Todays Games

[Pablo]

15 minutes ago, L/H White said:

only really watch the liverpool games tbh, but yeah it's been shite for a few years tbh

lack of superstars now, which is across all of football really 

we'll never see 90's / early 00's types again 

 

I just think its robotic and all boring.

Too many trying posession footy, which if done like Prime City or Barca is class....but nobody can now.

Euro leagues are way better to watch, seem to be more free and exciting.

 

[bolty58]

29 minutes ago, Pablo said:

Has anyone enjoyed any prem games this season ? Utter terrible this league.

Has been for years for me.....City being unnreal made the league look better...truth is, it was only them.

No. Serie A, Bundesliga, Eredivisie and La Liga all much better watches. Even the Portuguese Liga.

Many have been brainwashed to believe that the PL is the best and will remain devoted.

[L/H White]

8 minutes ago, Pablo said:

I just think its robotic and all boring.

Too many trying posession footy, which if done like Prime City or Barca is class....but nobody can now.

Euro leagues are way better to watch, seem to be more free and exciting.

 

aye, forest breath of fresh air this season

1 minute ago, bolty58 said:

No. Serie A, Bundesliga, Eredivisie and La Liga all much better watches. Even the Portuguese Liga.

Many have been brainwashed to believe that the PL is the best and will remain devoted.

agree, most got drawn into believing it's the best because it's got the most money

[Dr. Feelgood]

16 minutes ago, Pablo said:

I just think its robotic and all boring.

Too many trying posession footy, which if done like Prime City or Barca is class....but nobody can now.

Troy Deeney said as much yesterday. Both it being stultifyingly dull and also that it needs extremely capable players but clubs are trying it with less high quality ones.

[frank_spencer]

The 24/7 never ending analysis of football these days leaves little room for mercurial talents like in the past. Cantona, yeboah etc would be criticized for not doing xyz rather than their moments of magic.

Edited April 7, 2025 by frank_spencer

[gonzo]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

It’s boring. Most teams are structured to within an inch of their lives, same things happen every game, same patterns of play, same goals scored, same errors.

Very little desire to give freedom to players which means less ‘wow’ moments and that’s before you factor in VAR which destroys that instantaneous delirium.

Chatting to a Leeds fan the other day and his current view was “I don’t want to stay down, because it’s getting boring but I don’t want to go up cause we’ll just get battered every week and it’s shit and stale”

Must admit, I’m more excited by the idea of finally getting to the championship and the idea of having plenty of big / exciting games in there for many a year before that starts to get boring and we have to worry about the idea of reaching the prem!

Think back to Vierra and Keane tearing lumps off eachother, the magic of Henry, Ginola, Zola etc, powerhouses like Shearer, Drogba and midfielders like Lamps and Gerrard driving in to the box.

This current Premier League is lightyears away from all that.

No limbs, no jepordy, no characters. Managers lasting 2 mins, same promoted 3 going back down.

I used to love The Prem, envy of the world, but it's flat as fuck at the min with not many superstars.

Can't even think of many past Salah, KDB, Haaland and Rodri.

[deeane Koontz]

It's something I've been old man yelling at a cloud about for years 

The game is rotten with system and stat noncery

 

[Cheese]

19 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Think back to Vierra and Keane tearing lumps off eachother, the magic of Henry, Ginola, Zola etc, powerhouses like Shearer, Drogba and midfielders like Lamps and Gerrard driving in to the box.

This current Premier League is lightyears away from all that.

No limbs, no jepordy, no characters. Managers lasting 2 mins, same promoted 3 going back down.

I used to love The Prem, envy of the world, but it's flat as fuck at the min with not many superstars.

Can't even think of many past Salah, KDB, Haaland and Rodri.

And then throw VAR into the mix to further remove any remaining soul.

[L/H White]

1 minute ago, Cheese said:

And then throw VAR into the mix to further remove any remaining soul.

yep, worst thing that's ever happened to the game 

it's caused more controversy 

years gone by, the odd bad decision would always level themselves out over a season 

bin

Edited April 7, 2025 by L/H White

[Eddie]

55 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Think back to Vierra and Keane tearing lumps off eachother, the magic of Henry, Ginola, Zola etc, powerhouses like Shearer, Drogba and midfielders like Lamps and Gerrard driving in to the box.

This current Premier League is lightyears away from all that.

No limbs, no jepordy, no characters. Managers lasting 2 mins, same promoted 3 going back down.

I used to love The Prem, envy of the world, but it's flat as fuck at the min with not many superstars.

Can't even think of many past Salah, KDB, Haaland and Rodri.

The fact that Rodri made that list says it all. He’s unreal, don’t get me wrong, but he’s far from “box office” to be a player at the front of your mind when you’re trying to reel off a list of superstars. Imagine naming him as the 4th player that comes to mind in the 00s! You’d name 4 from one team before you named Rodri

Edited April 7, 2025 by Eddie

[Nottm_Wanderer]

Dapo Afolayan scored a cracking goal at the weekend for St. Pauli . A late equaliser to earn his club 1-1 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach 

 

 

 

 

[Duck Egg]

Probably the most interesting thing to happen in the Manc Derby was the chants aimed at Phil Foden's mum.  She's quite an individual from what I've seen- anyone know what was said/sang?

