Football in the UK and Ireland season 2019/20

Chelsea vs Reading, live & yep, Sam Kerr is starting
The FA Player free but you got to sign up

 

I downloaded the FA Player to my tablet during the WSL holiday break. It is very easy to use and navigation is not glitchy at all.
I watched Chelsea unitil Kerr subbed out in the 77th minute and then switched to Arsenal. Kerr missed a breakaway to open the game and assisted Beth England on the first Chelsea goal. Kerr got cleaned out by GK Grace Moloney arounf the 16th minute. Moloney earned a red card and Kerr may have suffered a dislocated shoulder when she landed.

 

Agreed as a whole, but the stream was very poor for several minutes at the start of Man Utd vs Bristol. (Still don’t know how Bristol came away with all 3 points as United hit the frame twice and shot just wide in the last quarter hour. As an aside, I thought clearing the ball into your own outstretched arm/hand is a penalty offense, but I guess not. The bigger ref issue was all the time wasting she allowed Bristol to do from the opening whistle. Can’t overly blame the refereeing though. The loss was down to poor/unlucky finishing and one moment of poor defending/keeping.)

Kerr also missed another good chance, leading to Reiten cleverly volleying in for Chelsea’s 2nd goal.

Groenen wore Nike boots for today’s match (and in prior training sessions). Does anyone have other recent examples of professional players not wearing their boot brand during a competitive match? Just curious.

 

Did she really? She looked fine when she left after 77th minute. Otherwise she would have let the team know that she dislocated her arm.

 

I used “may” on purpose. I think she did take something (pill) with her water at one point, and I think injuries have degrees of severity. I should have just said shoulder/arm injury. I hope it is not serious.

 

Probably pain relief. But still no team would allow a player to play with a maybe dislocated shoulder.

 

allready a full game replay is available on youtube
Women's Super League 2019/20 Chelsea v Reading - YouTube
my opinion; she might of not scored a goal, but she made an definite impact in her debut, especially with getting the red card on the opposing GK or the nice back heel asist on the Beth England goal, or even taking the hard shot that rebounded for the 2nd goal
What surprised me was Chelsea willing to switch tactics to accommodate Kerr, their usually a short passing team, though were missing two of their prominent mids in Kirby & Bachmann. Switching styles wasn't always easy for the rest of the players & you could see Chelsea struggling for about the first 15 minutes of the game
Injury withstanding, got the feeling Kerr will continue to do well, especially when the opponent is so nervous trying to defend her like the Reading players obviously looked. Well, the ball is over in your court, L'Orange@ as Miedema & looked a bit mundane yesterday in comparison

btw......will all the hype, anybody else was disappointed with the small crowd at Cheslea's home field? The stadium can only accomandate about 3K to begin with, yet it was an third empty

 

What happened to Kirby and Bachman? Saw the video. Did make it look more high pace game with those long passes and counter attack compare to short passes and possession minded. More like what you see in NWSL.

 

Yeah was surprised with smaller crowd. Maybe it’s the opponent Chelsea was facing. I remember watching Chelsea vs Arsenal or Man City and they looked full. But with Sam Kerr debut you think they still fill up.

 

Don’t know how much credit you can give Kerr for Reiten’s goal. She missed two good/great 1v1s, but she did indeed impact the game.

Miedema does have her off matches; I thought she had multiple off matches in France.

 

Saw the first half of the Arsenal--Birmingham City match yesterday. Arsenal scored twice and was well in control. I /was/ surprised the match ended with the same score, but it happens. As for Miedema, I thought she was fine in the first half: She had the assist on Arsenal's first goal--sending a cross into the box that Little headed in. She made a nice turn late in the first half and hit a rocket that rattled the crossbar. She would have scored on a quick-breaking counter when Van de Donk intercepted a BC pass: Both Miedema and Nobbs were open in front of goal--Miedema on the short side and Nobbs on the far side. Van de Donk chose to pass the ball to Nobbs who was ahead of Miedema by a stride or two. Nobbs put the ball into the net--but she was offside.

Interestingly, Miedema displayed a bit of petulance immediately after the play. She looked in the direction of Van de Donk and gestured aggressively downward, twice, with her hands, which I took to mean that she felt Van de Donk should have given her the simple pass. She /was/ wide open directly in front of net--more so than Nobbs--and was onside, and surely would have scored. I think it's fair to say that for all the reports of her humbleness, and I don't doubt that she is, Miedema /likes/ getting her goals, expects to score goals--and when there is missed easy opportunity she's going to be displeased. It's a rare game when she doesn't score--a fact not lost on her, I'm sure! While she's certainly target number one for Arsenal in attack, it's not like the Gunners don't have a lot of scoring options--Little, Mead, Nobbs, Evans, VDD, Roord--they can all score--and often do when Miedema drags defenders out or off to the wings.

 

Maybe she wanted to break a record of most goals scored consecutively.

 

I read in one of the articles, Emma Hayes was asked when did she decide to start Kerr, she replied “Two years ago.”

 

Funny thing was that Chrystal Dunn was on Chelsea a few years back, yet never was that viable. Couldn’t really emerge herself in Chelsea’s passing/playing style & spend half the time on the bench. That’s why a bit surprised Hayes switched tactics to appease Kerr, but not for Dunn

 

Not saying Miedema played bad, just Kerr’s debut was very dramatic to say the least. Able to take out an opponent’s GK via red card within 20 minutes into the game can be worth several goals alone(which is what happened for the rest of the match).
Both are going to have an great season(withstanding injuries). Both have a strong supporting cast, plus play in a league where the CB defending is the weakest part, so let the rivalry continue......

 

Not to mention she and her assistance had a chance for many more goals then what is shown on the scorecard. It was fast pace and counter attack all day.

 

I thought Dunn ultimately got in the groove with Chelsea at full back/wing back. Admittedly didn't closely follow the FA WSL at that time though.

 

Kerr will most definitely take advantage of weak or mediocre centerbacks or teams that go forward too aggressively. She thrives on open play and counter-attack.

 

Skip to 2 minute mark to watch all her touches against Reading.

 

It's ridiculous the amount of BS you can get from fans when they somehow get the wrong information about your goal output (definitely a clear area of needed improvement though) and when your coach doesn't play you in your best position. Despite that, you still create as well as/better than anyone else on the squad while getting the highest degree of criticism. Apparently, it's also delusional to think Groenen's had a decent season up to this point, and it's not realistic to expect a starting CM who excelled defensively for the Euro winners and WC finalists to be able to play as a CM with defensive responsibilities for Man United Women. I get along pretty well with some fans, but I don't know what a lot of the MUWFC fans on social media have been watching. Of course, Groenen's had poor moments in the season, but she's had way more great moments to put her season in a good light so far. I may indeed just be delusional though.

Apologies for another rant from me, but I had to get this off my chest here. Sorry if any of you are Man Utd Women fans or if you just greatly disagree with me.

 

WSLStats.org powered by StatsBomb had Ladd at 72.9% pass accuracy vs Bristol. InStat had Ladd at 87% pass accuracy vs Bristol. Now, I've come across as anti-InStat elsewhere, but whether InStat is less accurate here or StatsBomb is less accurate, stats providers should really be a lot closer than that since that is a fair difference in number of passes.

 

I have often wondered how accurate the stat services are...I don't entirely trust their numbers.....

RE Groenen: What are ManU fans complaining about--that she's not scoring goals? She is not a goal scorer, at least based on all the times I've seen her play for the Dutch national team. Did she score goals in the Bundesliga? I never saw her play there, so can't say, but I think it's fair to say that her game is doing the hard defensive work work in the middle of the field without which you do not have a good team.