Soccer/Footy 2015-2016

Springbok · Jul 11, 2015

If its Schweiny AND Schneiderlin its a good bit of business - I reckon Schneiderlin is a better player today than Schweinsteiger, but both would be a good/great MF pairing. Kind of hoping Arsenal come in for Schneiderlin now if for nothing else than to prevent Manc from getting him, as the player seems to prefer coming to Arsenal. Not sure I can see Wenger stumping up 25m on him though, so I think he's Uniteds if they want him.

If they pull off both, I imagine they're a GK (assuming De Gea leaves), CB, and #9 away from challenging for the league. Glad Ramos seems to be staying put!

Springbok · Jul 12, 2015

LFC have just robbed Man City - wonder what they'll do with all that $$?! Probably the best deal Liverpool have done since signing Suarez.

Div · Jul 13, 2015

That is some fantastic business done by ManU to strengthen the midfield. I am pretty dissapointed that Arsenal didn't go in for Schneiderlin but @ 25 mil, he is pretty expensive.

As for Sterling going to ManCity for 50 mil. I don't get this at all. He is a fantastic player but unproven as of yet in my opinion. So they shelled out that much money for potential prospect and the fact he's British. Who knows he might have a crazy season with Aguero and Silva.

Brando · Jul 13, 2015

49m pounds to Liverpool + 200k pounds a week in wage, basically 100m pounds in total compensation for Sterling. If the wages are true then his base wage is the highest on ManC, I'm sure that will go over well with the agents for Aguero and Silva.

I like Schneiderlin signing more than the Schweinsteiger one though I agree 25m is pretty expensive for a DM.

Quineloe · Jul 16, 2015

Brando_sl said:
His body has basically broken down on him, there's a reason Bayern are pushing him out the door and it's 36m pounds including wages and fees for years 31-33. Guess we'll see.

This. ManU will not be happy with him. At least not 50 million Euros worth of happy.

Div · Jul 16, 2015

Wow it looks like Da Gea might actually stay a united player. LVG came out saying Valdez will be sold cause of some attitude issues. Can't see them selling both the #1 & #2 keepers. I usually don't get into transfer speculation too much but this has been interesting. Especially cause I think Da Gea is top 3 keeper in the world and would weaken United considerably.

Ossoi · Jul 16, 2015

Like the legend of Dalglish the King
Benteke gets the net bulging
What keeps Benteke playing
Is the goals from the beginning.

He's far too hot to give up on fourth spot
So let's raise our hands for the fans

He won't give interviews to The Sun
Brendan told him he needs to run
He's up all night to score some
We're up all night for Benteke

We don't talk to The Sun
We want a good cup run
We're up all night to score some
We're up all night for Benteke

We're up all night for Benteke
We're up all night for Benteke
We're up all night for Benteke
We're up all night for Benteke

Brendan is not fibbing
FSG keep on giving
Who is this we're signing?
Sterling's gonna leave I'm with it

We've won too much to forget who we are
So let's raise the bar and sign some stars

We don't talk to The Sun
We want a good cup run
We're up all night to score some
We're up all night for Benteke

We're up all night for Benteke
We're up all night for Benteke
We're up all night for Benteke
We're up all night for Benteke

Maul · Jul 16, 2015

Brando_sl said:
49m pounds to Liverpool + 200k pounds a week in wage, basically 100m pounds in total compensation for Sterling. If the wages are true then his base wage is the highest on ManC, I'm sure that will go over well with the agents for Aguero and Silva.

I like Schneiderlin signing more than the Schweinsteiger one though I agree 25m is pretty expensive for a DM.

I know you love to lump wages in with transfers. But don't forget RvP and nanis wages cover Schweinsteigers, Schneiderlin's and Darmians. 25 million isn't much for Schneiderlin either considering he was probably in the top 3 midfielders of last season in the pl.

faille · Jul 16, 2015

Bit unconvinced about signing Benteke. Great player, who's probably worth 32m in today's market, but seems like it will create formation / playing time headaches. Obviously can't rely on Sturridge but he'd be first choice when fit, but also picked up ings, and origi, along with the misfits we still have in lambert, balotelli and Borini. Even if we can sell the last three, that's still three good choices up front. Would Benteke be a good option to have in addition to that? Absolutely! but for 32m, maybe the money could be better spent elsewhere (yes, I'm away of contradiction of better spent and liverpool). Defence still needs a lot of improvement but a lot of that comes from stability so not sure taking a punt an yet another CB is worthwhile. GK is probably the biggest area where we could improve. A real commanding GK who can marshal the defence. I think Casillas would have been great for that, and provide great mentorship for mignolet and any other young GK we could grab.

