Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[Alcibiades]

Man City's first XI is still not as good as PSG's with their summer additions, especially if they can bag Theo Hernandez. And is Man City even better than Chelsea? I don't think so, except perhaps in depth.

If you want to see a super team, look at Ancelotti's Milan sides. I mean, just look at how disgustingly good this team was:


Of course, they lost to to that Liverpool team of Stevie G and 10 farmers... (okay, Xabi Alonso was good too) Doesn't make Man City or PSG's failures in the Champions League look so bad by comparison.

In a similar vein, I’ve always found this photo amusing (to think this was only the bench!):

[Alcibiades]

Man City's first XI is still not as good as PSG's with their summer additions, especially if they can bag Theo Hernandez. And is Man City even better than Chelsea? I don't think so, except perhaps in depth.

If you want to see a super team, look at Ancelotti's Milan sides. I mean, just look at how disgustingly good this team was:


Of course, they lost to to that Liverpool team of Stevie G and 10 farmers... (okay, Xabi Alonso was good too) Doesn't make Man City or PSG's failures in the Champions League look so bad by comparison.

In a similar vein, I’ve always found this photo amusing (to think this was only the bench!):

What year was this?

2008, I believe.

[Alcibiades]

lol, Arsenal. Tierney is good, and so is Leno I guess, but the rest of the starting XI do not belong in a top-half team. I don't know how some pundits have them finishing in the European places - they are miles off that.

I do like Tierney, but he’s a little overrated. Arsenal fans and pundits have a tendency to massively big up our best players and make huge scapegoats of our worse ones. After watching that performance, though, I have no idea why we, to borrow a turn of phrase from the Prime Minister, spaffed £50 million up the wall for Ben White.

[Alcibiades]

Taking a break from the Premier League discussion, on a personal note (and because I know many from afar have been taken in by the fairytale story), professional football returned to Wimbledon for the first time in 30 years today, as AFC Wimbledon played their first game in front of fans at their new stadium at Plough Lane - a thrilling 3-3 draw with Bolton.

Before that, AFC had played at Kingsmeadow in Kingston, while the old Wimbledon FC were forced to move to Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park in 1991. I sadly couldn’t get tickets (hopefully soon though!), but it was great to see the throngs of blue and yellow shirts in Wimbledon town today. Regardless, this is yet another important and emotional milestone on a magnificent and remarkable story.

[Alcibiades]

Gerd Müller, arguably the greatest out-and-out striker of all time, has died aged 75. RIP.

[Alcibiades]

Sheriff showing the former Yugoslav giants Red Star and Dinamo who's... well, Sheriff. Even better, they have a literal knockoff Adama Traore.

I admit to being slightly more impressed by Shakhtar Donestk's win over Monaco, in Monaco.

How is that impressive? Shakhtar are always a very strong team who regularly beat much stronger teams than Monaco and are a mainstay of the Champions League group stages. Sheriff are the champions of the 41st-ranked league in Europe and have never reached a Champions League group stage.

Sheriff also had a much easier opponent than Shakhtar did, even if they were underdogs, France's Ligue 1 a significantly stronger league than the Ukrainian Premier League, and the game was being played in Monaco.

Transfermarkt values Monaco's current squad at $424m. Shakhtar's squad is $196m while Zagreb's is $145m. Sheriff's squad value is $13m. Anyone who knows anything about football would've immediately known which was the bigger upset, and it's not even close.

Shakhtar beating Monaco is like a bottom club beating a mid-table club in the same division. Sheriff beating Zagreb is like a 3rd division club beating a top-flight team. 3-0, even.

Not to mention that Zagreb had a pretty impressive European run last season.

[Alcibiades]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

[Alcibiades]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

Given this appears to be Nice fans, forced relegation for Nice has to be the minimum here. Forced relegation multiple divisions should be considered.

No one on the planet will ever embrace the draconian punishments you have suggested for all variety of sporting misbehavior.

Evidently my idea of hefty sanctions (matches behind closed doors, possibly a few points deducted) are mere slaps on the wrist to NYE.

[Alcibiades]

UEFA’s new seeding system once again producing some absurd groups (not that I’m complaining from an entertainment point of view). Group A really stands out as the group of death this year.

[Alcibiades]

Group E
Lazio [ITA]
Marseille [FRA]
Galatasaray [TUR]
Lokomotiv Moscow [RUS]

Now that's a group of death.

Group B (Monaco, PSV, Real Sociedad, Graz) is arguably tougher, although Graz are weaker than Lokomotiv. PSV thrashed Galatasaray on aggregate in UCL qualifying.

