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I thought this might be a fun and interesting thread: a place for people to reflect on their team's season and future. I figured that by making it a thread of its own, we can get perspectives and posts from various teams instead of just the one league. I'll get the ball rolling: Manchester United What went right? Firing Jose Mourinho was the big one. He needed to go, because he was a cancerous presence at Old Trafford and it was obvious he not only didn't have a future at the club, but his presence was an active threat to the club's future. Beyond that it's quite hard to find examples of things going right, because it was a bad season for United. The jury is still out on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but I'm cautiously optimistic: a young manager with an eye for development and the future is precisely what United needed, but now he needs to be properly supported in the transfer market. Ole bringing in young players and giving them starts was also good, but he could've done it even more aggressively. What went wrong? Oh boy, where to start? United's season was a disaster from the start. After Jose spent the last half of 2018 fighting with the board, the players, the supporters and the media the season was already kind of done by the time he was sacked. Initially it seemed like Ole might've been able to turn things around, but after the PSG win it all went to poo poo. It's hard to say what happened exactly, but a decent bet would be a combination of a massive injury crisis and the players just running out of stamina after a few months of Ole's high tempo pressing game. David De Gea turning from the world's best keeper into a Joe Hart wannabe seemingly overnight didn't help either. Really, this season's theme for United was "chickens coming home to roost", in many ways. The disastrously bad scouting and recruitment that's been going on since Fergie and Gill retired has left United with a squad full of average and sub-average players, where the few shining stars have to shoulder too much load. Jose's management left a bunch of confused and out of shape players. All around them there's a club with views and methods that are becoming more out of date by the day. The Glazers are happy with the status quo, because they're just using United as their own personal savings account, and keeps bringing in enough money both for some investments in players, but more importantly to pad their bank accounts. It wouldn't be wrong to call United a club in crisis. Where do you go from here, and what's stopping you? The next target, as stated by Ole himself, is to secure a top 4 position and to start closing the gap to Liverpool and City. And sadly, before that happens, there needs to be something of a complete overhaul at the club. United need a Director of Football with the power to oversee all sporting affairs at the club. It is blatantly obvious Ed Woodward is miles short of being up for the task and needs to gently caress off immediately. He won't, though. Beyond that United need a proper scouting network, and apparently a lot of investment in both physical as well as mental infrastructure. Fergie and David Gill left a massive gap behind and it has been merely papered over since then. The squad needs a complete overhaul. There are a few good players in there, as well as a bunch of promising youngsters, but also an amazing load of poo poo. Get rid of players like Young, Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Darmian, Alexis and Lukaku. Either sign De Gea to a long-term deal or get rid of him, because it's obvious his head's not 100% in the game. Do some hard thinking on the likes of Martial and Pogba, who are capable of magic but also produce complete dross way too often. Start replacing the deadwood not with galacticos rejects, but with young players who are too good for the clubs they're currently at, and could possibly do even better at United. Some of them will not work out, but that's OK. I would rather lose with kids than 30+ year old Chelsea / Real rejects. Realistically United need at least one center back, at least one and possibly two midfielders, a right winger, a right fullback, and a striker. If Pogba and De Gea leave this summer, United will also need a third midfielder and a new top level keeper. It's obvious they're not going to get even close to all of those players, so it's a very realistic chance we'll be seeing the likes of Smalling, Jones and Young as starters next season, and if that is the case, then Ole is already hosed: he won't be able to win with players like that. Highlight of the season Turning over PSG in Paris. That would've been a highlight in any season, much less a shitshow like this one.
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May 12, 2019 19:30
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Liverpool What went right? Almost everything. Best defence in the league. Second best attack in the league. Most points we've ever gotten. Equaling our highest ever number of wins. It has been a very, very good season for us, except we haven't won the bloody trophy at the end. If I want to talk specifics: * Alisson has come in and established himself as the best keeper in the league, winning the Golden Glove * Van Dijk is the best center back, and now the best player, in the league * We have the best full back partnership in the league, and arguably in Europe * Two of the three best strikers in the league * Jordon Henderson's revival as a box to box midfielder What went wrong? Too many draws in the middle part of the season. Everton fans will claim the draw across the park cost us the title, but in reality it was the draws against Leicester and West Ham which were much more winnable games that I am cursing. Our issue this season was that we failed to be as ruthless as City were in those tight games and, whilst that sometimes resulted in losses, it also gave them those extra wins that pushed them over the line. We also had an issue of depth throughout the team - we're fine if one in each position goes down, but as soon as we get to our third or fourth choices the difference in quality is stark. Where do you go from here, and what's stopping you? This is a hard question to answer, because we were almost perfect. I can't see many, if any, leaving in the summer - certainly not any of the major players. We have some expected departures (Moreno, Sturridge, potentially Mignolet) but everyone else should by all accounts be sticking around. We will need to replace those departures though. Though Moreno didn't really play this season there were times that we really needed cover for Robertson and couldn't do it. We also need a proper fourth choice attacker - someone who we can bring in when one of the front three aren't firing and it's nothing has changed. Origi has been good in the latter half but I don't think he's quite there yet. Beyond that, we should benefit from players returning from injury. Oxlade-Chamberlain has already made his return and has a bigger summer in front of him. Keita will get another pre-season under Klopp and Gomez should be fully fit. There is also the wild card in Rhian Brewster who is incredibly highly rated and Klopp is expecting big things. Outside of that, we simply need that element of luck. When you go into a title challenge you target 90 points, and with the Anfield Fortress in full effect we should be 2/3s of the way there. That means picking up 20-25 points from our away games and having another season where we smash the bottom ten home and away would certainly help with that. If City are still as strong we will have to beat them in at least one of the games, and hope to drop very few points against the rest of the top six. Highlight of the season Barcelona at home will be a very special night (particularly if we go all the way on June 1st), I enjoyed our wins away at Watford and Bournemouth immensely, and I keep forgetting that we smashed Arsenal 5-1 at home. However, none of these beat Origi's winner at Everton. It will be voted the best goal of all time. I've never cackled like I did in response to that.
