2021/2022 Champions League: Not the Super League
- Thread starter bosox4283
- Start date
Yep … I wanted nothing to do with another MC/LFC game. Three this year was enough.
You were lucky. All I had to listen to was Martin “oh look , I think someone scored “ Tyler.
Architects of our own demise it’s weird how ok I am with it.
89th minute we had the ball in the corner and Cancelo played an idiotic cross right to Courtois. I honestly felt like something bad was about to happen.
Can’t waste chances like we did and can’t get careless in the 90th minute when all was won.
Condolences indeed. I‘ve never got around to disliking City and, if I was neutral I’d have been hoping for you guys. This Real team is something else though.
That first Grealish chance was barely even wasted, just a fantastic play by Mendy really.
Was mostly referring to the first leg. This shouldn’t even have been a competitive match
City’s response will be interesting. They’re a little like PSG in that I don’t think domestic success is satisfying their goals.
That was wild. Honestly, that thing that happens in sports when obvious magic is occurring and something unrealistic becomes inevitable - it's one of the better things we have going as a species. Even as a pure impartial that was really fun.
I genuinely don’t know what to make of Pep. I think he’s one of the most brilliant minds the game has ever seen. Reading about his tactics makes it clear he’s just a world above anybody else. He’s built a side with the football IQ needed to implement his ideas, for the most part.
If he had two or three set systems that City could seamlessly switch between, I genuinely think they’d be better off than the infinite adaptability Pep seems to seek. His game plans always require different personnel, reducing familiarity and consistency (though improving rotation). As much as we mock @teddykgb for it, I think the striker comment is dead on. A consistent goal scorer that does the same thing every week regardless of the mutations behind him Is probably the breakthrough City need to conquer Europe.
If he had two or three set systems that City could seamlessly switch between, I genuinely think they’d be better off than the infinite adaptability Pep seems to seek. His game plans always require different personnel, reducing familiarity and consistency (though improving rotation). As much as we mock @teddykgb for it, I think the striker comment is dead on. A consistent goal scorer that does the same thing every week regardless of the mutations behind him Is probably the breakthrough City need to conquer Europe.
Isn't Jesus that guy, though? Whenever he gets minutes he scores for fun. Then he doesn't start for five games.
it's hard to criticize Pep but I don't get it. He loves his 0-10-0 but maybe he doesn't get 100% out of that squad. Klopp arguably puts too many miles on his best XI but when the chips are down they know how to play together, they've been doing it for years. they could probably hit their marks and find their teammates blindfolded. The double-headed RM goal was an unbelievable piece of quality, or luck, or both, you can't kill City for that one. Still when City needed just a few minutes of composure you can't help thinking that maybe they didn't quite know where their fellows were going to be?
Jesus has been extremely profligate and not at all a guy who scores until very recently. He also apparently decided he’s more of a wing than a ST. We simply haven’t had that guy with gravity. I think it will be hard for anyone to really impact a match at ST because Peps system favors wing support which often leaves a ST isolated against 2-4 defenders but a natural finisher who makes the right runs will benefit from those wingers pulling it back. Aguero was often injured under Pep and even when healthy I would say was less of a force but still piled up goal totals.
Our problem, as much as a team of our quality and expense can have one, is that we basically only score team goals. We score only some of the goals we deserve based on quality of chance and we don’t score enough goals we don’t “deserve”. Deserve here meaning goals against the run of play where one individual just puts one in without a lot of complicated build up or a brilliant pass. Of course we get deflections and other types of goals from time to time but since Aguero has left we haven’t had that striker with an ability to just pot one from a nothing situation
Our problem, as much as a team of our quality and expense can have one, is that we basically only score team goals. We score only some of the goals we deserve based on quality of chance and we don’t score enough goals we don’t “deserve”. Deserve here meaning goals against the run of play where one individual just puts one in without a lot of complicated build up or a brilliant pass. Of course we get deflections and other types of goals from time to time but since Aguero has left we haven’t had that striker with an ability to just pot one from a nothing situation
Hmm. I mostly know Jesus from FPL, where he scores in double figures when I don't have him, and sits when I do.
