Premier League 2018-2019 Part II

[Halladay]

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https://hfboards.mandatory.com/threads/premier-league-2018-2019.2499269/

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[East Coast Bias]

Sturridge charged by the FA for violating betting rules

The FA said Sturridge's alleged breaches were in relation to passing on information about players, managers, team selection or disciplinary matters, which was not publicly available at the time.

If true, I imagine the club is gonna be pretty damn pissed if he's passing lineup info out.

 

[Live in the Now]

If he did that he should be sacked on the spot.

 

[hatterson]

Liverpool star Sturridge responds to FA's betting charge

A LFC spokesperson said: “Daniel has given his full and unequivocal cooperation throughout this process and has assured the club he will continue to do so.
“Daniel has also stated categorically that he has never gambled on football.

Yea, that's not what they said you did dude.

A statement on the FA's official website said: "Daniel Sturridge has been charged with misconduct in relation to alleged breaches of The FA’s Betting Rules, specifically in relation to Rule E8(1)(a)(ii) and Rule E8(1)(b), during the period of January 2018.

8(1)(a) is

A Participant shall not bet, either directly or indirectly, or instruct, permit, cause or enable any person to bet on -
(i) the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of, or occurrence in, a football match or competition; or
(ii) any other matter concerning or related to football anywhere in the world, including, for example and without limitation, the transfer of players, employment of managers, team selection or disciplinary matters.

8(1)(b) is

Where a Participant provides to any other person any information relating to football which the Participant has obtained by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available at that time, the Participant shall be in breach of this Rule where any of that information is used by that other person for, or in relation to, betting.

They said it occurred January 2018 which would seem to be before his loan to West Brom unless it occurred literally as soon as he got to West Brom.

 

[Il Mediano]

 

[Savant]

They said it occurred January 2018 which would seem to be before his loan to West Brom unless it occurred literally as soon as he got to West Brom.

Things are rightfully quiet on this, but supposedly Sturridge may have leaked his move to WBA

 

[YNWA14]

There are some good points made. I know people don't like Mourinho but that team just does not have the quality that people think it does. He certainly got the most out of them last season and it's making his job harder this season because they're simply not that good.

The best part is when Neville says to Souness 'do you think Fellaini can play one or two touch football' and Souness replies with 'well I wouldn't play Fellaini' lul

 

[The Abusement Park]

I think Pablo made a good point there. He said they just need to go out, attack and play positively. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that United is stuck in mid table while playing bottom of the table tactics. Every team above them is playing attractive or positive football. Sure Bournemouth on paper is a far far inferior team, but they’re well coached and they go out there and try to score and try to win. And they’ve done it now for 4 seasons. United can easily scrape by as a 5-8 placed team playing like this based on their talent alone, but if they went out and played positively they could easily finish top 4. Oh well.

 

[East Coast Bias]

I think Pablo made a good point there. He said they just need to go out, attack and play positively. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that United is stuck in mid table while playing bottom of the table tactics. Every team above them is playing attractive or positive football. Sure Bournemouth on paper is a far far inferior team, but they’re well coached and they go out there and try to score and try to win. And they’ve done it now for 4 seasons. United can easily scrape by as a 5-8 placed team playing like this based on their talent alone, but if they went out and played positively they could easily finish top 4. Oh well.

They need a new manager. I don't think anyones winning the league with this roster, but they can do better.

It's not gonna happen cause the ambition is money but I can only hope. Maybe if they finish 8th, the Glazers will wake up when they see the books.

 

[hatterson]

There are some good points made. I know people don't like Mourinho but that team just does not have the quality that people think it does. He certainly got the most out of them last season and it's making his job harder this season because they're simply not that good.

The best part is when Neville says to Souness 'do you think Fellaini can play one or two touch football' and Souness replies with 'well I wouldn't play Fellaini' lul

Right, but Mourinho has spent ~450 million euro on new players since he arrived.

Pogba is good.
Mkhi has a poor buy.
Bailly was excellent until this year and now he apparently can't get on the pitch to save his life.
Lukaku was a mediocre buy at best.
Matic was good last year, but is clearly running out of legs.
Lindelof started rough but seems to be rounding into solid form.
Sanchez has been a failure.
Fred hasn't looked good.
Dalot was a buy for the future, so it's too early to judge.

Now, obviously transfers aren't 100% on him and Woodward has caused a ton of damage with his interference over the last half - 3/4 decade. However, Mourinho is far from an innocent victim of the poor quality that was on the pitch on Sunday.

 

[The Abusement Park]

They need a new manager. I don't think anyones winning the league with this roster, but they can do better.

It's not gonna happen cause the ambition is money but I can only hope. Maybe if they finish 8th, the Glazers will wake up when they see the books.

They definitely need a new manager. But no manager is gonna win a title with this club until we get a RW, a new ST, a RB, a CDM, some new CB’s and so on and so forth. I mean I think this club could easily be in the fight for top 4 but the only way is to play positive football. Score some goals for god sake.

 

[The Abusement Park]

However, Mourinho is far from an innocent victim of the poor quality that was on the pitch on Sunday.

He just compounds Woodward’s issues and vice versa.

 

[East Coast Bias]

There are some good points made. I know people don't like Mourinho but that team just does not have the quality that people think it does. He certainly got the most out of them last season and it's making his job harder this season because they're simply not that good.

The best part is when Neville says to Souness 'do you think Fellaini can play one or two touch football' and Souness replies with 'well I wouldn't play Fellaini' lul

Right but both of those things are on him. He loves to point out he got the best of the team, but it's his team. He's here 3 years now. He's not playing Fellani because he's forced to, he's playing him b/c he wants to.

