2012-2013 Soccer Thread (Premier League, ECL, etc)

A goalkeeper is needed too. Szczesny is a good goalie but I don't think he is skilled enough yet to win trophies. Julio Cesar is a better fit for that and would be cheap if QPR go down, as they would need to cut their wage bill. Michu and Fellaini combined would probably cost more than £70m - Swansea will want £30+ million for Michu and Everton will not settle for less than £35 million for Fellaini. A decent back-up CB who can push for a starting place (Richards or Lescott) would be good, too. I know Mancini and Lescott have had difficulties, from what I have read, so he should be easy to get for around £6-9 million - more than £9 million would be crazy considering his age and current contract length. If Newcastle don't qualify for Europe (quite likely at this stage that they won't), they will have trouble hanging on to Cabaye, who I'm sure could be tempted for £22-25 million, especially now that Sissoko is there too. I'm sure Tiote could be tempted for similar money - Newcastle reportedly paid £10 million for him so £18-20 million is a reasonable price.

 

Well, there goes the NLD. It was unlikely Arsenal were going to win both ties in the season, but what was interesting to me was how close the match was - despite all the talk about Tottenham's ascendancy and Bale's form, their first goal came against the run of play, and Arsenal were a Ramsey away from equalizing. Sigurdsson was horrid, and Defoe and Lennon were relatively poor. On the other hand, Wilshere was anonymous, Walcott poor as usual. Tottenham were solid in defense and that made the difference.

One thing I took away from the match - give Rosicky more playing time. In free-flowing games, he can make the key passes that change a game.

Also, another day, another bullshit rumor:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/9904640/Arsenal-poised-to-be-subjected-to-1.5bn-takeover-bid-from-Middle-East-consortium-within-the-next-few-weeks.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... weeks.html</a>

 

You say Wilshere was anonymous - I thought he played well for a player who had 2 white shirts on him the entire match. Monreal also looked good, again. Cazorla was poor on the left (at his best in the middle behind Podolski, Giroud or Walcott imo), and Ramsey had a stinker - Ramsey seems to have problems weighting his passing and crossing correctly, since at least 7 out of 10 passes or crosses from him were over-hit, often massively so. As for Walcott, he didn't see the ball too much, but he completed over 90% of his passes. Giroud was poor today - his passing accuracy was around 50% which is just not good enough. Arteta was also very quiet. Mertesacker's lack of pace is a problem - I think Wenger needs to employ one less midfielder and instead deploy an extra centre-back because the defense is leaking stupid goals at the moment. Szczesny played well, though, and was not at fault for either goal - the defense left him completely exposed.

Rosicky is being criminally under-used. He penned a new contract a while ago - Wenger should use him more, especially as he has played quite well on the left before and has a decent cross (when he wants to do one, of course).

I thought Lennon played well for Spurs - he has quick feet and used them well today. Good for Spurs on their win - they outplayed and outfought Arsenal in defense and more than once in midfield (thanks for that, Ramsey). THFC is simply more hungry than Arsenal now - I think this is partially down to the manager and partially down to the quality of players on the field. AFC (and the fans) need to accept they're a Europa League team now, since there is very little chance (bar a complete collapse of either Spurs or Chelsea) of qualifying for the ECL 3rd qualifying round. It's sad, but it's been going to that for quite some time now.

 

Those prices for Michu and Fellani are way too high. Swansea paid 2 million for Michu, there's absolutely no way they could sell him for over 30 million, no matter how good his season has been. Modric was sold to Real for around 35 million, so I doubt anyone would fork out the same amount of cash for Fellani.

I think I read somewhere that Arsenal had be linked with Akax's Christian Erickson. He's a temendous young talent, and would actually fit into the Arsenal system.

Giroud

Podolski Carzola Walcott

Wilkshire Erickson


Is an extremely good attacking unit. Their defence is where they're struggling.

 

Everton spent their entire transfer budget on Fellaini a few seasons ago. He cost them like £18 million then, so guessing he's worth double that now is pretty close, considering that every big club in England would bid for him. Everton will not let him go cheaply, that's for sure, since he is a proven match-winner (the 4-4 draw last season with Manchester United at Old Trafford comes to mind).

Rumour is that Fabianski will start tomorrow night for Arsenal against Bayern. I'm not sure whether to laugh at this news, cry, or both. Either way, it'll be a comedy for the neutral. Oh, as a bonus, Wilshere is also out for a rumoured 3 weeks, so he will miss the England match too - there goes our best chance of creating goals, too.

