Football in the UK and Ireland season 2021/22

Discussion in 'Women's International' started by sbahnhof, Jun 26, 2021.

  1. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Jean-Luc Vasseur sacked at Everton after 10 games. Results were bad and he lost the dressing room.
     
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  2. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    Ladd's obviously United's first choice/best DM, but I really think her impact is a bit overrated. Arsenal played through United's midfield a lot in the Conti Cup quarterfinal as well with Ladd at DM, especially in the first half, and I don't think Ladd played well that game. The difference is that Arsenal weren't clinical in their final ball and finishing; Chelsea absolutely were (i.e. Reiten and Harder in particular with some luck on Fleming's header). Some people just seem to look at the number of goals conceded and not overall play and then make judgments from that; I mean what exactly could Ladd have offered on Harder's goal in particular. Give Chelsea today the situational advantages Arsenal had vs United with Ladd in the first half, and they would have scored 2+ goals as well in my opinion.

    Really good assist from Groenen for Boe Risa's goal, and while she overcommitted at times, I thought her pressing and overall defending were good. However, her lack of an aerial game did hurt her on Carter's goal. That's not something new though; you play her for all the other great things she brings/does. What did surprise me was how easily Fleming beat Boe Risa for her goal since Boe Risa is decent in the air from what I've seen; great strike from Boe Risa on her goal though. I don't even think Zelem was exactly poor today, but that attempted pass to Reiten leading to Harder's goal was quite a bad effort. I've really liked Mannion's play during United's win streak, but wow, Harder absolutely turned her inside out there.

    I didn't think Toone played well vs Arsenal, and I can't recall a quality direct chance she created in that match. However, she can produce quality moments out of nothing, and United definitely needed more of that today with only Groenen and Boe Risa combining to find the net.
     
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  3. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    First semi-final Chelsea 3 Man United 1
    Baggaley sent off on 77 for DOGSO. United were at a disadvantge due to two suspended players Ladd and Toone as they got too many bookings in the Group stage. Chelsea did not play the Group stage.
     
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  4. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    Skinner could have easily taken Toone off vs Arsenal before she got her late yellow card that wasn't a surprise given how she was going about fouling everyone that match, but I have to agree with him that yellow cards should have been erased following the quarterfinal stages. (On that note, how did Harder escape a yellow or even a red from two yellows? She had two late fouls before her altercation with Thorisdottir that together arguably warranted a yellow, and her coming together with Thorisdottir post PK shout was easily yellow worthy for both players in my opinion.) Chelsea only had to play one Conti Cup match; United had to play five.
     
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  5. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    The yellow cards are erased after the quarter-final stage except for those who did received receive two bookings in the group stage plus quarter finals. This is made to avoid a player booked in the semi-final missing the final.
    It kind of makes sense. IF the booking are erased after the group stage, you get booked in the QF and SF and and you are out of the final.
     
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  6. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
  7. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    #357 Ethan Frank, Feb 5, 2022
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2022
    Disclaimer: Admittedly biased rant below

    Of course, out of all the breakaways and good/great chances Arsenal had, that absurd Miedema pass led to Blackstenius being the only Arsenal player that could produce a good enough finish to beat Earps. (Earps still got a significant hand on the ball at that.) Foord went over the top of Groenen's back, and to me, it looks like she trapped Groenen's arm, leading to Groenen being off-balance and falling down. I think that was a foul, but I also recognize that Ladd clearly fouled Mead (I think) preceding the corner from which Russo scored. It's just frustratingly misleading and bad on-off GD luck for Groenen right now in my opinion. The Miedema shot tipped onto the bar brilliantly by Earps, Heath's edge of the box effort, Miedema's left footed effort after good link up with Nobbs, Beattie's shot somehow getting blocked by Russo, Earps saving well from Foord's volley off a sweeping Arsenal move, and Blackstenius somehow not getting anything on a great corner delivery; none of those produced goals, giving the false impression of quality defense in my opinion. Then, Groenen's one lost duel (maybe a questionable no call) led to Miedema dissecting a defense that had no business being that high up the pitch; yeah, that was super fun.

