Swansea v Sunderland next week will be epic

As if Silva's home record got ended by fucking Sunderland :D

Hull and Palace will be massive too. I thought Palace were looking OK but they collapsed today. Have you put a bet on the final bottom 3?

Nah I haven't. The only bet I've put for the end of the season is Juventus and Man United to get to the finals. The relegation battle is too close to call for me.

So presuming Middlesbrough go down on Monday(?) I've no idea who will be the third team. Kinda leaning towards Hull, but god knows.

Real Madrid B-team totally battering Granada (#hello mother, hello father#) as expected. Kinda embarrassing to watch really.

Watching MU v Arsenal right now. If MU win I think Liverppol's CL place will be gone. They were shocking against Southampton earlier. Heavy metal football played through some very worn out valves. Klopp in pure angry-face mode.

lolol. poor kloppo! yes, he runs out of ideas when his players wear out physically. it's like-- i'll just leave it at that.

i haven't watched bayern this weekend (though i will probably watch them vs rb leipzig the next one) but i am a bit meh about carletto's nouveau-freedom experiment. don't really understand what he's doing and i wouldn't mind a zonal marking article explaining it. which reminds me there was one article about bayern-dortmund from last december.

and the zonal marking guy has a book out apparently and has started posting again to promote the thing. or something.

i quit reading about football tactics for a while but i should probably do that again. since i'm getting organized at long last again. reading the transfer news doesn't provide the same level of satisfaction. at least not without a tactical context.

speaking of transfer news, bayern is poaching hoffenheim's best player. lol.

anyway i'm rambling ha ha ha

I've got that on order. Looking forward to reading it massively.

If you wanna learn more about tactics read the book that Michael Cos has cited as his main influence

Inverting the pyramid

It gets pretty heavy at times but totally worth a read

And Bayern poaching other players from the league? I'm SHOCKED.

i have that book right on my shelf. i read it on the regular trying to make sense of it. i wish there were videos. awaiting the future e-book ha haaa haaaa. or documentary film.

the guy used to be in an english team before. haarkonen or something? (lol dune). haka-something. hold on...

i know it's a croatian guy

KRAMARIC´ <-- that thing on the C

that's teh guy

he's strong and massive but also fast-- the anti-pep hire! that has to be a good sign haa haaa haaa

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrej_Kramarić

there ya go

--

speaking of pep: mandzukic and kroos headed for the CL final lololololololo

That Michael Cox book will be a must read. Inverting the Pyramid is great.

Kramaric made no impression at all at Leicester. I didn't even know they'd sold him in the summer.

Did you read his teaser chapter about that Newcastle/Liverpool game?

LOL, ah 'that' game. I assumed that was precisely the kind of match that defied analysis. Like 'that' Hagler-Hearns fight. Sport as pure one-dimensional aggression. I just read the teaser though, and, what I really like about Cox's style is he can focus on the tactics without ignoring the sheer intensity of it all. A lot of tactics' heads get too cold about things, missing the real story, but he never seems to. Also interesting was how that definitely defined Keegan's Newcastle (and Keegan's managerial style as a whole), the stats for that season telli another story.

Also a bit of a nostalgia trip, reading about Collymore without mention of either Ulrika or dogging in the same sentence. (Hated him then, still hate him, only for different reasons.)

Brilliant stuff.

I agree about wanting videos relating to the matches he's talking about. Youtube is a bit shit for that.

Crazy how one game can make you think that that's how Newcastle were for the whole season.

Cox does mention in that piece how it's an odd to try and unravel but it's good to read about it. I was *thinks* 10 at the time, didn't have sky and it was a school night so I definitely didn't see that game at the time. The only things I had to keep up with the games/teams were seeing Everton play, premier league stickers and teletext. Meaning I was never in the slightest knowledgeable about tactics in teams. Who is at 10?

Videos would be great but getting the rights for the footage would be a nightmare. I suppose they could do CGI versions but it wouldn't be the same.

Watching Chelsea v Middlesbrough at the moment. I doubt this'll be one for for the archives.

They should do it with sensible soccer. None of this CGI shit:D

I don't think anyone in England was then. I'd say there's a cult of tactics now which probably started with the classicos between Mourinho and Pep, and their almost purist adoption of opposing styles. I don't remember a time when there's been so much interest in managers. People were always interested in managers but more as personality types (I'm thinking about Ramsey, Clough, Fergie, etc). Either way, I definitely think this cult of tactics has created an equivalent cult of the manager, especially online, in threads like this: it being easier to discuss their rational tactical decisions than trying to understand and explain what great players do. Obviously all this coincides with the rise of Messi and Ronaldo but there's really very little to say about them without falling back on words like 'brilliant' or 'incredible'. So in that sense, it's perhaps no coincidence that this new fascination with discussing tactics also created a cult around more cerebral players like Xavi and Pirlo. In an era of Keegan, Fowler, etc, I'm not sure this thread would've lasted as long as it did, and certainly wouldn't have been anywhere as interesting.

