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***Official Soccer Discussion Thread*** (7 Viewers)

Native said:
Beautiful cross by Mahrez.

Leicester City is one of the stories of the year in Europe. Home fans are going bananas. Hard not to root for them to go the distance...
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wow- what a cross. vardy made the finish look easy- and it helps that mahrez put it on a platter for him... but still had work to do with it.

 
Who goes for Ancelotti first? United or Chelsea with back to back return of former managers?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
just looked at the scoring leaders.

Mata is MU's top scorer with 4- they don't have anybody else with even 3.

Love seeing Leiceter, Everton and Watford dominating the top spots.

 
El Floppo said:
and so... at what point do we start thinking that LC can actually stay up at the top?
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As I see it, they have two players playing at an unbelievable world-class level. They only play once a week, so they don't have the "jumbled schedule" other teams do.

I'd imagine they aren't going to allow Mahrez or Vardy to go in January, though I imagine they are going to get some huge offers.

I think health plays a huge part in things. If both of those guys stay healthy, I think they will win top four in a putrid league right now.

 
As someone said earlier in the thread, the big test will be the late Dec. early Jan part of the schedule when they play like 3 games in 8 days.

FA Cup too, right?

 
JMon348 said:
As someone said earlier in the thread, the big test will be the late Dec. early Jan part of the schedule when they play like 3 games in 8 days.

FA Cup too, right?
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I don't think playing 3 games in 8 days is that big of a deal. Most of the top 6-7 teams do this 8-12 times a year. They are only doing it once.

 
The Premier League leader at Christmas has only finished below 4th place once (Aston Villa finished 6th). Leicester City in the CL?

 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Native said:
This Mahrez kid is the Truth. Just unreal.
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He might be the most technical player in the Premiere League. And he plays for Leicester. This is the greatest EPL story line since at least Aguero winning the title in injury time.
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it's absolutely nutty... especially taking into account their miraculous survival from the drop just last season.

and I think you mean the balotelli assist title in injury-time.

 
El Floppo said:
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Native said:
This Mahrez kid is the Truth. Just unreal.
Click to expand...
He might be the most technical player in the Premiere League. And he plays for Leicester. This is the greatest EPL story line since at least Aguero winning the title in injury time.
Click to expand...
it's absolutely nutty... especially taking into account their miraculous survival from the drop just last season.

and I think you mean the balotelli assist title in injury-time.
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If this holds it will be the most unlikely result since mighty Kaiserslautern were promoted to the Bundesliga in '97 and won the league the very next season.

Dont believe there are many other examples out there of a team climbing from 14th to 1st in a single season.
 
Good Posting Judge said:
Mou reaching Trump-ian levels of public self delusion now.
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I think his interview has largely been misinterpreted. In the context of the interview he sounded humbled and perplexed. Some of the quotes read a lot worse outside of context (and without remembering that although Mourinho speaks excellent English, he is not a native speaker).

One example is where he's quoted as saying that he coached the players to the championship last season and that they performed beyond their capabilities last year. But it was clear to me that he was phrasing that as a question. He was asked if the players were not performing up to their capabilities this year. And his response was essentially, "well if not, does that mean that I coached them so well last year that they actually all played better than they were capable?" I don't think Mourinho was subscribing to that hypothesis (as he's not doing anything different). He said several times that he's been happy with the way the team has trained. He thinks they're putting in the work. Which is why I think his quote about the players "betraying his work" was meant to mean that he felt the players in-game performances were betraying the work they all did in training.

He was dead right about the Leicester goals. You have to think that Zouma has been drilled countless times about not letting a forward get across his face like that. And Dave failing to show Mahrez onto his weak foot was pretty much the most un-Dave defending I can think of. Azpilicueta used to never make those types of simple mistakes.

 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Good Posting Judge said:
Mou reaching Trump-ian levels of public self delusion now.
Click to expand...
I think his interview has largely been misinterpreted. In the context of the interview he sounded humbled and perplexed. Some of the quotes read a lot worse outside of context (and without remembering that although Mourinho speaks excellent English, he is not a native speaker).

