English Football 2015-16 - Leicester City won the league
08-10-2015
, 07:41 PM
08-10-2015
, 07:59 PM
08-10-2015
, 08:34 PM
08-10-2015
, 09:11 PM
08-10-2015
, 09:33 PM
So happy I pvr'd the match yesterday morning, pretty much the best hangover cure on earth was watching Cech get lit up
Not a good start to my prediction.
Hey Mesut how does it feel to get owned by a 16 year old? So much slank it's unreal.
So many likeable players on this WH team. Kouyate, Noble, Sakho all work their asses off for the team. Looks like Payet is going to be our string puller and chief playmaker. It's great having a two-footed player after seeing Downing the last few years play with no right foot. Not a problem if you're a goat like Robben but for mortals it's a huge limitation.
We need 1 more mobile striker if we're really going all in on the diamond. Chicarito would be fine but for the rumoured 12m£ we can go get better value on the continent.
Not a good start to my prediction.
Hey Mesut how does it feel to get owned by a 16 year old? So much slank it's unreal.
Quote:
Football Funnys @FootballFunnys
Things found in a 16 year old's pocket:
Chewing Gum
Cell Phone
Mesut Ozil
Things found in a 16 year old's pocket:
Chewing Gum
Cell Phone
Mesut Ozil
We need 1 more mobile striker if we're really going all in on the diamond. Chicarito would be fine but for the rumoured 12m£ we can go get better value on the continent.
08-10-2015
, 09:41 PM
Quote:
WBA
The tl;dr of this is that in early August it is, again, very hard to say how the season will go for WBA. I'm an optimist, so let's say we'll finish ~12th.
<plot spoil> Spuds fans here seem to think D.Levy is the MrThrifty of the EPl. Not so. J.Peace could be an early Mark.E.Smith character in his miserlyness - nothing is risked before the very last hour </plot spoil>
Long version.
This is the Nietzschean genealogical version of how WBA will do this season. One looks at the historical roots of the present situation, inventing plausible stories, in the absence of science, which help one understand 'why it is necessary' that WBA will do ... well .. such-and-such.
As a creature of little memory it suffices for me to start with post-Woy. Lukaku didn't score a heap of goals for us (apart from 2-0 against L'pool) - but did, when he played, provide good things in terms of spacing and hold up play.
Ffw to two summers ago. Towards the end of the window we have recruited Anelka and Morgan Amalfitano. We have a French speaking front 5: Anelka-Amalfitano-Sessegnon-Berahino-Mulumbu. We play like gods for two months. (Meh, not exactly gods, but pretty decent for WBA. We crush ManU and David Lloyd-whip Arsenal 1-1, etc, etc.) Then we play Chelsea. Our manager betrays what has led him to success and puts 9 men behind the ball with Shane Long up front to chase hoofs-away. Disaster. Chelsea could have scored five before half time (they score one). Afterwards it was worse. We scored a couple of ~EV=0.25goals and feel robbed by cheating diving scumski. This is the beginning of the end for manager number #-3. Next up we play the Villa. For reasons yet to be revealed we persist with the same formation. Shane Long channels CRonaldo for 15mins and ... fim .. 2-2 and we never recover. 8 weeks of hopeless football with nothing created later - Anelka self destructing and Morgan/Sess being edged out of the line-up - and manager #-3 gets the sack. And not before time.
After a pathetic 5-week interregnum over Christmas with #Asst-coach#-1 and #-2(dingles) we recruit a future GOAT euro manager, hair and all. Manager #-2: Pepe Mel. He understands how to succeed in EPL football, but is checked at every turn by a players' revolt led by the Anglo-speaking long-time EPl players - defenders - who are too slow/too scared to try to press high. Gg Steven Reid etc: Olssen, McCauley, Ridgewell, Billy Jones ... Notice that our French-flair has now completely vanished.
We finish in 17th - should have been ~15th but for utter craven not-turning-up in the last two weeks of the season when we were safe by supposed "English-speaker-EPL-pros". **** you all, all of you lot
Pepe says, "thanks, but no thanks" simultaneously with J.Peace saying "meh I don't see how this is going to work, but ty". [Pep goes back to Real Betis and absolutely crushes Spanish 2nd division - promoted #1 by a mile.]
And breathe.