 

I was rather surprised at how well Fabianski played last night. He did really well, apart from that initial flap in the opening five minutes. Giroud scored a good goal but was, again, wasteful in possession. It seems to happen often with him. Ramsey was largely rubbish, aside from the pass to Rosicky to Walcott who crossed for Giroud to score - Ramsey's passing was poor again and he really seems to lack pace. Rosicky was, sadly, mostly anonymous and Arteta was really poor and committed a lot of cynical fouls - he was lucky to stay on the pitch. Cazorla was really poor too - playing him on the left is a waste and he is always bad there. Koscielny, Mertesacker, Gibbs and Jenkinson were all brilliant at the back, particularly Jenkinson, who kept Alaba and Robben pretty quiet. Toni Kroos was probably Bayern's worst player on the night - his shooting was terrible and his passing looked iffy.

This tie was there for the taking if Arsenal hadn't been so fucking poor in the first leg. Wenger needs to prepare better for individual teams and not just play to a style.

 

My god Kroos was bad. I lost track of how many times, in the second half when Bayern was pushing HARD, that Kroos fired some shot into the stands or made a poor pass leading to a change of possession.

 

The big thing I took away from the game was how effective the defensive communication was with Vermaelen out of the side.

 

Yeah, that is a good point. I think Vermaelen's days are numbered, since he is a shockingly ineffective captain (mostly due to the lack of communication that you mentioned) and must now be firmly behind Koscielny in the pecking order - Koscielny is definitely the better player at this stage of the season. Fabianski seemed to communicate with the defense well too - not sure how he compares to Szczesny in this department though.

I think Monreal will start ahead of Gibbs this weekend though...

 

Alright, let's get top 4 and relegation predictions.

1. United
2. City
3. Chelsea
4. Arsenal
18. Aston Villa
19. QPR
20. Reading

May just be homerism, but the schedule favors Arsenal over Tottenham down the stretch. Swansea-Everton-Chelsea is going to be a real tough stretch for Spurs and Arsenal have a game in hand. Everton are six points out of fifth with games against Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham, so I don't think they're doing it.

Spoiler

Code:

Arsenal--------------------Spurs
Reading (H)
West Brom (A)--------------Swansea (A)
Norwich (H)----------------Everton (H)
Everton (H)----------------Chelsea (A)
Fulham (A)-----------------City (H)
United (H)-----------------Wigan (A)
QPR (H)--------------------Southampton (H)
Wigan (H)------------------Stoke (A)
Newcastle (A)--------------Sunderland (H)

Relegation battle is gonna be one to watch as well. I think QPR and Reading are locks to go down, but Aston Villa and Wigan are gonna be neck-and-neck all the way. I figure Wigan will crawl into 17th like always. They play each other in the last match of the season, so that might be the decider.

Spoiler

Code:

Wigan--------------------Villa
Norwich (H)
QPR (A)------------------Liverpool (H)
City (A)-----------------Stoke (A)
West Ham (A)-------------Fulham (H)
Spurs (H)----------------United (A)
West Brom (A)------------Sunderland (H)
Swansea (H)--------------Norwich (A)
Arsenal (A)--------------Chelsea (H)
Villa (H)----------------Wigan (A)

 

OK, here's mine:

1. United
2. City
3. Chelsea
4. Arsenal
5. Spurs
6. Liverpool
7. Everton
8. Swansea
9. WBA
10. Fulham
11. Norwich
12. Newcastle
13. Stoke
14. West Ham
15. Southampton
16. Aston Villa
17. Wigan
18. Sunderland
19. QPR
20. Reading

Bolded teams for ECL, ones in italics for Europa League, underlined for relegated.

Sunderland are so going down. They have looked insipid this season and Danny Graham hasn't even scored for them in the league yet. They are completely over-reliant on Steven Fletcher and, to a lesser extent, Craig Gardner, Seb Larsson and Stephane Sessegnon for their goals. When Fletcher is poor or unable to play through injury or suspension, Sunderland are poor. They have to play United at home on the 30th, Chelsea away on the 7th April, the Tyne & Wear derby away to Newcastle on the 14th, Everton at home on the 20th, a probable relegation decider on the 27th April away to Villa, Stoke at home on the 4th May, Southampton at home on the 12th. and Spurs away on the last day. They are solidly fucked - the only two possible wins I can see there are the home games against Stoke and Southampton and Southampton could very well beat them, since they play quite well away from home. Also, any team willing to sign so many former Manchester United players who were average at best (Wes Brown, O'Shea, Richardson...) and Titus Bramble (the most comedic of all centre-backs - Newcastle fans will attest to this) deserve to go down.

