Essential The Official Football (Soccer) Thread - We are SO back, the Premier League returns!

[Kunty McPhuck]

The youth set up is better in Germany and Spain right now, EPL clubs have more money and prefer to buy players who have already been developed elsewhere. I think after the 09 season when the Ronaldo/Rooney/Tevez frontline was broken up and Liverpool dismantled their Mascherano/Alonso axis the EPL consistency in Europe started to fall of when City/Spurs did not have a lasting impact. As it stands there is a higher chance of the next great players being based on the ability of clubs to spot talented players outside England but they now face more competition than they did in that 07-09 period. The last time i saw a good spread in talent was the 90s-early 00s Serie A, they found a way to get talented players the world over. I think the breakdown was like

Fiorentina-Rui Costa/Batistuta( they eventually left)
Roma-Totti/Cafu/Montella
Inter-Ronaldo/Vieri/Baggio/Simeone
Juventus-Del Piero/Zidane/Deschamps/Inzaghi/Davids
Lazio-Veron/Mancini/Nedved/Salas/Nesta/Crespo/Mihajlovic(they raided Parma though).
Milan-Weah/Bierhoff (they werent as dominant in that period after the last generation)


I understand that for defenders it might take longer for them to mature into those positions and even central midfielders. I think people think of defenders differently, almost every fullback is supposed to be like Cafu/Roberto Carlos bombing up and down the wing and if their positioning is suspect so be it.

For the English league i think the competition they are facing in acquisitions has increased and in the absence of youth programs that can produce players we will continue seeing them plateau.

The FA fukked themselves over when they shut down Lilleshall back in 99. Then all of a sudden it hits them that they need a national academy 8-10 years later because there arent any really good youth prospects are coming thru and that alot of the top PL teams academies are half filled with foreign kids. So not only is the pool at senior level smaller its the same at youth level aswell. Also you have to consider that they have the 90mins rule (where the kids got to live within 90mins of the training ground of said club) for the the team aswell for youth players its fukked things up. I blame Kieran Richardson for that because he left West Ham for United as a teen and West Ham complained then the rules got changed.

In regards to FB's in the modern game alot of them are now either converted wide midfielders or wingers and some of them dont get moved back deeper to FB till they hit they are 21-23. Ashley Cole worked because he got to work with great experienced defenders who could help him.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

I took The Don's post to be more about sports and statistics. Fantasy sports, advanced stats, etc.

managers been using it now a lot in football, even though they really dont mean anything since.

Looking at stats before the game doesnt help you score goals from open play. It may work more for set pieces if you know a particular team is weak from them or that if you see a pattern where a team dies in the last 15-20mins of games where physical and mental fitness comes into play. But generally its a load of tosh, because stats arent goin to show you when a player is goin to do an error in a game

 

[mastermind]

-Really, fukk Xabi Alonso.

chuuuuuuch

Looking at stats before the game doesnt help you score goals from open play. It may work more for set pieces if you know a particular team is weak from them or that if you see a pattern where a team dies in the last 15-20mins of games where physical and mental fitness comes into play. But generally its a load of tosh, because stats arent goin to show you when a player is goin to do an error in a game

I agree. Its a waste right now. No one can really tell the impact of these stats.

The only thing that sorta works is the heat maps.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

chuuuuuuch

I don't even know why. He's a former Scouse and plays for my least favorite national team, but him being a first team player still just fukking angers me.


Like WHY THE fukk DOES DEL BOSQUE PLAY HE AND BUSQUETS

Someone, right now, explain to me why Xabi Alonso matters in 2013.


I NEED ANSWERS

And that 90 minute rule is a summabytch. I think it was Becks talking about how if it existed back in his day how the ManU godsquadron wouldn't exist. He'd have been at Tottenham or some shyt

EDIT: Oh shyt, Becks is the only one of those early 90's youths not from Manchester They would've been straight.

 

[mastermind]

I don't even know why. He's a former Scouse and plays for my least favorite national team, but him being a first team player still just fukking angers me.


Like WHY THE fukk DOES DEL BOSQUE PLAY HE AND BUSQUETS

Someone, right now, explain to me why Xabi Alonso matters in 2013.


I NEED ANSWERS

And that 90 minute rule is a summabytch. I think it was Becks talking about how if it existed back in his day how the ManU godsquadron wouldn't exist. He'd have been at Tottenham or some shyt

EDIT: Oh shyt, Becks is the only one of those early 90's youths not from Manchester They would've been straight.

breh, every time I see him play for Spain im like

And I am making that face more and more for Madrid too. He has the best gig in the world for Spain. Receive a square ball from the Busquets after he wins it back, to then make a square pass to Xavi who is looking to create. Must be fukking nice.

