*Official* English Football Season 2014-15

[Cabinet96]

nvm.

 

[Cabinet96]

Vidal was awesome in the Bundesliga as a 23 year old and the Bundesliga is probably the most similar to England of all the major leagues. Don't see how he wouldn't fit other than the fact that he plays in a 3-5-2 at Juventus which no Premier League side uses.

Edit: Mail reporting that Juve were happy to sell for £32m but United declined. Madness if true IMO.

 

[Nate]

Would be stoked with Top Four again this season.

 

[GIMH]

I think there is pretty much no chance of Liverpool doing a Spurs. Rodgers is too good to let that happen. Suarez was obviously incredible but their monster run at the end of the season was about so much more than just him so there's no real logical reason to expect them not to be up there again. Unless you think Gerrard's last few games + WC were the start of a permanent decline as obviously he was pivotal in that charge for the title.

I wouldn't be surprised if last season's top four + United are all in the title race for a good chunk of the season though.

Think United will fall short of top four. They were so far behind the others last season and Arsenal, who they had the best chance of catching, are doing some cracking business.

 

[Uppercut]

How can you be confident when none of us really know what Liverpool's squad is going to look like? Reports suggesting all of the Suarez money will be spent on new players. Defense likely to completely change and we're also supposedly looking for a game-changing attacker, too.

Well yeah, there's uncertainty. If they sign both Messi and Ronaldo I'll be less confident. But realistically I think Suarez is irreplaceable and Liverpool will take at least a temporary step back while new signings bed in and they adjust to playing in Europe again.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, Liverpool's success last year was pretty much entirely down to how prolific they were in front of goal, and the fact that they managed to outscore their opponents whilst still conceding a lot. I'd predict their goal output will be substantially decreased now that Suarez has cleared off, so it's hard to see them coming close to repeating the success of last year.

 

[social]

Yeah it really sucks. Was really excited by our £30 million a year deal with Puma and now they have 2.5 times a year as much....[/QUOTE

Go to most places in the world and MU/RM(Ronaldo)/Barcelona(Messi) are by far the most popular jerseys

No idea how they work out the numbers but MU rights are significantly more valuable than Arsenal so sounds about right

 

[Eds]

Well yeah, there's uncertainty. If they sign both Messi and Ronaldo I'll be less confident. But realistically I think Suarez is irreplaceable and Liverpool will take at least a temporary step back while new signings bed in and they adjust to playing in Europe again.

Yeah, Liverpool's success last year was pretty much entirely down to how prolific they were in front of goal, and the fact that they managed to outscore their opponents whilst still conceding a lot. I'd predict their goal output will be substantially decreased now that Suarez has cleared off, so it's hard to see them coming close to repeating the success of last year.

But we won't try and 'replace' Suarez, as such; for obvious reasons. At times near the back end of last season we went with a 4-1-2-1-2, which isn't exactly ideal when you have such poor full-backs. Hopefully we 'replace' Suarez with a wide forward (looking like Markovic + 1, at the moment), and back Sturridge as the main man up top, returning to a proper 4-3-3. Sturridge is probably about as good as Torres was at Liverpool now, and he led us to 2nd place with no supporting cast. Consider Sterling and Markovic alongside him, I think we'll be fine for goals, if not as spectacular as last year.

The real issue is the defense. We'll probably score 15-20 goals less this season (which is still more than enough for top four), so we'll need to concede 15-20 less too, ideally. I think we'll end up with Moreno - Sakho - Lovren - Johnson which is good enough to do that. Obviously replacing Johnson with someone like Aurier would improve those chances even more.

 

[sledger]

Sturridge is probably about as good as Torres was at Liverpool now

Haha, what?

The real issue is the defense. We'll probably score 15-20 goals less this season (which is still more than enough for top four), so we'll need to concede 15-20 less too, ideally. I think we'll end up with Moreno - Sakho - Lovren - Johnson which is good enough to do that. Obviously replacing Johnson with someone like Aurier would improve those chances even more.

Yeah, but buying more defenders =/= the team defending better as a whole.

 

[King Pietersen]

BBC Sport - Blackpool: From the Premier League to having eight players

Blackpool looking like they're going to complete their fall from grace by getting relegated this season. 8 players in their squad, no goalkeepers, and less than 4 weeks until the start of the season. Good luck with that.

 

[Eds]

Haha, what?

Is that particularly controversial? He's on his way to being the quickest ever Liverpool player to 50 goals, with 35 in 49. Torres' best form was when he first came to us and it took him 84 games. Sturridge adds more to the team around him too, although admittedly that could've been because of Torres' lack of supporting cast.

Yeah, but buying more defenders =/= the team defending better as a whole.

Having better defenders usually helps...

 

[GIMH]

Torres best form was 08-09 with Gerrard behind him. I rate Sturridge, a lot, but he's not as good as Torres was.

