Football

Great showing by Scotland there even though I will never understand why the likes of Phillips, Morrison & Bannan get picked for the squad.

He's one of out own
He's one of our own

HARRY JANE

he's one of our own

The_Jaster wrote:

Great showing by Scotland there even though I will never understand why the likes of Phillips, Morrison & Bannan get picked for the squad.

Strachan is always going to play his tried and trusted players, he'll never change, there's no stopping him from always doing that. I'd love to see him be braver with his squad choices, and let the form players play. That said, his current team is doing well at the minute, they've got good chemistry together, and they've got the all-important winning mentality. Maybe I would have played McGregor instead of Morrison, but Phillips and Bannan are form players who should play in my opinion. Who would you have had instead?

England: shite, but good result for us, and that's the only - ONLY - thing that matters.

I definitely don't disagree with most of what you've said there but I just don't like how how those players seem to doddle on the ball/not make their passes quick enough, maybe I was just annoyed that Forrest (who was playing well) got the hook for Martin and Phillips took up the right wing position who IMO done nothing productive all game.

Like you said be a wee bit braver especially when playing at home & also I'd like to see a better overall balance to the team, you won't get the best out of Tierney playing at right back for example so assuming everyone is fit I'd like to see a 4-3-3 of:

Whittaker, Berra, Mulgrew, Tierney - Armstrong (or McGregor), Fletcher, Brown - Anya, Griffiths, Forrest

No room for Matt Ritchie or Andrew Robertson? They'd be two of my first names in the starting eleven, alongside Brown and Armstrong. Personally, I'd have the same team as you, but Ritchie for Forrest and Robertson for Whittaker.

Phillips hasn't been as good for Scotland as he's been for West Brom, but Anya - who's usually been really good at international level - isn't getting many games at Derby County. That's a tricky one. Anya got the assist for the OG that Skrtel scored though, so I'd assume that Strachan will favour him on Sunday.

I fear that the England team are a reflection of their manager at the moment: neither exciting nor inspiring, but somehow still able to get the job done. That sounds harsh... I did like Southgate as a player but he did have some excellent players around him at the time.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

No room for Matt Ritchie or Andrew Robertson? They'd be two of my first names in the starting eleven, alongside Brown and Armstrong. Personally, I'd have the same team as you, but Ritchie for Forrest and Robertson for Whittaker.

Phillips hasn't been as good for Scotland as he's been for West Brom, but Anya - who's usually been really good at international level -  isn't getting many games at Derby County. That's a tricky one. Anya got the assist for the OG that Skrtel scored though, so I'd assume that Strachan will favour him on Sunday.

Tbh I don't follow the national team that much so I understand if some of my picks there are questionable, I was picking purely on team balance and players I've seen the most. Robertson has great pace but poor delivery, is left back is natural position? Seems like he'd be more comfortable as a winger.

The World Cup draw has been done

Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay. I can't see Saudi Arabia getting out of the group but the other 3 all have a shout
Group B: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Iran. What a game to start off group B between Portugal & Spain and they'll be two teams that will get through
Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark. France will win the group and my favourites to win the World Cup, 2ns is between Australia & Denmark
Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria. You'd think Argentina will win the group and then between Croatia & Nigeria for second
Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia. Like group D Brazil should win the group but the other 3 all seem rather even.
Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea. Germany will win the group and the other 3 will be playing for second.
Group G: Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England. At least England should get out of the group but I think Belgium will top the group
Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan. This is sort of the group of death this year as I have no idea out of those 4 will get out of group.

I'm hopeful for England too... and I agree that Group H is the most interesting one. By far, actually. I'll be cheering on the Japanese from that one.

World Cup sweepstake in the future, team?

City went 13 points clear yesterday, peeps at work have gone football is boring this season and likes of Shearer saying it's all over at Christmas.

I had a look at some other leagues and it seems to be a similar story:
England City 13 points clear of Utd
Germany Bayern 11 points clear of Schalke
Spain Barca 9 points clear of Alt Madrid
France PSG 9 points clear of Monaco
Scotland Celtic 8 points clear of Aberdeen
Holland PSV 8 points clear of Ajax

The only ones that seem to be tight are Italy and Portugal of top flight leagues of note and even in the Championship Wolves are 7 points clear and likely going to run away with it.

Is football now boring? As a City fan it's great to be so far clear but I also don't want the Premier League to turn into the SPL where it is basically one or two teams can win the league.

I'm someone that hopes Everton eventually invests wisely, Arsène opens his wallet and Newcastle do get sold with the owners backing the club that we have a bunch teams that can compete at the top level which makes the Premier League the best in the world but a friend who did a sports degree etc (is applying for a job at man city) pointed out the rich get richer and even if Everton and Newcastle did push on, the gap between them and the likes of a Huddersfield will widen and the French league will likely will be prove of that that very soon.

Could something like Arsène has talked about before an actual European League happen because of it?

It depends what you're into football for. My team's fortunes are much more interesting to me than any title fight, for example. For the neutral observers, though, I suppose it might be boring this time. I expect Wolves' lead to be overhauled somewhat in the New Year, too.

@mas - All of the leagues you mentioned there seems pretty standard to me, you'll always get teams creating a lead and either keeping that run going or it'll slip and you get a closer run contest.

Quote :

Is football now boring? As a City fan it's great to be so far clear but I also don't want the Premier League to turn into the SPL where it is basically one or two teams can win the league.

