Premier League Gameweek 1

Comfortable for City without having to get out of second gear due to Haaland's goals. Nothing we didn't expect.
 
This is only true in a framework where counter-attacking is the gold standard of what makes football undamaged.

Because once you step out of that framework, you realize that yes, it's harder to counter due to better and higher pressing, but teams have become better at being proactive on the ball in possession. I wouldn't say football is worse than in 2005 when the highlight of the sport was shit on a stick served at Anfield/Stamford Bridge.

And the impact of tactical fouling is overstated. Blatant shirt grabs and man tackles once the counter is on get penalized with a yellow card quickly. Legitimate fouls in transition that make it harder for teams to get out and run are just as valid as your normal every day fouls. To penalize the latter would just make it easier for the big teams, as small teams are the ones that foul most.

Of course counter attacking isn't the "gold standard", but teams aren't worried at all of pressing someone high up the pitch because keepers now will play 40 yards out in front of their own net to eliminate most balls over the top and any slick one touch move/dribble to beat a press will often just be fouled. I completely disagree with the notion that tactical fouls are punished quickly. Go watch the past years of Fabinho/Fernandinho/any other DM or defender for Liverpool and City at their best and it will often be a couple of fouls at minimum (if not more) before the card is brandished, and by that point it's not an issue as you can consider 2 or 3 potential chances to punish the press as being eliminated.

I think teams have gotten better at playing on the ball sure. But I think that's also a symptom of both technicality becoming more important in general in the modern game, and the game becoming much more system/structure oriented as most coaches seek to copy/imitate the top teams. It's much easier to create a progressive system where you just look for qualities to fit spaces on the pitch than it is find enough players that instinctively can play combination play and great attacking football off the cuff (a la Real Madrid).
 
Burnley/Kompany seem talented but very naive. Could easily finish 10th or 18th.
 
City will be worried with De Bruyne getting injured in his first match back from injury after spending the summer recovering. He's probably the still the biggest influence on that team judging by the two halves.
 
So if this was utd, you would be posting how bored you are…Is that what you are saying?
Is your memory really that bad? United fans were moaning about performances even in the Fergie years when we were winning titles. Winning doesn't always necessarily equal entertainment.
 
They are top quality obviously but City must be one of the most boring teams going. Had the match on but didn't engage in it at all.
 
Is your memory really that bad? United fans were moaning about performances even in the Fergie years when we were winning titles. Winning doesn't always necessarily equal entertainment.
Yeah we played some pretty dull football the last season we won the title. Zombie football I believe it was called.
 
City will be worried with De Bruyne getting injured in his first match back from injury after spending the summer recovering. He's probably the still the biggest influence on that team judging by the two halves.
If it’s long term then they’ll just go out and sign another CM. There’s still time for teams to do that if players get a big injury.
 
They are boring in the sense that it's so easy for them to win the majority of their games. Barcelona quickly turned into the same beast, too, under Pep, but the novelty of their tactical set-up was still fresh back then.

It frustrates or even irks some fans, especially those who have been following and admiring English football, because Pep's sides gain control by annihilating one of the things that's always been associated with English football. The run n' gun game and the unpredictability that it brings. No matter how better a team is on the pitch, you can always count on the opponent to find a way to step it up for 15-20 minutes and turn the game into a rodeo.

When Burnley decided to up the tempo and give it a go, searching for the equaliser in the first half, City just slowed down everything and killed any kind of momentum. That's a Pep thing. Klopp can't do that regularly and it was almost an alien concept for most of Fergie's sides. I guess the irony is that, in different contexts and more as a means to an end, the Liverpool side that won the league as well as SAF's strongest sides (2007-08 & 2008-09) had found ways to do just that.
 
No it very obviously hasn't.
Bayern have won over half of the titles since the its inception in '62. Half. 33 wins in 60 years.

Next best in the Bundesliga, Dortmund with 8 total wins, last win coming 11 years ago.

Even with City's domination, in 11 years there have been 5 different winners of the of PL, United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Leicester.