[Zico]

I'd be happy enough being back in the PL if it also meant we ended up in one of the European leagues each season 

Would love a few years doing the Europa Conference League 

[Pablo]

3 hours ago, Eddie said:

The fact that Rodri made that list says it all. He’s unreal, don’t get me wrong, but he’s far from “box office” to be a player at the front of your mind when you’re trying to reel off a list of superstars. Imagine naming him as the 4th player that comes to mind in the 00s! You’d name 4 from one team before you named Rodri

Spot on....as good as he is, and he really is unreal.

No defensive midfielder should near the Ballon d'or ever.

[Zico]

3 hours ago, Eddie said:

The fact that Rodri made that list says it all. He’s unreal, don’t get me wrong, but he’s far from “box office” to be a player at the front of your mind when you’re trying to reel off a list of superstars. Imagine naming him as the 4th player that comes to mind in the 00s! You’d name 4 from one team before you named Rodri

Disagree there

Impactful players aren't just about goals 

Otherwise just give it to whoever scores the most goals

[frank_spencer]

Pirlo is one of the best players of all time and he barely left the centre circle for most of his career. But alongside him were players capable of magic

[Eddie]

34 minutes ago, Zico said:

Disagree there

Impactful players aren't just about goals 

Otherwise just give it to whoever scores the most goals

Completely agree, I’m not for one minute underplaying how good Rodri is - he’s world class.

My point was more that in a conversation about how exciting football used to be, and the superstars that have disappeared from the game, I’m not sure you’d have had a defensive midfielder in the first 4 names you come up with in the mid 2000s when you’re talking about superstars. But now, Rodri comes to mind because you quickly get through those that get you off your seat, score amazing goals, create excitement, score insane amounts etc etc and so you end up at the world class defensive midfielder that just keeps the game moving.

*caveat to this is that there was a role named after a defensive midfielder at that time (Makalele role), but even so I don’t think he’d have come to mind ahead of ~20/25 other players at that time in terms of reason that football is exciting.

Edit - someone’s going to read that and pick me up on the fact that Rodri does a lot more than just “keep the game moving”, I know, I’m just trying to emphasise the point. He’s not highly ‘entertaining’ to the neutral.

Edited April 7, 2025 by Eddie

[deeane Koontz]

Isak is one of the very few strikers I enjoy watching these days. Got a bit of everything, silky too.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

58 minutes ago, Duck Egg said:

Probably the most interesting thing to happen in the Manc Derby was the chants aimed at Phil Foden's mum.  She's quite an individual from what I've seen- anyone know what was said/sang?

They were calling his mum a slag.

Read an article about her, as I was curious as to why her, and it appears that she's simply always been a good, protective mum to him.

Some incident a while back where Phil was getting grief at an Amir Khan fight, and she stood up to his abusers, but that is just confirmation of her standing up for her son.

Fans, like the world, can be pretty fucked up.

[Zico]

12 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Completely agree, I’m not for one minute underplaying how good Rodri is - he’s world class.

My point was more that in a conversation about how exciting football used to be, and the superstars that have disappeared from the game, I’m not sure you’d have had a defensive midfielder in the first 4 names you come up with in the mid 2000s when you’re talking about superstars. But now, Rodri comes to mind because you quickly get through those that get you off your seat, score amazing goals, create excitement, score insane amounts etc etc and so you end up at the world class defensive midfielder that just keeps the game moving.

*caveat to this is that there was a role named after a defensive midfielder at that time (Makalele role), but even so I don’t think he’d have come to mind ahead of ~20/25 other players at that time in terms of reason that football is exciting.

Edit - someone’s going to read that and pick me up on the fact that Rodri does a lot more than just “keep the game moving”, I know, I’m just trying to emphasise the point. He’s not highly ‘entertaining’ to the neutral.

That's always a non attack minded player knocking about the top of the list they just rarely get picked for the top prize

Kahn, Xavi, iniesta, Buffon etc

I was delighted when Cannavaro won it

[gonzo]

7 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

Isak is one of the very few strikers I enjoy watching these days. Got a bit of everything, silky too.

Debating it now on TalkSport. 

Players coached to death, not allowed to leave their positions etc.

Think Forest and Newcastle break that mould mind.

 

[deeane Koontz]

2 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Debating it now on TalkSport. 

Players coached to death, not allowed to leave their positions etc.

Think Forest and Newcastle break that mould mind.

 

I'm listening. We just got a little mention saying we had a team full of them. Players who did a bit of magic

[deeane Koontz]

Matt Le tissier was scoring outrageous goals on a weekly basis back in the day. Probably wouldn't get near a starting line these days because he doesn't press enough 🤦‍♂️

Edited April 7, 2025 by deeane Koontz

[gonzo]

5 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

Matt Le tissier was scoring outrageous goals on a weekly basis back in the day. Probably wouldn't get near a starting line these days because he doesn't press enough 🤦‍♂️

Just look what's happened to my Jack

[deeane Koontz]

2 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Just look what's happened to my Jack

Went from one of the most exciting  players in the league at Villa to looking like a broken 2 touch merchant. Hopefully Musiala stays away from Pep.