Topic: Sportsbet.io's English Premier League Football Pool Discussion Thread - page 3. (Read 145766 times)

To me, it's more of a striker converting or being converted to a winger, with some going to CB and others willingly changing to LWF/RWF because those positions are in high demand. Players like G. Jesus and Nkunku wander around without knowing which position they like.

Pep false 9 invention thing with Barcelona ruined the natural 9 thing forever.

I suppose it is a fair assessment of a team that barely got promoted, better than the rest of the fare in the Championship but disastrously bad against speedier, technically better opponents. I watched Saints vs Liverpool and their keeper was horrific, the defence was jittery -- you see this from teams like City and United this season but the difference is Soton players generally don't have the skill to paper over or recover. I do remember Norwich (mainly because of their singing boss) -- going up, straight back down, winning Championship again, going down. Not sustainable.


I really needed/wanted Arsenal to knock out United (despite picking the upset in BSFL, but that was a hedge). Mainly, because I don't like United one bit and actually like Arsenal. But more importantly, to keep them preoccupied from a full-on attack on the Prem title. Now it's just UCL to distract them. If it weren't for Saka/Jesus out long-term, I would be very afraid.


Market pressures. The most premium prices for easier-to-get assets are midfielders. Also, if Pep and Klopp didn't decide to go back with the single-striker formation, everyone would still be trying premium false 9s. That's actually a bit out of fashion now (Diaz/Jota are reviving it, or Slot is, anyway) but I think the striker demand is back in vogue. Isak, Wood, Haaland, Lewandowski, Kane, Retegui, hell even Greenwood in France, all enjoying major contributions to their respective team's position is probably going to strengthen this trend next couple of seasons.

This has been our undoing all season. We had many chances to score and I feel if we maybe had Jesus on for longer he may have been able to do that as he's the closest we got to a natural finisher, and now he will likely be out for several weeks.

We did really poor business in the transfer market and when you add that in with the drop in form of players like Martinelli, Rice and Havertz, we were always going to struggle.

Exiting two competitions in a week is terrible.

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I'll love to have Isak in the team and also a proper LWF.

- Jay -

I'd say because more and more wingers can play as forwards - and they occupy the same space as a forward would want to.
Then you combine a 'false 9' type of forward with them that is more technical and less goal-oriented as a real no. 9 would be.

That gives you more balance in the defensive part of the game as well - but top teams still show us that it is possible to dominate with a old-school no. 9. Bayern and Barcelona have both a top-tier no. 9 and direct and extremely offensive wingers and it works for them.

I've never seen a striker go to Saudi Arabia and set the league on fire; even Benzema couldn't crack it - and I believe Toney could have done a better job than Kai and Jesus are now doing. It takes a special talent to light up the league while playing for a struggling club like Brentford; imagine what he could have accomplished on a good squad with more playmakers. I feel the gambling addiction thing affected his relationship with most teams in Europe.

Isak foot work and finishing are top notch but his injury Records is what concerns me alot. Talent without availability is liability.

Why do we have bunch of good midfielders, wingers and Defenders and lesser good strikers on the market nowadays???

I feel like they dodged a bullet with Toney. I like the guy, but I think he's a level below what Arsenal needs at this point. After all, he isn't setting the world on fire in Arabia and Brentford asked for silly money.

I think there will be a lot of interest around Isak this season, and I think both Arsenal and Liverpool would reach a new level of performance with a striker of that calibre leading the line.

He built a beautiful project, and all he needed was an actual striker to start contending, but instead he paid 65 million for Kai Havertz, while Toney was tweaking and roaming the league, declaring his desire to play for Arsenal.

He had another chance to recruit a striker last summer but chose to sign two defenders, one midfielder, and Sterling instead. We can't argue the club didn't support him enough; 700m in 5 years is a lot.

Arsenal simply doesn't know how to kill games off. To be able to do that, you need a proper striker - or a Salah/Palmer type of guy that consistently scores from other offensive areas.
Havertz is a great fit in theory - tall, technical, intelligent. But theory is just that and he hasn't properly clicked anywhere.

If Arsenal wants to grow to a contender, they need a killer. And it can't be Saka, he's missing too many games every season.

Oh, sure, your recommendation is urgently needed, and don't forget to inform the club that their current squad depth is horrible. The manager is easily blamed for the players' poor performance; he is also responsible for Odegaard's missed penalty kick, right? I'm glad they're out, but today's performance was solely on the players.