We dispense with 50% of the squad. (Vide: previous summer exchange with BAIDS over this.) We get rid of the weakest links, at least, in the conspiracy against Pepe. We recruit various interesting, but not surefire hit players, e.g., Gamboa (Costa Rica rb), Samaras, Pocognoli, Blanco, Varela, ... It's reasonable to suppose that these players were recruited in concert with Pepe Mel - they fit his tactical schemes (you could quibble over Samaras, perhaps) and have/had high technical ability.
Last year. We appoint ex-manager-#1 as head-coach. Total coward. Unfortunately .. can't change the team on the pitch with substitutions until far too late when we are behind or drawing at home, and desperately afraid of losing. So, after a not terrible early-Autumn (when Berahino* scored from essentially every good chance he had), we once again descend into playing with 9 men behind the ball and no creativity.
[I will say one thing for this - it allowed Saido Berahino to develop quickly in this set up - at the start of the debacle he was hopeless, turning up field and giving the ball away every time it was hoofed to him on the half-way line, but after 8 weeks he had learnt to turn sideways/back towards his own goal and he now fights like a tiger to keep the ball.
]
*fn. I started that season itt worrying about whether Saido had enough of any one thing to excel - albeit that he would be good at most things. It turned out, rather quickly, in fact, that his finishing is absolutely elite. Worry is over just a matter of creating chances for him.
After 8/10 weeks of creating no chances ex-manager-#1 got the sack and <inter-regnum> .. </interregnum> we start again with Tony Pulis as ex-manager-#0.
You have to give it to the man - he runs hotter than Alex Ferguson. We gave away penalties from centre backs blatantly handling the ball in the box in each of his first five games. Each game was decided by one goal - except for one. Only one decision was given - in the game where Spurs were already 2-0 up on us and going away.
Highlights of this period included using Berahino as a 2nd left back - against an Everton team in conceptual melt down. [One hopes that was some bizarre headmaster ritual rather than an actual tatical decision.]
As is known, Pulis fired Pocognoli and we played with either 4 CBs in the back 4 or 3 SBs and Chris Brunt. Either way, both full backs were completely out of their depth against wingers with pace all throughout this part of the year, but - hey-ho - we had plenty of height for defensive headers for all the free kicks around the box we gave away as a consequence.
Oh - and did I mention that Saido goated every time (ie one game in 3) that he got a chance. No? Yes? I think I did in last year's thread.
So now we're here (again). J.Peace has (1) tried but failed to sell the club to ?rich? chinese people and (2) turned over some parts of the transfer policy to the manager/head coach.
That has led us to Steven Fletcher () and as many Scots-Irish wingers Wigan have.
We are obviously now trying to sell numerous non-English-as-quasi-first-language players that we bought last summer and replace them and - one hopes - other holes in the squad this window before it closes.
[truth in advertising: latest transfer things are: an Arsenal kid on the wing for a 1 year loan and James Chester - CB - permanent, both decent deals imo]
Ok - well that's all very well, but what about the organization of the team? Big Tone now says that everything depends on the players you have to work with. I'm a Pulis sceptic, but I'm prepared to believe that he enjoyed coaching Palace whilst there. So, although we'll probably line up with 5 CBs + Claudio Yacob + four others most of the time, it's completely possible that this will give us a position half way up the league (ie 8-12th).
But, that depends on scoring some goals. And that depends on our forwards, as our MFs are 2/3 goals per season players at best. (Of these I do have a soft spot for James Morrison, fwiw, - and Sess - but he's on the way out by all reports.)
Forwards: Berahino, Anichebe, Ideye. (Nabi)
Anichebe is decent - and is an EPL striker. But is injured literally 68% of the time. (And he was similarly at Everton before he came to us.) And so that doesn't really help.
Ideye - is a joke. No way he's an EPl striker - we should just write off his £10m transfer fee.
Berahino - yeah, well I've already massively (over-)praised him. We do well if we keep him and are on the rocks if not ... modulo not replacing him with someone else who can score at will. (I already posted about this in the summer transfer thread, but I agree that overall there's a good chance that Berahino will be sold to Spurs/ManCity.)
(Nabi) - scores tons for the reserves/U21s - has no 1st team starts ???
-----------
tl:dr
Pulis's view of his squad must be that it is threadbare and has almost no creativity - unless he's all in on the Wigan-Mc-s - but has an elite level goal scorer in Berahino. WBA has - at least recently - been active towards the end of the summer transfer windows, and this summer looks to be the same. We'll probably make transfers that make it likely we will be 15th or better. Or maybe not.