What about an old fashioned 9, a big target man like Calvert-Lewin when he was healthy and in top form? (Put aside for sake of this discussion that he's been repetitively injured all season and there's a chance that he'll turn out to have been a flash in the pan). Carlo got him out of running the channels and told him to camp out in the box and he thrived. He's not great with his left foot, not world class with his right, doesn't 'create his own shot,' but he's a unit, he's great in the air, he batters and drags CB's all over the place for 90 minutes, he might be the best header of the ball for goals in the PL, and he's a hold-up target - even if not a great passer (0 assists last year), if you hit a long ball or cross to him he will usually win it, and City's other attackers could go wild playing off of him with his back to goal, getting the second balls, etc. They have enough players who can run at goal, dribble past defenders, and shoot, maybe having him up there frees them up?
Or a Mitrovic who scores in the PL and not just in the Championship. Etc.
How much of a change to their style will be required to make the best use of Haaland?
I haven't seen enough of his play to know what he brings to the team. Beyond having a lethal finish to his game.
I haven't seen enough of his play to know what he brings to the team. Beyond having a lethal finish to his game.
It’s like Haaland was designed in a lab the the perfect modern 9. He’s tall (6’4”), he’s fast, he puts in a shift defensively, he has an uncanny ability to find space & take up dangerous positions, and of course he’s an otherworldly finisher.
It he lands at City, Pep will go back and update the tactics he used at Bayern with Lewandowski, but Haaland is better at pressing and making incisive runs on the counter. In other words, Haaland can really for any style you want. And it’s scary to think what Pep could add to Haaland’s game.
let's hope so...Weghorst, Havertz and Werner haven't really lit it up in their first seasons in the PL
Haaland plays different roles than those plus he’s at a totally different level already at age 23. In 25 matches between the Bundesliga and UCL, Haaland has 24 goals and 8 assists this season. Check out his FBref profile below.
Transitioning to the EPL is tough - it’s the highest level mix of fast, physical, and technical in the world. Plus, many excellent players have an adjustment period playing for Pep. It’s possible that Haaland coudl start slowly at City, but it’s hard to see how he wouldn’t be an annual golden boot challenger.
I also forgot Sancho in my list. So you are suggesting I start next season with yet another Bundesliga-to-PL player on my FPL team??? (Werner and Sancho underwhelmed in each of the last two seasons for me)
The only negative aspect of Haaland is his injury history. He’s missed 16 games this year and 10 the previous season.
https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/transfer-news/uk-premier-league/2022/05/new-dembele-haalands-injury-record-is-career-threatening/amp
One would think 500k per week should get you a player who’s not missing huge chunks of time. Maybe City will buy Kane as a backup.
UEFA seems to have abandoned their plan to give a few extra CL spots based on club coefficient and instead will give them based on association performance in the prior year's competitions. I can't read the paywalled article so I'm not sure how the formula for judging association performance works (Holland getting a spot over Spain based on this year's results seems very weird to me). But I have to assume that in most years this means the PL will effectively have five CL places.
One of the implications of this seems to be that you won't actually know whether your league has an extra spot until late in the spring, because it will likely hinge on how your league's teams are doing in the late rounds of European competition.
Swiss model round games also apparently reduced to 8 from 10, which is a good change but still a dumb system.
View: https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1523997643269099520
View: https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1523998004356730880
View: https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1523998555182088192
One of the implications of this seems to be that you won't actually know whether your league has an extra spot until late in the spring, because it will likely hinge on how your league's teams are doing in the late rounds of European competition.
Swiss model round games also apparently reduced to 8 from 10, which is a good change but still a dumb system.
View: https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1523997643269099520
View: https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1523998004356730880
View: https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1523998555182088192
All teams in one big group but you don't play everyone. In this case, everyone plays 8 matches.
Yep .. although it’s details havent been made public. But the matchups will be seeded