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Football Thread 2017/18 |OT| Relegated to Community

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Jimrpg

Member
I like the sound of the UEFA Nations League - though teams in League D have to wait a long time before getting into League A which is pretty ridiculous.
 
What did the referee do exactly?

A whole lot of dodgy shit.

Joseph Lamptey’s long history of disputed football decisions to be examined

...

The referee‚ whose father was also a Fifa match official and later a president of the Ghana Football Association‚ had been influenced by betting syndicates to ensure SA won‚ according to Fifa insiders.

Lamptey had already been suspended by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for his poor handling of the game where Bafana (South Africa) were handed a soft penalty and then scored from a quickly-taken free kick, in quick succession.

Lamptey‚ an immigration officer at Kotoko airport‚ had previously been suspended by CAF in 2010 after allowing a ball punched into the net to stand when Tunisia’s Esperance beat Al Ahly 1-0.

Over the last few days, Ghanaian media have listed a raft of suspicious decisions Lamptey made in domestic competition, but his match-fixing activities might have started more than a year ago in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

...

The Democratic Republic of Congo were leading 2-0 over visitors Angola at the 90 minute mark when Lamptey added five minutes. However, stoppage time continued for nine minutes when Angola were handed a penalty, despite there being little contact as two players went up for an aerial challenge.

The spot kick was converted and Lamptey immediately blew his whistle.

Investigation of the betting odds suggested Lamptey had been paid to ensure a 2-1 score line, which had been the preferred score that betting syndicates had placed money on.

edit: here's a tweet with a video of the penalty, which was given for handball when the ball is nowhere near the player's hand.

https://twitter.com/marklangdon/status/905514933823078401
 

Jack cw

Member
There's possibly 3 midfielders better than him at Bayern

The sad part in all this is, that we have no midfielder in the squad that can play a decent CAM. Thiago had one outstanding match there against RB Leipzig last december the rest was subpar because Vidal and Alonso lacked speed and creativity to accelerate the game from behind and especially Alonso couldn't close gaps that Thiago and VIdal left while attacking. All of our midfielders are either box to box players (Vidal, Tolisso, even Sanches) or DLPs (Thiago, Rudy). Götze was the last CAM we had and he worked pretty well in the first two Guardiola years. Pep sacrificed the stability of a 3 man midfield to let Müller play as striker, which broke our neck against stronger sides especially in CL, and Heynckes was lucky that Schweinsteiger and Martinez were incredibly strong making up for the missing 3rd midfielder in 2013. Whenever Müller plays it's a 4-2-4 and it's nearly impossible to get control against a class midfield like Real Madrid has it, or Atletico, Dortmund, Barca, etc.
James will bring that balance we miss for years.
 
Damn, how has he even survived this long?

I think it's because of two things. First, it's hard to prove individual incidents without clear evidence, like meetings beforehand, text messages, etc... so you need to slowly accumulate a mass of circumstantial evidence. Second, these things appear to take a long time to get resolved anyway, e.g. the match fixing in 2010 warmup games was only dealt with years later.
 
Football is finally back.

I absolutely loathe these international breaks, especially when my country of birth fucks up a 2:0 lead against Cyprus and probably even misses the play-off stage. Dumb fucks. If players like Pjanic and Dzeko don't want to get hurt or play with just 50%, then they need to retire from the national team.

What is it about Wenger that makes him want to talk about all the players he didn't manage to sign? Like, does he think it will make the fans happy to know they tried?


Wenger: Mbop was close
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ose-to-signing-for-arsenal-says-arsene-wenger

4d4.jpg
 
Looks like this Javier Tebas stuff is going to get messy.

He is trying to essentially take on three countries with no evidence and opening himself up for libel every time he opens his mouth.

This is going to be fun.
 
It's such a shame to see someone like Arsene Wenger constantly ridiculed these days.

He gave us the Invincibles. One of the greatest teams the Premier League will ever see. They were such a joy to watch.

And now this.

Why didn't he just ride off into the sunset with Fergie?
 

Lashley

Why does he wear the mask!?
Wenger blaming the press for the fans being pissed off at the club

