Having assessed the defensive data over the last four rounds of fixtures earlier in the week, we now turn our attentions to the centre of the park. We analyse a host of playmakers from Everton, Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham and City before casting an eye over the recent new arrivals at Sunderland and Newcastle, as the Wear-Tyne duo step up their battle to beat the drop.
Gutted
Oh my.
900k is a life changing amount
7k is a nice holiday though!
Haha I completely missed the "k"s in the post before and this one.
WOW, now I understand why people are talking so much about it! Feel bad for him
I would have probably cashed out £5k and let the rest ride
Wow. Arsenal won with the last kick of the game i guess, so I'm sure he'd have cashed out before that as well, especially going one nil down.
But that must hurt nonetheless! But 7k isn't the worst.
Could someone shed some light on Rooney and DDG injuries, both out a while?
Rooney out for up to 2 months, DDG set to have scans.
As far as we know
6-8 GWs
Yet unknown.that's top 4 completely lost now. might not even get a Europe spot at all
DDG to get scans to assess injury. That's all we know for now unfortunately.
La Liga has to be the best league in Europe by far. With Barca and Atletico to play.
Roma 0-2 Real
Villareal 1-0 Napoli
Marseille 0-1 Atheltic Bilbao
Sevilla 3-0 Molde
Valencia 6-0 Rapid Vienna
5 games. 13 goals scored, 0 conceded.
Premier league has had 4 teams play Chelsea, United, Spurs, Liverpool. 2 draws 2 losses.
Agree?No
fair enough, why do you disagree?
The top clubs may be better, but the overall standard is a lot worse, IMO.
i think the amount of Spanish sides reaching the latter stages of european cup competitions would go against this
I'm looking lower in the table - In the PL anyone can beat anyone on a given day, while in Spain if a struggling side plays a top side it's usually no more than a damage limitation exercise, IMO.
no it actually proves Jarvish's point. the top clubs are in Europe and are doing very well.
where as the bottom half teams don't have a hope of beating those higher up clubs, as Jarvish said it's damage control
It's all guess work as we don't have a european competition where bottom of the table teams play each other.
Barca and Real would absolutely trash the PL so it's not really fair to make assumptions on the quality of smaller Spanish teams based on that.
Disagree
Liverpool and Spurs draw in the Europa league tonight and Man Utd lose, that ain't good at all.
Look at the class of opposition.
Napoli and Roma are 2nd and 4th in Seria A. Augbsurg are in the bottom 5 in the Bundesliga
PSG are destroying ligue 1, rapid Vienna play in the Austrian league.
Midjtylland?
Liga teams are way stronger however La liga isn't as competitive as premier league.
I guess it works in cycles Serie A used to dominate for a while then came PL when at least 2 English teams made it to the semis of CL each year and now it's Madrid and Barcelona dominating.I wrote a dissertation last year on Compettive balance in European football, and to my surprise the statistics and data showed that the Premier league was the least competitive out of the Power 5 leagues over the last 20 years
How about last 5 or 6 years?
in the last 5 or 6 years the Premier league has had 6 different teams finish in the top 6. La Liga has had 9 different teams finish in top 4
they how come Leicester are top? the money that has been injected in PL has really changed it, smaller teams can now sign big name players, look at Payet and Khazri..then look at a team like Aletico who even after they won the league most of their good players were sold. I know that happens in PL too but the weaker teams have got a lot better and it's evident in the struggle the big teams are having.
La Liga is basically a 2 horse race every year with Atletico a bit of a wild card in recent years.Leicester are a massive outlier, no one would have predicted this success before the season
Leicester are top because of their manager imo, the are not an expensive team, we(QPR) sold them Simpson for eg.
Competitive doesn't equal quality.
they have the best team in the world but overall the quality is not as high as EPL
also all of those PL teams were away from home which is a huge impact for a European game.
I have a friend who claims that Valencia, Seville, Villareal and Bilbao would trash PL teams.
