Barclays Premier League- 2017/18 Season Thread

[Borat]

United definitely got away with one there. Southampton looked the better side.

[Ja Rhule]

Teams who play in CL will hit a wall soon.  The pace will start to slow as fatigue sets in

[Ja Rhule]

Not sure if Manchester United is really that good but their schedule has been extremely favorable.

They played:

Crystal Palace 20th

West Ham 18th

Leicester 17th

Stoke City 16th (tie)

Swansea 15th

Everton 14th

Southampton 10th (This game was dominated by Southampton but United was able to escape with 3 points).

[Borat]

20 minutes ago, ARSEN said:

Not sure if Manchester United is really that good but their schedule has been extremely favorable.

They played:

Crystal Palace 20th

West Ham 18th

Leicester 17th

Stoke City 16th

Swansea 15th

Everton 14th

Southampton 10th (This game was dominated by Southampton and United struggled quite a bit).

They've mainly pounded those teams though, something that was distinctly lacking last year. Mou's teams also always keep it tight against top opposition. 

[Ja Rhule]

2 minutes ago, Borat said:

They've mainly pounded those teams though, something that was distinctly lacking last year. Mou's team's also always keep it tight against top opposition. 

The pounding usually came on last 10-15 mins of the game when other teams took defender out and put additional forward.  Manchester United have not trailed once... The teams they played against have some of the worst attack in EPL and some of the worst D in EPL.  Will be interesting to see how ManU does playing a decent team.  Their remaining schedule looks hardcore but playing garbage teams for 2 months is a great confidence builder.

[Borat]

9 minutes ago, ARSEN said:

The pounding usually came on last 10-15 mins of the game when other teams took defender out and put additional forward.  Manchester United have not trailed once... The teams they played against have some of the worst attack in EPL and some of the worst D in EPL.  Will be interesting to see how ManU does playing a decent team.  Their remaining schedule looks hardcore but playing garbage teams for 2 months is a great confidence builder.

Again, that last 10-15 minutes (or the lead that forced the opponent to open up) was absent last season. Not saying they’re clear favorites, but hard to argue they haven’t improved over last season’s impotence. City haven’t exactly played anybody either, save for a red-carded Liverpool (they drew Everton). 

Chelsea have had a tougher spate, sure, but they’ve eked out results. Top 3 have performed like the top 3, given the teams they’ve played.

[Ja Rhule]

Just now, Borat said:

Again, that last 10-15 minutes (or the lead that forced the opponent to open up) was absent last season. Not saying they’re clear favorites, but hard to argue they haven’t improved over last season’s impotence. City haven’t exactly played anybody either, save for a red-carded Liverpool (they drew Everton). 

Chelsea have had a tougher spate, sure, but they’ve eked our results. Top 3 have performed like the top 3, given the teams they’ve played.

Manchester United lacked confidence last year.  Their team is basically the same.  I think that's why they got garbage schedule in the biggining of the year to build their confidence.  Mourinho is not a good motivator, when his team start sucking...  it can go downfield fast (see Chelsea).  United is about to play some hardcore games for the next 2 months.  If they lose 2 in a row, watch them tumble. 

[Borat]

9 minutes ago, ARSEN said:

Manchester United lacked confidence last year.  Their team is basically the same.  I think that's why they got garbage schedule in the biggining of the year to build their confidence.  Mourinho is not a good motivator, when his team start sucking...  it can go downfield fast (see Chelsea).  United is about to play some hardcore games for the next 2 months.  If they lose 2 in a row, watch them tumble. 

Lukaku* and (especially) Matic are massive upgrades, Martial and Rashford are a year older, and they were hugely injury-bit as a whole last season -- the team is most definitely not the same. And if you're going to cherry-pick seasons from Mou's resume, don't you think the spate of triumphant second campaigns is a better comparison than his worst ever? 

 

* http://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/romelu-lukakus-2016-17-stats-compare-zlatan-ibrahimovics/

[Ja Rhule]

1 minute ago, Borat said:

Lukaku and (especially) Matic are massive upgrades, Martial and Rashford are a year older, and they were hugely injury-bit as a whole last season -- the team is most definitely not the same. And if you're going to cherry-pick seasons from Mou's resume, don't you think the spate of triumphant second campaigns is a better comparison than his worst ever? 

Lukaku is overrated.  He scored only 1 goal against top 10 teams last season.  75% of his goals came against bottom 5 teams.  We had that discussion few months ago.  On paper, Manchester United looks great!  But they looked great on paper for the last 5 years and struggled.  The only average team they played this year, they struggled.  Again, we should find out if United is foreal or not by Christmas time.

[Ja Rhule]

Sako just checked Rushford cock size

[Borat]

15 minutes ago, ARSEN said:

Lukaku is overrated.  He scored only 1 goal against top 10 teams last season.  75% of his goals came against bottom 5 teams.  We had that discussion few months ago.  On paper, Manchester United looks great!  But they looked great on paper for the last 5 years and struggled.  The only average team they played this year, they struggled.  Again, we should find out if United is foreal or not by Christmas time.

?

Quote

"Lukaku has been accused of being a flat-track bully. Though by scoring 10 against teams in the top half of the table, he managed one more than Ibrahimovic. Both netted four against the other sides in the top seven." 

http://www.espnfc.com/player/139437/romelu-lukaku?season=2016

 

His conversion rate was also nearly 50% higher than Zlatan's. Massive upgrade, and even if he were a flat-track bully, that's exactly what United have needed. 

 

[Ja Rhule]

Just now, Borat said:

?

His conversion rate was also nearly 50% higher than Zlatan's. Massive upgrade, and even if he were a flat-track bully, that's exactly what United have needed. 

 

We shall see.  Will be interesting to watch.

[Borat]

2 minutes ago, ARSEN said:

We shall see.  Will be interesting to watch.

There's no "seeing" necessary re: last season, though. You were off by a factor of 10 lol. 

[Ja Rhule]

Poor Crystal Palace.  Have not scored a single goal this season yet.  Dreadful