[Update on 2nd Sept.]
The tl;dr of this is that in early August it is, again, very hard to say how the season will go for WBA. I'm an optimist, so let's say we'll finish ~12th.
<plot spoil> Spuds fans here seem to think D.Levy is the MrThrifty of the EPl. Not so. J.Peace could be an early Mark.E.Smith character in his miserlyness - nothing is risked before the very last hour </plot spoil>
Long version.
This is the Nietzschean genealogical version of how WBA will do this season. One looks at the historical roots of the present situation, inventing plausible stories, in the absence of science, which help one understand 'why it is necessary' that WBA will do ... well .. such-and-such.
As a creature of little memory it suffices for me to start with post-Woy. Lukaku didn't score a heap of goals for us (apart from 2-0 against L'pool) - but did, when he played, provide good things in terms of spacing and hold up play.
Ffw to two summers ago. Towards the end of the window we have recruited Anelka and Morgan Amalfitano. We have a French speaking front 5: Anelka-Amalfitano-Sessegnon-Berahino-Mulumbu. We play like gods for two months. (Meh, not exactly gods, but pretty decent for WBA. We crush ManU and David Lloyd-whip Arsenal 1-1, etc, etc.) Then we play Chelsea. Our manager betrays what has led him to success and puts 9 men behind the ball with Shane Long up front to chase hoofs-away. Disaster. Chelsea could have scored five before half time (they score one). Afterwards it was worse. We scored a couple of ~EV=0.25goals and feel robbed by cheating diving scumski. This is the beginning of the end for manager number #-3. Next up we play the Villa. For reasons yet to be revealed we persist with the same formation. Shane Long channels CRonaldo for 15mins and ... fim .. 2-2 and we never recover. 8 weeks of hopeless football with nothing created later - Anelka self destructing and Morgan/Sess being edged out of the line-up - and manager #-3 gets the sack. And not before time.
After a pathetic 5-week interregnum over Christmas with #Asst-coach#-1 and #-2(dingles) we recruit a future GOAT euro manager, hair and all. Manager #-2: Pepe Mel. He understands how to succeed in EPL football, but is checked at every turn by a players' revolt led by the Anglo-speaking long-time EPl players - defenders - who are too slow/too scared to try to press high. Gg Steven Reid etc: Olssen, McCauley, Ridgewell, Billy Jones ... Notice that our French-flair has now completely vanished.
We finish in 17th - should have been ~15th but for utter craven not-turning-up in the last two weeks of the season when we were safe by supposed "English-speaker-EPL-pros". **** you all, all of you lot
Pepe says, "thanks, but no thanks" simultaneously with J.Peace saying "meh I don't see how this is going to work, but ty". [Pep goes back to Real Betis and absolutely crushes Spanish 2nd division - promoted #1 by a mile.]
And breathe.
We dispense with 50% of the squad. (Vide: previous summer exchange with BAIDS over this.) We get rid of the weakest links, at least, in the conspiracy against Pepe. We recruit various interesting, but not surefire hit players, e.g., Gamboa (Costa Rica rb), Samaras, Pocognoli, Blanco, Varela, ... It's reasonable to suppose that these players were recruited in concert with Pepe Mel - they fit his tactical schemes (you could quibble over Samaras, perhaps) and have/had high technical ability.
Last year. We appoint ex-manager-#1 as head-coach. Total coward. Unfortunately .. can't change the team on the pitch with substitutions until far too late when we are behind or drawing at home, and desperately afraid of losing. So, after a not terrible early-Autumn (when Berahino* scored from essentially every good chance he had), we once again descend into playing with 9 men behind the ball and no creativity.
[I will say one thing for this - it allowed Saido Berahino to develop quickly in this set up - at the start of the debacle he was hopeless, turning up field and giving the ball away every time it was hoofed to him on the half-way line, but after 8 weeks he had learnt to turn sideways/back towards his own goal and he now fights like a tiger to keep the ball.
]*fn. I started that season itt worrying about whether Saido had enough of any one thing to excel - albeit that he would be good at most things. It turned out, rather quickly, in fact, that his finishing is absolutely elite. Worry is over just a matter of creating chances for him.
After 8/10 weeks of creating no chances ex-manager-#1 got the sack and <inter-regnum> .. </interregnum> we start again with Tony Pulis as ex-manager-#0.
