Premier League 2020/21 Thread

[Arriba Los Zorros]

9 hours ago, Kingleicester said:

Yes I’m in the pessimistic bastard fan club to,  I think Liverpool will draw at Man U and win the rest so we need 4pts big ask, 

I have to agree with this. Liverpool much more motivated than Man Utd and you gotta believe now they've hit their stride we should expect them to beat West Brom, Burnley and Palace. So that's 10 points - finishing on 67, or 12 if they beat United (again not entirely unrealistic) finishing on 69 meaning we will need 2 more pts (if they get 10) or 4 (if they get all 12) since their GD will be better than ours.

 

I hope our players realise this is not a done deal! Sure the odds are heavily stacked in our favour, but being a team like Liverpool we should expect them to win their last 4 games.

 

Even if they lose to United we need at least a point from the last 2 games to be sure of finishing above them, (not to mention keeping West Ham in the rear headlights) we can't go on the beach just yet.

[Raw Dykes]

33 minutes ago, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

Was it mick Mccarthys wolves who got a pretty substantial fine for making a raft of changes a number of years ago? A lot was made of the fact that big teams with decent squads do it often and nobody ever bat's an eyelid. Hypocrisy for a change. 

Maybe, but I think it also happened to Holloway's Blackpool. I think they put out a weak side against one of the big teams to rest players for the next game which was more winnable on paper.

Edited 12 May 2021 by Raw Dykes

[Raw Dykes]

8 minutes ago, turlo said:

Didn't Leicester field a pretty much B team against Palace at Christmas because they only had 1 day full rest after the Man Utd game? Chit happens 

Yeah. We also did the same last season, but beat West Ham with the reserves.

Edited 12 May 2021 by Raw Dykes

[RonnieTodger]

I can't stand Solskjaer, but I cannot believe the backlash he's facing over this. I'm delighted that it's affected Liverpool and I really hope United win on Thursday to rub it in further.

Points deduction . Who is he to tell Solksjaer what his strongest team is? I doubt Ole gives a shit if West Ham, Leicester or Liverpool finish 4th. It's not his job.

 

If he plays the same full-strength XI for 4 games in 7 days and Fernandes and Pogba limp off, Trevor Sinclair would shout that it's terrible management and could cost them the Europa League.

Edited 12 May 2021 by RonnieTodger

[Deeg67]

I'll be surprised if Ole uses more than 2 or 3 of his regulars against Liverpool anyway.  It's a tempest in a teapot.

[Dahnsouff]

4 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

I can't stand Solskjaer, but I cannot believe the backlash he's facing over this. I'm delighted that it's affected Liverpool and I really hope United win on Thursday to rub it in further.

Points deduction . Who is he to tell Solksjaer what his strongest team is? I doubt Ole gives a shit if West Ham, Leicester or Liverpool finish 4th. It's not his job.

 

If he plays the same full-strength XI for 4 games in 7 days and Fernandes and Pogba limp off, Trevor Sinclair would shout that it's terrible management and could cost them the Europa League.

Its ridiculous tbh. Yes, the club as a whole is culpable (For the fixture being called off), but what is he supposed to do? Be dictated too as which fixtures he should destroy his players by injury? 

 

Then I realised it was Trevor Sinclair and irrelevant  

[sm1]

Didn't that Man Utd cost over 250M, with several international players. On top of that they brought on Rashford & Cavani pretty early. Entitled Liverpool fans thinking they deserve CL football because of their name, no different to their owners.

[foxes_rule1978]

3 minutes ago, sm1 said:

Didn't that Man Utd cost over 250M, with several international players. On top of that they brought on Rashford & Cavani pretty early. Entitled Liverpool fans thinking they deserve CL football because of their name, no different to their owners.

Exactly, they did no worse than what Man City did against Chelsea 

[Dorkingfox]

Against West Ham Man City name an unchanged line-up for the first time in the last three years

[ARM1968]

IF Utd beat Liverpool you can pretty much expect a 0-0 between us and Chelsea. On the other hand, if Liverpool beat UTD our game against Chelsea will be likely a top 4 deciding battle. 

[fazzyfox]

Did these same people make a song and dance when Man City treated the Chelsea game like Aguero's own testimonial match, knowingly leaving some of the most in form players in world football out of the side? 

[mozartfox]

The proximate cause of the original Manure V Liverpool game being postponed was Liverpool being one the 6 Scumbags that decided to join the ESL.  They may well have screwed themselves?

[trabuch]

14 minutes ago, foxes_rule1978 said:

Exactly, they did no worse than what Man City did against Chelsea 

And does Aguero take that penalty like that if Man City hadn't already essentially won the league? It's all bollocks.. it is what it is and if Liverpool had won more of their own matches it wouldn't matter.

[The Bear]

1 hour ago, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

Was it mick Mccarthys wolves who got a pretty substantial fine for making a raft of changes a number of years ago? A lot was made of the fact that big teams with decent squads do it often and nobody ever bat's an eyelid. Hypocrisy for a change. 

Yes he made 10 changes away to Man Utd as we had Burnley up next at home and prioritised that game for the 3 points. 

 

We lost 0-3 at Man Utd and beat Burnley 2-0. They fined us £25k.

 

The rule changed after that to allow a manger to select anyone within the named 25 man squad. 

[davieG]

The Law as it stands

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/man-united-weakened-team-leicester-24090475

 

The Premier League had previously sanctioned teams for fielding weakened teams, with both Wolves and Blackpool receiving fines between 2009 and 2010.

That subsequently forced a change in the laws which allowed top-flight managers to name any combination of their 25-man squad.

