Premier League 19-21 Dec

Saturday 19th December

Chelsea v Sunderland 15:00 2-0
Everton v Leicester 15:00 1-1
Man Utd v Norwich 15:00 2-0
Southampton v Tottenham 15:00 1-2
Stoke v Crystal Palace 15:00 2-1
West Brom v Bournemouth 15:00 1-2
Newcastle v Aston Villa 17:30 SKY SPORTS 2-0


Sunday 20th December

Watford v Liverpool 13:30 SKY SPORTS 1-1
Swansea v West Ham 16:00 SKY SPORTS 2-1


Monday 21st December

Arsenal v Man City 20:00 SKY SPORTS 2-1

Shame United is the tv game, the one at Southampton and Everton have more interest.
For Spurs it's great to have Dembele back in the line up, really missed him against Newcastle. More important for us now than Kane and Lloris.

how's our man

HUUUUUTH

doing these days ?

and

is HE the reason Leicster will win the title this year ?

might he even be the best German in the EPL now ?

Are Chelsea back, or is it just because Sunderland?

Sunderland change their manager before every game with us, the shoe is on the other hoof.

It's the last game before Christmas, watch out for players getting sent off so that they can have a holiday.

Murray wrote:It's the last game before Christmas, watch out for players getting sent off so that they can have a holiday.

Took a minute or two for McClean to follow your advice

Norwich one up at Old Trafford

And Spurs goes into the top 4, Harry Kane taking on entire Soton defence

rosenthal wrote:

Murray wrote:It's the last game before Christmas, watch out for players getting sent off so that they can have a holiday.

Took a minute or two for McClean to follow your advice

Somebody does it every year

Christ United are bad...

Mourinho to Man U, it's going to happen.

the Kane goal earlier, clowns in defence though
https://streamable.com/o8qp

Leicester

So that's ManU out of the title race.

Pitch is barely playable with the amount of water. Not that there's anything resembling good playing in either of these teams. Conceded yet another of our classics (let a crappy corner bounce all the way across 6 yard box for someone to poke in at far post)

Just found out Clasie was actually playing today. Mental.

Harry Kane is such a one season wonder ffs.

It's only a matter of time until the press start calling him Jurgen Plopp.

So wierd our team - we looked like we'd walk top 4 a few weeks ago; destroyed Chelsea, City and Southampton in their backyards and then we decide to stop fighting, stop playing and revert to the gutlessness of the last 5 years.

We'll lose this probably 3 or 4-0.

Klopp needs to sell a good 5 of these players and get some players with balls in.

We have the worst keepers in Europe - Rodgers decided Mignolet, Jones and Bogdan were a good set of keepers to have. Unbelievable.

I remember some years ago saying the smaller clubs in the PL were improving in general, and fewer and fewer teams could be classed as cannon fodder for the established clubs anymore. Some claimed is was just because the top 4 clubs were becoming worse creating an optical illusion. Yet it's so utterly clear that in the past the PL really only had a handful of maybe one or two club in the bottom half who played with any tactical nous beyond hoofball, merely looking to either survive or not go down with a record number of fewest points. That is no longer the case, the PL now has so many teams capable of playing well organized pressing and attacking football, as once again shown by Watford today, and Bournemouth, Leicester, Palace, Stoke, Swansea, Norwich. Money and shrewd management is evening out the playing field and its all the better for it.

Great, Jelavic starting so we're not going to score. He couldn't score in a brothel.

Watford 3-0.

Guessing that's it then, we can all put our willies away now that Klopp isn't the second coming of Jesus?

Isco Benny wrote:I remember some years ago saying the smaller clubs in the PL were improving in general, and fewer and fewer teams could be classed as cannon fodder for the established clubs anymore. Some claimed is was just because the top 4 clubs were becoming worse creating an optical illusion. Yet it's so utterly clear that in the past the PL really only had a handful of maybe one or two club in the bottom half who played with any tactical nous beyond hoofball, merely looking to either survive or not go down with a record number of fewest points. That is no longer the case, the PL now has so many teams capable of playing well organized pressing and attacking football, as once again shown by Watford today, and Bournemouth, Leicester, Palace, Stoke, Swansea, Norwich. Money and shrewd management is evening out the playing field and its all the better for it.

As true as that is, there are still massive and obvious flaws in the traditional big teams. And then you have to consider the PL performance in the CL and Europa. I still think if the big teams sort out their flaws, they'll cruise the league as before and until PL teams start to perform in Europe, the poor squad building of the richest clubs is the main factor of this crazy/brilliant season.

Isco Benny wrote:Watford 3-0.

Guessing that's it then, we can all put our willies away now that Klopp isn't the second coming of Jesus?

Jest?
He's got be given time to sus which players he can work with and who he needs to get rid. Like Pottichino it's gonna take some time for him to implement his system and work who can actually play that way.

shazlx wrote:

Isco Benny wrote:Watford 3-0.

Guessing that's it then, we can all put our willies away now that Klopp isn't the second coming of Jesus?

Jest?
He's got be given time to sus which players he can work with and who he needs to get rid. Like Pottichino it's gonna take some time for him to implement his system and work who can actually play that way.

Yeah absolutely he will need time and should be afforded it - I have never claimed anything otherwise.