    Edit: Sports shouldn't be able to make people feel so awful, but they really are effective at doing so.
     
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  8. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    Yup, I think you are a bit biased. I played that sequence back and forth a number of times. Foord didn't go over Groenen's shoulder. Both leaned into each other and Foord turned away (in the right direction) came away with the ball and Groenen fell because she was leaning and there was suddenly no support. Brilliant pass by Miedema and Blackstenius was clinical in her finish (as usual). I also thought Blackstenius showed why she was the assist leader in last year's damallsvenskan with the pass that allowed Little to romp along the right side and deliver a great cross into the box that Foord volleyed toward the goal. Earps made another of her magnificent saves on that shot (she really deserved a clean sheet). I also think this game showed how well Miedema and Blackstenius can play together as two forwards. Either one can go deep while the other drops back and they seem to be able to find one another really well.
     
  9. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    You played that sequence back and forth from the beginning? Foord definitely went over Groenen's shoulder in my opinion at the very start; Groenen initially had the inner position, and Foord was the one doing the leaning at the start. (Foord's arm literally went right over Groenen's shoulder.) With the locked arms from Foord going over the shoulder, her turning away in the right direction was always likely going to drag Groenen down. Agree to disagree though.
     
  10. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    Actually, I watched the sequence from the toss-in. No, even earlier. I watched it from when Batlle was ramming cotton up her nose. And how you could see Foord and Groenen locking arms from that camera angle, which only showed their backs until the point Foord turned around with control of the ball totally baffles me. UNLESS... you were at the stadium sitting in the stands in line where the supposed infraction took place. In that case, I'll yield to your observation...
     
  11. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    How you could not see Foord going over Groenen's shoulder equally baffles me. In my original comment, I said it looks like Foord trapped Groenen's arm with her arm going over Groenen's shoulder; that makes sense to me given the resulting movement from both players. So, I don't claim 100% certainty there; I just didn't carry over that wording to my next comment. As I said, we can just agree to disagree.
     
  12. L'orange

    L'orange Member+

    Ajax
    Netherlands
    Jul 20, 2017
    We'll see. From what I've seen of Arsenal lately, Miedema--the best finisher in the game--has been turned into a midfielder. She now spends two-thirds of her time in the middle two-thirds of the field--perhaps because the Gunners are simply not getting enough out of Nobbs and Maanum, I'm not sure. When she is near the box, Miedema over the last six/eight games has either gotten no decent service or there's simply been no room, but I don't think she's had more than 1 decent chance in any game for a couple of months. She is an excellent passer, so let's hope she and Stina can give Arsenal the punch the team has been lacking. Heath could help, too--but she can't stay on the field. She's been terrible value for Arsenal just as she was for ManU. I sometimes wonder if some U.S. NT players simply don't want to play /too much/ club soccer so as to stay healthy for NT duty. That's the gig they all really care about.
     
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  13. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    We'll just have to continue to disagree. Seems to me they're shoulder to shoulder and both the ref and the linesman have a great view of the situation from the back and the front and neither judged the duel to be an infraction:
    foord-groenen.jpg
     
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  14. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Arsenal 1 United 1

    The title is slowly but surely slipping away from Arsenal as League form has been poor for a few months now. After an unbeaten start, it started going downhill with a draw at Tottenham since then 12 points out of 21 is nowhere good enough for a title contender.

    Table

    1. Arsenal 30 (13)
    2. Chelsea 25 (11)
    3. United 25 (13)

    4. Tottenham 21(12)
    5. City 20 (12)
    6. Reading 19 (11)

    The champions league place will go to one of those teams.
     
