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urban.spaceman

Premier League 2020/21 Thread

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9 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

 

Can someone please explain the humiliation in losing to a team who finished above you last season and has won the league more recently than you have? 
No one would say it was humiliating for us to lose to Chelsea.

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Klopp and Guardiola criticising anything and everything other than themselves when they don’t win?

 

What’s new?

 

Entitlement, arrogance and desperation rolled into one. They just can’t help themselves.

 

Sad and pathetic, but also quite funny.

 

Especially when you are looking down at them from the top of the table. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It's very tight at the top and bottom of the league, just shows how strong a start several clubs have had and how badly several have. Sheffield Utd in any other given season would be a good 5-6 points off 17th after 8 games would they not? 

 

We need to keep on ploughing on but I do think the top 4 could be a much higher points total than in most years, I'm just happy we are seemingly over last seasons slump and excelling in 2 competitions with a depleted squad. Keep it up lads.

 

Pep and Klopp can get fcuked.

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6 hours ago, deanolegend1989 said:

5 of his 8 in the league are pens. 3 open play.

It is a bit concerning today 2nd half as he did look like he could barely move for the last 30 or so.

This formation doesn’t help him though, it’s extremely negative and he’s asked to lead the whole line.

I think it’s not a case of us ‘over performing’ as such but more that our style that’s working results wise, does require being very heavy in numbers at the back , which in turn makes it harder for both him and our Attacking  play in general.
 

Results are what matters though and it’s working so it’s fine, I’m sure if we start struggling BR will change and get numbers around him and be more of a threat. 
 

The reason I like our formation Is with those numbers at the back(effectively 6 at the back with Forfana he’s that good), it gives us a great platform at 0-0 so we can increase the chances of locking the door, not conceding early and more time to score first, which makes games easier to control.
 

I keep repeating myself, but in games we concede first, this formation would work very badly at 0-1 down. So far in this 6 game run, we havnt needed to test this but imo it would be awful in games we do.

 

Its great starting like it and as long as hopefully, proven so far by results, we win a high % when we do score first.

If also when we concede first, we change it very quickly and make it a game of ‘we attack you attack’ as that would be a higher % way of winning in games we go behind in.

 

Wolves are also very good defensively and make it very tough and build from the back in numbers so Vards up top alone effectively just kept running up or down whilst they start each attack, A graveyard shift that was taking it out of him.

As proven vs Leeds, and I can also imagine weaker teams who are not so rock solid as wolves, We’d boss the midfield more and counter stronger, which in turn would get Vardy in play more.
Mendy and Tielemens are also 2 who suffer in games like this and looked on their feet also, which made it impossible for us to win the ball up and that invites pressure - the opposite of a high press that Liverpool and City are obsessed with doing.

 

The biggest concern for me about our team is that we get overpowered by some teams later in games and our fitness of some players are an issue(Vards, Mendy, YT, Evans and the older squad players) Its often telling past the 60 mark in games
It was clear vs West Ham and Villa and even Burnley to an extent, Leeds also before we brought 2 fresh legs on we were pinned back hard etc. I noticed it happens quite a lot but we’ve been fantastic at defending which has stopped us from needing to attack as such.

It’s ok in games we lead as I said but this is why I think our weakness will be when we concede first, 0-1 or more down at HT I would struggle to see us turning it around because we barely get up the pitch and we’d have to open up and that isn’t possible with our midfield especially, who are better at sitting deep.

You're right about the league, my bad. I generally agree with your post, although would like to point out that we conceded to Man City first using this formation and it turned out pretty well.

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9 hours ago, Tom12345 said:

What has happened to Sheffield United this season? Just a form slump or last season was one off?

I think it's both.

 

Also, Lundstram is a key player and he's refused a new contract, they've lost Henderson in goal and there's not many goals in the team. 

 

Looks like it'll be a long season for them at this rate. 

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6 hours ago, deanolegend1989 said:

5 of his 8 in the league are pens. 3 open play.

It is a bit concerning today 2nd half as he did look like he could barely move for the last 30 or so.

This formation doesn’t help him though, it’s extremely negative and he’s asked to lead the whole line.

I think it’s not a case of us ‘over performing’ as such but more that our style that’s working results wise, does require being very heavy in numbers at the back , which in turn makes it harder for both him and our Attacking  play in general.
 

