GWT: PL Matchday 2

[Live in the Now]

Dude, his post was over the top, but the "if Player X is better than Player Y then why didn't he win the UCL" point was boneheaded when CR7 fanboys used it to prove Ronaldo was better than Messi and it's boneheaded now.

I think you should consider two things.

A. Who I was responding to.
B. There is nothing factual about it at all. It is his opinion.

 

[Jussi]

I know you are joking but take a look at the world ranking. Pukki is the only player that would even have a chance to make it into out starting 11

Don't care, we got two players with a hat trick in the Premier League and you don't!

 

[Albatros]

Pukki is the only player that would even have a chance to make it into out starting 11

Hradecky would make it too, and Moisander if he was available for national team duty. In Belgium Uronen is better than Lustig but is also left-footed like Augustinsson. Still, as for having an excellent chance there are at least four.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Hradecky would make it too, and Moisander if he was available for national team duty. In Belgium Uronen is better than Lustig but is also left-footed like Augustinsson. Still, as for having an excellent chance there are at least four.

I like Uronen, but Augustinsson is absolutely better.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Things might be what they might be and the rankings are rankings but....
there's a (relative good) chance that Finland will qualify to the Euro 2020 and Sweden does not.

I think Sweden's "development" arrow is pointing downwards where as Finland's, upwards and it is not only because of Teemu Pukki either,
our coaching (coaches) is far better, so is our goalkeeping, Hradecky is one of the best keepers in the Bundesliga.

Sweden might have players with higher market values and relatively bigger names,
but we have more players that perform better on the pitch what Sweden
and i think that's the biggest difference maker.

- notice the air quotes on development, not meaning the actual development of our football nations/players

 

[Havre]

Let us see where that takes you - Pukki and his 18 goals for Finland.

Only natural that smaller countries will have a somewhat cyclical nature to the quality of their national team though. Sweden have consistently been better than they "should" for quite some years - they will as all other experience tougher times sooner or later. Finland on the other hand have been shockingly poor for so long it is almost inevitable that something positive happens at some point.

Looking forward to Chelsea - Leicester today. Chelsea have been a good watch so far this season and even for all his weirdness Rodgers usually gets his teams playing decent football. Need something to wash off that Spurs-performance.

 

[Live in the Now]

Finland may qualify for Euro 2020 simply because they are in one of the worst groups in history. It isn’t because of a quality difference between Sweden and Finland. If you switch the teams Finland is worse in Sweden’s current group.

That being said Sweden doesn’t have much quality at the moment.

 

[AB13]

Hradecky would make it too, and Moisander if he was available for national team duty. In Belgium Uronen is better than Lustig but is also left-footed like Augustinsson. Still, as for having an excellent chance there are at least four.

Well, no. Jansson is ahead of Moisander, Krafth and Augustinsson are better than both Lustig and Uronen and Olsen is possibly better than Hradecky but that is a toss up. If we are going to do the “ if available for international duty” thing, Zlatan would make it over Pukki.

 

[Stray Wasp]

I’d imagine it would be hard for anyone to legitimately argue against or downplay 4 goals in 2 games in the Premier League.

Indeed.

Mind, I'd argue it's legitimate to urge caution before too grandiose claims are made in Pukki's favour. The roads are littered with players who scored goals aplenty in the season's first month or two then faded as the campaign wore on - particularly players who are new to the league and/or English football.

The first example that always occurs to me is Francesco Baiano, the erstwhile Fiorentina backup whose initial eight games for Derby yielded eight goals. His final haul for the season was twelve.

But a more recent, immensely satisfying example springs to mind.

Last season, after six games Mitrovic had five goals. He finished the campaign with eleven. Now he's being panned for feigning injury to try and get Championship defenders sent off.

 

[AB13]

Things might be what they might be and the rankings are rankings but....
there's a (relative good) chance that Finland will qualify to the Euro 2020 and Sweden does not.

