soccer soccer soccer

[wolf stansson]

Hoppe scores again. Hard to see how Hunterlaar replaces him for now . . .

What a world. I don't know how complete his game is, but he's definitely got the late run behind-finish at pace down fuckin pat. He's on a one-year deal, btw. Kids going to have options if he wants them.

 

MLS is getting seriously scouted now and I think as much as Pulisic has to do with that, MLS owners becoming much more reasonable about transfer fees and playing ball with agents is a bigger part of it.

[stitchface]

Hoppe scores again. Hard to see how Hunterlaar replaces him for now . . .

What a world. I don't know how complete his game is, but he's definitely got the late run behind-finish at pace down horsefeathers pat. He's on a one-year deal, btw. Kids going to have options if he wants them.

 

MLS is getting seriously scouted now and I think as much as Pulisic has to do with that, MLS owners becoming much more reasonable about transfer fees and playing ball with agents is a bigger part of it.

 

He was pissed he didn't get the ball on his run - good finish on a sloppy goal (terrible defending).

[stitchface]

meanwhile, Real Madrid gets bounced from the Copa Del Rey by Alcoyano . . .

[Transmogrified Tiger]

meanwhile, Real Madrid gets bounced from the Copa Del Rey by Alcoyano . . .

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[wolf stansson]

 

 

 

First of many.

[soccer10k]

meanwhile, Real Madrid gets bounced from the Copa Del Rey by Alcoyano . . .

 

Bayern got bounced in the DFB Pokal by a second tier side this week as well.

[stitchface]

meanwhile, Real Madrid gets bounced from the Copa Del Rey by Alcoyano . . .

 

Bayern got bounced in the DFB Pokal by a second tier side this week as well.

 

Barca just missed a penalty 0-0 at Cornella. I think coaches (if they don't get sacked) are probably happy to be out of these cups given the workload.

[stitchface]

I guess folks are starting to understand the VVD's value was really allowing everyone else to go forward and press.

[stitchface]

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4294781/norwich-city-recall-us-international-sebastian-soto-from-telstar-loan

 

Soto to Norwich to compete against Morris.

 

Konrad sighting for Barca.

[wolf stansson]

 

ESPN+ continues to be a worthwhile purchase.

[wolf stansson]

[wolf stansson]

https://twitter.com/stuholden/status/1353142239686397952?s=21

 

Banger

[wvcbxl]

Lampard is gone at Chelsea

[wolf stansson]

Tuchel in as replacement. Great news for Pulisic & the young, foreign attackers.

 

Interesting to find out what it means for the young English contingent.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Managers tend to matter a lot less than we think, and teams are generally too quick to fire them, especially in England. But since my rooting interest is mainly with Pulisic I'm glad we don't have to pretend that Lampard had a grand design for slow-rolling his playing time, and that he just took way too long to properly rate him even with the huge price tag.

[soccer10k]

If you told me a month or 6 weeks ago that Lampard would get fired before either Ole or Arteta I wouldn’t have believed you.

[wolf stansson]

Managers tend to matter a lot less than we think, and teams are generally too quick to fire them, especially in England. But since my rooting interest is mainly with Pulisic I'm glad we don't have to pretend that Lampard had a grand design for slow-rolling his playing time, and that he just took way too long to properly rate him even with the huge price tag.

The only players with positional and tactical stability under Lampard have been Mount and Thiago Silva. I'm with you in terms of only really caring about CP's development, but he's hardly the only guy on the squad that Lampard struggled to find highest and best use for. In fact, he's one of the few in the tier right below Mount and Silva in terms of consistent usage when fit.

[imb]

Managers tend to matter a lot less than we think, and teams are generally too quick to fire them, especially in England. But since my rooting interest is mainly with Pulisic I'm glad we don't have to pretend that Lampard had a grand design for slow-rolling his playing time, and that he just took way too long to properly rate him even with the huge price tag.

 

 

At first glance I was going to disagree with you about Pulisic but really I think you're right. He was their only consistent attacker early last season, got moved out of the XI because he didn't have any goals to his name, then came back and played essentially exactly the same except with better finishing and Lamps got a lot of credit for that. Now this year Pulisic is back to attack and creating and not finishing yet he's still in the squad because Willian has moved on.

