Gert & TheBoy's Official VNA Soccer... err Football Thread

[PeterL22]

So the FA cup got back to its boring predictable routine. Also draw for quarter finals not that good
Well there is always next season!

[PeterL22]

Interesting at Etihad last night - will City do it in Monaco.For Pep's sake I hope they do

[PeterL22]

Great result for Leicester last night - they looked in deep trouble, but to be only one goal down and have away goal...............

[PeterL22]

And Suprs have tamely surrendered in Europa League - they will be in trouble playing at Wembley next year!!

[rokkerr]

Great result for Leicester last night - they looked in deep trouble, but to be only one goal down and have away goal...............

Not enough to save the managers job..... I really disagree with the timing. They should have rode through the season in the hopes of staying up.
He did so much for that city.

[PeterL22]

True rocker - really sad thing he is a great bloke.
I think they may well have sealed their own fate now!
Would take him at Saints in summer!!
Talking of Saints - COYR!!! (come On You Reds) - EFL on Sunday.
see you after weekend

[PeterL22]

OK time to start the Official Send Mariner to Saudi thread. Along with over 31,000 Saints fans yesterday I felt robbed by Andre Mariner's excuse for refereeing!
He denied Gabbiadini a cup final hatrick by disallowing his first goal when it was clearly onside. Add to that the "Lets give Man Utd a free kick every time one of their players falls over" attitude and we were not pleased!
However Proud to support a team that played so well - even Mourinho said we were the better team!

You can wear the shirt with pride too Vicky!

[PeterL22]

half time - Leicester 2 Liverpool 0. Leicester players decided to play this evening, and Liverpool having one of their (many) off days.
Hey Klopp will be next!!

[PeterL22]

Klopp - "you're getting sacked in the morning, you're getting sacked in the morning - etc"

[rokkerr]

Not sure if Vicky told you Peter but Vicky got your team jersey and will shoot in it the next time she does a shoot...

[PeterL22]

I did hear that she did rocker - Go for it Vicky. We are all really proud of the Saints after Sunday's Final - even Mourinho (bless him) admitted we were the better side.
Hope it fits rocker - but a bit tight on the chest is my ideal -

[PeterL22]

Ok time to put my neck on the block - the weekend predictions

1Man Utd v Bournemouth - Utd by 2 or 3
2. Leicester v Hull - Foxes by 2
3. Stoke v Middlesborough - nil-nil draw
4. Swansea v Burnley - Jacks 1-0
5 Watford v saints 1-1 draw
6.WBA v Palace - WBA 1-0
7. Liverpool v Arsenal Liverpool 2-1
8. Spurs v everton - Spurs 2-1 (ok rokker)
9.Sunderland v Man City - City 3-1
10. West Ham v Chelski - Draw ?1-1

Games Games 4,5 & 7 most difficult to predict!.

[rokkerr]

Rest assured Peter I am not a Spurs fan. I used to be a Leeds United supporter back before I moved to the States.
They didn't used to have weekly football on the television live so it became impossible to keep up with the news
I stopped watching football. With NBC now doing an amazing job sometimes 4 times a week with coverage I am back watching again...
... I don't have a favorite team.
My Dad loves Charlton so I keep an eye on them, Leeds, Portsmouth (I used to live close to that city) and don't ask me why Arsenal and Liverpool...
I like the following the teams who are were shit who do well too... like Bournemouth and Leicester
I even like watching Manchester United sometimes....
I guess I am a follower of good stories and I am always interested for some reason in the managers who get shafted when their players are having bad years.
I'd like to see Mourinho prove for example all the skeptics wrong at Manchester United. I'd like to see Wenger do well (the Arsenal fans are ingrates).

Huge game for Bournemouth today.... I think they might pull out a draw :)
I am thinking an Arsenal win (they tend to win when they shouldn't and don't win when they must).

[TheBoy]

I'm not sure where the past couple of weeks has gone! So many games being played and hardly time to react before another round of fixtures or cup games.