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May 12, 2019 19:47
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Tottenham Hotspur What went right Despite potential roadblocks (stadium issues, transfer issues, long-term questions about manager and key players, injury issues), the club qualified for the Champions League while getting into a Final of a major competition. Spurs have continued to mature as a side, getting past the semi-final hurdle for the first time since Pochettino's first season, along with finding a way to win in plenty of matches that they may have drawn or lost in past season. "Spursy" has for the most part effectively been killed off, partly due to improvement from some members of the first team squad, but also due to the manager's own progress tactically. Additionally there are a few notable performances worth mentioning; Son, Sissoko, Alderweireld, Vertonghen. Son won the supporters player of the season, and clearly is continuing to improve. He has probably made the leap into the conversation into Elite forwards in the league. Sissoko is a story of redemption, having improved massively over the last 18 months and becoming a key contributor to a CL side. Alderweireld probably was underrated by most Spurs supporters this season. He played the 2nd most minutes to Lloris, and his overall quality as a defender allows for a lot of flexibility in tactics from Pochettino. Vertonghen performed individually at arguably his best level in a Spurs shirt and at times may have even bested Toby. The two of them as a back line continue to allow for Spurs to have a solid base. What went wrong Quite a bit actually. The stadium opening was a disaster, with continued delays and issues with fans over ticketing amidst an ever decreasing "home-field advantage" at Wembley. While Spurs were able to turn Wembley into a bit of a home ground for a period last season, attendances dropped and general reviews of the match atmosphere were poor. Many supporters will tell you Spurs played 3/4ths of their season away from home, which has to be viewed as a failure. Playing a cup tie at Stadium MK ended up being a necessity, which was also disappointing. The transfer window lack of activity has clearly caught up to the squad. While 1-14 probably match up with just about anyone, it is clearly 15-25 just simply aren't at the level to be able to compete with City or Liverpool. Lucas Moura was the clubs last signing 18 months ago. There is some debate as to if funds are available, Poch is asking for money, while there are whispers Poch is actually the one vetoing players. There are serious concerns about the future of a few key contributors, with Alderweireld and Eriksen being the chief threats to depart in the summer window. Losing either would be a significant blow, both would probably put Spurs as outsiders to make the top 4 next season. There are even more worries now about Pochettino departing despite United appointing OGS, as he is increasingly talking about the need to make changes and stating he may need to consider his future. There were also a few players who probably didn't do themselves justice this season. Despite having a good world cup, Trippier is now considered below the level needed, and plenty would be happy to see him gone. Dele appears to have dropped a level from his peak last season. Though Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama both missed significant parts of the season due to injury, neither of them looked fit to fill the roles required when healthy. The squad needs quite a bit of work/improvement. Highlight of the season A tie between opening the new stadium and reaching a major European final. By all accounts the stadium is among the best in world football and I can't wait to get back over next season. Having said that, it is been an absolutely incredible European campaign. 1 point after 3 group matches and yet qualification was assured by getting a point in Barcelona (tough to do based on United/Liverpool's efforts there). An absolutely electric night in Manchester saw them progress against maybe the best team in Europe (with a little help from VAR). Another wild 45 minutes in Amsterdam and a brilliant set of finishes from Lucas Moura brought Spurs back to the promised land for the first time since 1984.
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May 12, 2019 20:38
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gtkor posted:while there are whispers Poch is actually the one vetoing players. I'm actually dead interested in hearing more about this because it's something I've been wondering for a while. Everyone has been lauding Poch for doing so much with so little, but for me he doesn't sound like someone who's annoyed that he can't spend the money. Is it (potentially) a case of him simply saying that the players they could get for the money they could offer wouldn't be good enough?
