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English Premier League thread

As a neutral, even if I didn't support Arsenal, I'd support any English club other than Chelsea and Mancity, cause I just don't subscribe to idea of "cheat codes" of infinite money in football.

Moreover, I always pick the underdog whenever I'm neutral. I don't care if a team always gets to the final, I just love to see an underdog upsetting the odds.

So now that Arsenal is practically out... go Basel! :)
 
Fail code means we're the new underdogs! Stick by us, I promise it will be fun :LOL:
In 3 weeks time we will put up a hell of a fight and get knocked out at Monaco with a scintillating performance. We will win 2-0, and oh it could have been a different story if that Giroud header didn't come off the post :COAT:
 
It'll be a similar 'valiant' story for us no doubt, but only after conceding early on.. We'll then put in a decent performance, scoring, missing a few chances, maybe score again or have a pen shout waved away. Then we'll get a red card and concede at least another late on. :ROLL:
 
bebo brought the off-topic subject of Champions League in the Prem thread, now he's trying to get back to topic. I see what you're doing there :LOL:

We beat Bayern 2-0 on their turf in the past with a much weaker squad than the one we've got today. I don't see a reason why we aren't going to score at Monaco's place?

To go through, obviously, is a different story.
 
Final stretch of the Prem should be interesting. Chelsea have pretty much won it (their game in hand is against Leicester City) but apart from City being 4 points clear in second place the next 5 spots are just a pile of teams. Every game for each one of these teams is essential.
 
Top seven of the divers in the EPL according to Talksport:

7 Yaya Touré (booked for simulation every 2360 minutes - 2 bookings)
6 Ross Barkley (every 1828 minutes - 2 bookings)
5 Ashley Young (1152 - 2 bookings)
4 Danny Ings (1070 - 2 bookings)
3 Diego Costa (890 - 2 bookings)
2 Emanuele Giaccherini (822 - 2 bookings)
1 Adnan Januzaj (801 - 3 bookings)


Of course there are flaws in this ranking. It's not because someone isn't cautioned, that he isn't diving.
 
It is also reflective of how many minutes the player has played. Januzaj (not defending him as he does dive too much for his own good) does play less minutes than Young who probably dives more frequently.
 
Januzaj is also the worst at diving. He doesn't even try to make it look credible. It's so frustrating to watch a player who has the ability to waltz into the box, only to seemingly try and find the slightest contact to go to the ground. He s still very young but he needs to cut that crap out now. Though I'd argue Di Maria is ten times more frustrating than him.. Probably bc he plays more.
 
Want to lose even more faith in the FA? Check out a few comments from the Evans spitting trial - these are actual quotes from the 'experts':

"If that had been a family member or indeed another team member or his manager in front and below him, would he still have carried out the same manoeuvre?"

"There may, in some quarters, be substantial sympathy for Mr Evans, but the video evidence shows that he did what he did, and the ordinary man in the street will find his action to be simply disgusting and should not be allowed in any walk of life, let alone on any football field."

I'm fully in agreement that Evans should have been banned, but that logic is magnificent. Would he have done it to a family member, and if he did it on the street would that be bad? These are the experts?!??!
 
Compared to the things Ryan Giggs would do to a family member, spitting is sort of a kind gesture.
Sorry beach, the 'family member' mention immediately evoked that to my mind :LOL:

Gotta love the variety of arguments arising from these trials. A random man on the street?? No, it would not be nice AT ALL Your Honor!
 
amineken22 said:
That game was very open. Both teams had an abundance of chances, you converted yours while Bayern didn't and, frankly, Bayern lost interest after the 1st leg.

Monaco won't do that. They'll keep the game tight and closed and you won't have that many chances (If Toulalan and Bakayoko are fit for the game you'll hardly create anything) Bernardo and YFC will make sure you'll get punished each time you loose the ball. The game will most likely end in a (usual) 1-0 win to Monaco.

