Greenlizard0 Premier League Football Thread ** spoilers ** [2nd - 4th April 2024]

[ArcticHeron]

I do love me some hyperbolic twaddle though

Same tbh. It's packaged in with being a football fan in the 21st century.

 

[adam cool dude]

Everything is of course relative though so while Nice wouldn't have been able to attract "best in class" relative to a club of Utd's size, for the size of Nice and all bar PSG in Ligue 1, they could. I commented on this in response to somebody saying Ratcliffe valued patience the other week, under Ratcliffe Nice have had 6 managers in less than 5 years. It's fairly evident that whoever has been appointing managers at Nice and by extension Ineos & Ratcliffe haven't done a very good job.

Nice are pushing for Champions League this season though and are only 7 points off 2rd. They were higher but their recent form has seen them lose 3 of the last 5 games. It also depends on whether they have learnt anything from their ownership time of Nice and are using those mistakes to help with making United a success.

Man City are doing a good job with Girona in La Liga. They obviously learnt a lot with City and have applied that to Girona.

Don't get me wrong I have very little faith in the Ratcliffe ownership either but I guess as a United fan we have to try and have a little hope.

 

[Steedie]

Same tbh. It's packaged in with being a football fan in the 21st century.

In all seriousness though...I'll take back what I said about him ruining England, way too strong obviously, but I do stand by him being awful.

You have to understand that a lot of what I post these days in a footballing context, comes from a place that is so bitter and twisted from being a United fan, that I find it hard to be happy for anyone else's success and those not being bent over and humiliated week in and week out. I expect all football fans to share in my negativity and adopted life as a football masochist and if they don't, well then I just feel a little more angry while longingly staring at my 98/99 memorabilia

 

[ArcticHeron]

In all seriousness though...I'll take back what I said about him ruining England, way too strong obviously, but I do stand by him being awful.

You have to understand that a lot of what I post these days in a footballing context, comes from a place that is so bitter and twisted from being a United fan, that I find it hard to be happy for anyone else's success and those not being bent over and humiliated week in and week out. I expect all football fans to share in my negativity and adopted life as a football masochist and if they don't, well then I just feel a little more angry while longingly staring at my 98/99 memorabilia

Understandable, but that's how the 14 have felt for the past few decades now. Mismanagement, poor spending, rotten ownership and every game being a dice roll... welcome to the party!

 

[Converge]

I’m hoping that INEOS Utd compared to INEOS Nice will be different. The fact they’ve got Berrada and Ashworth is already a step up compared to their Nice days, right? So I’m trying to be positive. Although, if Southgate turns up post-Euros, I take it all back.

 

[CliffyG]

Luton are going down unless teams get further points deductions.

United are right where they should be with the current crop of players. We need to stop kidding ourselves and comparing them to Liverpool, Arsenal and City. They’re years off them.

The only real outliner is they have the fourth highest wage bill so should be around fourth. This is mainly down to way over paying their players due to a combination of paying more for the player than market value and then having to pay them Man Utd wages.

If we take away the whole Man Utd aura of it and stick a different shirt on the players we’d all be saying decent enough season for this mob and they’ve got a good cup run as well.

I think everyone had them down as doing a Derby yet they are by far the better of the promoted sides. The point is the way they play though, they have a plan and a purpose and they play at a level well above themselves. United are the opposite, as has been said by their own fans they have been very lucky in many of the games. Ten Hag has to be getting better out of the players at his disposal.

 

[BaZ87]

Nice are pushing for Champions League this season though and are only 7 points off 2rd. They were higher but their recent form has seen them lose 3 of the last 5 games. It also depends on whether they have learnt anything from their ownership time of Nice and are using those mistakes to help with making United a success.

Man City are doing a good job with Girona in La Liga. They obviously learnt a lot with City and have applied that to Girona.

Don't get me wrong I have very little faith in the Ratcliffe ownership either but I guess as a United fan we have to try and have a little hope.

I asked my Lyon supporting friend about them the other month and his words were they're the worst team in France and (at the time) them being 2nd was nothing but luck. They've since been in free fall and are now 5th. Given the struggles of the likes of Lyon and Marseille, for Nice to be 5th is no achievement.

I don't get your City/Girona comment either. City (CFG to be precise) aren't particularly bothered about the success of Girona or any of these other clubs they've bought. They're not being run to be successful in their own right, they're being run for the benefit of City. There was a recent article on Troyes FC and how they've suffered as a result of being owned by CFG. These clubs are being instructed to play a particular way, regardless of whether it's bad for them, so that City can use these clubs to form a pathway for players to progress into the City side.

 

[A2Z]

I've always been an ETH fan, but after last night, not anymore. It was 100% his fault we lost. Taking off our best player who had already scored 2, when the game was suited to him perfectly, was one of the worst managerial decisions I've ever seen. All went downhill from there. ETH out.

 

[Robbo]

I asked my Lyon supporting friend about them the other month and his words were they're the worst team in France and (at the time) them being 2nd was nothing but luck. They've since been in free fall and are now 5th. Given the struggles of the likes of Lyon and Marseille, for Nice to be 5th is no achievement.

I don't get your City/Girona comment either. City (CFG to be precise) aren't particularly bothered about the success of Girona or any of these other clubs they've bought. They're not being run to be successful in their own right, they're being run for the benefit of City. There was a recent article on Troyes FC and how they've suffered as a result of being owned by CFG. These clubs are being instructed to play a particular way, regardless of whether it's bad for them, so that City can use these clubs to form a pathway for players to progress into the City side.

At the end of the day, all we can hope is that INEOS hire the best footballing people and let them get on with it. This appears to be what they are trying to do.

It will take time but it's better than what the Glazers were up to, hiring ex-bankers and stuff.

 

[Steedie]

I've always been an ETH fan, but after last night, not anymore. It was 100% his fault we lost. Taking off our best player who had already scored 2, when the game was suited to him perfectly, was one of the worst managerial decisions I've ever seen. All went downhill from there. ETH out.

I think that's always been one of the biggest complaints with him, is he often makes some really bizarre subs and usually, the game completely changes after that point and we get punished for it.

 

[Shamikebab]

I've always been an ETH fan, but after last night, not anymore. It was 100% his fault we lost. Taking off our best player who had already scored 2, when the game was suited to him perfectly, was one of the worst managerial decisions I've ever seen. All went downhill from there. ETH out.

Garnacho was looking shattered, there was no way he was playing 90 mins. He's played a crazy number of minutes lately, we can't risk burning him out. We have another game on Sunday too, would you have preferred him not playing then? It had nothing to do with us losing either, we lost to two defensive errors, hardly Garnacho's strength. Mount was maintaining possession really well when he came on. Only sub I disagreed with was Rashford but we don't really have any other options.