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May 12, 2019 20:46
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Manchester United What went right? Well there was that nice run when Ole started, and there's a lot of promising young players coming from the academy. Jose had to go. PSG match was insanely fun to watch, especially seeing Neymar stewing on the sideline. What went wrong? The balsa-wood structure that Ed Woodward has built (and rebuilt since Fergie left) fell apart, and in the worst way yet. There was more hope after firing Moyes. After Ole's appointment, everyone on the roster basically stopped giving a poo poo, or at the very least looked like it on the pitch. Pogba ended the season with each performance more wretched than the last, to the point where you couldn't even say he was bad, he just gave less than a poo poo. Where do you go from here and what's stopping you? The Glazers collect their profits, Ed Woodward heads out to the -stans to drum up a new Yak Milk sponsor, Ole tries desperately to get any big name from the market and whiffs. What do they need to do? Appoint a director of football, send Ed Woodward back to the marketing department or fire him. Hope the young talent can adjust to the Premier League and breathe new life into the club. What's stopping them is the lack of Champions League football or a top manager. I thought Ole deserved to be appointed when he was, but after watching the performances since that decision, it's a tough position to defend. I'm still so shocked people say things like "Moyes got no backing" when the reality was that most players see United as a huge club, but if the manager isn't elite, drawing talent isn't easy. Sure, they all want United wages, but if you're playing for a manager who is out of his depth, you might sacrifice a few pennies to be playing among the elite. Highlight of the season From a pure "moment" perspective, I'd say Andreas Pereira's first goal for the club. Say what you want about him, but he's young, he's hungry (sadly he won't qualify for a Turkey sandwich) and he deserved that moment after years of being on loan. From a match perspective, it's gotta be the PSG away leg in the CL. That was good fun.
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May 12, 2019 20:49
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EvilHawk posted:I'm actually dead interested in hearing more about this because it's something I've been wondering for a while. Everyone has been lauding Poch for doing so much with so little, but for me he doesn't sound like someone who's annoyed that he can't spend the money. Is it (potentially) a case of him simply saying that the players they could get for the money they could offer wouldn't be good enough? At a few different points over the last few windows Pochettino has openly stated if the quality of a player wasn't sufficient enough to improve the first XI, he had his doubts about making changes. He typically cites Harry Kane as the main evidence of this, as Spurs have struggled to get a reliable 2nd choice striker (using a combination of Son/Llorente). His point is essentially, "who is going to come here to sit on the bench every week while Kane plays every minute he is fit?'. This of course is a bit thick, since Kane is showing an inability to play every minute of long campaigns, no one can. If you go back a little bit further there are questions that can be raised ever since Paul Mitchell left in 2016/17. Some claim Poch was the main driver behind bringing in Sissoko around that time, knowing him from his performances in the league. Two problems with this of course; 1) No one person can be a manager and chief of scouting for a top level team and 2) Sissoko was pretty terrible at the time he was purchased from Newcastler (source - everyone). Beyond that if you look at players who Spurs have purchased, there are a distressing number of players who come from previous stops in Poch's own career. Pau Lopez was from Espanyol, Toby Alderweireld and Paolo Gazzaniga both played at Southampton, Serge Aurier and Lucas Moura both at former Poch playing club PSG. Mitchell and Pochettino had worked together at Southampton as well, so it is hard to know where exactly some of those decisions were made. But if Poch really does have the power it seems like both Levy and him agree that he does, they sure do keep buying players and pretty much only players that Pochettino has someone telling him from his past are likely to come good.
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May 12, 2019 20:56
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Norwich won the league, Ipswich finished bottom. Nothing went wrong. Next season we'll win the Prem.
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May 12, 2019 21:31
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Arsenal What went right? Unai Emery came in after decades of Wengerball and despite not being the highest profile manager linked with the job brought in a wave of positivity for ringing the changes, including revolutionary approaches like individual coaching and making players watch footage of poor performances. Summer transfer business was pretty good for the most part, Lucas Torreira was a sorely needed addition to midfield as a tenacious defensive midfielder and Bernd Leno started a bit shakily but has definitely shown promise as a decent keeper. Matteo Guendouzi looked ok for a kid but has David Luiz syndrome and will never not be judged by his hair. An admittedly easy unbeaten run followed a poor start to the season against two big teams. Emery is a europa league specialist and as such has delivered us to the final. What went wrong? Stephan Lichtsteiner was supposed to be a shrewd free transfer but was quickly found out for pace. Holding, Bellerin and Welbeck all had season ending injuries. Aaron Ramsey decided to leave on a free after contract talks broke down, the club having tied itself in knots over the league wage rules when giving Özil a ridiculous contract. The much trumpeted new look power structure crumbled early doors when chief exectuive Gazidis fled to AC Milan, leaving Head of Recruitment Sven Mislentat and Head of Football Raul Sanhelli to fight over the power vaccum. Sanhelli won, Mislentst left. Conveniently this was during the January transfer window and saw us only bring in Denis Suarez on loan, who somehow had a worse Arsenal career than Kim Kallstrom who arrived with a broken back. Despite pre-season expectation acknowledging it would be tough to crack the top 4 we had a golden opportunity yest dropped 11 points out of 12 when it came to the crunch. What needs to happen? Why won't it? Arsenal need another summer of solid recruitment, especially addressing the defence. We need to clear out the deadwood of which there is a lot, however many players are on huge contracts which prevents us from bringing in other players on huge contracts and discourages clubs from buying them. Emery wanted Özil out but that seems to be unlikely. The main problems we have with achieving this is the owner seems uninterested (he ordered the club top brass to fly to the US for the superbowl the day Arsenal played away to the now Premier League champions, whilst his son waxed lyrical about hopes for Arsenal to win the Champions League - a competition we aren't even in at the moment.) and the power vacuum affecting recruitment may still affect recruitment despite it's apparent resolution. It is unclear how much money will be available. If the club had backed Emery in January it may well have helped pick up the few extra points needed to break the top 4 this season, it really needs to back him this summer or risk another season pairing the worst defence with the golden boot.
