Premier League 2021/22 Thread

[elvisfmcfly]

2 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I did say it at the time to several posters, many of us did. I live in Portsmouth and know several Saints fans, they all would’ve laughed at the idea that Hassenhutl was a better manager than Rodgers.

Well we’ve got a much better squad and facilities but are only 4 points ahead of them. 

[Sampson]

11 minutes ago, elvisfmcfly said:

Well we’ve got a much better squad and facilities but are only 4 points ahead of them. 

Sure, if we lose both our games in hand it might be a fair reflection of the table and you only look at extremely short term results and completely ignore the entirety of their previous career and only look at their last few months of league results. That doesn’t make him a better manager though does it? Nor that we should sack Rodgers to replace him with Hassenhutl and suddenly we’ll be positively transformed as a football club. That’s a massively simplistic way of looking at it. Else we may as well say Spurs should sack Conte and replace him with Moyes given the difference in resources means Moyes is clearly a better manager than Conte and assume Moyes coming in will have Spurs at a far higher level.

 

Southampton aren’t *that* much poorer than us, neither has he particularly over or underachieved given his budget and the squad he had when he came in, neither do they have European competition to juggle - which while they’d had an awful season  before when he came in - still had plenty of the infrastructure and players that was finishing 6th, 7th, 8th in the PL only a couple of seasons before. 
 

Most Saints fans will go back and forth about how tactically naive he is but they’ll probably say he is what he is - a manager for a bottom half PL side who’ll keep them ticking over without really pushing on.

Edited 11 April 2022 by Sampson

[Finnegan]

3 hours ago, Sampson said:

People so desperate to get rid they were calling for the likes of Potter, Hassenhutl or even Cooper to replace him was always ludicrous overreaction though.

 

Whilst this is true, to be fair, I do think a certain amount of it just stems from people thinking that the roughly top 25/30 teams in England are basically 100% of football which is a belief largely propagated by our tabloid newspapers and TV broadcasters. 

 

Most people aren't out there doing a @Ric Flair scouring the Moldovan fourth division for a manager with a high win percentage whose teams are  outliers for unexpectedly high xG or average pressing sprints per 90.

 

So when they're asked who should replace Rodgers they don't have a clue. They only really know of managers in the Prem or whoever's on a promotion push in the Championship. 

 

Tbf, that's also usually the case of the people that defend whoever the current manager is by going "yeah well who would even replace him!?!?!?!?" because they think Sam Allardyce is literally the only out of work manager in the world. 

[Sampson]

Worth saying that Hassenhutl has already said he’s retiring at the end of his Saints contract in 2024 anyway so it’s a bit of a non-starter.

Edited 11 April 2022 by Sampson

[The Horse's Mouth]

3 hours ago, Sampson said:

Mate, calling for someone flavour of the month a couple of months ago like Potter or Hassenhutl to be manager when they’ve done nothing in their career to suggest they are anything but a step down on Rodgers is the absolute definition of being fickle.

 

Questioning Rodgers is one thing. People so desperate to get rid they were calling for the likes of Potter, Hassenhutl or even Cooper to replace him was always ludicrous overreaction though.

Potter I've never got, even their own fans are showing some unrest and he's done nothing previously 

[worth_the_wait]

On MOTD2 last night ... at one point Gabby and Co. were getting so turned on talking about Liverpool and Man City, i was almost expecting them to rip their clothes off to cool off.

[elvisfmcfly]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

Sure, if we lose both our games in hand it might be a fair reflection of the table and you only look at extremely short term results and completely ignore the entirety of their previous career and only look at their last few months of league results. That doesn’t make him a better manager though does it? Nor that we should sack Rodgers to replace him with Hassenhutl and suddenly we’ll be positively transformed as a football club. That’s a massively simplistic way of looking at it. Else we may as well say Spurs should sack Conte and replace him with Moyes given the difference in resources means Moyes is clearly a better manager than Conte and assume Moyes coming in will have Spurs at a far higher level.

 

Southampton aren’t *that* much poorer than us, neither has he particularly over or underachieved given his budget and the squad he had when he came in, neither do they have European competition to juggle - which while they’d had an awful season  before when he came in - still had plenty of the infrastructure and players that was finishing 6th, 7th, 8th in the PL only a couple of seasons before. 
 