Keep it real ...

:D

Just youtube videos of a guy excitedly explaining tactics in classic games with subbuteo? I'd watch it...

I'll sit on this one and talk further tomorrow

Hail the future ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SSx_yaUJC0

And it's a Liverpool fan video. Unbelivable. Although, I'll admit that away shirt hung up in the background is one of my favourite shirts ever.

Juventus/Monaco now and I can't see anything changing from last week.

i dont know about not changing yet. khedira just walked out injured and monaco closer to scoring so far.

i hope the game shuts me up though cuz i wanna see juve win it all

oh, the tortilla has flipped and now juve is really the one bringing the danger. just like last game. lol. thanks.

..

oh i spoke too soon. i should just shut up

..

ha ha ha ha. everything i say, the opposite happens.

..

eta: that dani alves goal sooo pretty! i shed a man tear of joy. a better sight than a comet.

Beyond just curiosity, is it even worth watching Real v Atletico tonight?

I'll probably go Arsenal v Southampton instead

im gonna skip it cuz it's a workday and there isn't the prospect of an epic contest

i hope i don't regret this!

"El Aleti" 2-1 so far (Isco just scored for "el Madrí", 42 minutes in)...

thanks. looks like it's still that way and with real's away goal they'd need to score 3 more and allow none. looks like i made the right call skipping but will catch the highlights in the evening

I'm not watching it, only following the live score, but it looks like the first half or a significant portion of it must have been something — Atlético was 2-0 by the 16th minute.

As for Arsenal, Alexis remains the king of everything.

read that real had a goal unfairly disallowed, nevertheless atlético put on a good show, or so they say.

eh...

Isco's goal killed the tie. I'm really not a fan of the away goal rule. I understand the point behind it, but it ruins too many matches.

The bookies have predictably made Real favourites but I think this'll be Juve's year.

Interesting article about potential problems for RB Leipzig

https://www.theguardian.com/football...wnership-rules

In essence, RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg both look like qualifying for the CL. "The European governing body’s rules state that where two clubs in common ownership qualify for the same competition, the one finishing lower in its league must stand down – in this case meaning Leipzig."

i haven't read that link yet but last i heard salzburg was gonna be able to skate free of the rule due to ownership dilution-- 30% or something, i can't recall exactly, not-controlling or something.

i'll read it later when im in reading shape! ha ha ha ha !

now i wanna see emirates vs. emirates

wait-- who's sponsoring the finals?

ha ha ha ha. i bet some marketing people are thinking about that stuff. how much does real madrid charge? man...

ok. i go drink more beer now. pardon me...

So that's the Premier League winners decided. They have been pretty incredible this season. Now it's gonna be interesting to see who they buy in the summer and how they cope with the champions league.

I do feel like Costa would be an idiot to go now. This could be the start of something decent and he's taking the big money option.

Yeah, definitely worthy champions. Losing Hazard will be the bigger blow though. Costa hasn't been right since that whole China thing. Conte's probably better off just letting him go and moving on. Lukaku would be a like-for-like replacement and definitely wants to go there. Hazard's more difficult. Alexis Sanchez is an obvious option but it seems everyone's interested in him - personally I think he's off to Man City. Also talk now that Real, as well as Hazard, might make a move for Kante. Losing him and Hazard really would be a disaster.

Why would they go for both? Sorry, but they've got Modric who's just as good as Kante. Maybe a lil but older but he still plays a crucial role for Madrid. I'd like to think Kante would stay but you never know with players. Speaking of Leicester it's gonna be interesting to see where Mahrez goes.

I know what you mean about keeping Hazard being much essential than Costa. My point is that Costa seems to be going just for the money. Hazard going to Real is a taking things further as a player is more understandable.

And how much would they Madrid have to pay for both of them? It'd be daft monopoly money.

It would be (and personally I don't think Kante will go) but I think we're gonna see daft get even dafter this summer .

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2017/05...ian-wonderkid/

Ooh flashbacks to Freddy Adu!

But yeah, that amount of pressure to put on a 16 year is just stupid. It's bad enough for Mbappe but that's taking it too far.

And you would ahve thought Madrid would have learnt after the debacle of Odegaard.

Agreed. He seems to love playing in England a lot.