They would not trash but I think they would win over a fair sample of games
but that's still competing La Liga's top teams, the point being made is if it's the most competitive league the whole league would be stronger, but the EPL clearer has stronger weaker teams (if you know what I mean) and when top teams playa against newly promoted and bottom table teams there is no guarantee of a win, where is in La Ligue when the top teams play the bottom teams the odds of them winning are extremely high. the gap between the top tier and bottom is a lot more extreme and noticeable
this is just your opinion, do you really think Aston Villa away at Barca would not lose 8-0?
Another one so it seems. United, Liverpool and Chelsea have major crisis, City never reached top class status, Arsenal are well Arsenal, and of course English clubs have bad results in Europe. Also, as Djenzio said, even relegation threatened clubs can afford players like Khazri, and are more stronger than most lower table European sides.
there is clearly a lot more money in the Premier league, but that doesnt mean that the overall quality is better. It just means that the teams have more money to spend because the league is the most exciting in the world thus attracting the highest amounts of TV revenues. What i am disputing is that the overall quality is worse compared to La Liga, irrelevant of whether relegation threatened clubs can afford players or not
Probably H2H over the past 7-8 years would support his hypothesis.
La Liga's results are nearly as predictable as that Scottish nonsense.
la liga has the best teams but that doesn't make it the best league 😉
when i say best i mean in terms of quality. Premier league is more exciting, as the style of play played in England is a lot funner to watch
i think in terms of average team quality? la liga, but still then it whs more inequality....premier league has more parity across the board (probably due to a lack of a clear cut favorite) making it a better league to follow/watch imo
I guess it's hard to judge, clearly Real and Barca are better than any PL team, then the next top teams are maybe slightly better but hard to tell as as mentioned Pool, Utd and even City are in a transition.
Lower table teams in PL are a better quality and it is due to money and the players they can afford, in Spain teams can't compete with Barca, Real and to an extent Atletico in terms of playability and spending.how many teams, have a realistic chance of finishing in the top 6 every year in the Premier league. People seem to think its competitve but its the same 6 teams at the top of the table swapping positions. (Leicester I know have changed that). At least in La Liga any one of 10/12 teams could realisitically have a chance of finishing in the top 6, although there is very little movement at the very top due to Real Atletico and Barca
You are right but this is a PL forum after all so your words are going to deaf ears.
this is true
agree, it is just so lopsided in the top 3 that the premier league overall is slightly more equal...very close and open to interpretation though. a good way of quantifying it is through Gini coefficients (traditionally used to measure income inequality within a country's economy). shows premier league, bundesliga and serie a as the top 3 most equal http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2015/03/major-league-soccer-and-the-effect-of-egalitarianism-2/
worth keeping in mind, these are based on how points have been distributed throughout the past few years, not how much each club spends
I carried out similar statistical tests in my dissertation
nice, would be great to read then! I am applying for graduate programs at the moment, most of which have to do with econometrics
I agree, unlike everyone else by the looks of things
im glad you do 🙂
It's been quite clear for years that La Liga is the best league you only need to look at the latter stages of CL and EL in recent years to realize it. Teams like Villarreal, Sevilla and Bilbao are vastly underrated here.
PL, Serie A and Bundesliga are all similar in quality it only comes down to preference between those leagues.this is where my main arguement comes from. I believe the those teams which are admittedly behind Real, Barca and Atletico are severly underrated. I mean Sevilla has won 4 Europa leagues in last 10 years. Valencia, Villareal and even Malaga have reached Champions league quarter finals. Atheltic Bilbao and Espanyol have also reached Europa league finals. Those are 6 teams that are strong sides in Europe on top of the top 3 who just dominate at the highest level. There are then sides like Deportivo, Real Sociedad and Celta de Vigo who are also good sides. 12/20 La Liga must be pretty good?
There is really no statistical or otherwise logical argument to be made that the PL is better quality than La Liga.
