I personally have no problem with tactical fouls. A team should be allowed to trip over the opponents or pull their shirts many times in a match as long as the ref will punish them accordingly for insistent fouling. However, I do think harmful tackles (eg. stomping on someone's foot) are not sufficiently punished. Especially, I think retroactive punishments need to be applied more.
Neymar is of course also frequently injured, in part because of those fouls, and factually you are right. Neymar has not the durability secret of CR/LM. Maybe his body breaks down as well when he turns 30-31-32. As so many Brazilians. Neymar is fouled 4.1 per 90 minutes according to WhoScored and Hazard is given 3.4 per 90 minutes. The second part of the observation is though - as mentioned in the Telegraph article - how quick yellow cards are handed out. "Chelsea star is the Premier League's most fouled player - but compared to his rivals, people who kick him are not punished as regularly" That is for Neymar, in the same competitions, of course, significantly quicker. Sometimes so quick opponents (incorrectly) accuse him of simulation. Yesterday Neymar was fouled five times. It resulted in a yellow for McTominay (committed 3 fouls in the game) and then Tuanzebe was also yellowed after repeated fouling and blocking of the opposing stars (2 sanctioned fouls in total, received the yellow after conceding a free kick on Mbappe, but it was an accumulation of previous 'wrongs' here).
I agree for tactical fouls. Do you think then that accidental foot stomps should be sactioned? If yes, you are running into a huge problem. It happens all the time. And i mean, all the time. That way you are incentivising players to dive after every foot stomp even if it is of very low intensity. Retroactive punsihment sounds awesome actually. For fouls and diving and any sort of unsportmanship behavior on the pitch. He will slow down considerably that is for sure. His whole playing style revolves around his dribbling abilities. You can see now that Messi is struggling to dribble as well as he used to, but he has other qualities that help him perform. He has decision making on his side. Neymar doesn't. As soon as he loses a bit of those dribbling abilities, he will decline exponentially. He doesn't look like someone who can work around loss of dribbling abilities. ... I can't really say why that is. It is very unlikely that all referees conspired against Hazard. Also have in mind that Neymar is a trickster. When he gets fouled, it usually happens in an awkward way, plus his theatrics make it look worse. On the other hand, Hazard, and especially Messi, dribble in a smooth way, trying to outpace defenders, so when they get fouled, it usually looks like a regular, professional foul not worthy of yellow card. Also maybe Neymar, on average, attempts dribbles closer to goal than Hazard. I don't know.
Hazard and Messi utilise body feint style of dribbling. Plus, ball is glued to their feet unlike Neymar who’s more of a trickster type of dribbler like you’ve described. The flaw with Neymar is his durability and balance in comparison to dribblers like Messi, Maradona, Cruyff etc where it looks like he’s most of the time simulating which he isn’t. Messi despite being smaller than Neymar has superior physical strength, agility and low centre of gravity that helps him to just keep on going despite being tackled by multiple players. He’s just a superior athlete in general. Neymar does have other abilities too that is playmaking, but he hasn’t been showing up in big stages more often and there are times where he miss sitters to score as we saw against Atalanta B.C. Regardless, Mbappe seems to disappoint me in big games. I’m getting this feeling he’s not the player everyone hyped him to be. Haaland seems to be more special than Mbappe.
I don't think really it is a conspiracy, that referees agree with each other to do it like that. No, that works in subtler ways (which we see now in the games without public). Including the ones who appoint these referees. The things you mention are valid things as well. On the flipside though: it has been proven too that referees tend to be harsher against taller players (google!). Both in fouling by them and against them. Hazard and Neymar are both 1.75m tall (Neymar looks because of his legs taller than he is).
Yes, Neymar can pass the ball and has some creativity but that is not the same. It won't help him, because Neymar is not obsessed with optimizing his playing style. Never was. He is very inefficient player. The reason why he is great even tho he is very inefficient, because he is ridiculously talented. He has talent to spare. So when his powers diminish he won't optimize his playing style, he will remain predominantly a dribbler, but his body will prevent him from being a great dribbler. He will probably get injured a lot more often in future and his inefficiency will become startingly obvious. Unlike Messi whose typical bad performance is disappearing throughout a match, Neymar's will be the opposite, getting dispossessed all the time. He has few years left at the top level in Europe. ... Funny, about Mbappe. It was early 2018 when i, on this very forum, said that Mbappe's 2017 ucl ko stages, could remain his best campaign for a long time if not ever. People would say something along the lines, if he scored so many goals against City, Dortmund, Juventus at 18, just imagine what he will do in few years.. That is not how it works. You can't extrapolate results by age. Players don't perform better and register better stats just because they get older. Anyhow, since then, i've got convinced that Mbappe has good enough overal game and killer instinct to be a generational talent. My suspicion was justified either way. People get on hype too quickly, for wrong reasons. Well, you are doing the same thing with Haaland. Haaland seems more special until he doesn't anymore. Until he has a bad campaign. Does he look more special than Mbappe did after semi finals against Juve in 2017? No, because it is virtually impossible. Yet, here you are saying Mbappe is not really a big game player.. the same can happen to Haaland.