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May 12, 2019 22:16
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Marseille What went right? Marseille finally recruited a worthwhile striker, for half the year, in Mario Balotelli. I could see him returning next season, except that I think Mino Raiola is banned from agenting, so that's pretty fantastic. Some of the youth coming up has been pretty good, Maxime Lopez and Boubacar Kamara especially. The team isn't tied on points with relegation candidates with only two matches to go like Monaco, so that's something. What went wrong? A lot. Marseille since they got purchased by Frank McCourt have seemingly turned into a retirement home for French internationals. The team spent a stupid amount of money to bring back Dimitri Payet for sentimental reasons, but his effectiveness seems to be on the downswing, maybe because of that injury he sustained in last year's Europa League final. Florian Thauvin has not played like a World Cup winner all season. The lack of centre backs on the team who are not close to retirement means that the team's only real holding midfielder, Luiz Gustavo, has been played at centre back a lot this year. Word has it this has annoyed him to the point of wanting out this off-season, which would be a shame since he may have been the team's best player last year. Speaking of the Europa League, because teams other than PSG actually won domestic cups this year, Marseille's likely sixth place finish means they'll be out of all continental competitions. The lack of continental competition financial bonuses lead to the possibility of FFP sanctions, and Marseille is not a big enough team to skirt the rules like PSG or Monaco. The French football financial authorities DNCG apparently found a 78M euro deficit that's going to be difficult to erase through player sales given the team's quality. It's been estimated that Morgan Sanson might bring in 25-30M from the Premier League, but other than that who knows. Zubizaretta was supposed to be the DoF the team could use to get back to contending but he seems to care less and less each year - until Balotelli came in January, Marseille's main forwards were Kostas Mitroglu and Valere Germain. This is not a title-winning strike pair. EDIT: lol, forgot about spending 25M on perma-crock Kevin Strootman. What needs to happen? Why won't it? What needs to happen are several things. First, the team needs to stop acting as a retirement home, and put the elder statesmen of the team out to pasture, because they're not listening to instructions anymore and have no more fight. Adil Rami, Rolando, Gustavo, Payet, and Mandanda all need to go. Second, the team president and DoF should probably go as well. There are constant reports about talents from Africa and Ligue 2 turning heads for good Ligue 1 teams like Monaco and Lyon, and Premier League teams, and Marseille is never mentioned. It seems like the DoF is not particularly interested in working hard to bring in talent. The team has one good defensive midfielder (Gustavo) who played almost every game for the team last year: league, both domestic cups, and just about every Europa League game. As mentioned before, there's no forward depth outside of Mario Balotelli, who might not even return. Third, Rudi Garcia has to go. I had a hearty lol when I heard new ownership wanted Marseille to be one of the great teams of Europe again, and their plan involved Rudi god-damned Garcia. I thought, to be fair, that the team would at least improve over the trash-fire it became after Robert Louis-Dreyfus died and left the team to his disinterested widow. But they haven't really even been that. Garcia led Roma to a bunch of second-place finishes, to be fair, but most of his actual trophy accomplishments involved some Belgian phenom named Eden Hazard. Garcia is not the man to make the team good. Why won't it happen? Basically, if McCourt backed Garcia to be the guy to make Marseille great again, I don't trust his judgement to make the right decisions to make the team less of a trainwreck. It's possible he's learned from all this, but I'm not convinced. He's not as apathetic as Mme. Louis-Dreyfus, though, so that might be something. Tokyo Sexwale fucked around with this message at 00:55 on May 13, 2019 |
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May 13, 2019 00:52
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gtkor posted:There are even more worries now about Pochettino departing despite United appointing OGS, as he is increasingly talking about the need to make changes and stating he may need to consider his future. Didn't he say that if Spurs win the Champions League, he's gone? If that's the case, that's one hell of a catch 22.