People just look at the money spend and think it makes the difference but in Spain and even in Budesliga the youth systems are so much better so the talent for most parts is already there. Smaller spanish teams are also tactically and technically on different level compared to those of PL.I am in total agreement with you sir, you raise some excellent points in the last few sentences. The amount of young Spanish and even German players constantly coming through is far superior than the English ones. Evident by varying success of these 3 national sides over the last 10 years
Largely disagree. The teams at the top of La Liga are the best, obviously. They're mostly far better than the top teams in the PL/Bundesliga etc, and there are more good teams at the top end of the league, when compared to other leagues.
But in terms of how competitive the league is, the Premier League & Bundesliga are far ahead. They're also far less predictable imo. As a whole I'd say the teams at the tail end of the PL/Bundesliga are mostly better than those in La Liga.
For example, I'd say VfB Stuttgart (who are currently 10th/18 but rising fast) would comfortably beat most teams in the bottom half of La Liga. I'd back Hamburger SV and a couple of others too.
Ligue 1 is incredibly weak in comparison to the other 4 top leagues, but it's a great league for producing talent.This time last year I thought the Premier league was the most competitive, however in my dissertation I did a very rigourous statisitcal analysis of each season across the Power 5 leagues for the last 20 seasons. The French and the Bundesliga are the most competitve top to bottom, whereas the Premier league was the worst.
Not sure what you looked at but how is Ligue 1 top for competitive levels? Outside of PSG who are one of the best in Europe, there are only a handful of decent quality sides after them. I'd say Ligue 1 is absolutely miles behind the PL/Bundesliga in that aspect, but as I said above, the youth academys in France are fantastic.
Maybe the fact that Ligue 1 is a low scoring league in general, perhaps? That might have something to do with it.
Anyway, the Bundesliga being top doesn't surprise me. Teams like Stuttgart/Köln beating teams from the top 4 is never the most surprising thing. It's a great league all-round IMO, only negative is how far ahead Bayern are compared to the rest.Probably because once you look past PSG, all the teams are on a very similar level
The French league is very competitve. Over the last 20 years it has had 10 different Champions including Lyons 7 in a row! The Bundlesiga has had 6 including Bayerns 11 and Dortmunds 5!
I 100% agree the Bundesliga is better in terms of quality. My Disserttion however looked at competitive balance as a whole. here is an extract from the start.
"The study uses eight different measures covering seasonal uncertainty, long-term dominance of teams and championship uncertainty between the five leagues. These include the application of the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index to the share of points won and championships won by each team. The degree of mobility of teams is explored using Kendall Tau’s rank of correlation. Concentration ratios are used to assess how dominant the leading teams have performed and measures that use standard deviation are presented to assess how the dispersion of winning percentages have developed."
cheers Xabi
i wanna ask Which variables u used to explore the degree of mobility ?
Stuttgart have some great young players. Big fan of Werner, Baumgarti and Didavi
I agree that they are more even leagues but in the end it's just down to the quality of the better teams in La Liga. All leagues have those 2-4 punching pack teams that do really bad but to say that all bottom half teams in Spain are rubbish just shows the lack of knowledge.
If PL teams were doing what the La Liga has done for years the amount of gloat would reach unbearable measures but they aren't. Most of the big teams are in complete disarray because they are quite simply bad at the moment.
If you look at the situation unbiased there is really no two ways about it. It's actually quite absurd that there is even reason to argue about it. PL will have to tactically improve their game and start to build teams which I'm sure will happen with all the good Managers coming in and having the financial resolve but as of now La Liga is quite simply the Boss.keep preaching
They will see the light once the darkness called bias is cast away.
Yeah, so I give perfectly good reasoning to the discussion and I'm showing bias and a lack of knowledge, even though I watch all 5 leagues, never missing a game in PL or Bundesliga? Right mate, I won't argue it further, because it's 'absurd' to disagree with you. 😕
For the record, I agree with you when you say the levels of gloating would be unbearable if the PL did what Spanish clubs have done recently. That's just the way it is in England.Come on don't get stuck on some small (big) dramatizing words I've used. It's all good you are allowed to have your opinion.
