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The 2014/2015 Football (Soccer) Thread


markyosullivan

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The 2014/2015 Football (Soccer) Thread

http://img.vavel.com/title-2639815732.jpg

(Man City celebrating their 2013/2014 title win)

Thought I'd put a picture of the reigning EPL champions on the very first post of this thread because the EPL is probably the most popular league amongst the MMA Tycoon community. Man City will be looking to retain their title and win it for a second time in a row.

 

Their biggest threat will arguably come from Chelsea ( my team :wub: ) who have strengthened their squad by signing former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, who has replaced the departing Chelsea legend Frank Lampard. Another player who has signed for Chelsea, is former Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa.

http://e1.365dm.com/14/07/800x600/Fabregas_3179732.jpg?20140728165853

(Cesc Fabregas)

 

 

Man United have a new manager, Louis Van Gaal who was the manager of Holland during the 2014 World Cup. He's got an impressive record as a manager and seems to do well with basically every club he's managed during his career however I don't think he's strengthened the squad enough and they still need new players in a couple of positions, one of these positions being CB to replace Vidic who has left to join Inter Milan.

 

http://www.nerdoholic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Van-Gaalmoyes1.jpg

(Louis Van Gaal)

 

 

Arsenal has strengthened their squad by adding a couple of players, with one of them being Alexis Sanchez, who I believe is a cracking player and will definitely impress during his time at Arsenal. I think he was one probably one of the best players for Chile during their 2014 World Cup campaign. They beat Man City 3-0 in the Community Shield, perhaps this is a good sign of things to come? Or perhaps it'll be another inconsistent season for the Gunners.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9598887.ece/alternates/w620/Alexis-Sanchez.jpg

(Alexis Sanchez)

 

Liverpool have been busy signing a number of players. Lallana, Lambert, Lovern, Markovic, etc. I'd say the best of these players is Lallana and he could be a real creative force for Liverpool if he plays the way he played for Southampton. The biggest question everyone is wondering about Liverpool is how they will perform without Luis Suarez, who was probably the best player in the EPL last season. He's left to join Messi, Neymar and co at Barcelona.

 

http://images.dailystar-uk.co.uk/dynamic/58/photos/279000/620x/Lallana_Saints_England-368428.jpg

(Adam Lallana)

 

 

Feel free to share your thoughts on all things related to the 2014/2015 football season in this thread!

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Balotelli is so talented but he's a wasted talent, as he matures he will be brilliant (if he matures that is)

 

On a side note, positive 3-1 over Blackburn to put aside the 1-0 opening day defeat.

Big derby against Ipswich today so hopefully we can pull it out in style

--I'm a Norwich fan in case anyone was unaware--

 

Just to say that it's been 12 years since we last won on the opening day *sigh*

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Spurs have gotten Davies at LB from Swansea (we needed rotation to Rose) and Vroom as the backup to Loris at GK. We also will have Yedlin coming in from the USA in January as cover for Walker, i think he is a great 20y prospect from the USA, we offloaded Sigurdson in the Davies/Vroom deal. I guess our biggest change is the manager so far, Pochettino moved over from Southampton. He had a decent season there, but to me he is another "experiment", the same way Sherwood and AVB was, so very hard to say anything about him other than he seems to like working with the youngsters and liked offensive football.

 

Overall though we did not solve our issue in attack and we do not have anyone at Left midfield worth a shit. It seems the chairman decided to try to get his value's worth from last years 100m spending. In my opinion though, Soldado (28m) will struggle in the EPL due to his lack of pace and strength, the only way he can get anywhere is if Holby plays the through back and is in the team together with him. Lamela (35m) is not worth that money and although he could become a rotation player, that is about the most i expect from him, i do expect him to have a much better season this year though, he seems stronger and he has a manager which understands him (both from Argentina). Paulinho (18m) is not worth that money for sure. I heard we got decent offers from Italy (Lamela), Valencia (Soldado) and Brazil (Paulinho), if i was Spurs i would accept the fact that we failed with them and offload all 3 for a cut price, we will still get 60m from them, which is more than enough to get 3 great replacements. I would also offload Ekotto, Adebayor, Dawson, Chadli, Naughton as well to open up some more cash to strengthen the team.

 

We won our first 2 games (West Ham, AEL Limassol), however we were very unimpressive in both games. The good news is we came back from adversity in those games to win (we were down to 10 men against West Ham and was losing 1-0 against AEL until the 72nd minute). My prediction is 5th place.

 

I think City will regain the title, Chelsea 2nd, Arsenal 3rd, Liverpool 4th, Spurs 5th, United 6th, Everton 7th.

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why so negative already Mentor? we've won our first 2 games and he has only been with the players for 6 weeks so far (some less) trying to implement his style of play. we must give him time otherwise we are back to square one again, and to compare him with Sherwood is laughable as he was completely clueless.

in my opinion even though we didn't play particularly well in the 2 games it was evident that we were pressing much better as a team and that is the platform that Pocchetino likes to build his teams from. we may only get top 8 this season but this has to be a longer project, he has a 5 year contract and i for one hope he completes it, so far Harry has been our longest serving manager in the EPL and that was for 2 and a half years.

So cheer up mate, we are in good hands for a change!

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Spurs were impressive against QPR but then again, let's not get too ahead of ourselves... It is QPR after all. :D

 

Delighted to see Diego Costa having scored in both of his 2 matches so far. Both teams haven't been the best of teams but it's still better than Torres who can't even score against similar teams.

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Delighted with West Hams win against Crystal Palace. Nolan was injured so Sam was forced to play without him and it worked wonders. Carlton Cole isn't a lone striker, he needs someone to play off, and Zarate provided the perfect player for that. We need to stick with 2 strikers as Nolan just doesn't work hard enough without Andy Carroll in the team. Sakho looked dangerous also, and with Ravel Morrison also in there, we seem to have a solid attacking group.

 

Cheikhou Kouyate looked brilliant again. He works his way around the pitch and doesn't stop running. His speed and strength make him perfect to break up opponents attacks and he frees Mark Noble to go further up the pitch where his passing is useful for our more attack minded approach.

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Real life aside, I'm a bit unhappy at Mr Howard (Tim, not the retired Mr. Webb) in Fantasy, particularly against Leicester. My cheap backup in Guzan got the nod last week due to Everton playing Arsenal, but he seems to have done better so far so I might keep playing him (particularly since Everton play Chelsea). Also a bit annoyed as to why Tottenham aren't playing Ben Davies. Given his form for Swansea last season, I thought he'd really be a super pick for his price now at a better team, but alas... 0 minutes in the Prem so far. Rose being picked ahead of him? Gimme a break.

 

That said, currently 4th in the Tycoon classic league, 6 points from the top (which is why small things like one player not reaching expectations matter!)

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but in his defence he is a converted left back from a winger and he is still young so he may get better....

 

So sort of a reverse Gareth Bale then? Hah, if only, I guess...

 

I don't think Rose is a bad player (I say this objectively as an Arsenal fan), but just not better than Davies at the moment. Dier looks to be a good pickup, and Vert back in CB, I think Tottenham's back 4 have really improved.... if they play Davies.

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