General Football/Soccer Talk

[Phil89]

There are 20 clubs in the Premier League. During the course of a season (from August to May) each club plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents, for a total of 38 games.

[stereoxide]

Well, they sacked AVB. The CL draw looks interesting especially Galatasaray vs. Chelsea with Drogba returning. Barcelona vs. City and Bayern vs. Arsenal looks interesting too.

[SoF'nAwesome]

I'm gonna go with Chelsea, City & Bayern. Unless Messi returns which is highly unlikely.

[Phil89]

Aguero is out for like a month. That is a big loss for City. I wouldn't write Barcelona off just because Messi is out either. Neymar seems to be doing quite well in his place.

I don't like seeing good players out injured, but Aguero missing does make Liverpool's trip to Man City on Boxing Day a little less daunting.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Chelsea VS Arsenal should give us a hint on what's to come. If Chelsea somehow win it, then it's Liverpool 75%.

LOL I just noticed. Your sig is hilarious man

[Phil89]

[Phil89]

What a good week this has been. Now Suarez has signed a contract extension until 2018 worth £200,000 per week. He's earned it

Edit: And now he has 19 goals and 9 assists in 12 league games. He's scoring at a better rate than Ronaldo and Messi and in a much tougher league. Insane.

Top of the league again too.

[Phil89]

I really hate referees sometimes...

[SoF'nAwesome]

No happy holidays for Phil

Liverpool had a chance to be #1 but ended up being #4. The EPL is really dope this season. I was hoping Suarez would break the Ibra number of goals for this year(47) but it seems Ibra will stay the 2nd with Messi being 3rd.

[Phil89]

Well it wasn't losing the match that annoyed me. I never expected to go to the Etihad and beat such a strong team. It was the referee (or his assistant) that pissed me off with an offside call that a blind person would have seen was actually onside by a couple of metres.

Only a few more days before we get to go crazy about every player the media says our clubs are buying.

[Phil89]

Speaking of annoyingly bad refereeing that perhaps cost us a chance at winning, Howard Webb put in a great performance for Chelsea yesterday.

Eto'o put in a horrible tackle in the first few minutes and should have been sent off. For some reason it doesn't matter how bad you tackle in the first few minutes because you will get away with it. He then goes on to score the winner for Chelsea.

Then there were two penalty shouts where Terry jumped all over Suarez and Eto'o tackled him without the ball. But no, the douche Mourinho just deflects it all by calling Suarez a diver. How original.



And to add to the depressing result Allen and Sakho seem to be injured now. Add that to Gerrard, Sturridge, Enrique and Flanagan out and we had to have a 16 year old on the bench. January can't come quick enough.

[shadowgrin]

Cry moar baby.

[Phil89]

So I'm a baby for being angry at poor officiating? Good to know.

Btw, I wasn't saying that we would have or should have won, because we played poorly after the first five minutes. But if Eto'o gets sent off for that first tackle we play 85 minutes against 10 men and he isn't on the pitch to score the winner for them. That may have levelled the contest as they were the better team but us having an extra man.

Not to mention this gem. In what way was this not a foul and penalty? Suarez is going after the ball and Eto'o comes in and takes his legs out. Howard Webb was looking right at it and ignored it. Another case of his reputation preceding him and not getting decisions because everyone labels him a diving cheat.




It was the same with the Everton game when Mirallas got away with a similarly high tackle when we were leading 2-1 and helped them nearly win the match. These decisions have a big impact on games and it is frustrating when they are missed/ignored.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a blind Liverpool supporter who thinks that we should win every game and if we don't there is some conspiracy against us. Personally I think we will do well to finish in the top four with City, Arsenal and Chelsea looking strong, Everton going along nicely and United looking like they are coming into some form. Plus Spurs are still thereabouts and if Sherwood can turn them around they have more than enough talent to mount a late season charge.

Our squad isn't a match for the top top teams. A few injuries and we were forced to have a 16 year old and a 19 year old on the bench against Chelsea. They had Torres, Mata, Schurrle, Essien and Cole on theirs.

I'm sorry if my annoyance came across as whining, but I'm just sick of these decisions going against us. I really want to see my team back in the champions league and losing points to the top teams is painful. Bad refereeing decisions are just salt in the wound.

[J@3]

I'm sure you could make a graphic like that for every team in every game. It's part of the sport, refs aren't going to see everything.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Phil, what are you doing?! Saying sorry to a Gunner?

Here are some predictions: Arsenal won't win the league, ManU won't make it to Champions League & either ManC or Liverpool will win the league.