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  15. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    Yup. It seems to be slipping away. I thought the Man U match would give some indication of whether they were turning the ship around. They started really lethargic and Man U dominated the first quarter. Eidevall claims it was because they hardly had a chance to practice this past week with girls on international duty and others sick. Arsenal owned the ball more or less after that but accomplished little. Toone should have put the game away on her break as Man U let Arsenal have the ball and counter-attacked (thought they did occasionally press which confused Arsenal even more). A little ironic that the equalizer came on an Arsenal counter. Next game against Cheslea might be more of a bellwether. If they get pounded there, Eidevall will have no excuses...
     
  16. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    If that’s the picture you’re going to use, yes, we’ll continue to disagree. It was definitely not shoulder to shoulder at first contact, and I still think Groenen’s arm is trapped. Of course, we disagree there. Refs and lines officials are wrong all the time, but fair enough.
     
  17. tjabba92

    tjabba92 Member

    Arsenal
    Sweden
    Jan 12, 2022
    Time to move on... unless you want to disagree about that as well?
     
  18. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    Is that last part warranted? You posted a picture and said new information. Whatever; I’ll move on.
     
  19. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    In the relegation decider Leicester defeated Birmingham 2-0 with the Blues goalie sent-off for fouling the opposition striker.
    Penalty, red card. Game over. Birmingham had to send a 16 years old goalie as the main goalie is currently injured.
    I believe it should have been a yellow card as the goalie dived to get the ball and mistimed her dive aka the striker was quicker to the loose ball.
    Big call by the referee.
     
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  20. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    Chelsea now in the driving seat, third place is up for grabs. Birmingham very close to relegation now, trailing by five points.

     
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  21. Klingo3034

    Klingo3034 Member+

    Dallas FC
    United States
    Oct 11, 2019
    Still a bunch of games to play.
     
  22. Disapproving Hippo

    Manchester United
    United States
    Jan 17, 2021
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Arsenal is a shadow of their beginning of the season form and I believe it's too little to late for a comeback specially if they can't beat Chelsea on Friday. I'm more intrigued on who ends up getting third place to be honest. If United wins their next game vs City then they are definitely in control even with Reading's 5 game winning streak. I'm not convinced on Spurs whatsoever.
     
  23. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Talking about Tottenham, I've just seen Chinese MF Tang Jia-Li posting an unbelievable performance in the final of the AFC Asian Cup (scoring 1st goal from FK, assisting the 2nd one by dribbling two players and crossing a ball to the center of the box a split second before it could go over the end-line, starting the action of the 3rd goal, just to name the main contributions), so, since I didn't really watch any matches of this year's FA WSL, I can't help asking you, guys, if she's been a factor for Tottenham so far. I was so impressed by her in that final match!
     
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  24. shlj

    shlj Member+

    Apr 16, 2007
    London
    Club:
    FC Nantes
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    She barely plays. Ranked 19 in minutes play with.
     
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  25. Ethan Frank

    Ethan Frank Member+

    Chelsea
    United States
    Jun 11, 2019
    #375 Ethan Frank, Feb 7, 2022
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2022
    FBref numbers

    Pre Tottenham draw (6 matches): 23 goals scored on 11.9 xG; 2 goals against on 4.6 xGA

    Tottenham draw until now (7 matches): 11 goals scored on 11.6 xG; 6 goals against on 6.5 xGA

    During their great start to the season, I asked what would happen (maybe on another site) when Arsenal's finishing would surely drop off. Defensive luck and/or great goalkeeping/last ditch defending look to have played a part in that early season form as well. I won't dispute the fact that Arsenal played better during their winning start to the season, but I also think luck has played a big part in falsely making Arsenal's form since Tottenham look a lot worse than their form pre Tottenham. I think they would have won the match vs United (even maybe handily) with their early season finishing form and luck. Miedema and Foord drawing world class saves, Heath, Miedema, and Nobbs with wayward shots that were going in early on, and Beattie's shot being saved point blank by Russo. Even Russo's goal would have been a comfortable save for Zinsberger before McCabe somehow knocked it into her own goal.
     
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