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May 13, 2019 09:39
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Swansea City What went right https://www.swanseacity.com/news/video-every-goal-2018-19 Relegation forced most of the failed mercenaries to abandon ship, chasing their next payday. This left space for the big crop of u23s we'd developed over the past 3/4 years (at no small expense) to finally progress. Despite the majority of our fans predicting they'd all fail miserably in a tough men's league, Connor Roberts, Joe Rodon, Oliver McBurnie, George Byers and Daniel James proved just as capable of winning Championship matches as they did development trophies. The Swansea Way(tm) is back. Patient possession, intricate one-twos and lightning counters all on show. Old heads Routledge and Dyer are playing like Laudrup's back in charge. Unbeaten at home this calendar year (the City robbery doesn't count). It's nice to enjoy watching us again, after the awful last few years in the PL (even Monk's 8th place finish was pretty dire watching). What went wrong? We took a long time to get going. Potter did not pick an unchanged team until mid-December, constantly tinkering win or lose. We used 27 or so different players and could get no momentum or consistency. Potter has since said it was intentional to give everyone a taste of senior football and improve morale at the club, but to me it looks like a lot of wasted time and points, which left us too much to do when he started playing for real. Financial concerns meant Routledge and Dyer were forced to the sidelines. They've said as much, and Routledge claims he had to waive a right to an appearance-based contract extension to get regular starts (which he did in December after DJ's injury). Had they been involved from the first day, who knows. Transfer dealings were pretty poor, coming and going. We spent £7m we didn't have (expected fees for the Ayews didn't materialise, among others) on players often not even good enough to get in our matchday 18. CCV was a good loan capture but kept our own Joe Rodon from getting games because Spurs complained. Celina has real quality but is one of half a dozen that has to play as a 10 (including our top scorer McBurnie). The shortfall of money led directly to the attempted January clearout of Montero, Fer and James. Disaster narrowly avoided on that last one. Would have got Leeds promoted for sure. The biggest issue was set piece defending, though, and in our choice of goalkeeper. Potter wants us to play out from the back so he picks fat Swede shite Kristoffer Nordfeldt, who is good with his feet but doesn't come for crosses, punches when he should catch, and has the 49th best save % in the division (Erwin Mulder, who was dropped for Nordfeldt, has the 4th best). We concede more from set pieces than anyone, while being among the best defences from open play. It's cost us so many points, and away from home teams have been happy parking the bus against us knowing they'd get a couple of goals from set pieces and win. What needs to happen? Our owners want to recoup £30m in the transfer market. Dan James will likely be the first out the door with the Premier League calling, and good luck to him. A few other youngsters may generate serious interest (Grimes, McBurnie linked with moves). Getting the remaining PL duffers out would help immensely, though. Bony, Fer, Olsson, Narsingh and Routledge's expensive contracts are running out, but Dyer, Carroll, Naughton and Nordfeldt still have another year. The Ayews and Borja Baston are massive anchors around the club's neck. Andre Ayew has two more years at £80k a week. Income from parachute payments drops another £10m this coming season. Things don't get easier. With sales inevitable in this division, recruitment needs to be good. Norwich showed this season what can be done on a budget while selling your superstars year on year. Nothing to suggest Potter's team has the same knack for picking players yet (Joel Asoro fml) but live in hope. Also stop picking Nordfeldt and hire a set piece analyst. sassassin fucked around with this message at 10:31 on May 13, 2019 |
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May 13, 2019 10:29
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Der Shovel posted:Didn't he say that if Spurs win the Champions League, he's gone? If that's the case, that's one hell of a catch 22. He has been doing a little bit more of that lately. It seemed quite possible he was joking, as he later said he would go if they win or if they lose (which seemed much more like a joke). Either way, it seems clear he is at least thinking about the idea if Levy doesn't give him what he wants. For me, it feels like after 5 years and moving the club towards stability as a top 10ish team in Europe, that he wants to do something else. He would be fine doing that at Spurs, as long as Levy made it clear the plan was to try and become a top 3-5 team in Europe (and was prepared to spend like it)
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May 13, 2019 14:18
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Newcastle What Went Right  https://twitter.com/MarkJDryden4/status/1127864890478039042 What Went Wrong  What needs to happen Ashley needs to stop being a massive oval office
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May 13, 2019 16:54
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Boro: loving poo poo
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May 13, 2019 17:24
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Bape Culture posted:Boro: Most Deets pls
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May 13, 2019 23:48
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I'll do this Juventus What Went Right -Won the league with something like 7 matchdays left. -Ronaldo was pretty good. -Joao Cancelo was pretty fantastic (but only in the first half of the season). -Moise Kean is awesome. -Szcz generally did quite well replacing Buffon. What Went Wrong -Crashed out of both cup competitions in pretty lackluster and embarrassing fashion, after making the CL title the barometer for success. -Just dire, boring, painful to watch football from January to the end of the year. -A disastrous season for Dybala after last year's breakout scoring season. Couldn't make things work alongside Ronaldo, despite the fact they seem to be friends. Seems likely to exit if Allegri stays. -The re-acquisition of Bonucci didn't magically fix what we saw from him last season in Milan. Still good in building possession from the back, but constantly making mistakes or being physically beaten for pace or strength. -Lackluster midfield play the entire season. Probably had to do with fatigue for some players like Bentancur and Matuidi. Can showed promise, but still mostly seems like the player he was at Liverpool. Pjanic was solid but not stellar, and may leave this summer. -Rugani, after being labeled an heir-apparent at CB for both Juve and Italy for a few years now, sucks. -The club's relationship with Allegri seems pretty rocky after the CL crash, he seems pretty likely to exit. -The front office drove out Beppe Marotta, who took over as sporting director at Inter, which can only benefit them. -The club's handling of Ronaldo's rape allegations was appalling, and is just more evidence that Agnelli is a complete shithead of a person (see: the new European super league leaks). What Needs to Happen -If Allegri is going to go, get his replacement sorted out asap. It might be time for a shakeup after 5 years anyways. -Sort out which attacking players need to go. There's not enough minutes for everybody, and no combination of players was good enough anyways. My guess is Douglas Costa and Cuadrado are out, and Dybala could be out if Allegri stays. Bernardeschi will be back I'm sure, but he needs to step up. I'm sure Juve will buy at least one expensive attacking player because that's what they do -- so make it someone that complements the current core and not just a big name. -Kean deserves to be an important part of the rotation. -Aaron Ramsey needs to play up to his contract, AKA be one of the absolute best midfielders in the world and never get injured  . -An upgrade at backup CB, and it needs to be someone physical and tough, not another Bonucci/Rugani type.
