• We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from all at Golf Monthly. Thank you for sharing your 2025 with us!

The Footie Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 15344
  • Start date Start date
Every manager in the league would, in a heartbeat.

I’m not sure about the price tag, though.

He still has to prove he can do it consistently against the top sides, which has always been the issue when he has played in the Premier League.

I would happily have him back at United, and he is doubtless a better player than when he went to Inter, but let’s see how he fares against better defences and top sides.
 
The European Spots 5th to 7th are going to be hotly contested

Everton - have started the season well but seem to be missing any X factor when DCL is out

Leicester - missing Fofana seems to have hurt them a little bit and they haven’t started well

West Ham - carried on from last season , look bright in midfield but who scores if Antonio is out

Spurs - going to rely on Kane and Son , thought they looked pretty poor today and looked very flat , Kane looked way off the pace

Arsenal - manager very naive , some young talent but poor defensively

Villa - look a very tidy outfit , spent well to replace Grealish and Watkins will score goals

Very early days but if I had to pick three now I would go

Leicester , Villa and Arsenal in 7th
All are similarly inconsistent. All good teams but flawed in some ways.

I expected more from Leicester, very flat start so far, and Villa are now finding their feet. I'm going to throw Brighton into the mix as a surprise team for this 'second division '. Defensively solid, good midfield, they finally seem to have discovered goals.

I'll go West Ham, Villa, Brighton. (It's a year too early for Everton as the depth isn't there when injuries and tiredness kicks in for the key 13-14 players)
 
All are similarly inconsistent. All good teams but flawed in some ways.

I expected more from Leicester, very flat start so far, and Villa are now finding their feet. I'm going to throw Brighton into the mix as a surprise team for this 'second division '. Defensively solid, good midfield, they finally seem to have discovered goals.

I'll go West Ham, Villa, Brighton. (It's a year too early for Everton as the depth isn't there when injuries and tiredness kicks in for the key 13-14 players)

Brighton have a great manager in Potter, and I enjoy watching them. And Moyes has again found his level at a club like West Ham - United was just too big a job for him, but he’s doing a great job with the Hammers.

Going to be a great season.
 
I’m not sure about the price tag, though.

He still has to prove he can do it consistently against the top sides, which has always been the issue when he has played in the Premier League.

I would happily have him back at United, and he is doubtless a better player than when he went to Inter, but let’s see how he fares against better defences and top sides.
I think we have to ignore price tags now, football is daft on that front.

Don't forget, in the past he has been playing in poorer teams where he has largely carried the line on his own. No wonder he struggled against top teams. Now he is in an all round quality team so if opposition sides want to crowd him out that leaves space for other top players. He is very much stronger and better than before and Chelsea understand how to use him, to be fair it is obvious to everyone bar Man Utd ?.
 
Brighton have a great manager in Potter, and I enjoy watching them. And Moyes has again found his level at a club like West Ham - United was just too big a job for him, but he’s doing a great job with the Hammers.

Going to be a great season.
I think for many fans that section is more interesting than the usual top 4. More unpredictable, more relatable, more teams have a chance of being in it etc. The top 4 is a rich mans league with the usual suspects over and over ?. Great if you are in it, not so much if you aren't.
 
I think we have to ignore price tags now, football is daft on that front.

Don't forget, in the past he has been playing in poorer teams where he has largely carried the line on his own. No wonder he struggled against top teams. Now he is in an all round quality team so if opposition sides want to crowd him out that leaves space for other top players. He is very much stronger and better than before and Chelsea understand how to use him, to be fair it is obvious to everyone bar Man Utd ?.

Don’t get me wrong - I like Lukaku and was sorry to see him leave United. He was still a bit of a rough diamond with an iffy first touch, but always had goals in him.

I have a horrible feeling he will come back to haunt us ?
 
Every manager in the league would, in a heartbeat.

Have you forgotten many of his hide and seek performances for Everton and Yernited?

He certainly looks like he's improved after his stint in Italy but let's see where he is come the end of this season.
 
Just heard Moyes' interview on sky, how can he sit there and try to justify bringing Noble on yesterday for that pen???
 
