GWT: PL Round 34

[Savant]

I don't remember you being so anti-Tottenham before the last game between them and Pool.

Anti-stealing goals from your teammates

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Poch made an early sub? I'll be damned...

 

[Prntscrn]

Sterling never change

 

[Halladay]

Sterling bottled it.

Now he finishes it.

 

[Prntscrn]

f*** that's on me.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Lloris

 

[les Habs]

Love that ball from de Bruyne.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Horrid defending.

 

[hatterson]

One thing that City did excellent was completely shut down Kane. He may as well have not been playing today.

 

[Live in the Now]

One thing that City did excellent was completely shut down Kane. He may as well have not been playing today.

Gonna fly in with the controversy here I suppose. He's a world class player, a f***ing great player. He is also the easiest kind of forward for a top team to defend. I only mean the really top teams of course. He had only one goal against RM, City, United, and Juve this season. Once Liverpool fixed their defense he only scored a penalty against them as well, and he didn't score against Chelsea either.

I think his most effective attribute is that his presence brings other players on the team into the game. The only games they lost of those were the Juve game with two guys marking him and both City games. In the Juve game other players should have taken their chances.

 

[hatterson]

Gonna fly in with the controversy here I suppose. He's a world class player, a ****ing great player. He is also the easiest kind of forward for a top team to defend. I only mean the really top teams of course. He had only one goal against RM, City, United, and Juve this season. Once Liverpool fixed their defense he only scored a penalty against them as well, and he didn't score against Chelsea either.

I think his most effective attribute is that his presence brings other players on the team into the game. The only games they lost of those were the Juve game with two guys marking him and both City games. In the Juve game other players should have taken their chances.

I think that’s fair, although I didn’t just mean that his quality chances were limited. From what I recall he was completely invisible. He wasn’t involved in the guildup, wasn’t involved in wide play to drag coverage around, honestly I don’t even remember more than a couple ariel duels in the opposition third, so it’s not like there was a lot of service into him.

Part of that is definitely on him, part of it is on Poch for not adjusting to what city was doing and using Kane at least as a distraction.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

He did play a very good ball to set up Eriksen's goal. Otherwise I agree that he wasn't particularly impactful.

 

[Savant]

Lovren banged up today. Going to be assessed for injury.

Would be very bad.

 

[YNWA14]

Finally got around to watching the game. What a wonderful team we've got right now. Nice to get another win in the bag and on top of it keep a clean sheet against a dangerous enough team in Bournemouth. Hoping to keep our confidence high for the Roma tie.

I mean let's not pretend that he didnt have some horror shows. All that matters now is that Virgil has helped him tremendously. He has been great

Most CBs will when they're as exposed as our CBs were for a long time. Not only without shielding from midfield, but also with an inept keeper and fullbacks that were acting as wingers essentially because of how narrow our front 3/4 were. It was no surprise that most big games Lovren always looked quality; we were defending much more as a team and not requiring our backline to be perfect, disciplined and completely locked in despite rarely being called to action (all of this without any leadership out of the back). I had mentioned it even earlier in the season, and you can see the stark contrast in Klopp's approach to games at the moment compared to earlier in his tenure. On top of it moving Coutinho out of the side made us much more balanced (which was obvious before it happened IMO).

Either way we're killing it right now and full credit to Klopp for making the needed adjustments as well as handling everything so well. I had my doubts about how pragmatic he could be but he's really stepped up this season.

 

[YNWA14]

Also lmao...so much for 'boring' James Milner:

 

[Havre]

Not going to argue that Kane is the best at everything, but most forwards struggle when they get isolated. Even Lukaku who would dominate anyone physically often finds it impossible to really do anything if he is isolated. It is also quite clear Kane needs a week or two more before he is fully fit again.

Much more worrying that someone like Alli is a complete nobody in a game like that. Dier and Dembele are more or less completely unable to impose themselves defensively. Not that anyone thought Spurs didn´t have weaknesses, but Dembele (and partly Alli) is supposed to be a strength though. Dembele was also completely anonymous in the second game against Juventus.

That said. If Sanchez doesn´t mess up it could have been quite different. Spurs starts the game horribly, but at 1-2 it is a bit of a contest (even if Spurs hardly create anything). So without giving up that easy first goal and that stupid second (which Sanchez is also partly at fault for) it definitely wouldn´t have looked as bad as it did.

 

[Stray Wasp]

Also lmao...so much for 'boring' James Milner:

Ah, but don't forget the National Union of Journalists guidelines:

In the context of football, the adjective 'boring' should be ascribed to any footballer who fails to commit assault, embroil themselves in sexual scandal, hang around with vacuous celebrities, live the sort of obscene conspicuous consumption lifestyle most of the general public claims to deplore but secretly yearns after, or engage in rows with coaches or teammates, thereby denying the media the opportunity to fill pages / airtime with cheap sensationalism (this is always more popular than proper analysis and new ideas because English football is football by the stupid for the stupid), and failing to give the public something to talk about that requires no thought beyond the 'footballers are a bunch of thugs who are paid too much' standard line (which, if the player is black, should be accompanied by mixing in a heavy undertone of racism).

 

[Stray Wasp]

For all my (and many other people's) criticisms of Arsene Wenger, and for all you associate the Gunners with a lack of testicles, they've only lost twice on Tyneside since 1996. And not at all since Shearer retired. Indeed, if memory serves they've not even conceded a goal away to NUFC since the lamented Cheick Tiote's thunderbolt in 2011.

I have a nasty feeling that today will be a sequel to the Chelsea game of spring 2008 under Kevin Keegan, when a brief NUFC resurgence that had sparked optimism ran into the grim reality of how far the team truly was from challenging the top six.

But at least after months of tension this game feels like a free hit.

 

[njdevsfn95]

Might want to use that "edit post" functions Stray!

Haha

Just give Rafa a boatload of money. Somebody. Anybody. Just buy NUFC and put a printing press in Rafa's office.

 

[Halladay]

Arsenal doesn't have an away point in 2018. Last point was when they drew with West Brom on New Years eve.

 

[Blender]

At this rate Burnley is going to pass Arsenal for 6th. Can't say I mind that.

 

[booyakasha]

brutal....I yell at Chambers, and Mustafi through my screen all morning for being shyte, and it's Monreal, in the end, that costs us the game.

 

[Cassano]

2nd behind City in home games and relegation form in away games.

 

[Jussi]

Seems there was a handling of the ball incident earlier today so here's the FA rules on it:

HANDLING THE BALL

Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm.

The following must be considered:
the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an offence
touching the ball with an object held in the hand (clothing, shinguard, etc.) is an offence
hitting the ball with a thrown object (boot, shinguard, etc.) is an offence
The goalkeeper has the same restrictions on handling the ball as any other player outside the penalty area. Inside their penalty area, the goalkeeper cannot be guilty of a handling offence incurring a direct free kick or any related sanction but can be guilty of handling offences that incur an indirect free kick.

The bolded part seems to be causing confusion with some posters here.

 

[maclean]

There's "focussing on the Europa League" and then there's "focussing on the Europa League"...