Facts about football that shouldn't be true - but are

anant said:
If I remember correctly, they changed how the goal of the season would be chosen after he won in 14/15. Arsenal fans were way to active on anything around voting and they'd hijack every poll
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Arsenal fans doing a Liverpool
 
horsechoker said:
Ryan Giggs didn't score as many goals as some may think.

His most prolific season was 93-94

In fact he only managed more than 10 goals in 5 seasons.

He scored 168 goals in 963 appearances. Paul Scholes got 155 in 718 appearances.

I wonder how he'd be viewed in the modern era of wingers being inverted goal-scorers?

This isn't me having a pop at Giggs, just saying that I thought he regularly got double figures.
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Giggs probably should have scored more, his finishing was rather erratic. If he had been the main guys on pens and free kicks you could probably add at least another 50-75 goals to his career, even with that issue. However he was a creator first with vastly more defensive responsibility that your typical wide forwards of these days. Giggs was a midfielder more than a forward, and for much of his career his job was to create for 2 strikers and an attacking midfielder making late runs.

Most agree that if he was coming through now he would probably be turned into your standard inverted cut in and shoot spammer. For me that is the most boring use of him, his creativity and ability to run with the ball from deep destroying defensive shape could be incredible in a 3 man midfield, his instinct was to create rather than score, utilize that.

Individual goal tallies are overrated, Mahrez has scored 10+ 7 years in a row, is a 1 in 3 guy for City, Raheem Sterling has 131 in 339 for City, is anyone taking either of them ahead of Giggs?
 
Marcelo has never played in the Copa America. In fact has never even made a Copa America Brazil squad.
 
Brazil have played against 89 different NTs on its history. Only three NTs got more victories than defeats against Brazil:
Norway
Hungary
Netherlands
 
Peter Crouch has a better goalscoring ratio for England than Alan Shearer, and only played 21 times less
 
anant said:
If I remember correctly, they changed how the goal of the season would be chosen after he won in 14/15. Arsenal fans were way to active on anything around voting and they'd hijack every poll
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I remember seeing a list of best British managers on TV that was decided by poll. Wenger was first, Ferguson second, a Spurs manager 3rd and Jose 5th. This was back around 2012/13 though. I remember thinking that clearly the poll was done in London.
 
Jose Mourinho's nine-year, 150-game unbeaten home record—stretching all the way back to March 16, 2002—came to an end on April 2, 2011 after Sporting Gijon beat his Real Madrid team 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
 
11 forwards said:
Blackburn has had the transfer fee world record.
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So has Falkirk.

I think it's more impressive that Real Betis had the record at a time when the Italian clubs were extremely rich and the English clubs had just started getting serious windfalls from the Prem era. More impressive yet that they shattered the world record for a no-mark like Denilson.
 
Abel Xavier is the only player ever to play for both sides of the Merseyside derby in a single season
 
Red Stone said:
So has Falkirk.

I think it's more impressive that Real Betis had the record at a time when the Italian clubs were extremely rich and the English clubs had just started getting serious windfalls from the Prem era. More impressive yet that they shattered the world record for a no-mark like Denilson.
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And it's even more impressive that The Baggies squeezed an astonishing 100 quids out of Aston Villa for 12 goals career man Willie Groves in 1893. Baaank robbery.
 
Seeing highlights of being Spurs during the pandemic reminded me there was football matches played in empty stadium which had the choice of watching with delayed crowd noise.
 
Bas Dost scored 45 consecutive goals which were all first time finishes.
 
Eden Hazard has the same number of La Liga titles as Cristiano Ronaldo who spent 9 years at R Madrid.
 
The micro-inspection of cases involving offsides where the attacker has no real advantage whatsoever.
 
Bournemouth seem to get smashed every week, yet are 8th!
 
Liverpool haven't lost at Anfield in front of a crowd in the league since 2016/2017. Might change this Sunday.
 
After 19 games Blackburn have lost 7 more games than leaders Burnley in the Championship but are still in second place
 
Red Rash said:
After 19 games Blackburn have lost 7 more games than leaders Burnley in the Championship but are still in second place
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Newcastle have the best defence in the premier league having only conceded 10 goals.

Leicester who are currently in the relegation zone have scored more goals than Man Utd and Chelsea.
 
Juan Mata has won almost everything, FA cups, League cups, Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, Euros.. but never won a league title
 
Virgil Van Dijk will play his first game on a big national tournament (EC/WC) tomorrow.
 
Xavi played against Man Utd in the 98/99 season in which Utd won the treble.
 
BrilliantOrange said:
Virgil Van Dijk will play his first game on a big national tournament (EC/WC) tomorrow.
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That is surprising but then I remember Netherlands not been qualifying consistently in recent times. Goes to show how he was also a late bloomer.
 
Chief123 said:
That is surprising but then I remember Netherlands not been qualifying consistently in recent times. Goes to show how he was also a late bloomer.
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2012: No contender yet
2014: Vlaar, De Vrij, Veltman, Bruno Martins Indi were chosen above him
2016: Didnt quality
2018: Didnt qualify
2020: Injured
 
BrilliantOrange said:
2012: No contender yet
2014: Vlaar, De Vrij, Veltman, Bruno Martins Indi were chosen above him
2016: Didnt quality
2018: Didnt qualify
2020: Injured
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Blimey, Vlaar…I remember him! When we were pretty desperate and being linked with him. He ended up at Villa I think!
 
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