I just see it differently and feel the gap between La Liga and the rest is quite big at the moment.
Okay lets shake hands move on because this discussion is a never ending story. 🙂Maybe it is.
Fwiw I actually agreed with a lot of what you were saying. The levels of gloating if the PL had Spain's recent success. The top teams in Spain. The technical levels of Spanish sides - All good points which I've fully agreed with. Everyone knows Spanish players in general are taught a better brand of football, and have higher technical ability.
I only disagreed with certain things to begin with. Mainly the teams at the bottom, and the predictable nature of La Liga.
see above sir
6 different Spanish teams have reached European cup finals in the last 10 years
yawns
Aww damn, this was a lively one and I missed it. Completely agree btw
http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/comment/12707489
Meh, missed the discussion. I would rather use a different term than competitive. Maybe what most of the people here think of when saying competitive is "attractive" or "watchable" if you get what i mean?
I think thats the main factor in the replies and obviously where they are from 🙂
Please Replace the players between brackets 🙂
Butland
(Moreno) - francis - ward - Toby
(Firmino) - Ozil - Payet - Mahrez - Alli
Costa
Subs: Simpson - Aguero - LukakuVvd
Eriksen/khazri/Arnie (depends on cup games)yes i was thinking arnie, but i hear he has been off form for a while
I feel like he owes me for all the time I kept him
be careful, I felt the same with mane & coutinho and both let me down miserably... arnie has 3 delicious fixtures though so maybe he will deliver 🙂
Southampton defender
Sigurdssoni like sig, but next 2 games are tot and ars away from home, u think he can still score in these ?
on pens and available for GW30
() - francis - ward - Toby
() - Ozil - Payet - Mahrez - Alll
EasyI don't get it, where are the replacements? I have 2fts btw
Was a joke I just replaced them like you asked. Saints def and Arnie for me
😉
😉
lol cheers i like ur suggestion though
Gives you 2 playing players for week 30
Daniels/fuchs ... Oooo but u already have francis/simpson so maybe pva/vvd
Khazri/arnieyea i wanted simpson for this one, too bad he got a RC.... someone warned me about arnie, is that really true? I didn't watch the last stoke matches tbh
fuchs and arnie for me, that's the route i'm going down
I have a very similar team to you and am thinking of going Sanchez...am i missing something with that? Seems obvious to me.
Butland Eliot
Toby Fuchs Bellerin Targett Williams
Mahrez Alli Payet Ozil Firmino
Costa Kane Vardy
1 FT 4.2 itb
would like to shed williams too though
If Arsenal win their cup tie they will have a blank in GW30.
Let's say Spurs also get through, for me, if I sign Sanchez, that could mean I could have 3 Spurs and 3 Arsenal players all with a blank (not to mention other players.
Most of us need to start thinking of not signing players who are gonna have a GW30 blank. Not gonna have many transfers to fix your team now.
Can a Mod edit the Yes/No competition post so it says "SUNDAY/MONDAY" instead of "SUNDAY", and edit question 10 so it starts "In the four Sunday/Monday matches"?
Thanks 🙂
And the Tiebreaker to 'goals' instead of 'corners'
Thanks 🙂lol just change your answer - it's not "I must accept your first answer" 🙂
🙂
Ha! I actually laughed at this
I might get rid of Simpson - he's already trolled me and I'm yet to play him
I know what you mean. Like 3benched cs, a red card now and only 2pters when I play him.
2 weeks ago I bought him in specifically for this week - I'd have Ward if I didn't make the transfer
Keep him. Guaranteed to play gw30 and nice fixture.
Waste of a transfer IMOIgnore that.. Getting late for me. time for bed.
