Premiere League & World Soccer Thread

#2,676
#2,676
mad4vols said:
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Hopefully the Leeds fans will be more open minded to having an American manager than Swansea fans were during Bob Bradley’s very brief time in the PL, but I have my doubts. Bielsa is going to be tough to follow, plus they’re in a relegation battle. He may not get much rope.
 
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#2,677
#2,677
bleedorange0037 said:
Apparently the actual rule for offside is that the line should be drawn from the most forward part of the body with which Lukaku could score. We learned yesterday in the Everton/Man City match that apparently it’s perfectly legal to play the ball with the part of the arm where they’ve drawn the line in that photo. Sure, they may be wrong, but at least they’re consistently wrong.
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It’s like they make changes and don’t think about how it effects all areas. As you saw yesterday, you can arm the ball as long as it’s on the sleeve now, which means now the offsides VAR line gets drawn from the sleeve instead of the armpit. That rule doesn’t change and instead it still gets drawn from the armpit and Lukaku is onside and Chelsea are champions.
 
#2,678
#2,678
bleedorange0037 said:
Yikes, absolutely all time terrible sub by Tuchel there. Brings off Mendy, who had played out of his mind for 119 minutes, in favor of Kepa for the shootout, who then proceeds to let in 10 straight PK’s without really coming close to saving one, and then balloon his own kick halfway to Wales to lose the shootout.
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#2,681
#2,681
This chart is why Tuchel brought in Kepa for the shootout vs having Mendy stay in. Mendy is no slouch in PKs, but Kepa stops or forces misses on 1/3 of the shots he faces. Pretty good stats for PKs. If any UCL or FA Cup games comes down to penalties again I hope Tuchel remains solid even after this defeat on his tactics and puts in Kepa again. It’s worked 2 out of 3 times so far.

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#2,682
#2,682
Nash_Vol97 said:
This chart is why Tuchel brought in Kepa for the shootout vs having Mendy stay in. Mendy is no slouch in PKs, but Kepa stops or forces misses on 1/3 of the shots he faces. Pretty good stats for PKs. If any UCL or FA Cup games comes down to penalties again I hope Tuchel remains solid even after this defeat on his tactics and puts in Kepa again. It’s worked 2 out of 3 times so far.

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I figured all along there were some sort of stats to back his decision up. But, it seems a bit like the Sabermetrics guys in baseball who are so determined to distill sports down to some sort of mathematical equation that they would rather side with numbers over basic common sense. Not a swipe at you BTW, just me venting real quick about how that type of thinking has effectively ruined a game a used to love.

Their save percentage in shootouts is basically identical, and Mendy had been on the field for 119 minutes playing out of his mind. Obviously nobody really expects a shootout to last all the way to the keepers having to take one, but once it did, asking a guy to take a PK who literally hadn’t kicked a ball since pregame warmups 2 1/2 hours before looks especially dumb.

Regardless, this is one of those type of situations that really doesn’t have much middle ground. You either look like an absolute genius if it works out, or an absolute fool if it doesn’t.
 
#2,683
#2,683
bleedorange0037 said:
I figured all along there were some sort of stats to back his decision up. But, it seems a bit like the Sabermetrics guys in baseball who are so determined to distill sports down to some sort of mathematical equation that they would rather side with numbers over basic common sense. Not a swipe at you BTW, just me venting real quick about how that type of thinking has effectively ruined a game a used to love.

Their save percentage in shootouts is basically identical, and Mendy had been on the field for 119 minutes playing out of his mind. Obviously nobody really expects a shootout to last all the way to the keepers having to take one, but once it did, asking a guy to take a PK who literally hadn’t kicked a ball since pregame warmups 2 1/2 hours before looks especially dumb.

Regardless, this is one of those type of situations that really doesn’t have much middle ground. You either look like an absolute genius if it works out, or an absolute fool if it doesn’t.
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I fall somewhere in the middle with analytics. They can either be a huge advantage, or a huge hinderance and it depends fully on how you apply it. Numbers without context don’t tell the whole story, and context without numbers to back it up can’t confirm a story. This Mendy/Kepa situation is actually a good example.

When you look at the numbers for their PK save percentage when only looking at shootouts, it’s a fairly even percentage. That’s stats only. The context of the situation is that almost all of Mendys shootout action has been in AFCON and 3rd league level team in France. He’s only faced 7 total PKs total since moving to Chelsea. Most of Kepas shootout action has been against top tier England teams with 6 of the 8 shootouts he’s been in he won. The two he lost were Liverpool and Man City. Mendy was playing amazing, no doubt, he played the same way the last time Tuchel made this decision. The only difference this time was Liverpools penalties were clinical.

My main source this photo is aimed at are all of the Analysts on TV who back in the Super Cup praised the same exact decision and said things like “that took stones! Credit to Tuchel for that tactic.” among other praises and then the first time it fails they all talk about how bad of a decision it was. It’s certainly a what have you don’t for me lately crowd. Like you said though, it’s 100% a boom or bust decision.
 
