Football in the UK and Ireland season 2019/20

Definitely a good call--McManus took out the Chelsea attackers leg, and rather violently, IMO, and did not touch the ball.

 

Mille Turner's an incredibly popular player amongst Man Utd Women fans, and that is based on consistently good, solid performances. If this was any other player, I don't think there'd be quite as much uproar about it. I have no complaints about a penalty being given there despite various comments that the center ref apologized to the Man Utd Women players after the match about the PK call.

 

I don't want to discredit some great play from Man Utd Women too much, but Leicester were poor, like really poor. I think fans calling for starts on the weekend for players who played very well yesterday over players who were rested for the whole match and didn't get the chance to impress, which they very likely would have, need to curb their view of yesterday's match a bit.

Toone was brilliant yesterday; I'll admit that. However, she also scored five in two matches against Leicester last year, and she didn't score or assist in her previous starts or sub appearances this season. (Man City and Arsenal were admittedly two of her starts, and she did force a great save against Chelsea. So, she's had a pretty good season so far, but last night had a lot more to do with the level of the opposition than super elite play that warrants consistent starts from here on out in my opinion.)

I expect Stoney to go with her standard XI on the weekend, which will likely frustrate a number of fans, but I think it would be a completely reasonable decision. Yesterday's match was about rotation and game minutes for players who have not played much this season; there's little to learn from the match as a whole when the players who were rested would have taken apart Leicester just as easily. (However, maybe Stoney will make changes to the team on the weekend based on the match against Leicester, and I'll be left a bit dumbfounded.)

 

Do you think it’s fair to have top tier teams playing against the tier 2 teams which are mostly part timers? Do they benefit anything out of this?

 

I think the tier 2 teams do benefit because they get exposure to and some experience playing against higher level opposition, and tier 1 vs tier 2 matches do allow for some reserve tier 1 players to get a lot more minutes. It's not the most pleasant seeing matches like Man Utd Women vs Leicester Women where it's clear as day that one team is just way too far below the level of the other, but I'm fine with the Conti Cup as it is. If you look at Group A, that's the WSL side in fourth with three Championship sides ahead of them. (Granted, Liverpool are last in the WSL, but tier 1 vs tier 2 matches can be at least somewhat competitive at times.)

 

They are. One caveat though is that they've only faced one of the big three in the league; Man Utd Women have already faced all three so far. The upcoming Man Utd vs Everton match will be a big one.

 

Are the big three usually consistent being in the top 3? Kind of like the English Premier League big six?

 

Chelsea, Arsenal, and Man City have been the top 3 since 2015.

 

here's a couple of highlights; Arsenal can only beat last place Liverpool, 1-0. which means they still trail Man City on goa difference(as they won 5-0)

checking the stats/ only 4 shots on target for Arsenal(L'orange@ what the bleep going on? I mean, expecting more from such a powerfull roster that rivals most NT's of the world
Arsenal vs. Liverpool - 24 November 2019 - Women Soccerway
Looking at the lineup for last place, Liverpool, they got two of the most atractive ladies you find anywhere in Kirsty Linnett & Melissa Lawley(makes you wonder what their recruiting priorities are, lol). A shame for Lawley though, she was such one of the newer. brightest stars for Man City & the NT. Seems like she lost favor with both of them)or maybe she did recieve a better offer from Liverpool?

here's Man U's game, besides Galton, Groenen & the two Turner's, seems like the 18 year old striker, Lauren James is doing really good, The only knock against her is that her English youth NT flopped spectacularly at the recent Euro u-19, thus failing to qualify for the World's\

 

I've only just seen the highlights of the Arsenal--Liverpool match. The Gunners clearly had a LOT of chances but simply didn't finish very well. Mead could have/should have had a goal off a Miedema centering pass but put it wide--probably should have used her left foot rather than her right. Van de Donk had a good chance that she, too, sent wide, and there were two/three other good chances missed. It goes that way sometimes. Arsenal players were all saying after the game that Liverpool have more quality than they've shown this year, but that might be arguable. At some point you've got to show your qualities and get a result.

 

Arguably should have had another goal or an assist, but yeah, James has had a good/great season so far.

