Jump to content

EPL 2020-21


Firemans4Horn

Recommended Posts

Not as odd as last season. I mean it was halted right near the end, end of the season was completely different than the rest, etc. Plus last season was pretty boring, too. I mean I get why more people around here were excited last season, but that's just because there are more Liverpool fans and they hadn't won the league in 30 years.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say that also the boring aspect had to do with no fans. Who really had a home advantage this year? How many matches might have been closer or more interesting with supporters in the stands? Home advantage is more now if you were able to not leave your city and travel elsewhere. Home supporters could have booed the hell out of VAR this year. 

I just hope next season is more competitive because City winning every year, like Bayern in the Bundesliga, would be pretty boring. I have a feeling it will be better. Liverpool will improve. Chelsea is white hot. Man U is better. Leicester should be good again. Hopefully someone steps up to push City. 

Edited by mdmost
  • Hook 'Em 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have no idea how to handicap next season. I said on here that the Liverpool fans were being silly worrying ahead of the 2019-20 season because they were clearly going to win the league. Not only because they were a great squad but Guardiola was losing City's focus and you could see their week-to-week intensity just plummeting. Now before anyone gets upset, that's not to say Liverpool weren't deserving champions, just that it was obvious that City had no chance to keep up with Liverpool if they weren't locked in all season and it was obvious to me they weren't going to be locked in like they needed to be.

If City beats Chelsea then you'd think a letdown season could be a possibility again, but maybe full stands mitigates that and gets their blood pumping on a weekly basis. Just hard to say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With the notable exceptions of Leicester's title and Klopp's reign at Liverpool, English football hasn't been nearly as compelling since Arsenal left Highbury.  Some would say it was headed towards the shitter upon the formation of the EPL or when Abramovich bought Chelsea (both arguments have their merits) but the opening of the Emirates is the dividing line for me even though I didn't realize it at the time.  The United commercialization machine dramatically ramped up contemporaneously and was soon followed by the ultimate sportswashing enabled though Man City's Plastic Dynasty.  Leicester's title and Liverpool's hiring of Klopp saved the EPL from itself but will ultimately prove to be temporary salves.  Without Klopp and Leicester, the history of English football over the last decade is merely trophies filled with oil and the degradation of the giants of English football by vulture American capitalists.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tuchel basically says:

"Arteta is a moron for not understanding how to get the best out of Aubameyang. It's so basic. 'Auba' is a great player and great teammate and it only takes a slight adjustment by the coaching staff to have him in line with everyone else."

[Not really Tuchel's words.]


For a fucking German to be flexible on time, but a fucking Spaniard* is a clock nazi... that's pretty fucking fucked up.

.

*Arteta apparently is Basque, which actually explains a lot. I was about to say "It would be one thing if he were Basque, but I think that he's a most Catalan (2nd most industrious people of Spain, well behind the Basques), but he might even just be from anywhere in Spain." Basques are the most industrious/ Germanic in work ethic of all Spaniards, by far.


[Tuchel's actual words were...]

Arsenal's Aubameyang has poor timekeeping skills - Tuchel

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has said he used to lie to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang about when meetings were held at Borussia Dortmund to help with his timekeeping, and questioned how the Arsenal striker kept his driving licence during their time together in Germany.

Tuchel joined Dortmund in 2015 where he managed Aubameyang for two years and together they won the DFB-Pokal in 2017 with the forward also topping the Bundesliga goal-scoring charts.

Aubameyang has largely continued that prolific form since moving to the Gunners in January 2018, although his form has dipped during the current campaign, which has been complicated by off-field problems including being dropped for March's north London derby win over Tottenham Hotspur having reported late to the training ground before the match.

Ahead of their reunion on Wednesday when Arsenal visit Stamford Bridge in the Premier League, Tuchel was full of praise for Aubameyang but suggested this was far from the first time the 31-year-old had issues with punctuality.

"That's not his strength, to be absolutely on time," Tuchel said. "He was pretty much the only one so when we wanted him to be on time, we just told him the meeting was 10.45 a.m. [when] the meeting was 11:00 a.m. Then we had a good chance he is there with everybody else!