Most Saints fans will go back and forth about how tactically naive he is but they’ll probably say he is what he is - a manager for a bottom half PL side who’ll keep them ticking over without really pushing on.

Ok Tyrone. 

[Sampson]

1 minute ago, elvisfmcfly said:

Ok Tyrone. 

Absolutely sensational banter that. Must remember that one for the future.

[stripeyfox]

35 minutes ago, worth_the_wait said:

On MOTD2 last night ... at one point Gabby and Co. were getting so turned on talking about Liverpool and Man City, i was almost expecting them to rip their clothes off to cool off.

The hype over that match was ridiculous. During the commentary on Five Live John Murray (I think) was gushing about how they might have to extend MOTD to show all the action from the match. I mean, it was a decent game between two very good sides, but I doubt it will be remembered as an all time classic PL match.

 

EDIT - might have been Ian Dennis - but the point remains

Edited 11 April 2022 by stripeyfox

[Chelmofox]

1 minute ago, stripeyfox said:

The hype over that match was ridiculous. During the commentary on Five Live John Murray (I think) was gushing about how they might have to extend MOTD to show all the action from the match. I mean, it was a decent game between two very good sides, but I doubt it will be remembered as an all time classic PL match.

 

I can't remember who, but someone (may have been Peter Schmeichel) had the audacity to say that there were 15 minutes towards the end where the game petered out. He was duly corrected and said that the intensity in that period was still incredible and a class above anything that ever existed ever. Seemed like everyone was being paid £100 each time they said the word 'intense'.

[purpleronnie]

2 minutes ago, jamesp26 said:

I can't remember who, but someone (may have been Peter Schmeichel) had the audacity to say that there were 15 minutes towards the end where the game petered out. He was duly corrected and said that the intensity in that period was still incredible and a class above anything that ever existed ever. Seemed like everyone was being paid £100 each time they said the word 'intense'.

He also said sterling was onside.

[UniFox21]

 

That fabinho tackle, how is that missed 

 

 

[jmono84]

I thought Liverpool were very lucky to have 11 players on the pitch at the end.

[StanSP]

1 hour ago, UniFox21 said:

 

That fabinho tackle, how is that missed 

 

 

The second one was given for a foul on Thiago just before the tackle on De Bruyne so I doubt it would have even been reviewed as a red card challenge. 

 

As for Fabinho, he gets away with a shit load of dirty fouls throughout the season. Mention that to any Liverpool fans and they'll bring something up that happened 13 years ago as a defence

 

[Finnegan]

17 minutes ago, StanSP said:

The second one was given for a foul on Thiago just before the tackle on De Bruyne so I doubt it would have even been reviewed as a red card challenge. 

 

As for Fabinho, he gets away with a shit load of dirty fouls throughout the season. Mention that to any Liverpool fans and they'll bring something up that happened 13 years ago as a defence

 

 

Legitimately don't understand why people even engage with Liverpool or Everton fans. Must be something in the water in Liverpool, or maybe its just what happens after years of being told you're special. By far the most delusional supporter bases outside of North London. 

 

I know all clubs have idiot fans on social media, us included. 

 

But theirs are definitely some of the worst. 

[Deeg67]

5 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

Surely the same can be said for every club in the league? 
I don’t think he has too many haters, more people pointing out he hasn’t really done anything as a manager yet. 

 

If you live in a world where football outside England doesn't exist, that would be true.

 

Impossible to overstate how delicious it is seeing the obvious discomfort even a little Marsch success in the Prem causes for a lot of fans, and how desperately they're hoping he falls on his face.  The proof of what kind of soccer coach he is will be in what happens on the field.  How many games can he win?  Right now he has a pretty limited roster - if Leeds gives him a better one over the summer, next season could be really interesting.

Edited 11 April 2022 by Deeg67

[Finnegan]

10 minutes ago, Deeg67 said:

Impossible to overstate how delicious it is seeing the obvious discomfort even a little Marsch success in the Prem causes for a lot of fans, and how desperately they're hoping he falls on his face

 

Literally 99% of us don't care. 