 

there;s nothing like getting out of a scorings slump for Arsenal than an 11-1 romp in your next game, Miedema with two hat tricks, lol
Arsenal vs. Bristol City - 1 December 2019 - Women Soccerway

 

As unfrequent as it can be, we'd need a way to name a double-hat-trick; after all, if scoring more than 4 goals will become common in women's football, we can't be left at describing these event in awkward ways, as in "Oh, Alex Morgan scored an hat-trick + a brace vs Thailand at the World Cup!".

 

G O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O A A A A A A A A A A A A A A L L L L L L L
all bleelping 11 of them

 

That last assist from Miedema was absolute class.

 

It's funny that you bring up Morgan vs Thailand (5 goals, 3 assists). For whatever reason, when I heard Miedema scored six and assisted four vs Bristol, one of my first thoughts was if InStat would have rated her outside of its top five performers. (Morgan placed outside InStat's top five for the US vs Thailand match; not sure if InStat does WSL matches.) Regardless, an absolutely historical match from Miedema.

 

A bit of a rant: I still think the more visible Man Utd Women's fans are pretty good, but the level of scapegoating that Groenen (and to a lesser extent Zelem) have received has gotten a bit over the top for me. Ladd's had a great season so far, but she hasn't been better than Groenen and hasn't been much better than Zelem in my opinion. There just seems to be some clear forgetfulness when it comes to Groenen's involvement in a lot of Man Utd Women's best attacks, and they seem to be expecting a goal scoring/high assisting #10 based on the reputation they heard when Groenen's earned her reputation as a box-to-box, advancing the ball down the flank #8. (She's not been perfect by any means, but despite that, she's #1 in key passes/match and #1 or #2 on the team in XA/90 min. I'm admittedly not the biggest stats user, but such stats paint a different picture to what is presented by a certain percentage of Man Utd Women's fans.)

shlj, the West Ham match does support your point that Man Utd's defense isn't particularly sound when there's no solid organization. It wasn't a great match overall for Man Utd Women, but their defending was responsible for the loss.

 

I don't remember UEFA WCL's rules: should Arsenal win the tournament, they would be invited to defend the title anyway, even should they fail to qualify through the league? In that case, England could have three teams in Champions' League?

I seem to remember that something of the kind had happened to German teams in the past, but I am not sure if the rules remained the same through the years: of course, we can't know if these rules has changed or not, because in the latest year OL has been the only winner of both Champions' League and their domestic league.

 

I would venture to say there are either two or four teams in the relegation battle, if only because B'ham has two games in hand over both BHA and Bristol.

Yes, Germany had had three representatives in the past through the defending champion slot - on two occasions! Now, considering that there's talk of letting some nations have three teams directly anyway, there could very easily be a rules change, but even the UMCL has a defending champion qualification rule, so any team who wins the competition should be in regardless - it would just be the difference between having an additional slot versus replacing an existing slot.

 

why then doesn't France have 3 spots in the CL( PSG didn't play in last season's CL since they only finished 3rd in the FR league the previous season)

Man City is most likely to finish 3rd, but that's in part cuz the other two(Chelsea & Arsenal) have as much sending money(and used it more wisely via recruitment)The worst shock is that the heavy German NT influenced & high spending Bayern Munich is still in 3rd place in the Bundesliga, if they can't make the CL, it will have HUGE implications

so with the winter break coming, are these two clubs(MC & BM) allowed to use their considerable purchasing power to buy any players they want? Or are there stringest rules that prevent them from raiding the poorer & weaker clubs during mid season?

first match I've seen of Man U this season & there two question to ask?
1) why on earth again isn't Galton on the English NT?(she' easiest the best player on the squad)

2) why is Stoney as coach so revered? It's bad enough all that whining about the refs in public after last week's loss, but this time her whole defence was so disorganized to the point that they kept fouling & given away several free kicks that WH scored upon and why she didn't start James(though the way the game lost control, she would of been red-ed too, lol

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I would definitely recommend the free FA player. Dunno know they got such a lengthy procedure up, but their not asking for any credit cards(if there was a catch to it) & they do show several games each week either live or replay(definitely the best thing going in woso right now)

The FA Player