"And you could hear him, you could hear the car from far. In the last kilometre, you could always hear [the car's engine], we could prepare everything and start the video because he will soon arrive!

"I don't know and I still don't know how he managed to keep his driving licence throughout the two years in his pocket because from the sound of the car I don't know if he was always on the speed limit and he was always on the last minute!

"That's him. It is hard to be really mad at the guy because he comes with a big smile, he opens his heart, he gives his excuse to everybody and OK, we could accept to have one or two guys like this in a team.

"It is not the biggest problem. At the same time, don't forget he was a top, top professional. I don't think he missed any training session, he never sneaked off the training pitch one minute too early. The opposite. When he was dressed, he was ready. It was nice to have him."

Tuchel attitude is markedly different to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta's reaction to Aubameyang's poor timekeeping, dropping him from Arsenal's starting line-up for what was determined a "breach of pre-match protocols."

Aubameyang's relationship with Arteta has appeared strained during a difficult season in which his mother fell ill and he has battled malaria but by contrast, Tuchel claims he still feels a strong bond with the Gabon international.

"It was a pleasure to work with him, always a smile on his face, a very, very honest guy, bit of a crazy guy but this is nice crazy," he added. "We still are in touch from time to time and exchange messages when some of us has a big win. He will still in some way always be my player.

 

"You want them to succeed and have a good time wherever they are. This contact never fully stopped and it is nice to see him because he is always on for a hug and it is nice to hug and see him laugh.

"He is a winner. We won the cup together in Dortmund and I never had the feeling that he lacks the certain edge of mentality that you need when you want to win stuff. But clearly he cannot do it alone and he also needs a top squad to play in and to compete for the highest level. But I can just say my experiences with Auba for two years, you could push him to the limit and he was always up for the challenge."
 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/chelsea-engchelsea/story/4382661/arsenals-aubameyang-has-poor-timekeeping-skills-tuchel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, ztejas said:

At least we still have a decent race for CL qualification - esp the 4th spot.

Ah nvm. I was thinking Chelsea was sitting in 3rd. Even the top 4 seems pretty settled.

i don't know, Liverpool DEFINITELY has hope..

  • Leicester 66 points - 2 remaining games (Chelsea, Spurs)
  • Liverpool 57 points - 4 remaining games (United, West Brom, Burnley, Palace)

if you project Liverpool gets 9 points out of that.. they end up with 66 points.

Leicester gets no points in the next two matches, Liverpool could eek out by goal differential.

 

If Liverpool runs the table, Leicester needs at least 3 more points or even likely 4.

 

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/

538 gives Liverpool a 28% chance.

Edited by yoladu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, yoladu said:

i don't know, Liverpool DEFINITELY has hope..

  • Leicester 66 points - 2 remaining games (Chelsea, Spurs)
  • Liverpool 57 points - 4 remaining games (United, West Brom, Burnley, Palace)

if you project Liverpool gets 9 points out of that.. they end up with 66 points.

Leicester gets no points in the next two matches, Liverpool could eek out by goal differential.

 

If Liverpool runs the table, Leicester needs at least 3 more points or even likely 4.

 

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/

538 gives Liverpool a 28% chance.

Hmm. It could get interesting. A Chelsea/Leicester draw would hurt. I was thinking more about them having to catch Chelsea but catching Leicester is probably more likely. 

Arsenal is looking really shitty so far here. I'd be shocked if Chelsea doesn't pick up 3 today which would mean we just need 2 points in our last 2 to clinch. (granted neither of those games is a gimmie)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Bone3421 said:

Enemy of my enemy...you do know we were all rooting for manu yesterday right....gotta cling to hope long as we can

Need to win out!

It gets dicey if we don't get a point today. Would leave us needing 4 against Leicester and AV. (To clinch at least - no one necessarily needs to get to 69)

Edited by ztejas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It gets dicey if we don't get a point today. Would leave us needing 4 against Leicester and AV. (To clinch at least - no one necessarily needs to get to 69)
We will know more tomorrow...if you don't get any points today but liverpool lose tomorrow it won't matter...for us anyway...no idea about west ham
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...