Results are what matters though and it’s working so it’s fine, I’m sure if we start struggling BR will change and get numbers around him and be more of a threat. 
 

The reason I like our formation Is with those numbers at the back(effectively 6 at the back with Forfana he’s that good), it gives us a great platform at 0-0 so we can increase the chances of locking the door, not conceding early and more time to score first, which makes games easier to control.
 

I keep repeating myself, but in games we concede first, this formation would work very badly at 0-1 down. So far in this 6 game run, we havnt needed to test this but imo it would be awful in games we do.

 

Its great starting like it and as long as hopefully, proven so far by results, we win a high % when we do score first.

If also when we concede first, we change it very quickly and make it a game of ‘we attack you attack’ as that would be a higher % way of winning in games we go behind in.

 

Wolves are also very good defensively and make it very tough and build from the back in numbers so Vards up top alone effectively just kept running up or down whilst they start each attack, A graveyard shift that was taking it out of him.

As proven vs Leeds, and I can also imagine weaker teams who are not so rock solid as wolves, We’d boss the midfield more and counter stronger, which in turn would get Vardy in play more.
Mendy and Tielemens are also 2 who suffer in games like this and looked on their feet also, which made it impossible for us to win the ball up and that invites pressure - the opposite of a high press that Liverpool and City are obsessed with doing.

 

The biggest concern for me about our team is that we get overpowered by some teams later in games and our fitness of some players are an issue(Vards, Mendy, YT, Evans and the older squad players) Its often telling past the 60 mark in games
It was clear vs West Ham and Villa and even Burnley to an extent, Leeds also before we brought 2 fresh legs on we were pinned back hard etc. I noticed it happens quite a lot but we’ve been fantastic at defending which has stopped us from needing to attack as such.

It’s ok in games we lead as I said but this is why I think our weakness will be when we concede first, 0-1 or more down at HT I would struggle to see us turning it around because we barely get up the pitch and we’d have to open up and that isn’t possible with our midfield especially, who are better at sitting deep.


Added to this, I think we knew most of the players would be getting a good rest/recovery period for the next two weeks. This allowed us to play our main players again after a busy schedule. Almost as if it was a situation of ‘go out, run yourselves into the ground, work hard and you’ll still be fine for the next run of games’. 

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8 hours ago, deanolegend1989 said:

5 of his 8 in the league are pens. 3 open play.

It is a bit concerning today 2nd half as he did look like he could barely move for the last 30 or so.

This formation doesn’t help him though, it’s extremely negative and he’s asked to lead the whole line.

I think it’s not a case of us ‘over performing’ as such but more that our style that’s working results wise, does require being very heavy in numbers at the back , which in turn makes it harder for both him and our Attacking  play in general.
 

Results are what matters though and it’s working so it’s fine, I’m sure if we start struggling BR will change and get numbers around him and be more of a threat. 
 

The reason I like our formation Is with those numbers at the back(effectively 6 at the back with Forfana he’s that good), it gives us a great platform at 0-0 so we can increase the chances of locking the door, not conceding early and more time to score first, which makes games easier to control.
 

I keep repeating myself, but in games we concede first, this formation would work very badly at 0-1 down. So far in this 6 game run, we havnt needed to test this but imo it would be awful in games we do.

 

Its great starting like it and as long as hopefully, proven so far by results, we win a high % when we do score first.

If also when we concede first, we change it very quickly and make it a game of ‘we attack you attack’ as that would be a higher % way of winning in games we go behind in.

 

Wolves are also very good defensively and make it very tough and build from the back in numbers so Vards up top alone effectively just kept running up or down whilst they start each attack, A graveyard shift that was taking it out of him.

As proven vs Leeds, and I can also imagine weaker teams who are not so rock solid as wolves, We’d boss the midfield more and counter stronger, which in turn would get Vardy in play more.
Mendy and Tielemens are also 2 who suffer in games like this and looked on their feet also, which made it impossible for us to win the ball up and that invites pressure - the opposite of a high press that Liverpool and City are obsessed with doing.

 

The biggest concern for me about our team is that we get overpowered by some teams later in games and our fitness of some players are an issue(Vards, Mendy, YT, Evans and the older squad players) Its often telling past the 60 mark in games
It was clear vs West Ham and Villa and even Burnley to an extent, Leeds also before we brought 2 fresh legs on we were pinned back hard etc. I noticed it happens quite a lot but we’ve been fantastic at defending which has stopped us from needing to attack as such.

