After analysing Arsenal’s season in yesterday’s article, we now turn our attentions to Aston Villa’s displays under new manager Tim Sherwood. Handed the reigns in Gameweek 26, the former Spurs boss successfully guided his new side to top-flight safety and also clinched a place in the FA Cup final, with his attack-minded approach offering a refreshing change from the more pragmatic tactics under previous manager, Paul Lambert.
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True story, this just happened
Got a phone call that turned out to be a wrong number. The guy said something like "Is Gumma there?"
I said "I think you've got the wrong number"
"Are you sure, who are you?"
"Well, who are you looking for for?"
"Shirley"
"You've definitely got the wrong number, you don't need to know my name, oh, and don't call me Shirley"-
and what a way to open a new post
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true enough, it was only the part about him asking for Shirley that got me. I couldn't resist
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He said Gumma at the start of the call, how come that changed to Shirley?
You should ring him back and ask him.-
I just assumed it was a nickname and the person he meant to ring would know who he was referring to
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I once got a phonecall who asked if I was G? I said yup, that he seemed to think i was called Gadget and I had to explain that I clearly wasnt the G he was after and that no I didnt know what his phone number was.
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what up G?
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Not much mate
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Seems to be some sort of activity on the Euro U21 fantasy site...
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Brilliant Copa America Fantasy game, guys:
http://www.ca.superdt.cl/
It's in Spanish, but if you're using Google Chrome it will either translate automatically or right click and do it manually. I'm sure you can all figure that out!
The game is almost identical to FPL; captains, auto-subs, 15-man squads, points the same and $1000 budget. Found it on Twitter, pretty chuffed.-
Seems a good game to try
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Nice work mate
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Great find. Having trouble making a decent team though
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Nice
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I can't work it out on an iPhone
Is there an option to switch to English-
Safari problems.
Download Chrome or Bing to your iPhone and use that.-
you can create a league, and post the link here or in a new post later, for everyone who wants try
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Added a league for people to join;
Name: Fantasy Football Scout
Password: ffs2015
Feel free to spread the word.
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Benteke price prediction? 8.0m?
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I think he was about that this season
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Depends who he's with.
If Villa then £9 - £9.5m
if Liverpool £10-10.5m I'd think.-
Has he earned a price rise? It was a mixed season.
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End of season he was scoring for fun once Sherwood took over from Lambert.
If he had kept that rate up at the start of the season…….
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8.5-9
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8.5
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Clean Sheet Stat Blast.
Where do the top defences keep their clean sheets?
14/15 - Chelsea (17), West Bromwich Albion (16), Southampton (15).
13/14 - Chelsea (18), Arsenal (17), Manchester City (16).
12/13 - Manchester City (18), Liverpool (16), Arsenal (14), Chelsea (14).
- The top three defences over the past three seasons have kept a combined 161 clean sheets.
- 59% of these were kept at home and 41% were kept away from home.
- 17% of the clean sheets kept were against promoted sides.
- These 10 clubs played a promoted side 60 times over three years and kept clean sheets in 45% of these games.
- 13% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 1st-5th.
- 27% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 6th-10th.
- 27% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 11th-15th.
- 33% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 16th-20th.
- They kept just 1 more (44) clean sheet against teams finishing 6th-10th than teams finishing 11th-15th (43).
- 40% of the clean sheets were against top half opponents and 60% were against bottom half opponents.
- 45% of the 161 clean sheets were in the 1st half of the season and 55% in the second half.-
So play Chelsea defenders against Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich then?
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Chelsea are actually better at keeping clean sheets against top four opponents, as you'll see in my recently submitted article.
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Not a member at the moment, can't afford it, so maybe not. 🙁
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Surely non-members can still see community submitted articles?
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No idea.
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pretty sure they can. The only thing they can't do is access any members' only info (like tables) linked in it
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Chelsea are better at keeping cleanies at home
17 CS last season 5 away
Sunderland (who were limp for most of that season)
Stoke
West Ham
Swansea
Arsenal
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that's a useful post...thanks
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if 17% clean sheets were against promoted sides
so 83% clean sheets were against the other sides
with total opponents = 19,
the 3 promoted sides = 3/19 = 16% of the opposition ( =close enough to the 17% above)
and the other 16 sides........ = 84% of the opposition ( =close enough to the 83% above)
Does this mean that the % of clean sheets against a promoted side are the same the % of clean sheets against a non-promoted side? Evidence above suggests so... Fascinating.-
- 13% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 1st-5th.
- 27% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 6th-10th.
- 27% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 11th-15th.
