Europa League 2017/2018

[cgf]

Lovely finish by Traoré.Lyon robbed Chelsea blind lol 10m for a 22m with his upside in today's market is crazy value.

I wanted him on Gladbach so badly :-( Coulda competed with baby Hazard to be Raffael & Stindl's under-studies while also factoring in from the wings in a big way.

 

[Evilo]

You can't see the difference between a missed offside and players trying to injure (Mirrallas, Lookman) and a clear attempt to start a brawl by throwing a goalie in the air into the ads (Williams)???

Really?

 

[Evilo]

Traore can be class, he has loads of talents. But he is way too inconsistant and sometimes a clear lack of IQ. He won't hit the next level IMO.

 

[hatterson]

Great save by Pickford there.

 

[cgf]

Traore can be class, he has loads of talents. But he is way too inconsistant and sometimes a clear lack of IQ. He won't hit the next level IMO.

Which is why I wanted him to rotate with baby Hazard & I. Traore through the wing spots around Lars & Raffa. Let the rotation cover for their cold stretches on the wings and hope they can convince Eggestein to take the next step in his career with them; once he's done studying from Maxi Kruse

 

[Pouchkine]

This referee is terrible I agree. The level of refereeing at the moment is very low all around, a lot of coward in the lot.

 

[John Pedro]

I wanted him on Gladbach so badly :-( Coulda competed with baby Hazard to be Raffael & Stindl's under-studies while also factoring in from the wings in a big way.

For 10m Ajax should've kept him. He can play wide as well as CF, works his butt off defensively and has good dribbling skills. His decision making is questionable but he's still young enough to improve it. Lyon got him and Diaz on the cheap.

 

[YNWA14]

There's a difference sure, but one isn't impacting the result of the game directly while the other is. They're both extremely bad in different ways, but I don't pick one or the other to be 'worse' bad reffing. I don't think that there's any kind of clear intent to injure some players just make stupid tackles/decisions (you'll see I was in favour of Mane's ban despite a lack of intent). Ashley should have seen red for the ensuing scuffle but that's also hard for the ref to see/do given there was just a mob of players grabbing at eachother. The push on the keeper is stuff that happens all game, it just looks worse because of when and where it happened (and it was rightly given a yellow); the foul you're talking about with Davies gets let go all the time when it looks like a player is trying to draw a foul.

Just as an example of a missed call the Pogba chokeslam on Henderson in the box last season was worse than Ashley's push and it got no attention at all.

Traore can be class, he has loads of talents. But he is way too inconsistant and sometimes a clear lack of IQ. He won't hit the next level IMO.

If his time at Ajax is any indication then this is exactly true. He is a lot like Memphis; he lacks the toolbox to make use of the very obvious tools.

 

[Evilo]

Mirallas tackled from behind. Took the feet and then the ball. First half. Not even a foul. It WAS attempt to injure. Same with at least 3 or 4 fouls on Fekir in the first half. Lookman made an awful tackle without even trying to touch the ball in the first half too (yellow).

Anyway, Lyon at least gets the 3.

 

[Evilo]

Without any surprise, Koeman went to see the dutch ref at the end of the game. Probably told him thanks for the help, but I'll be fired anyway.

 

[Pouchkine]

This Everton team is terrible. Didn't they spend a lot of money lately?

 

[Evilo]

BTW two Everton fans hit or tried to hit Lopes on the Williams phantom red card and the brawl.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Halfway through the group stage...

A: Villarreal came from two goals down to earn a point at home to Slavia who they are joint top with, Astana with a convincing win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv are 3rd place but one point back, question is whether they can get points away from home to really compete for 2nd place

B: Dynamo Kiev only managed a point at home against 10-man Young Boys but they remain in firm control of 1st place; Young Boys have drawn all three matches but despite that are in 2nd while Skenderbeu-Partizan played a scoreless draw which doesn't help either team

C: Ludogorets go to Braga and win 2:0 and put themselves in good position to win the group should they beat them at home. Hoffenheim get their first ever win in Europe over Istanbul Basaksehir but still have work to do in order to finish in the top 2

D: Milan held to a scoreless draw with AEK Athens at home to pile more pressure on Montella, but they remain top of the group. Rijeka go to Vienna and beat Austria to keep their hopes alive but the AEK result in Athens doesn't really help them

