Premier League 2020/21 Thread

[FoxOnWheels]

Neves is a poor mans tielemans

[Guest StevieLynex]

1 minute ago, Guest said:

I imagine as a 19-year-old moving to a new country, working alongside people with whom you share a language and presumably a lot of cultural similarties is a big positive. I don't think he'd be in any real hurry to come here, nor could we afford him.

So, on that basis, Fofana is really struggling to find his feet with us

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, StevieLynex said:

So, on that basis, Fofana is really struggling to find his feet with us

Yeah that's exactly what I'm saying

[Guest StevieLynex]

1 minute ago, Guest said:

Yeah that's exactly what I'm saying

Let's hope we sign Lloris, Pogba, Mbappe, Griezmann in the summer to help him adapt

[Finnegan]

10 minutes ago, StevieLynex said:

So, on that basis, Fofana is really struggling to find his feet with us

 

I mean, at least five of our first team squad are fluent, or near fluent, French speakers - excluding Fofana himself. 

Edited 19 February 2021 by Finnegan

[The Bear]

Looking forward to Nuno getting nominated for coach of the year now he's done the double over the genius Bielsa. 

[Guest StevieLynex]

1 minute ago, Finnegan said:

 

I mean, at least five of our first team squad are fluent, or near fluent, French speakers - excluding Fofana himself. 

And I'm sure that Vards can say 'Bonjour Wes.. nous are on le training pitch'

[CrispinLA in Texas]

And some Wolves fans on their forum wanted Nuno out a couple of weeks ago!

[Finnegan]

2 minutes ago, StevieLynex said:

And I'm sure that Vards can say 'Bonjour Wes.. nous are on le training pitch'

 

[The Bear]

18 minutes ago, CrispinLA in Texas said:

And some Wolves fans on their forum wanted Nuno out a couple of weeks ago!

Some idiots maybe. 

[The Bear]

[Nalis]

Wolves vs Leeds is basically a sexier version on paper of Stoke v Swansea circa 2014

[jayfox26]

12 minutes ago, The Bear said:

You beat me to it. Was just about to post this. I'm sick to death of the media licking Bielsa's arse and saying how good they are. They are defensively one of the worst teams in the league yet they get spoke about like peak Barcelona. They have scored a lot of goals but if you play all out attack and are happy to win 4-3 one week then get humped 6-2 the next week then fair enough but personally I think they are shite. 

[Stadt]

Unequivocal Leeds praise is annoying but their team is basically the same as it was in the championship when Bielsa took over.

 

They’re comfortably mid table and above Southampton, Brighton, Burnley, Newcastle and Palace sides that have all been in the league for years, have bigger budgets and mostly better players.

 

If Bielsa stays and they recruit a few more like Raphinia they’ll easily leapfrog most of the dross. I’d rather Leeds be praised for being more open than watch the cagey, pragmatic stuff served up by Palace, Burnley and Wolves

[peach0000]

2 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Unequivocal Leeds praise is annoying but their team is basically the same as it was in the championship when Bielsa took over.

 

They’re comfortably mid table and above Southampton, Brighton, Burnley, Newcastle and Palace sides that have all been in the league for years, have bigger budgets and mostly better players.

 

If Bielsa stays and they recruit a few more like Raphinia they’ll easily leapfrog most of the dross. I’d rather Leeds be praised for being more open than watch the cagey, pragmatic stuff served up by Palace, Burnley and Wolves

Smaller budget? They have massively outspent their rivals. Not the same team as when they were in the championship either. 

 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/einnahmenausgaben/wettbewerb/GB1

[The Bear]

Open and entertaining Leeds - 18 shots, 7 on target. 

 

Cagey pragmatic Wolves - 15 shots, 5 on target. 

 

24 games for Leeds, 43 goals conceded. Only West Brom have conceded more. Yeah they've scored 40 goals and run about a lot, but it hasn't gotten them anywhere because of their dreadful defensive record. Its like someone treading water with their legs going a million miles an hour under the water. 

[Mike Oxlong]

Not really the right thread but I thought his honest ambition deserved a wider audience than in the General Sport forum 

 

From the BBC Gossip Column 

 

AC Milan's Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, 21, wants to become the highest paid goalkeeper in the world. His current deal expires at the end of the season and PSG and Chelsea are interested. (90min)

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, peach0000 said:

Smaller budget? They have massively outspent their rivals. Not the same team as when they were in the championship either. 

