[sxrxg]

Surprised to get the win this year. I got battered in the other leagues I'm in!

[moose]

I found this article on set-piece design really interesting - well worth a look if your love of football has an analytical tinge. 

https://statsbomb.com/2019/05/breaking-down-set-pieces-picks-packs-stacks-and-more/

I've recently become interested in the history and strategy of NFL, the evolving point-counter-point of offensive and defensive schemes: the "X's and O's", the world of Air Raid, West Coast, Spread, and Option offenses versus Zone Blitz, Tampa 2, Nickle and Dime defenses, etc.  I've been struck at how ripe football set-pieces seem for learning from NFL play designs - mesh and pick concepts for interfering with man marking; stacking receivers and running "seams" for confusing zonal defenses.  Unsurprisingly, it looks like the work to port-over US set-play tactics is well underway.

[tomtom]

Love Dave Squires cartoons... this weeks is a doozy

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2019/may/21/david-squires-on-manchester-citys-dominance-and-football-whataboutery

[GraemeA]

I fucking hate Wembley, that's 7 losses on the trot. Bollocks.

[Mike Tyson]

Unbelievable Graeme.

Only caught last half hour due to Sky box cocking up, we didn't deserve to lose like that.

Another season in League One awaits..... 😭

[mrjonathanr]

Thought this was worth highlighting: James Milner gets off the tour bus to show the CL cup to a disabled fan at his home:

https://www.empireofthekop.com/2019/06/05/brilliant-james-milner-champions-league-trophy-story-sums-up-the-legend-he-is/

[mark20]

I thought VAR worked quite well in the World Cup, but in recent matches it seems to be used less for "clear and obvious errors" and the ref isn't running over to the monitor to check for himself - he just gets told in his ear (after a fair few minutes) to disallow the goal.
The whole point of the offside rule is to stop strikers hanging around the goalie for the whole match, so if you're playing as normal it seems fairly arbitrary to rule a goal out for a striker's big toe being beyond the last defender eg Lingard the other night or France Women's first goal see https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/48564310
Obviously anyone "clearly and obviously" offside should be pulled up by VAR, but if we keep going down this route then every penalty will need to be re-taken multiple times for encroachment or the goalie coming off his line as well.  The technology is obviously great and will help, but I'm sure the way it's being used at the moment is perfect. Hopefully it will adapted if not working right, perhaps like cricket where the captain gets 3 appeals, but I worry a bit that it will ruin the Premiere League next season

And don't start on the latest/ Champions League interpretation of 'handball'...

[cheque]

Just set up the UKB Fantasy Premier League. New season, new sponsor. #wegoagain 

https://fantasy.premierleague.com/

Code: 87p4hq

 

[tomtom]

Just set up the UKB Fantasy Premier League. New season, new sponsor. #wegoagain 

https://fantasy.premierleague.com/

Code: 87p4hq

 

Bravo (league name)

[cheque]

Absolutely depressing situation with Bury (and possibly Bolton too...) being turfed out of the league due to being ruined by irresponsible unregulated owners. Boxing Day last year I was waving at Bury's travelling fans trudging out of Field Mill after we beat them 2-1 to leapfrog into their promotion spot but as recently as May I was ruing them having the last laugh as they went up and we didn't. Now the 135-year-old club they've built their lives around doesn't exist. 

Petition for some kind of independent regulation of the EFL here.

[tomtom]

Bolton sold. So spared liquidation. Though they’ll have a massive points deficit to make up to avoid relegation

[cheque]

Anyone see Spurs get demolished by Bayern last night? Jesus...  I like Spurs (hard to dislike a team with Son Heung-Min in it) but it was massively entertaining. Bayern super incisive and it doesn't seem like a far-fetched idea that they could win it judging by last night's perfromance and those of the other traditional contenders so far. Mad how these perma-super-clubs can, like the New England Patriots (where's the NFL thread?  ) get written off for seemingly totally plausible reasons but come back within a season as proper contenders whereas the also-rans like, say, Tottenham Hotspur, fizzle unexpectedly even after being right up there.

Our manager’s been sacked and our top scorer/ player of the season (who ironically missed the crucial pen) is back to Forest after his loan spell so the unravelling/ regeneration that will be familiar to supporters of other lower-league clubs has begun. I really felt like this season’s version was one of the best four (if not best two) teams in the division but who knows what next season’s will be like.

