mancunianfox

I'd take Carney Chukwuemeka if the numbers worked. Can't see how we could afford much of their squad realistically.

Thought vesty did really well today against the so called best attacking four in the competition giving us very few opportunities. Goal was victor falling asleep but let's face it - Kasper Vs kane is pretty much a guaranteed goal anyway. Even VK didn't do that bad defensively after the awful mistake, Saka did absolutely nothing. I didn't watch that and thought we had made a mistake keeping him at all.

This, the obsession with managers is one of the stranger developments in football. It's the eleven players on the pitch that make the difference! Recruitment is far more important - if you get that wrong and it ends with changing managers constantly but it makes very little difference.

I must have missed the season when Declan Rice won us the league, it's hardly surprising we have more of a soft spot for Kante.

Agreed, I think the approach to this tournament is very similar to that era. One of Southgates biggest successes has been picking a settled team where everyone knows their job and has experience. Picked players depending on what they had done for England rather than form. We know seem to be back to looking at the most recently in form players and trying to shoehorn them in but the team has no balance/shape as a result and too many players in that squad havent played much for England. In a tight game his attacking options are Eze, Gordon, Palmer, Watkins and Toney who have very few caps and he doesn't know if he can trust them. Not a good recipe for success.

Man Utd won the FA cup setting up like a league two side.

Maguire not going makes me feel more confident. Not sure we have enough options in wide areas to not to take Grealish but his form hasn't been great so probably fair.

Because sport not on a level playing field isn't exciting. It's ruined club football tbh, almost all the european leagues are just the sides who can hover up the best players farming everyone. This was the first season I can remember where we had a signifcant advantage over everyone else and it just wasn't fun. You turn up every week expecting to turn teams over - it is frustrating when you don't and not that satisfying when you do.

It's not just tall strikers though it's strikers in general. There are hardly any good ones in the division. Sadly every team fields eleven midfielders now.

Tyson looked awful in the Ngannou fight but surprised more isn't being made by Usyk's performance against Dubois, he got a lot of help in that one. Really like both guys so don't mind who wins...just hope it is a good fight and scored fairly if it goes to the scorecards.

I have never thought to blame Deeney day on Harry Kane but his record in big games since suggests that it was all his fault after all we just didn't know about his curse back then.

Crazy that there is a HW unification fight at the weekend and not a post on this thread for two and a half days. This fight would be huge if happening here or in the states but feels so subdued. Saudi's getting involved as helped to bring fights together but whats the point if they feel like a non-event when they happen?

Ah, that makes sense. I try and avoid reading too much about the financial side.

If we could get enough for Daka to balance the books meaning we don't have to sell KDH that would be an incredible win.

Hope England do well but will probably have more enthusiasm once the tournament starts. Would feel more excited with a less cautious manager. Can't wait to watch the likes of Slovenia v Serbia at 2pm on a weekday afternoon while supposed to be working.

There are barely five good centre forwards in the whole division

Villa, Fulham, Newcastle, West Ham, Brighton, Bournemouth, Wolves, Brentford, Forest have all played Championship football in the not too distant past and have had varying degrees of success. The three teams that went up this season had very different circumstances with Sheff Utd being chaos, Luton being more invested in their stadium project and long term future. Only really Burnley had a go at staying up but didn't invest in the quality they needed. The three teams that went down had way more assets to sell than relegated teams normally do which meant the financial advantages they had were even greater - even then only us came straight back up. I think this is likely just an unusual season rather than a long term change. Let's not forget that in 22/23 all three promoted teams stayed up.

I'd understand the subs in a league game but if Madrid score one goal it goes to ET and you've removed much of your attacking threat and solid penalty takers. Did Tuchel really think the side that finished the game could play another 40 minutes and win?

From his wikipedia page, sounds like he'll fit right in

Remember last year when we had constant injuries and had to keep playing midfielders at CB? I have enjoyed having a management team who prepare the squad for matchdays.

Ipswich. Back to back promotions rarely happen and it has been a great story this season as it's not like they are being massively bankrolled to do it. They'd be in a tricky position because hard to build a squad that fast so interesting to see how they approach it. West Brom are the side of the rest that impress me most often. Don't want Leeds or Norwich to go up. Hull would be a fun team to go up, could definitely root for them to cause some upsets. Don't really care about Southampton either way.

They showed a lot of bottle in the West Brom game. Clearly a lot of nerves after the two bad away games but battled through it against a good side with some fantastic defending. In the Southampton game we carried over some physicality and outfought them and senior players like Vardy really stepped up and lead by example. That was good because we are better when we get at teams a bit more even when playing this style.

No idea how they are getting away with that, co-op live barely got a late night license. Crowd won't file in until at least 1.30am and will kick out at nearly 7.00 am on a Sunday morning. I bet a good portion of the crowd will be so steaming by the time they card starts that they won't remember any of the event anyway. Good luck to the staff working that event. Completely insane decision.

Huth's free kick making this montage is amazing

I have played The Finals a lot since it came out, I really like it. All the classes play very differently and you can have a lot of fun with non-meta builds. Being able to significantly alter the cashout areas through destruction is amazing and it is always rewarding when you get into a really intense fight for the end of a cashout and then survey the scene afterwards. It isn't perfect - good definitely use more maps and some things did get massively abused - C4 missiles in particular - but the developers have done a good job with balance fixes. Looking forward to the new update on Thursday a lot.