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English Premier League thread

New ball for the EPL (and other top flight leagues across Europe) revealed...



What do you guys think?

Really divided opinion amongst friends and colleagues.

Some say it's going to be a classic due to the fact that it's so simple (with the huge tick), and monochrome.

Others say it looks like it's been left on a hot radiator for a month - and it looks like it's cream-coloured rather than pure white, which is really odd.

I think it looks shrivelled and weird, don't like it at all!
 
something about this design (or maybe the shadow) makes it look uneven, not completely circular. Apart from the look, it seems like it could be a genuine revolution in designing a ball, but yeah they could have made it look a bit better. Nike balls are usually so poor imo compared to Adidas, but I am intrigued to see if this thing actually is any different to play with.
 
Looks a bit weird to me. 30% truer flight but then it says engineered for precision flight, so which is it? Well whatever it is like, it can't possibly make the Premier League games any more boring than they have been since the return.
 
Firstly, yes they are correct decisions by the current handball law, but the two late goals that were disallowed tonight for Tottenham and Man City were just absolutely ridiculous. They surely have to do away with this stupid handball rule for attacking teams. It's a complete and utter farce. First one rolls over Foden's arm as he's laying on the ground about 50yds from the goal at the start of the move and the second one Moura stumbles over under a challenge and falls down and the ball touches his arm as he lands.
 
mattmid said:
Firstly, yes they are correct decisions by the current handball law, but the two late goals that were disallowed tonight for Tottenham and Man City were just absolutely ridiculous. They surely have to do away with this stupid handball rule for attacking teams. It's a complete and utter farce. First one rolls over Foden's arm as he's laying on the ground about 50yds from the goal at the start of the move and the second one Moura stumbles over under a challenge and falls down and the ball touches his arm as he lands.
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Completely agree. Love VAR, hate rules that are against the spirit of the game (by organisations against the spirit of the game).

Found this interesting...



Also, the most highly featured comments are all in disagreement...
 
As far as rule changes goes, the make up of Ifab only muddies the water.

Fifa only takes up one of the five seats, the UK FAs the rest. That means the Northern Irish FA (I pick them out as the smallest nation by population) does, in theory, have more power than France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined, to pick the rest of the so-called 'big five'. (How's that European trophy count going, France?...)

Why would the FAs of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales be for such convoluted rules, which require VAR to be implemented correctly, when they can't afford VAR? And the 171 other Fifa nations that don't use VAR, predominantly for financial reasons?

Fifa will be exerting undue influence and we all know why. The stakes are so high that in a frenzied pursuit of fairness the decision makers are losing the spirit of the game. Despite their claims:

"The Laws cannot deal with every possible situation, so where there is no direct provision in the Laws, The IFAB expects the referee to make a decision within the ‘spirit’ of the game – this often involves asking the question, “what would football want/expect?”"

From Ifabs Laws of the Game. What a pile of shite.

Not sure what it's like in your respective nations but referee training is brilliant and cheap. Pretty sure it was £30 two years ago for 14 hours of learning, an accredited qualification from the SFA and equipment (kit, cards, whsitle, the lot!). Was only doing it cos I'm a nerd. So I'm a qualified ref who's never reffed. Arsed being bullied by 22+ hungover blokes on a Saturday morning.
 
I think what makes the handball rule worse is that it is effectively a rule that has been put in place because of VAR. Surely that cannot be right? In the majority of cases there is no way a referee on the pitch can even see these types of handball so in 90% of the games across the world those two goals last night would have stood anyway making a mockery of the rule. Also in those two cases and it seems the majority of these types the handball has no direct bearing on the goal that was scored anyway!

This isn't what VAR is supposed to be for surely?
 
Whose idea was it to make the ref stop the game if the ball hits him, him being a part of the pitch was one of the best rules in football.
 
About Spurs goal, as a Spurs fan and as a fan of good football, i'm glad it was disallowed. Watching Spurs under Mourinho hurts my eyes and my heart. Sack that man. He drags the club down with his miserabilistic approach to football.
The way he uses substitutes to underrmine certain players is a disgrace.
Why on earth would you bring Jan Vertonghen on when you are 2-0 down with 10 minutes to play? Jan is a club monument and who signed for a month because he is a true gentleman and because he loves Spurs. Ndombele never starts a match, yesterday when the team played abysmal, he let him play...
Mister Levy, please sack this monster....NOW.
 
Spurs must be the worst team in the league at the moment. Arsenal will have a field day against them. Mourinho really has done miracles for this team. Granted the slide started last season, but he made the Spurs the least attractive team in the league...To dare is to do? Not for José. Levy, please sack him asap, please, i'm begging you.
 
Chris Davies said:
New ball for the EPL (and other top flight leagues across Europe) revealed...