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May 14, 2019 03:08
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Jason Sextro posted:Marseille Yeah, I have some bad news for you. Frank McCourt is an irredeemable shitheel and wastrel. I'm sure you've looked up his past, and how he lost control of baseball's LA Dodgers by going broke despite a Major League Baseball franchise being a license to print money. I can assure you, as a baseball fan, that it's even worse. The Dodgers are one of the most valuable sports entities in the world, and that's buoyed by an $8.35 BILLION dollar television deal to carry Dodgers baseball games on a local cable channel that was signed about a year after McCourt was forced to sell. Thank god he was, otherwise all that money would be going to his pocket instead of (mostly) into the team.
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May 14, 2019 14:11
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habeasdorkus posted:Yeah, I have some bad news for you. Frank McCourt is an irredeemable shitheel and wastrel. I'm sure you've looked up his past, and how he lost control of baseball's LA Dodgers by going broke despite a Major League Baseball franchise being a license to print money. I can assure you, as a baseball fan, that it's even worse. The Dodgers are one of the most valuable sports entities in the world, and that's buoyed by an $8.35 BILLION dollar television deal to carry Dodgers baseball games on a local cable channel that was signed about a year after McCourt was forced to sell. Thank god he was, otherwise all that money would be going to his pocket instead of (mostly) into the team. It's important to note that the other frontrunner to buy the team is the guy who bought and overhauled second-place Lille, who have beaten all the good teams. I suspect MLD sold it to McCourt as one last middle finger to the team she hated.
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May 14, 2019 15:54
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Celtic What went right? -On paper, a whole lot. We won our 8th league in a row, the League Cup, and could still win a historic "Treble Treble" if we win the Scottish Cup against Hears. -We got out of a difficult Europa League group thanks to our good friends and eternal allies, Rosenborg -Ryan Christie had a break-out season as a goalscoring midfielder, James Forrest won POTY after an excellent season, Callum McGregor was excellent as a deep midfielder who can play pretty much anywhere Odsonne Edouard had a respectable season and is absolutely our best player when on form (although he's injured a lot and we probably overpayed for him). Kristoffer Ajer is also cool and good, and Jozo Simunovic remembered how to play football again. -We fired Jack Hendry out of a medievil trebuchet into the sun, hopefully never to be seen again. We also did the same with Craig Gordon and tried to do the same to Lustig, more on that later. What went wrong? (please listen to this to set the tone while reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxsOXOPni0o -Crashed out of the CL qualifiers to a very beatable AEK Athens team. Dedrick Boyata, full of himself after the World Cup where he inexplicably got game time, went on strike and refused to play to try and force a move.We went out, he stayed where he was, and everyone was pissed off. -Mousa Dembele, our star striker, also forced a move to Lyon for about £20 million. A record fee, but with out CL exit it went straight into the bank and not into the transfer kitty, leaving us much weaker on top. Especially with... -Leigh Grffiths, bampot but good goalscorer, effectively missed the entire second half of the season with personal, mental health-related issues, This left us with one actual striker for the rest of the season, who predictably got injured as well. To replace these losses we brought in Timothy Weah (decent but literally 18 and only good as a sub), Olly Burke (started well and then the confidence visibly drained out of him as the season went on, shite) and, in our big money January move, the Slovenian League's second top goalscorer, Vakoun Bayo. He played 4 minutes and then got injured. Womp womp. -Oh yeah we signed Aussie winger Arzani on loan from Man City, he made his debut after 3 months getting fit, and then was crippled by a bad tackle and put out for the season, lol. -Our best young player Kieran Tierney has been run into the ground and his body finally paid the price, he's been in and out throughout the season with rumours of a career-ending injury that hopefully are just exaggerations. To make things worse, our cover at LB are a very old Izzaguire who's very obviously past it, and perennial garbageman Johnny Hayes who's not even a left back. -Speaking of old, club captain Scott Brown is also obviously past it but Celtic fans refuse to admit it because we're dumb and he's if nothing else a world-class windup merchant. Olivier Ntcham had a spectacularly bad season and Scott Sinclair has turned into garbage despite the misleadingly high goal tally. Lustig only gets a game because the right back we signed on loan to replace him, Jeremy Toljan, was loving poo poo and visibly didn't give a gently caress. -OK the big one, Brendan Rodgers left us during the first genuine title race in years to go and manage Leicester. Neil Lennon was parachuted in and our football went to absolute poo poo for the rest of the season, and only a few jammy, last minute winners (Including one from just before Rodgers left tbf) kept us from a humiliating title capitulation. Lennon getting the job full time would lead to the most pessimistic Celtic support in over a decade. Where do you go from here? It's the first summer in ages where most fans want a serious rebuild of the team, and of course we need to pick a decent manager. All the fans want now are two more league titles to get ten in a row, everything else is secondary. Years of bad scouting have left us with the same core team for about 5 years now, so fresh faces are needed there. Her Dryer fucked around with this message at 18:23 on May 14, 2019 |
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May 14, 2019 18:21
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I feel like James Forrest has been around for a decade and Scots are still trying to make the rest of the world care about him.
