Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

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Barcelona 🤣

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Leicester City destroyed Manchester United 4-2 today.

How long before Ole Solskjaer is sacked?

Look at the score sheet - Tielemans, Vardy, Soyuncu, Daka - these are better players than what Man Utd have in those positions. Not surprising at all. Patson Daka is an elite talent who could reach Lukaku levels of ability.

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Steve Bruce achieved pretty much all that was asked of him the past few years - Keep Newcastle United in the Premier League on minimal spending. The squad is abject, easily in the bottom 5 in the league in terms of quality.

Yeah, it really is a terrible squad. 12th was a great achievement with a squad that was easily a relegation candidate.

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And even if they are relegated, the Saudis have deep pockets. They'll be back in the Premier League after a one year absence.

Nobody is disputing that Newcastle could come back up immediately - they've done that multiple times without Saudi money thanks to parachute payments and the fact that they're way too big for the Championship. (Norwich is way smaller than Newcastle and they always come back up) The question is why get rid of Steve Bruce in October when he's not done badly and there's not even a blockbuster long-term replacement they could sign.

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It's rather obvious big five leagues (EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue I) aren't going to take the Europa Conference League seriously when they do qualify, so why bother giving them qualification spots?

The Europa Conference League is a joke and shouldn't exist at all. If a Portuguese or Dutch giant won it, they would be mocked endlessly by opposition supporters. Any team in a top ~10 league should be striving for at least the Europa League, and there's really no need for a pan-European competition that would only mean something if a team from Poland or Norway won it.

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Also, West Ham United is punching way above their weight, as they beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0, to climb to fourth.

lol no. Spurs are just a terrible team. Comparing the two team sheets today, the only Spurs player I would take in a combined XI is Reguilon. Hojbjerg is good, but I wouldn't take him over Rice and Soucek. Not saying West Ham is better than Spurs, but they are better coached and the talent gulf is not very big.

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Yesterday Giovanni Simeone, striker for Verona and son of Atlético Madrid coach Diego Simeone, had a moment of glory and destroyed Lazio by scoring four goals - something that I think happens a couple times a year or so in Serie A. The match ended 4-1 as Ciro "clockwork" Immobile did not fail to put his name on the score sheet.

Wasn't Mussolini's great grandson in the Lazio squad for the match?

Lazio is such a great club.

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Manchester City is paying the price for not paying full price to sign Harry Kane or Erling Haaland at the moment.

As for Bayern Munich, how on earth do you lose 5-0 to Borussia Monchengladbach?

Kane was not worth it. If he was actually worth the money Spurs wanted for him, PSG would surely have been interested. Haaland held all the cards last summer, and it was not the right time.

As for Bayern, that's football. Gladbach is a good team, and anything can happen in a cup match.

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Looks like the 5 subs/3 opportunities rule will become permanent.

Sky Sports:

During a virtual meeting on Wednesday and following a number of requests from confederations, associations, leagues and other key stakeholders to bring in five substitutions permanently, the advisory panels have made the suggestion.

 
An IFAB statement read: "FAP-TAP today recommended that competitions should be able to decide on increasing the number of substitutes according to the needs of their football environment, while the current number of substitution opportunities (three plus half-time) should stay the same."

Horrible. Teams can literally change half the outfield players.

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Former Manchester City legend Sergio Agüero, who currently plays for Barcelona, will retire due to heart issues.


https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/I1462094743068893191

I think it's safe to say that Barcelona will not be playing in Europe next year.

They might well be able to send some teenagers to play on a Thursday night in Szczecin or something.

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FIFA under fire for scheduling Oceania World Cup qualifiers outside of an international window.

New Zealand coach Danny Hay has criticised FIFA for scheduling part of Oceania's World Cup qualifying tournament outside the international window, saying it would not happen to any other region.

The nine-team tournament will be staged in Qatar from March 14-30 to decide which team advances to a playoff against the fourth-placed side from CONCACAF, which features nations from North and Central America and the Caribbean.

I think FIFA would have been better off canceling Oceania's qualifying altogether and allowing the fourth place team in CONCACAF to advance without a playoff.

... it's called a World Cup. Even for a useless region, you have to give them a path.

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Moyes is doing a great job. Good to see him established at a club again.

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Lucas Digne is heading from Everton to Aston Villa in a 30 million Euro deal.=

On paper, Villa has an outrageous team now - Leon Bailey, Lucas Digne, Emi Buendia, Philippe Coutinho, Douglas Luiz..

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How is Canada still on top of the Octagonal?... Weather obviously plays a big role at home (how is it even allowed to play games in Edmonton in winter LOL), but they've been undefeated away, too.

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How is Canada still on top of the Octagonal?... Weather obviously plays a big role at home (how is it even allowed to play games in Edmonton in winter LOL), but they've been undefeated away, too.

They aren't going to be on top when we beat them on Sunday.

Hello. Wrong as usual.

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How is Canada still on top of the Octagonal?... Weather obviously plays a big role at home (how is it even allowed to play games in Edmonton in winter LOL), but they've been undefeated away, too.

They aren't going to be on top when we beat them on Sunday.

Hello. Wrong as usual.

I have no idea how we lost, let alone lost 2-0. Canada shouldn't be this good.

Canada would get murdered in European, South American or African qualifying. They just look good compared to the useless teams of CONCACAF.

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My goodness, we flattened Honduras, 3-0.

All we probably need to do is get six points (and maybe even only four depending on how Mexico and Canada do), in the next window against Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica.

Of course, we have to go to Estadio Azteca and Estadio Nacional, two venues we usually lose at...

They played a winless cannon fodder team in the winter in Minnesota on an artificial surface... not really too much to get excited about.

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Kidderminster almost beat West Ham. Nothing against West Ham but it would've been a seismic upset.

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Remember when Rafa Benitez demanded more money from the Inter board because he won the Club World Cup? 😂

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Heartbreak for Sheriff, they played admirably considering their lack of experience playing at this level of European competition.

But Rangers are through, and were handed a fairly kind draw against Red Star.

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Shambolic PSG led by serial bottler Pochettino concede 3 goals on terrible mistakes... Congrats to Carlo and Benzema.

That pass by Modric threading the needle through half the PSG team was beautiful.

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PSG should easily beat any non-Manchester City/Liverpool/Bayern Munich side (and they'd be favorites against Bayern and Liverpool if Kylian Mbappe doesn't leave in this transfer window).

Just reminding everyone... On paper they are the best, but the last decade has shown it's never easy for them in the Champions League.

And let's not kid ourselves, Real Madrid is still very good.

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I'm still shocked by Ajax being defeated by Benfica. The world has completely gone crazy.

They are the two greatest "finishing schools" for top talent in Europe.

Yes, Ajax played better, and have better talent right now, but they didn't create many real chances, and I don't know a single Ajax supporter who begrudges Benfica their win.

Also, Atleti merely lived up to expectations by beating Man Utd, unlike what some in the English media are saying. You look on paper, and while Man Utd is a good team, so is Atleti. João Félix (most talented young player in the world alongside Camavinga, imo), Griezmann, Koke, Llorente, Oblak... this is a world-class team.

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Oh, Italy…

Almost as bad as Madrid losing to Sheriff at the Bernabeu.

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I hope North Macedonia beats Portugal. Nothing against Portugal, but it'd be nice to have a new team at the World Cup, it puts Ronaldo in his place, and it’ll trigger Greece. What more can you ask for?