What do you guys think?

Really divided opinion amongst friends and colleagues.

Some say it's going to be a classic due to the fact that it's so simple (with the huge tick), and monochrome.

Others say it looks like it's been left on a hot radiator for a month - and it looks like it's cream-coloured rather than pure white, which is really odd.

I think it looks shrivelled and weird, don't like it at all!
Click to expand...


That is truly awful........I’m getting pretty sick of them constantly trying to reinvent the simplicity of the game.....what’s next.....glue goal nets, boot cam, coloured goal posts? I’m getting older, but when you start putting ridges in a ball to make it less unstable, it’s another tick in the ”sanitising the game” box.
 
Dr Force said:
That is truly awful........I’m getting pretty sick of them constantly trying to reinvent the simplicity of the game.....what’s next.....glue goal nets, boot cam, coloured goal posts? I’m getting older, but when you start putting ridges in a ball to make it less unstable, it’s another tick in the ”sanitising the game” box.
Click to expand...
A friend of mine, used to play pro and semipro as GK, told me that after 2006, the mainstream manufacturers balls have gone crazy, with milestone the WC 2010 Jabulani ball, with the gell technology, that tended to give the ball extra spin and most world class goalkeeps also confessed so about its bad effects.

Nowadays they tend to create balls that make crazy zig-zags, like the gas station plastic balls and this often makes GKs look ridiculous.

This 30% true flight feature, concerns me in this direction.
 
Watched Liverpool-Chelsea yesterday. This is the best match i've seen since the Corona break.
The pundit at Belgian television (our best coach, Van Haezebroeck) is very impressed with Frank Lampard as a manager. That is remarkabele imo. Obviously the man knows more about football than i do. But what i don't understand, why is Pulisic jot a starter. He has been superb since the corona break and yesterday he was absolutely outstanding, a game changer. HIs action that led to the second Chelsea goal was perhaps the best individual action i've seen all season and his finishing for the third goal was sublime. My 20 year old daughter plays football herself, understands the game and is a passionate Chelsea fan. She loves Hazard yet she thinks Pulisic can become as god as Hazard and i i'm beginning to believe that.
 
Well done Man United to get the CL spot but what absolute shambles were Leicester after the Covid break. Embarrassing.
 
It's a pity because before Covid, they were very good. Is it a coïncidence that this happens again with a Brendan Rodgers team (running out of steam), see also Liverpool when he was there?

And will it be possible that Kevin De Bruyne will never be player of the year. Look at his stats, i saw a stat about assists goals and passes that created big chances after KDB played 150 matches in the EPL. He was the best player ever, before players like Cantona and Henry. Infdividual trophy's in a team sport are a litle bit useless, but if you really want to give them, then give them to the best player. I really like Jordan Henderson (i remeber defending him in the Liverpool thread when ihe just was there), he is a good player, but KDB is an outstanding player. IMO at the moment only Messi is better.
Look at his goals and assist against Norwich (i know, it's only Norwich)... fabulous player, but he doesn't feel the need to be a star...KDB is somewhat a football nerd.
 
The difference between Liverpool and City and the others is huge...not good. But in England there are at least two clubs much better. Better than PSG, Bayern and Juventus. This is not good for football. Football needs competition. The huge amounts of money that are involved are killing competition.
Here in Belgium we just have (had?) the best generation ever. Yet they hardly played for Belgian clubs. Can you imagine having and English golden generation who all play for foreign clubs? That is how we feel here...
 
Stan said:
It's a pity because before Covid, they were very good. Is it a coïncidence that this happens again with a Brendan Rodgers team (running out of steam), see also Liverpool when he was there?
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Nah, they were bad before the enforced covid shutdown. Their form in the second half of the season has been almost relegation-like.

Don't think it's a coincidence with Rodgers, his only solution when things go wrong is to break out the 3 centre backs system, and it rarely helps.

I should add that they had some pretty bad luck with injuries. Their whole system was so good because of the attacking full backs, losing Pereira for so long and then Chilwell on top of that really took a lot out of them.

But they were something like 14 points clear of 5th place on new years day, they only needed average form for Champions League football, and failed to do that.
 
I still can't take Brendan Rodgers seriously. He did well enough with Luis Suarez's Liverpool; Celtic was cakewalk with more money in the bank than the rest of Scottish football combined (not an exaggeration); and now Leicester spluttering at the finish.

Strikes me as being a good assistant, on the training ground. Seems to improve individuals considerably. But he's naive, tactically.

And then there's the ego and the lies. The best lie being this. He lives in a fantasy world.

