Lads, it's the Premier League thread - EPL 2019/20

By FAR the biggest issue for Utd in an attacking sense is Ole's insistence on playing a formation that requires a #10 without a player that's fit for purpose

Lingard has now not scored or assisted in the league since last Christmas, Mata's legs have gone, and it's not looking like Pereira will ever be good enough

Pogba looked approximately 1 million times better than any other player when he came on, so hopefully he can be that player but fuck knows at this point

probably prefers to be too deep for an orthodox number 10? plus as an outsider i would love him to step up and play to his ability but you have to wonder how long before he goes on another sulk

the g is optional, no bother

i thought of lfc, but dismissed those lads (either flank) as an aberration simply because

i. the lfc system works all over the pitch to harry and stifle to effectively pin the opposition back, and vvd in particular has the capability to deal with long counters. clubs aping the attacking full back commitment without first backfilling that weakness have cart before horse- liverpool are singular.

ii. both robertson and tta are likewise excellent attacking options and would certainly make for very decent (or better) wide midfielders in an earlier era of the game (frankly not sure any epl club plays this position any more, even?)

tbh, and if im lol old im lol old, ive less and less patience with managers who have players with certain skillsets that seem unable to put into place a plan of action that suits those skillsets.

readily admit that actual achievement in the game is now more than ever the slavish execution of an intricate plan, but its not much fuckin fun to watch compared to....idk, steve guppy or whoever

TTA in particular, i mean point to him and say "look attacking fullbacks are worth giving up the other aspects for!" all you like, but hes a generational talent.

mostly, and again spurs sufferer here, its used as a gaslight to convince you that players that lack his delivery (walker, aurier) or his athleticism (trippier) can nevertheless do the job he does by dint of.....standing in the same place as he does

three centre halfs and two pretty deep-lying centre mids at Wolves allows Doherty and to a lesser extent Jonny/Vinagre to give us attacking width but the team structure is very specifically designed to reduce the defensive onus on our wing backs and both of them have great mobility/reasonable defensive chops anyway

yeah, the central response to a fullback being sprung is key ito defensive structure

ito attack, them being worth a damn is key

i think it was last season that number none said of the lfc midfield that there was nothing there which at the time i thought was harsh but not completely wrong . but obviously the thing is that given lfc's frwd 3 and full backs the job of the mf 3 has to be as it is. i'm not even sure if this is klopp's template or 'philosophy' or whatever or just a practical neccesity given our personnel ahead and behind.

theres something to that, i think

theres a three man unit in the centre that has quite a strange job, really. quite reactive, disciplined, still good footballers but their job is more about wheeling in around the gaps in their own line than anything else sometimes.

Is that what Ole is trying to ape with the Fred McTominay axis of evil? Albeit they're not as good or disciplined as Fabinho/Henderson/Winjaldum and Ole doesn't have the tactical nous to make it work. Can't see Pogba on the right of a midfield 3; if anything they could be a 4-2-1-3 but it still feels like they need a goal-scoring centre forward. And they need a replacement for fatty Shaw. What happened to Dalot?

these are all valid questions

Dalot has had a longish injury, but he's mainly played as a right-sided forward under Ole anyway

4-2-1-3 is our current formation and has been for most of Solskjaer's time as manager (apart from his initial winning run, funnily enough...)

I’m the midst of moving, but Pards to ADO is a go.

the lfc system works all over the pitch to harry and stifle to effectively pin the opposition back, and vvd in particular has the capability to deal with long counters. clubs aping the attacking full back commitment without first backfilling that weakness have cart before horse- liverpool are singular.

To be fair Liverpool had this particular cart absolutely bombing ahead of the horse before they signed Van Dijk.

All those five or six goal clown car derbies against Watford or Leicester or Bournemouth.

Also it may be time for us all to bite the bullet and admit that Jordan Henderson is a very good player and that's largely down to his almost superhuman levels of energy and his willingness to do exactly what's asked of him even when played out of position without being a dick about it.

it will have been wondered where lbi is moving to

Matt DC is otm. Hendo's always been dependable though. He does what's required of him and does it well.

Last season, Klopp had him playing in a more holding position and it was bloody infuriating watching him pass it back every time though.

Pards will be advised by the today appointed Martin Jol. Dream team.

Lol lj

lol was literally reading this second a report on Pards (with Powell as his no2!) rocking up at Den Haag!

Another joke of a VAR call, albeit technically correct.

Winks / Sissoko doesn’t work at all. The Winks ball through for the Kane ‘goal’ was great but Brighton have way too much space.

At this point you knew it was going to be called offside though

Yes, absolutely.

Glad I started on the wine early.

Mouout Chandon?

jesus id at least depended on jose to psychologically terrorise some of these utter cunts

Disappointed that once the Villa finally got to a run of seemingly winnable games they've all turned into pant-shitting relegation six-pointer banana skins

We'll be down by new year

when all you need is a finish then kane is still available to this team

otherwise, eesh

Winks should be off.

yep

absolutely ridiculous to concede that chance from a flat pass into connollys feet fifty yards from goal

so, so easy

the amount of our clearances that fall to opponents feet just outside our box is alarming, and has been for some time now.

alli has been a complete nothing all day, regardless of whether he pops up or not

lol

That’s lovely.

have zero faith in the four men standing within touching distance of each other in our midfield preventing brighton from playing it rather easily to their wide men

i reckon my work eleven a side team could work shots against us 7/10 possessions

Phenomenal goal from Ayew.

Longstaff trying to get mctominay sent off there before that third goal, prick

Liverpool killing it in that 1st half

Even better in the 2nd

Trent having a game for the ages here

Somebody's gotta take these lads down a peg.

Wolves with the most brutal "2 matches in two days" sched with Man City and Liverpool

I know right? Still, gotta play em some time

Yea. Get two draws and ill be happy. Or a win and a loss, even better

We could lose them both and nobody would be too stressed. Wouldn't want to call them tbh, see how we turn up. City will be "easier" for us to play our own game against but let's see.

such a dull day at work today. so glad this is on soon. as bad of a day as I had yesterday, I need an 'us vs them' competition to properly distract my brain.

WOW. STRAIGHT RED.

Jota a beautiful run, shame for the thuggish MC play

keeper was late, didn't get much on him tbf

still, mwah hahahahahaaaaaaa

only way that woulda been a bigger gift is if somehow JOta had managed to force that one into the net, though that woulda been pretty difficult

this helps offset the no Boly problem a bit

no way that's a PK