"Oh what a night, freezing cold on a Thursday night and we're playing f**king s**te what a feeling what a night"
Lovely bit of banter from United fans singing that tonightShame they won't be singing it on many more Thursday nights 🙂
Surely they can scrape through
The thing is if they went out it wouldn't even be a surprise
Reminds me of late December back in 63
Yep it was to that tune
Yes, that's the joke.
Right so if Rooney is out for a while, surely Martial / Lingard are great shouts now?
Unfortunately LVG is still in charge so they continue to be crap shouts
Lingard looks great value as a 5th mid.
Surely they'd be worse than they already are. As a team that is. Depay is useless.
Be interested to hear the logic behind this.. they are woeful
Well it could be a blessing in disguise for United?
Get Mata back into the team properlyHopefully herrera too.
Herrera was pathetic tonight as was Mata
Maybe they should try...
DDG
B-J---Smalling--Rojo--Darmian
Lingard--Schwe--Herrerra--Depay
-----------------Mata---------------------
-----------------Martial-------------------Until they try ridding the club of the manager and chief executive don't bother mate honestly
A couple of those defenders aren't even available.
They look dispirited at the moment. I'd avoid.
Both are playing even with Rooney
Neville to Man U? He has proven he can win a Europa match
Neville won a match?
What is this sorcery?Thought he was Longbottom 😉
Couldn't be any worse I suppose.
I'd take him till the end of the season over LVG in a heartbeat
This.
No. They're brutal and LVG is still in charge(for now).
reply fail
Slim pickings for a 1 week gwk27 punt in a draft league. I have Payet...who to pick up?
A) One of Afellay, Joselu or Diouf (AVA)
B) Noble (SUN)Diouf
Noble is on Penalties
Hmm, cheers chaps.
Noble
Why is everyone hating LVG? They're still doing better than Liverpool who have a better manager...
Quite a lot of us think he's doing a great job
No matter how bad things get for us we will always be better off than that lot but its no consolation really
That 'always' is a bit outrageous
Not at all mate
If both managers are the same for next 3 seasons do you think United will finish ahead every time?
not interested in answering hypothetical questions but lets face it things could hardly be worse for us right now and we are still above Liverpool with 2 wins over them..
That's now
You used the word always 😉Well its lasted the best part of 30 years so another 3 wouldnt be a surprise
13/14?
wouldnt argue you boys were the better team that season but ended up with just as much as us.. nothing
Well technically we've both been on the same level then since Fergie left
Neither of us have got anythingwe're both sh!te mate i wont dispute that
I like to think we're in a better position to move out of sh!teness but I suppose United have the money which is most relevant
yeah well this is it but only so long we can continue wasting most of it.. LVG needs bombed out and Woodward needs to go back to doing what he does best.. accounting
You're dead right but I hope it doesn't happen 🙂
I'm sure plenty of non united fans are probably loving him
"Doing better than Liverpool" is not exactly a great benchmark to be setting...
"exactly although slightly comforting to know we can still beat them home and away lol
That's a nice wee consolation alright mate
Well I think thee are several reasons.
1. LVG plays dull, turgid and boring football. Man U fans expect something a little more entertaining.
2. LVG was introduced as the great manager and a worthy heir to Fergie. A lot of money has been spent during his time there and in many cases not wisely. They are still short on defensive cover and upfront.
3 Liverpool got Klopp in part of the way through the season. The faults of the team can hardly be laid wholly at his door. He can be judge more effectively next seasonDoing better than a squad that Brenda built is not really saying anything especially considering the money LVG has spent.
I hear all the Mourinho talk is a smokescreen for Rodgers rocking up at Old Trafford next season.
That would literally be the funniest thing
u just answered ur own question, klopp is the better manager, but united have( or at least should have) better players and more resources...
Spent more money though and Liverpool are in a cup final. LVG is a kn@b and Klopp is a breath of fresh air
He has had a lot more time. He has gotten a lot more money. He doesn't seem to have a vision for they style of play (despite his talk about philosophy). It is tedious to watch. He got a better squad than Klopp. Klopp hasn't had the chance to buy players and have a pre season with pool.
