Football

[gingerjon]

The crypto bros would like to wreck Bradford City

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/bradford-city/are-bradford-city-the-efl-club-set-to-be-taken-over-by-cryptocurrency-investors-3497798

Don't worry, some of them were involved with MyFootballClub so it'll be fine.

[JohnM]

.....not even with a VERY LONG  bargepole! Interesting piece yesterday  afternoon on Radio 4 about NFTs. My opinion?  Unprintable!

[CornwallRL]

Saw this on Youtube, not sure whether it has been shown before, but can we do a RFL one?

 

[Josef K]

Spurs are bloody dreadful, the chance’s they have fluffed is amazing. 

[HawkMan]

19 minutes ago, Josef K said:

Spurs are bloody dreadful, the chance’s they have fluffed is amazing. 

Hmm, okay I'll assume you rarely watch football,  it's off season so you're giving it a go, fair enough. I've not seen a team outplay Liverpool like this this season. They're carving through them in midfield almost at will. What they don't have is a Salah, or Mane up front, and the reds goalkeeper has been exceptional,  apart from Spurs 2nd goal.

[graveyard johnny]

12 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Hmm, okay I'll assume you rarely watch football,  it's off season so you're giving it a go, fair enough. I've not seen a team outplay Liverpool like this this season. They're carving through them in midfield almost at will. What they don't have is a Salah, or Mane up front, and the reds goalkeeper has been exceptional,  apart from Spurs 2nd goal.

a draw for liverpool and a set back to their title hopes but on the bright side for them its leeds next!

[Josef K]

31 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Hmm, okay I'll assume you rarely watch football,  it's off season so you're giving it a go, fair enough. I've not seen a team outplay Liverpool like this this season. They're carving through them in midfield almost at will. What they don't have is a Salah, or Mane up front, and the reds goalkeeper has been exceptional,  apart from Spurs 2nd goal.

Hello Pep (you’re the Manchester coach aren’t you) i didn’t realise you came on this site. The Liverbirds goal stopper exceptional apart from the second strike he let in the goal hole. Ok then the HotSpurts were dreadful apart from the two goal strikes they scored. 

[gingerjon]

Assuming that matches on the 27th can go ahead with a crowd, I shall be at Little Common as they finally get to play back at home in Bexhill following four years in Eastbourne whilst the council had a fluster about whether they would be allowed to get their ground up to league standard.

11am start like a proper bank holiday match. Looking forward to it. Players may not be as hungover as if it had gone ahead on the traditional 26th but expecting many, many, many tackles of unspeakable violence.

[CornwallRL]

I have noticed that some players are complaining about fixture burn-out over Christmas & New Year, it's typical footballer whingeing, why don't they complain in July when the fixtures are announced?

This taking it one game at a time mentality is taking it too far. I'm sure they can have their agents read the fixtures to them?

[Tommygilf]

4 hours ago, CornwallRL said:

I have noticed that some players are complaining about fixture burn-out over Christmas & New Year, it's typical footballer whingeing, why don't they complain in July when the fixtures are announced?

This taking it one game at a time mentality is taking it too far. I'm sure they can have their agents read the fixtures to them?

Note also that those complaining are coming from Liverpool, who can walk to the top 3 in the League, and Chelsea who are worrying about putting u23s on the bench; not Leeds, who have no fewer than 10 senior players out for games against the top 4 in a row.

Its nonsense, bad management even, with budgets and squads those clubs have.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Tommygilf

[Gerrumonside ref]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

Note also that those complaining are coming from Liverpool, who can walk to the top 3 in the League, and Chelsea who are worrying about putting u23s on the bench; not Leeds, who have no fewer than 10 senior players out for games against the top 4 in a row.

Its nonsense, bad management even, with budgets and squads those clubs have.

So are Leeds going down then Tommy?  

[Tommygilf]

6 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

So are Leeds going down then Tommy?  

Nah fortunately nearly half the league are as bad or worse than us.

[Gerrumonside ref]

14 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Nah fortunately nearly half the league are as bad or worse than us.

Good to see panic hasn’t set in after that first half versus Arsenal and pretty much the entire performance against Man City - no point making rash judgements on those games.

Bielsa seemed to come in for a fair amount of criticism from pundits for an inflexible game plan despite missing his best players.

What did you make of it?

[Tommygilf]

8 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Good to see panic hasn’t set in after that first half versus Arsenal and pretty much the entire performance against Man City - no point making rash judgements on those games.

Bielsa seemed to come in for a fair amount of criticism from pundits for an inflexible game plan despite missing his best players.

What did you make of it?

I think most Leeds fans expected nothing out of these games anyway, and then expected worse when we saw the injury/Covid list. Nobody is panicking (apart from the "fans" they get on TalkSport). If someone says "Leeds are really poor", most fans would say "yeah, and?".

On Bielsa, I think a lot of pundits are talking nonsense. Redknapp for example saying there was a rift between Bielsa and Philips - nonsense. I don't know if its ulterior motive trying to create confusion/disharmony in the squad because his ex club Liverpool are interested in our 2 best players. There are other examples too that just seem like banal comments for TV/Radio. For example:

"Go to a more defensive mindset" - 4 of our 5 centrebacks are injured/Covid and the "fit" one hadn't played a game since August till Arsenal. Our injuries have also included our starting fullbacks, Kalvin Philips and Bamford who starts the press up front. Then change our entire philosophy of football on top of having all those injuries? Really?

