Ligue 1 2017/18

[John Pedro]

Don't think he sucks. I think his team has terrible flaws on defense, in nets and at 6. Rest is extra solid.
Central D (Rami/Abdennour) is slow as hell, Evra is done and toasted (has been for the last 5 years in fact), Sakai isn't good and at 6 they have Gustavo, who's old, and no backup (they played Sertic there yesterday). Backup CBs are also immensly slow (Doria, Rolando).

I'm not sure if it's Zubi or Garcia who's responsible for this dreadful defense. But you can't win much with this. Sanson/Lopez (who's been bad this year so far)/Germain/Mitroglou/Thauvin/Payet (has been awful too) is very good for L1 I'd say. But they won't win anything with that defense.

Indeed, their defense is terrible... but offensively they should be doing better than that. Barely beat Konyaspor at home... they debuted a 17y CB as a midfielder, should give him some minutes at his position soon.

Malcom just won another game for Bordeaux with a nice strike. Toulouse had so many chances in the 1st half, just couldn't score.

 

[Evilo]

Kamara is a fantastic prospect. But his main flaw is... speed...

 

[John Pedro]

Poor Bielsa. Lille is screwed. El Ghazi and Araújo are really similar players, both extremely talented but no end product whatsoever. Benzia is meh. Defense looks terrible handling the ball, gives away too much possession when pressed, missing Mendes really hurting their midfield as he was their best player in their first matches. LB is a black hole while Malcuit has been good at RB.

wonder if he'll be able to keep his job for much longer if things keep going south for them.

 

[Evilo]

Yes, he has 2 players over 25 in his entire roster. He'll be given the time he wants. They invested in young players and it'll take time.
I'm not worried, but clearly, they won't challenge for the top 5.

 

[Evilo]

Lyon outplaying PSG

 

[Evilo]

El Matador scores off a Lo Celso cross (beauty play by him, on one of his first touches).
And then misses a penalty (or rather Lopes did great to put it on the crossbar).

 

[les Habs]

Just saw some highlights. Talk about wide open spaces. I would expect Cavani, Neymar and Mbappe' to score 40+ each in the league if they get that much space every match. Anyway, looks like some drama surrounding that penalty. Dani even getting involved.

 

[Live in the Now]

Cavani won't be there very long.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Emery needs to tell Cavani that Neymar will take the penalties.

 

[les Habs]

Emery needs to tell Cavani that Neymar will take the penalties.

According to L'Equipe it was Emery's instruction that Cavani take it.

Cavani won't be there very long.

Maybe FFP will sell Cavani next Summer and then buyout Dembele.

 

[Live in the Now]

Once the ego on a team takes over and this wasn't the first time, it happened earlier this season too...it's just a matter of time really.

Cavani doesn't strike me as the type to accept being run over and there's a big Brazilian contingent at the club, so it seems inevitable that unless he bends over he won't be there.

Emery too.

 

[Evilo]

Emery needs to show authority on this, but I doubt he will.
I've said it before the season began, his lack of imposing character will hurt PSG at some point.
Didn't expect it to be this quickly though

Cavani is right in thinking he can continue to shoot pens. He has missed very few penalties in his PSG career (3 with yesterday's) and is the leading L1 scorer.
Neymar is right in thinking it's his team and he needs to paddle his stats to gun for the Ballon d'Or at some point.
And both will refuse to share duties too.

 

[les Habs]

The situation should be really simple. If Emery says that Cavani takes the penalties then it should be Cavani. The worst part of it was Dani's involvement. That was completely uncalled for. I'm sure Meunier will impart his wisdom on the matter.

Regarding more important matters, I can only assume Pastore is injured. I would also expect Lo Celso to get more minutes.

 

[Corto]

The Cavani-Neymar thing has some potential to it lol.

I mean, it's early days yet, but Neymar's always been a bit of a primadona, while Cavani is the slightly-toned-down-in-intensity-but-a-better-footballer version of Mario Mandzukic.

I love me some Cavani, I hope things don't end up with him being squeezed out in Paris.

 

[Evilo]

And yet it isn't simple. Emery said he expected players to handle this between themselves.

As for the Alves involvment, it wasn't on the penalty. It was on a free kick, which Neymar is supposed to kick. Alves shouldn't have been there, but in fact, Cavani tried to take the FK instead of Neymar.
As for the penalty, Neymar asked Cavani to take it and Cavani refused. Given the outcome (missed), you have to wonder if it played a part in pressuring the shooter.

But as I said, Emery after the game said he wanted the player to decide between themselves and then added he would decide, and that both would shoot.
If you understand what will happen, good for you, because Emery always manages to be unclear in clear situations.

 

[Savi]

Emery after the game said he wanted the player to decide between themselves and then added he would decide, and that both would shoot

 

[Evilo]

Kurzawa had yet another poor game. He's lost all his confidence it seems and is completely off.

One explanation might be the news outed today that he has been blackmailed because of a video...
So, another Valbuena case? Not quite. He's not banging his mistress in the video, he's mocking... Didier Deschamps
So in fact, he has pulled another Aurier
He contacted the police and the guys got arrested, but he probably wasn't focused on football much lately.

 

[les Habs]

As for the Alves involvment, it wasn't on the penalty. It was on a free kick, which Neymar is supposed to kick. Alves shouldn't have been there, but in fact, Cavani tried to take the FK instead of Neymar.

Dani's action was just stupid. Even if Neymar is take the freekicks he shouldn't be involved unless he's wearing the armband.

Dani claims he was going to take the freekick but then Neymar came along.

 

[Luigi Habs]

I see Dani Alves and Neymar acting as if they already own the club, who didn't see that coming?

 

[les Habs]

I see Dani Alves and Neymar acting as if they already own the club, who didn't see that coming?

I didn't. Corto said Neymar's always been a bit of a primadonna, but at Barça he seemed to "know his place" if you will.

 

[cgf]

I didn't. Corto said Neymar's always been a bit of a primadonna, but at Barça he seemed to "know his place" if you will.

It's one thing to know your place when you're playing with the best player in the world. It's another when you've just become the most expensive player in history and it's supposed to be your team.

 

[les Habs]

It's one thing to know your place when you're playing with the best player in the world. It's another when you've just become the most expensive player in history and it's supposed to be your team.

Being the most expensive player in history or the best player on a team doesn't just make it "your team". There needs to be a collective effort.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Neymar is right in thinking it's his team and he needs to paddle his stats to gun for the Ballon d'Or at some point.

Just one more reason to judge players by non-penalty goals.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Having an extra 5 goals via penalties won't get him a Balon D'or. Winning will and he'll need the support of his teammates if he ever wants to win a CL.

Incidents like these make me appreciate how humble Lio and Suarez are. They shared the penalties and never *****ed about not getting it. Even before MSN Lio was handing penalties to his mates when they needed a goal.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Penalties should be for the best player on the team to pad their stats. If someone doesn't like that, then be better. There's nothing stopping Cavani from being a better player than Neymar, but he's not. If there's not a best player on the team or not clear best player, I could understand "the best penalty taker" taking it. But Neymar is on the team, he's one of the best players in the world, he gets to attempt to pad his stats. That should be the way it works.