- 33% of the clean sheets were against teams finishing 16th-20th
I'd say just organise your cheap defender rotation to avoid the best 4-5 attacking teams and you'll be ok because there's lots of randomness for clean sheets and the other teams are much of a muchness...that's what I do anyway and I think these stats just confirmed my existing prejudices
obviously it's best to play them in home games but it's more important to avoid the top clubs...so try for 3 cheap defenders with only one tough game...that way you always have a good bench defender-
I agree, clean sheets are much more unpredictable than goalscorers.
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I've been stuck on the old article for ages because LR didn't provide a link.
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Apologies father
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All is forgiven son. Welcome back.
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Get Karen Carney on!!
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Is it just me or are France playing without bra's...
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Probably just you because you're the only one watching 🙂
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What else are you watching at this time? Eastenders?
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I'm watching Watchmen
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Not missing much, we've got a flat back nine, and Aluko is not seeing much of the ball at all.
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Great choice.
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not seen it in ages.
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Have always really enjoyed it.
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I've seen it before but not in a while and it's somewhere at the bottom of my DVD pile. Saw it show up on the TV guide so I hit record, just getting round to watching it now
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I don't watch much TV. Women's football wouldn't appeal to me even if I did.
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Some of them are wearing very thin sports bras. The problem is finding something comfortable while playing sport but doesn't show when they're feeling cold. 😛
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I see
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You wouldn't go without a bra - it's very uncomfortable to have them bouncing everywhere.
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Thats what I thought, and the reason I asked, it seemed odd. Did wonder if the shirt was structured in the same way that womens climbing tops are designed to be worn braless now.
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That's possible but unlikely, just in case a quick shirt change was necessary.
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spoilsport
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I always wondered if England women's team could be just as good as the England men's team at international football...turns out they are.
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By the virtue that they're both dire to watch?
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Aye....
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What level of men's football do you think England's women's team could be competitive at?
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Why do you ask this when you clearly didn't watch? 😛
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I'm just curious to see what everyone thinks because I'm pretty unsure about the answer.
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I don't think it'd be very high. They'd struggle with the speed and physicality of the men's game and, unfortunately, that tends to be even more important at the lower levels of men's football. It's not really helpful to think about it in these terms - it just wouldn't work.
As for a precise level, I don't think I could give you an accurate estimate as I don't watch enough women's football and I doubt anyone else here does either.-
I know it wouldn't ever happen but it's still interesting to think about it.
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This, it wouldnt be fair to play lower league football as the refs allow physicality to dominate the play. Skill becomes irrelevant at that point.
They would do better against higher up teams where positioning and ball control are more important. -
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Not any level, unfortunately. Put them up against some lower league bruisers and it would be game over for them, and at the very highest levels they just wouldn't have the skill required. But with time they could. Can't see it being any time soon though.
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Put prem teams up against lower league bruisers and they struggle
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True that. Sometimes get to see it in the FA Cup early rounds.
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Ayew going to be tempted by Ayew if he joins Swansea?
Out of all of the Swansea assets I'm still on the Sig-train, provided he's no more than 7.5m.-
Which Ayew?
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😀
Now I hope he doesn't sign due to some of the dreadful puns that'll come with it.
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yup, Siggy still the man for me
surprised you're not on the Gomis train though GB-
I may be. Depends on prices and fixtures.
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1 week, 12 hours and 45 minutes!
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I do really like Gomis though. He was brilliant toward the end. But Siggy has that FPL pedigree, and on set-pieces. Pre-season and quality of other options will ultimately decide 4th mid and 3rd striker spots.
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gomis growing into the league once bony left
siggy at end of season started playing much deeper giving the kids (ki +shelvey) space-this is with monks blessing-i think the early days of siggy everywhere on the pitch is rightfully over as ki shelvey montero rout and dyer+ayew make swansea into the ultimate team team and not conducive to FPL material bar gomis imo
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Yew.
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Yes*
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Villa will miss Cleverley's contribution. Who can replace him?
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A lamppost on the half way line.
I'm not fooled by his decent late season form.-
yep -should allow gardener jnr to take his rightful place in midfield
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🙁 I was.
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Iniesta
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Over the hill
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That hill was a huge mountain - he was fantastic at his best.
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Sherwood becomes player-manager.
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James McCarthy
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Liverpool
Henderson
Allen
Can
Lallana
£59.75m
Juve
Pogba
Pirlo
Khedira
Marchisio
Vidal
£11m-
Lambert Balotelli £20m
Tevez Llorente £10m -
So Andy Carroll cost them over 3 times as much as Pogba,Pirlo,Khedira,Marchisio & Vidal combined?!!