😂😂😂😂
 
The sad part in all this is, that we have no midfielder in the squad that can play a decent CAM. Thiago had one outstanding match there against RB Leipzig last december the rest was subpar because Vidal and Alonso lacked speed and creativity to accelerate the game from behind and especially Alonso couldn't close gaps that Thiago and VIdal left while attacking. All of our midfielders are either box to box players (Vidal, Tolisso, even Sanches) or DLPs (Thiago, Rudy). Götze was the last CAM we had and he worked pretty well in the first two Guardiola years. Pep sacrificed the stability of a 3 man midfield to let Müller play as striker, which broke our neck against stronger sides especially in CL, and Heynckes was lucky that Schweinsteiger and Martinez were incredibly strong making up for the missing 3rd midfielder in 2013. Whenever Müller plays it's a 4-2-4 and it's nearly impossible to get control against a class midfield like Real Madrid has it, or Atletico, Dortmund, Barca, etc.
James will bring that balance we miss for years.
A major problem was that Schweini and Kroos left which left an old fossil like Alonso playing as their replacement. Him playing with Muller up front was just a tactical disaster in the making because Alonso's only strengths were positioning and long range passing. Whenever a quick counter happened, he was with his cane lagging behind everyone else. Pep even benched Muller for one of the series in the first leg, and absolutely nothing changed. He did exactly what you herald the what will the savior to Bayern football,and Atletico still kicked Bayern's ass tactically without much fuss. Bayern has made two finals and won one in the most dominating fashion ever shown by a club with Muller in the AM/ 4-2-4 formation.

The only way his replacement be it James or Telisso works out is if this build up can improve the goal threat and scoring. Unless Bayern turns into a great counter attacking team, in which case you need .. a left winger with some proper pace.

I forgot about Telisso, so that might make 4 players better than him in midfield. :D But you're right that none are pure AMs, moreso 8s and SS.
 
Transfer window will be changed next season in the Premier League.

From Sky Sports.

Premier League clubs have voted to close the summer transfer window before the first game of next season.

The 2018 window will close on the Thursday before the first match of the next campaign in August, and the new rule applies only to the buying of players.

Premier League clubs will still be able to sell players to other leagues whose transfer windows remain open until August 31.

The transfer window for the English Football League also remains unaffected, with clubs able to sell to lower division sides unless the EFL decides to bring its window in line with the top flight.

The Premier League transfer window in January remains unaffected by the impending changes.

The decision to make these changes was not unanimous but was reached by a majority of the 20 Premier League clubs.
 
I think most clubs could have an amazing almost 11. The weird thing is, how much Arsene always enjoys talking about it.


Love that Hart is still the best they could do there though.
 
I think most clubs could have an amazing almost 11. The weird thing is, how much Arsene always enjoys talking about it.


Love that Hart is still the best they could do there though.

To be fair, they have managed to sign Cech, who still is 100 times the goal keeper Hart will ever be.
 
So, the point of that change is...

To have players before the season begins so that coaches can plan better. However, it won't mean much because the other transfer windows remain open and players can still leave. It's going to be chaotic.

At least Chelsea board will try to be more proactive now.
 
To have players before the season begins so that coaches can plan better. However, it won't mean much because the other transfer windows remain open and players can still leave. It's going to be chaotic.

At least Chelsea board will try to be more proactive now.

Buy all the players early to have the squad ready before the season begins!

*Board sells important player because they receive a Neymar style bid*

And then you sit on your money for the first half of the season and there is nothing you can do about it.
 

DBT85

Member
Transfer window will be changed next season in the Premier League.

From Sky Sports.
What a bunch of prats. You're going to have less time to do your own business and then when your window closes everyone else can unsettle your players and you won't be able to replace any that leave.
 

Syder

Member
Transfer window will be changed next season in the Premier League.

From Sky Sports.
This change hurts the top clubs and helps the lower clubs

lRuoT4F.gif


Big European clubs will still be able to go for players like Barca did with Coutinho but top clubs won't be able to buy off of the mid-table teams like Liverpool were with van Dijk.
 
Matthew Dunn‏@MattDunnExpress 2m

Man U and Man C among 5 to vote against moving transfer deadline. Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea & Liverpool among 14 in favour. 1 club abstained.
 
This change hurts the top clubs and helps the lower clubs

lRuoT4F.gif


Big European clubs will still be able to go for players like Barca did with Coutinho but top clubs won't be able to buy off of the mid-table teams like Liverpool were with van Dijk.


🤔🤔🤔
 

Red Devil

Member
So, the point of that change is...

My guess is that it's to stop players from Premier League teams going to another Premier League team after a couple matches into the season, however that doesn't prevent them from going to another league where the transfer window is still open, but to sort that out all the leagues should begin on the same weekend(a logistical nightmare more likely), although a likely sollution would be to have the transfer window open and close at the same time for everybody but leagues that begin while the transfer window is open will have the same issue.
 

Moobabe

Member
My guess is that it's to stop players from Premier League teams going to another Premier League team after a couple matches into the season, however that doesn't prevent them from going to another league where the transfer window is still open, but to sort that out all the leagues should begin on the same weekend(a logistical nightmare more likely), although a likely sollution would be to have the transfer window open and close at the same time for everybody but leagues that begin while the transfer window is open will have the same issue.

It's not just that.

Remember when Arsenal got hammered by United at the start of the season? 50-0 or whatever the score was.

After that game Arsenal went out about bought another squad of players. The next team that then plays Arsenal is at a huge disadvantage compared to United, playing an almost different team.

This levels the field the somewhat, though I agree that PL clubs shouldn't be able to SELL after the window closes either.
 
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