Hey Tottifan, I want to update some of my predictions. Here is all of them again with the new ones: Sampdoria 2-0 Crotone Napoli 1-3 Inter Chievo 1-1 Verona Atalanta 2-1 Bologna Benevento 0-2 Fiorentina SPAL 0-1 Sassuolo Torino 2-1 Roma Milan 1-0 Genoa Udinese 0-2 Juventus Lazio 2-1 Cagliari
@ Afghan-Juventus continues to do what @ Afghan-Juventus does best with another round with the top score (6 right) and so maintains the lead. Round 8 - WIN-DRAW-WIN Points/Rd 8 Tally: ____________________________________________ Player - Points Afghan-Juventus > 22.00/3.42 Gilbertsson > 11.69/3.42 vilafria > 10.96/1.42 Taib > 6.64/-0.31 Il Ciuccio > 4.30/0.00 totti fan > 2.23/-0.18 KensingtonSC > 1.88/2.79 TheAnswer1313 > -4.25/0.29 shizzle787 > -5.21/-1.71 Italy-Azzurrri-Fan > -15.56/-8.17 Net 22.25/-0.87 @ TheAnswer1313 was extremely impressive this round with 3 accurate score guesses from only 4 that were realistically gettable. @ KensingtonSC however is unflappable in 1st place with a quality round which included 2 accurate scores. These scores include WIN-DRAW-WIN values in the total. Round 8 - WIN-DRAW-WIN & CORRECT SCORE/Rd 8 Points Tally: ____________________________________________ Player - Points KensingtonSC > 39.38/7.29 vilafria > 24.46/-0.58 Gilbertsson > 18.19/1.42 Taib > 18.14/4.69 TheAnswer1313 > 15.75/11.79 Afghan-Juventus > 5.00/6.92 Il Ciuccio > -7.20/0.00 Italy-Azzurrri-Fan > -18.06/-18.17 shizzle787 > -29.21/-3.71 totti fan > -39.27/-10.18 Net 17.75/-5.87
Round 9 21-22 Oct Sampdoria 2 - 0 Crotone Napoli 2 - 0 Inter Chievo 2 - 1 Verona Atalanta 2 - 1 Bologna Benevento 1 - 2 Fiorentina SPAL 1 - 0 Sassuolo Torino 1 - 2 Roma Milan 2 - 1 Genoa Udinese 1 - 2 Juventus Lazio 3 - 1 Cagliari Yet to hear from @ KensingtonSC @ Taib @ Afghan-Juventus
Sampdoria v Crotone 2-1 Napoli v Onter 2-2 Chievo v Verona 3-0 Atalanta v Bologna 1-1 Benevento v Fiorentina 1-3 SPAL v Sassuolo 1-2 Torino v Roma 1-3 Milan v Genoa 2-1 Udinese v Juventus 0-3 Lazio v Cagliari 2-1
Sampdoria 2-1 Crotone Napoli 2-1 Onter Chievo 2-0 Verona Atalanta 1-1 Bologna Benevento 0-2 Fiorentina SPAL 1-2 Sassuolo Torino 1-3 Roma Milan 4-2 Genoa Udinese 1-2 Juventus Lazio 3-0 Cagliari
Sampdoria 2-1 Crotone Napoli 2-1 Inter Chievo 2-1 Verona Atalanta 2-1 Bologna Benevento 0-3 Fiorentina SPAL 1-2 Sassuolo Torino 1-2 Roma Milan 2-1 Genoa Udinese 0-2 Juventus Lazio 3-0 Cagliari
@Italy-Azzurri-Fan What was your reason to switch to a Napoli 1-3 Inter scoreline? Did you read something somewhere?
The reason was basically because of Spaletti's great record against Napoli, and also how last season Roma beat Napoli 3-1 in Naples, and Spaletti completely out-coached Sarri. Even in Rome when Napoli won 2-1, I felt Spaletti was quite ahead on tactics, but the team just did not perform too well that day and were not on top of themselves, which is what allowed Napoli to create many chances in that game. I kind of felt that Napoli eventually were gonna collapse. Tiki Taka never works for too long in Serie A. No team that has played passing/attacking football has ever won the league and while it has been successful it has never won the league. I kind of thought Spaletti was going to completely out-coach. Although I am surprised it was a 0-0 draw. I did not expect no goals to be scored. Honestly historically Sarri's Napoli tend to struggle against defensive/high pressing teams that actually have a good team on paper. They struggled quite a bit vs Roma as well. Juventus, Roma, Inter, and "Atalanta at home" will probably cause Napoli a lot of problems. Napoli did beat Atalanta in Naples, but I don't think Napoli will beat them in Atalanta. Roma I think is still rebuilding a bit which is why Napoli beat them last week.
