2022-23 PL season.

First topic message reminder :

Liverpool won the Community Shield 3-1 over Manchester City at the King Power Stadium.
TAA opened the scoring.
Julian Alvarez scored on his City debut.
Salah scored a penalty after Dias handball.
Darwin Nunez scored late on, also ok debut.

Seems like the media really have to hype up Liverpool for some reason…

Debut to forget for Erling Haaland, largely anonymous. And missed a sitter from 6 yards out late on. Hit the crossbar in fact.

Wild over the top celebrations over a pre season match…genuinely baffling scenes.

Villa are f*cking massive.

Cristiano Ronaldo has done an interview with that clown Piers Morgan - the Portuguese crying that he’s been disrespected. Maybe if he wasn’t absolutely washed people would care.

He's a once great player but why would anyone respect you when you continually act like a child.

Should never have signed him as a vanity project to begin with.

Nobody wanted him before, imagine his options are down to a return home or a payday somewhere now

Ronaldo comes across stupid as he refused to take a pay cut to actually facilitate a move away in the summer.
Like who in the world, aside from Manchester United, will pay a 37 year old £500,000 per week?
If he really only cares ‘about winning’ why did he not accept a reduction?

Imagine there's a lot of clubs who would pay a small wedge to have a semi retired Ronaldo if he wants a payday.

GSC wrote:Imagine there's a lot of clubs who would pay a small wedge to have a semi retired Ronaldo if he wants a payday.

But will his ego let him go to MLS or China or the Middle East? Certainly, none of the top clubs in Europe will be after him now.

Cristiano Ronaldo has left Manchester United

Seems like the Glazer family are finally ready to sell up...

Just goes to show the calibre of the man really. Imagine he could've sat down and managed himself out of his contract if he wanted. Instead we get a tell all interview about he's the victim where he craps all over his manager and teammates and ensures the focus will be on him at the WC.

Ronaldo gave up £15.5m to have his contract terminated.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Seems like the Glazer family are finally ready to sell up...

Stand by for the whiplash when Ronaldo sacrificed himself to save the club in the hearts and minds of the fans if it happens.

Back to the PL tomorrow. We get to see what effect the World Cup and all the upheaval has had on the teams.

Arsenal's title charge potentially derailed due to Jesus's injury. Will Newcastle maintain their astonishing pre World Cup run? Will Liverpool and Chelsea get back into the top four? Potter might be fearing for his job already if he doesn't hit the ground running straight away. Will Kane recover? And with just 9 points separating 9th and 20th, who on earth is going to get relegated?

Liverpool to sign Cody Gakpo for a reported £37m.

Manchester United 2-1 Manchester City - the home side come from a goal down to win the Manchester derby.
Grealish scored the opener, United replied with goals from Fernándes and Rashford.

Having read the controversy about the equaliser before I saw it, I was a little underwhelmed. Nobody really got close enough for Rashford to be in the way, because they didn't pick up Fernandes to begin with.

Re Man U first goal - Extraordinary that a player who runs on to a through ball and draws in covering defenders and who then shapes to shoot is considered NOT to be interfering with play.

Crazy decision to award the goal.

I think it can be argued that the goal was correct in law, but the law is silly in this case. You can't have a situation where an offside player gets that close to the ball and doesn't get flagged for it.

Duty281 wrote:I think it can be argued that the goal was correct in law, but the law is silly in this case. You can't have a situation where an offside player gets that close to the ball and doesn't get flagged for it.

Yep, I’m with Duty on this. In this situation, the offside player is unfairly distracting - or, at least, should be - the defending team and likely to be drawing attention away from his onside team mates.

Brighton 3-0 Liverpool - the Seagulls hammer the Merseysiders.
Unless Klopp can fluke the CL, his journey seems done at Anfield.

It was Man City so a perfectly good goal for me.

Think whatever the rules may be, if that's not considered offside then they need reviewing over the summer.

Moyes has gone with Benitez taking over apparently

City getting booed off at half-time versus Spurs, with the North Londoners leading 2-0 after a quick double.

Very flat stuff from City, Haaland's fluffed a couple of chances. If Spurs hold on, and it's a big if because it's Spurs, it'll be 5 wins from their last 6 PL meetings with City. What a record that would be.

Ah yes, Spursy. 3-2 City after 63 minutes. Perisic narrowly missing a chance to put Spurs back in front, then he makes an error at the other end which allows City in. Lloris having a shocker and not for the first time - an area that Tottenham will need to improve upon over the summer.

4-2 FT. The spark City need to go on a 10 game winning run?

Lampard getting sacked at Everton puts his managerial career at a crossroads. Par job at Derby, but then sacked at Chelsea and now Everton (surprised he lasted as long as he did at Everton) - where to now? The Championship? Abroad? Or a lifetime of easy punditry?

I think Lampard actually did OK at Chelsea, at least given the circumstances of the time (transfer embargo) and that they were not going to get a bigger name manager at that point in time. Everton are just a mess, and that's only in a small part down to Lampard.

I would certainly agree that he needs more time to develop as a manaer, and that perhaps dropping down a division or moving to a lower profile league abroad may be the right choice at this stage in his coaching development. Of course this is on the proviso that he actually wants to continue his development as a coach / manager.

My recollection is that Lampard is actually a person of fairly high intelligence (iirc, there was a rumour that his IQ score was at Mensa level), so I'm not sure he'd find a career of vacuous punditry particularly rewarding, and maybe coaching is more reqarding on an intellectual level.

Good to have Dyche back. If Dyche can keep Everton up this season, there's scope for him to get them back in the top half playing some attractive stuff, thus shattering the stereotypes that currently exist of him.