The curious case of Liverpool continues with a mauling of Arsenal last night that brought harrowing memories of the game they played against us a few weeks ago. Their record against the top 6 sides is virtually impeccable but yet as the game v Leicester showed on Monday night, against the lesser teams they struggle so bad. On the attack, Liverpool are frightening but defensively they are simply shockingly bad. They also seem to lack the energy to see out a full 90 minutes, even at this stage of the season and with hardly any fixtures to play.

As for Arsenal... well if Arsene Wenger wanted to stick two fingers up to the ungrateful supporters, he did so with aplomb yesterday. Benching Sanchez was asking for trouble and one wonders what his thinking was for doing so. The cracks are starting to grow deeper at Arsenal and I get the feeling that Sanchez and Ozil are now past the point of no return with regards to staying past this season. Even if Wenger finally accepts his fate and leaves, I can't see them being convinced enough to stay.

Huge talking points from the Manchester United v Bournemouth game involving Zlatan. An obvious pre-meditated stamp to his head by the reckless Tyrone Mings is followed up by Zlatan extracting his own revenge with a thumping elbow to Mings. Both incidents apparently missed by the referee (who hilariously had all been on fellow referee Anthony Taylor's stag-do earlier in the week!) who confounded his shockingly bad display by sending off Surmann for arguing after the elbow incident. The result was almost lost as Bournemouth took a huge 1-1 draw away from Old Trafford thanks to Ibra once again being centre of attention by missing a late penalty. It's safe to say though that despite the almost childish responses from both players after the game (Mings: I'm not that kind of player; Zlatan: He jumped into my elbow) will almost certainly have a 3 game ban coming their way. With Zlatan in tremendous form (penalty miss aside), he will be a huge miss for United who have been on a decent run and looked to be pushing their way back into the top 4 spots.

A big game for Spurs today against an in form Everton team. There's been a lot of talk about Kane v Lukaku as best young striker so will be interesting to see who performs best today (please be Kane!). Kane has been in blistering form, nabbing his 3rd hat trick of the season against Stoke last weekend. His technique for the first two goals were ridiculously good. Eriksen continues to rack up the assists and Dele Alli keeps chipping in with the goals. There isn't a more deadly partnership than Kane and Alli in the league for combined number of goals.

Interesting news coming out of Barcelona last week with the kind of not unexpected announcement that Luis Enrique will be leaving at the end of the season. It's brought a lot of speculation around potential Premier League managers who might be targeted. Pochettino and Koeman are two of the most mentioned, with Koeman a former Barca superstar and Poch of course being one of the brightest and most exciting coaches in the game. But maybe Wenger could still be on the radar? Now that would certainly be interesting to see!

It's nice to see Leeds finally looking semi-settled under Garry Monk. It's taken a looooooooong time for them to stumble upon him, but I hope for their sake they can let him get on with the job and not make yet another crazy decision.

I'm nervous as sin for this week in Fantasy Football as Gert has played his triple captain chip on Aguero as Man City have a double game week against two very beatable sides starting with Sunderland later today and Stoke later in the week. Aguero is in good form and as we know very well, he's more than capable of bagging several goals in those games. It might be a 'watching from behind the sofa' game lol ;)

[PeterL22]

OK Guys - here is how it is!
Man Utd - beginning to hate them more and more - They really do get ALL the referees' decisions (and add money and media obsession)!
Zlatan was right to be angry at Mings - but if he had played for any other team would have been off (and Mings should have been too). We will see what punishment they both get retrospectively - my guess Mings 4-6 weeks and Zlatan 1-2 weeks!.
To be fair, brilliant point for Bournemouth - didn't see them getting anything even before they went down to 10 men.
Liverhampton - not surprised they beat Arsenal - but watch for next bad result - coming in next week or so!
Wegner - I can see why he is getting p*ssed off with Arsenal and supporters - You have probably the best manager in Premier League guys - he was trying to send a message with Sanchez on bench ( not a good idea) and it worked. Pretty please come to Hampshire if they sack you Arsene!