 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/einnahmenausgaben/wettbewerb/GB1

It's not massively dissimilar though is it? Of their new signings it's only really Raphinha and Rodrigo who have played regularly. Llorente's been injured pretty much all season, Koch has played less than half their games. Costa, Meslier and Harrison were there last season.

 

Some of the Bielsa worship is over the top - I remember seeing Jermaine Beckford on TV after they got promoted and he was telling everyone about how Bielsa told his players to stop shooting from range as it was statistically less likely to go in, and it was like he was recounting the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. It isn't, however, especially difficult to work out why he gets a lot of praise. He's taken Championship plodders like Bamford, Ayling and Dallas and turned them into a competitive if very flawed Premier League team. They score a lot of goals, their games are usually fairly entertaining and them being back in the big time is a story in itself.

 

 

[Stadt]

10 minutes ago, peach0000 said:

Smaller budget? They have massively outspent their rivals. Not the same team as when they were in the championship either. 

 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/einnahmenausgaben/wettbewerb/GB1

Since 18/19 when Bielsa took over. They spent more than I thought but this a difficult season to get promoted into due to the short turn around between seasons and financial difficulties. 

 

The likes of Meslier, Ayling, Struijk (sp.), Shackleton etc are all shit. Whether you like it or not Leeds will take more points by being all guns blazing rather than keeping it tight. Sometimes it’ll backfire, definitely but they’re already above teams that aren’t so open and it’s quite refreshing. Complete OTT praise of them is annoying as f uck yeah but if they tried to sit deep they’d have results like West Brom, probably.

[FoyleFox]

I don't see the point in if attempting to watch Leeds matches any more, it's 85 minutes of looking at Bielsa squatting on the touch line and 5 minutes of football. 

[Finnegan]

I hate Leeds just as much as the next right minded football fan that hates delusional, racist, entitled willy pullers with a tragic inferiority complex. 

 

But Bielsa's Leeds are pretty much the only club in the bottom half, hell outside the top six, that are actually entertaining enough for me to consider watching. 

 

I'd much rather we be managed by him than Big Sam, Steve Bruce, David Moyes, Dean Smith, Sean Dyche, the Brighton ex Boston guy the media have a boner for or basically every other park the bus merchant. 

 

If some of you stopped getting easily triggered by the football media praising anyone other than Leicester for five seconds and just let yourself enjoy a game of football you could probably sit back and enjoy a bit of ludicrous, madcap, end to end madness too. 

[Aus Fox]

28 minutes ago, Mike Oxlong said:

Not really the right thread but I thought his honest ambition deserved a wider audience than in the General Sport forum 

 

From the BBC Gossip Column 

 

AC Milan's Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, 21, wants to become the highest paid goalkeeper in the world. His current deal expires at the end of the season and PSG and Chelsea are interested. (90min)

This to me is everything wrong with modern football, he doesn’t want to be the greatest goalkeeper or the most successful he want to be the highest paid! The two things are not the same and Chelsea have been burnt here before.

[HighPeakFox]

2 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

This to me is everything wrong with modern football, he doesn’t want to be the greatest goalkeeper or the most successful he want to be the highest paid! The two things are not the same and Chelsea have been burnt here before.

Of course, it is the way they've reported it that's wrong - I bet he's not come close to using those words himself.

[Aus Fox]

28 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Since 18/19 when Bielsa took over. They spent more than I thought but this a difficult season to get promoted into due to the short turn around between seasons and financial difficulties. 

 

The likes of Meslier, Ayling, Struijk (sp.), Shackleton etc are all shit. Whether you like it or not Leeds will take more points by being all guns blazing rather than keeping it tight. Sometimes it’ll backfire, definitely but they’re already above teams that aren’t so open and it’s quite refreshing. Complete OTT praise of them is annoying as f uck yeah but if they tried to sit deep they’d have results like West Brom, probably.

The test for Leeds will be next season, currently they have a better squad than Sheff United had last season.

The two teams are mirror opposites of each other one defending for the lives but having no real attacking threat and the other attacking with everything they have and no real defence to speak of.

We’ve seen this season Sheff Utd have been worked out and slid down the table scoring just 15 goals all season - Leeds unless they invest in a new keeper and an experienced organiser at the back will do the same next season. 

[Aus Fox]

1 minute ago, HighPeakFox said:

Of course, it is the way they've reported it that's wrong - I bet he's not come close to using those words himself.

You’re right, it’s probably agent talk more than anything, but he will be demanding those numbers if and when he does leave AC Milan, and for a player who is 25 and hasn’t won anything is ridiculous.