Stan said:
The difference between Liverpool and City and the others is huge...not good. But in England there are at least two clubs much better. Better than PSG, Bayern and Juventus. This is not good for football. Football needs competition. The huge amounts of money that are involved are killing competition.
Here in Belgium we just have (had?) the best generation ever. Yet they hardly played for Belgian clubs. Can you imagine having and English golden generation who all play for foreign clubs? That is how we feel here...
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It's all groundwork for the Super League. Financial Fair Play was designed to protect these clubs and ensure the competition gets left behind. Uefa is on a hiding to nothing as any step it takes to preserve parity will only push the top-level clubs away sooner. It's terribly sad, as what made football what it is fades away. I refuse to believe it's sustainable though. The emerging markets that plough money into the richest clubs won't (surely?) stay enthralled with the increasingly limited competition.
 
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Flipper the Priest said:
And then there's the ego and the lies. The best lie being this. He lives in a fantasy world.
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I knew what that was going to be before even clicking the link. :D His David Brentness really doesn't help him.

He is good at getting the best out of attacking players certainly, not just Suarez at Liverpool but also the likes of Sturridge and Sterling. Vardy at 33 has just won the golden boot, the likes of Maddison have improved under him as well.

Do agree he's naive tactically. Going to be a big ask for him and Leicester next season, don't think 60ish points will be enough for a team to be in and around the top 4.
 
It might end in sort of Superleague like NBA, but without salary cap and without the draftsystem (worst club has first pick). Football needs a David Stern.
 
PeterC10 said:
I knew what that was going to be before even clicking the link. :D His David Brentness really doesn't help him.

He is good at getting the best out of attacking players certainly, not just Suarez at Liverpool but also the likes of Sturridge and Sterling. Vardy at 33 has just won the golden boot, the likes of Maddison have improved under him as well.

Do agree he's naive tactically. Going to be a big ask for him and Leicester next season, don't think 60ish points will be enough for a team to be in and around the top 4.
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Clubs like Man United, Chelsea and perhaps even Arsenal will be stronger next season ( I’m a Spurs fan, I really don’t see them become better as long as Mourinho is there). So.’ this was a unique opportunity for Leicester and I fear some of their better players will also think that and might want to leave.
 
PeterC10 said:
I knew what that was going to be before even clicking the link. :D His David Brentness really doesn't help him.

He is good at getting the best out of attacking players certainly, not just Suarez at Liverpool but also the likes of Sturridge and Sterling. Vardy at 33 has just won the golden boot, the likes of Maddison have improved under him as well.

Do agree he's naive tactically. Going to be a big ask for him and Leicester next season, don't think 60ish points will be enough for a team to be in and around the top 4.
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He is more Brent than Brent!

He took Forrest, McGregor and Tierney at Celtic from good to great (by Scottish Premiership standards) in a very short space of time and made Celtic untouchable. But then he'd go to Camp Nou and try to play them off the pitch like they would St Mirren, and they got battered. And he was unrepentant about the approach.

Quite surprised at the rise of Maddison. He was decent with us but looked very showy. I genuinely think he benefited from getting kicked about by caveman Scottish defenders.

Stan said:
It might end in sort of Superleague like NBA, but without salary cap and without the draftsystem (worst club has first pick). Football needs a David Stern.
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Love the commissioner idea. It's been mooted in Scotland as a means of actually getting things done, in the interests of the league. Otherwise, as with football on a grander scale, decision making is riddled with self-interest and becomes a messy, inefficient and protracted ordeal.
 
About Rodgers' approach against Barcelona, well i see nothing wrong with that. A club like Celtic will always have a massive disadvantage against mega clubs like Barcelona. I know that it might be bad for the players' confidence, but a loss with 1-0 or one 11-0 is 0 points. Look at Southampton after they lost 9-0 to Leicester, they learned from it and ended the season very good.

I know most of you will not agree with me but i like my club to play good football even if the results are not there. As a Spurs fan i loved the football we played under Pocchetino even if we didn't win silverware, it was great to watch. Now we (supposedly) have a manager who wins silverware, but our football is piss poor (and a totally classless guy, Vertonghen didn't got is farewell minutes yesterday, a total disgrace). I doubt we will win something under Mourinho, but if we do, i will still prefer the Pocchetino years. Don't forget that football is supposed to be entertainment. That is why i sympathize with both LIverpool and Man City, they are entertaining people (even if City has an unfair advantage, but that is a totally different story).

Allow me to talk about Belgian football (i'm sorry). Usually Belgian clubs are piss poor in the CL. When Gent played the CL their coach at the time (Hein Van Haezebrouck imo, the best Belgian coach) decides to play attacking football because he was convinced that his player group had enough quality. They were second in their group and reached the knock-out stages...because they had no fear (usually Belgian teams start matches to avoid a serious beating and they end up being beaten seriously (best example is my favourite team KRC Genk).
 
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