Disappointing end for Liverpool though. At a time it seemed like that Suarez charisma was unstoppable. But I guess, it didn't work out that well when facing major teams.

As for 2013, this was the year for CR7 & Munchen. No Messi, no Barca.

[Phil89]

I'm sure you could make a graphic like that for every team in every game. It's part of the sport, refs aren't going to see everything.

I totally agree that you could find incidents like that in nearly every game. That doesn't change the fact that the referee was wrong or that the loss doesn't hurt.

And yes the ref won't see everything, but Webb was metres away and looking right at both the Eto'o tackles. After that horrible offside call against Man City days earlier it just frustrates me greatly. We've gone from first to fifth with two losses and there were contentious decisions in both.

Phil, what are you doing?! Saying sorry to a Gunner?

Here are some predictions: Arsenal won't win the league, ManU won't make it to Champions League & either ManC or Liverpool will win the league.

Disappointing end for Liverpool though. At a time it seemed like that Suarez charisma was unstoppable. But I guess, it didn't work out that well when facing major teams.

As for 2013, this was the year for CR7 & Munchen. No Messi, no Barca.

It's a little troubling that Suarez hasn't match his high levels against Arsenal, City and Chelsea this season. But I suppose that higher class defences will always be tougher to score against and he can't do it all himself. Plus in those games our midfield sat deeper because we couldn't dominate possession and Suarez was more isolated.

It was a poor end to the year after such a good start to the season. Injuries haven't helped. January transfer window comes just in time.

So far Liverpool have been linked with Cristian Tello on loan from Barca, Mohammed Salah from Basel, Fernando Reges from Porto, Yann M'Vila from Rubin Kazan and Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla. Any of those would be nice additions. Happy we've moved on from being linked with the likes of Stewart Downing and Gareth Barry.

[SoF'nAwesome]

So far the biggest thing in January will be Casillas leaving RMad?

[Phil89]

Who would have thought that would ever happen? To me that would be like Gerrard leaving Liverpool or Totti leaving Roma. He's been there forever and I don't understand why they are forcing him out. 32 is still young for a goalkeeper.

I remember a few years ago we beat Madrid 4-0 at Anfield, but Casillas was man of the match. We were awesome that night and he stopped it being 8-0.

[[Q]]

well theyve been in love with diego lopez for some reason, so casillas becomes expendable

[SoF'nAwesome]

Casillas' career was ruined by Mourinho. For some reason, Ancelotti doesn't like him as well. But still, he is the captain of Spain & it will be interesting to see where goes.

[Phil89]

It must be an ego thing. Casillas is adored in Madrid and probably has a lot of power at the club and Mourinho probably wanted to show he was in charge. He is doing the same thing with Juan Mata at Chelsea at the moment.

I wonder if Casillas will end up at PSG or Monaco. Surely Del Bosque will want him to be starting matches for his club in the six months before a World Cup.

[SoF'nAwesome]

And that maybe the ultimate reason after all. Because WC>Everything else.

Wenger seems to be going for the big one. It would be a huge one for Arsenal if they get Costa. And a tiny loss for Liverpool if they lose Sterling. That little dude has potential.

[Phil89]

Will Wenger bid £40,000,002 for Suarez? Seriously though his release clause is apparently £120m now. I can live with that if it eventually happens.

Costa would be a great signing for Arsenal. Liverpool supposedly almost got him in the Summer. Imagine him and Suarez and Sturridge up front. We would have had the top two scorers in Europe.

But I guess it's not as simple as that because there is no way of knowing how they would fit together. Maybe Suarez and Costa would get in each other's way and not have scored 39 goals combined.

If I was Arsenal I'd be offering a big contract to Robert Lewandowski from Dortmund. He is out of contract in 6 months and they could get him for free. They would have to offer a lot of money to beat Bayern to him though I guess.

I'd rather only loan out Sterling if we buy an attacker or two first or some players come back from injury. We can't afford to lose anyone at the moment.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Lewandowski doesn't have potential imo...last season it was great and all but he is not something like the next big thing or whatever.

LOL Suarez & Costa should be banned to play together atm. It would be like Messi & Ibra teaming up(which PSG want apparently).

[Phil89]

Lewandowski has scored 82 goals in 120 games for Dortmund in the last three seasons. He's not on Messi or Ronaldo level, but he is a good goal scorer. He scored 10 goals in the Champions League to help Dortmund reach the final last season.

I made this up to show how well he compares to some of the best forwards in Europe over the past three seasons.



Really shows how Messi and Ronaldo are on another planet to everyone else too.