I think Sweden's "development" arrow is pointing downwards where as Finland's, upwards and it is not only because of Teemu Pukki either,
our coaching (coaches) is far better, so is our goalkeeping, Hradecky is one of the best keepers in the Bundesliga.

Sweden might have players with higher market values and relatively bigger names,
but we have more players that perform better on the pitch what Sweden
and i think that's the biggest difference maker.

- notice the air quotes on development, not meaning the actual development of our football nations/players

Wrong, Sweden have good youth national teams and great young players like Isak, Lindelöf and Augustinsson along with good talents like Joel Asoro, Benjamin Nygren and Mattias Svanberg. Sweden are not trending downwards, probably the opposite. Finland however, only have two good players and both are 29. They don’t have any real top prospects either. Sweden are already lightyears ahead and the gap is only looking to get bigger.

You do not have players that perform better on the pitch at all, our players work perfectly as a unit and won the Nations League group and went to the World Cup Quarter-Finals because of that.

 

[Stray Wasp]

Oh and Elmander was class

Class is a subjective word.

Better, perhaps, to study his goalscoring record. 13 was his peak total - and that in the Danish league. In the EPL, 121 appearances yielded 19 goals.

As it happens, my memory deceived me about the player - he only scored a pair against Newcastle. However, he's another example of somebody who was prolific for a few weeks before running out of steam. In 2010/11 he had eight goals to his name after 14 games. Over the subsequent 23, he added two.

 

[Prntscrn]

Class is a subjective word.

Better, perhaps, to study his goalscoring record. 13 was his peak total - and that in the Danish league. In the EPL, 121 appearances yielded 19 goals.

As it happens, my memory deceived me about the player - he only scored a pair against Newcastle. However, he's another example of somebody who was prolific for a few weeks before running out of steam. In 2010/11 he had eight goals to his name after 14 games. Over the subsequent 23, he added two.

Yeah, it was a bit of sarcasm in that sentence. Us Swedes knows he wasn't exactly known for scoring sweet goals like that.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Also I was quite surprised that VAR was able to spot that. The system definitely was not at fault there as the rule was what overturned the goal.

To me it seemed like Michael Oliver saw what happened, but wanted VAR's confirmation.

 

[Legend Leinonen]

Wrong, Sweden have good youth national teams and great young players like Isak, Lindelöf and Augustinsson along with good talents like Joel Asoro, Benjamin Nygren and Mattias Svanberg. Sweden are not trending downwards, probably the opposite. Finland however, only have two good players and both are 29. They don’t have any real top prospects either. Sweden are already lightyears ahead and the gap is only looking to get bigger.

You do not have players that perform better on the pitch at all, our players work perfectly as a unit and won the Nations League group and went to the World Cup Quarter-Finals because of that.

Roman Eremenko is quality player too. He's spend most of his career in Russia, which is not that sexy league, so I understand he's sort of under radar player. But in any case, a bad player does not win Russian League MVP, like Roma has done.

He's 32 too now, and he made a comeback to club football from a cocaine-related 2-year-ban about a year ago, but reports from his games this year have been excellent, and he's expected to make a comeback to Finnish NT this fall. Personally, in our current system, I think he could work really well with current Pukki up front. Of course he could play lower too, but our current midfield has been playing so well (despite not that sexy names, with exeption of perhaps Kamara??), that it would be perhaps best not to mess with that.

Speaking of that Kamara, I think he could be counted as sort of prospect for Finnish football. At least Gerrard has been raving about him at Rangers. Young Lassi Lappalainen, who signed with Bologna, and was immediately loaned to MSL, had a really strong start there too. So perhaps he has some potential to make something out of himself. But admittedly Finland is not loaded with high end footy prospects, I guess Marcus Forss at Brentford is someone to follow.

 

[AB13]

Roman Eremenko is quality player too. He's spend most of his career in Russia, which is not that sexy league, so I understand he's sort of under radar player. But in any case, a bad player does not win Russian League MVP, like Roma has done.

