UEFA Europa League 2021-22

[sabremike]

Weird some people talk about Marseille but not Antwerp.

It's as if one plays in a far more important league or something.

 

[Islay1989]

Dinamo's coaching staff did a brilliant job analyzing Genk and identifying their weaknesses. Fantastisc coaching job. (not that's it that hard to outcoach John van den Brom but ok)

Eh, Krznar isn't exactly a mastermind either, but their video coach is good. It's refreshing going into European games without fearing they'll embarrass themselves. If only they weren't coached by potatoes back when they had Modric, Mandzo, Corluka, Vrsaljko etc

Thinking of it, it's insane how much talent they pumped out in the last 15 years given the pool they have to work with.

 

[Evilo]

It's as if one plays in a far more important league or something.

Or that one player could have had a serious injury or something?
Also same league (EL), so...

 

[lamini]

deleted

 

[Evilo]

Saliba just physically bullies every attacker. His presence at the back, reading of the game and defensive nous are incredible and his ability on the ball is brilliant too. Really hope he gets his chance at Arsenal.

Glad you watched the game and could see Guendouzi's talent

 

[ScottishCanuck]

Celtic summed up in a single game last night.

First of all, we didn't deserve to lose 4-0. Leverkusen took their chances and we didn't. Hradecky played a blinder and we were a mess at the back. But we all saw that coming and it wasn't addressed in the summer.

It's embarrassing to lose 4-0 at home, but that's the sorry situation that our board have put us in. I feel sorry for Ange Postecogolou. He isn't blameless. He's too stubborn in his playing style and hasn't adapted to suit the squad we have. But that squad is as poor as it's been for any manager since the 90s and we have no depth to cope with injuries. He doesn't even have his own backroom team, with the useless lump that is Kennedy and the Strachan mafia seemingly unsackable.

What's frustrating is that we do have the money to compete. The budget excuse is a cop-out. We're comfortably in the upper half of the EL in terms of our wage bill. The problem is how it's spent. A shockingly poor, lazy scouting setup, overpaid players, no director of football and little youth coming through. A chief executive that walked 2 months into the job due to conflict with the dinosaurs on the rest of the board. Constant promises of modernisation and strategic improvement but the same old shite.

People call Celtic fans spoiled because we've had so much recent success domestically, but we never stop beating ourselves in the boardroom. We've gone from a position of strength to a mess over the course of 2.5 years. Massive change is needed, because at present the board is unjustifiably arrogant, incompetent and without any sort of long term plan.

 

[maclean]

pitiful... no...disgraceful. That's learned behavior

Without wanting to defend anyone involved, the hate against Rangers cannot be brushed aside entirely as racism. Rangers entered the game with Slavia way back when with the intent to injure, their players uttered physical threats before the game and then followed through during the game. That will never excuse any act of racism, but a large part of the population here views Kamara's accusations as a last-ditch attempt to get back at Slavia for embarrassing them on the field and essentially laughable in comparison with the real physical acts of Rangers players. I don't proclaim to share this view and have argued against the finer points of it with people here on multiple occasions, the fact however remains that this is practically a consensus among sports fans here. There is certainly a latent disregard for racism underpinnning it, but these children were not booing because of the colour of Kamara's skin but because of the acts he is associated with. But as Sparta children, yes, they are probably being taught racism as well, football is the most toxic sports environment and as much as I love the game, I have very mixed feelings about the behavioural consequences of a football upbringing.

 

[Aladyyn]

Rangers just love throwing these accusations around, don't they? Booing a disliked/hated player is standard procedure, and Kamara is just that.

 

[AB13]

Glad you watched the game and could see Guendouzi's talent

Still don’t rate him man. He just makes stupid decisions all the time. He was decent yesterday though, still a headless chicken but Sampaoli’s chaos-football suits him.

 

[hatterson]

"Xhaka is amazing, him going out is a big blow."
"Guendouzi isn't very good, he makes too many stupid decisions."

Good stuff

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Still don’t rate him man. He just makes stupid decisions all the time. He was decent yesterday though, still a headless chicken but Sampaoli’s chaos-football suits him.

Him talking shit to Van Aanholt after VAR went against him was funny. How he plays is almost beyond the point now, he's a little whiner. Likely my main association with him until the end of time will be him holding his baby in the hospital bed.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Funny EL banter: Barcelona favorites according to 538. L1 guys at the bottom.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

More fan garbage, this time Union Berlin:



Couldn't find an English article, but can translate this article on the page for more:

Beim Spiel gegen Union Berlin : Maccabi-Haifa-Fans berichten von antisemitischen Übergriffen im Olympiastadion - Politik - Tagesspiegel

 

[Evilo]

Still don’t rate him man. He just makes stupid decisions all the time. He was decent yesterday though, still a headless chicken but Sampaoli’s chaos-football suits him.

Decent?
He was voted as MOTM on most newspapers.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

More fan garbage, this time Union Berlin:



Couldn't find an English article, but can translate this article on the page for more:

Beim Spiel gegen Union Berlin : Maccabi-Haifa-Fans berichten von antisemitischen Übergriffen im Olympiastadion - Politik - Tagesspiegel

Obviously this tells us that all Union fans must be terrible people.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Obviously this tells us that all Union fans must be terrible people.

We can add them to all Czechs (win some, lose some @maclean), French (Macron's fault), and of course, all English from the Battle of Hastings to present day

I've left some nations out for brevity purposes.

Edit: I think I missed that as a @cgf joke. Ashamed that went over my head.