I know no-one cares but the Stags update is that we replaced said manager (who'd taken us to our best finish in 16 years) with our completely untested youth boss on such incredibly shaky grounds as "He loves the club" "He could be the next Dany Cowley" and "If we don't take a chance on him another club will"  . The players clearly don't respect him, discipline has evaporated, last season's league-meanest defence is now one of the worst and we're in 19th with the instability of another managerial change clearly on the horizon.  On the plus side only one club gets relegated from League Two this season.

[moose]

Mad how these perma-super-clubs can, like the New England Patriots (where's the NFL thread?  ) get written off for seemingly totally plausible reasons but come back within a season as proper contenders whereas the also-rans like, say, Tottenham Hotspur, fizzle unexpectedly even after being right up there.

Having at least double the income of their competitors in the Bundesliga probably helps!  Bayern have a habit of buying the best players from any rivals that have the temerity to compete (clubs in Germany anecdotally seem to have less of an issue with selling players to competitors than in the UK).  Same in La Liga - there have been recent changes in the TV deals but Real Madrid and Barcelona (and to a lesser extent A.Madrid) have the entrenched advantage of decades of incomes that dwarf the other Spanish clubs.  Having a lot of money is a pretty decent cure for players aging etc, and means you can take more chances on players who might be great but might never work out..

Can't argue with you re the Patriots though. I am slightly loath to admit it (the Antonio Brown controversy is just the latest reason to roll my eyes), but in a league with a salary cap and a draft that favours "tanking", their enduring success is remarkable. I really admire Belichick's ability to take cast-offs and cheapish free-agents and form them into enormously successful teams.  Changing the systems over the years to take advantage of certain types of players falling out of fashion and becoming undervalued.  Supposedly the one constant is that the Patriots value intelligence, toughness, and versatility more than pure athleticism (i.e. impressive Combine scores), and then trust that the likes of Scarnecchia can build synergistic units. 

[Adam Lincoln]

Spurs are in crisis. Massive fallout in the team. Vertonghen caught shagging eriksens wife. Big punch up with Kane involved.

Kane, Erikson and pochettino all at Real Madrid this summer.....

Or so the rumours say!

[mark20]

(hard to dislike a team with Son Heung-Min in it)

[cheque]

 

[mark20]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49942852

Were you at the game today Mike?!
Sounds a lot better than the shite I watched on Friday

[tomtom]

I've had a right shit day - but James Squires latest cartoon made me properly LoL a few times

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2019/nov/05/david-squires-on-pep-guardiola-mind-games-jurgen-klopp-jose-mourinho

[Duma]

think you mean David Squires - Beastly Squirrel  isn't really known for his cartoons...

[mark20]

I saw Blade's striker Lys Moussett in McDonalds the other day 

[tomtom]

think you mean David Squires - Beastly Squirrel  isn't really known for his cartoons...

Told you I was having a shit day :D

[galpinos]

This thread is comedy gold:

https://twitter.com/unrealxherdan/status/1194261896502878208?s=20

Enjoy!

[cheque]

Anyone else using a 30-day free Amazon Prime trial to watch the two PL “gameweeks” they’re showing this month?

You can turn the commentary off and just have the sound of the stadium- I can’t remember having this feature available since the 2002 World Cup and I can’t recommend it enough. I was amazed at how much more like being at a match it is, how much more relaxing it is and how closely you follow the action. The visual cuts seem so dramatic and cinematic too.    Something I hadn’t realised was that the commentators’ voices are mixed around 10dB above the crowd noise without them you can just crank the volume up and get the ambience going even more- hear the managers shouting, the words of the chants, the shift of one side’s fans being noisier you’re the other as the goals go in (or in the case of Burnley/ Man City the other night, most of the ground being silent for 80+ minutes) etc.

Blairds/ Newcastle tonight. Can’t remember being so psyched to watch a game on TV before! 

[mark20]

I watched the Burnley Citeh match yesterday and Liverpool Everton yesterday  but didn’t notice you could turn off commentary. I think amazon have all the Boxing Day games too so will try that then. Boxing Day shaping up nicely now! 
Keep an eye out for us in the kop end tonight! I think this has 0-0 written all over it though

[mark20]

“Play to the whistle”