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Physicality > Skill
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But £15m less than Torres, so you know, it made sense....... 😆 😆 😆
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Unfortunately that money went on Stewart Downing
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easy to laugh as a United fan but we could have had Hamez for £5m
Instead we paid £2m more for Bebe 🙄
Carlos Quieroz, great coach, sh!t talent spotter-
Bebe is better than Aspas, so we still have that 😀
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Manucho says hi
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ACON Golden Boot winner?
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Martin O' Neill went for Heskey instead of Falcao 🙂
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I bet United wish they'd made that decision this season though 😀
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True . Fellaini and Heskey a missed opportunity
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At least United or Liverpool didn't decide against buying Zidane because they already have Tim Sherwood.
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no, we decided against buying Zidane because we didn't think he could work with Cantona
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Henry was all pace
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Don't forget Jones over Varane as well.
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And refusing to pay the agent fees for Hazard, and signing Kagawa instead.
Although I must admit, I thought Shinji would be awesome. 🙁-
As did I, sadly. I really rate him, just didn't work at United, not that he had that much of a chance.
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Why Liverpool's midfield (which is pick and choose) and not anyone else's midfield?
Liverpool's best midfield is Can Henderson Milner Coutinho, that cost 38m
Carrick Fellaini Herrera Mata...??
pick and choose lol
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Hi lads.
I'm on sick leave from work until next Friday, just in time for fixtures to be announced.
I'm going to have loads of time so I'm thinking about making a spreadsheet on defensive rotations.
Or is there any other spreadsheet that could be more useful?-
Nothing serious I hope?
There seems to be little doubt we are going to need some excellent defenders around 4-4.5 to accommodate the raft of expensive mids.
Maybe a spreadsheet allowing for swapping cheap defenders for other cheapies when the fixtures get tough for teams likely to struggle against the top attacking sides.
Quite a lot to ask I know. Then of course just email it to me and don't tell anyone else or keep a copy yourself. 😉-
😀
My doc has exaggerated my sprained ankle 😆 I don't really need the entire 3 weeks to heal (half-way through currently) but hey I'm not complaining!
And thanks for the idea, I'll accommodate that in my sheet as well. I hope to spend no-life Wednesday the 19th at home and finish everything by the end of the day.
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other people will do them anyway...you can easily search for them and the scouts did cracking articles last year
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was all set on using the team name
Who Ate All Depays this season but Koning Luther posted a team name before that just made me laugh so much I may have to change
Fer Fuchs Ake-
You've been talking up using Who Ate All Depays for the past 6 months. You shouldn't be allowed to change your mind now. 😉
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yeah, I'll just use the other one for my dog's team 😉
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Reported.. it's Konig 😉
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I thought I'd bloody changed it, noticed it the first time 😳
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Hi guys, appreciate its early but roughly when does the fpl publish its players for the new season (what with next season starting earlier)
And the stoopid question: pre season prices don't change, right ? This only happens in-season ?-
Mid July
Yeah -
Game will open in July.
Prices only change after the season starts.-
thanks guys
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England look well set to win the next ODI World Cup
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They always do.
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NZ following on in a one day match! 😉
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It's the England selectors that need to follow on. Picking a batsman who can spin it a little bit instead of a proper spinner beggars belief. Especially when the bloke who's a proper spinner looks no mug with the bat either.
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rashy rashy rashy....
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its all yorksheer...
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Deluded Brendan @DeludedBrendan Jun 8
Now I have a new strike force assembled
Milner, Ings, Sterling and Sturridge (MISS)-
ok i'm no liverpool fan-citeh fan
-milner much improves the team-he's a starter ,all season
ings improves squad
sterling they should ca$h in on his illadvised moves
i wish sturridge well on a fit season(another foolishly advised citeh connection)
they do need some proper transfer though.........
getting benitez right hand man will help brodgers who seems out of his depth without water wings-
+1
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I would largely agree, certainly on the signings so far. Some unhappy campers but I think both are decent acquisitions, not show stoppers but good options, Milner especially is a fine player.
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If you can't beat 'em, troll 'em
https://twitter.com/Sport_Witness/status/608359138092056576
"Well, if AS are right then Woodward is doing his best to cause a stir. The Spanish newspaper reported on Tuesday that Manchester United in recent weeks have made contact with Real Madrid at various times to ask about signing all of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane."-
Go on Woody! Ask about Carvajal next. 😀
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Arguably Varane is the one they need most, after Cristiano of course
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O'Neil and Keane in car accident, rear ended apparently. Could have been some serious road rage there. (Not seriously injured)
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I'd run off as far as my little legs could carry me if i shunted them two.
