GWT: PL Matchbox 20

[koyvoo]

Shaqiri was always clearly skilled and would bring excellent offensive versatility in himself and what he would add to the overall attack.

I guess it was legitimate at the time to question his commitment to professionalism and his mental approach but clearly that’s all been squashed.

 

[Corto]

Aside from the obvious Liverpool win and the Spurs loss, I keep wondering at Everton.
Saw quite a few of their games, including 3 or 4 in December, and I keep thinking that Marco Silva is a guy who just keeps falling upwards.

He's had 1/3 of a season at Hull - got relegated, just "prettier". Not to mentioned they messed up and lost points at home to Sunderland in a game that could've kept them up.
Started strong at Watford, all went south fairly early on. Finished pretty horribly before getting the sack.
And now at Everton, despite all the money spent, they're playing with no structure, defensively in absolute shambles and they have less points at this time last year.

 

[Live in the Now]

Shaqiri was always clearly skilled and would bring excellent offensive versatility in himself and what he would add to the overall attack.

I guess it was legitimate at the time to question his commitment to professionalism and his mental approach but clearly that’s all been squashed.

His agent probably had a word and told him if he didn't get his shit together he would never play for another good club again.

 

[Chimaera]

I think it’s more Klopp, and from some of the interviews, he supposedly had a talk with him beforehand about expectations and opportunity. There’s no way Klopp signs off on him coming in without an understanding with the player.

I also think he is relishing the chance to say, no, I am good enough to play with this lot, and that Klopp is smart enough to find ways to use him in ways where he doesn’t have to do everything.

 

[Chimaera]

Ps Sokratis doesn’t want any of Big Virgil.

 

[S E P H]

Not sure if it was Liverpool going another notch and more in terms of extremely poor defending. Couple goals there? Sure were class by Liverpool, but the first was was just Pejorative Slured to maximum level and second one should have NEVER EVER happened. Like ever. That isn't a knock on Firmino and more in terms of putrid-shambolic defending.

 

[bluesfan94]

Emery has done a much better job than Wenger. Relax, look who they're playing, don't make any major judgments about the team as a whole because of the game specifically. The defense on the other hand definitely needs some judging. 30 goals given up in 20 matches is a lot. 25 goals would be quite a lot too even if you discard this game.

Injuries have meant that we haven’t had a consistent back four, which makes it hard to build necessary chemistry. That said, we need reinforcements.

 

[Live in the Now]

Not sure if it was Liverpool going another notch and more in terms of extremely poor defending. Couple goals there? Sure were class by Liverpool, but the first was was just ******ed to maximum level and second one should have NEVER EVER happened. Like ever. That isn't a knock on Firmino and more in terms of putrid-shambolic defending.

Liverpool didn't really get out of first gear in the final third, so I agree with the comments about poor defending. They missed some chances that I would ordinarily expect Liverpool to be scoring. The third goal was amazing but the first two were ridiculous defending, the fourth was a penalty caused by an idiotic challenge when Salah was running the ball into a position where he couldn't have done anything, and the fifth shouldn't have been a penalty at all. That being said Liverpool did create those problems through some great plays by Fabinho, Shaq, and Wijnaldum. With the exception of one ridiculous pass Fabinho made to start an Arsenal attack, they destroyed Arsenal's midfield.

I think Liverpool's main strength lies in the fact that they can put all six of their midfielders in random combinations and still maintain a high level of quality. Henderson has raised his level to the other midfielders now that he's under pressure for his place, so it seems to me that as long as Liverpool continues to have four or five of those six midfielders available to them, things will go great.

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Not only are Arsenal's defenders average, they also play quite bad team-defense. Hard to get a result against a very good and solid team like Pool.

Super match against City coming, and if Liverpool wins, its their title to lose.

 

[maclean]

This is not even true. When have we been talking down or ****ting on anyone?

For what it's worth I think they were referring to people they've met in real life. Liverpool fans on here are all class as far as I can tell. It's with heavy heart I realise the people that shit on others in here seem to mostly be Arsenal fans...

 

[Live in the Now]

de Bruyne is injured again.

Man City star could miss huge Premier League clash with Liverpool

Will miss tomorrow and may miss Thursday's game.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Lost in the hubbub of this adventure of a day is the very underrated thread title. Kudos @Savant

 

[Evilo]

de Bruyne is injured again.

Man City star could miss huge Premier League clash with Liverpool

Will miss tomorrow and may miss Thursday's game.

Yup again.

And about Liverpool fans shitting on others...
Yes, someone has shit on United's roster for instance. Numerous times. While everyone told him the roster still had a lot of quality but players underachieved because of bad coaching. Two games already that were better played than all season.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

de Bruyne is injured again.

Man City star could miss huge Premier League clash with Liverpool

Will miss tomorrow and may miss Thursday's game.

I call smoke screen.

 

[Live in the Now]

I call smoke screen.

They're behind by ten points in horrible form, playing against a Saints team rounding into decent form, and he didn't make the trip down there. Can't see them sending a smoke screen now. In 2016 he had a bad right knee injury too, then both knees injured this season. It sounds like he has knee problems that will continue to come up throughout his career. They have lots of great players but this is obviously a big blow.

Yup again.