He's 32 too now, and he made a comeback to club football from a cocaine-related 2-year-ban about a year ago, but reports from his games this year have been excellent, and he's expected to make a comeback to Finnish NT this fall. Personally, in our current system, I think he could work really well with current Pukki up front. Of course he could play lower too, but our current midfield has been playing so well (despite not that sexy names, with exeption of perhaps Kamara??), that it would be perhaps best not to mess with that.

Speaking of that Kamara, I think he could be counted as sort of prospect for Finnish football. At least Gerrard has been raving about him at Rangers. Young Lassi Lappalainen, who signed with Bologna, and was immediately loaned to MSL, had a really strong start there too. So perhaps he has some potential to make something out of himself. But admittedly Finland is not loaded with high end footy prospects, I guess Marcus Forss at Brentford is someone to follow.

Eremenko is a good player, but far from Sweden quality. Kamara is a decent prospect, I rate him highly, but I would not really compare him to the Swedish ones just yet. Speaking of players doing well in under the radar leagues, Sweden have a ton of them Kristoffer Olsson and Victor Claesson are very good players in Russia, Sam Larsson is great in the Netherlands and Joel Andersson and Simon Tibbling are up and coming players in Denmark.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Spurs get a result today..

Piece of cake

 

[Ajacied]

Sam Larsson is great in the Netherlands

No, he's not. He's barely a starter. Shows some flashes of brilliance every now and a then, but Samba Sam is a frustrating talent.

 

[AB13]

No, he's not. He's barely a starter. Shows some flashes of brilliance every now and a then, but Samba Sam is a frustrating talent.

His stats are very good, and he is better than Eremenko who was called good in every sense. He is a great player in relation to the standard of Nordic football.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Until the whining gets so loud the FA relaxes their enforcement as the season goes on and the clubs early season bite the bullet.

You can't relax it, it's either all or nothing. You can't have someone making a judgment call on handball. It either is or isn't. Period

 

[Albatros]

I like Uronen, but Augustinsson is absolutely better.

Sure he is, but you need two full- or wing-backs in most formations and Uronen can play both sides. The only thing against him is if you want someone right-footed on the right. Krafth I don't see quite up there despite being decent with Amiens, he'll have a hard time earning minutes with Newcastle. Then again staying in Belgium was probably a good career move for Uronen as well, at least Arsenal was after him last winter but sometimes it's better to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

 

[AB13]

Sure he is, but you need two full- or wing-backs in most formations and Uronen can play both sides. The only thing against him is if you want someone right-footed on the right. Krafth I don't see quite up there despite being decent with Amiens, he'll have a hard time earning minutes with Newcastle. Then again staying in Belgium was probably a good career move for Uronen as well, at least Arsenal was after him last winter but sometimes it's better to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

Krafth is a lot more complete than Urunen and a superior player, especially on the right of course.

 

[Albatros]

I haven't watched Krafth that much in club football (they played for Helsingborg together until 2015), but playing for Sweden my impression of him is that of a clearly more defensive-minded player. Kind of a full-back alternative to Yedlin and Manquillo who are better used as wing-backs (and somewhat prone to defensive mistakes).

 

[AB13]

I haven't watched Krafth that much in club football (they played for Helsingborg together until 2015), but playing for Sweden my impression of him is that of a clearly more defensive-minded player. Kind of a full-back alternative to Yedlin and Manquillo who are better used as wing-backs (and somewhat prone to defensive mistakes).

He ceirtainly is a two way player I would say. His crossing is pretty good and his vision and passing is slightly above average, but nothing exeptional. The defensive side is where he is most comfortable though, yes.

Krafths biggest strength is probably his relentless work ethic and tireless running up and down the wing.

 

[Fro]

What a goal!

Palace looks so out of position

 

[Blender]

What a goal!

Palace looks so out of position

That was some really nice movement on that goal, just shredded the Palace defenders.

Zaha continues to be the most selfish player in the league. I don't believe for a second that he could cut it at a big club like there are always rumors about him going to, all he does is try and dribble through 2-3 players every single time he has the ball.