Messages

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General discussion / Re: The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread

« on: January 27, 2020, 07:30:10 AM »

Strange game yesterday. Shrewsbury absolutely deserved to get something out of the game and fair play to them, their forwards created more problems than a lot of premier league teams.I think it demonstrated just how important our first choice defense is, both attacking and defending. Lovren bring the ball out of defense just does not cut it. Up front the difference in class when Bobby and Mo came on was immediately obvious in terms of movement. Minimiano is still trying to fit in but Elliott was the brightest of the first three early on although Origi came into it later in the game.

I agree with Klopp on the replay stance, he has bigger priorities and if the FA was going to give a break why schedule replays in that period? However, if I was Fabinho/Matip/Lovren I would be asking Klopp (or Critchley) to play in that game as it was obvious all three need game time. They were seriously rusty. Fabinho's passing in particular was awful at times.

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Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: January 24, 2020, 03:38:24 PM »

Carmen had a thirds team circa 7-8 years ago. From what i recall they were the very poor and didn't last more than 1 or 2 seasons.

On the reserve proposals in general, my first thought was that the change to monday night etc was a great idea, something had to change but thinking more about it, it maybe isn't the answer.
In practical terms you could have 7-8 reserves on the senior bench on sunday, some getting game time, some not. then asked to turn up for reserve match monday night, possibly away from home (albeit not the other side of the county if it's regional leagues), then expected to train or else told not to train with seniors on tuesday and then train again on thur/fri. In reality that leaves a fair amount of your clubs bog standard players having to make a serious commitment in terms of time and dedication and leaves senior training on tuesday down to bare squad of 15-18 not including injuries or other reasons. You'd in many cases be asking students to come down the road an extra night on a monday to play or older family men an extra night out of the house.

Something certainly needs done but i think more thought needs to go into it. Reserve football is dying and maybe guaranteed games will help make it better. Like there's absolutely no reason reserve league and championship couldn't be run off every week and wrapped up for end of summer. No need to postpone reserve football for county matches and on those weekends games could be played on the friday or saturday, whichever suits.

I don't believe reserve football is the 'player development route' for young players that it might have been in the past. My experience is that good young players these days are exposed to enough good quality football in terms of schools, county squads etc and tend to go straight into senior teams (in fact you probably wouldn't want your young star playing in a reserve match!) but there does need to be an outlet for the average or over the hill footballer, whether its the lad who's totally committed and just isn't good enough for seniors or the lad that's happy to train the odd night and take a game for the stiffs at the weekend.

Mid week games were never going to work. Only option was Fri/Sat and that raised its own problems with training squads etc.

If the reserve league is run off I think that will be a start. Only issue will be when clubs start loading up the Reserve teams with seniors to give them game time when Tyrone are playing in the summer and the senior league is paused. Not sure how you combat that unless it is a rule like your cannot play for the reserves if you started the previous senior league game. Even that will cause issues

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General discussion / Re: The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread

« on: January 24, 2020, 01:24:36 PM »

Tough run of fixtures coming up until the end of January. Good job they've a ten point lead with a game in hand! I would expect the reserves out against Everton.

Thu Dec 26th 20:00 Leicester City Away
Sun Dec 29th 16:30 Wolverhampton Wanderers Home
Thu Jan 2nd 20:00 Sheffield United Home
Sun Jan 5th 16:00 Everton Home FA Cup
Sat Jan 11th 17:30 Tottenham Hotspur Away
Sun Jan 19th 16:30 Manchester United Home
Thu Jan 23rd 20:00 Wolverhampton Wanderers Away

Started that run of matches with a ten point lead.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think they'd stretch the lead out to 16! 

Yep unreal. I was sure the gap would be closed a bit. They've rode their luck while not at their best but I suppose that's the sign of a great team.
If they click properly they really could achieve something extraordinary this year.
Just on Salah, wonder what Liverpool fans in general think of him. He can be frustrating at times with his selfishness and did the wrong thing on a few occasions last night at very critical points in a difficult game. It can be a trend with him.
 Would cashing in on him if the offer was crazy be good business? No better man than Klopp to make it to the teams improvement.

