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Post by The Escapist on Apr 14, 2022 16:55:39 GMT -5
Frankfurt, LEGENDS.
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Post by RocketMan on Apr 15, 2022 5:16:33 GMT -5
30k Fans were there. What a night for them!
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Post by oasisserbia on Apr 16, 2022 5:37:40 GMT -5
Filip Kostic 2 goals and assist against Barca 🤗
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Post by matt on Apr 16, 2022 10:32:07 GMT -5
Hahaha, just seen the semi final score! Come on Liverpool, stick the knife into these corrupt sportswashers.
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Post by Elie De Beaufour 🐴 on Apr 19, 2022 18:19:40 GMT -5
Hahaha, just seen the semi final score! Come on Liverpool, stick the knife into these corrupt sportswashers. City may be corrupt but they didn't kill 39 then blame Chelsea and refuse to do any justice to them.
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Post by settingson on Apr 20, 2022 1:34:33 GMT -5
If Utd can't even raise their energy/game v LFC, then they really are doomed. That was embarrassing.
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Post by matt on Apr 20, 2022 5:33:33 GMT -5
Hahaha, just seen the semi final score! Come on Liverpool, stick the knife into these corrupt sportswashers. City may be corrupt but they didn't kill 39 then blame Chelsea and refuse to do any justice to them. Had to look up what you were referring to. Best to stick to the football and stop the inappropriate and offensive posts.
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Post by matt on Apr 20, 2022 5:36:51 GMT -5
If Utd can't even raise their energy/game v LFC, then they really are doomed. That was embarrassing. I feel sorry for Rangnick, he's been dealt a bad hand. It's all the result of having a really poor manager in Ole for three years who didn't know how to build a squad. Ten Haag will be an exciting watch though, I like the look of him. Definitely one to bring through the talent, surely to god he knows what a proper football club structure looks like given his Ajax experience.
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Post by The Escapist on Apr 20, 2022 5:51:51 GMT -5
Haaland-to-City heating up a lot in the last week.
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Post by matt on Apr 20, 2022 6:07:24 GMT -5
Haaland-to-City heating up a lot in the last week. Another unknown rough diamond discovered by them.
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Post by The Escapist on Apr 20, 2022 6:32:56 GMT -5
Haaland-to-City heating up a lot in the last week. Another unknown rough diamond discovered by them. To be fair, this would be their first international-star signing. Grealish was a big name domestically but not a big deal outside of the UK. All their other big names (Aguero, Kompany, David Silva, Fernandinho, Dias, Ederson, Foden) were pretty much unknown rough diamonds when City brought them in. They'll be wary of it going the way of Lukaku or Ronaldo, though. Sometimes these star strikers just don't fit the system, and Haaland doesn't scream Pep-football to me. But we'll see.
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Post by RocketMan on Apr 20, 2022 11:12:55 GMT -5
If Utd can't even raise their energy/game v LFC, then they really are doomed. That was embarrassing. I feel sorry for Rangnick, he's been dealt a bad hand. It's all the result of having a really poor manager in Ole for three years who didn't know how to build a squad. Ten Haag will be an exciting watch though, I like the look of him. Definitely one to bring through the talent, surely to god he knows what a proper football club structure looks like given his Ajax experience. Rangnick is great at developing a club and their philosophy but he isn’t a big team coach. His style is just to one dimensional.
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Post by settingson on Apr 20, 2022 18:42:21 GMT -5
Rangnick was a lame duck manager from day 1. Everyone knew he wasn't a long term appointment when he arrived and when you combine that with a squad not short on self-importance, these results are not a surprise. They are just marking out time, happy to take their money of course. Given their quality, that is enough to get by against the majority of the Premiership, but when they play a top side, it is painfully obvious. As a LFC fan, I'm not crying too many tears. There was a great meme I saw that read, Fergie ruined our childhood, but we are ruining his retirement. Pretty accurate for me
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Post by matt on Apr 22, 2022 17:56:40 GMT -5
Watched that two part Paul Gascoigne documentary 'Gazza' on BBC.
Fuck me, it's unrelentingly grim. Nobody comes out of it good. No hero worship at all (does not sugar coat his domestic abuse) but if you want a case study in just how evil the tabloids in this country are, have a watch. It's the story of an eccentric talent but extremely flawed and vulnerable individual who is tormented and broken into pieces.
Very tragic and infuriating watch.
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Post by matt on Apr 27, 2022 13:29:56 GMT -5
Will say it again, Steve McManaman is utterly unbearable.
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Post by funhouse on Apr 28, 2022 13:23:58 GMT -5
Mino Raiola has died, wow. RIP. EDIT: Okay, apparently not? What a strange story. It seems he is very ill, though. Zlatan intervened. Couldn't let that happen to his buddy less than a month before Milan winning the league.
