EPL 2023/2024
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@MajorRage Yeah, they way he's go them set up is like a team fighting for relegation/mid table championship. They sit so deep, almost on the 6 yard box, they're slow and old, they don't know how to play in posession, and rely heavily on playing on the break with the simple long ball over the top.
The concerning thing about Ten Hag is how he has the team playing. Look at Tottenham, Brighton and Bournemouth. Yes they're 5th, 9th and 12th, but the way they play in posession is a joy to watch.
Man U just sit 10 men behind the ball and hope for the best (which hs worked well for them as they somehow sit 6th when 14th would be a fairer reflection on how they play).
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Absolutely chuffed at how well Aston Villa are doing this season. I'm like a pig in shit to be honest. Martinez brilliant in goal, Pau Torres looks like world-class centre back, McGinn is fantastic in the engine room, Bailey has been a revelation on the wing and Watkins is on fire up front. I love the passion and commitment of the whole squad. Unai Emery is cooking something very special.
The only downer has been all those injuries. Fingers crossed for the last third of the season.
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@Kiwiwomble Great scenes. I'd didn't seen any other fans half as passionate this weekend.
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United's game plan wasn't terrible but they couldn't keep it up - Chelsea managed it better at the Etihad by pressing the City midfield harder to disrupt the flow and get turnovers. Although Chelsea got deeper and deeper in the 2nd half, I think it gets harder and harder to keep up the work rate. Thought Rashford and Garnacho were awful at working hard to keep the ball whenever they did get it - Rashford as usual looks disinterested and Garnacho probably shouldn't be starting every week at this stage in his career - he was being bullied.
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@sparky said in EPL 2023/2024:
@Kiwiwomble Great scenes. I'd didn't seen any other fans half as passionate this weekend.
the attendance is also under 8K, a compact stadium can do wonders to generate some atmosphere, 3 of the 4 stands are semi temp (permanent foundations with more than scaffold but basically just a steel frame) to allow for further development if we ever progress up the league, the ground also has a pub that is packed after games to generate some extra money
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@sparky Konsa coming back is a big bonus, and Torres I hope isn't too seriously injured but credit to Lenglet, he's been good of late.
Looks like Ramsey will be out for a bit so Rogers will get a go I assume, although I would like to see Diaby played on the left, but Emery doesn't seem keen on it.
European football starts again for us, so 2 games a week starting with Ajax on Friday NZ time.
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@Kiwiwomble said in EPL 2023/2024:
@dogmeat its because their main argument at the time (that the FA bought into) was that it was effectively impossible in modern football to actually work your way up the leagues and MK "deserved" a professional football team...at "fact" we have disproven by not only making it back to the football league within 9 years but also overtaking MK (in previous seasons)
Please don't take this the wrong way, I like the AFC Wimbledon story, but fueled by the injustice of the move to Milton Keynes you already had a fan base of what 4-5,000. You were inevitably going to progress rapidly up the pyramid.
Personally, I think anyone living in MK deserves sympathy, not opprobrium.
Great that you can enjoy such a bitter rivalry - for both sets of fans.
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@dogmeat too be clear...definitely don't enjoy it, would be happy to never play them again, lots of the fan base would never go up to watch the away game and only go to the home game to put some money in the club coffers
dont have a lot of sympathy, MK had a couple of teams (MK City) before hand...they never really got behind them, seem to have always had a mentality of they just deserved a pro team without having to earn it
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Sheffield conceded another 6 goals today. That's 72 in only 27 games. Keep that rate up and they will let in 101 by the end of the season.
Previously Swindon have the worst record (100 in the early 90's) but that was in a 42 game season.
The most in a 20 team league is only 89 by the infamous Derby side. The Blades will easily surpass that . The only consolation is that they have already scored more than the record low. Unfortunately that is a record they already hold (20 in 20/21) shared with Derby.
It looks odds on that in consecutive seasons in the EPL they will score the least goals and conceded the most.
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@dogmeat said in EPL 2023/2024:
Sheffield conceded another 6 goals today. That's 72 in only 27 games. Keep that rate up and they will let in 101 by the end of the season.
They became the first English club in the Top 4 Divisions to lose three straight home games by 5+ goals.
Fans were walking out after 15 mins.
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Bournemouth have been ordinary at home and have been seriously guilty of missing many attempts of late. Im expecting 0-0 or 1-0 win over Shef U with something like 30 attempts on target.
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@bayimports We dropped 5 points to Burnley. That's the definition of average. Made up by getting 4 off Arse
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@dogmeat said in EPL 2023/2024:
@bayimports We dropped 5 points to Burnley. That's the definition of average. Made up by getting 4 off Arse
At least you're well out of relegation land now! Seriously good result against BHA as well and expecting you to topple Wolves as well with their current injuries
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The mystery is how Luton lost to Sheffield. Could be a very costly loss.
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Roma 4-0 Brighton
So is de Zerbi a bit of a busted flush, is it just the squad strength competing in Europe and the EPL, Loss of players in the summer or all of the above?
For me the manager brought attacking flair and for quite a while the defensive solidity Potter instilled survived for quite a while, but they now seem very open at the back and defensively naive.
Elsewhere Liverpool strolled to victory and Villa got a scoreless draw at Ajax
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@dogmeat It's tough for teams like Brighton and Villa to compete in both as they're new to it and it's hard to know what to prioritize, I'm speaking here as a villa fan.
We've been doing the bare minimum in the conference and we really had to fight hard this morning to get a draw against and Ajax team who had been targeting this fixture, where as we have a massive game 2 days later against Tottenham which could determine our champions league fate, and we don't have the man city depth to compete in both seamlessly. We looked like we were saving a bit for the tottenham game and the return ajax fixture next week, but yeah, our EPL form and our European football form have been worlds apart so far.
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Brighton have a big squad but not a lot of depth if that makes sense. Of the team that did so well for de Zerbi last season, Caicedo & Mac Allister have gone, Solly March has been out since the beginning of the season and Mitoma has been in and out. Joao Pedro is out for a while and they have had a few other injuries as well. Their style is high risk anyway and now they seem to have lost their cutting edge.