Brando · Jul 16, 2015

Maul_sl said:
I know you love to lump wages in with transfers. But don't forget RvP and nanis wages cover Schweinsteigers, Schneiderlin's and Darmians. 25 million isn't much for Schneiderlin either considering he was probably in the top 3 midfielders of last season in the pl.

I talk about wages because I think just focusing solely on tranfer fees is misleading. Milner for instance isn't a free transfer even though it will be listed as such nor does Schweini's transfer fee give a true understanding of what he will actually cost. I also think it's going to be interesting in going forward as the new TV money kicks which was Sterling's argument for a higher contract from LFC in that years 2-5 the club will be making more money. Seeing as how most clubs don't actually make money as all the money goes to the players and their agents I think we're on the cusp of wage and transfer fees going through the roof again.

As far as Schneiderlin, I agree he's a great transfer but Top 3 midfielder in the PL last year? Bit of a red tinted glasses there, DM I would agree but overall midfielder is pushing it.

faille_sl said:
Bit unconvinced about signing Benteke. Great player, who's probably worth 32m in today's market, but seems like it will create formation / playing time headaches. Obviously can't rely on Sturridge but he'd be first choice when fit, but also picked up ings, and origi, along with the misfits we still have in lambert, balotelli and Borini. Even if we can sell the last three, that's still three good choices up front. Would Benteke be a good option to have in addition to that? Absolutely! but for 32m, maybe the money could be better spent elsewhere (yes, I'm away of contradiction of better spent and liverpool). Defence still needs a lot of improvement but a lot of that comes from stability so not sure taking a punt an yet another CB is worthwhile. GK is probably the biggest area where we could improve. A real commanding GK who can marshal the defence. I think Casillas would have been great for that, and provide great mentorship for mignolet and any other young GK we could grab.

LFC created the 3rd most clear cut chances in the league last year, with even an average conversion rate there's an argument to be made we would have gotten top 4 with as bad of a season as we had. Though that speaks to how shit the other teams were at certain points in the season as well. Benteke scores goals at a rate of almost 1 for every 2 games. If he does that for LFC then I don't really care what we spend on him as that's what we need with Sturridge's career being up in the air at this point.

As far as the defense, Rodgers will never play with an out and out DM unless he has to. Lovren looked great with Wanyama and Schneiderlin providing cover and we're never going to do something like that. We should just embrace the shittiness and play with at least 4 attackers at all times and just try to outscore people like 2013/14 or Keegan's Newcastle. At least it would be fun. Other than that my only concern is the first game had Lovren starting with Skrtel who we know will be first choice. If that means Lovren is going to be preferred over Sakho then Rodgers has no eye for defenders so our defense will be shit forever while he's manager anyway.

There's a reason Casillas went to Porto, he's proper shit now. Not sure how many RM games you saw last season but he really was terrible. Cech might have been interesting but there's no way Casillas is better than Migs at this point.

Pyratec · Jul 17, 2015

Not that anyone here cares probably, but my local team, BSC Young Boys, got probably the worst possible draw in the Champions League qualifiers. The possible opponents were Shaktar Donetzk, Ajax Amsterdam, ZSKA Moscow, FC Br?gge, and AS Monaco. We ended up getting Monaco as our opponent, granted we wouldn't be the favorite against any of those teams, but I think Monaco is the toughest of them all. The home leg will be fun to go to at least, and if we lose then we go into the Europa League, which is where we usually end up anyways.

If we do somehow manage to win then we could end up drawing Man United for the playoff round, would be fantastic to see them play in Bern, even if my favorite EPL team is Liverpool its still fun to see the really big teams live and in person. Maybe we can do like in 2010 against Tottenham and at least win the home leg (3-2) before getting destroyed in London (4-0).

Brando · Jul 17, 2015

These are pretty cool:

Maul · Jul 17, 2015

Brando_sl said:
I talk about wages because I think just focusing solely on tranfer fees is misleading. Milner for instance isn't a free transfer even though it will be listed as such nor does Schweini's transfer fee give a true understanding of what he will actually cost. I also think it's going to be interesting in going forward as the new TV money kicks which was Sterling's argument for a higher contract from LFC in that years 2-5 the club will be making more money. Seeing as how most clubs don't actually make money as all the money goes to the players and their agents I think we're on the cusp of wage and transfer fees going through the roof again.