He said Noble is one of the best penalty takers in Europe

He's got form for talking rubbish ??

In fairness to Noble he's got a very good pen conversion record, I just can't believe he actually went on and took it.

It was a poor pen aswell.
 
Every manager in the league would, in a heartbeat.

City were looking for a striker and were willing to pay £150mil for Kane and didn’t look at Lukaku , even for Chelsea he was second choice

He is a very good player and has improved since he played in Italy but got to see how he does over a whole season here - if Klopp had £100mil to spend and needed a forward I don’t think he would have looked at Lukaku

But at Chelsea and the way they play - think it suits him well
 
Don’t get me wrong - I like Lukaku and was sorry to see him leave United. He was still a bit of a rough diamond with an iffy first touch, but always had goals in him.

I have a horrible feeling he will come back to haunt us ?

He understandably got disillusioned at Man U with being used as a target man during Jose's Park the bus years.. JM used him poorly and he still scored. He'll be twice the player he was for us at Chelsea.
 
Have you forgotten many of his hide and seek performances for Everton and Yernited?

He certainly looks like he's improved after his stint in Italy but let's see where he is come the end of this season.
United messed him up. Didn't play to his strengths, undermined his confidence. He scored plenty of goals at Everton, no complaints from us. He disappeared in big matches? What support did he have in those games, how far away where the midfielders to him? He was getting balls lumped to him and told to fend for himself on the whole. No wonder he didn't have much impact in those games. Him versus the defence for most of the games. He will score plenty for Chelsea and could well win them the league, either through his own goals or the space he creates for others by taking 2 or more defenders with him. He is a great fit for them.
 
City were looking for a striker and were willing to pay £150mil for Kane and didn’t look at Lukaku , even for Chelsea he was second choice

He is a very good player and has improved since he played in Italy but got to see how he does over a whole season here - if Klopp had £100mil to spend and needed a forward I don’t think he would have looked at Lukaku

But at Chelsea and the way they play - think it suits him well

City missed a trick not going for him.
 
He's got form for talking rubbish ??

In fairness to Noble he's got a very good pen conversion record, I just can't believe he actually went on and took it.

It was a poor pen aswell.

Don't agree with the decision, don't rate noble as a player but he does have a fantastic pen record

Even in a pen shoot out for England under 21s in the final of the euros he scored 2 (they still lost)

However poor decision
 
City were looking for a striker and were willing to pay £150mil for Kane and didn’t look at Lukaku , even for Chelsea he was second choice

He is a very good player and has improved since he played in Italy but got to see how he does over a whole season here - if Klopp had £100mil to spend and needed a forward I don’t think he would have looked at Lukaku

But at Chelsea and the way they play - think it suits him well

Did City offer £150 million for Kane
Can’t remember hearing that anywhere.
I heard they offered 125 but Levy wanted 150
 
Firminho is awful, nice teeth though.

Liverpool's midfield is forgettable.

Vin Dijk and Salah walk into any other team. Alexander Arnold and Robertson may get into some of the other top teams, Mane as an option off the bench. I doubt any other Liverpool player gets close to walking into the top teams, certainly not the 1st 11.

Top manager though.

Firmino awful ?!? He has been key to our success over the past 5 years - if people don’t see how good he is then Imo it’s down to a lack of understanding of the way he plays for us

The GK is one of the best if not the best in the world

The fullbacks are both amongst the best in the world

Matip is criminally underrated but there isn’t many I would swap him for , Gomez is superb as well

Fabinho is imo the best DM in the world taking over from Kante - missing him last season was as big as missing VVD at times

Thiago is quality - Henderson is Henderson , oppo fans will never see what he brings to the team

And the front three are just lethal - Salah imo right now is the best in the Prem , Mane finding his form again and have Jota there to support

So yeah I think our first 11 is right up there - certainly better than Utd’s and Chelsea’s , City it’s close
 
City missed a trick not going for him.

Potentially you could be right - I just don’t see it’s the type of player that Pep would want , unless Lukaku has adapted his game from being just a pure striker , there were flashes of it at the Euros but I don’t see him having that same involvement in the build up like Kane does - but Lukaku I have no doubt is going to look to prove a lot of people wrong
 
Top