In nearly double the duration of league football format (not cup competition style/regional stuff pre-bundesliga),120 years of the English football league, the most wins one team has had is 20, followed by 19.

This defence of the Bundesliga is weird, as if one team having a 50% chance of winning is at all competitive in a league competition.
 
Is your memory really that bad? United fans were moaning about performances even in the Fergie years when we were winning titles. Winning doesn't always necessarily equal entertainment.
I certainly never moaned and can’t recall too many others.
 
Bayern have won over half of the titles since the its inception in '62. Half. 33 wins in 60 years.

Next best in the Bundesliga, Dortmund with 8 total wins, last win coming 11 years ago.

Even with City's domination, in 11 years there have been 5 different winners of the of PL, United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Leicester.

In nearly double the duration of league football format (not cup competition style/regional stuff pre-bundesliga),120 years of the English football league, the most wins one team has had is 20, followed by 19.

This defence of the Bundesliga is weird, as if one team having a 50% chance of winning is at all competitive in a league competition.
The point was that before Bayern's current dominance, the Bundesliga wasn't any more one-sided than, say, the Premier League in its first 20 years. Manchester United won 13 out of the first 20 PL seasons - do you consider the first 20 years of the Premier League "uncompetitive"? It was, even then, marketed as the most exciting league in the world yet it was actually less competitive than any of the big ones.

Bayern were always the biggest, most successful club of the Bundesliga, that's true. But the league itself used to be a lot more competitive than it is now. Even as recently as the decade between 2000-2010 saw the likes of Dortmund, Stuttgart, Werder Bremen, and Wolfsburg all win league titles while both Schalke and Leverkusen came incredibly close (as in, "they bottled it on the final day" close). Hell, in 1998, a fecking newly promoted team won the league!

Pretending that it was always Bayern dominating without any competition is dishonest in the extreme.
 
The point was that before Bayern's current dominance, the Bundesliga wasn't any more one-sided than, say, the Premier League in its first 20 years. Manchester United won 13 out of the first 20 PL seasons - do you consider the first 20 years of the Premier League "uncompetitive"?

13 out of 20 is not the same as 11 out of 11. Not remotely.
 
Burnley looked ok, but if they're going to defend like that and then get themselves a petty sending off every other time they lose a game because of it, they might not be sticking around long.
 

Well that looks like a team set up for 20% position, park the bus, hope to pinch one on the break with pace. Let’s hope Arsenal leave their shooting boots at home!
3 v 0 to the team that‘ll never sing Champions of Europe.
 
After all that money spent, that doesn't look like a league winning bench even with Jesus out.
 
13 out of 20 is not the same as 11 out of 11. Not remotely.

And the league was never a foregone conclusion like it is now or in the Bundesliga. Most years during our successful period we were “past it” and many predicted our downfall. Our squad was rarely, if ever, overwhelmingly better than the rest.

There’s a big difference between having a legendary manager bringing success and a club having success not matter what the team is or who is in charge.
 
So Arsenal rolling with a 3-2-2-3 I'm assuming and not playing Partey at the back.

-----White Saliba Timber-------
------------Rice Partey--------------
Saka-----------------------Martinelli
--------Odegaard Havertz---------
----------------Nketiah------------------

... something like that?
 
Why can't we order our line ups like that?

Also, Forest are about to get pasted, aren't they?

As in positions? Surely Partey isn't at right back and it could be the app system of 3 cb and 2 cm?
Otherwise why didn't they just keep White right back and Gabriel at centre back?
 
So Arsenal rolling with a 3-2-2-3 I'm assuming and not playing Partey at the back.

-----White Saliba Timber-------
------------Rice Partey--------------
Saka-----------------------Martinelli
--------Odegaard Havertz---------
----------------Nketiah------------------

... something like that?
I think it’s Rice as a Stones type role from CB
 
Turner
Aurier - Worrell - Boly - McKenna - Aina
Yates - Danilo - Mangala
Johnson - MGW

It’s our world renown 1-5-5 away formation.