It’s ok in games we lead as I said but this is why I think our weakness will be when we concede first, 0-1 or more down at HT I would struggle to see us turning it around because we barely get up the pitch and we’d have to open up and that isn’t possible with our midfield especially, who are better at sitting deep.

To borrow an insight from the egg chasers, but as Eddie Jones often says, its not always about the starters but the finishers. 

Obviously in football we can't make as many changes, but that's where this becomes a squad game, more so because of our involvement in Europe. 

 

The starting 11 go out, do the damage, we change it around and see the game out.

 

Although I've said it in a different thread, people really need to stop labelling Teilemans as unfit. He's just one of those players that naturally looks unfit, he looks like he's blowing after 5 minutes, but if you watch him, he's blowing no harder in the 85th minute. 

 

Age is going to catch up with the likes of Vardy and Evans, but I think we're getting better at our in game management, which means it's no so much of an issue. And with Maddison, Under, Barnes, Praet, Perez and Kelechi to choose from we have different ways of approaching games going forward 

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12 hours ago, Nicolo Barella said:

To be honest, whilst I'm obviously extremely happy and excited we're doing as well as we are, it does worry me a little that 6 of Vardy's 8 goals so far have been penalties... Makes me worry about how sustainable our form is. I'm very pleased with the team, but I think we are probably overperforming right now, so I hope we won't get too upset as fans if results drop off a bit.

I get what you mean. However, it reminds me of our championship promotion season. We use to get penalties for fun that year. The rest of the league complain and go on about how lucky the beneficiary team is. Realistically, the team who gets so many penalties a year is the one who drives into the box with as many players as possible. The positive to take from the high number of pens is that we are putting good defenders under pressure to make a decision. This is better then last year where even during our good run, one of the criticisms was that movement from the rest of the team was lacking. Teams knew you keep Vardy quiet and you nulify a large part of our attack. We now have Madders, Youri, Praet, Barnes, Justin, Thomas, Castagne and Under giving teams a second thought. Its evolution to our play that when we do hit a bad run (like we did last year) we should be better place to overcome it. Yes, I am a positive thinker lol!

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10 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

To borrow an insight from the egg chasers, but as Eddie Jones often says, its not always about the starters but the finishers. 

Obviously in football we can't make as many changes, but that's where this becomes a squad game, more so because of our involvement in Europe. 

 

The starting 11 go out, do the damage, we change it around and see the game out.

 

Although I've said it in a different thread, people really need to stop labelling Teilemans as unfit. He's just one of those players that naturally looks unfit, he looks like he's blowing after 5 minutes, but if you watch him, he's blowing no harder in the 85th minute. 

 

Age is going to catch up with the likes of Vardy and Evans, but I think we're getting better at our in game management, which means it's no so much of an issue. And with Maddison, Under, Barnes, Praet, Perez and Kelechi to choose from we have different ways of approaching games going forward 

when I was a kid - football teams had 11 players and one sub.  It was great. every team had an out field player who was prepared to go in goal. Leeds had a guy called paul madeley who could play in any position - he was the perpetual sub for leeds and for england.

Too many subs allows prevents the games form becoming stretched,  enables managers to fix their pre game mistakes...   and it favours the big clubs - Klopp and Pep need to look at our injury list - yet we have kicked on.

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12 hours ago, Nicolo Barella said:

To be honest, whilst I'm obviously extremely happy and excited we're doing as well as we are, it does worry me a little that 6 of Vardy's 8 goals so far have been penalties... Makes me worry about how sustainable our form is. I'm very pleased with the team, but I think we are probably overperforming right now, so I hope we won't get too upset as fans if results drop off a bit.

5 of his 8 have been penalties but I don't think it's too much different to last season where he would often score multiple goals in big wins that had he not scored as many we still would have won. 

 

Remember we are playing 2 games a week, we have injuries to key players that otherwise enable us to be better at creating chances (Ndidi free's up Tielemans and Maddison and Castagne and Ricardo are the dogs tom walls) and the run of tough opposition where in previous years we have seldom had a good result against.