You do realize though that there are videos on YouTube of Klopp highlights made of his televised appearances in the dugout though right (like they do with players)? That is the type of ridiculous hype stoked by the media (Sky Sports actually tracked his flight to Liverpool in real time FFS) I'm referring to here. We can agree he is human, that it will take some time and he isn't going to walz in and win them the league with just his charisma.

shazlx wrote:

Isco Benny wrote:I remember some years ago saying the smaller clubs in the PL were improving in general, and fewer and fewer teams could be classed as cannon fodder for the established clubs anymore. Some claimed is was just because the top 4 clubs were becoming worse creating an optical illusion. Yet it's so utterly clear that in the past the PL really only had a handful of maybe one or two club in the bottom half who played with any tactical nous beyond hoofball, merely looking to either survive or not go down with a record number of fewest points. That is no longer the case, the PL now has so many teams capable of playing well organized pressing and attacking football, as once again shown by Watford today, and Bournemouth, Leicester, Palace, Stoke, Swansea, Norwich. Money and shrewd management is evening out the playing field and its all the better for it.

As true as that is, there are still massive and obvious flaws in the traditional big teams. And then you have to consider the PL performance in the CL and Europa. I still think if the big teams sort out their flaws, they'll cruise the league as before and until PL teams start to perform in Europe, the poor squad building of the richest clubs is the main factor of this crazy/brilliant season.

I would simply say that on the whole the bigger/more established clubs (which I would lump Villa and Newcastle into as well) have mismanaged their advantage by over reliance on outspending one another, whilst smaller clubs have become savvy quicker to adopting more creative approaches to how to not only survive but actually grow - namely recruiting tactically astute managers and making use of well researched scouting networks, but just as importantly moving away from the traditional British model of the manager having control of everything and instead establishing a longer term framework where you can switch out the manager if required without having to entirely rebuild from the ground up again. QPR were the last club to maintain the old mentality and fail abysmally at this, versus a Southampton or Swansea (and now best illustrated by Leicester) where it's possible to lose your manager either through being poached by a bigger club or moved along purposefully and the club's structure enables the transition to occur will minimal impact on upward progression.

Isco Benny wrote:

shazlx wrote:

Isco Benny wrote:I remember some years ago saying the smaller clubs in the PL were improving in general, and fewer and fewer teams could be classed as cannon fodder for the established clubs anymore. Some claimed is was just because the top 4 clubs were becoming worse creating an optical illusion. Yet it's so utterly clear that in the past the PL really only had a handful of maybe one or two club in the bottom half who played with any tactical nous beyond hoofball, merely looking to either survive or not go down with a record number of fewest points. That is no longer the case, the PL now has so many teams capable of playing well organized pressing and attacking football, as once again shown by Watford today, and Bournemouth, Leicester, Palace, Stoke, Swansea, Norwich. Money and shrewd management is evening out the playing field and its all the better for it.

As true as that is, there are still massive and obvious flaws in the traditional big teams. And then you have to consider the PL performance in the CL and Europa. I still think if the big teams sort out their flaws, they'll cruise the league as before and until PL teams start to perform in Europe, the poor squad building of the richest clubs is the main factor of this crazy/brilliant season.

I would simply say that on the whole the bigger/more established clubs (which I would lump Villa and Newcastle into as well) have mismanaged their advantage by over reliance on outspending one another, whilst smaller clubs have become savvy quicker to adopting more creative approaches to how to not only survive but actually grow - namely recruiting tactically astute managers and making use of well researched scouting networks, but just as importantly moving away from the traditional British model of the manager having control of everything and instead establishing a longer term framework where you can switch out the manager if required without having to entirely rebuild from the ground up again. QPR were the last club to maintain the old mentality and fail abysmally at this, versus a Southampton or Swansea (and now best illustrated by Leicester) where it's possible to lose your manager either through being poached by a bigger club or moved along purposefully and the club's structure enables the transition to occur will minimal impact on upward progression.

I agree with that except the likes of ManC, Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool and Spurs already have those structures. They are just failing to execute thier strategies as well as the smaller clubs live Watford and Leicester, relative to resources. Only Arsenal and Eveton of the big clubs retain the old fashioned club manager status.

So yeah thee smaller clubs have definitely modernized their structures and caught up but the richer clubs have attemped to do the same to some extect but just haven't done it as well.

Isco Benny wrote:

shazlx wrote:

Isco Benny wrote:Watford 3-0.

Guessing that's it then, we can all put our willies away now that Klopp isn't the second coming of Jesus?

Jest?
He's got be given time to sus which players he can work with and who he needs to get rid. Like Pottichino it's gonna take some time for him to implement his system and work who can actually play that way.

Yeah absolutely he will need time and should be afforded it - I have never claimed anything otherwise.

You do realize though that there are videos on YouTube of Klopp highlights made of his televised appearances in the dugout though right (like they do with players)? That is the type of ridiculous hype stoked by the media (Sky Sports actually tracked his flight to Liverpool in real time FFS) I'm referring to here. We can agree he is human, that it will take some time and he isn't going to walz in and win them the league with just his charisma.

Come on! So what if some Liverpool fans and the media hype machine have gone overboard. That's modern football media and social media for you. All about hype and drama over actual football. Its another entertainment industry as much as anything.

I will add that there does seem to be a lot of coaches who aren't flexible with their tactics and need the right set of players to play the way THEY want. They're not so great at getting the best out of what they've got. When he does get the set of players he wants, expect them to be be pretty damn good. Maybe.