Men's Soccer (Football) Thread Soccer • Page 704

“Rashford has offered himself to Barcelona.”

Buddy, you’re a seemingly really good guy, but who exactly do you think you’d compete with to start and stand a chance at getting ahead of them at this moment in time?

 

Rashford the only person in the universe that doesn't realise there's a significantly higher chance he ends the transfer window at Everton than at Barcelona.

Course he could lower his wage demands a tad and his market would be much larger, but he's too deluded for that.

 

People calling for Arteta out are unbearable reactionary entitled dickheads who I would hate to talk to in real life.

God forbid we didn't make the final of the champions league without a recognised striker and our best CB (this season anyway) out against a red hot PSG.

We had the highest xg out of all teams across both legs in the semi finals. We just weren't clinical like PSG were.

Arteta (as annoying as he can be) is genuinely the best thing to happen to us since we moved to the Emirates, and I can't believe real fans would want to kill that lol.

 

Look at what PSG did in January when they were struggling. They went and got a massively talented player who has helped transform their attack. And yes, we all know why they have that money, but you can’t tell me that we don’t after doing almost nothing for the two previous windows.

We got nothing despite Arteta, Rice, and Ødegaard begging them publicly. And yet we still smashed Real Madrid. Convincingly. There are positives to take, but it’s absolutely gutting.

 

Just to reiterate, I hope I've not upset anyone with my Arteta comment the other night. Supporting Everton under Dyche was borderline torture at times and watching Arsenal this season I've seen a few parallels to his style of play with Arteta. In short: Everton deserved better, Arsenal deserve better imo. I completely get Arsenal fans will know more than me!

 

I don't think it is unreasonable to start to think as an Arsenal fan, could we be doing better and if Arteta has taken you as far as he can. Especially when you look at a team like Liverpool who appointed Slot and they don't have the most out and out strikers either.

Since taking over, he has won 1 FA Cup, within the first 6 months, but since then I think its clear that his record is really patchy and it feels like Arsenal only ever have a squad that is able to focus on having a go at one competition. Improvement feels like enough for Arsenal fans from an outsider - the league placing has improved since he came in but ultimately hes well off this season in a season where as he said Liverpool won it with less points than they had the past two seasons (could still end up with more points than Arsenal had). Arsenal points total is down season on season. Incremental improvement in Champions League but again, Arsenal think they should be reaching Finals and since that FA Cup final, they have reached none under Arteta.

If the set-pieces aren't working? They look like they badly badly struggle. Its easy to take shots at the club about not signing a striker but they've needed a top quality striker for years, not just in January.

I personally think someone can do better with Arsenal than Arteta is doing.

 

No, you absolutely haven't.

I think it's more disappointing to see the reaction from other (online) Arsenal fans, particularly about Arteta and Odegaard, and how the media are obviously preying on this for clicks. We've progressed every single season under Arteta, and generally we've always played good football until this year. This season has been a massive slog, and I won't pretend I've enjoyed most of it. We've looked off it and like we're lacking in certain positions, and our general play hasn't been great.

Part of that is squad makeup. Our best creator has played the whole season injured, whilst we've had no centre forward for half the campaign. I think that meant that Arteta decided to lean into our defensive stability (too much) to combat this. I also think he's still learning as a manager, and part of me thinks his safety-first approach is a reaction to how our more gung-ho style ended up costing us the league in 22/23 when we lost both Saliba and Tomiyasu (to an injury he's seemingly never recovered from).

He isn't perfect, and he's not blameless at all, but considering what was happening when he took over and where we are now, I feel like we owe him that time. Particularly when it feels like the board are giving him inferior, incomplete squads compared to the teams we are competing with. I think him being a "football terrorist" or whatever is a slight revision, when we absolutely smashed teams apart for two seasons in a row before whatever the fuck this year was lol.

TLDR: u good dw

 

Cold and raining in Bodo

 

No offence to Spurs fans in here, but absolutely begging Bodø/Glimt do a job tonight. Worst fear is facing Spurs in the final and everything that would come with that.

If United somehow fuck it up though, I hope Spurs win and go on to win the tournament.

 

Tonight, I feel Norwegian


(I think Spurs get through though)

 

The Bodo players have been a little disrespectful in their interviews over the past week. So I hope we dominate them. But expecting a nail biter.

 

Does anyone have a link to like a consolidated live blog that covers all four games happening at once right now? I know the three English teams basically have their foot in the door for the final, but drama with all three could also happen pretty easily.

 

2005 - German Ratzinger becomes pope
Nine years later, 2014 - Germany wins World Cup

2013 - Argentinaian Bergoglio becomes pope
Nine years later, 2022 - Argentina wins World Cup

2025 - American Prevost becomes pope
Nine years later, 2034 - BOOK IT BOYS

 

The BBC Sport live blogs are pretty great, I tend to have them up while watching. Obviously a little less focus on Betis vs Fiorentina but they still cover it.

Europa League & Conference League LIVE: Man Utd, Tottenham & Chelsea - scores, radio & updates

 

This is perfect, thanks. I was using ESPN for the UCL games.

 

Referee feels bad for Athletic it seems

 

Antony scoring at the exact moment United conceded is kinda funny.

 

^^

 

Not a bad first half. Bodo had a lot of empty possession. Not much of a threat. But we need to score first or it’s gonna be interesting.

 

My god this ref desperately wants Athletic to win. Pathetic.

 

Bodo haven’t been amazing, but I’m impressed with how competitive they are against a team with about 50x their budget

 

Solanke!

 

I cursed them

 

You can’t root for any team these days

 

Let’s goooo