The Footie Thread

[Don Barzini]

In one of the best films of all time, Top Gun, the character Goose said the following of Iceman:

“He flies ice-cold, no mistakes. Wears you down. You get bored, frustrated, do something stupid, and he's got you.”

For me, that also sums up Man City under Pep. No doubt they’re amazing. No doubt they’re successful. No doubt there have been countless moments of beautiful football.

But in all honesty, on the occasions I have watched them, there have been many long periods of time where they are playing a million passes around the middle third and edge of the opponents box and I have been craving a recently painted wall to watch instead.

Just my opinion, naturellement.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

I’ll take the way Klopp wanted to play football over the way Pep wants to play football all day

 

[Arthur Wedge]

It’s hard to disagree

 

[Swinglowandslow]

Well, there’s not many people believe a 4-4 draw is boring.

If I had my cynical head on I’d say you’re trolling for a reaction. But then, maybe, you actually believe end to end football with a hatful of goals isn’t exciting.

Of course it is exciting. I watched it and enjoyed it.
Which brings me to an idea, may not be new, but in light of the awful pitta patta crap around the defenders penalty area which we see now, may I ask what chaps think of changing the way the winners of the Premier league, and others ,are decided.

Simply , Forget points. - the side which scores most goals in a season wins the league.
If a tie, then goal difference.

What do you think?

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

View attachment 60387


It’s hard to disagree

I don’t disagree with you but the question here is, is it Americans ruining it or is it in conjunction with FIFA trying to fleece fans even more.

I’m finding it a real struggle to even find interest in the next World Cup due to all the shenanigans around expansion, FIFA and the Orange bell end !

 

[Neilds]

Tippy Tappy football is boring, long ball football with long throws, etc is skill free - what exactly do you lot want from your teams?

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Tippy Tappy football is boring, long ball football with long throws, etc is skill free - what exactly do you lot want from your teams?

4-4-2 with the team sheet written on the back of a fag packet and defenders shouting “if in doubt” as they hoof a clearance into row Z, Gaza in a dentist chair, El Tel managing to keep sick note Anderton fit and firing and Nicky Shorey making rampaging runs from left back! Oh wait is that just me

 

[Slime]

So you think the Barca side and the Bayern side under Pep were boring too? Because they played the same way in lesser leagues.

Just curious as they have been noted as two of the greatest sides of all time. Barcelona especially. If you think attacking football, record goal hauls and trophies are boring I'd love to know what you base your judgements on entertaining football on Please don't say a 4-4 draw between two average sides in Utd and Bournemouth

To be fair, you can't ask someone what they base their opinions on and then tell them what not to say.

 

[PaulMdj]

There isn’t one person on here who’d swap City’s recent Trophy haul for their own Club’s record, Yes City have been boring at times while dominating matches, but so have Everton while scraping a draw or Lpool last season in some games whilst dominating the League.

You can’t expect every game to live up to what you want, 2 great games at the weekend, SLand v NCastle and Utd v BMouth, 2 totally different matches, 2 different outcomes, with 4 very different teams in terms of quality.

City may of bored people at times, but that doesn’t mean their football was rubbish.

If it was that easy to be so succesful by being boring, every Club would do it.

 

[irip]

I used to find watching City boring as a neutral a couple of years ago but that was due to the way the opposition would set up against them the majority of the time rather than how City approached the game.

With everyone against them sitting on or around the edge of their own box I’m not really sure City had much choice in how they approached the game other than to keep the ball and wear them down.

The last couple of seasons a few more teams have had a bit more of a go at them and a couple have had success in certain games.

Having said that if all the teams were playing at the same time (apart from the team I support) it is very unlikely I would choose to watch the City game but that’s probably because it will be one sided and I prefer an even game.

 

[Orikoru]

Question for Spurs fans....

Any idea why Frank hates Brennan Johnson? He was your top scorer last season and scored the goal in the final of your first trophy win for a billion years...but hardly gets a look in this season? I appreciate he has his limits, but he has good composure in front of goal and can definitely do a job.

I guess he's a bit of a one-trick pony. He makes good back-post runs and scores tap-ins. Useful but probably not enough to start games in the Prem? Makes him a useful super-sub when you need a goal at best probably. Having said that, none of our left wingers have uprooted any trees so I'd happily see him start there. I think he normally prefers to play on the right, which is where Kudus has nailed down a spot (plus Kulusevski to come back from injury).

Anyway, God knows what's going on with Spurs, we're defending a bit better than under Ange obviously, but are now pretty rubbish going forward instead. Frank is 'under pressure' of course. I was saying give him the Jan window, until that shocking performance against your lot last week. Now I'm not entirely sure he's going to get it together in time.

 

[Tashyboy]

If you asked me that question, yes (for Barcelona anyway)

When Sky had La Liga, I'd always enjoy watching Real Madrid. Who played entertaining football, that involved risk taking.

I despised watching Barcelona. Even though I would also say they could be the best ever side, and I love Messi. I just hated watching such one sides games, with lots of slow possession based play, etc.

If Arsenal were suddenly asked to play in Scottish League 2, they would dominate every side, and score about 200 goals. Unless you are an Arsenal fan, not many will be entertained by that.