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You've clearly never tried to outrun an incensed Corkman. 😉
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Just renewed my membership, feel about as excited as Gary Neville when Chelsea score in Europe 😀
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So, our defence should have several sorts of balance.
A couple or three of full backs, and a couple of centre backs.
Two or three bonus earners, and two or three with attacking prospects.
All should represent value for clean sheets ... 🙂-
Who do you fancy to perform better than last year ?
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Stones and Rose, probably.
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I may go Dier over Rose dependent on price, though putting Spurs in the value for CS category doesn't seem right
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Agree. If Lloris goes, all bets are off.
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Spurs have a mountain to climb. Some teams can't keep a CS but actually defend quite well and just let the odd goal in....which by no means makes them a bad defence. Spurs on the other hand were good value for every goal they let in, damned near as bad as QPR at times.
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I don't disagree - Pochetino is a nightmare.
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I may avoid Spuds all-together next season unless Chadli is around the 7m mark
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I also expect WBA to stutter ...
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Yeah, I agree. They did well but they rode their luck a bit in terms of chances conceded an such like....They'll still be ok though.
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Do you think Sakho will be priced kindly ?
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Diafro? Yes, I do.
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No, I think he meant Diafra. 😉
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Typa, sorry. 😉
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Flipped the pedantic switch off the second after I posted. 😛
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😀
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yeah Diafro is Fellaini
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😆
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😀
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Yep . He was getting plenty of chances under BFS and he is one I am going to monitor
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I feel for Liverpool fans. It's a great club with a rich history but it's getting slowly killed by decisions at the top.
This was their team in 08/09 that beat Real Madrid 4-0
........................Reina
Arbeloa - Carragher - Skrtel - Aurelio
..........Mascherano - Alonso
.....Kuyt.........Gerrard........Babel
.....................Torres
They've spent £135,330,000 net in the last 4 years. This is the XI that lost 6-1 to Stoke:
....................Mignolet
....Can ...Skrtel.. Sakho... Moreno
.........Henderson..Lucas.Allen.
.......Coutinho...Gerrard...Lallana-
But there is also a certain amount of self-delusion there ...
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They really havent had a top manager in recent year. Daglish was the worst at wasting money
Though tbh, if i picked a united xi from a game this season and conpared it to the united xi against barca in 09 final it would look awful too-
pretty much this, well said
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Yeah, perhaps I've been a little unfair.
But that team is close to their first team, excluding Sturridge. And the likes of Blackett and McNair are third string players that only had to play due to an unfortunate injury crisis. Whatever the skew, Liverpool's current squad is no where near good enough for a top 4 spot. United's is.-
Disagree with the last comment. United got 4th last season because of Liverpool's failure. Without DDG, it would've been different. United still capitalised on LFC's mistakes, but United's team isn't as good people think it is. And to say Liverpool's current squad is nowhere good enough is probably exaggerating a little.
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Liverpool literally did everything wrong last year . Yous sold your best player for big money and wasted all of it , failed to settle on a formation and played players namely Sterling completely out of position , fell out with your star player , crashed out of the Champions League and the Europa League . Despite all of that yous could have qualified for the Champions League if Sturridge was not so injury prone or one of your other strikers knew there was goals at both ends of the pitch . Yous were in a position to push on last year and blew it. If United spend another £150 m ...
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There's only 1 man to blame for that
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Whatever about the teams, there is a bit of a fallacy in the Liverpool's failure argument. It hinges on assuming that had Liverpool's results improved, United's results would have remained the same. Essentially, if Liverpool played better, perhaps they would have gotten top 4, or perhaps United's results would have also improved.
It kind of reminds me of a a City fan saying "we gave Chelsea the title because we won fewer matches", it is true, but not the only reason Chelsea won.-
yep it's a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts'
whatever has happened has happened now, best to move on to next season-
I agree. Long summer of transfers ahead, I feel.
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don't know about that. no budget.
I don't think there was any way to keep Suarez at Liverpool bar if had have won the league maybe he would stayed one more year.
agree we wasted a big opportunity but still think we have a good squad and a lot of young players-
I mean in general, can see Pool going after a few more, United too, Arsenal need a couple, City need a big overhaul, Chelsea will look to strengthen.