Honestly I'll tell you, in this generation of football, Tiki Taka will get you far but will not actually win you the trophy unless you clearly have a superior team on paper to any of the teams you are competing with. There are many examples of this: 1. Sousa's Fiorentina failed miserably in Serie A and the Europa League, last two seasons. 2. Guardiola's Man City failed in EPL last season, and also in UCL if you looked at expectations. 3. Monaco failed to beat high pressing/defensive teams in UCL last season. Leverkusen caused them huge problems, and we completely outplayed them in the semifinals. 4. Barcelona failed in UCL in 2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17. Even failed in La Liga last season. (In 2014-15 I think they arguably had a superior team to any others). 5. Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich failed to get past the semifinals. Got humiliated two of those seasons. 6. Blanc's PSG failed in UCL. 7. Tuchel's Dortmund failed miserably in 15-16 Europa League, and 16-17 UCL. 8. Pellegrini's Man City failed in 2015-16 UCL. Juventus beat them twice in groups stage even. They just got lucky draws until semis. 9. Napoli failed in Serie A last 2 seasons and in Europa League vs Villarreal (if you watched how Roma tore them apart the season after, they were a lot more pressing and direct than possession based). 10. Napoli failed vs Besiktas, Real Madrid, and Shakhtar Donetsk 11. Stephan Poli has always failed in Serie A. Lazio failed to make UCL vs Leverkusen in 15-16 and then got upset by Sparta Prague. Then Stephan Poli's Inter failed as well. 12. Spain and France both failed in Euro 2016. Now there are a few minor exceptions such as Barcelona beating us 3-0 in the group stage, although I think that was mostly because we were missing many key players especially that helped in defense. Allegri actually out-coached Valverde tactically completely until De Sciglio had to leave and get replaced by Sturaro and then the team just fell apart after that and then the first goal. So you see what I am saying now? The Tiki Taka success long gone now, and most coaches have figured out how to out-coach the whole thing. If teams do not feel comfortable without the ball, they will eventually start to fail. The only time a Tiki Taka team has won the the UCL since 2011 was Barcelona in 14-15, and even them there was a time when Juventus was outplaying them in the final, and if a penalty rightly would have been called on Pogba before the Barca counter, Juve probably could have won the game. Yes Barca were the better side for most part of it, but still. It just proves that Tiki Taka looks attractive and good but doesn't work in the long run.
A middling performance from most of our tipsters this week mainly because there were so many tricky scorelines. @ Taib did best with 8 results and two scores accurate for the round and leapfrogs two places in the standings. @ KensingtonSC was one off Taib and is irresistible in 1st place. Round 9 - Points/Rd9 Tally: ____________________________________________ Player - Points - Change in Position KensingtonSC - 91/9 (-) Taib - 89/14 (+2) TheAnswer1313 - 88/9 (-1) vilafria - 85/8 (-1) Afghan-Juventus 79/8 (-) Gilbertsson - 74/7 (-) Italy-Azzurrri-Fan - 68/8 (-) totti fan - 66/6 (-) shizzle787 - 65/7 (-) toronto_soccer 61/9 (-)
MIdweek fixture Round 10 24-5 Oct Inter v Sampdoria Atalanta v Verona Bologna v Lazio Cagliari v Benevento Chievo v Milan Fiorentina v Torino Genoa v Napoli Juventus v SPAL Roma v Crotone Sassuolo v Udinese ODDS Inter Milan 1.36 Draw 4.50 Sampdoria 7.50 Atalanta 1.30 Draw 4.50 Hellas Verona 9.50 Bologna 4.50 Draw 3.60 Lazio 1.67 Cagliari 1.50 Draw 4.00 Benevento 6.50 Chievo 3.50 Draw 3.25 AC Milan 2.10 Fiorentina 1.83 Draw 3.75 Torino 3.75 Genoa 9.50 Draw 4.50 Napoli 1.30 Juventus 1.10 Draw 8.50 Spal 21.00 Roma 1.14 Draw 7.50 Crotone 18.00 Sassuolo 1.91 Draw 3.30 Udinese 3.75
Inter 1-1 Sampdoria Atalanta 3-0 Verona Bologna 2-2 Lazio Cagliari 1-0 Benevento Chievo 0-1 Milan Fiorentina 2-2 Torino Genoa 1-2 Napoli Juventus 3-0 SPAL Roma 2-0 Crotone Sassuolo 2-0 Udinese
24-5 Oct Inter v Sampdoria 2-0 Atalanta v Verona 3-1 Bologna v Lazio 1-2 Cagliari v Benevento 2-1 Chievo v Milan 0-1 Fiorentina v Torino 1-0 Genoa v Napoli 1-2 Juventus v SPAL 5-0 Roma v Crotone 3-0 Sassuolo v Udinese 1-0
Inter 3-2 Sampdoria Atalanta 2-0 Verona Bologna 1-3 Lazio Cagliari 2-0 Benevento Chievo 2-2 Milan Fiorentina 2-2 Torino Genoa 0-2 Napoli Juventus 5-0 SPAL Roma 4-1 Crotone Sassuolo 1-2 Udinese
Guys, WOAH Now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves because of the Udinese win. Allegri has even talked about resting a few players. I doubt we will win 5-0.