It is whispered the damage to VvD his knee goes beyond the ACL.. which is awful. https://www.givemesport.com/1609924...verpool-stars-knee-is-worse-than-first-feared And oh, I dislike how Ornstein is there a) defending Pickford from leveling criticism against him and b) buys into the FA story that there can be no retrospective punishment... It is just not true
Wow so Ancelotti is stooping down to Evertonian levels of dirtiness. That was a clear red. Starting to lose respect for him. He also used James’ injury to blatantly ignore VVD’s career ending foul. https://www.skysports.com/football/...otti-vows-to-appeal-joke-lucas-digne-red-card
It is just a typical Italian defending his employer. Or what do I say: a typical manager defending his players and employer. The wider message is though, obviously, when they become too good it is okay to kick without punishment the likes of Van Basten, Robben, Sneijder, Van Persie (breaking his ankle, no card), Van Dijk, Hazard to the hospital. While FIFA royalty, of course, will be shielded with red cards when you touch their ankles or bang into them, and have a waiver to use medicines speeding their recovery, tissue repair, and reaction times... Anyway, it looks as if the Premier League us shaping up for a surprising league winner really. All the big teams are really vulnerable.
Yeah, but Ancelotti was always a bit different from the defensive minded Italian managers we know who’s teams resort to dirty play. Considering Van Basten was his teammate and the fact he’s aware what happened to his career, I expected his team to not resort to physically endanger other players. Everton has been using anti-football tricks to ******** up players whenever they’re losing which is sad. I’m surprised that Everton didn’t have two players sent off against Southampton tbh.
in retrospect. Rather obvious observation that Liverpool will struggle. They've already dropped 18 points in 17 games. last season, they dropped 15 points overal. Didn't mention in this thread, but i did in other places. Liverpool has also got luck in terms of injuries last few years. It is rather sensical that they will run out of luck in that department, along side other contributors. Chelsea didn't sign Oblak so that prediction doesn't count much.. United, i think i've judged them correctly. For Arsenal, i was way off... premature hype. They had and still have a lot of little things to adjust. City is surprisingly unimpressive (compared to their recent years) at creating chances and less surprisingly bad at finishing those chances, considering that Gabriel and primarily Aguero are mostly unavailable and they rely on Sterling's finishing abilities. Tho, they are good at defending. Expectedly, the best performing team overal, but they are not clinical atm. I will be way off in that front as well. They are not getting 90+ points season. Still front runners to win the league.
Things are so close towards the top of the Premier League that it's very hard to know how the table is likely to finish up, but at the moment I seem to have been furthest off with Sheffield United (the opposite way to last season) and Aston Villa (the prediction of an identical or similar position not very likely to come true now), and it would seem I got Arsenal and Tottenham the wrong way round probably (the latter seem to be a closer challenger towards the top, and the former will maybe recover to a lower top half finish at best it seems).
I was correct with the first two and not the last one. Pretty easy. Looking forward to next season's predictions. Now onto Euro 2021.
