The Spanish Lee Cattermole.
Thiago Alc*ntara | Retires
- Thread starter horsechoker
- Start date
feck that’s damning!
He’s a very good player, on his day. You wonder if before their big games Klopp just pulls him in and says “See what Fernandinho does every week? Yeah, just do that. You’ll be fine, they don’t book you until you’ve done at least 6 of them.”
He certainly doesn’t seem to have improved them, though!
He certainly doesn’t seem to have improved them, though!
I think that says as much about the state of Bundesliga competitiveness, as much as it does the other leagues mentioned!
I mean from a media level, even Bruno gets pelters on here
He's not influenced any game he's played, he's been a passenger bar twenty minutes of the first half against United.
Yesterday he was anonymous, yet I didn't hear a single word mentioned about that from BBC,
Ah. Luckily I’m not much affected by British media. Can understand if he’s a kind of player journalists are ‘prepared to like as something exotic’, like Barca etc. Elegant, technical, subtle when effective. Though when Carrick did the same, it took quite a fewyears before tvey sussed it.
Sadly true.
El Cunto
Yeah, that's very true.
Carrick is still one of my favourite players.
Carrick is my favourite ever United player. And I have supported United very closely since the late 70s.
After we got rid of Roy Keane and brought Michael Carrick into replace him at the base of our midfield; Manchester United went on - with Carrick at the base of that midfield - to win:
Five league titles in seven years
&
Got to three European Cup Finals in those seven years.
It was the best seven year run in our club's entire 140-year history.
Ferguson's best years were his very last years... His best years where when he had Michael Carrick pulling the strings; not Roy Keane, not Eric Cantona - but Carrick.
BTW; that's not to underestimate Keane and Eric.... I am just emphasising the weight of Carrick's value to our history.
Barca and Madrid are a mess. The only difference there is Barca selling Suarez to Atletico and taking up the slack.
City are on course for the same points total as last season. Thr big difference is Utd carrying on their form form last Jan and Liverpool doing the same.
Its just not a valid excuse anymore.
Carrick was absolutely rubbish according to a lot of pundits and fans for a long time - I think it was because he was English and not going in making two-footed tackles and shouting at team mates to show his "passion". He was an absolute diamond for us in midfield who never got the respect he deserved until late on in his career.
So you think the simultaneous form crises of Madrid, Barca, Liverpool, Juventus, Dortmund, Real and to a lesser extent PSG, Bayern and City just coincidently occur during the Corona crises?
I mean, 90% of top clubs look the most vulnerable in ages. Corona will inevitably widen the gap long term but short term it seems to even the playing field.
Snide little cnut, don’t wish injury on a player but hope someone roughs him up a bit. Imagine if one of our players ducked under a freekick that led to conceding the winning goal, fecking hell. Yet this mug is beyond criticism.
It definitely doesI was calling him the Spanish Mark Noble yesterday but I think this tops it
Im struggling to see where the big shocks are tbh.
Juve are a game in hand away from being 5 points behind 1st.
Barca and Madrid are 2nd and 3rd! Dont sell Atletico the best striker in the league and they wont be top, thats on Barca and not Corona.
The praise him and Partey has been getting this season despite performing worse than technically limited players like Fred and Hojbjerg all season in the sporadic times they’ve not been injured is ridiculous.
Barca is averaging less than 2 points per game this season and possibly 13 points behind Atletico. They were 5 points behind Barca last season - you think 34 year old Suarez alone is responsible for 15-18 points after 19 games? He's scored 12, distributed across 9 games.
Juve is 9 points behind their points record at same point in time last season.
PSG is on equal points with Lille and two points ahead of Lyon. They were leading by 10 points last season.
Barca were going to have issues even without Corona, that club is a mess.
The only big shock in the big leagues is us being top of the PL to be honest.
The only big shock in the big leagues is us being top of the PL to be honest.
He is.
And did they sell Suarez last year? Everybody knew they would struggle this season, the Messi embarassment made it clear to everybody they would struggle. Thats not Corona, thats threatening your best ever player with legal action to force him to stay then blame corona when he isnt carrying them anymore? Add in the long term injuries and here we are. Without Suarez the top 2 would be the usual top 2. He has 13 in 15 or something stupid
Its a huge stretch to be making imo.
The difference with Juve is that they have Lampard lite in charge and PSG are still on top of France ffs and Bayern are sailing away in Germany.
Broadstrokes doesnt work. Im not saying Corona isnt a factor but flat out blaming corona is a nonsense.