 

I was wary of Lampard because obviously what are the odds that a team legend also just happens to be the coach to lead you back to glory but also his insistence on the 4-3-3 this year just made it clear he was either stubborn to his own team's detriment or just not that bright of a mind altogether.

 

If you're gonna bring in all these bundesliga attackers you might as well have a german mind figuring out how to get he most out of them. looking forward to wednesday now

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Managers tend to matter a lot less than we think, and teams are generally too quick to fire them, especially in England. But since my rooting interest is mainly with Pulisic I'm glad we don't have to pretend that Lampard had a grand design for slow-rolling his playing time, and that he just took way too long to properly rate him even with the huge price tag.

The only players with positional and tactical stability under Lampard have been Mount and Thiago Silva. I'm with you in terms of only really caring about CP's development, but he's hardly the only guy on the squad that Lampard struggled to find highest and best use for. In fact, he's one of the few in the tier right below Mount and Silva in terms of consistent usage when fit.

 

Yeah he certainly wasn't alone in that regard, and it's possible that I'm oversensitive to it since I ultimately don't care if Timo Werner doesn't develop. It just felt like with Pulisic, especially last year, there was an undertone of 'maybe he's just not good enough' that explained his lack of playing time. While we have some of the same biases, folks like Marsch picked up on this too. This is an unfair comparison for multiple reasons, but when the Germans bought from the same league for similarly big money had similar acclimation issues, the tone shifted to 'maybe Lampard doesn't have it figured out after all'.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

All that said, Tuchel with Chelsea's roster could end up being really fun. Maybe a little too late to do anything but stop the bleeding and try to get back into Europe, but next year they could be legitimate contenders.

[wolf stansson]

 

 

:)

[imb]

I suppose it's to be expected dealing with english fans lamenting the firing of a club legend but good god, you'd think they'd just sacked god himself.

 

it's the media's fault

it's covid's fault

too many injuries

another casualty of the revolving door at chelsea

 

what in the world had frank done to show he was a capable manager? narrowly got 4th in a year when every team aside from liverpool sucked? Convinced players he had no idea how to manage that they should sign for chelsea?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I suppose it's to be expected dealing with english fans lamenting the firing of a club legend but good god, you'd think they'd just sacked god himself.

 

it's the media's fault

it's covid's fault

too many injuries

another casualty of the revolving door at chelsea

 

what in the world had frank done to show he was a capable manager? narrowly got 4th in a year when every team aside from liverpool sucked? Convinced players he had no idea how to manage that they should sign for chelsea?

 

The Athletic's longform does touch on a couple things that are probably bigger than Lampard or the manager role, I was struck by the bit about refusing to entertain signing Declan Rice because of the optics of signing a former released academy kid. But yeah, Lampard had questionable credentials heading in, and while last year and playing the young kids are to his credit, there was little to think that he was moving in the right direction even after huge investment, and last year isn't such a big feather in his cap that you could be optimistic that things were gonna get better.

[imb]

I suppose it's to be expected dealing with english fans lamenting the firing of a club legend but good god, you'd think they'd just sacked god himself.

 

it's the media's fault

it's covid's fault

too many injuries

another casualty of the revolving door at chelsea

 

what in the world had frank done to show he was a capable manager? narrowly got 4th in a year when every team aside from liverpool sucked? Convinced players he had no idea how to manage that they should sign for chelsea?

 

The Athletic's longform does touch on a couple things that are probably bigger than Lampard or the manager role, I was struck by the bit about refusing to entertain signing Declan Rice because of the optics of signing a former released academy kid. But yeah, Lampard had questionable credentials heading in, and while last year and playing the young kids are to his credit, there was little to think that he was moving in the right direction even after huge investment, and last year isn't such a big feather in his cap that you could be optimistic that things were gonna get better.

 

that's what gets me. so much of the reaction "we'd sack klopp if we could! look what he did with liverpool given time!" But liverpool were clearly trending upward toward bigger things, nevermind Klopp's resume compared to Frank's, which ... well he doesn't have one.

[wolf stansson]