To be fair, I still think the Fergie team left a mess behind and a lot of issues are bound to happen after this kind of era.Do you reckon Fergie did it on purpose to ensure he looked even better after he left, like some massive, evil, dictatorial egotist from hell?
Haha yes!!!!! But seriously there were some serious issues with the team's future prospects at the time SAF left the helm
LVG +250m>>>>>>>> Klopp
Bag of peas + 250m>>>>>>>>Klopp
No free membership for guessing correctly I am afraid, but who do you think will win the FA Cup?
Chelsea for me.Put a good penny in that as well. Before they drew City, but still believe they will.
Shrewsbury
Chelsea
Manchester United
A*****l
That must hurt
I'm sure it does. I don't go that way luckily
Definitely what I said 😆
Anaaaal?
Yeah that's right
Citeh
Request to be added to Radio Cheesoid playlist.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1VjxuJiio
Fantastic stuff....You got it
Find a good version of it to download and stick it in your ears loud through headphones. It's absolutely awesome.
Will do
This "La Liga is great, PL is low quality" thing: La liga is poor, I'm sorry. PL is rich and United, Chelsea, City will splash the cash to make great squads and buy world class players, and will soon gain stability. Other mid table and lower table clubs are going to bring good players from other European leagues (Payet, Ayew, Khazri etc.). Players will rather go to West Ham than to Vallencia.
Have Utd, City and Chelsea not splashed cash recently then?
Yes, and they will do it again and again. So I wouldn't worry that much if I am United fan.
Depends who spends it - spent over £200m in recent times and squad (even without injuries) is atrocious
I think you have massively missed the point here.
Maybe I did, yes. But in the end that's how the story finishes. With the massive TV deal, and big pulling power, not only that superclubs like City and United will attract world class players, but also there will be a formation of "middle class" PL clubs, and that will add not only to the competitiveness but to the overall quality.
I agree, but that hasnt really happended yet, the effects wont be fully seen for a couple seasons . I was purely talking about the last few years and right now. the future as i mention below should be different
The discussion was whether which league is better in terms of the quality of teams. No one is disputing that the Premier league has more money. The style of football played in the Premier league is more exciting as its more up tempo making it fun to watch. This combined with the excellent marketing of the league has meant huge flows of money coming into the league to be distributed amongst the teams. This has enabled as you say lower league clubs to buy up these good players such as payet, Khaziri. La Liga can still attract these good players too, maybe the lower league clubs dont have the money to do so, but they still field good sides. This is evidenced by their very strong play in European competitions over the last 10 years. Thus the statement La Ligas sides are stronger than the Premier leagues.
I think I answered to you in the post above. Maybe they can still attract good players, but how long that is going to last?
not too sure to be honest, the huge new TV contracts will off course have an effect but the class and quality of the Spanish sides will remain intact with great youth acadamies and good scouting. I was basing my arguement on consistent performances over the last 10 years. I do agree these are exciting times for the Premier league and in the not too distant future their teams should and most likely will be dominating in Europe
What if those young players from Spanish academies decide to sign better contracts with English sides than with parent clubs?
That is for the future, and will be revealed to us in the next few years. Right now its a different sotry
erm... nope 🙂 no La Liga is better overall then the Prem... monopolistic leagues like that aren't going anywhere.
I've seen the hot topic with the overly complicated spreadsheet....but...
Has anyone made a straighforward post on gameweek 30 possibilities?Just wait a few days all will be clear
One of the community articles pretty much spelled it out
Patience my young padawan
I don't know if you're referring to Balders' post, but if you were then there was a link in it to my DGW/Blank chart which (I hope) sets out the GW30 options about as simply as you can hope for. You can find the chart here:
https://fpldiva.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/double-gameweek-planning-part-seven/
Just noticed all my players have home games except Özil and Sanchez
The most common score this season so far (for the second season running) is 0-1 with 10% of all results finishing that way.
Yeah there are some tasty fixtures... So will prob be a massive let down. Who you C?
