6/17 GAMETHREAD GAMETHREAD GAMETHREAD GAMETHREAD

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Fake edit: that came off angrier than I meant. It was a joke. Sort of. Sending Luiz off did make Arsenal better and does decrease City’s chances. Objectively.
 

coremiller

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Jul 14, 2005
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City up 2-0 against 10 men in an empty stadium has an extremely training ground exercise feel to it.
 

coremiller

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The supporters most excited by this result have to be Everton fans, since now Liverpool can't clinch the title at Goodison.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Luiz should never play for Arsenal again. There's zero reason for it. They can play Rob Holding there the rest of the season and find out whether he can cut it or not. If not, so be it, at least you find that out and can move on from him too.

There's nothing that can be learned or improved by playing Luiz again, it's just a neverending farce that wrecks everything Arteta is trying to do.
 

Catcher Block

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Mar 7, 2006
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Juventus with a boneheaded play that gifted Napoli a corner, and they nearly ended stoppage time with a goal. Buffon made two saves--one of which was a point-blank miracle--to send the Coppa Italia to PKs.

Edit: Napoli win it, 4-3.
 
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SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Luiz should never play for Arsenal again. There's zero reason for it. They can play Rob Holding there the rest of the season and find out whether he can cut it or not. If not, so be it, at least you find that out and can move on from him too.

There's nothing that can be learned or improved by playing Luiz again, it's just a neverending farce that wrecks everything Arteta is trying to do.
Even as an unabashed Luiz hater... I can recognize he had a place on top teams. With a side that maintained possession, A defender with his long ball accuracy and free kick proficiency was a net positive. As long as he could deal with the majority of counterattacks, he’d contribute more offensively than he’d concede defensively.

He has no ability whatsoever to be a disciplined defender and lacks the fundamentals of the position. As he’s aged and his offensive tools have faded, he’s become an intolerable liability.

He never should have left PSG. It was the perfect situation (outside of the CL).
 

teddykgb

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Not that the Arsenal fans here aren’t usually already livid but I would be so angry with my team after this effort. It’s a strange situation and I worry that a lot of teams have little to play for so many matches may look like this but Arsenal showed so little fight here
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Not that the Arsenal fans here aren’t usually already livid but I would be so angry with my team after this effort. It’s a strange situation and I worry that a lot of teams have little to play for so many matches may look like this but Arsenal showed so little fight here
I have a reputation that’s difficult to evade for this, and I already made the joke in this very thread...

Arsenal looked like they were up against a hostile crowd.The goal from the first whistle was to minimize defeat. I have no idea what their plan was, other than to get bodies behind the ball and bypass the midfield. It was an awful, uninspired, and frankly uncaring effort. They put the kit on, ran their km’s, and got their paychecks. That’s it.
 

Kliq

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Not that the Arsenal fans here aren’t usually already livid but I would be so angry with my team after this effort. It’s a strange situation and I worry that a lot of teams have little to play for so many matches may look like this but Arsenal showed so little fight here
Eh, I kind of liked their first 20 minutes. There was a pretty big skill gap between the two sides and I thought they had some potential to break away for a goal. However the center of their defense was just completely destroyed by injuries/Luiz shenanigans. Kind of hard to get a lot going after that, in addition to the typical rust teams need to shake off after the time off.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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I can’t abide VAR/Hawkeye. That was so obscene. Stop navigating these absurd rules and get the fucking call right.
 

teddykgb

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Eh, I kind of liked their first 20 minutes. There was a pretty big skill gap between the two sides and I thought they had some potential to break away for a goal. However the center of their defense was just completely destroyed by injuries/Luiz shenanigans. Kind of hard to get a lot going after that, in addition to the typical rust teams need to shake off after the time off.
I don’t see it. They sort of tried to connect on a few long balls early then turtled. That’s a prospective top 4 side with a lot to play for there and a rusty City were theoretically a team you could try to attack. they arent a relegation side trying to steal a point
 

teddykgb

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I’m sure you’ll start complaining that the entire Liverpool squad haven’t been made knights yet soon enough

edit: I thought highly of Sarri but I think you’ve got the right of that situation as well. Looks like he mostly just had a good XI at Napoli
 

SocrManiac

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edit: I thought highly of Sarri but I think you’ve got the right of that situation as well. Looks like he mostly just had a good XI at Napoli
If Sarri made the most of a good XI at Napoli, he should have been able to take any eleven available to him in Turin and win a pre-shutdown title. When you look at what’s available defensively, in midfield, and in attack, this should be a world class squad. He’s somehow transformed Juventus into a title contender. That’s not an impressive feat when they were a title dominator.

