Disgusting injury on Shaw. Don't care for United obviously but that really sucks.

Poor kid. Seen it happen way too many times to our players over the years. Sickening and unfortunately really hard to forget.

Oh my

Need to add these gems, too:

I like how Diouf says he "showed Gerrard I was black." Wonder how he did that.

lol

Not sure if this is true, but Twitter tells me that Newcastle have had ten shots on target this season, of which Janmaat has had six.

yeah I think newcastle has been easily the worst offensive side this season

The problem with english football

pretty interesting article

From last year but relevant, so thanks.

It's an excellent site which we must thank SN for introducing to us a couple of years ago.

Article is nonsense, all of the top coaches in EPL bar Wenger have worked and been very successful in other leagues, it's not as if they have to subscribe to an "English style" of play when they join. That article is basically written by some Faniero disciple who thinks he's solved football.

I mean it is you after all but lol at Wenger not being a success in other leagues

It didn't feel like zee wrote that article. What about beyond the top coaches? Foundation work that leaves players prepared when they become professional? English football isn't in crisis and has enough money behind it to fix problems, but it's worth asking why the top sides have struggled to adapt to the high level european competition in the last few years. Could be a coincidence, variance, hating the europa or something else.

its roman's fault for failing to offer barca £150m for messi in 2009ish

instead he spent twice that on a big yacht that no one cares about

Define "English football" in this sense.

Probably regrets it. A few more league titles / champions leagues - fergie would still be at utd trying to win the league again, city still looking for their first trophy in many years and tso would be at barcelona, not without controversy - apparently he poked his assistant in the eye.

Wrong term - english football is fine in terms of investment and certainly compared to other leagues. Best of everything will end up there eventually. But on a tactical level it seems that others are doing better relative to their resources - so the question is why or if it's even a valid question? I mean it might not really be a tactical thing - it's just the way we may interpret the problem - it could, for example, be a player condition, fatigue issue for all we know.

Not sure if I completely agree with the article, but there is definitely something missing. The amount of money that english clubs can pay in wages and transfer fees should lead directly to english dominance and maybe (perhaps probably) it will but it is still pretty alarming seeing the best english clubs being firmly a tier below the other top teams in europe after having already been dominant in europe a decade ago.

Thx for the link

I clearly meant the big leagues with which they compete with for the CL and who are supposedly so far advanced tactically. Not my fault you're a ******.

This debate has been had a million times, Barca/Madrid have enjoyed a massive financial advantage over everyone for 10-15 years along with getting the GOAT from the youth system, combined with Arsenal building a new stadium and United having the Glazers it's not surprising they've done well.

English team's couldn't GAF about the Europa league although they should now with a place in the CL.

Some of the guff in that article is laughable. The idea that LVG or Mourinho don't know how to close off the spaces to stop opposition is so absurd it doesn't warrant any discussion.

Why is it Luis Enrique wasn't winning the league or CL when he had Roma? Maybe he only remembered how to coach high triangulated vertical pressure when he went back to Barca or maybe it's because he picked up a team with Messi/Neymar/Suarez.

How have I never heard of this site? Thanks a bunch, been looking for something like this for ages. Anyone wanting to drop more links to European tactics sites in English, feel free to do so. :thumb

I don't think the person was singling out LVGoat or tsoat. Which is why it might be a foundation problem. Barca can do what they do because they have players to do it (and messi) which is why attempts to copy them don't work. Losing to Madrid, Barca, Bayern on the regular is fine but interested to see how English teams do against those below that tier in the next few years in the CL and Europa. Analysing Europa is difficult due to each club's motivations within that competition. Level of investment suggests results should improve and gap on other three closed significantly. We'll see. If / when it does we can chuck the tactical illiteracy theory in the bin.

english teams were filling 3 outta 4 CL semi final spots on the reg when we had about 8 scottish people managing in the PL. now there are none. need more scottish managers.

or put gary monk and alan pardew in charge of the big teams instead of these foreign frauds

edit looks like the bloke in charge of norwich is scottish, a fine start. we need to build on it

lmao cashy

excellent post