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Post by oasisserbia on May 4, 2022 11:35:53 GMT -5
Are all Oasis fans mad fer it for tonight's game 🤣🤣🤣
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Post by matt on May 4, 2022 16:00:32 GMT -5
Really don't care for either of these clubs, the original sportswasher (Franco's men of course) versus the modern one in Abu Dhabi FC.
But Madrid are the luckiest team ever. I despise City as a club but there is a modicum of respect in Guardiola (who I have nothing against) who has an obvious plan to win. Madrid don't deserve anything from this.
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Post by RocketMan on May 4, 2022 16:04:28 GMT -5
Real is so fucking clutch it’s unreal
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Post by funhouse on May 4, 2022 16:37:18 GMT -5
Really don't care for either of these clubs, the original sportswasher (Franco's men of course) versus the modern one in Abu Dhabi FC. But Madrid are the luckiest team ever. I despise City as a club but there is a modicum of respect in Guardiola (who I have nothing against) who has an obvious plan to win. Madrid don't deserve anything from this. It's not luck if you do it constantly. They've won the Champions League before without truly being impressive, and they might very well do it again. They're a winning club, plain and simple.
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Post by The Escapist on May 4, 2022 16:40:51 GMT -5
Well, I have a feeling Erling Haaland just added another 100k to his weekly wages.
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Post by matt on May 4, 2022 16:51:56 GMT -5
Really don't care for either of these clubs, the original sportswasher (Franco's men of course) versus the modern one in Abu Dhabi FC. But Madrid are the luckiest team ever. I despise City as a club but there is a modicum of respect in Guardiola (who I have nothing against) who has an obvious plan to win. Madrid don't deserve anything from this. It's not luck if you do it constantly. They've won the Champions League before without truly being impressive, and they might very well do it again. They're a winning club, plain and simple. Granted, Ancelotti instils great team spirit, so probably resilience and confidence there when the chips are down. He's a great leader of course.
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Post by matt on May 4, 2022 17:50:28 GMT -5
That tie was lost in the first half of the first leg. City create SO many chances that just constantly fall to players who don't have that cruel-bastard goal-scorer energy that a Benzema, Ronaldo, Lewandowski have. Haaland doesn't scream Pep-football but if he can bring that mentality to be the complete prick who is there to ruin people's days with goals then it'll add a psychological/game edge to them that just isn't there at the moment. Then again, it could end up like Lukaku. That's football! If Guardiola is having to constantly rely on £100 million signings to bail him out then he's not the best manager in the world. I mean, he's had a £100 million signing on the bench for most of this season so that's proof of all the luxuries he could possibly imagine. It's another bottle job for him tonight. Don't get me wrong, he is a great manager (his Barca the best ever) but you question his judgement at times. Taking off De Bruyne? Absolute madness, he didn't play that well but he keeps possession ticking over nicely and they win it comfortably with him on the pitch. Overall, City lack resilience when the going gets tough. They so often find it easy against smaller teams that there is no need to put up a fight but when playing a proper team, they often wilt. They haven't gone through the frequent adversity and soul searching of being up against it in games that builds mentality and resilience.
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Post by The Escapist on May 4, 2022 20:08:15 GMT -5
That tie was lost in the first half of the first leg. City create SO many chances that just constantly fall to players who don't have that cruel-bastard goal-scorer energy that a Benzema, Ronaldo, Lewandowski have. Haaland doesn't scream Pep-football but if he can bring that mentality to be the complete prick who is there to ruin people's days with goals then it'll add a psychological/game edge to them that just isn't there at the moment. Then again, it could end up like Lukaku. That's football! If Guardiola is having to constantly rely on £100 million signings to bail him out then he's not the best manager in the world. I mean, he's had a £100 million signing on the bench for most of this season so that's proof of all the luxuries he could possibly imagine. It's another bottle job for him tonight. Don't get me wrong, he is a great manager (his Barca the best ever) but you question his judgement at times. Taking off De Bruyne? Absolute madness, he didn't play that well but he keeps possession ticking over nicely and they win it comfortably with him on the pitch. Overall, City lack resilience when the going gets tough. They so often find it easy against smaller teams that there is no need to put up a fight but when playing a proper team, they often wilt. They haven't gone through the frequent adversity and soul searching of being up against it in games that builds mentality and resilience. Hmm, I don't think that's something you can put on Pep at all, the idea that he bottled anything in this tie just doesn't work to me. He coached a 6-3 win at the Etihad and the players missed chance after chance that they should score; it's not their fault, in the sense that they are being forced to play the part of clinical goal-scorers they were never meant to be, but it certainly isn't Pep's fault either. I also don't think he did anything wrong tonight. Put out his best XI, took off KDB when he took a knock, and rightly expected his players to be able to keep a two-goal lead for ten minutes. But of course, in football, you never know. Sometimes the