From my side if Madrid offered £130m for Salah at 27 and you could get Werner at 23 for £70m you would have to consider it from a forward planning perspective. Dont get me wrong, I do not want to get rid as Salah is a brillant player and for all his frustrating moments he is a game changer and they are few and far between. However, Liverpool know better than most what happens to even great teams if you dont constantly keep one eye to next years team and the year after. 

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General discussion / Re: The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread

« on: January 24, 2020, 09:26:35 AM »

Lucky to get away with the win yesterday albeit Wolves are a serious side. Everything was a bit flat attacking wise last night with TAA and Robertson rarely getting forward. Robertson had his hand full with Traore but he has really went off the boil lately. Salah getting a lot of stick this morning for his selfishness. He played well but needs to get the head up and try to find players in better positions. The Ox in particular was annoyed with him.

Gomez outstanding again as was Henderson. Henderson has played himself into the POTY conversation in the last couple of months which is remarkable given some of the stick he has received over the years.

Hopefully Mane injury is not serious and we can put out a team on Sunday to get some game time to the likes of Fab/Lallana/Matip/Mininimaio/Origi etc and a few of the kids.

As an aside Athletico seem to be going through a rough patch at the minute with a 3rd tier side knocking them out of the cup last night. Hopefully it lasts for another few weeks!

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Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: January 22, 2020, 06:15:30 PM »

I thought at one stage reserve games were allowed to be played at 13 a side. Was that done away with? I thought that was worth a shot - obviously must have been phased out or just not implemented full stop?

They are 13 a side in Junior. Clubs have to agree to go 15 a side.

Always felt sorry for some of the reserves playing the 13 aside. Usually a few players who don’t fancy the extra space especially in the lower leagues! 

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General discussion / Re: The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread

« on: January 20, 2020, 11:24:49 AM »

Surprising comfortable win. While we should have been 3-4 up by the hour mark except for De Gea and some awful finishing from Mane/Salah, even at 1-0 I was much more confident than in other matches this year when we have held a single goal advantage going into the last 15. Bar Martial's chance which was really well worked they never really looked like creating decent opportunities. VVD was unreal. Never looked flustered and just controlled everything back there. Henderson and Winjandam were excellent as well.

Not sure how VAR overturned the Firminio goal. VVD could not have challenged any better. If the ref had blew the foul I would probably have accepted it given the level of protection keepers get but how it met the "clear and obvious error" threshold for VAR to overturn is a joke. Pity Gini just strayed offside for his disallowed goal as it was a great move.

Carra and Keane were hilarious in the studio afterwards. Keane defending his buddy Ole by having a go a Lampard, the media and anyone else who disagreed with him and Carra's voice getting higher and higher as he argued with him. 

All in all a great weekend for Wolves 

I think Keane’s underling point was that chopping and changing the manager every turnaround isn’t the solution.  It hasn’t worked for the past few years and Ole needs to be given time to make his mark at United. His pop at Lampard was that their was direct comparisons are being made of him and Ole and Chelsea aren’t exactly setting the premier league on fire also.  I think there was substance to what he was saying. 

On the topic of the match, Liverpool are streets ahead, every player looks comfortable in their role in the team, and they seem to make chances out of nothing. 
VVD will continue to dominate the premier league for years, with a man like him in the backline, Liverpool can feel comfortable pressing high up the pitch.

I agree with you in terms of Keane's point about managers being given time but the Lampard comparison was not valid in my opinion.  I think Lampard has done a decent job with the hand he was dealt. Ole went and spent £130m in the Summer while Chelsea could not and they lost one of the league's best players so I think he's doing a reasonable job, certainly better than Ole. Keane would have been better off sticking to his point about Klopp's treatment at Liverpool in the first few years as an example of new managers being given time.