 

I am relieved we are for now at least putting last seasons slump behind us and showing that we can adapt as well as being a bit more Street wise and mentally stronger than we showed last season.

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1 hour ago, Nicolo Barella said:

You're right about the league, my bad. I generally agree with your post, although would like to point out that we conceded to Man City first using this formation and it turned out pretty well.

Whilst that’s true, the Man City game was a great turn around, but that goes back to your original point of penalty’s helping us and not creating much , which I agree was concerning. We were awful at 1-0 down and City should of killed us off a few times, but one chance(hardly a chance Walker gave us a stupid pen from barely a chance), we are level.

It also helped as Man City don’t fear us and sit deep and they also had a very weak defence that day.

In general against teams who sit deep it will be tough for us the way we play currently and create, especially if they have something to hold on by getting ahead , but as said, it’s working great and gives us more security defensively and at 0-0 it helps us very hard to beat because we don’t concede first as much.


Nothing more annoying than when we used to seem to concede so early in games nearly all the time to make things harder.

 

1 hour ago, Leeds Fox said:


Added to this, I think we knew most of the players would be getting a good rest/recovery period for the next two weeks. This allowed us to play our main players again after a busy schedule. Almost as if it was a situation of ‘go out, run yourselves into the ground, work hard and you’ll still be fine for the next run of games’. 

Yeah it definitely helped having this 2 week break. Maybe a reason whilst we over powered Wolves for the first 30-40 mins. 2nd half though it was concerning , other than Forfana who looked like he could play another 90 afterwards, we all looked proper immobile.

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Having 3 of our 4 injured players hopefully returning sometime in December gives us a leg up for the over stretched Christmas period. Brendan knows that players can be rotated with confidence to keep up the momentum. 

 

Looking good. 

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6 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Whilst that’s true, the Man City game was a great turn around, but that goes back to your original point of penalty’s helping us and not creating much , which I agree was concerning. We were awful at 1-0 down and City should of killed us off a few times, but one chance(hardly a chance Walker gave us a stupid pen from barely a chance), we are level.

It also helped as Man City don’t fear us and sit deep and they also had a very weak defence that day.

In general against teams who sit deep it will be tough for us the way we play currently and create, especially if they have something to hold on by getting ahead , but as said, it’s working great and gives us more security defensively and at 0-0 it helps us very hard to beat because we don’t concede first as much.


Nothing more annoying than when we used to seem to concede so early in games nearly all the time to make things harder.

 

Yeah it definitely helped having this 2 week break. Maybe a reason whilst we over powered Wolves for the first 30-40 mins. 2nd half though it was concerning , other than Forfana who looked like he could play another 90 afterwards, we all looked proper immobile.

 

Thing is we previously struggled against teams who sit deep but would also concede. Is it better to draw 0-0 to the odd team sitting deep with the new formation then it is to lose 2-0 on the counter in the old formation for example. I'm not sure but i reckon we'll find out eventually. 

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29 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

To borrow an insight from the egg chasers, but as Eddie Jones often says, its not always about the starters but the finishers. 

Obviously in football we can't make as many changes, but that's where this becomes a squad game, more so because of our involvement in Europe. 

 

The starting 11 go out, do the damage, we change it around and see the game out.

 

Although I've said it in a different thread, people really need to stop labelling Teilemans as unfit. He's just one of those players that naturally looks unfit, he looks like he's blowing after 5 minutes, but if you watch him, he's blowing no harder in the 85th minute. 

 

Age is going to catch up with the likes of Vardy and Evans, but I think we're getting better at our in game management, which means it's no so much of an issue. And with Maddison, Under, Barnes, Praet, Perez and Kelechi to choose from we have different ways of approaching games going forward 

Tielemens isn’t unfit as such but there’s no doubt he was struggling yesterday 2nd half . Not surprising as he’s played an incredible amount of football and now will be travelling for Belgium.

I do think that 2nd half was a huge reason why we need Ndidi back. Don’t get me wrong Mendy has done ok and was good first half yesterday, but 2nd half he was effectively struggling to stop anything and it was also getting to our back line. Wilf is a lot fitter and stronger and teams wouldn’t be onto our back line as constantly and Wilf also provides more security so our attacking wide players wouldn’t be coming back so much(meaning more options for our balls).

The overall situation yesterday made us have to play like that, it’s not sustainable but in those circumstances with our squad, it was great to see it out.