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May 14, 2019 18:58
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He's their 27 year old young prospect Jesse Lingard.
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May 14, 2019 18:59
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Wolves What went right Just about everything that could go right did over the course of the season. Raul Jimenez cemented his place as our top striker after a formation change in January gave him a strike partner in Diogo Jota, who overcame some preseason injuries to stake his claim on the 2nd striker spot. Captain Connor Coady managed to play every minute of every competition this season, the only player to do so in the Prem, after questions of whether he could handle the pressure of being a sweeper in the top flight after a career of mostly being a center mid. Matt Doherty was a player at a position I thought would be a major weakness for us and instead turned in a career season both offensively and defensively at right wingback. Bro was like 3rd on the team in goals. May be my player of the season. Joao Moutinho, at 5mil, may have been one of the most impactful purchases of the summer. Oodles of experience to teach youngin’s Ruben Neves, Morgan Gibbs White, and Leander Dendoncker. Speaking of... Leander Dendoncker was a player without a position (speculation he was to be used as a CB thankfully went away eventually) who rode the bench for the entire first half of the season before the formation change added a 3rd midfielder to the mix. Had himself a solid if not spectacular showing contributing to all phases of the game, and appears locked into the starting job for next season. All these players coming into form around the same time and a rapid counterattacking strategy led Wolves to shock a lot of top teams this would be awesome except, What went wrong We couldn’t put away any relegation fodder as we couldn’t break down defenses that parked the bus. We lost to Huddersfield twice. Season was exemplified when someone created two mini leagues of top 6 + wolves and bottom 6 + wolves and while we comfortably placed 3rd or 4th against the top 6, we sat dead loving last vs the bottom six. Had we put away a lot of these teams, we’d be in the mix for top 6 rather than sitting 7th and sadly looking in. Adama Traore was a then club-record transfer fee but the speedy winger struggled to crack the starting lineup, only occasionally being used as a late game sub. Buckets of pace and literally nothing else. Was incredibly frustrating to watch. Signature move was to dribble twice and fall down. Scored one goal and i think just a single assist all year. Still young, but i’m personally ready to move on from him even if some of my wolves fan friends aren’t. Should City win the FA cup, wolves will make it into July europa qualifiers. We have the smallest squad in the league, therefore: What needs to change We need more skilled bodies. We need at least one solid addition at every outfield position. Nuno prefers a small squad, but with the prospect of additional games, and the miracle that no major injuries occurred this year, we need to find some depth and fast. Our production drops off a cliff once either Jota of Jimenez go off, so a solid backup needs to be a priority. We also need to add that killer instinct vs the smaller clubs so we don’t drop silly points. It’s not reasonable to expect to make hay vs the top 6 every year, especially since our presence won’t be a surprise next year. All in all a fantastic first season back in the EPL.
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May 14, 2019 20:23
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Her Dryer posted:Celtic Lol this was great  Any ideas yet as to who that decent manager could be?
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May 15, 2019 11:33
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Mourinho's free... Seriously though, where will he be next year? Somebody's gonna take a punt on him but where? Will he go back to Italy? Try his hand in Germany maybe, but who's got the cash that would let him set up his little kingdom? I don't think Bayern would be interested. Russia maybe? Teams with tons of money who love old players and proudly oval office it up in the CL... could work?
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May 15, 2019 11:49
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greazeball posted:Mourinho's free... At some point I would see him going to China for a very short and very lucrative spell.
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May 15, 2019 12:03
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I believe he's been trying to ingratiate himself with PSG, which would be hilarious. That locker room is already imploding.
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May 15, 2019 13:07
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Der Shovel posted:Lol this was great The big-name manager Celtic fans are hoping for is Rafa. Bilic has also declared his interest but haha no.
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May 15, 2019 16:02
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gtkor posted:Tottenham Hotspur What went right: Sissoko stepping up made a world of difference. What went wrong: I was frustrated by Trippier and Davies, who between the both of them, forgot how to put in a decent cross 90% of the time. I'm excited to see Foyth and Skipp mature. My fear is that Winks will fade away from injuries, despite being a forward-thinking player who keeps his goddamn head up and is wiling to drive the play forward. Spurs failed to capitalize against opponents we outclassed on paper. West Ham? Wolves? FFS Bournemouth - We beat them 5-0!? Final tie at Everton, dropping to 4th place, after having beaten them 6-2? We shouldn't have gone out of the FA Cup on a loss against Crystal Palace. This was frustrating and underscored one of our biggest flaws, our inability to maintain our consistent quality of play. We play down to our opposition and our results slip due to that fact. Highlight of the season: I couldn't believe the Quarterfinals of the CL game, second leg vs Man City. I've never seen that much drama in one game. This year's Champion's League has been the best tournament I've watched, full stop. I intend on hosting a viewing party to rewatch the semis this summer with some friends as soon as we've got the time.