This ended 52 places out (better than 60 for the season before, but behind the benchmark of 2018/19 - as far as I know/remember the 38 places out, as indicated below from my post in the 2019/20 predictions thread, is my record although I've not done it for a huge amount of seasons overall). Arguably without some injuries etc (like at Liverpool and Wolves) it could have at least squeezed closer to the 38 than the 60...but it didn't (and some unforseen things like that will always happen - to be fair I know in the OP of this thread or an early post anyway there is a suggestion it could happen to Liverpool to some extent so maybe it could be forseen in some way based on logic)! It's again early to decide, but based on projected transfer activity plus what has already occured, I'm leaning towards this being my attempt for 2021/22 (if a new thread is opened I could possibly adjust it still though before the season does kick off): 1 - Manchester City 2 - Chelsea 3 - Liverpool 4 - Manchester United 5 - Tottenham Hotspur 6 - Leicester City 7 - Arsenal 8 - Leeds United 9 - Wolverhampton Wanderers 10 - Southampton 11 - West Ham United 12 - Brighton & Hove Albion 13 - Aston Villa 14 - Everton 15 - Burnley 16 - Norwich City 17 - Crystal Palace 18 - Brentford 19 - Newcastle United 20 - Watford
It was a fairly easy prediction that Liverpool will fall way short to their winning campaign. What they have achieved that season was a culmination of so many little things that couldn't have been repeated, but i've talked about it long enough. Next season. Ohh. Pretty interesting. Let's see: 3(4) horse race. Chelsea, City, Liverpool(, United). Chelsea will win it with 90+ points. Arsenal will finish above Tottenham. Tottenham will finish outside top 6. Leeds will almost get relegated. 14-18th place. Crystal Palace gets relegated. 1. Chelsea 2. City 3. Liverpool 4. United 5. Arsenal 6.
How much of an improvement do you think Sancho and Varane (if he comes through) can provide for Man Utd? Is the addition of Grealish and Kane (if they happen) not enough to secure Man City's position at the top?
United is the most successful when they counter attack... so very little improvment. They've almost maximized what one could achieve with such tactic because counter attacking football is inherently limited. Plus i think they've overachieved offensively last season anyway, so remaining at this level of goal output, that was based on individual skills more than anything, will be very hard in its own right. They will probably fell short of performing offensively on the same level, and then the addition of an offensive talent such is Sancho, will likely only help them not decline much. The thing with counter attacking football is that it can't scale easily, because you always depend on the opposition. It is a reactive tactic. With positional play, tactics that City and Liverpool use, teams are able to improve by adding more talent to the squad... The only way i see United achieve something remarkable next season, like 85+ points, is by changing the way they play. And i don't think Solskjear has anything in his back pocket to make that step forward... his United will continue relying on the individual quality upfront and that is the most unreliable quality. Maybe if he had Cristiano, Di Maria, Higuain, Benzema, Kaka, Ozil, etc. like Mourinho had in Real in 2012, but he doesn't and even then, it takes a lucky season to perform that well.
It is not really about players in the squad... but hunger. Most of these players in City's squad have won 3 out of 4 leagues in last 4 years. That is a lot. You can say whatever you want, that they are professionals and they all give 100% every game of every season, but that is not true. Hunger runs out. It is a new season and City's players have to find brand new motiavtion to put in the extra work behind the scenes, to win the league. And i don't think they have. They had it last season because they've lost ot LIverpool by a lot of points, so it brought out a new fire. They weren't the champions anymore so it was again about proving themselfs. Now they won it again. They are the best, team to beat. Why would they have to change anything? That is mentality with which they will come to practice, with which they will play games, etc. Nobody will admit to that, but hunger runs out. Barcelona 2012 is the most talented squad in history of football. By far. They've won CDR and that is it. Lost the league and champions league. Why? Because of lack of quality? Listen to names. Messi, Villa, Pedro, Sanchez, Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Thiago, Busquets, Dani, Pique, Puyol, Abidal,.... 2011 Barcelona with even more talent... they couldn't achieve the same results. Because that group of players have won 2009, 2010, 2011 leagues. 3 in a row. Won 2 champions league, broke the football. They've done it all... there was not that extra umph. How much will addition of Kane change anything? Well, he is only one player of many on the pitch. Although he would fit them perfectly. Exactly what they need... idk. I am not sure there is much left in that group of City's players. THat is why i think Chelsea, if they don't have serious problem with injuries, will win it. They are currently flying. They actually play well. On pair with City in last few months of epl, they've won ucl just like Liverpool has won 2019 ucl and then went on to win epl with 100 points... i think Chelsea's players have a lot of drive and hunger. Those players dream of winning epl, they are eager to go. Focused. City's players have done it.. if they lose a game, they will always have the "we have won it 3 times" comfort. Chelsea doesn't have that.
Messi will register 25+ assists playing for PSG next season (more than 0.5 assists per game). At least 8 of those to Mbappe who will be the top scorer of the team scoring 50+ goals in all competitions (more than 1 goal per game for the first time ever. 0 penalties).. (excluding major injuries ofc) Let me go step further. Statistics for Messi, Mbappe; Neymar.. something like: Messi: 43 apps, 27 assists, 30 goals Mbappe: 48 apps, 10 assists, 51 goals Neymar: 40 apps, 19 assists, 21 goals