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General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: January 20, 2020, 09:16:08 AM »

United started off all right and then conceded a goal from yet another lapse in concentration on a set piece. Correct call to disallow that 2nd goal as DeGea was fouled.  United have probably missed their best chance of scoring with Pereira missing that sitter. I'd still be surprised if this game doesn't finish in a 2 or 3-0 defeat.

You're delusional.

De Gea shown up as a poor keeper again with that. Too easily put off the ball. It wasn’t a foul. Goal should have stood.

Exactly. Didnt jump with his elbows up, eyes were always on the ball and made a genuine attempt to challenge for it. Disallowing that was a disgrace. Ah well, comfortable victory.

But its still a foul, just because your eyes are on the ball doesn't make it a fair tackle.  Its no different than two outfield players coming together, if you have your 'eyes on the ball' and go in for a slide tackle for example, collide with the opposition but don't make any contact with the ball then its a free kick.  Same logic in the De Gea incident.

Dont agree with that. You are allowed contact when challenging for the ball without it being a foul. Even more so in the case of an aerial challenge. Goalkeepers do get protected to an extent because they are more exposed as typically they do not have their arms to protect themselves. However, as I said VVD could not have done more to not "foul".  I actually laughed at a comment on Sky yesterday where one commentator/pundit said De Gea should have been more physical and put his the knees up into VVD. Why would that not have been a foul?

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General discussion / Re: American Sports Thread

« on: January 20, 2020, 08:53:22 AM »

looking forward to the Superbowl now. Best defense against best offense in my opinion. Should be great watching. The fact its two teams with  limited recent Superbowl experience will be interesting.

Expect the Chiefs to win in a come from behind victory again.

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General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: January 20, 2020, 08:48:02 AM »

I understand the frustration from some over the decision on DeGea but whether we like it or not, keepers have been getting decisions like this for years. I was surprised in real time a free wasn't given. Also thought VAR should have looked at Maguire getting blocked off for the first goal. It's not gaelic football.....frees are given for the smallest things in soccer.

I would be in the same camp Seanie in terms of being surprised the free was not given initially (albeit I dont agree with it, I think keepers are massively overprotected). The issue I have is on how the VAR ref decided that it met the "clear and obvious error" threshold. The commentators said that VAR had advised VVD was not going for the ball which is ridiculous. It does just highlight the subjectivity with VAR, how the Everton goal could be allowed to stand after VAR review when there was clearly an arm across DeGea's face yet yesterday's chalked off is bizzare.

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General discussion / Re: The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread

« on: January 20, 2020, 07:34:55 AM »

Surprising comfortable win. While we should have been 3-4 up by the hour mark except for De Gea and some awful finishing from Mane/Salah, even at 1-0 I was much more confident than in other matches this year when we have held a single goal advantage going into the last 15. Bar Martial's chance which was really well worked they never really looked like creating decent opportunities. VVD was unreal. Never looked flustered and just controlled everything back there. Henderson and Winjandam were excellent as well.

Not sure how VAR overturned the Firminio goal. VVD could not have challenged any better. If the ref had blew the foul I would probably have accepted it given the level of protection keepers get but how it met the "clear and obvious error" threshold for VAR to overturn is a joke. Pity Gini just strayed offside for his disallowed goal as it was a great move.

Carra and Keane were hilarious in the studio afterwards. Keane defending his buddy Ole by having a go a Lampard, the media and anyone else who disagreed with him and Carra's voice getting higher and higher as he argued with him. 

All in all a great weekend for Wolves 

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Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: January 17, 2020, 03:58:25 PM »

Reserve football not working in some clubs because players dont want to play....new format may make no difference..... If players put everything and anything before football wont matter what night reserve games are played on....

But the point is that if the new format can attract an additional 3-4 players  per club to play thats a good thing and could be the difference between a club being able to field a reserve team or not. I can see this benefitting two major groups, the older guys who have young families etc who do not want to give up their entire Sunday in the summer and the  casual player who wants to play football but is not good enough to play seniors and wants to have a few beers on a Saturday night. 