With him it's always beat up on the bottom 14, grind out close results against the top 6. Problem for him is that Bournemouth and Wolves and Watford aren't coming into OT and going into a shell. The whole landscape has changed and he hasn't. The margin of error is tiny now.

I don't think they have a top 3 roster, but a good manager who could get the best out of these players would be playing better than this shit.

 

[YNWA14]

I agree that they could play more attractive football and it would give them a better, more consistent chance at finishing 4th but I think the expectations are very high for a team with the quality that they have currently (regardless of who made the buys).

 

[Savant]

I agree that they could play more attractive football and it would give them a better, more consistent chance at finishing 4th but I think the expectations are very high for a team with the quality that they have currently (regardless of who made the buys).

I mean I wouldn't give Jose money if they are going to sack him in the off season. If they buy the wrong style players the same problems are going to present themselves. I think man u is saying money for the next guy

 

[The Abusement Park]

On a completely unrelated note... what do people think of Eddie Howe as a manager? I think he’s a fantastic manager and what he’s done with Bournemouth is just so so impressive.

 

[YNWA14]

On a completely unrelated note... what do people think of Eddie Howe as a manager? I think he’s a fantastic manager and what he’s done with Bournemouth is just so so impressive.

I agree. He seems pretty likeable as well. The top clubs could do a lot worse though obviously that's a test that's hard to predict going from no expectations to the weight of the world on your shoulders.

 

[Ceremony]

Scott Bain got the bullet from Dundee after passing team news to players on the opposition.

Well, I say he got the bullet, he went on loan to the team he passed information to, then he got sold to Celtic before that loan was over, and made his inevitable international debut six months later. Stick a tenner on Sturridge for the Balon d'Or.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I agree. He seems pretty likeable as well. The top clubs could do a lot worse though obviously that's a test that's hard to predict going from no expectations to the weight of the world on your shoulders.

Yeah definitely. He seems like a real good man manager and he plays/wants to play pretty, positive football.

Part of me wants him to stay at Bournemouth to see how far he can take them. And the part of me wants to see what he can do at a big club with top players and a lot of money.

 

[East Coast Bias]

I agree that they could play more attractive football and it would give them a better, more consistent chance at finishing 4th but I think the expectations are very high for a team with the quality that they have currently (regardless of who made the buys).

I don't think the expectations are high at all. Not being in 8th and being bored to death every match isn't exactly high expectations.

There's plenty of old guys that are known quantities in the squad. I get that part. But there's plenty of younger guys who a good manager can get more from. A lot more. Pogba, Fred, Andreas, Lindelof, Shaw, Bailly, Martial, Rashford, Lingard are all 25 or under. They're hardly all finished products. Some may have peaked, but we don't really know that. They are hardly even coached at this point.

We see it time and time again that the whole of a club is greater than the sum of its parts. There are plenty of really good teams that don't field all world players at every position.

 

[hatterson]

I don't think the expectations are high at all. Not being in 8th and being bored to death every match isn't exactly high expectations.

There's plenty of old guys that are known quantities in the squad. I get that part. But there's plenty of younger guys who a good manager can get more from. A lot more. Pogba, Fred, Andreas, Lindelof, Shaw, Bailly, Martial, Rashford, Lingard are all 25 or under. They're hardly all finished products. Some may have peaked, but we don't really know that. They are hardly even coached at this point.

We see it time and time again that the whole of a club is greater than the sum of its parts. There are plenty of really good teams that don't field all world players at every position.

Yea it's 1/4 of the way through the season, they're in 8th place, have a negative goal difference and are 7 points back of a CL place.

Simply asking for being within a game of the CL and a positive goal difference shouldn't be "high expectations" for a club like United. And that was clearly within reach this year. Beat Burnley, beat wolves at home, beat West Ham. Pick 2 of those and United are on either 25 or 26 points only 1 or 2 back of Spurs for 4th.

 

[Evilo]

Right, but Mourinho has spent ~450 million euro on new players since he arrived.

Pogba is good.
Mkhi has a poor buy.
Bailly was excellent until this year and now he apparently can't get on the pitch to save his life.
Lukaku was a mediocre buy at best.
Matic was good last year, but is clearly running out of legs.
Lindelof started rough but seems to be rounding into solid form.
Sanchez has been a failure.
Fred hasn't looked good.
Dalot was a buy for the future, so it's too early to judge.

Now, obviously transfers aren't 100% on him and Woodward has caused a ton of damage with his interference over the last half - 3/4 decade. However, Mourinho is far from an innocent victim of the poor quality that was on the pitch on Sunday.

Some of those "failures" or "poor buys" were also the results of players underperforming under Mou.
Sanchez, Mkh, Lukaku were good elsewhere under other managers.

 

[YNWA14]

Some of those "failures" or "poor buys" were also the results of players underperforming under Mou.
Sanchez, Mkh, Lukaku were good elsewhere under other managers.

I think the Sanchez downturn is easily explainable due to his lack of freedom in this team; I know Barca supporters were never that high on him. Lukaku is performing at the same level he did at Everton and Mkhi just seems past his best and never fully adjusted to the PL. I don't think that it's really down to them 'underperforming' persay under Mou.

 

[hatterson]

Last year Lukaku was the same as he was at Everton. This year he's been much worse.

 

[YNWA14]

Last year Lukaku was the same as he was at Everton. This year he's been much worse.

Was never very high on him to begin with to be honest; he's lacking in confidence currently but I think 16/17 Everton was the anomaly for him...he's much more of what he showed in his first season at United and previous seasons at Everton.

I do think United could have a good team (not great) if they played more openly and had Sanchez/Martial/Rashford up front supported by a midfield of Herrera, Pogba and Matic.

I still think that United getting 2nd last season with the quality they have and the style they play is a minor miracle.