Premier League 2023/24

Luton is a team i really feel for this week.

Edwards is manager I rate given he makes well with the squad he has at his disposal which is a poor one, really.

Their week reflects the direct opposite of Villa in a sense. The latter won two convincing wins against City & Arsenal whereas Luton lost both leads against the same teams and it was a shame to see how devastated their manager was during both times.

Arquitecto wrote:GJ is great. Great football IQ, constant micro-movements to anticipate the ball and moves to the right places to invite players to better positions and does the work others simply dont.

Those are great qualities to have but you can afford a lone striker like that when you have killers on the sides, like you could have Firmino do Firmino things when Salah and Mane are prolific, but Marrinelli and Saka aren't and in my opinion Arsenal needs to think about that.

El Gunner wrote:that's what i meant, if the club is good it can change your mind

Yes that's my point. United can't attract players as a destination. They have to be very good or have a project that's going towards them becoming very good... or they need to overpay for players who are only about the money (which is a losing proposition).

As an example, PSG became good because Paris is a destination, they signed Carlo Ancellotti as the manager AND they could overpay. That was their early success. Once they moved away from the sporting project and just became a galactico team, they actually got worse.

The teams with Ibra, Silva, Thiago Motta, Matuidi, Lavezzi, Pastore, etc. with Blanc as the manager were actually the best. They just ran into prime Barca like everyone else.

firstly, PSG never became good nor have they attracted anyone elite outside of giving Mbappe a billion to stay lol and Ibra, I guess, nobody else were ever superstar status, Messi was finished when he joined for a billion himself or whatever it was, and flopped badly there

barely scraping through the CL and consistently not living up to expectations, when they signed the likes of Ibra etc they still achieved nothing outside of that farmer league...nobody in 2023 is queuing up to join PSG unless they're getting PAID

and secondly no team outside of maybe City has signed more 'top' players than we have in the last decade, consistently

We have no trouble attracting top players, our troubles lie elsewhere

we overpay EVERYONE...always have, because we make so much money, even entry lvl players like Rojo were on like 150K pw here

We could finish 6th the next 10 years in a row and we still have more pull than Arsenal, PSG etc for elite players

delusional

when's the last time u signedan elite talent in their prime? ozil? lol

you haven't been an attractive destination ever...lack the finances and the stature

We do it damn near every summer

levels

all i know is every single player in my team outperforms every single player on your team

you've had one good season in the last decade and ended up with nothing

enjoy your moment though

Firenze wrote:when's the last time u signedan elite talent in their prime?

When have Man Utd?

Myesyats wrote:

Firenze wrote:when's the last time u signedan elite talent in their prime?

When have Man Utd?

deafening silence

doesn't warrant a response

you're not a serious person

I'm sure you're about to bring up Antony as an elite talent so who;s serious and who's not

7 - Son Heung-min is only the seventh different player to score 10+ Premier League goals in 8+ successive seasons, after Wayne Rooney (11), Frank Lampard (10), Sergio Agüero (9), Harry Kane (9), Thierry Henry (, and Sadio Mané (. Consistency. pic.twitter.com/IdiN2wy0TX

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 10, 2023

I remember wanting to sign him when he was at Leverkusen, such a shame he never ended up at a top team where he had a realistic chance of trophies, still the GOAT asian player

You don't think Cavani, Silva, etc. were superstars?  Not to mention Messi, Neymar and Mbappe.  Let's also talk about the acquisitions of Marquinhos, Verratti, Thiago Motta, and others as well.

Other than Pogba, I can't think of one player United has acquired in that category since SAF left.

That's just a weird comment Firenze.

Man Firenze being a GL elite has me forget he's elevated himself to God-tier banter status

PSG will always be attractive from here. They've won countless Ligue 1s by now and their branding is just brilliant, taking advantage of neo-parisien culture along with Jordan being their shirt sponsor to being a constant presence in the UCL.

Messi being there made them known worldwide. I can't see any downside from here

That being said my favourite time for them if not a time I was rooting for them was when Carlo came in to replace Koumbouare, who was replaced a bit undeservedly and Carlo literally lost the Ligue 1 he worked for, but it was the first true kickstart of the Paris era.

And I dont want to hear anymore hype over Poch especially from Barrileto & co. who endlessly did.

Bum coach who only is good at developing certain youth but really has no long term vision and plays shit football. Belongs back in Spurs.

My favorite time Arqi was Carlo and then Blanc. You had kids like Verratti and Rabiot coming up. Matuidi was there to clean up. Ibra and Silva were in their absolute prime. And then you had fun players like Lavezzi, Pastore, Lucas Moura, etc. It started going a bit sideways when Cavani joined and Ibra was offended by the move.

What a player Cavani was though. He was playing box-to-box CF lol.

Certainly didn't expect Liverpool to be doing so well considering the mass clear out. We've lost one game in the PL and that was a fraud result. I do believe our greatest strength is our squad depth. We've won what? 18 points from losing positions this season! Ultimately it's the fact that our bench is so different to the first team, essentially teams end up playing 3 different Liverpool styles across 90 mins and they usually cannot handle it.

I do believe Arsenal have a "fluider" starting 11 in terms of playing football than us but I do think we have a more impactful squad than them. Arteta rotates barely 2 players while Klopp makes on average 6 changes every game, maybe that is the luxury of playing in the EL but playing Quansah in an away PL game during December, I don't think other title challengers would run that risk.

Basically this Liverpool team has: Alisson, Trent, CB, Virgil, Robertson, DM, CM, Szoboszlai, LW, CF, Salah. There are essentially 5 positions that are up for grabs for everyone.

One thing that led us to winning the title was the experience against City in a title race. If you remember that Liverpool season, it brought out the Arsenal fans celebrating the Invincibles day again after 10 years. Arsenal are simply not showing enough in that ruthlessness department after experiencing the same. Grinding wins would win you a title 10 years back but not anymore, it catches up to you when you are against City. This applies to the current Liverpool as well.

Again, I do not think both teams have what it takes to beat this City side across a year. Especially when an angry KDB comes back.

How do you not include Alexi MacAllister as one of your essential players?

El Gunner wrote:How do you not include Alexi MacAllister as one of your essential players?

He's currently playing the makeshift DM position due to our failure to bring in Lavia and then Caceido and then Andre. He often does not play very well within the role and is replaced, leading to Trent going into 6 or Jones+Szob being a double pivot for the last part of a game. Endo hasn't shown enough but he wouldn't need much to make that 6 position his and force Mac up the field.

We most certainly need a mobile destroyer with the Trent inverted system and Mac is not it. I am quite sure if not in January, we will bring in a pure 6 in the summer. That would mean Mac competes with Jones and Gravenberch for that CM role.

and Mac should be playing in that advanced role over Jones and Graven imo

Ideally yeah he should make that spot his.

It’s going to be City, Arsenal and then Liverpool in that order for the top3 imo. 4th placed team will be far away. I do not expect to lose or even draw to Arsenal at Anfield but I certainly think they’ve got a nailed down system and starting 11, something that we will probably have next season. That will guide them to 2nd place while we draw a couple of away games and finish 3rd. This season though is a great opportunity for Arsenal to win the league.

we have a mental block, we're definitely not winning at Anfield even if we are the better team/play better on the day... best we can hope for is a fighting draw

Is it down to the manager?

When you look at Klopp he seems like the guy who can get in the dressing room and make the players squeeze every ounce of performance out of them, while Arteta doesn't seem like that.

Just an observation though, could be wrong.