I don't mean to be a downer or anything, but Monaco are a very cynical team and even more so at home. Yesterday was the best I've seen them play this year. Even Moutinho (who's abysmal the rest of the year) manged to put on a good performance. Arsenal with their possession play fit the victim role perfectly and If you guys play Cazorla in a double pivot again the outcome will definitely be a loss.
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Are you watching the match, amineken? :LOL:

Arsenal are 1-0 up and could have scored 3 or 4 goals in this 1st half.

I hope you are not the kind of guy who bets too often!
 
Found this interesting article on the NY Times about globalization in the Premier League and what the FA intends to do about it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/u...2000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

I'm contrary to the opinion that more foreigners in the Prem make England weaker as a national team. At the end of the day, you can only field 11 players and I'll be damned if you can't find a top squad in a country with the population and football tradition of England.

By raising barriers to imported players, the FA would be creating a "handicap" that would put English players in a comfort zone instead of instigating improvement through increased competitiveness.

Also, as the article observes, the globalization is the very reason why English Premier League is the most successful sporting product worldwide. If you reduce the number of foreign players too drastically, you're meddling with a winning formula and you could see a drop in the interest from overseas, and therefore less foreign investment and lesser broadcasting contracts.

The FA shouldn't say English football is the victim here while they have the most exciting league in the world. This is better for the fans and for the association as well. Not to mention that the English players that do break through to become top players in the league should be considered the very best, elite players that the country can count on to send their 23 men squad to World Cups.

If they're not satisfied with the National Team performances, I'd say the problem lies elsewhere judging by the way the team has been playing and their approach to the game.

If Dyke and the FA bosses really are toying with this idea, I'd say this is pretty much backwards thinking and a shame if it comes to that.
 
I hopethey do this. Of course this is not good for English football, but it would even the odds internationally...really hope they do this (whichwould be very, very stupid of course).

I have nothing against the EPL (on the contrary, it's my favouriote league), but financially the gap between English clubs and the rest of Europe is way too big.
 
What was our excuse from 1970 to 86 then? We were shit internationally then when most players were english

Lots of domestic reasons not to do it too
-large numbers of token overpaid and underplayed english players taking up squad positions
-an even further increase in the price of english players
-all the better english players gravitating to the richest club (see Bayern)
-a further demeaning of domestic cups
-hurt the smaller clubs financially and on the pitch as larger clubs will now be forced to keep their average english players to meet quotas

It's good that the PL will never allow it.
 
Lots of good points. English players prices would soar up indeed, and this would be even more disastrous for the English Team - if there aren't too many English players plying their trade outside England, wait until their prices increase even more. And this interaction with other European leagues is also needed for the evolution of the English NT (not only the interchange of foreigners going to play in England, but Englishmen acquiring experience abroad in different leagues).

Furthermore it would be like shooting themselves in the foot. Exactly on the moment English teams will have more financial muscle with the new broadcasting deals, do they really want to reduce the talent pool from which their clubs could choose from?

As Gerd said, it would only benefit the other European clubs, because it is counter-productive to English clubs. That in itself wouldn't be a bad thing for the balance of the game, but this is not the right route to do it. I'm too much of a capitalist at heart to think of handicaps as a good way to achieve balance, especially in a competitive business such as football, when the real way forward is to foster development of other leagues: learn the lesson of the Premiership and apply some of its elements to other European leagues, and you'll see a growth in popularity and interest from abroad that could lead to great competitive advantages such as this new Premier League TV deal.
 
There aten't that many lessons to be learned from the EPL clubs. Most of them are only saved by the television money.
If there is one league that can be a worldwide example, it's the Bundesliga, despite the dominating of Bayern.
 
gerd said:
There aten't that many lessons to be learned from the EPL clubs. Most of them are only saved by the television money.
If there is one league that can be a worldwide example, it's the Bundesliga, despite the dominating of Bayern.
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what about MLS with salary caps, allocation order, drafting players, playoffs to determine league winner(i know you guys would hate this, pros and cons of each approach, in the end i think your way is better, but usa way is more democratic or actually socialist, LOL.)
 
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