Rokker, - sorry Leeds are sh*te at present ( I was a big Leeds fan in 1970s with Giles, Clarke Lorimer et al) - but will be in playoffs - either them or Fulham for third promotion spot. Did see them at Cardiff City early in season - I'm a Bluebird really, and still do the Ayatollah -( happy to teach you and Vicky how to do it anytime) and they won but really shouldn't have.
Moving outside Premier League - I would go for Newcastle (sadly) and Brighton as top two - Huddersfield, Leeds, Reading & Fulham as playoffs - either Leeds or Fulham to go up.

Back to Premier League; odd results yesterday - I was at Watford where Saints really played well and should have beaten a HUGE Watford side by more than one goal (Les Read went to Europe to buy a Lamborghini, when he came back with a striker, they called him Gabbiadini!" - to the tune of Yankee Doodle)
As I say Bournemouth got great result, Palace a surprise and huge (although not unexpected results) for Leicester and Swansea
Again as a Blue bird disappointment at Jacks' win, and some personal disappointment that Leicester players now playing after they have got rid of Ranieri!
O and I may be quoted as Jonathan Moss (referee) had a good game at Vicarage Rd!

[Gert-Jan]

Sunday's showdown Tottenham vs Everton was pretty entertaining and Spurs in general have been extraordinary ever since Pochettino switched to a 3-4-2-1 formation. There's no stopping of the wing-backs and because the whole team plays so high, Kane hardly ever has to leave the opposition box anymore, making him one of the deadliest strikers in the world right now. I genuinely thought he was gonna bag his fourth hattrick, haha. I don't think there's a forward who has scored as many goals as Kane since the turn of the year, apart from Lewandowski and Mertens perhaps. It sucks Tottenham are so far behind the league leaders cause the remaining schedule looks really favorable. Wanna hear something funny? The indestructible machine Victor Wanyama has been the only Spurs player to start every PL game, and to be fair, he has been brilliant. Drew, what do you know about Lamela's mysterious hip injury?

English media may suggest Ronald Koeman is among the front runners for the Barcelona job, I doubt he will end up being the chosen one. Koeman always prioritises defence over attack as we saw at White Hart Lane. He set Everton up to not concede with midfield consisting of Schneiderlin, Gueye and Gareth Barry. It tells you all there is to know about Everton's intentions. Why not continue with Lookman next to Barkley? And when you have someone like Lukaku up front, why not provide him some (better) service cause you know centre-backs Funes Mori and Williams won't be keeping a clean sheet against top attacking sides. To come back on the topic of the soon vacant position in Spain, I think Sampaoli and Valverde have build a strong case for themselves in recent years. Sampaoli, former coach of Chile's national team, could even try to persuade Alexis to rejoin Barcelona.

Yes, it was perhaps one of Wenger's worst decisions to bench his statistically best player in a must-win game away at Anfield. Sanchez has been highly influential having delivered goals or assists in 10 of his last 12 PL matches. Play him as a false nine and he will return braces and hattricks as his acceleration and drive is of someone who desperately wants to win silverware. Wenger's post-match explanation was pure nonsense cause reports have emerged of a row during training earlier in the week. Poor management from Wenger and the Frenchman shot himself in the foot with this punishment for Sanchez, whose big smile in the first half whilst chewing gun revealed he knows all too well that Wenger needs him badly. Mesut Ozil missed out through illness, but that's actually the third time in three months now, so surely those contract issues have got something to do with it.

Arsenal were poor and Liverpool's enthralling form against the top sides continued indeed with Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino, Mane and Wijnaldum running and pressing as if their life depended on it, although they did seem to suffer a bit in the second half. I'm interested to see how Klopp will manage this style of football next year as the European matches will take up a lot of energy as well. Finishing in the top 4 will only be possible for the Reds if their away form improves significantly. For example, can they do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke?

Manchester United's frustrations continue as they again had only themselves to blame with it being the same story of missed chances. They could have gone 2 or 3 goals up in the first half as Bournemouth really do NOT know how to defend, lol. The penalty was awful although you could just tell/feel he was gonna miss it. Great save by Boruc, however. I fully agree with Drew, as always, regarding the two main talking points in this incident-filled encounter. Zlatan will be given a retrospective standard 3-game ban for violent conduct and if the committee agree Mings' stamp to the head was intentional, the defender could be suspended even longer. The Swede could then miss their FA Cup tie against Chelsea. Kevin Friend had an absolutele mare, just like Anthony Taylor at Swansea vs Burnley by the way, lol.