I'm not blaming Corona. I'm saying the tables would look different without it and that it currently evens the playing field. Doesn't mean that there aren't other influential factors. Still, the facts speak a very clear language. There's almost no top club that is having an above average season by their standards and clearly other clubs profit from it.
Odd enough comments here about a player who is still one of the best midfielders in the world, but Liverpool was always a strange club for him to join style wise and he seems to have been given the defensive midfield hacking job, rather than play in the areas he can do damage. Reminds me of Scholes if you just isolated Scholes and told him to play like Makelele. Thiago, like Scholes, can't tackle to save his life, but keeps doing it. They need Henderson or Fabinho in that role and they're both playing CB. Long may it last.
It's unusual from a historical perspective but not based on the facts as they stand.
Barcelona are an expensive mess of a football team. Madrid have come to end of a cycle and are struggling to recover from it. At the same time, Atletico continue to be well managed and know how to get results.
Juve have regressed over the years and placed too much emphasis on Ronaldo whereas Inter/Milan have improved. Inter also have a much more proven manager than Juve do.
As for the PL, City were no great shakes last season only. It's just Liverpool who have gone down a few levels and our results are much better than before. On Livepool, their last season was anyway hard to replicate. You can't keep winning and grinding out wins and keep getting the rub of the green all the time. Excellent team, yes. But one can argue that a very poor PL (just look at the state of the top clubs, awful) and them producing the goods in tight moments consistently /little luck was the reason and it couldn't keep happening anyway.
So not in line with recent history sure. But unusual? I don't think so. Teams regress and other teams improve. That's football rather than something unusual.
And im saying the tables wouldn't look that different. The all conquering Juve only got to 83 points last year and finished a point above Inter.
Going into the season, a lot of this was expected. Juve fans in particular were not confident with how their club set up.
Tbf Covid had biggest impact on Liverpool. Maybe they are not having easy access to inhalers because of all the people stockpiling them now.
Ditto
The perfect nickname for that scrote
He is a good player - just not as good as his reputation seemed to suggest.
From Bavaria, to mass hysteria
A midfielder without compare.
Shaved head look, never booked
A man with an icy stare.
Good with his feet, the Kop's in for a treat
A winner tested and tried.
Confusion abounds, when the announcer sounds
The Butcher of Merseyside
Supposedly mint, should've read the smallprint
Then reality takes it toll.
In the cold light of day, you hear the crowd say
He's just a Spanish Lee Cattermole.
A midfielder without compare.
Shaved head look, never booked
A man with an icy stare.
Good with his feet, the Kop's in for a treat
A winner tested and tried.
Confusion abounds, when the announcer sounds
The Butcher of Merseyside
Supposedly mint, should've read the smallprint
Then reality takes it toll.
In the cold light of day, you hear the crowd say
He's just a Spanish Lee Cattermole.
See, one can argue both ways for every single one of those clubs. Fact of the matter is that top clubs are unable of maintaining any kind of consistency this season. Not even Bayern, the only title favourite for which you could argue that they are living up to the expectations since they lead the table comfortably, looks even close to being in form.
Fact of the matter:
Top clubs in clear crises:
Chelsea
Arsenal
Barcelona
Madrid
Juventus
Dortmund
Liverpool
Top clubs somehwat underperforming:
Bayern
PSG
City
Top clus living up to expectations:
Tottenham (might also be somehwat underperforming)
Top clubs outperforming expetations:
United
Atletico
Milan
Inter
This is like a post-WC season, only far worse. Especially players who had no real break between the seasons tend to look totally out of form.
So in essence, you think it is indeed coincidence that all this happens at various top clubs during Covid times. I'm sorry but I don't buy this.
He's a world class midfielder, but he has issues. I guess Liverpool will soon run themselves into Pogba-eque situation with accommodating Thiago (meaning they'll be after Kante).
Coincidentally, I was watching last night's game in a hotel room using my phone because the TV there only had 3 sports channel which were showing Bundesliga matches. I had one of those games on while watching the Utd game, I think it was Hoffenheim Vs Koln and it was funny how much of a difference the standard of football was compared to our game.
He's playing like his brother
still doesn’t
was it Alonso who ridiculed England ignoring Carrick and said he would fit in at Madrid nicely
Keep in mind both us (3rd) and Inter (4th) crashed out of Champions League. Atletico scraped 2nd in their group in their last game. Milan playing EL from the start barely made it through the qualifiers.