The Footie Thread

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More likely he will be ignored and we'll still have to endure Kane clattering it into the wall or row Z. :LOL: 😭
Does Kane take England free-kicks regularly? Looking at the Euro 24 stats, the England free kicks were taken by Foden, TAA and Trippier. I know only one of those play regularly now.

In fairness, if Rice has never scored a free kick in his life until yesterday, it is understandable why he'd be down the pecking order. Does he take them regularly for Arsenal and just miss the lot of them until last night? Or, has he just started taking them and revealed to the world he is a free kick specialist? If he scores one or 2 more like that in the coming months, I'm positive he'll be first choice for England free kicks.
 
Does Kane take England free-kicks regularly? Looking at the Euro 24 stats, the England free kicks were taken by Foden, TAA and Trippier. I know only one of those play regularly now.

In fairness, if Rice has never scored a free kick in his life until yesterday, it is understandable why he'd be down the pecking order. Does he take them regularly for Arsenal and just miss the lot of them until last night? Or, has he just started taking them and revealed to the world he is a free kick specialist? If he scores one or 2 more like that in the coming months, I'm positive he'll be first choice for England free kicks.
This is the thing that's bugging me though. Has he always had the ability but nobody let him take one? Or has he only recently discovered the knack for how you strike it with that much curve and power? Has he recently had a lesson off Beckham or James Ward-Prowse? Who knows?

Based on these two alone he should already be first choice for England free kicks now, possibly alternating with Trent if he manages to get back in the team.
 
This is the thing that's bugging me though. Has he always had the ability but nobody let him take one? Or has he only recently discovered the knack for how you strike it with that much curve and power? Has he recently had a lesson off Beckham or James Ward-Prowse? Who knows?

Based on these two alone he should already be first choice for England free kicks now, possibly alternating with Trent if he manages to get back in the team.
Maybe it was the ball. Has Arteta mentioned anything about the Champions League ball in his interviews after :ROFLMAO:
 
Hands up, I thought the 11/4 on Real Madrid was a huge price last night and had a couple of quid on them. Fair play, thought Arsenal were good value for the win and I had no idea that Rice could take a single free kick like that let alone two. As already mentioned, I don't think a game has ever had two better free kicks in it.

First goal will be huge in Madrid although cannot see Arsenal making a mess of it.
 
Good though the free kicks were - the first one, they must have set up the wall wrong? Needed one more player to the right of it. You shouldn't be able to bend it around the outside man on the wall and back inside the post. Generally when free kicks are scored they go over the wall.

No qualms with the second one though, that was an absolute rocket - keeper didn't exactly spring very well for his dive, but was never keeping it out anyway.
 
Good though the free kicks were - the first one, they must have set up the wall wrong? Needed one more player to the right of it. You shouldn't be able to bend it around the outside man on the wall and back inside the post. Generally when free kicks are scored they go over the wall.

No qualms with the second one though, that was an absolute rocket - keeper didn't exactly spring very well for his dive, but was never keeping it out anyway.
Thought Merson summed it up when he said that was Roberto Carlos like. He could definitely bend a ball around a wall
 
Good though the free kicks were - the first one, they must have set up the wall wrong? Needed one more player to the right of it. You shouldn't be able to bend it around the outside man on the wall and back inside the post. Generally when free kicks are scored they go over the wall.

No qualms with the second one though, that was an absolute rocket - keeper didn't exactly spring very well for his dive, but was never keeping it out anyway.
Nothing wrong with the wall set up. The defender on the end line however turned his back when he jumped and made himself half a body narrower. The shot started a good yard outside the post...an extra defender wasn't going to do anything...especially if he displayed the same lack of courage.
 
Nothing wrong with the wall set up. The defender on the end line however turned his back when he jumped and made himself half a body narrower. The shot started a good yard outside the post...an extra defender wasn't going to do anything...especially if he displayed the same lack of courage.
I don't know.. it did seem like the the ball went a yard outside the wall and a yard inside the right post, which made me think the wall wasn't far enough right, that's all. He has got a lot of whip on it to be fair, but usually if you've gone around the wall you'd expect it to be a lot tighter - like a foot right of the wall and a couple of inches inside the post.
 
Not sure he is too far wrong though. Wher would Onana rate in keepers of the last 20-30 years
Not too many to choose from (if we are talking the so called starting goalkeepers). Going back 30 years, and looking at the keepers with most starts each season, we have:

Onana,
De Gea
van der Sar
Roy Carroll
Tim Howard
Barthez
Bosnich
Schmeichel

I wouldn't be able to confidently rank many of the keepers in that list, except that Schmeichel and Van der Sar would be my No. 1 and No. 2 all day long. Besides, given that Man Utd are the worst they've been in the PL, it is never going to look good on Onana. Especially when they have had periods of conceding so many shots. I think there was a stat last year that Utd had conceded more shots on their goal than any other team in the top 5 leagues.
 
Can he rock a woolen sweater like Pep though? That's next level stuff 🤔

Pep rocking his CP Company freebies 😅

The technical term these days is 'heavy knit' I believe..

That’s the tie done and dusted now

Madrid can’t come back from this - really poor

This is Arsenal we're talking about here. Madrid get some very dodgy decisions at home. If they get an early goal it will be very interesting.

What a pair of free kicks from Rice, sure it's already been said but you won't see a better combo than that for years. To do it on that stage in such a big game too. World class.
 
Not too many to choose from (if we are talking the so called starting goalkeepers). Going back 30 years, and looking at the keepers with most starts each season, we have:

Onana,
De Gea
van der Sar
Roy Carroll
Tim Howard
Barthez
Bosnich
Schmeichel

I wouldn't be able to confidently rank many of the keepers in that list, except that Schmeichel and Van der Sar would be my No. 1 and No. 2 all day long. Besides, given that Man Utd are the worst they've been in the PL, it is never going to look good on Onana. Especially when they have had periods of conceding so many shots. I think there was a stat last year that Utd had conceded more shots on their goal than any other team in the top 5 leagues.
1. Schmeichel
2. Van der Sar
3. De Gea (prime)
4. Barthez
5. Howard
6. Onana
7. Carroll
8. Bosnich

Howard didn't really impose himself at United but was a good keeper for Everton afterwards so that might've influenced my thinking on him.
 
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