More "Brain Salad Surgery "-Other TeamsThread

Whoever wins the Premier League this year will be a flawed team. City is probably the least flawed, but Chelsea and Arsenal both have their warts.

WBA drew Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool at home and were narrowly defeated by City 2-3. Tough place to play if you're a top team.

 

They've been good against the top 7, home and away. Their only other loss was Liverpool at Anfield and they won at Man U. 1 win, 2 losses, 6 ties against the top 7. They lust can't beat the teams around them.

 

Yep. One of the best overall seasons in awhile.

 

I think it's important to note that the rest of the league has raised their game tremendously. It's not so much the champion isn't as good as years past but the league has just gotten better which is shocking. Seriously one of the best seasons in a while.

 

this will probably be the excuse the media uses if arsenal actually does win the league.

kind of an odd thing to say, especially after last season which had the weakest championship team in recent memory. i'd say that this years top three are so far better than man utd were last season. you could also say every team that doesn't go unbeaten is somewhat flawed.

 

Well, the lesson, as always, is that you have to play the games and silverware is NOT awarded for assembling the best teams on paper. To paraphrase Jimmy Dugan: If winning every game was easy, everyone would do it.

It was really laughable reading all the we-just-threw-the-Premiership talk in the Liverpool game day thread. We were 1 (!) point out of first, with 13 (!) games left to play, and some doom and gloomers were ready to concede the race. Chelsea, Man City, us, even Liverpool, all of us have a stinker or two left in us before this title is decided.

 

Ergo, 4th place

 

Of course it's a wake up call. But jumping to the conclusion:

.... seems to be ignoring the rest of the season we've had. Yeah, we got spanked. By a rampant team that currently sits fourth. While Man City drew to a poor Norwich side and Chelsea wilted under pressure from WBA (who are tough, to be sure, but certainly not in Chelsea's class).

Fair enough if you don't think Wenger is as competitive as you'd like him to be. But he's never been a guy who's going to give a John McKay like "I'm in favor of team execution" when asked about his team. He's always going to be upbeat and look at the bright side and spout meaningless platitudes. It's been his MO at least since the Invincibles. I don't think any of the three top teams who stumbled this weekend are taking their results nonchalantly.

 

Whoever wins the Premier League this year will be champions.

 

Val,

It's a point about the last 5 years, not just this one. It takes Arsene so long to make changes (and it seems from that quote it's on purpose) that we end up losing so many points that we can only compete for a CL place. A coach can tinker too much, but Arsene is way to far on the laissez-faire end of the spectrum. (Sometimes I feel like if he got a flat tire he'd say 'The tire will choose to reinflate, I must only have confidence in it')

 

If only Arsenal fans could run Arsenal. Surely we'd be champions then.

 

WBA gave us a coming out of jail card. Let's take full advantage of it!

 

What is the point of this? There are many examples of "outsiders" revolutionizing the way that sports are played. We all realize that there's a lot more that goes into running a team than we're aware of, but that doesn't mean that some of the observations are wrong. We clearly need, and have needed for some time, a strong defensive-minded midfielder. We also need a striker who can both run at defenders and run onto thru balls. I don't know who they should be, but I know none of them are going to be Kim Kallstrom. I also know that the transfer window is open for more than 3 hours on January 31.

 

Are you into sports management or a sports agent ? Do you have any clue how transfer deals actually work? Let me guess you base your transfer news on media reports which have been shown to be less than accurate. And these are the guys supposed to be "in the know". I think it is easy for fans to play Football Manager when real life its not that simple

Lewendoski has come out and stated that we made a push for him but he chose Bayern... stuff like that happens

 

what is this nonsense? are you honestly and genuinely telling me that it was not possible for arsenal to have
1) negotiated and completely a deal unless it happened on the last day of the window?
2) that they couldn't have found out a target was not available and already had a backup option in place before the last day of the window?

if the club got strung along without a hope of getting a player, then they are guilty of being gullible, single track mugs.
if they haven't been strung along and signing a player was indeed possible, then there is no excuse for not getting it done, and, for that matter, not getting it done early.
if there was a possibility of maybe signing a player but nothing more concrete, they should have had an alternative and a cut off date before moving on. not having those is just idiotic.

 

You are speculating on something you have no connection to no knowledge of: THAT is what I call nonsense: That's all you are doing is speculating on 2nd hand info:

 

You're assuming facts not in evidence here.

 

its always amazing how football fans seem to have knowledge of transfer dealings, and base it off media members who make up shit more often than not.

 

what facts did i assume?

i didn't assume any.
i gave my idea of blueprint of what to do in given situations.
1) find out if a player is available and willing to come.
2) if he is, get the deal done.
3) if not, have a backup alternative. (not in every situation if the player is a luxury buy, but if the need is there then there needs to be an alternative)
4) have a date to complete deal with first choice, if not go to alternative list.

what assumptions are there?
that a club or player won't say whether they are interested? then go to 3).
that the fee can't be agreed? then that is 2) failing, so move to 3)
that the deal is hijacked late on? that's covered by 4), then the club goes to 3)

no matter what way you look at it, there's few excuses (other than a luxury extra signing) where the club finds itself in a position that a deal NEEDS to be rushed on the last day. the only 1 i can think of is desperation to sign 1 single individual for a position where no one else on the planet will do, and if that is a desperate positional need for the club then they're playing a dangerous game with a high chance of failure and subsequent repercussions.

 

Exactly, you don't have to be an insider to understand how deals are made. It's not like football is the only business in the world.

 

That's a nice og.

 

aaand f*ck me they get a penalty.

 

Liverpool lead, Tottenham drop 4 on Newcastle. Get yourselves ready for a 4th-place battle again.

 

didn't realize they were 3 pts back now. fuuuuck me.