 

[AB13]

Decent?
He was voted as MOTM on most newspapers.

As always, Guendouzi ruined attacks by not releasing the ball in the right moments. His defensive positioning also lead to a few counters for Gala that were directly his fault. Matteo has definately developed though and his flaws don’t look as bad as they were at Arsenal from the games I have seen at Marseille. Yesterday he ran a lot and was very involved, and as always he was constantly avaliable for a pass. He made some good passes too but also a few careless things. But people just see him having the ball a lot and automatically thinks that means he’s performing well when it really isn’t the case.

 

[cgf]

"Xhaka is amazing, him going out is a big blow."
"Guendouzi isn't very good, he makes too many stupid decisions."

Good stuff

lol true...though Granit has matured a little from the kid he was when BMG first bought him from Basel. Still a hothead, but not quite as bad as he used to be.

It's also a different kind of stupid decision that the two of them make. Granit makes these utterly idiotic one-off bad decisions, as well as being slower than dirt. Guendouzi, otoh, is just all over the place positionally...so it's a more consistent thing with him that you have to compensate for. I really like 'douzi's chaotic energy on the pitch and think he's worth compensating for, but he could be so much better if he didn't cause as much chaos for his own team as he does the other one.

Interesting player, and one who could still become really good...especially if he ever lands with a manager like Klopp...but he was still very much a work-in-progress for Hertha.

 

[AB13]

"Xhaka is amazing, him going out is a big blow."
"Guendouzi isn't very good, he makes too many stupid decisions."

Good stuff

CGF is explaining my point a little bit. I’m not talking about the one off braindead moments Xhaka can have, those glaring errors that lead to goals. I can accept those more than I can accept Guendouzi’s faults. Xhaka is generally a reliable player who can hold the midfield, block space, win duels and play one touch, quick linebreaking passes that keep the attack/build up flowing and progressing.

Guendouzi is making constant mistakes all the time in a game. His lack of defensive positioning makes him a total liability in a pivot or as a number 8. He just leaves the midfield empty. What is even more alarming though is that he always takes 3,4,5 touches before making even the simplest of passes. He ruins attacks and the build up play so so so much by not making the right pass at the right time. This might be the single worst attribute a midfield player can have but people rarely pay much attention to this. He overworks and overcomplicates basic situations on the pitch for no reason.

 

[Evilo]

That is just not true. He doesn't make mistakes all the time.
Heck he doesn't make more than Xhaka, probably less, while bringing a whole other level of positive things on the pitch.
Only thing Xakha has on Douzi is leadership, and frankly that's arguable given Xhaka's desastrous behaviour.

 

[cgf]

That is just not true. He doesn't make mistakes all the time.
Heck he doesn't make more than Xhaka, probably less, while bringing a whole other level of positive things on the pitch.
Only thing Xakha has on Douzi is leadership, and frankly that's arguable given Xhaka's desastrous behaviour.

Let me preface this by saying that I haven't seen him play this season, so I'm just commenting on his play for Hertha last year...where he was a driving figure for them, in both directions.


What I'll say is that it depends on how we define mistakes. I can agree with calling his positioning & discipline 'overly aggressive/reckless', rather than a steady flow of mistakes. But it was an aspect of his game that Hertha had to compensate for...which they did with varying results.

Not saying that Xhaka doesn't get caught out as well, just that that's more due to physical limitations than mental errors/over-aggression.


And I am not comparing the two of them as players, they are completely different players to me with very different skillsets & roles that they are best suited for. I was just comparing them with regards to the kinds of "mistakes" each makes...granit's being these egregious incidents that keep happening intermittently, while with 'duezi it's this lack of discipline that Dardai had to be constantly mindful of.

I can easily see the kid settling down as he matures and reaching a level that Xhaka never had in him and I don't even think that's super unlikely, but his play in Berlin, had positives as well as negatives. In general, I like his energy & he reminds me of a Dembele type roaming-8...and I like these kinds of players...but he still had rough edges to polish in germany.

 

[cgf]

More fan garbage, this time Union Berlin:



Couldn't find an English article, but can translate this article on the page for more:

Beim Spiel gegen Union Berlin : Maccabi-Haifa-Fans berichten von antisemitischen Übergriffen im Olympiastadion - Politik - Tagesspiegel

Commented on this in the CL thread, but it's still really shitty. Especially after how poorly our fanbase reacted to the racism accusations from leverkusen last year...regardless of whether there was a mishearing or not (a defense I'm always skeptical of), fans whistling a player who was standing up for his team-mate who thought he was racially abused, is a dick move.

I'm glad that other Union fans didn't tolerate it either and that the club seems to be actively trying to identify the culprits...but we'll see what actually comes of their investigations & what the club does to prevent this type of s*** in the future.

Either way, I think some blame lies with the rest of us in the fanbase for not reacting more strongly to the leverkusen stuff, to show assholes like this that they can f*** off if they want to behave like BFC fans.

 

[Albatros]

Rangers just love throwing these accusations around, don't they? Booing a disliked/hated player is standard procedure, and Kamara is just that.

Disliked/hated in Czechia because of the color of his skin to be precise.

 

[lamini]

Disliked/hated in Czechia because of the color of his skin to be precise.

No, mostly because he is considered liar. Roofe was booed too AFAIK, think it mostly has to do with what he did to Kolar.

Edit: to be honest, Rangers as a team are extremly unpopular here for the way they played against Slavia last year

 

[Live in the Now]

Sparta fans made monkey chants towards Tchouameni two months ago, but sure. Definitely no racism going on there.