And about Liverpool fans ****ting on others...
Yes, someone has **** on United's roster for instance. Numerous times. While everyone told him the roster still had a lot of quality but players underachieved because of bad coaching. Two games already that were better played than all season.

Coaching makes all the difference in football and people should know that. Wijnaldum being probably the best example in the whole world right now, and it's funny that Curt is such a big Wijnaldum fan and can't see this. He played like Modric today.

 

[Savant]

If Man City want to rush back their injured stars to try to keep pace, they are more than welcome to try.

 

[Savant]

Super match against City coming, and if Liverpool wins, they are the favorites.

Fixed for you

 

[Savant]

They're behind by ten points in horrible form, playing against a Saints team rounding into decent form, and he didn't make the trip down there. Can't see them sending a smoke screen now.



Coaching makes all the difference in football and people should know that. Wijnaldum being probably the best example in the whole world right now, and it's funny that Curt is such a big Wijnaldum fan and can't see this. He played like Modric today.

Wijnaldum has been outstanding.

 

[Live in the Now]

Aside from the obvious Liverpool win and the Spurs loss, I keep wondering at Everton.
Saw quite a few of their games, including 3 or 4 in December, and I keep thinking that Marco Silva is a guy who just keeps falling upwards.

He's had 1/3 of a season at Hull - got relegated, just "prettier". Not to mentioned they messed up and lost points at home to Sunderland in a game that could've kept them up.
Started strong at Watford, all went south fairly early on. Finished pretty horribly before getting the sack.
And now at Everton, despite all the money spent, they're playing with no structure, defensively in absolute shambles and they have less points at this time last year.

There are two reasons Everton are so far at sea points wise IMO.

1. Jordan Pickford. That mistake against Liverpool was not the only one. If you go on Everton's fan forums you can see them regularly criticizing him and it seems to be warranted.

2. No good striker. Don't know who decided that they were okay at center forward because they'd bought Tosun in the winter, but that signing was about as bad as it gets. They recently started playing Richarlison there, but he's not a very good finisher either. Walcott is also definitely not a good finisher, so on the right side they suck too.

 

[YNWA14]

Let's be clear. I can think a team isn't that talented and still believe that a coach makes a big difference. Of course coaching makes a big difference. I don't think United has a top 3 team in the league when talking about talent. That's not shitting on another team or being condescending that's just my opinion.

Wijnaldum has always been very talented and I've always said as much. Coaching has definitely helped.

 

[Evilo]

Coaching makes all the difference in football and people should know that. Wijnaldum being probably the best example in the whole world right now, and it's funny that Curt is such a big Wijnaldum fan and can't see this. He played like Modric today.

Yup, Liverpool fans should see it, it's so obvious. Those players weren't considered elite by anyone two years ago. Now, most are playing like elite players.

 

[Live in the Now]

Let's be clear. I can think a team isn't that talented and still believe that a coach makes a big difference. Of course coaching makes a big difference. I don't think United has a top 3 team in the league when talking about talent. That's not ****ting on another team or being condescending that's just my opinion.

Wijnaldum has always been very talented and I've always said as much. Coaching has definitely helped.

On talent they're definitely better than Chelsea and Arsenal on paper. If Chelsea didn't have Hazard, I don't know where the hell they'd be right now.

Not better than City and Liverpool. United and Tottenham is very close, but I don't like Tottenham's squad all that much to be honest. I think Poch has done a hero job there. So I'd say top three sounds right.

Whoops I missed the Wijnaldum comment. He was talented as a #10, not at this level as a regular midfielder. This performance level from him is insane.

 

[YNWA14]

He was a CM in the Eredivisie where he won player of the year and has been a mainstay and one of the most important players on every team he's ever played for. He's also always played at a high level at Liverpool the team wasn't always functioning at a high enough level to make use of it. His only dip in form came last season when he was apparently extremely affected by a virus that he talked about after. His impact in big games has always been obvious especially vs. City in the CL last season when we finally were gifted Can's absence (how much better we are without Can can't be understated, the difference is massive).

Chelsea definitely has more talent than United as do Spurs, as well as being younger and the players fitting eachother better. Arsenal has just as much talent as well.

 

[les Habs]

Wow, some interesting coronations in this thread. Well "interesting" is one way to put it.

As for the Arsenal result, not sure why it changes anything apart from 3 additional points. Result should have been expected really. Then again some people think that United can't catch Arsenal.

There are two reasons Everton are so far at sea points wise IMO.

1. Jordan Pickford. That mistake against Liverpool was not the only one. If you go on Everton's fan forums you can see them regularly criticizing him and it seems to be warranted.

2. No good striker. Don't know who decided that they were okay at center forward because they'd bought Tosun in the winter, but that signing was about as bad as it gets. They recently started playing Richarlison there, but he's not a very good finisher either. Walcott is also definitely not a good finisher, so on the right side they suck too.

Far more so 2 from what I've seen. Despite the narrative about today's result (and I'm not disagreeing with it as I didn't see the match), they've been pretty well organized the matches I've seen. However they have very little by way of firepower as well as creativity. I've been matches where Digne (their best player this season from what I've seen) was notably their most creative player. They need a goalscorer either way.

 

[YNWA14]

A bit early to be writing Arsenal off.



Just beautiful.