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1 minute ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Tielemens isn’t unfit as such but there’s no doubt he was struggling yesterday 2nd half . Not surprising as he’s played an incredible amount of football and now will be travelling for Belgium.

I do think that 2nd half was a huge reason why we need Ndidi back. Don’t get me wrong Mendy has done ok and was good first half yesterday, but 2nd half he was effectively struggling to stop anything and it was also getting to our back line. Wilf is a lot fitter and stronger and teams wouldn’t be onto our back line as constantly and Wilf also provides more security so our attacking wide players wouldn’t be coming back so much(meaning more options for our balls).

The overall situation yesterday made us have to play like that, it’s not sustainable but in those circumstances with our squad, it was great to see it out.

Mendy has done ok? Wahahahahahaaaaa

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4 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Tielemens isn’t unfit as such but there’s no doubt he was struggling yesterday 2nd half . Not surprising as he’s played an incredible amount of football and now will be travelling for Belgium.

I do think that 2nd half was a huge reason why we need Ndidi back. Don’t get me wrong Mendy has done ok and was good first half yesterday, but 2nd half he was effectively struggling to stop anything and it was also getting to our back line. Wilf is a lot fitter and stronger and teams wouldn’t be onto our back line as constantly and Wilf also provides more security so our attacking wide players wouldn’t be coming back so much(meaning more options for our balls).

The overall situation yesterday made us have to play like that, it’s not sustainable but in those circumstances with our squad, it was great to see it out.

Horses for courses, Ndidi couldn't have done the job Mendy did in the first part of yesterdays game. Ndidi would have been better to have subbed Mendy for the second part of the game.

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Villa have some fairly easy fixtures up to the new year. They’re three points behind us, a game in hand, with the same goal difference. They’ve played and beat Arsenal, Liverpool and us. If they can keep their good form against the mid table and lower teams they could well be top coming into the new year, when they play chelsea, man united, spurs and everton.

 

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2 minutes ago, Christoph said:

 

Thing is we previously struggled against teams who sit deep but would also concede. Is it better to draw 0-0 to the odd team sitting deep with the new formation then it is to lose 2-0 on the counter in the old formation for example. I'm not sure but i reckon we'll find out eventually. 

I think 4141 is better for creating and playing good football(some of our football last first half of the season) was exhilarating. However this season we feel harder to beat and as Gary Neville said few weeks back ‘a horrible team to play against’.

I think either are fine depending on what BR feels vs the particular opponents. As it’s going stick to this I’d think in the same way we stuck to 442 in 15/16 and just ride it.

I just think the real test will be when we concede first, say to a Sheffield Utd away in a few weeks. Even as poor as they are, if we conceded first, I’d not be confident we would win.

Im all for sticking to this at the start of games and being tough and really hard to break down if we score first, as long as in games we concede first, we change formation quickly and not wait till 65-70 minutes to go for it.

 

Yesterday it worked well because we got a lucky pen but If we conceded first(even if in the first 10 minutes say) I’d very much doubt we would win. That’s my biggest concern and these 6 wins in a row have not proven yet how we would cope. 

 

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25 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Tielemens isn’t unfit as such but there’s no doubt he was struggling yesterday 2nd half . Not surprising as he’s played an incredible amount of football and now will be travelling for Belgium.

I do think that 2nd half was a huge reason why we need Ndidi back. Don’t get me wrong Mendy has done ok and was good first half yesterday, but 2nd half he was effectively struggling to stop anything and it was also getting to our back line. Wilf is a lot fitter and stronger and teams wouldn’t be onto our back line as constantly and Wilf also provides more security so our attacking wide players wouldn’t be coming back so much(meaning more options for our balls).

The overall situation yesterday made us have to play like that, it’s not sustainable but in those circumstances with our squad, it was great to see it out.

Mendy has been one of the standout midfielders in the entire league this season. That’s how good he has been. He has done more then ok.

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20 minutes ago, Foxxed said:

Villa have some fairly easy fixtures up to the new year. They’re three points behind us, a game in hand, with the same goal difference. They’ve played and beat Arsenal, Liverpool and us. If they can keep their good form against the mid table and lower teams they could well be top coming into the new year, when they play chelsea, man united, spurs and everton.

 

150/1 for the league title :whistle:

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