#2,690
#2,690
Big news if he’s really planning to sell. Has the potential to alter the power structure of the PL if the new owners have to run them like a regular club as opposed to an oligarch’s vanity project.
 
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#2,691
#2,691
bleedorange0037 said:
Big news if he’s really planning to sell. Has the potential to alter the power structure of the PL if the new owners have to run them like a regular club as opposed to an oligarch’s vanity project.
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Glad Kroenke didn’t sell to Usmanov like I was hoping for.
 
#2,693
#2,693
bleedorange0037 said:
Big news if he’s really planning to sell. Has the potential to alter the power structure of the PL if the new owners have to run them like a regular club as opposed to an oligarch’s vanity project.
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This could potentially be really bad for Chelsea, right? Not in the sense of their current owner could get sanctioned but a new owner could own and operate the club in a very corporate, expense-minded way. Basically how Kroenke runs Arsenal.

As a fan, there are advantages to having the owner of the club run it like a vanity project.
 
#2,694
#2,694
05_never_again said:
This could potentially be really bad for Chelsea, right? Not in the sense of their current owner could get sanctioned but a new owner could own and operate the club in a very corporate, expense-minded way. Basically how Kroenke runs Arsenal.

As a fan, there are advantages to having the owner of the club run it like a vanity project.
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At this point, it feels like when, not if, Abramovich is going to get sanctioned. He’s couching this decision as “doing what’s best for the club” but it really it feels like he’s trying to cash out and gtfo of the UK with his wealth largely intact. He’s already not even allowed in the country and hasn’t been for a couple years.

But yes, even though any new owners would obviously be obscenely wealthy, given that Abramovich reportedly wants £3B for the club, they almost certainly won’t be on his level of wealth. He’s one of the richest men on the planet, and was willing to lose his own money chasing silverware in a way that only the Gulf state sheiks who own City, PSG and Newcastle can. After two decades of that, even having to live within the substantial means of a club like Chelsea would seem like austerity.
 
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#2,695
#2,695
bleedorange0037 said:
At this point, it feels like when, not if, Abramovich is going to get sanctioned. He’s couching this decision as “doing what’s best for the club” but it really it feels like he’s trying to cash out and gtfo of the UK with his wealth largely intact. He’s already not even allowed in the country and hasn’t been for a couple years.

But yes, even though any new owners would obviously be obscenely wealthy, given that Abramovich reportedly wants £3B for the club, they almost certainly won’t be on his level of wealth. He’s one of the richest men on the planet, and was willing to lose his own money chasing silverware in a way that only the Gulf state sheiks who own City, PSG and Newcastle can. After two decades of that, even having to live within the substantial means of a club like Chelsea would seem like austerity.
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Where is he going to go...literally, at this point? Back to Russia? Basically all of Europe and North America have locked his money out. I wasn't aware that he already wasn't allowed in the UK. Where has he been living since the UK kicked him out?
 
#2,696
#2,696
05_never_again said:
Where is he going to go...literally, at this point? Back to Russia? Basically all of Europe and North America have locked his money out. I wasn't aware that he already wasn't allowed in the UK. Where has he been living since the UK kicked him out?
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He’s been living in, and has been a citizen of Israel for several years. Also, a quick Google search revealed that he also got EU citizenship through Portugal a couple of months ago. But like you said, where can he can he park his money? I can’t imagine the EU is going to be any more hospitable than the UK right now. Israel? I have no idea what their policies are.
 
#2,698
#2,698
05_never_again said:
Where is he going to go...literally, at this point? Back to Russia? Basically all of Europe and North America have locked his money out. I wasn't aware that he already wasn't allowed in the UK. Where has he been living since the UK kicked him out?
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He has citizenship in more countries than just Russia, also has citizenship in Israel and Portugal. No idea where the distribution of his wealth sits.

As for where the club fires from here.. all depends on who buys it. Will most likely be a joint consortium rather than 1 outright owner because of the 2-3 billion price tag. The combination being talked about right now is a Swiss billionaire who has businesses in US and one of the LA Dodgers part owner. Don’t know what the combined net worth would be between those two or if they would bring in anyone else.

Other names being floated as interested is Britain’s biggest billionaire (don’t remember his name) and some Saudi Prince.

As for the price tag, the original expectations was club value plus payback the loan that the new owner would have to pay but Roman put out a statement that he won’t require the loan payback and that whatever net profit the sale makes he will donate to Ukraine. No idea what the full details would be but that’s what his statement said.
 
#2,700
#2,700
Who knows if any of this comes to pass, but if it does, fair play to Abramovich. Maybe the sale isn’t as cynical as it first seemed, and he really does just want to get the club sold to buyers of his choosing and not left to whatever it’s fate might be if the UK government seized it from him.

 
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