This post I don’t understand at all.
Barca had a team that dominated football under Pep. They did it with a team that had a core from their famous Academy.
Relate that to Utd, they dominated football esp in the prem league with a team that “ you cant win anything with kids”. Basically from there academy. To say Barca at times were boring then surely Utd were, and I don’t for one minute think they were. Yes at times they were outstanding but I lost count the amount of times I prayed as a City fan we could keep the score down to a respectable level. Am Sure fans of other clubs felt the same. World class club teams will never play to a high standard every week as they are playing 2-3 games a week. So rotation is paramount. City played with 7 academy players in the win over Brentford.

 

[Orikoru]

I'm catching up from a few pages ago, but my best XI from players I'm actually somewhat familiar with, would be something like:

G: Schmeichel
D: Cafu
D: Nesta
D: Cannavaro
D: Maldini
M: Vieira
M: Zidane
M: De Bruyne
F: Messi
F: Ronaldo
F: C.Ronaldo

 

[Golfmmad]

Best player I ever saw live and I have seen messi, Ronaldo and Cruyff

Yep, agreed but when will people listen?

 

[Tashyboy]

I used to find watching City boring as a neutral a couple of years ago but that was due to the way the opposition would set up against them the majority of the time rather than how City approached the game.

With everyone against them sitting on or around the edge of their own box I’m not really sure City had much choice in how they approached the game other than to keep the ball and wear them down.

The last couple of seasons a few more teams have had a bit more of a go at them and a couple have had success in certain games.

Having said that if all the teams were playing at the same time (apart from the team I support) it is very unlikely I would choose to watch the City game but that’s probably because it will be one sided and I prefer an even game.

And this is what I have been saying for years. Teams have sat back and City have had to try and draw teams out. And that’s when it has got boring. I have also said that teams like Arsenal and Liverpool have had to adapt to the same teams dropping back and at times they have struggled. Would you seriously play an open game against Salah, Mane and Firmino. Not a cat in hells chance.
You rightly say, teams have had a go at City, mainly because the midfield was weak with the loss of Rodri and the back four was not at its best. Currently the two starting full backs are midfielders. Although doing a decent job. If City do buy someone, Guehi is a priority.

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

This post I don’t understand at all.
Barca had a team that dominated football under Pep. They did it with a team that had a core from their famous Academy.
Relate that to Utd, they dominated football esp in the prem league with a team that “ you cant win anything with kids”. Basically from there academy. To say Barca at times were boring then surely Utd were, and I don’t for one minute think they were. Yes at times they were outstanding but I lost count the amount of times I prayed as a City fan we could keep the score down to a respectable level. Am Sure fans of other clubs felt the same. World class club teams will never play to a high standard every week as they are playing 2-3 games a week. So rotation is paramount. City played with 7 academy players in the win over Brentford.

You don’t half miss the mark sometimes with your posts Tashy. It’s of the 90s with their kids played aggressive attacking football with wingers bombing on and different variety of strikers bagging goals from inside and outside the box. They also had a solid defensive unit and world class keeper. The football they played was very different from Barcas Tiki Taka. Comparing the styles is like comparing apples and oranges yeah they’re both fruit but they are also very different in flavour.

Utd under Fergie were far from boring and scored hatfuls in open play. Pep’s Barca whilst exceptional with one or 2 stand outs were not the same style as your referencing at all.

 

[Billysboots]

This post I don’t understand at all.
Barca had a team that dominated football under Pep. They did it with a team that had a core from their famous Academy.
Relate that to Utd, they dominated football esp in the prem league with a team that “ you cant win anything with kids”. Basically from there academy. To say Barca at times were boring then surely Utd were, and I don’t for one minute think they were.

Sorry, Tash, but where is the logic behind this?

Because two teams both played academy players then it follows that, if one team occasionally played boring football, then the other must have done so as well? Purely because of the age of the players?

As leaps of faith go, that’s the biggest I’ve seen in a long time. And again I’ll say that domination does not equate to entertainment. Often it’s the complete opposite.

It’s not the winning, for me, which provides the entertainment. I said precisely that only the other day. It’s how a team does it.

 

[PaulMdj]

You don’t half miss the mark sometimes with your posts Tashy. It’s of the 90s with their kids played aggressive attacking football with wingers bombing on and different variety of strikers bagging goals from inside and outside the box. They also had a solid defensive unit and world class keeper. The football they played was very different from Barcas Tiki Taka. Comparing the styles is like comparing apples and oranges yeah they’re both fruit but they are also very different in flavour.

Utd under Fergie were far from boring and scored hatfuls in open play. Pep’s Barca whilst exceptional with one or 2 stand outs were not the same style as your referencing at all.

But to some opposition fans Utd could be boring to watch when they were dominating, the Team that were first to be successful while boring was Arsenal under Wenger, yet they had superb footballers playing great football. Even Arsenal fans themselves turned it into a song.

I think we could all be guilty of looking for faults when teams are so good that they dominate.

 

[nickjdavis]

I’ll take the way Klopp wanted to play football over the way Pep wants to play football all day

I'll take your Klopp and raise you with Keegan.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

I'll take your Klopp and raise you with Keegan.

Yeah he had a great attitude and loved to attack

The 4-3 was one of the best games I have seen