E: Atalanta with an easy win over Apollon to stay on top of the group while Lyon get a massive 2:1 victory against Everton. Everton all but out if they don't get a result in France in two weeks, still winless in this competition

F: Draws galore again in this group, both matches end 1:1 while in a total of 6 games played in this group, 5 have been draws. Only winner was Lokomotiv on MD2 and they top the group on 5 points. Copenhagen and Sheriff both on 3 points with a 1:1 GD, Copenhagen will host Sheriff the next MD

G: Steaua with an impressive win in Israel and they remain perfect, probably only need a point to officially progress as their nearest rivals are all 6 points behind. Steaua also play two of their final three at home

H: Arsenal remain perfect after a victory in Belgrade over Red Star while BATE Borisov beat struggling FC Koln still without a point. Arsenal expected to win this group easily while 2nd place is probably down to BATE-Red Star with the two teams playing each other on MD5 in Belarus

I: Salzburg remain top after winning in Turkey against Konyaspor while Marseille had to come from behind to beat Vitoria. Looks like a Salzburg-Marseille race for top spot

J: Strange results in this group with underdog Ostersunds on top with 7 points after a 2:2 draw with Bilbao where the Spanish side needed to score late to rescue a point. Zorya also in good shape to progress. Bilbao is only on two points but their fixtures get easier, Hertha is probably out

K: Straight forward group, Lazio perfect on 9 points and a victory in France over Nice means they should win the group comfortably. Nice favorites for 2nd place after Zulte-Vitesse played a draw

L: Zenit perfect after a victory in Norway while Sociedad keeping pace after thumping Vardar 6:0, Vardar have conceded 14 goals in 3 matches

 

[S E P H]

Europa > Champions

Let me say, these Europa teams have a billion times better atmosphere than any single Champion's League team I've seen. Those Red Star fans are freakin' nuts and I thought Kohl fans where awesome. These communists really know how to be the twelfth man.

A back line of Holding, Wallock, Debuchy. CB partnership of of ****ing Coquelin and El Neny. **** me seriously, but what a ****ing goal for the Arsenal. Easily has to be goal of the year by far. Nonetheless, what does it take to see some effin Akpom?

 

[Nalens Oga]

Is Matthew Leckie not registered to play in the Europa league for some reason for Hertha? He's not injured from what I know but wasn't even on the bench and he's basically their best attacker.

 

[Blender]

This Everton team is terrible. Didn't they spend a lot of money lately?

Yes. 4th highest net spend in the EPL this summer. They lost Lukaku though and didn't replace him at all really.

 

[Pouchkine]

But they got Rooney! So that's what I thought a big failure overall for them.

Meanwhile Serie A clubs will be thankful for the nice run Atalanta are likely to make.

 

[hatterson]

I really thought they'd be good this year, although I suppose I really didn't think about how they were going to replace Lukaku's goals. Their attack was basically Lukaku and no one else last year.

Rooney is probably good for 10 or so goals, but he's definitely not going to replace Lukaku. Lookman I think has potential, but he's a ways off.

I think their defense and midfield is solid, but they're basically lacking quality in the final third that'll make it really tough to do anything.

 

[YNWA14]

Yeah I definitely thought that Everton was going to be better than they are this year. Koeman can't be long for that team after the disaster they've been. He should have just stayed at Southampton.

 

[Pouchkine]

Why can't he go to a real top club?

 

[Evilo]

UEFA have openned an investigation on the doings of the Everton supporters who were let go by the stewarts to hit Lopes TWICE.
The fan with the kid in his arms has been banned for life from the stadium by Everton.
Hopefully, UEFA fines Everton a huge sum, bans the ref and suspends Williams for 10 games.

 

[Live in the Now]

I never thought Everton would be good and people around here wind up way too enamored with average players who play well for relegation level teams. Sigurdsson being the obvious example here.

 

[Blender]

I really thought they'd be good this year, although I suppose I really didn't think about how they were going to replace Lukaku's goals. Their attack was basically Lukaku and no one else last year.

Rooney is probably good for 10 or so goals, but he's definitely not going to replace Lukaku. Lookman I think has potential, but he's a ways off.

I think their defense and midfield is solid, but they're basically lacking quality in the final third that'll make it really tough to do anything.

I thought they'd be worse than last year, but I didn't expect them to fall this hard.

 

[Cassano]

Not really remotely surprising except on how long it took.

 

[Evilo]

Oh so, the OL/Besiktas treatment doesn't work with Arsenal.