than that. I know that sounds stupid because we're talking £90m, but that's where we are now. Were it not for the pandemic I think it'd be even more.

Imagine being Chelsea, having spent about half a billion pounds in two windows and still needing a striker?



Yeah, Casemiro didn't deserve the red.

Also, agree Osimhen at 90 is cheap, but I think he will go for more than that.

I can't see United being proactive about it. Still they are lucky most teams are tied with forwards, though I won't be surprised if Madrid make a move. Their midifled is stacked with quality youngsters, so they just might make a move for a forward as a long term replacement for Benzema. But then Perez the nut could go & buy Bellingham just to make a statement. I really hope Camavinga gets more & more upset with the less chances he is getting there. He would be perfect for us.
& then there's Chelsea, whose owner is acting like a kid in a toy store.

I wonder who Newcastle will buy, considering I do fancy them finishing in the top four.

On a side note, that game between Spurs & City was fun. I really can't understand what Guardiola was trying to achieve with that starting lineup.



I suspect either Pep did his usual outthinking himself or there's more problems behind the scenes/in the dressing room at City than Cancelo. I think there might be similar problems at City as I suspect is one of the root causes at Liverpool. That is, for 3 or 4 years they've been at the top of their game and winning/challenging for everything. You can only keep doing that for so long and most managers can't keep it fresh enough/choose players with an almost insatiable hunger to keep this from happening. If Arsenal win the league this season and there's a clear out/money at Liverpool, I'd expect both to be back next season.

I can't see United being proactive about Osimhen either unless there's been a really big change in how they go about these things. There were some signs of that in the summer, though the way they fumbled around and ended up paying nearly twice the price for Antony than they could've got him for at the start of the summer, makes me worry.



Raise your hand if you are happy with City being charged with fraud!!!


I hope they are relegated and stripped off their titles. But I won't be surprised if they are just let off with a fine, which would just be peanuts for them.



I'd accept a massive fine and a fifty point deduction for them for the next five seasons ..... that would at least make things a little bit more interesting



My understanding is that a fine and point deduction is all they can do. I'd gues, though don't know, that there are limits to both as well. I'm interested to know what they are though. Juve have been deducted 15 points by the league.

This will probably be appealed and tied up for ages though.



Well that was quite the Saturday OK, there was some dull football, but some strong results and the narratives keep turning.

After looking like the title wobble was in full effect, Arsenal show some gumption and claw it back against a Villa they really shouldn't have had any trouble with at all. It's a good win though and the kind of thing which has to happen in tough times if you've any chance of getting the title.

Chelsea (who I thought would end their goal drought against the Saints) showed that half a billion means nothing if you don't buy someone who can put the ball over the line., while JWP showed, once again, why I've wanted him at United since he was about 18 years old. I'm still happy to see him go there and I'll be happy to see him beat Beckham's 'record' (I put it like that because some of us are old enough to remember football existed before the PL and some of those players were quite good too) not because I have any problem with Beckham. That performance also made it crystal clear that those players weren't going to work for Nathan Jones. I don't know if he was out of his depth or the players just didn't like what they heard, but that performance was never coming from his Southampton.

Are Liverpool back? I do hope not. Beating Newcastle should feel like a more positive thing, but they've dropped off a lot in the last 4 or 5 games and just aren't scoring atm. Something I hope continues next Sunday in the final. Also interesting to note that with Pope getting sent off (what was he doing?) and their back up having played for United in the cup already (he was on loan for those who didn't know) it'll be their 3rd choice or youth keeper in the final. He'll probably end up having a worldy and annoy the hell out of me never to be heard of again, but we'll see.

Everton beat (dirty) Leeds, thank you. Great goal too and City drew despite having a good number of gilt edged chances, all of which gave me a nice warm feeling. And, for the first time this season (I think) Old Brighton showed up, having lots of chances and missing them all.

After all that I just need United to turn up and beat Leicester (who naturally have decided to turn up in time for the United game having scored 4 in each of their last two games having been crap up until then) and I'll have had quite the weekend.



ManUre win as does Spurs, back into the Top 4 down in England. But that's all just the sideshow to the mainshow...