 

[TTT]

The FA fukked themselves over when they shut down Lilleshall back in 99. Then all of a sudden it hits them that they need a national academy 8-10 years later because there arent any really good youth prospects are coming thru and that alot of the top PL teams academies are half filled with foreign kids. So not only is the pool at senior level smaller its the same at youth level aswell. Also you have to consider that they have the 90mins rule (where the kids got to live within 90mins of the training ground of said club) for the the team aswell for youth players its fukked things up. I blame Kieran Richardson for that because he left West Ham for United and West Ham complained when he was still in his teens.

In regards to FB's in the modern game alot of them are now either converted wide midfielders or wingers and some of them dont get moved back deeper to FB till they hit they are 21-23. Ashley Cole worked because he got to work with great experienced defenders who could help him.

I think everyone knows that the 90 minute rule puts England at a disadvantage, there are always articles about this every 2 years after tournament failures by the NT usually spearheaded by Trevor Brooking. I have seen a bunch of articles lauding the German system and how it is tied in to the Bundesliga etc but not much seems to have been put in place. West Ham had a good pipeline in the early 2000s what happened to them ? United also built on the Beckham/Nevilles/Butt in the late 90s to good effect.

 

[mastermind]

The 90 minute rule is gone in England, iirc.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

I don't even know why. He's a former Scouse and plays for my least favorite national team, but him being a first team player still just fukking angers me.


Like WHY THE fukk DOES DEL BOSQUE PLAY HE AND BUSQUETS

Someone, right now, explain to me why Xabi Alonso matters in 2013.


I NEED ANSWERS

The only reason why I can see Del Bosque playin Xabi is because he brings some bite in the tackle to that team otherwises its just a bunch of interceptors and in international football you need that but really there is literally no need for him in the team. Its made Barca i mean Spain even more boring, theyve taken enjoyment out of their games, unless its a friendly where they play the role players more

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

The 90 minute rule is gone in England, iirc.

Oh it has, thank fukk for that.

Just checked it, yeah the new rules came in to play at the start of this season

 

[Roaden Polynice]

Reason why I think Mou persists with Xabi is because they have genuine pace on the wings.

The odds of launching a successful counter attack to either Di Maria or Ron with a long diagonal ball is decent more or less.

In the Spanish team

 

[frush11]

Brehs, what great players currently ply their trade in the EPL?

What great players are playing anywhere. minus the obvious 2/3/4?

 

[TTT]

Opta and companies like that provides much more fine grained stats and probably more propriety information for teams. The stuff they release to the public has made the casual fan think they are able to understand the game as well as managers, sometimes fans think its a matter of formations and sitting back.

As for Xabi , i think Del Bosque is ultra cautious and it makes Spain less fluid going forward because Xavi tends to be pushed higher up the pitch than he normally does. He played that double pivot in his Galctico days when he had Makelele,Cambiasso, Concencao. He has basically used that 4-2-3-1 syste, for Real given how many attackers they had.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

I think everyone knows that the 90 minute rule puts England at a disadvantage, there are always articles about this every 2 years after tournament failures by the NT usually spearheaded by Trevor Brooking. I have seen a bunch of articles lauding the German system and how it is tied in to the Bundesliga etc but not much seems to have been put in place. West Ham had a good pipeline in the early 2000s what happened to them ? United also built on the Beckham/Nevilles/Butt in the late 90s to good effect.

I kind of have a theory that clubs/countries wont get a real good crop of youngsters (about 5-6) say every 10-15 years. Its jsut natural for clubs youth development to have highs and lows, but aslong as they have a stead stream of players (2-3) coming thru with each cycle things should be ok. Also what happened to Livepool, back in the 90's they had Mcmanaman (no bad tackle) Fowler, Owen, Gerrard, Carragher add in Redknapp also who they bought when he was 16 from Bournemouth. Now they have to buy the players like a Sterling, The German kid etc etc outside of Wisdom and Kelly there isnt really much else that has come up thru the club. The FB's they had playin a few years ago are no where to be seen. Thomas Ince was allowed to leave now they want to buy him back for £8+m and I dont think hes played a single min of PL football (dont know if hes played sub mins but you get the point)

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

What great players are playing anywhere. minus the obvious 2/3/4?

Thats why I say there is only a handful of genuine World Class players in the game today. Everyone is either a talented misfits or potentially great of the ones people deemed to be WC

 

[mastermind]

Reason why I think Mou persists with Xabi is because they have genuine pace on the wings.

The odds of launching a successful counter attack to either Di Maria or Ron with a long diagonal ball is decent more or less.

In the Spanish team

yeah, I agree with it for Madrid but even then he is looking kind of flabby at times now.