One example is where he's quoted as saying that he coached the players to the championship last season and that they performed beyond their capabilities last year. But it was clear to me that he was phrasing that as a question. He was asked if the players were not performing up to their capabilities this year. And his response was essentially, "well if not, does that mean that I coached them so well last year that they actually all played better than they were capable?" I don't think Mourinho was subscribing to that hypothesis (as he's not doing anything different). He said several times that he's been happy with the way the team has trained. He thinks they're putting in the work. Which is why I think his quote about the players "betraying his work" was meant to mean that he felt the players in-game performances were betraying the work they all did in training.

He was dead right about the Leicester goals. You have to think that Zouma has been drilled countless times about not letting a forward get across his face like that. And Dave failing to show Mahrez onto his weak foot was pretty much the most un-Dave defending I can think of. Azpilicueta used to never make those types of simple mistakes.
Click to expand...
Everyone on the team just seems a quarter to half a step slow especially in critical situations. Costa is consistently slightly out of position in the box or makes a slightly off run (NBC had a good highlight package showing this a few weeks ago), Terry just looks done in high leverage defensive situations which I'm guessing causes the other defenders to slightly overcompensate pushing them slightly out of position, Matic doesn't provide the same cover, etc, etc.

I don't think they're that far off, but a bunch of "slightly being off" adds up.

 
Sammy3469 said:
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Good Posting Judge said:
Mou reaching Trump-ian levels of public self delusion now.
Click to expand...
I think his interview has largely been misinterpreted. In the context of the interview he sounded humbled and perplexed. Some of the quotes read a lot worse outside of context (and without remembering that although Mourinho speaks excellent English, he is not a native speaker).

One example is where he's quoted as saying that he coached the players to the championship last season and that they performed beyond their capabilities last year. But it was clear to me that he was phrasing that as a question. He was asked if the players were not performing up to their capabilities this year. And his response was essentially, "well if not, does that mean that I coached them so well last year that they actually all played better than they were capable?" I don't think Mourinho was subscribing to that hypothesis (as he's not doing anything different). He said several times that he's been happy with the way the team has trained. He thinks they're putting in the work. Which is why I think his quote about the players "betraying his work" was meant to mean that he felt the players in-game performances were betraying the work they all did in training.

He was dead right about the Leicester goals. You have to think that Zouma has been drilled countless times about not letting a forward get across his face like that. And Dave failing to show Mahrez onto his weak foot was pretty much the most un-Dave defending I can think of. Azpilicueta used to never make those types of simple mistakes.
Click to expand...
Everyone on the team just seems a quarter to half a step slow especially in critical situations. Costa is consistently slightly out of position in the box or makes a slightly off run (NBC had a good highlight package showing this a few weeks ago), Terry just looks done in high leverage defensive situations which I'm guessing causes the other defenders to slightly overcompensate pushing them slightly out of position, Matic doesn't provide the same cover, etc, etc.

I don't think they're that far off, but a bunch of "slightly being off" adds up.
Click to expand...
I think several players are a bit off like you say. I think Hazard is miles off his form from last year. Maybe he's sick of getting kicked. I don't know. But Mourinho declared him better than Ronaldo at the beginning of the season and he doesn't look remotely close to World Best XI consideration. Courtois has also been pretty far off his best even when not injured.

 
Been thinking more about the Leicester City decision that is forthcoming.

If you think about it, it's very risky for Leicester City to NOT sell Mahrez if they get a huge offer. Imagine they get a 40-60M offer. Doesn't seem that unrealistic to me. He's basically been the best premier league player, you can see his skills, and he's 24. Real Madrid and Barcelona are likely salivating and Barcelona is coming off of a year in which they couldn't sign anyone.

How does Leicester City NOT sell a guy if his price is that high? It's all about selling at peak value and his value is skyhigh.

Best-case scenario: Leicester City keeps both, gets champions league and the 30M, and then sells Mahrez or Vardy or both in summer. Seems the logical idea.

Worst-case scenario: Mahrez tears ACL or plays really poorly, Leicester slips out of top into mid-table, and Barcelona/Real Madrid move on.

Can any organization afford to pass up a payday like they could possibly get for Mahrez? If the entire team is worth 50M and Mahrez commands that much, can they afford to pass on selling him? Tough decision I'd say. Their resolve will be tested in a few weeks.

 
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