Inter 3 v 1 Sampdoria Atalanta 2 v 1 Verona Bologna 1 v 1 Lazio Cagliari 2 v 0 Benevento Chievo 1 v 2 Milan Fiorentina 2 v 1 Torino Genoa 1 v 4 Napoli Juventus 4 v 0 SPAL Roma 3 v 0 Crotone Sassuolo 2 v 2 Udinese
The Napoli Inter draw alone was worth over 3 points and players @ Afghan-Juventus and @ vilafria top scores included that plus points from 7 other correct results. @ Afghan-Juventus has an 11 point lead and could just about take a two week vacation and still comfortably remain at the top. Round 9 - WIN-DRAW-WIN Points/Rd 9 Tally: ____________________________________________ Player - Points Afghan-Juventus > 28.56/6.56 vilafria > 17.69/6.73 Gilbertsson > 12.69/1.00 Taib > 10.44/3.80 Il Ciuccio > 4.30/0.00 KensingtonSC > 4.11/2.23 totti fan > 3.23/1.00 TheAnswer1313 > -3.25/1.00 shizzle787 > -6.69/-1.48 Italy-Azzurrri-Fan > -15.47/0.09 Net 46.71/24.46 Rankings in this comp are fairly similar to the traditional one. @ Taib scored big with full points from Benevento and Lazio and is now within striking distance of @ KensingtonSC who without being spectacular remains ever consistent. These scores include WIN-DRAW-WIN values in the total. Round 9 - WIN-DRAW-WIN & CORRECT SCORE/Rd 9 Points Tally: ____________________________________________ Player - Points KensingtonSC > 39.61/0.23 Taib > 31.94/13.80 vilafria > 21.19/-3.27 TheAnswer1313 > 14.75/-1.00 Gilbertsson > 9.19/-9.00 Afghan-Juventus > 1.56/-3.44 Il Ciuccio > -7.20/0.00 Italy-Azzurrri-Fan > -18.47/-0.41 shizzle787 > -31.19/-1.98 totti fan > -48.27/-9.00 Net 5.21/-12.54
Inter v Sampdoria 0-0 Atalanta v Verona 2-1 Bologna v Lazio 1-1 Cagliari v Benevento 1-0 Chievo v Milan 2-1 Fiorentina v Torino 2-2 Genoa v Napoli 1-3 Juventus v SPAL 4-0 Roma v Crotone 3-0 Sassuolo v Udinese 2-1
Round 10 24-5 Oct Inter 2 - 1 Sampdoria Atalanta 3 - 1 Verona Bologna 0 - 1 Lazio Cagliari 2 - 1 Benevento Chievo 1 - 0 Milan Fiorentina 2 - 1 Torino Genoa 1 - 2 Napoli Juventus 3 - 1 SPAL Roma 3 - 1 Crotone Sassuolo 2 - 1 Udinese Get inb4 the midweek early game punters: @ Gilbertsson @ KensingtonSC @ TheAnswer1313 @ Taib
Inter 2:1 Sampdoria Atalanta 3:1 Verona Bologna 1:2 Lazio Cagliari 1:0 Benevento Chievo 1:2 Milan Fiorentina 2:1 Torino Genoa 1:3 Napoli Juventus 3:0 SPAL Roma 3:0 Crotone Sassuolo 2:1 Udinese
Round 10 24-5 Oct Inter 2 - 0 Sampdoria Atalanta 2 - 1 Verona Bologna 0 - 2 Lazio Cagliari 2 - 1 Benevento Chievo 1 - 2 Milan Fiorentina 2 - 0 Torino Genoa 0 - 2 Napoli Juventus 2 - 0 SPAL Roma 2 - 0 Crotone Sassuolo 0 - 1 Udinese
Inter 2:1 Sampdoria Atalanta 2:0 Verona Bologna 1:2 Lazio Cagliari 2:0 Benevento Chievo 1:2 Milan Fiorentina 2:1 Torino Genoa 0:3 Napoli Juventus 3:0 SPAL Roma 2:0 Crotone Sassuolo 2:1 Udinese
Atalanta 2:0 Verona Bologna 1:2 Lazio Cagliari 2:0 Benevento Chievo 1:1 Milan Fiorentina 2:1 Torino Genoa 0:3 Napoli Juventus 3:0 SPAL Roma 2:0 Crotone Sassuolo 1:1 Udinese