As far as Schneiderlin, I agree he's a great transfer but Top 3 midfielder in the PL last year? Bit of a red tinted glasses there, DM I would agree but overall midfielder is pushing it.

Matic, Fabragas (in spells), Coutinho (in spells). Struggling to think of anyone else who was as good as those + Schneiderlin. He was absolutely immense in his role in front of Southamptons defence. Always good for a solid 8/10 performance in the majority of games. Im pretty stoked about the transfer and think he is exactly what we have needed for a while, the fact Schweinsteiger is there as well is like christmas come early. Haven't had a good CM since 2005.

Springbok · Jul 17, 2015

Maul_sl said:
Matic, Fabragas (in spells), Coutinho (in spells). Struggling to think of anyone else who was as good as those + Schneiderlin. He was absolutely immense in his role in front of Southamptons defence. Always good for a solid 8/10 performance in the majority of games. Im pretty stoked about the transfer and think he is exactly what we have needed for a while, the fact Schweinsteiger is there as well is like christmas come early. Haven't had a good CM since 2005.

Cazorla was a comfortably better CM last season than Schneiderlin, albeit in different roles. He was good/great and I'm bummed to see him wind up at United, but lets not go overboard. I imagine he's going to take to his role at Manc like a fish to water though, and I'm pretty fecking annoyed Wenger decided to give Arteta an extension while passing on Scheid........

Maul · Jul 18, 2015

Springbok_sl said:
Cazorla was a comfortably better CM last season than Schneiderlin, albeit in different roles. He was good/great and I'm bummed to see him wind up at United, but lets not go overboard. I imagine he's going to take to his role at Manc like a fish to water though, and I'm pretty fecking annoyed Wenger decided to give Arteta an extension while passing on Scheid........

Not sure I agree with that. But each to his own

Delph for 8 million. Pretty cheap!

Brando · Jul 19, 2015

That's the point though as we're not talking about box to box mids or Attacking mids here as that's not what Schniederlin is. How then are you supposed to compare mids when it's really down to defensive contribution and he had Wanyama in support, there's a reason why Southampton's defense has been so good the last couple of years and as they play with two dedicated DM's. So to say top 3 CM in the PL overall is somewhat ridiculous even though everybody has noted he's a good signing.

Brando · Jul 19, 2015

Well I started this thread saying nobody gives a shit about the Gold Cup but if Mexico wasn't just gifted a win there by that shit AR then I don't know what else to say.

Brando · Jul 23, 2015

I'll be posting the APLT again this year, here's the fixtures and an explanation:

For those of you who are new to the APLT, or those who need a reminder of the model, the APLT makes an assumption that in order to win the league title, a team needs to win 90 points for the season. This can be achieved by winning all home matches, the seven 'easiest' away matches (the three promoted teams and the 14th-17th ranked teams from the previous season) and draw the 12 remaining away matches. I refer to these as the 'par results'. As in golf, par will be achieved more often than not, but sometimes points are dropped or gained in relation to par.

The fixture list below for the top seven teams from last season indicates the 'hardest' (colored) matches which are all par 1s, with the remaining fixtures all par 3s.

Maul · Jul 25, 2015

Brando_sl said:
That's the point though as we're not talking about box to box mids or Attacking mids here as that's not what Schniederlin is. How then are you supposed to compare mids when it's really down to defensive contribution and he had Wanyama in support, there's a reason why Southampton's defense has been so good the last couple of years and as they play with two dedicated DM's. So to say top 3 CM in the PL overall is somewhat ridiculous even though everybody has noted he's a good signing.

He doesn't have the technical skill of Fabragas or the flair, but he is an absolute monster in the DM role, 25m is not an expensive price for someone of his quality, pretty much an overlooked player because of who he plays for. He is what united have lacked since Keane left in 2005. I dont really rate Carrick

No mention of the new signings for Liverpool btw, how many strikers do you need?

Brando · Jul 25, 2015

As you're finding out with Di Maria it's best to wait and see how new players fit in and play before spouting off about how great they'll be. I don't think Schneiderlin will flop but nobody can guarentee that and he's basically the same price as Vidal who's a better player. His stats are in line with every other DM, how is he a top 3 player?

http://www.squawka.com/comparison-ma...red/assists#90

As far as LFC, I have no issue with any of the transfers. Again though lets see how they do.

Soccer/Footy 2015-2016

Karen

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