 

This is the second time you've seemingly imagined this huge anti American sentiment from English football fans that I think is much, much bigger in your head than in real life. 

[don_danbury]

15 hours ago, elvisfmcfly said:

Oh so you wait till now to reply to this post when the results have swung? Got it,Rodgers has recently changed his methods which along with getting players back as just about yielded results, but there’s still many games like PSV where we don’t create. Jury’s still out I’m not fickle so don’t change my mind every 2 seconds. 

i don't mind you being rodgers out but you want to replace him with hassenhutl?  

[Scotch]

31 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Literally 99% of us don't care. 

 

This is the second time you've seemingly imagined this huge anti American sentiment from English football fans that I think is much, much bigger in your head than in real life. 

Absolutely. Being Scottish, I consider myself a bit of an expert on having a chip on the shoulder about how we are perceived in English football and I've not picked up on any kind of sentiment towards American "soccer". 

[fox_up_north]

I get annoyed if they call it soccer over here, if they're part of the industry. EG: if a US player said "it was a great game of soccer" in an interview, I'd roll my eyes.

 

But, come on, he's come in and he's actually doing ok. He knows he's following an absolutely loved manager but he's cracking on with the job. So what if he talks a bit different? 

[purpleronnie]

3 minutes ago, fox_up_north said:

I get annoyed if they call it soccer over here, if they're part of the industry. EG: if a US player said "it was a great game of soccer" in an interview, I'd roll my eyes.

 

But, come on, he's come in and he's actually doing ok. He knows he's following an absolutely loved manager but he's cracking on with the job. So what if he talks a bit different? 

Funny that the word soccer actually originated in England.

[mozartfox]

I heard Laura´´Radio Arsenal´´Woods bemoaning Arsenal´s injury crisis on Talksport this morning.  They have 3 players out.  Rotten luck and they will need to recruit for their Europa League Journey next season.

[Super_horns]

21 minutes ago, mozartfox said:

I heard Laura´´Radio Arsenal´´Woods bemoaning Arsenal´s injury crisis on Talksport this morning.  They have 3 players out.  Rotten luck and they will need to recruit for their Europa League Journey next season.

Maybe they should have played Spurs when they had one injury and Spurs weren’t in form .

[foxes1988]

1 hour ago, Deeg67 said:

If you live in a world where football outside England doesn't exist, that would be true.

 

Impossible to overstate how delicious it is seeing the obvious discomfort even a little Marsch success in the Prem causes for a lot of fans, and how desperately they're hoping he falls on his face.  The proof of what kind of soccer coach he is will be in what happens on the field.  How many games can he win?  Right now he has a pretty limited roster - if Leeds gives him a better one over the summer, next season could be really interesting.

Honestly most people don't care. 

 

I know English arrogance is a cliche and in someways rightly so but I think this is a lazy assumption to be honest.  I would say as a nation the UK is quite insular and the football industry can be that way as well especially the media.  In general most football nations are much more similar in this regard then they'll dare admit.

 

After the world cup draw I saw a few videos and podcast from the US bemoaning 'English arrogance' for declaring it a favourable draw (which in all honesty it is tbh even if that doesn't mean England will definitely qualify out the group) and then in almost the next breath dismissing Scotland, Wales and Ukraine and saying its a favourable group for them.

 

Although still early days (6 matches is it?) I think Marsch will do a decent job at Leeds.  Not sure about Europe I think they'll need alot of signings for that as I dont think Marsch will have as high a 'ceiling' as Bielsa but he wont be as a big a 'low' if that makes sense.

[Footballwipe]

Jesus Christ, people still get wound up by the word soccer? Must be ardent Football Focus fans and detest Jeff Stelling (and many references to football on TV in the 70's-90's) if you do.

 

Liverpool fans are perfectly encapsulated by the Anthony Taylor madness. Forgetting that he'd refereed them like 47 times before and they'd won 26 games. The way they were going on you'd think he was on the Man City board with his child's life on the line than just a top-level referee who can, shockingly, not be associated with a football team just because he's from the area.

 

It is with us as well on this forum at times. From VAR, referees, rigged draws etc. Football fans love a conspiracy and it's iconic that the authorities are against them. I know there's seige mentality but then people just stray into deranged.