You have to give it to the man - he runs hotter than Alex Ferguson. We gave away penalties from centre backs blatantly handling the ball in the box in each of his first five games. Each game was decided by one goal - except for one. Only one decision was given - in the game where Spurs were already 2-0 up on us and going away.
Highlights of this period included using Berahino as a 2nd left back - against an Everton team in conceptual melt down. [One hopes that was some bizarre headmaster ritual rather than an actual tatical decision.]
As is known, Pulis fired Pocognoli and we played with either 4 CBs in the back 4 or 3 SBs and Chris Brunt. Either way, both full backs were completely out of their depth against wingers with pace all throughout this part of the year, but - hey-ho - we had plenty of height for defensive headers for all the free kicks around the box we gave away as a consequence.
Oh - and did I mention that Saido goated every time (ie one game in 3) that he got a chance. No? Yes? I think I did in last year's thread.
So now we're here (again). J.Peace has (1) tried but failed to sell the club to ?rich? chinese people and (2) turned over some parts of the transfer policy to the manager/head coach.
That has led us to Steven Fletcher (
) and as many Scots-Irish wingers Wigan have. We are obviously now trying to sell numerous non-English-as-quasi-first-language players that we bought last summer and replace them and - one hopes - other holes in the squad this window before it closes.
[truth in advertising: latest transfer things are: an Arsenal kid on the wing for a 1 year loan and James Chester - CB - permanent, both decent deals imo]
Ok - well that's all very well, but what about the organization of the team? Big Tone now says that everything depends on the players you have to work with. I'm a Pulis sceptic, but I'm prepared to believe that he enjoyed coaching Palace whilst there. So, although we'll probably line up with 5 CBs + Claudio Yacob + four others most of the time, it's completely possible that this will give us a position half way up the league (ie 8-12th).
But, that depends on scoring some goals. And that depends on our forwards, as our MFs are 2/3 goals per season players at best. (Of these I do have a soft spot for James Morrison, fwiw, - and Sess - but he's on the way out by all reports.)
Forwards: Berahino, Anichebe, Ideye. (Nabi)
Anichebe is decent - and is an EPL striker. But is injured literally 68% of the time. (And he was similarly at Everton before he came to us.) And so that doesn't really help.
Ideye - is a joke. No way he's an EPl striker - we should just write off his £10m transfer fee.
Berahino - yeah, well I've already massively (over-)praised him. We do well if we keep him and are on the rocks if not ... modulo not replacing him with someone else who can score at will. (I already posted about this in the summer transfer thread, but I agree that overall there's a good chance that Berahino will be sold to Spurs/ManCity.)
(Nabi) - scores tons for the reserves/U21s - has no 1st team starts ???
-----------
tl:dr
Pulis's view of his squad must be that it is threadbare and has almost no creativity - unless he's all in on the Wigan-Mc-s - but has an elite level goal scorer in Berahino. WBA has - at least recently - been active towards the end of the summer transfer windows, and this summer looks to be the same. We'll probably make transfers that make it likely we will be 15th or better. Or maybe not.
[Update on 2nd Sept.]
Wow this was a great writeup, thanks. I immediately thought of your post when I saw what the WBA starting XI was and it was basically all Irish/British and very workmanlike.
I don't think Pulis will tank the season and relegate you guys but it just seems so retrograde. The mid-table of this league is going and buying players like Payet, Wijnaldum, Cabaye, Shaqiri!!
, Obiang, Okazaki, Clasiet, etc. You have teams like Leicester! playing a diamond with Mahrez at the tip of it.
Then you look at WBA and it's just 442 with 4 centerbacks, sit deep in 2 banks of 4 and hope for what I don't know?
Like I said they should be fine and grind it out but man it is not inspiring. It's also not playing to your strengths since Sessegnon can provide the throughballs that Berahino thrives on.
08-10-2015
, 09:52 PM
08-10-2015
, 10:28 PM
08-11-2015
, 04:12 AM
08-11-2015
, 04:14 AM
08-11-2015
, 04:19 AM
08-11-2015
, 04:57 AM
08-11-2015
, 05:41 AM
08-11-2015
, 06:21 AM
08-11-2015
, 06:52 AM
08-11-2015
, 06:54 AM
08-11-2015
, 07:00 AM
08-11-2015
, 07:32 AM