The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

City started with Brighton, Everton, Bournemouth, Watford, and Palace apart from the 2 tough fixtures you mentioned Brahv. I mean those 5 are a who’s who of catastrophes.

Or you could say Citeh has had one of the best ever starts and their only 5 pts clear.


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Brighton is hardly a catastrophe in 12th place and Watford were in 4th when they outplayed us in our own stadium.

[Krebstar]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

I don't get the United criticism, either. They've outscored opponents 15-0 at home.

It's all about winning in this league. It doesn't matter if they're ugly 1-0 wins. No one is going to forgive him if they start losing 4-3 matches because the football was "exciting".

The point that was originally made (not here, elsewhere) which caught my eye is that for a team such as United, it's all about winning the league, not winning in this league. If they grind out ugly 1-0 wins and 0-0 draws against top teams, play negatively, passively, etc. and can only muster 2nd behind City it'll be seen as a failure and the wrong decision for Mourinho to have his team play that way.

That's the reason I originally brought it up, and it technically wasn't even criticism of United, but an observation that the only way Mourinho's tactics and decisions will be justified is if they win the league—that's it. Nobody will look back at the way United set up and say well done on finishing second, grinding out those results with all those players, and mounting a title challenge.

[stlducks]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

The point that was originally made (not here, elsewhere) which caught my eye is that for a team such as United, it's all about winning the league, not winning in this league. If they grind out ugly 1-0 wins and 0-0 draws against top teams, play negatively, passively, etc. and can only muster 2nd behind City it'll be seen as a failure and the wrong decision for Mourinho to have his team play that way.

That's the reason I originally brought it up, and it technically wasn't even criticism of United, but an observation that the only way Mourinho's tactics and decisions will be justified is if they win the league—that's it. Nobody will look back at the way United set up and say well done on finishing second, grinding out those results with all those players, and mounting a title challenge.

I think that can be said about any of the top teams that spend a crazy amount of money. If you don't win the league, it's seen as a failure by today's standards.

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[Leon]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Jose's last title with Chelsea was entertaining by Jose standards. He played pragmatically at times, but if my recollection of that season is correct, Chelsea were scoring lots of goals and were generally on the attack. That was also coupled with big spending to get him "his guys."

Pep last year was slaughtered for spending big and playing "suicidal" football -- because his defence wasn't coping. Only difference this year is that he spent big again and is outscoring everyone (so far). I'd love for United to play attacking 90% of the time -- we have the players for it -- but our manager has his ways and we gotta learn to live with it. Our start to the season was promising, but injuries happened and "ugly" football suddenly became a story even though we've gotten results. Under LvG, the story was "boring" football because of all the possession with nary a shot on goal and lacking results.

Or perhaps it's all just clickbait by the media. City are exciting under Pep, but let's include boring United and Jose to get people to notice our piece.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

The thing we have to remember in all this discussion is that English football media is THE WORST.

I can barely even stand the Liverpool guys anymore. Yesterday James Pierce said Liverpool made "hard work" of the 1st half. Hard work? Maribor couldn't even put 3 passes together and were pinned in their own half for the entire 45 minutes. Barely a sweat was broken.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Jose's last title with Chelsea was entertaining by Jose standards. He played pragmatically at times, but if my recollection of that season is correct, Chelsea were scoring lots of goals and were generally on the attack. That was also coupled with big spending to get him "his guys."

Pep last year was slaughtered for spending big and playing "suicidal" football -- because his defence wasn't coping. Only difference this year is that he spent big again and is outscoring everyone (so far). I'd love for United to play attacking 90% of the time -- we have the players for it -- but our manager has his ways and we gotta learn to live with it. Our start to the season was promising, but injuries happened and "ugly" football suddenly became a story even though we've gotten results. Under LvG, the story was "boring" football because of all the possession with nary a shot on goal and lacking results.

Or perhaps it's all just clickbait by the media. City are exciting under Pep, but let's include boring United and Jose to get people to notice our piece.

Part of the problem has always been that Jose is clearly capable of having his team play brilliantly, it's just that when one of his starting 11 gets injured he reverts to type. Our title winning season with him we were one of the scariest sides in Europe for the first half of the season, then injuries happened (particularly Matic, who never recovered his form after that) and the second half of the season was our robo-defense doing their work and Hazard pulling goals and assists out of his butt.

It's not pretty and can get frustrating at times as a fan when you know your team has the players to go toe-to-toe with the other big boys (THAT CL tie vs PSG was legitimately an absolute embarrassing travesty), but it's effective.

I will say, you can't really say the ONLY difference between this season and last for City is they are simply "outscoring everyone for now". Their defense is markedly better and they see out games they wouldn't have previously. Considering the narrative surrounding the two Manchester clubs (defensive solidity and effective results-getting vs high-flying and risky football), City has only conceded two more goals in league than United.

[Zac]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

The thing we have to remember in all this discussion is that English football media is THE WORST.

They've also gone way overboard about this Spurs beating RM thing too. Like way overboard. Everyone is acting like they've won the damn already.

[KG]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

No real marquee games on today but that Leicester-Stoke game was pretty entertaining. Lots of action and some top notch saves. Of course I left Shaqiri on my bench and he scores and assists smdh.


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[ImTellinTim]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Mohamed Salah was a pretty decent signing.

[dubcity]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Joe Hart is the David Moyes of goalkeepers.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

West Ham is such a dumpster fire.

[Zac]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Thing is though, who are they going to get to replace Bilic if they fire him right now?

[jesmith29]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

City v Gunners and Chelsea v ManU tomorrow.

Could be some fireworks.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Thing is though, who are they going to get to replace Bilic if they fire him right now?

Sam Allardyce!

[Brahvocado]

Re: The 2017-2018 EPL Discussion Thread

Thing is though, who are they going to get to replace Bilic if they fire him right now?