Manchester City's 2-0 away win at Sunderland gives them the chance to move into second place come Wednesday. Not thrilled about the overall performance, though. Their endless sideways passing game at the back was just so exhausting to watch and totally pointless! Clichy to Stones, Stones to Kolarov, Kolarov to Fernandinho, Fernandinho to Sagna, Sagna to Stones, Stones back to Clichy. Just play the damn ball forward instead of wanting to make the possession stat reach 70% or higher. Anyway, we know Pep likes football from the back so that probably won't change in the next few years, haha. Raheem Sterling registered another assist, despite some really bad first touches on the ball at times, while Aguero's top class finish handed City an important lead right before half-time and myself some vital points in fantasy football. Do I regret using the triple captain chip? No. I just didn't see many other explosive options in the remaining 11 weeks...

Aguero, Zlatan, Sanchez and Kane are the four targets for the TC chip. I'm not including Hazard or Costa cause the former likes dribbling more than scoring goals and the latter will score 6-9 points, but hardly ever a double-figure haul. There'll be a double gameweek 37 to use bench boost with most likely the Manchester derby, which already kinda limits the appeal of their strikers. The double gameweek in 34 clashes with the FA Cup semis, diminishing the prospect of Sanchez and Kane as triple captain options as neither Arsenal nor Spurs will lose their FA Cup ties against lower league opposition. Aguero now has form and fixtures, so the risk was well worth it, but I realize if the 100-point gap to Drew remains intact after this week, he will have basically won our mini-league. Next week looks boring with only 4 fixtures! Ibrahimovic's ban and Lukaku being the only quality striker playing in GW28 should leave me without a transfer headache.

[PeterL22]

sort of agree with lots of last post. Spurs didn't really look that good - I actually fell asleep in that match!
Kane is good (as long as he isn't taking free kicks) but you are right about wingback - especially as two centre backs are best PAIR in PL (Virgil van Dyke is best centre back as individual). They allowed Everton into the game and that could confirm a weakness in their season - Moderately optimistic we'll get something there in a couple of weeks.
Man city did what they needed to do without breaking sweat - still big question marks about their defence and keeper though.
Arsene was trying to bring things to a head - support me or sack me (think latter is most likely option. Talking of managers, what price Ron Koemans for Barca in near future - wouldn't bet against it myself.
Man Utd really do need to be referreed by someone who isn't starstruck by the red shirts and Old Trafford - they get so many decisions every game I reckon its worth 5 - 10 points per season! Still Chelski will put them in their place in cup next weekend.
Relegation is going to be the interesting bit this season - Sunderland, Hull plus one - at moment Middlesborough look favourites (they don't know how to score). At least that cuts down my travelling a bit next season!

[PeterL22]

Another stroll for Chelski last night. Can't see anyone beating them to title.
Important games in Championship tonight
Fulham v Leeds (Home win)
Huddersfield v Villa (Home win)
Reading v Newcastle (Draw)


OK Arsenal are 33-1 to overturn Champs League result against Bayern Munich - compare with :-
England to win 2020 World Cup (tee hee) - 25/1
Next James Bond to be a woman - 16/1
Tiger Woods to win major in 2017 - 16/1
And best of all The existence of alien life to be proved in 2017 - 20/1

[sugerdaddy]

Ohhh Fuck. looks like Manchester United will finish out of the Top 4. Well there is always next session.

[PeterL22]

Ohhh Fuck. looks like Manchester United will finish out of the Top 4. Well there is always next session.

Sorry sugerdaddy - there are a lot of fans of other teams that won't be crying!
Man Utd have not really been good enough this season. Chalks are a street ahead of anyone else in terms of consistency. Follow them with Spurs, Man City and probably Arsenal and you have your top 4.
You do have one great player - Mkhitaryan (I use different spelling each time to eventually get it right) is world class. Zlatan (when he's not picking fights with Bournemouth players) does what he does (score goals) - but otherwise nothing much. Pogba the biggest waste of money ever to come to Premier League, and Rooney is really past it