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May 15, 2019 16:42
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Cannon_Fodder posted:What went wrong: Davies was never really first team quality, and how he managed to be consistently picked for the first team over Rose for a season and a half was baffling. Luckily that seems to have changed in the last few months, and Rose has been good enough that he stays on the pitch when Davies is subbed on. Fullback is definitely the position that needs the most improvement, regardless. Especially with TAA and Robertson showing how essential having quality in those positions is to challenging for any sort of trophy. It seems as though Trippier is off, with AWB or Atal potential replacements, and Sessegnon is potentially coming in as well, though it's unclear what role he would be filling. I'm hopeful but the last few windows have taught me to temper my expectations.
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May 16, 2019 01:03
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Ben Davies has never suited Spurs style of fullback. He's not got the pace to get up and down as much as they want, and for us was better attacking channels with a winger outside him than providing width all on his own. Better passer and link player than one on one attacker and crosser. Laudrup saw him as a left-sided centre half eventually, as he played for us in the Euros. Would be immense in Chris Wilder's mad system. Or for anyone with a proper winger in their team (whoever buys Dan James).
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May 16, 2019 07:49
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sassassin posted:Chris Wilder's mad system. So many words are going to be spent by football hipsters about overlapping centre backs next season
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May 16, 2019 10:09
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brasstassels posted:Especially with TAA and Robertson showing how essential having quality in those positions is to challenging for any sort of trophy. I'm not sure you can really say that when Spurs are one moderate upset away from a big, big trophy. But your underlying point is a good one as fullback was a relative weakness for Spurs this year.
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May 16, 2019 19:39
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habeasdorkus posted:I'm not sure you can really say that when Spurs are one moderate upset away from a big, big trophy. But your underlying point is a good one as fullback was a relative weakness for Spurs this year. I'd disagree there. In the last few years Spurs have failed to progress out of 3 semi finals against similar quality of opposition (Chelsea 2x, United 1) and were multiple breaks away from either being dumped out of the CL in the Quarters/Semi stage. I'd argue at this point it is clear that Spurs are good enough to win a knockout competition (though obviously the CL would be an over achievement compared to the League cup), but clearly are not at the same level as teams who expect to win multiple trophies per season (or expect to be right there). Poch tends to prefer styles of play that involve Fullbacks/Wingbacks of a certain quality. Spurs haven't recovered since selling Kyle Walker. They went from a team that could very well win the league to a team that likely would finish top 4. In my opinion, they won't move back to the level of "could with the league" until they upgrade back to the level of Walker pre city and upgrade on Rose (who has regressed from the level he was at during that campaign). Problematically, Spurs have other issues that they haven't resolved.
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May 16, 2019 20:07
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gtkor posted:I'd disagree there. In the last few years Spurs have failed to progress out of 3 semi finals against similar quality of opposition (Chelsea 2x, United 1) and were multiple breaks away from either being dumped out of the CL in the Quarters/Semi stage. I'd argue at this point it is clear that Spurs are good enough to win a knockout competition (though obviously the CL would be an over achievement compared to the League cup), but clearly are not at the same level as teams who expect to win multiple trophies per season (or expect to be right there). Bring Bale back in to wingback. Boom, problem solved. It'll be raining pussy in North London.
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May 16, 2019 21:47
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Just sign another CB and play Jan at wingback. He's the best at the club anyway
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May 16, 2019 22:18
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Nobody else cares about Eibar What went right The champions of Europe came to Ipurua and got rolled 3-0. Yes, they were hurting without Ronaldo. Yes, their season was trash tier. Still counts. Marc Cucurella has been a godsend from Barca. I had low hopes they were going to get anyone in to replace Inui after he left for Betis and the end of last season, but Mendilibar managed to convert a loanee left back into one of our more dangerous attacking options. He still can't shoot worth poo poo, but his pace, crosses, and general tenacity have been a major highlight of the season. Talk is that Barca is going to settle with us to sell him on. It leaves us in the same position we were in at the end of 17/18, needing someone to play on the left wing. Orellana can do it, he's been pushed over a couple of times since Pedro Leon came back, but it's not his preferred position. Pedro Leon came back from a knee injury that has kept him out for the better part of a year. He's only started a few matches since he came back and hasn't got his full form back, but he's a stabilising presence in the midfield that we'll need to rely on going forward. What went wrong We lost quite a few starters before the season, including both our captain and vice captain to Athletic Bilbao. It was a rough few weeks at the start of the season where the team was clearly still adjusting to all changes. We lost to Huesca at home in week 1, can't get much worse than that. Asier Riesgo was made captain, and the departure of Yoel Rodriguez meant he was now our second choice keeper. He's a distant second to Marko Dmitrovic, but he started way more matches than I'm comfortable with even when Marko was healthy. Ivan Ramis is my choice of captain, as the back line noticeably suffers when he's not playing. Injuries really hurt us in the second half of the season and exposed our lack of depth at the back. At one point, we were down Ramis, Bigas, Arbilla, Pena, Cote, and Diop so we had to play midfielders as centrebacks and pull our wingers way back. Even now, De Blasis has to fill in at right back because we don't have anyone close to being a replacement for Ruben Pena. We got knocked out of the Copa by Sporting Gijon, the only La Liga team to get knocked out in their first round. loving embarassing. What comes next We're probably losing Cucurella and Cardona back to Barcelona, and last I heard Arsenal are interested in Joan Jordan. It'll hurt, but we'll survive, and end next season mid table where we belong.
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