Greenlizard0 PL & Championship Football Thread ** spoilers ** [13th - 19th January 2023]

IronSpider said:
So now you all accept that City do in fact look the more likely to drop points this season over Arsenal. City are worse this year than at any time in the last 5 years. I wouldn't be surprised to see them finished 3rd. Amazing the amount of people that wrote this off as a City canter after 3 games.

People keep saying Arsenal still have to play them, but that's a harder game home and away for City than it is Arsenal. I don't see this City having enough about them to close down and chase Arsenal.
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Good teams are good teams and City are still a good team. Despite City being considered massively off the boil of late they are only 8 points behind Arsenal and they have a squad that would be in Europe even if they played their 2nd XI. Arsenal have a squad that is over-performing right now and doesn't have cover in key positions.

We aren't even half way through the season either and Arsenal haven't played as many of the big 6 as some of the others.

I hope Arsenal do continue this form and beat City to the title but I wouldn't be counting your chickens yet. Come back in 10 games when you are still 8 points clear and I will start to believe.
 
RobDogDog said:
Yes, it's a case of moving your body by about 10 degrees which doesn't sound like much, but small margins as a goalkeeper can either save or hinder you.
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Oh goalkeeping is predominantly about positioning in my opinion. Its one of those positions where if you aren't in just the right spot you won't even have a chance of saving a lot of shots. The best keepers know when to come out, how fast and where players are likely to shoot. The speed they kick the ball at means that unless you are in the right place at the right time when the ball leaves their foot there is little you can do to correct any mistakes.

Ederson will very much have been positioned to take into account Rashford and Fernandes but as far as I can tell, the rules don't really cover that situation in any detail. Unless you are impeding or blocking the keepers line of sight its usually ignored. Imagine a cross where one player is offside and another isn't. If the offside player doesn't touch the ball and the onside player puts it in, its a goal. The keeper will have been considering both players but because one was onside and he was the one who scored it doesn't matter.

As some of us have said, its the keeper in this that is hard done by and if it was disallowed I wouldn't be too beat up about it. Its a grey area currently and a grey area that isn't exploited or relevant the vast majority of the time.
 
fez said:
Good teams are good teams and City are still a good team. Despite City being considered massively off the boil of late they are only 8 points behind Arsenal and they have a squad that would be in Europe even if they played their 2nd XI. Arsenal have a squad that is over-performing right now and doesn't have cover in key positions.
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No they wouldn't. It's pretty clear City have strength in depth, but it's also pretty clear they don't work they are put in. Their second 11 wouldn't finish in the top 4. They are weaker than last year. People said Arsenal would drop of with Jesus injured but they are comping better than City with the star striker who got a rest during the world cup. The strength of this City side is massively over rated. From day one they looked the more likely to drop points despite EH scoring for fun. City haven't been off the boil of late, they have been since the season started.
 
IronSpider said:
No they wouldn't. It's pretty clear City have strength in depth, but it's also pretty clear they don't work they are put in. Their second 11 wouldn't finish in the top 4. They are weaker than last year. People said Arsenal would drop of with Jesus injured but they are comping better than City with the star striker who got a rest during the world cup. The strength of this City side is massively over rated. From day one they looked the more likely to drop points despite EH scoring for fun. City haven't been off the boil of late, they have been since the season started.
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We shall see ;)

Also, Europe these days goes down to about 15th place in the league :p
 
I don't think there's any issue of quality in the City squad but I do think we probably underestimate the change of bringing Haaland in. There was a lot of talk about this re Utd and Ronaldo but I think, as things stand at least, Haaland is another example of an individual playing well but the side as a whole probably being weaker due to his inclusion.

We kept getting the "if only City had a number 9 to finish all these chances" lines in previous years but we've seen a few times this season that playing with that number 9 has meant City haven't created those chances. The fact that City didn't play with an out and out centre forward was part of what made them so difficult to play against and while they'll still hit most of the bottom half of the PL for 4's and 5's, they've definitely struggled more to create against the better sides this season.

This could just be a bit of a work in progress thing and it will improve moving forwards but part of me wonders whether Pep's dream of playing 11 cm's will be too much for him to sit back and we might see him start leaving Haaland out in certain games.
 
BaZ87 said:
This could just be a bit of a work in progress thing and it will improve moving forwards but part of me wonders whether Pep's dream of playing 11 cm's will be too much for him to sit back and we might see him start leaving Haaland out in certain games.
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Don't exaggerate Baz, he only wants 10 CMs. It is surprising how so many people think that football is a simple game where you can remove players and remove their goals or replace players and keep the team cohesion but with a different element added.

I would be surprised if Haaland is benched much this season but hes gone to the wrong team. I said this about Ronaldo when he came to us. He would have scored bucket loads of goals at City but they would have been a worse team for him. Same thing happened at United minus the playing for a good team.

Haaland should have come to United is what I am trying to say :p
 
Great to see Weghorst starting, he's at full fitness and confident, makes sense to throw him straight in.

Hope he's good now we've talked him up as Haaland rival :p
 
adam cool dude said:
If he plays well it will be an ace against Arsenal as they have no knowledge of him so he will be a bit of a unknown to them.
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I watch the UtdpeoplesTV YT channel and he put up a poll last week asking how many he will get for us until the season end, people were saying 5-8 goals. Going by how many chances we are fluffing due to having no out and out striker, I am thinking he will at least 10-12. Heres hoping anyway
 
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