As I say, I think Liverpool will push on again this season. I think everybody acknowledged as the season went on that they weren't a one man team. Last 6-8 games Suarez wasn't quite in the form he had been and they were still **** hot aside from the Chelsea game and second half V Palace.

Obviously he's a loss and it'd be daft to say they won't be a weaker side without him, but the difference between them and Arsenal, and everyone else below, last season clearly wasn't just Suarez.

 

[Tom Halsey]

People have too much faith in Liverpool and too little faith in United because of one season. Contrary to the sort of "the best team always wins the league" sort of views, it's a pretty small amount of games, certainly not a big sample size. There is a big difference between having challenged for the title for all of the last five seasons and having been nowhere for four seasons and challenged in one. The same is also true re: a team having come 7th. Not that we are discussing title winners here but to illustrate my views I think the title winners in all the different leagues and divisions are quite often not the best team, but because they won the title people will believe they are and find reasons to back up that belief. The variance in a 38 game season is pretty big.

I rate Liverpool reasonably highly, and was one of the ones who tipped them for top four when most were still tipping United, and thought that Spurs were better also. However, I don't think even last season they were as good as Chelsea and City, they were closer to Arsenal than they were to those two IMO. And since last season they have lost one of the world's best players and replaced him (mostly) by pillaging mid-table Premiership sides. I don't see any reasonable logic now to suggest they are better than either United or Arsenal, they are clear fifth favourites for the title so far as I can see. That being said, they will probably finish in the top four.

 

[Uppercut]

I think it's an enormous loss. Suarez was the best player in the league last season by miles and miles, the best player the league has had since Ronaldo left. The "one-man team" moniker was obviously bull****, as it always is, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think that a combination of his loss and coping with European commitments will leave them a few points worse off. Chelsea, Arsenal and United will all surely improve quite considerably, so it wouldn't have to be an enormous decline to leave them fighting for fourth.

 

[Cabinet96]

Torres best form was 08-09 with Gerrard behind him. I rate Sturridge, a lot, but he's not as good as Torres was.

As I say, I think Liverpool will push on again this season. I think everybody acknowledged as the season went on that they weren't a one man team. Last 6-8 games Suarez wasn't quite in the form he had been and they were still **** hot aside from the Chelsea game and second half V Palace.

Obviously he's a loss and it'd be daft to say they won't be a weaker side without him, but the difference between them and Arsenal, and everyone else below, last season clearly wasn't just Suarez.

The difference between Arsenal and Liverpool was five points last year ftr. People forget based on how the league ended but we were 9 points above Liverpool (IIRC) before the 5-1 in early February. I really don't think it's that crazy to think that Liverpool losing Suarez and Arsenal getting a player who's easily in their top three players can create a five point reversal.

 

[Eds]

And since last season they have lost one of the world's best players and replaced him (mostly) by pillaging mid-table Premiership sides.

You mean the mid-table side that finished only one place behind the team you're tipping to win the league?

 

[GIMH]

The difference between Arsenal and Liverpool was five points last year ftr. People forget based on how the league ended but we were 9 points above Liverpool (IIRC) before the 5-1 in early February. I really don't think it's that crazy to think that Liverpool losing Suarez and Arsenal getting a player who's easily in their top three players can create a five point reversal.

When Liverpool trashed Arsenal, Suarez had one of his quieter games iirc

I'm not downplaying his loss - he's ****ing incredible after all - but IMO they will cope

 

[Pothas]

As things stand I would expect them to end up 5th, maybe this Markovic guy will be superb straight away but it is probably unlikely and I am far from convinced that Sturridge will replicate last season.

 

[GIMH]

Sterling will surely get even better though?

The big question mark for me is how Lallana will do

 

[cpr]

With Halsey on this, 11/2 is just too good not to chuck a fiver on.

The sounds coming out of OT are promising, we are still very much active in the transfer market this summer, and we know the defensive side of our game is weak. If Vidal comes then we've one hell of a midfield lined up, even more so if we bag a left winger (Di Maria sounding less and less likely). Our strike force can't really be called into question - Rooney and Van Persie work when we have a manager who knows how to use them. We've a brilliant young keeper, one hell of a promising left back, a right back who can excel going forwards.... Our current defenders are serviceable, and Evans can be a first teamer alongside an experienced team mate with a good awareness on them - though 2 out of Evans/Smalling/Jones is not good enough for a team wanting the league.

We've also got the bonus of no European distractions (which i feel helped Liverpool a fair bit last year), which should help with fitness and fatigue. We've also a manager who radiates confidence and instils belief. All in all if we strengthen the defence we just can't be ruled out.


Sadly, after putting this bet on I looked for our CL odds, scrolled as far down as 40-50/1 and realised we aren't in it

#GloryHunterProblems