other team is just capable of something out of the blue, and Real Madrid certainly are. Ultimately, he has a great squad with which he's achieving great things, but the fact that he has no striker at all is a gaping hole that can't be glossed over with how expensive Grealish's release clause was. That's where the real blame falls; Txiki and Khaldoon should be embarrassed that they marred two years of Pep's time at the club by failing to bring in an Aguero replacement. They let Sergio go, after telling him they would bring in a new striker (they wanted Kane, fell through when distracted Messi, then lost out on Messi when again going for Kane) and never did. It's shocking for a club usually so well-ran. And I think that's where any mentality issues come from, such as they might be. When a team lacks a focal point to score the chances, to be a ruthless force in the box and be the one who can inspire the team at any moment, the whole thing becomes more fragile. Every missed chance makes every counter-attack feel more nervy. Sterling, Jesus, Bernardo, Foden, Grealish, Mahrez, Gundogan... are all superb players who I think would do everything asked of them when playing around a striker as Pep wants them to, but none of them are that Benzema, that Ronaldo, who can be ruthless at the centre of the storm and strike lightning into the net. If City do bring in Haaland (for £64m, that's the madness of release clauses) and he does for them what he's done for Dortmund, it could be the final piece of the puzzle that they need for the UCL. But like I said, in football, you just don't know. He could end up another Lukaku, and we could be having another City-loss-in-Europe decision this time next year.
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Post by matt on May 5, 2022 5:03:54 GMT -5
If Guardiola is having to constantly rely on £100 million signings to bail him out then he's not the best manager in the world. I mean, he's had a £100 million signing on the bench for most of this season so that's proof of all the luxuries he could possibly imagine. It's another bottle job for him tonight. Don't get me wrong, he is a great manager (his Barca the best ever) but you question his judgement at times. Taking off De Bruyne? Absolute madness, he didn't play that well but he keeps possession ticking over nicely and they win it comfortably with him on the pitch. Overall, City lack resilience when the going gets tough. They so often find it easy against smaller teams that there is no need to put up a fight but when playing a proper team, they often wilt. They haven't gone through the frequent adversity and soul searching of being up against it in games that builds mentality and resilience. Hmm, I don't think that's something you can put on Pep at all, the idea that he bottled anything in this tie just doesn't work to me. He coached a 6-3 win at the Etihad and the players missed chance after chance that they should score; it's not their fault, in the sense that they are being forced to play the part of clinical goal-scorers they were never meant to be, but it certainly isn't Pep's fault either. I also don't think he did anything wrong tonight. Put out his best XI, took off KDB when he took a knock, and rightly expected his players to be able to keep a two-goal lead for ten minutes. But of course, in football, you never know. Sometimes the other team is just capable of something out of the blue, and Real Madrid certainly are. Ultimately, he has a great squad with which he's achieving great things, but the fact that he has no striker at all is a gaping hole that can't be glossed over with how expensive Grealish's release clause was. That's where the real blame falls; Txiki and Khaldoon should be embarrassed that they marred two years of Pep's time at the club by failing to bring in an Aguero replacement. They let Sergio go, after telling him they would bring in a new striker (they wanted Kane, fell through when distracted Messi, then lost out on Messi when again going for Kane) and never did. It's shocking for a club usually so well-ran. And I think that's where any mentality issues come from, such as they might be. When a team lacks a focal point to score the chances, to be a ruthless force in the box and be the one who can inspire the team at any moment, the whole thing becomes more fragile. Every missed chance makes every counter-attack feel more nervy. Sterling, Jesus, Bernardo, Foden, Grealish, Mahrez, Gundogan... are all superb players who I think would do everything asked of them when playing around a striker as Pep wants them to, but none of them are that Benzema, that Ronaldo, who can be ruthless at the centre of the storm and strike lightning into the net. If City do bring in Haaland (for £64m, that's the madness of release clauses) and he does for them what he's done for Dortmund, it could be the final piece of the puzzle that they need for the UCL. But like I said, in football, you just don't know. He could end up another Lukaku, and we could be having another City-loss-in-Europe decision this time next year. They are all great players, but I think a better manager turns them into players who will get them over the line. Klopp bought a strikeforce that wasn't known for being prolific and developed them into top top players and has already won the Champions League before them, with less finances. Not unknown but very good players coming from clubs that hadn't competed on the highest level. And I think that's the difference, whereas Klopp will fight and develop players, Guardiola relies on oil funds to bail him out constantly. Sooner or later, you've got to start looking at what you've got, and City, or Guardiola, have had years and years to buy and buy with endless funds that any other manager could dream of.... but here we are having a debate about their lack of strikers. We have to start looking at why the manager hasn't got them to that stage after five years with the cheat codes on.
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