Against the teams that we are equivalent or better than we have done alright this season, even with the injury problems. Hence why we sit 5 points clear of relegation and 6 points off 9th despite 3 defeats on the bounce.

I do think there is a sense around the club that there needs to be a reinforcement of the squad in January, particularly in (creative) midfield. Combined with the reality that many in the squad are now ready to move on (which some have thought since last season anyway), the squad needs a refresh in summer.

[Gerrumonside ref]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

I think most Leeds fans expected nothing out of these games anyway, and then expected worse when we saw the injury/Covid list. Nobody is panicking (apart from the "fans" they get on TalkSport). If someone says "Leeds are really poor", most fans would say "yeah, and?".

On Bielsa, I think a lot of pundits are talking nonsense. Redknapp for example saying there was a rift between Bielsa and Philips - nonsense. I don't know if its ulterior motive trying to create confusion/disharmony in the squad because his ex club Liverpool are interested in our 2 best players. There are other examples too that just seem like banal comments for TV/Radio. For example:

"Go to a more defensive mindset" - 4 of our 5 centrebacks are injured/Covid and the "fit" one hadn't played a game since August till Arsenal. Our injuries have also included our starting fullbacks, Kalvin Philips and Bamford who starts the press up front. Then change our entire philosophy of football on top of having all those injuries? Really?

Against the teams that we are equivalent or better than we have done alright this season, even with the injury problems. Hence why we sit 5 points clear of relegation and 6 points off 9th despite 3 defeats on the bounce.

I do think there is a sense around the club that there needs to be a reinforcement of the squad in January, particularly in (creative) midfield. Combined with the reality that many in the squad are now ready to move on (which some have thought since last season anyway), the squad needs a refresh in summer.

I think the Redknapp ‘trying to do things for Liverpool’ is a stretch and a bit paranoid to be honest - he’s just not that influential at Anfield.  If any player moves between the two clubs then it will be nothing to do with pundits.

I agree about Bielsa being unlikely to ditch his coaching philosophy because of an injury crisis although both were very bad defeats recently.  

If Phillips and Bamford can play enough games I think Leeds will pull clear despite the fact that the teams below them have games in hand.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by Gerrumonside ref

[GUBRATS]

Interesting that we have Pep bringing in ' workers rights ' when his employers don't know the meaning of the words 

 

[Tommygilf]

On 23/12/2021 at 09:15, Gerrumonside ref said:

I think the Redknapp ‘trying to do things for Liverpool’ is a stretch and a bit paranoid to be honest - he’s just not that influential at Anfield.  If any player moves between the two clubs then it will be nothing to do with pundits.

I agree about Bielsa being unlikely to ditch his coaching philosophy because of an injury crisis although both were very bad defeats recently.  

If Phillips and Bamford can play enough games I think Leeds will pull clear despite the fact that the teams below them have games in hand.

 

 

I'm more talking about a general "media creates a story where there isn't one" vibe several pundits have always had around Bielsa, probably because he rarely if ever interacts with them directly.

Key injuries and squad reinforcement will decide our season I think. The reality is that in the Premier League there are a group of around 8/9 clubs who are all a run of form away from safety or a relegation scrap. Leeds are in that group and will probably remain in it till a couple of games left.

[Tommygilf]

2 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Interesting that we have Pep bringing in ' workers rights ' when his employers don't know the meaning of the words 

 

*ironic, I think

[bobbruce]

2 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Interesting that we have Pep bringing in ' workers rights ' when his employers don't know the meaning of the words 

 

I’m not just having a go at Pep here as Jordan Henderson came out with a similar idea of postponing games to ease congestion. The problem is where will these games be fitted in. As it stands Spurs have at least two games to fit in somewhere and that isn’t including the European game that they had to forfeit as there was no where to fit it in. 

[Tommygilf]

24 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

I’m not just having a go at Pep here as Jordan Henderson came out with a similar idea of postponing games to ease congestion. The problem is where will these games be fitted in. As it stands Spurs have at least two games to fit in somewhere and that isn’t including the European game that they had to forfeit as there was no where to fit it in. 

There's the 10 day/2 week break they had built into the season already, and presumably some cup weekends may appear.

That said, in the Championship you play Tuesday/Saturday throughout the year with far smaller and lower quality squads than Liverpool and especially Man City and Chelsea can call upon.

[GUBRATS]

Simple solution play less games , pay the players ( and coaches ) less money 

Problem solved 

[HawkMan]

Christmas Dinner with Stevie G and guests.

Secret Santa;

 

Edited December 25, 2021 by HawkMan

[Josef K]

Great win for The Iron at Oldham today, i still think Oldham will stay up though, but they’re still having all sorts of bother off the field. I believe they ran out of pies in the Joe Royle stand.

[Tommygilf]

Norwich really are the Leigh RLFC of football, what is the point of coming up every other year to be so bad?

[graveyard johnny]

4 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Norwich really are the Leigh RLFC of football, what is the point of coming up every other year to be so bad?

it will be west brom or fulhams chance to act out groundhog day again soon