We have had injuries as well.I think it was 8 possibly 10 games we didn't have our first choice keeper.Remember though, they've had injuries where Liverpool hasn't..
There has certainly been a gulf in class this season. Playing poorly and beating teams is a sign of a very good team.
Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [17th - 23rd January 2020]
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Caporegime
We've got a fairly budget midfield at the best of times and have been missing the two best players in it for most of the season. Thank god Fred has becomes 3x the player he was last season or we would be near the bottom of the table.
With Rashford out for most of the rest of the season we are probably going to struggle. Especially since we aren't going to sign anyone in this window.
Soldato
I was being sarcastic as that's all I ever see the city lot say. Liverpool have had academy kids on the bench as cover at times, that's how little depth they've sometimes had through injuries.
My post was entirely honest. The PL as a whole has never been stonger relative to the rest of Europe. We have sides battling relegation with greater resources than sides competing for CL spots in other major Leagues. It's no surprise that we had all 4 European finalists last season and all 7 European sides have made it through the group stage again this season. The biggest reason why Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea and Spurs aren't getting as many points is because the other 14 sides are much stronger than they were in years gone.
The only noticeable difference between this and last season is City's form and even had City managed to maintain the level of last season, they'd still be on course to finish 12 points behind Liverpool. We're so far ahead of the rest because we're an insanely good side that are capable of coming up against and beating almost every different style of team and in every different circumstance. If teams want to take the game to us then we'll destroy them on the break, if teams want to sit deep and defend narrow to counter our front 3 then Trent and Robertson will have a field day out wide or we'll put in a 10 minute spell where we'll just blitz you and run all over you and when we're not playing well or the other team are having a good spell, we've got the character to withstand it, along with the best CB in PL history and the best keeper in the world to save us when we need saving.
That's not all they say to be fair. Go on Bluemoon and you'll see a 1000 page thread on the game being corrupt and ironically it's not discussing City cheating their way around FFP. The lack of self awareness with City fans, the online ones anyway, is staggering. They complain about their defensive crisis when they had near £200m of defenders on the bench and as you say, we've played the past month or so with academy players on the bench as we've had zero defensive or midfield cover available.
Well we didn't take our chances and that's what makes the difference.
Can only take positives from the game tbh
Caporegime
Man United was terrible at the end of last summer and still beat PSG in the champions league. Tottenham were diabolical and got to the final. Full English final in both comps. I am tempting fate but even our national team looks strong. English football hasn't been this strong since the mid to late 00's. Norwich City are better than some of the teams that got into this year's champions league.
I think it is time Uefa looked into top 5 Champions league positions as it is just too tight. City and Pool are just at a different level at the moment.
I really cannot see anyone in Europe challenging City or Pool this season in the champions league bar some freak result either.
You can't have a quarter of the league in the CL, that's getting on for being absurd. And while I'm a Liverpool fan, the group stage was pretty close run for us. It's well within the realms of possibility for Atletico to beat us next round.
Caporegime
Why not? You want champions league to be the best vs the best. If our 5th placed team is better than Bulgaria's number 1 team then so be it. By your logic it should really only be champions of each league in the champions league.
Something needs to change as the money in the premier League is spiralling out of control and it is a results based business. Some teams are just going to get hung out to dry when the owners sell up.. I can see the likes of Arsenal and Everton going this way as they are not going to continue to bulldoze money into a lost cause.
You need to have a balance between having the best sides in Europe in the competition and giving sides from across Europe an opportunity. As soon as you start looking at having even more PL sides in the CL, you may as well go down the European Super League route.
Re finances, generally speaking all clubs are self sufficient. If and when Everton's ownership decides it's not going to keep putting money into the club or Abramovic decides he's had enough of football, it wouldn't be that difficult for these sides to put the breaks on - they'd just have to shift a few high earners (even if they had to give them away) and they can plod along again. It's only sides with huge bank debts that would be at big risk if the money stops coming in.
Re finances, generally speaking all clubs are self sufficient. If and when Everton's ownership decides it's not going to keep putting money into the club or Abramovic decides he's had enough of football, it wouldn't be that difficult for these sides to put the breaks on - they'd just have to shift a few high earners (even if they had to give them away) and they can plod along again. It's only sides with huge bank debts that would be at big risk if the money stops coming in.
Soldato
Totally agree with your response to my earlier post Baz.
The money has certainly spiralled out of control in football though. I mean, you've got teams that are in the lower end of the PL table that can splash £25/30m on a single player whereas not too long ago that was a big signing. Now the big signings are over £100m. It can't be sustainable as it is.
The money has certainly spiralled out of control in football though. I mean, you've got teams that are in the lower end of the PL table that can splash £25/30m on a single player whereas not too long ago that was a big signing. Now the big signings are over £100m. It can't be sustainable as it is.
Neither did we, we should've scored 5.
Transfer fees are just a reflection of the amount of money that's in the game though and in a lot of cases we're just seeing money recycled. BT entering the football world meant TV rights increased dramatically, throw a City or PSG splurging £300m in a single window into the mix and suddenly there's a lot of money circulating in football. Neymar's transfer to PSG triggered a merry go round with that £200m odd ending up filtering it's way through all of Europe. Not only did all that money lead to an increase in transfer fees but everybody started benchmarking the value of their players on what Neymar was sold for or what Coutinho was sold for and suddenly a £40m player becomes a £70m overnight.
I think we've seen a bit of a slow down since the summer of 2017 though. There are people that study football inflation and in 2018 the market had actually deflated compared to 2017. I've no idea the numbers for last summer but it certainly felt like a lot of deals didn't happen last year because buying sides weren't willing to pay that extra £5m, £10m or £20m.
Soldato
Have you not waRemember though, they've had injuries where Liverpool hasn't..
There has certainly been a gulf in class this season. Playing poorly and beating teams is a sign of a very good team.
Will we ever have a 4 way battle for the title? We have 6 teams who are household names and yet it seems every year its just one or two teams compete for the title in the past 20 years
Permabanned
Like when City won with 19 points to spare or when Utd won it by April. Was **** easy.
Man of Honour
Bellerin back in the starting line up and given the armband for tonight 
Everton line up if anyone's interested...
Everton line up if anyone's interested...
Bellerin back in the starting line up and given the armband for tonight
Everton line up if anyone's interested...
Pickford's arms are unrealistically long, and someone's evidently never laid eyes on Kean!
Caporegime
Some racist kids right there 
Caporegime
‘What in gods name has happened to Theo