Vardy probably
Not sure if I should get rid of Alexis or Lukaku this GW.
Lukaku
Who to get?
Lol @ our foreign conversation getting deleted
Racists 😆
And at the end, they will even bann me...I was just kidding.I was using Google translate 😆
Did it make much sense?Yup, it was correct. 🙂
😎
Lukaka easy peasy
Who to get then?
If u already have vardy, then kane/costa/martial pudding and pie
whats the rest of your midfield?
Ozil Payet Alli Mahrez
lukaku probably then, out for vardy?
Already got him
Agbonlahor?
Tokelo Rantie perhaps?
The one with the blank
Who to get then?
Are you guys waiting on the Lukaku->Vardy transfer or taken it early to save £?
done it early, never usually do though
Already made the move.
I missed the first Vardy price increase tho.Lukaku dropping tonight according to fplstatistics
thanks, but damn - snookered myself by already having 3 Leicester players. Will wait on it to see what arises elsewhere
Alli, Eriksen, Arnautovic, Shakiri, Siggy
Which of these would you be looking at bringing on for Firmino..
Sanchez, Mahrez, Payet, Stanislas, Firmino my current mids.siggy
Arnie/Siggy
Siggy, Arnie or eriksen
Siggy
Alli
Eriksen in that order
Agbonlahor essential?
Obviously 🙄
got him in for a hit
Gabby aren't we?
What's your grav from Cheeseoid? Looks familiar
Wow, that brings back memories!! I remember that well now! Cheers mate
I never realized it was that easy to find these old games to play online before
http://game-oldies.com/play-online/new-zealand-story-the-sega-master-system#
Will always be a fav of mine!I think I completed that
Think I did myself. Many of hours in the arcade on that one..
Only one player in fpl has a negative total score, who is it?
Wasi
☑
If the swansea game goes ahead gameweek 30, they'll have norwich, bournemouth and villa from gameweek 29-31.
Siggy the only safe bet you feel? or possibly a good time to punt on someone?Any of siggy, ayew, paloschi could come good.
yeah hoping to slot in one of them
Ashley Williams.
Okay guys, seriously. We all sit here laying our masterplans to deal with the GW30 blanks - stocking up on Soton defenders, Stoke players, tripling on Leicester etc. But IF there are replays in the FA cup, when the heck are they gonna be played? Surely they have to be played in GW28 or GW29 as there are no other options - creating further blanks possibly involving Leicester, Southampton and Stoke?
Or am I missing something here?I'm not thinking about it
How did you know I was sitting here laying my masterplan to deal with the GW30 blanks?! I told no-one!
I know where you live...
Just my two cents on La Liga v Premier League. Firstly, a lot of people don't watch La Liga and follow only Premier League. La Liga is easily the higher standard league compared to Premier League imo.
Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid hands down destroy any PL team easily.
Sevilla, Bilbao, Valencia, Villareal would easily beat PL team equivalent of Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs.
People argue that Premier League attracts the best players in the world and is the best league in the world, it's the most *competitive* league in the world. They attract all the La Liga rejects ie. Ozil, Sanchez, Di Maria, Pedro etc.
These are players who were sold onto the PL team because they were surplus to requirements and couldn't break into the team. James Rodriguez replaced Ozil, Sanchez replaced by Neymar,, Feel free to add your opinion on the matter.1. There was a time when the pl had all the big players, but now they all go to la liga (bale, messi, suarez, cr7 etc)
2. Team for team, la liga beats pl hands down at the moment (wasn't always like this).
3. The gap between pl teams is smaller than the gap between la liga teams (hence the 'competitiveness')
4. Most of the educated world are anglophiles i suppose due to the british empire times. As such, they somehow pay more attention to all things english3. is only through as there is a lack of talent at the top of the league
At the moment yes.
I remember a few seasons ago when saf was still mu boss, it was always mu, chelski and arsenal. Everybody else was pretty much second rate.But it's not true anymore, simple as
Yep but it will happen again. Cyclical if you like.
