***Official English Football Season 2021/22***

[wpdavid]

Celtic looking good at Ibrox here, maybe Scotland will be more interesting this season than I thought.

Haven't Rangers been badly hit by covid? This may not be representative of the rest of the season.

 

[Uppercut]

Haven't Rangers been badly hit by covid? This may not be representative of the rest of the season.

Yeah they were missing a few players. And they won anyway.

Celtic had good penetration though, and if they’re creating against Rangers’ (albeit depleted) defence they should be taking the rest of the league apart. I still rate Rangers but it could at least be interesting.

 

[Niall]

I think the plan is that Fred and McTominay will collectively do the work. Just my guess.

Yeah that's not going to work out at all.

Overran today but lucky Wolves were toothless where it mattered, Fred an absolute liability.

I think when it comes to McTominay people associate him with Fletcher to much, ye they are Scottish, started with same side etc, but Fletcher a true holding midfielder while McTominay isn't.

Surreal that Ole has not tried to address it as it's been their biggest flaw for years, but ah well.

 

[Uppercut]

We were so so bad today. Pogba in midfield just doesn’t seem to work.

 

[Niall]

We were so so bad today. Pogba in midfield just doesn’t seem to work.

He stepped it up in the second half with some nice passes, but its a worry indeed.

7 points from Nine is pretty good but you can see the good and bad of Utd already. When everything clicks as it did against Leeds good fun, but against less cavalier sides such as Wolves as Southampton the team can look relatively limited despite the star names and money spent.

I don't think you can have a serious title challenge playing like that especially when you consider how good City and Chelsea are.

That's very much on Ole, so tactics and how they plan essentially comes from him.

 

[Furball]

Celtic looking good at Ibrox here, maybe Scotland will be more interesting this season than I thought.

You must have been watching a different game to me, I thought they were very average today. We barely got out of 2nd gear, had our 1st and 2nd choice goalkeepers, 1st and 2nd choice right backs, and in form left back and right forward all missing and still won fairly comfortably.

 

[Pothas]

Giroud in a Milan shirt really works.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Wolves are this years Brighton, play well can't score and lose.

 

[Uppercut]

You must have been watching a different game to me, I thought they were very average today. We barely got out of 2nd gear, had our 1st and 2nd choice goalkeepers, 1st and 2nd choice right backs, and in form left back and right forward all missing and still won fairly comfortably.

Yeah different game. I thought Celtic created a few really easy chances and Rangers didn’t create much of anything from open play.

You’ll take a 1-0 win with a set piece goal every time but I came away thinking Celtic will put up a lot more of a fight this year.

 

[Uppercut]

He stepped it up in the second half with some nice passes, but its a worry indeed.

7 points from Nine is pretty good but you can see the good and bad of Utd already. When everything clicks as it did against Leeds good fun, but against less cavalier sides such as Wolves as Southampton the team can look relatively limited despite the star names and money spent.

I don't think you can have a serious title challenge playing like that especially when you consider how good City and Chelsea are.

That's very much on Ole, so tactics and how they plan essentially comes from him.

I thought Wolves were cavalier today, really went at us right from the start. Usually that works to our advantage but they just completely outplayed us.

Traore with what seems like a decent attacking coach is scary. Can see him rejoining Nuno at Spurs and somehow staying average despite being the most physically gifted footballer in the league.

 

[Himannv]

We were so so bad today. Pogba in midfield just doesn’t seem to work.

It's also Fred though. As the DM in the tactic we play he needs to position himself between the CBs, get on the ball and help pass it out but he didn't seem to understand that aspect of positioning and was too far ahead of play for our tactics when we had the ball. Off the ball he's more suited to putting out fires and coving for fullbacks if they get caught out than shielding the CBs. Generally he struggled to deal with Traore's explosiveness and we're somewhat lucky that Traore has no end product and chooses the wrong option more often than not or we'd definitely have conceded in the first half.

Pogba doesn't help out enough defensively and doesn't track back enough but as the creative player in the midfield, he'd be playing higher up the pitch anyway when we're in possession.

 

[OverratedSanity]

That Villarreal own goal is an all timer

 

[Spark]

That Villarreal own goal is an all timer

For some reason the funniest thing isn't the goal itself but the way three players just collapse on the ground upon seeing it

 

[Uppercut]

It's also Fred though. As the DM in the tactic we play he needs to position himself between the CBs, get on the ball and help pass it out but he didn't seem to understand that aspect of positioning and was too far ahead of play for our tactics when we had the ball. Off the ball he's more suited to putting out fires and coving for fullbacks if they get caught out than shielding the CBs. Generally he struggled to deal with Traore's explosiveness and we're somewhat lucky that Traore has no end product and chooses the wrong option more often than not or we'd definitely have conceded in the first half.

Pogba doesn't help out enough defensively and doesn't track back enough but as the creative player in the midfield, he'd be playing higher up the pitch anyway when we're in possession.

Fred was awwwful. Worst individual performance I’ve seen since Liverpool picked that defender with the terrible hair in the cup.

I thought Traore was using the ball quite well and his team mates just kept missing easy chances.

 

[JOJOXI]

Fred was awwwful. Worst individual performance I’ve seen since Liverpool picked that defender with the terrible hair in the cup.

I thought Traore was using the ball quite well and his team mates just kept missing easy chances.

I don't know what to make of Traore, I'm unsure if he's overrated or underrated. When Jimenez was around, whenever I saw him I thought his end product had improved massively but it seemed like he was massively perhaps overhyped at the time as well. Whereas now it seems people focus on his relatively meh end product so much that his pace and directness to create promising opportunities is almost swept over. For sure if his end product was better he'd be on another level but I still think he offers Wolves quite a bit. Might want to work on his finishing one on one though!

 

[sledger]

Traore is just super fun

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Traore is great but I always see City fans going on about signing him and I just have to wonder whether these people are watching the same games as me. Completely the opposite of what we need haha.

Great article today from Daniel Taylor about the Mendy situation with City. Despicable from City IMO, should be a real black mark on the club.

 

[Uppercut]

I don't know what to make of Traore, I'm unsure if he's overrated or underrated. When Jimenez was around, whenever I saw him I thought his end product had improved massively but it seemed like he was massively perhaps overhyped at the time as well. Whereas now it seems people focus on his relatively meh end product so much that his pace and directness to create promising opportunities is almost swept over. For sure if his end product was better he'd be on another level but I still think he offers Wolves quite a bit. Might want to work on his finishing one on one though!

My theory is that people assume his lack of output is due to being wasteful with the ball when it’s 90% due to poor movement and positioning. Nuno had him just running down the right wing and crossing to one striker and nobody can create much doing that, it’s not 1995.

 

[Furball]

Great article today from Daniel Taylor about the Mendy situation with City. Despicable from City IMO, should be a real black mark on the club.

Got a link?

 

[Himannv]

I thought Traore was using the ball quite well and his team mates just kept missing easy chances.

I looked back at his touches compilation. There were instances where he could have chosen a different pass or passed instead of shooting. Nothing outrageously bad - there were marginally better options that might have got them that important goal.