That said, I don’t think the Ronaldo effect can be overstated. He is a cancer. He should be third choice at best on free kicks, but gets his opportunity to smash faces and chests in the wall every whistle. He gesticulates, emotes, and does all of the things you’d hate in any young player, but gets away with it because he’s Ronaldo. His presence has destroyed any chance at chemistry, and it shows in every facet of Juventus fandom. You see it in their social media posts. You see it on the pitch. He can’t retire to MLS quickly enough.
 

InstaFace

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That said, I don’t think the Ronaldo effect can be overstated. He is a cancer. He should be third choice at best on free kicks, but gets his opportunity to smash faces and chests in the wall every whistle. He gesticulates, emotes, and does all of the things you’d hate in any young player, but gets away with it because he’s Ronaldo. His presence has destroyed any chance at chemistry, and it shows in every facet of Juventus fandom. You see it in their social media posts. You see it on the pitch. He can’t retire to MLS quickly enough.
You can't demand discord, and then make unifying posts like this that rally everybody to the same cause.

Well, everyone but Zomp I guess. Isn't he a Juve fan?
 

swiftaw

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Mustafi and Luiz as your center-back pairing is truly a recipe for disaster.
 

Kliq

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I don’t see it. They sort of tried to connect on a few long balls early then turtled. That’s a prospective top 4 side with a lot to play for there and a rusty City were theoretically a team you could try to attack. they arent a relegation side trying to steal a point
I suppose we can disagree on the potential of this Arsenal team, I don't think they are really a prospective top four side. How many of their players today would have cracked the starting XI for City? PEA and??? The rest of their attacking players were young, projects, I mean Nketiah was on loan at Leeds, failed to crack the rotation at Leeds so he got recalled and was going to be loaned out again, but he caught Arteta's eye in practice and now he is starting against City. So coming into play City, who has far more talent, far more ability to retain possession and perhaps the best midfield in the world facing a terribly inexperienced midfield, they were already behind the 8-ball. I kind of liked what they tried early, use the speed they had up top to try and catch City's high line with a ball over the top, but then they lost two key central players early to injury in Xhaka and Mari, then Luiz single-handily murdered them and then got himself sent off for good measure.

To me, this was just a case of a team clearly in rebuild mode facing a superior opponent, and then everything that could possibly go wrong, goes wrong.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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I've never "worn" a Juve logo here, but I suppose I'm due for a change.

Can't stand the new one, though.
 

Kliq

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Norwich play such a fun style, I'd love to see them wriggle off the hook and stay up.
 

Kliq

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Sadly, it does not look like the break did their defense any good.
Yeah, they are kind of like Fulham last season. Fun attack but just nothing defensively.

The remainder of the EPL season for me will just be rooting for Kane to crack 20 goals. I don't think Spurs have a chance to crack the Top 4 anymore.
 

Kliq

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I can't believe Dier is starting this game, except that Jose is our manager and playing a washed CDM way too often is his defining trait at this point.
 

Kliq

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Tremendous run by Steven Bergwijn and a powerful finish. He’s been a real bright spot since coming over.
 

mauf

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Tremendous run by Steven Bergwijn and a powerful finish. He’s been a real bright spot since coming over.
Nice play, but that was a horrendous goal allowed by Man U, after they dominated most of the first 25 minutes.

The turnover was bad. Then the defense inexplicably didn't force Bergwijn outside. And even after those two fuck-ups, the shot was right at the goalie and he couldn't deflect it away. Ugly.

Edit: But a nice save on the header by Son there.
 

67YAZ

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This Pogba guy has potential. Would be interested in seeing more of him, maybe even getting a start or two.
 

Kliq

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And here I was thinking that maybe they would sneak 90 minutes of Dier by and nobody would notice...