If Pool sell Sterling and one or two others they'll have decent money I think. I agree, it was too tough to keep Suarez, he wanted to be at Barcelona, which is completely understandable. The squad is fine, I think they need a couple of reliable big players to bring it up a level. The beauty of young players is their potential to develop, the issue is whether they live up to that potential, and if they do what will they stay loyal to Pool. I certainly wouldn't say Liverpool have a bad squad at all, though.-
that's why Milner is a great buy cause he adds the much needed experience. a young team needs players like him around and he has a great attitude.
hopefully we can offload some players and make some good buys.
as you say we have potential
next season is going to be interesting. Utd struggled with no European football this season so be interesting to see how they do next season with champo league-
They'll be fine. They have a deep squad, will add more and also have a manager that is experienced in Europe. I can only see United improving next season.
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I am hopeful of improvement from United next season as well. If LVG has cracked how he wants to play, there should be less messing about. I think he has targeted the players that he wants now. The only thing I am concerned about is Di Maria, I really hope he gets back on track. But at least they have a growing squad, as Ruth says.
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Only 3 players from the second team would make the first team 🙁
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Sakho Cout over Babel Skrtel?
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yep, I'd also have hendo over kuyt personally
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Fair enough, I'd still edge for Kuyt but it's close
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Harry Kane and Man United
Take a look at @HuK_6's Tweet: https://twitter.com/HuK_6/status/607864524868231168?s=09-
It was never really considered a thing, was it?
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Just putting any ideas to bed 😉 Think Levy has it out for United after the Berba transfer
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You're probably right, well I hope you are at least 🙂
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Just watching "An hour to save your life" again (BBC2).....Jeez, these folk are fantastic.
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Can anyone tell me much about Pedro Obiang?
Rumoured to be signing for West Ham tomorrow.-
Dynamic, athletic, box to box midfielder. Decent passer too.
As you're a West Ham fan, I'd say Mo Diamé would be a similar comparison. 🙂-
Intriguing, thanks. Although Diame 's passing left a lot to be desired at times. Too many step overs!
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Indeed. The dynamic, all-action side of things are similar to those of Diamé though.
£4.5m or whatever it is would be a good deal.
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His [Borini's] agent Marco de Marchi said: “Soon we will have to talk to Liverpool.Several teams have asked for Fabio on loan but the Liverpool board have always refused, especially in light of the £10m bid that was rejected last year from Sunderland.
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we need to sell him. would be much better at sunderland anyway
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Such a strange situation, I understood that he wanted to prove himself at Pool, but he can't do that sitting on the bench which he must have expected? I think he needs a reality check, if he's really as good as he believes he is then he should have no problem finding a bigger team after a season or two at Sunderland, he's only 24.
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exactly
he didn't do much to prove himself in the games he played anyway. he is doing himself no favours staying at a team who clearly does not want him-
Yes indeed. I probably felt it was fair for him to think he deserved some gametime, his loan spell was not a roaring success but he certainly showed some decent play at time. But once it's clear they want to sell you, I don't know why you would stay.
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The Times are quoting Kevin De Bruyne as saying:
“My agent already spoke with City? Informally, yes,” he said. “I have not decided anything. I have time. No stress for me. We still have one match and I leave for a holiday.
“In that period, the clubs will maybe talk to each other, and my agent will talk, but for me there is no hurry."-
Would be a very good signing for City imo
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Aye. I just wonder why he couldn't make the break through at City, given how good he is. I wonder if there is a bit of an attitude there.
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Hmmm not sure who I'd believe, club or agent could be telling fibs.
I'm not sure what else would derail him though, as he definitely has the ability.-
Sometimes players do not fit in at certain clubs or under certain managers . Mata is an amazing player but he never fit in under Mourinho . He does not fit the system and was sold to United . Chelsea used the money to sign Matic aswell
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That is true I guess. Though Mata still got decent gametime, right? De Bruyne seemed to vanish entirely...
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i dont think for a minute that Mata wouldnt have done well at Chelsea this season, o.k maybe Oscar tracks back a bit but put Mata in his position in that Chelsea team and he would have killed it imo
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I'll be content as long as this doesn't happen. Kevin de Bruyne is probably the only (realistic) City signing that would really bother me. Wouldn't lose any sleep over Sterling...
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He'd be a good one, I agree and I would probably rate him over Sterling, though as I say I question his attitude.
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Would he count as a homegrown player for his time at Chelsea? Man City are short on them now that Milner, Boyata, and Sinclair are gone
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Hmmm. I would be doubtful he would count tbh.
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Obiang has signed for WHU by the looks of it
Song replacement I think-
Obiang - Noble - Kouyaté
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With Slaven Bilic..clean sheets galore. Europa will affect them though
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Yes sir, I think you're right as well. Hope he works out.
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Seems that way. Also read that Gignac and Ayew are on their way as well. They were offered contracts, since they are free agents. If this happens, WHU is looking towards a very good season.
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