Villa, on the other hand, have been winning a few matches lately and pushed Arsenal pretty hard recently. If N'Zogbia, Benteke, Agbonlahor and Weimann can stay fit, I am certain that they will stay up. They have Liverpool at home on March 31st, away to Stoke on April 6th, home to Fulham on the 13th (one of the worst away teams, aside from the lucky win against a tired Spurs), United away on the 22nd April, Sunderland at home on the 27th April (I am certain they will beat Sunderland), away to Norwich on May 4th, home to Chelsea on the 12th May and Wigan away (HAHAHA) on the last day. Definitely a kinder fixture list than Sunderland's. I think Villa can beat Liverpool (impossible to predict which Liverpool will show up), Fulham and Wigan and get draws away to Chelsea and Norwich, but it will be close.

As for Reading and QPR, they are both solidly fucked and going down. I feel bad for Fernandes, spending all that money on shit (Jenas, Bosingwa, Djibril Cisse, Remy (so, so over-rated), Hoilett (largely rubbish compared to how influential he was for Blackburn Roosters, oops I mean Rovers)... the list is almost endless. At least he'll sell Julio Cesar straight to Arsenal this time when QPR go down, I hope. Reading I don't feel so bad for - they fired McDermott (a bad move), a guy who I think could have led them back up to the top flight. They don't really have the money to compete though.

As an aside, I always hope for a Stoke loss, because fuck Stoke.

 

Arsenal lose Diaby to a torn ACL. Tottenham lose Bale to an ankle injury. Chelsea... well, they're Chelsea. Things heating up in the race for Top 4. Also interesting how RVP seems to have gone missing. It's a shame he basically won United the title in the first half of the season...

In Champions League news, will anybody stop Bayern? They're good, but they can be beat, as Arsenal (ironically enough) showed.

Also, MLS is back - my DC United look promising, but the real surprise so far this year has been Chivas USA. They've got the worst crowd in the league and have historically been crap, but this year they're playing some pretty, attacking soccer, and they've got the results to show for it.

 

I am happy that Diaby is injured because he adds absolutely nothing to Arsenal as a team. Too slow (due to having more injuries than a 90 year-old that falls over once a week in a nursing home), can't control the ball, poor distribution and not great defensively when Arsenal didn't have the ball (i.e. does not track back to regain possession or attempt a tackle)... Diaby is a worse player than Ramsey (and I really dislike Ramsey).

In about 8-18 (ha) months, after Diaby has had his annual/bi-annual "rest", Wenger will parade him out to the press "like a new player" once again after he's "recovered" and Wenger will mention something about his "potential" again - he'll be 27 years old by then! That is when a player is peaking. All Diaby has peaked at is how much time to spend getting massages and lying face down on a treatment table! It's actually sad how little common sense Wenger has now - by now, any other coach or team would have discarded Diaby, and rightfully so, due to that shameful injury record. Diaby as a word should be added to the French language as a synonym for a treatment room or for calling in sick.

Diaby has played at Arsenal for over 7 years now and still has less than 130 league appearances (let's face it - they're not playing many Cup games) - that's less than half of the matches for each season for every year that he's been there (254 league matches would be played over 7 seasons). Ridiculous. I hope Wenger is left to rue his decision in selling Lansbury at the start of the season - I saw him on TV playing for West Ham last year and he was pretty decent in the centre of midfield. I also thought Bartley was promising too - he already has a trophy less than a year after leaving Arsenal!

 

I would kill to see a game at Signal Iduna Park

 

You mean the Westfalenstadion, right? Anyone who watches German football at all calls it by its correct name, not the stupid corporate name. Even Arsenal's ground name sounds dumb - Emirates Stadium. Bah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfalenstadion

 

I suppose I could've called it FIFA World Cup Stadium Dortmund as well. The name doesn't matter when your stands look like this

 

One of the best atmospheres in the world, no doubt.

Come on PSG. Anybody but Barca.

 

Hoping for Barcelona to draw Bayern and for Bayern to bend them over at the Allianz Arena (no, that one has never had another name - it was a brand new ground)

 

Good god RVP. United is up 3-0 at half, but it easily could have been 5-0.