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General discussion / Re: Death Notices

« on: January 17, 2020, 11:33:09 AM »

Actor Derek Fowlds

Best known for playing Bernard Woolley in Yes Minister, along with Oscar Blaketon in Heartbeat for 18 years.

IMO Yes Minister/Prime Minister is one of the greatest ever comedies, still graet watching almost 40 years on and Fowlds was brilliant in his role.

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General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: January 16, 2020, 04:51:43 PM »

Which trio has scored more goals this season: Salah, Mané and Firmino or Rashford, Martial and Greenwood?

And if you had a choice of either trio which one would it be?

Bit misleading when a lot of them are in the europa league, Astana and AZ Alkamar, even JLingz could score against them

Well researched answer......

7 of the 39 scored by the United guys were in the Europa. If we just look at league goals it's 26 (Rash/Mart/Green) v 28 (Liverpool guys).

This wasn't meant in any way as a slight against those 3 fantastic Liverpool players (some people need to grow up). They're kind of the benchmark along withe Merely to highlight that despite playing in a team that's not scoring a lot of goals and having many ups and downs, United's top 3 strikers are doing ok.

I think most people would agree United's strikers are not the problem and those stats back it up. From the relatively limited amount of games I have watched United play this season they struggle against the teams that sit back and martial/Rashford cannot use their pace as effectively.  I do think a genuine world class #10 behind them would make a massive difference to United. Fred/McTominay are decent (McTominay more than decent) defensive midfielders but there is definitely something lacking in that middle third. Pogba is not the answer, he might play well individually  but it generally unbalances the team when he is there. Isco from RM or Couthino would be a decent addition.

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General discussion / Re: The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread

« on: January 15, 2020, 06:28:36 PM »

African Cup of Nations moved back to January and February next year. Big blow for Liverpool - Salah, Mane and Keita could be missing for up to 6 weeks.

Keita will probably be injured anyway!

Chance for the likes of Minamino though

It might actually trigger a sale of Mo/Sadio with the likes of Werner coming in in the summer

Minamino coming in could trigger a sale of Salah or Mane? Werner would have no impact on it as he's a striker.

No I meant they might cash in on one of Mo/Sadio to RM/Barca/FSG and use the money to buy Werner so they are not without two key front men for such an extended period. Klopp is a big fan of Werner and he is more versatile than just a striker even though its his most effective position. He can play across the front line

If you are actually saying Klopp would consider getting rid one of those altogether just for the reason they will be out for a maximum of six weeks then you don't know much about football. There's a chance of signing Werner in the summer anyway regardless to give Firmino a bit of competition.

It’s not all to do with Klopp. You’re right that this wouldn’t make the club want to sell so “trigger” the sale was the wrong phrase. What I meant is that it would be a factor in any decisions. For example If RM came in for Mane at £150m and the player wanted to go, the club would be more likely to sell knowing they were not going to have him for six weeks that season anyway. If that money can be recycled into a younger player who will be in his prime for 5 years and not affected by AFCON then the club will consider it. No club stands still, Liverpool Will be planning for the post mo/sad/bobby period already and potentially losing key players mid season will impact on these decisions.

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General discussion / Re: The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread

« on: January 15, 2020, 05:37:07 PM »

African Cup of Nations moved back to January and February next year. Big blow for Liverpool - Salah, Mane and Keita could be missing for up to 6 weeks.

Keita will probably be injured anyway!

Chance for the likes of Minamino though

It might actually trigger a sale of Mo/Sadio with the likes of Werner coming in in the summer

Minamino coming in could trigger a sale of Salah or Mane? Werner would have no impact on it as he's a striker.

No I meant they might cash in on one of Mo/Sadio to RM/Barca/FSG and use the money to buy Werner so they are not without two key front men for such an extended period. Klopp is a big fan of Werner and he is more versatile than just a striker even though its his most effective position. He can play across the front line