More importantly, Celtic keep rolling, picking up another win, 4-0 over the Dons. Sevco once again benefitting from a pen and red card against Livi, St M proved the Hibs result last week was a blip as they were back in winning ways in Paisley, while St J & Hibs both picked up W's also.

Today, Motherwell put together back to back wins for the first time since August with their win over Hearts. And this was after picking up their first win in the League since the end of October. If they can keep picking up a few points and Aberdeen's home form is more than enough to keep them safe (no matter how poor they've been away from the North-East), then it would increasingly seem to be a battle for survival between United, Killie & County.



Karius could feature in the Carling Cup.


Not that I need reasons to wish for Manchester United to lose, but seeing Karius playing that match & ending up with a winner's medal, after the crap that he has been through post that UCL final, would be amazing.

EDIT
I can remember the last four to five games where a player from the opposition got sent off. Twice against Chelsea, one domestic Cup game, one in Europe and then Newcastle.
& we have struggled against ten men. It's just bizarre.

I thought Newcastle were the better side with ten men on Saturday.



Despite having an early morning meeting, I stayed up all night for that mess. The two goal lead gave me hope. But the worst part was me staying up till the last minute, even when it was not looking good.


The sad bit was that this wasn't least bit surprising. It's just been a car crash of a season.


The players have given up. I will still back Klopp, but he needs to make substantial changes to that squad.



I thought Newcastle were the better side with ten men on Saturday.
I only saw the highlights, but that and the match stats would seem to back that view.

I must confess that I played my part in Liverpools downfall last night. I had a treatment yesterday after which I usually go to bed for the rest of the day, but I got up to watch as much of the match as I could. As the second went in with a keepers mistake (which turned out not the be the worst on of the night) I said out loud "well if you're not going to try I'm going to go to bed." and after that, Real looked a lot better.

I did go to bed at half time to listen to the rest on the radio, but did so assured that Real would win the match. But even then I didn't expect that capituation. Watching football pensioner Modric run past an 18 year old in the build up to that last goal showed just how beaten Liverpool were by that point. I'll admit that, even as a United fan, part of me did want Liverpool to score one more just to make the 2nd leg look a little interesting. But the United fan part of me wanted Real to score at least one more to really hammer it home.

Klopp's work has never been clearer and, if he's given some money, surely even he will have to admit to a rebuild and get rid of some players who, while they've been very good for him, shouldn't be there anymore?

Any time I mention it most fans don't agree with me, but Salah has never been what Pool fans think/claim he is. Put a proper goalscorer in there and he'll dwarf Salah's numbers. I still think they sold the wrong one, not that Mane would make this team work like it used to either because this isn't Salah's fault.

The other one I get pushback on is Thiago, who is a exceptionally good player. Just not a Klopp player and doesn't really work in this kind of team.

Keita, Milner, Firmino, Henderson all need to be moved on, while I'd give the younger academy players longer to see if they can really make an impression or just be squad players/eligibility fillers for competion rules.



Mane was well on the decline for couple of years before he left. He had a mini revival when he was used as a striker. Diaz was the perfect replacement. His injury hasn't helped us.


Thiago is still our best midfielder & consistently performing. Him & Fabinho were responsible for getting us the top four couple of seasons ago, when our entire central defence was injured.


The rest of the midifled needs immediate binning, with the exception of Elliott, who has potential.


Anyways, congrats @honeykid on the cup.
ETH is definitely building something brilliant there.



There’s a cool little Dive Bar I love located outside the TMZ.
It’s the Rudder Room located right on the beach in the corner of a beachfront neighborhood.
Channel Islands Ca.

Been there for decades and decades. Cheap and kick back.

Brits gather there for Premiere Games on TV.
A yellow card and the building shakes, red card and fists fly.

The Brits are always keen to explain the game and the specifics on the particular game on TV.
Makes it really interesting.
It’s not a simple game IMHO.

I take in friends that aren’t hep on Soccer and they have a great time.

What really gets the new to the game interested is the Relegation rule.
To me the greatest rule in sports - arguably the most hated.