Honestly all leagues have their top 2/3/4 teams etc that are up there competing for their respective titles and the Premier League is no different, would it be better if all the teams were more evenly matched across the board? Perhaps, but you could make an argument that if that was the case more games would end in a stalemate and you would lose the moments in football where the underdogs beat the favourites - so since every game can be wildly different overall personally for me it doesn't get boring.

Throughout Celtic's 69 domestic games unbeaten run the more we won the more I got excited to watch our next game just to see us play and to see if we could get even better, then from the start of this season every match had this great cup final-like edge to it because every opponent wanted to be the first one that beat us.

That why I think the Premier League is the best as you can get Huddersfield beating Man Utd and everyone on there day can beat anyone but the title race at the start of the season you're think City, Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and maybe Everton at a push could challenge for the league and now due to City being so far in front.

Everyone is going it's over, what's the point and you'll likely hear that a lot Jas with Celtic and the SPL which is why I brought it up.

It's really like Zero said it all depends on what you watch the game for, for neutrals who appreciate it as a sport might find it boring but if you're all about your own team & what they are setting out to achieve then it likely won't be.

So Forest dispense with the services of their seven millionth manager since Brian Clough, a week or so before our FA Cup tie with Arsenal. I was expecting a good old-fashioned whumping beforehand; now we might only be crushed. As long as some of our younger lads are played, I'll be happy. A single goal for us will be beyond my wildest dreams.

Yesterday, I went to the Spurs/ Everton game at Wembley. I got my mum the tickets as her Christmas present. It was her first game in 25 years or so, and my first time seeing the Tottenham live.

A great day was had, got to see my boy Heung-Ming Son being amazing, got to see Harry Kane set the all-time Tottenham Premier League goals and got to see Wayne Rooney play like a mouldy potato in a shoe. In terms of seeing a game, it was pretty crap. Hugo Lloris should have brought a book for the amount of time the ball spent in our end.

Got my pie at half time as well

Drunkalilly wrote:

Harry Kane set the all-time Tottenham Premier League

Football didn't start in 92

How did everyone fare on Deadline Day? Nottingham Forest brought in an incredible six players (about half of whom are on loan, to be fair), let two people go and another three out on loan. Unusually large amount of business which gives the new manager more of a stamp on the place, but I'm worried about how long it will take for them to gel as a team. Morale cannot be high at the City Ground right now.

We broke our transfer record on Aymeric Laporte from Bilbao, we tried to do some other business in the window like Sanchez who ended up at Utd where he will get 400k a week and because of the we looked at Mahrez which we offered 65m + a player which rumoured to be Mangala but Leicester turned it down as they wanted 95m in cash.

The thing is as City are so far in front and need 8 wins out of 13 games (could be less if results around us go are way like last night) that Mahrez wouldn't have made much difference in the league, maybe in Europe but then got a lot of options even with a injured Jesus and Sane.

wATCHED ethe NORTH LON DON DERBY from the akihabara branch of the hub (the hub is a range of british pubs which i initially thought "nah i didn't come all this way to go to a british pub" but then they haf the spurs game) and YES M8 WHAT A RESULT

watched with a canadian arse fan and a japanese lad who worked at the bar ut was wearing a tottenham shirt and joined me when he difinsied his shift. He was sound. Apparently most japanese support arsena but thus guy saw thwtruth. COME ON YOU SPURS

anyeay we won, obviously, and did a big high five. Who parks the bus from the start, at 0:0, at a points disadvantage?

We walked away with a deserved win. Despite loads of great runs with no finish

And so finishes another season of the English Premier League. I've been following pretty closely this year - I was really hyped for more football after the World Cup, and I work with a couple of huge football fans. After the whole business of having so many World Cup players, and making zero transfers for the first time in the history of the window, I'm really happy that Spurs managed 3rd and a Champions League Final. #COYS

At the top there, I can't take anything away from City. A real class act. On the other hand, my mate Joe at work, a lifelong Liverpool fan from Thailand, was so sure this was their year. Watching the final game with him, he was an emotional wreck! I was hoping for a Liverpool victory for his sake- he's the sweetest man alive. Still, we've got the CL final to look forward to, and that points total is nothing for Liverpool to be ashamed of!

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In other football news, I went to my first J1 game yesterday- Matsumoto Yamaga against Sapporo. The atmosphere at a Japanese game with a full stadium is incredible and there was some great soccer on display, but the disparity between that and the top-flight European stuff was clear. The pace and finishing just wasn't in the same league.

I think the Japanese mindset just doesn't lend itself to the most exciting kind of football. The teamwork and spirit and co-operation is as you'd expect from Japan, but that comes with the issue that nobody is chasing glory, going for those genius shots. It shows that the egos and personality and narrative are so essential to the game.

One thing I loved was that most of the supporters were wearing a number "12" shirt, then at the start of the game when announcing the players they actually announced the 12th man- the fans. A really nice atmosphere.

Also, they have this player called Daizen Maeda who is A) amazing and B) bald.

I was also a bit of wreck yesterday when Brighton went ahead.

A strange season, as I think most knew it was a two horse race that I've had Utd fans all year wanting us to win and you've seen that on social media etc as well. Very split on who people wanted to win the league for various reasons.

We've still got the FA Cup to go next weekend, to hopefully make it a domestic treble.

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I've gone to a few Taunton Town games this year, which I saw a penalty shoot-out which they lost, also went to Derby with Dad to see them beat Hull.

Loads of football in the summer with England playing at two nation league games and the women's world cup will be on.

Dundee United missing all four of their penalties in a penalty shootout after two legs of the Scottish Premiership Playoff Final, staying in Scotland's second division for a fourth season in a row and their Twitter getting hacked mid-game is just peak Scottish football.