Football is business - they must generate profits to run the club.

Southampton must return to the championship if they want to win because they can score a lot of goals, while in the Premier League it will not be strong to continue to be there in the end it will continue to lose, imagine only 1x win in the PL.

Then what use is the money the club owner has? It's reckless to sell all the good academy players, but that's Pep Guardiola's way of doing it and they're probably better off buying than the academy.

I have said it that arteta should be relieved of his duties because the fact is arteta has failed as a coach because arsenal currently can't challenge for any trophy because of the kind of ideas and mentality that arteta has been teaching them so I will recommend to the arsenal board that they start looking for another coach with reputation and with a strong will to win trophy but with this current arsenal team I don't see that happening yet

Thy already sold all their academy players for profits.

Letting go of Cancelo was a big mistake, he's attitude sucks according to Pep but he was the closest thing to K. Walker. Maybe time to snatch another Liverpool talent with big wages( Trent)

Manchester united with 10 men really dog walk Arsenal with 12 men ( + ref) and knocked them out of the FA cup. Another Arteta trophyless season.

What a team is Southhampton is literally in the no man land,,,,, when they play in the Premier League against proper Premier League teams they lose and play super poorly, but when they gor relegated and play against Championship teams they win easily and scoring a lot of goals. Are they in need of a only Southampton league?

In other news, is Manchester United finally waking up? Or is gonna be again a farce?

Looks like we're going to get a bit of merry-go-round managers again at the Prem eh?

Among surprises, one truly unexpected casualty from the Prem already and just in the 3rd round (Brentford). I thought they'd have a tough game but not to lose to mighty Plymouth (those of us in the Championship surely would have discounted them, they're the second division whipping boys, scoring less than 1 goal a game, and yet they took out one of the better teams!

City looking scary or this is just an expected result? With their captain walking away (pardon the shitty pun) they might actually start to win proper games now. I still find it impossible to believe there's no academy player at least 50% of Walker's ability but with 150% of his speed.

Ya I think if you look back on those teams that made the final (and against the world's best team at the time AC Milan!!) nobody would even say they were top 10 teams in the world. IIRC they were midtable positions in EPL, and yet performed like hell in CL. So maybe they always had some magic in the cups, but United also win cups every now and then, tho I guess nothing compares to CL.

Oh and thanks I just saw my quote, oops Now edited

True. They wanted a proven and stable manager with EPL experience, and at the time, Moyes was the best "low budget team" manager doing well in the league, and everyone assumed that if he was given a large budget, he would dominate the league, but this was never the case.

Fergi's shoe was too big for anyone to fill at the time; he set a high standard, just as Pep is lifting City's.

Aston Villa and Tottenham are not that it this season.

Nobody would refuse working with Manchester United at that time, and I think he was the first one to try and replace legend sir Alex Ferguson.
I am expecting to see positive shock results for Everton in next matches but the first test for Moyes is going to be Aston Villa or Tottenham and that is not going to be easy.

He should never have left for the Manutd job years ago. Moyes is Everton and Everton is Moyes - Arteta and Tim Cahill Everton era oh my God!!! Pure orgasm....

Mancity doing the Lord's doing in the transfer market again! Should tell you all you need to know about the outcome of the 115 charges. They've won the case - nothing to see .

I think it is because Liverpool always had something to cheer or hold on to. In the early 2000s they reached the champions league final twice, won it once, reached the semis multiple times and also the quarter final. In the 1980s to 1990s, they also reached the final multiple times.

Manchester United can barely qualify for the champions league and despite some cups they have not really looked to be in the right direction at anytime in the last 10 years. For me, their most promising time was under Ole. To make it worse they look over to their noisy neighbors and they are being super successful, you can brag about past achievement for only so long.

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You need to fix your quote.

- Jay -

I'm surprised, but it makes a bit of sense. The Liverpool people I know are all in their late 30s to 40s. Salah did bring a lot of new fans but they're kinda plastic lol


True. And he brought it after 30 years, and made the club look so so good. Business is business end of the day.


Which makes it strange for me to hear silence from Manchester United. They used to be THE MOST NOISY when I started watching football 20 years ago and now, only Arsenal and Liverpool fans left. Chelsea were always polite hehe


Sean Dyche did a GREAT job at Everton, I don't know what the owners are thinking of. Mourinho needs new players and so did Dyche. But if there's one guy who can come in and make the team +100% for one season, it's Mourinho.