[Alcibiades]

Group E
Lazio [ITA]
Marseille [FRA]
Galatasaray [TUR]
Lokomotiv Moscow [RUS]

Now that's a group of death.

Group B (Monaco, PSV, Real Sociedad, Graz) is arguably tougher, although Graz are weaker than Lokomotiv. PSV thrashed Galatasaray on aggregate in UCL qualifying.

Not that kind of death

Ah, I see now.

[Alcibiades]

Group E
Lazio [ITA]
Marseille [FRA]
Galatasaray [TUR]
Lokomotiv Moscow [RUS]

Now that's a group of death.

Group B (Monaco, PSV, Real Sociedad, Graz) is arguably tougher, although Graz are weaker than Lokomotiv. PSV thrashed Galatasaray on aggregate in UCL qualifying.

Not that kind of death

I don't get it

I think Donerail is referring to the, uh, reputation of the fans of those clubs.

[Alcibiades]

Ilaix has gone to RB Leipzig for a mere €15 million. A real steal, and I can only assume that for whatever reason he was unhappy at Barcelona.

[Alcibiades]

Instant classic tonight in Sheriff-Real Madrid. Not only a massively symbolic upset, but what a screamer to win it late on!

[Alcibiades]

As unsavoury as Serbia are, and as incomplete a World Cup without Ronaldo would be (although he would probably end up going home after the Round of 16 as usual), that was an incredibly exciting match, and one cannot help but feel a little Schadenfreude at Ronny’s predicament.

[Alcibiades]

Arsenal - Man City has left me feeling the angriest I’ve been for a long time after a football match. We played Man City off the park when it was 11 vs 11 - the first half was arguably the best 45 minutes of football we’ve played this season - but sadly the ref ruined the game.

The Man City penalty was kind of 50-50 - you can see why it was given - but what infuriates me is the inconsistency. How was the challenge on Ødegaard earlier not a penalty when that one was? Why did the referee make a clear and obvious error with the City appeal, but not ours? Why wasn’t he even sent to the screen for the Ødegaard incident? As for Gabriel’s second yellow, it honestly baffles me, especially when Man City did several similar fouls for which they received no caution; if Rodri had been in an Arsenal shirt, he probably wouldn’t have been on the pitch by the time he scored.

Everyone knows the Premier League has the worst standard of refereeing of any of the major European leagues, and yet nothing ever changes. It’s the same sh—t week in week out - zero accountability and mind-boggling inconsistency. I would say decisions seem to be made almost at random, but it always ends up being teams like Man City who benefit, and those like Arsenal who suffer.

[Alcibiades]

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.

PSG and bottling in the UCL. Name a more iconic duo.

[Alcibiades]

Oh, Italy…

[Alcibiades]

Just realised that the last time Italy made it to the knockout stages of the World Cup was when they won it in 2006. Yikes…

[Alcibiades]

I think we've found our 2022 World Cup Champion.

Who?

North Macedonia, who apparently beat Italy today and I didn't notice.

After watching today's match, I think it was rather Italy that lost and not Macedonia that won. Portugal didn't played a brilliant game, but Macedonia never had a chance.

Italy had 2 missed penalties in the group stage and literally missed a literal open goal against North Macedonia, so they definitely lost it.

Sweden dominated most of the game against Poland today, but were clueless after they conceded a second against the run of play. At least the best team in Africa, Senegal, squeaked past Egypt in yet another shootout.

https://mobile.twitter.com/vaphreak/status/1508893297107996678

It’s no wonder that Egypt missed all but one of their pens. They have the right to feel extremely pissed off, and it’s a joke the shootout was even allowed to go ahead while a literal disco was going on, but this is CAF…

[Alcibiades]

Wow, one of the all time great UCL ties. An instant classic over both legs.

[Alcibiades]

Wow, really fantastic achievement by Rangers, while Frankfurt get the final they probably deserved to reach in 2019.

[Alcibiades]

Not sure I’ve ever seen a more incredible winning Champions League run than this. As Santander mentioned, huge respect to Ancelotti but also this finally cements Benzema, Modrić, Kroos, Casemiro as being universally recognised as amongst the very finest players of their generation (the former especially, who for many years was criminally underrated as he played in the shadow of Ronaldo).

[Alcibiades]

England lose! 🤡

And all the while being taunted by literal kids, lol.

[Alcibiades]

Wow, Arsenal really are looking good. Not the prettiest of performances today, but we showed real fight. I wonder though, considering recent history, when I can start to believe…