The british empire (english pl teams) will rise again to dominate europe, even though the national team continues to do diddly squat.
Only some things arr set in stone e.g. scotland will never win the world cup 🙂
I have said enough on this on this page. But I agree 🙂 this is highlighted by the success of every Spanish team you mentioned. they have combined to win 7 of the last 12 Europa leagues, and 5 of last 12 Champions leagues, with a combined 3 losing finalists.
Teams at the top are better, in terms of quality, but also the number of good sides. That's already been pointed out tbf.
Harsh on Spurs to lump us in with United and Liverpool. I think we're in the Madrid Barca category 🙂
I think a like-for-like table comparison settles the debate.
We love the EPL but come on.As a Saints fan, I love Poch and what he's done for us.. But even more with Spurs.
Underrated. Hasn't had the recognition he deserves last few years
Also Gary Lineker has the final say in the matter.
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/gary-lineker-claims-la-liga-is-better-than-premier-league-during-liverpool-v-real-madrid-tweets/That's it then. Settled.
I admit I haven't seen a huge amount of La Liga action, but my understanding is the Premier League is played at a more frenetic pace. Add to that the Premier League's more competitive nature, which you accept, and you have a recipe for under performance by Premier League sides when clubs from the two leagues meet. I'm sure if Real, Barca or Athletico was in the Premier League they would be close to the top given their quality, but would the others really be able to "easily beat" Spurs, Man Utd and Liverpool if they were playing at the same intensity as their opposition week in, week out?
But you could argue that once you add technical ability and tactical awareness into the equation, this 'frantic' pace would be slowed down since Man Utd & Liverpool etc. will be ball chasing majority of the time while Spanish teams dominate possession.
Clubs in Spain have the best managers as well not just the players. Although Pep to City will be interesting and could mark a new era of PL V La Liga, based on current form.
If you look at the history of Premier League clubs in top 6 v La Liga clubs in top 6, results don't look good for PL Clubs. Coupled by the fact that Bilbao (a team who relies on youth, technical ability and tactics) did the double over Man Utd who have a ridiculous transfer budget.
Price Changes - 19th Feb 2016
Risers : None
Fallers : Lukaku and Paloschi
Trollkaku is back.
Cheers TM, that Lukaku drop was coming sooner or later
Hi TM - any chance you can edit the Yes/No competition post as per http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/comment/12712266 ?
Only Jonty/Mark do edits.
They are minor ones tbh. The Monday game looks like a Sunday game anyway.Added a sticky.
Thanks TM.
0.1 down 🙁
Paloschi owner?
Maybe next week.
None still plays in this league? WOW
Dea Gea/ McCarthy combo lookin pretty sweet yeeeeeeah 🙂
...De Gea and Hennessey here.
GW30 might mean an early swap.First Simpson, now De Gea. Plans in tatters.
Same. Could play Henn if needed or just get Butland/Forster/another GW30 GK.
Forster looks quite tempting, although already own van Dijk.
No reason not to double up given their current form from where I'm sitting.
Think de Gea will really be out for PL or the games before?
https://imageshack.us/i/p5WXwABVp
Remember Jesus scored against ExeterJesus died for your sins in 4BC. Reported.
Bit harsh reporting Jesus for dying.
Nah it's fine. He was back 3 day later.
Never bench Mahrez
I got punished once, got away with it twice. I won't be benching him for the next 9 though.
I haven't benched him for the last 26 and don't intend to bench him for the next 12
Oxlaide-Chamberlain likely to keep his starting place gwk 27?
If it's fantasy related, don't consider him. I think he keeps the place for the FA Cup maybe, but should be benched in favour of Campbell for more important games.
likely but why would u want him ?
I doubt it
8 years, 2 months agoBouncebackability
Whoever it was, posted in advance that he (his brother?) had cashed in £7k on Saturday but would have won £900K if Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs had won on Sunday. They did