However, a club could still fall foul of the old rule, should they field a number of youngsters from outside of their main squad.

At the time of the rule change, Nick Noble, spokesman at the Premier League said: "The 25-man squad rules do allow clubs to pick under-21 players beyond those named in their squad list and, with this in mind, it was agreed by the clubs that it was appropriate for the rule to remain in place in order to ensure the integrity of the competition."

[January47]

Although we haven't played that well recently there's a perception that we are on a bad run. Actually we have 10 points from the last five games and only Liverpool (11) and Chelsea (13) have more

[filbertway]

11 minutes ago, January47 said:

Although we haven't played that well recently there's a perception that we are on a bad run. Actually we have 10 points from the last five games and only Liverpool (11) and Chelsea (13) have more

 

It would be interesting to see how things would have panned out if we had beat Southampton and Newcastle, I think Ole goes strong against us and rests players in the Villa and Liverpool games in an attempt to beat us to 2nd.

 

Before those 5 games, I'd have hoped to have picked up 10-12 points, so on the face of it, it looks positive.

 

My main concern is the level of performance though, especially the first halves. Can anyone remember the last time we were good in the first half of a game, aside from WBA, who basically gifted us the first half by playing a suicidally high line. 

 

I really cannot see us getting anything in either Chelsea game, if they play like they can then they'll be out of sight at HT in both games. I think the Spurs game will be a bit of a shoot out, we have the quality in the squad to come out on top of that one.

[urban.spaceman]

1 hour ago, Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot said:

Was it mick Mccarthys wolves who got a pretty substantial fine for making a raft of changes a number of years ago? A lot was made of the fact that big teams with decent squads do it often and nobody ever bat's an eyelid. Hypocrisy for a change. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/14166038.amp

[foxes_rule1978]

40 minutes ago, trabuch said:

And does Aguero take that penalty like that if Man City hadn't already essentially won the league? It's all bollocks.. it is what it is and if Liverpool had won more of their own matches it wouldn't matter.

Exactly, you shouldn’t be relying on other teams towards the end of the season. It is the time of possible cup finals and the like, if there isn’t much to gain for those teams they will likely put out weaker sides. 

[OrielCaziado]

The three big guns Ole brought on looked a bit off the pace themselves when they came on yesterday. I’m still of the opinion that had United played their first choice eleven last night we’d have still gone close. No way that first eleven would have been able to perform anywhere near their best. At least now there are a tad fresher to play Liverpool though. 

[Raw Dykes]

9 minutes ago, filbertway said:

It would be interesting to see how things would have panned out if we had beat Southampton and Newcastle, I think Ole goes strong against us and rests players in the Villa and Liverpool games in an attempt to beat us to 2nd.

 

Before those 5 games, I'd have hoped to have picked up 10-12 points, so on the face of it, it looks positive.

 

My main concern is the level of performance though, especially the first halves. Can anyone remember the last time we were good in the first half of a game, aside from WBA, who basically gifted us the first half by playing a suicidally high line. 

 

I really cannot see us getting anything in either Chelsea game, if they play like they can then they'll be out of sight at HT in both games. I think the Spurs game will be a bit of a shoot out, we have the quality in the squad to come out on top of that one.

I agree with all this.

 

I do think, though, that the result last night could be a shot in the arm for the team. We haven't played well overall lately, but I think a lot of it could be down to nerves. I think a win at Old Trafford, even against a weakened side, should give the players a lift. Evans returning should be another.

 

I'm not really expecting anything from either game against Chelsea, but I think we should be looking to beat Spurs, and it's possible we've already got enough points for top 4.

 

I'm certainly feeling a lot better now than during the Newcastle match, anyway.

[foxes_rule1978]

1 minute ago, OrielCaziado said:

The three big guns Ole brought on looked a bit off the pace themselves when they came on yesterday. I’m still of the opinion that had United played their first choice eleven last night we’d have still gone close. No way that first eleven would have been able to perform anywhere near their best. At least now there are a tad fresher to play Liverpool though. 

I thought they were useless and looked tired when on, it probably would have been easier had they started 

[Chrysalis]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

The Law as it stands

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/man-united-weakened-team-leicester-24090475

 

The Premier League had previously sanctioned teams for fielding weakened teams, with both Wolves and Blackpool receiving fines between 2009 and 2010.

That subsequently forced a change in the laws which allowed top-flight managers to name any combination of their 25-man squad.

However, a club could still fall foul of the old rule, should they field a number of youngsters from outside of their main squad.

At the time of the rule change, Nick Noble, spokesman at the Premier League said: "The 25-man squad rules do allow clubs to pick under-21 players beyond those named in their squad list and, with this in mind, it was agreed by the clubs that it was appropriate for the rule to remain in place in order to ensure the integrity of the competition."

Nothing will happen, a manager has a squad of 25 for a reason, massive fixture pile up, and if action was taken, then it opens a can of worms with man city's team against chelsea as well plus other games with rotation.

 

At least he didnt send his youth team out and go on holiday like klopp did for liverpool last season.

Edited 12 May 2021 by Chrysalis

[Jimbo]

12 hours ago, Gerard said:

 

"Puts out a team that even Leicester can beat"........

 

Erm 

 

 

[KingsX]

While we and the media obsess over CL qualifying odds, the battle for seventh place is hot as blazes.  Yep, the honor of being the first English side in the Europa Conference League will go down to the wire.

 

So here are the current chances of each contender for the honor of playing in Lower Slobbovia on Thursday nights:

 

Liverpool 6%

West Ham 25%

Spurs 35%

Everton 28%

Arsenal 4%

 

Thank you fivethirtyeight.

Edited 12 May 2021 by KingsX