hello! welcome to my life till last year.

I'm not a Man City fan but I suppose I am sort of a Pep fan. He simply can't carry on with his attitude towards defending or they're gonna slip into mid table. I know you complained about the defence at Bayern but his record there was still amazingly good. So far he's kept only 2 clean sheets in the Prem and they have the worst goals against record of any of the teams around them.

They play Watford next, who are doing well but who Man City should be expecting to beat. If they lose that, or even if they win but the problems in defence persist, Pep will be under real pressure. Maybe not from the board but definitely from the fans.

The other issue is Bravo. I know he's meant to be good but he's not shown it in the Prem yet. And this isn't just about his sweeper-keeper role. He's making basic goalkeeping mistakes.

Calling it West Ham to concede in the last 10 minutes.

:) .

congrats jamón west! just saw yr results.

And THAT'S why I don't bet. You deserved a draw at the very least.

Every fucking time.

Oh man, I was in a head to head on fantasy football and all I needed was for Mane not to score. Seriously, 4 minutes into extra time! Cunting cunt.

The Guardian's started its 100 best players of 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/football...16-interactive

Always silly arguing with these lists ... but it's fun, so ...

Bravo better than Courtois? Based on the 1st half of this season, I'd put most keepers in the Prem ahead of Bravo.

Predicting that no Prem player will make the top 10. [ed] Maybe Sanchez [ed] and Costa. [ed] I actually have no idea

Especially Pickford. He's been incredible and Sunderland would be in a lot worse situation (bottom as opposed to 3rd bottom :D ) without him.

He'll be gone by summer I reckon.

Suspect the top 5 will be usual suspects of Messi, Ronaldo and the like.

Pickford's been great, and Grant for Stoke.

Ronaldo would deserve the #1 spot if he gets it, but yeah, don't foresee many surprises. Last years top 5 was Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Suarez and Lewandowski. The only one I can see being under much threat there is maybe Lewandowski. Griezmann should be in with a shout to replace him but Atletico haven't been great so far this season. Maybe Bale?

Guardian top 100 full list now in

https://www.theguardian.com/football...16-interactive

Mahrez at number 10! I don't care how good he was last season, that's just bollocks.

Haha it is an odd one. Suarez really is in an odd position where if it'd been 5 years later or 10 years ago he'd be winning the ballon d'or easily. As it is he's stuck behind Messi and Ronaldo.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=885154705

This is the complete breakdown of who got how many votes etc. Somebody ACTUALLY voted Bradley Wright-Phillips as one of their best players in the world.

And the pattern of China buying pretty good players for STUPID sums of money carries on. Who thought paying Oscar 400,000 A WEEK is a good move is clearly a mentalist. Him along with Hulk, Ramires, Pelle and so on are getting big money for being not that great and it's baffling. Good work if you can get it, I guess.

Ian Wright?

Suarez is the best human player on earth, assuming Ronaldo and Messi have been beamed down from elsewhere.

I'm also always amazed Busquets (#39) doesn't consistently rank higher. He's in an unfashionable position maybe but I can't think of many players who do what they do better than he does what he does. I mean, is Vardy (#19) even close to being a better striker than Busquets is a defensive midfielder?

The idiots are wiining

Nah, that's how it'll always be I think. Strikers/goal scorers in general it's easier to see who's doing their job right and who's not. Defensive players not so much. It's ridiculous really, considering its meant to be experts who are telling us who are the best players in the world.

Lists are always daft. Even though I'm total sucker for them...

Goal of the (Prem) season so far? (ignoring little details like the fact it's offside)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRqleP229gw

Didn't see that at the time, but that offside :D How as that not spotted?! It'll be a controversial choice if it is given.

This should get it though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FGot309q3U

Mkhitarian's goal was given but I think sometimes a goal is so brilliant that I'm glad the referee lets it stand, even if, by the letter of the law, it shouldn't. I can't really defend that argument, obviously.

Haha love the logic. "It was a good goal, so stand it shall."

good to see that he finally started to live up to the hype

he was so brilliant at dortmund in the end-- took him over a year to get going though

It looked for a while like Mourinho was freezing him out, but he always said he was just waiting for him to adjust. Last couple of games he's been excellent. I imagine he'll be a regular starter from now on.

So that Bradley in charge of Swansea nuttiness did not fly, eh. Me, I'm shocked. Shocked I tell ya... ;)

Bradley didn't stand a chance. Swansea are a mess with or without him, the fans wanted Ryan Giggs and too much of his time was spent having to defend some of his football vocabulary to the more tabloid end of the British media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gdHgcD4zU

ow. poor coach bradley. he's a decent man!

If Mkhitarian's goal was undermined by it being offside, Giroud just scored a wonder goal ... and it's legal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfnWqmZySww

Is this for NCAA too? If so, RIP Huskies. Nice season. Fuck you, Alabama.

Get back in your hole!

Was a good one. He's a dildo, but how he's not started more often baffles me (and the rest of us)

Oh shit, this is real football, not American "football." Yikes. Sorry. My bad.

In that case, WOO SOUNDERS! MLS CUP CHAMPIONS!! :D

I don't care what the league is, so long as it's football and people wanna talk about it.

He is a dildo. He should start more but only because he's the only striker they have. Wenger should've brought in someone far better a long time ago. He's a mid table striker in a top 4 team.

Anyway, Sanchez has been carrying Arsenal big time this past couple of seasons.

Damn straight. AND he passed the ball to Giroud calculating with millimetric precission that it would reach the latter's heel! Well, either that or Giroud actually kept running forward even though he'd miss the pass, but then got luckier than a son of a bitch.

In any case, ALL GLORY TO ALEXIS.

Rep points to you, sir (or madam). I like you.

Is Pep losing it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ose7tP0gYhI

It was weird watching that. It's something you'd expect for Mou, not him.

If anything, this whole situation is just gonna test his resolve and ability to handle the fact results aren't going his way. You reckon he'll pull through or will he storm off in a strop?

what the fuck was that? looked like he was gonna cry

maybe he needs another year off smoking weed in brooklyn

but what's the bravo story? what happened?

it's all very confusing because the articles i found assume i've already witnessed this

ETA: ok i found the full transcript

http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...y-over-burnley

he gonna retire? maybe mourinho was right about his baldness

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he does storm off. Not immediately but I could see him going at the end of the season. It's uncharted ground. He's never been in this position before and the signs so far suggest he isn't dealing with it well. Mourinho complains but you never get the sense he isn't in control - even when he wasn't (like at Chelsea). It always feels tactical with Jose, whereas Pep seems genuinely troubled that 'good football' doesn't always prevail here.

His flaws were obviously papered over in top heavy leagues like La Liga and the Bundesliga but even when Man City win, their style seem to be struggling to cope with the hyper competitive nature of the Prem. And I'm not sure that he's capable of adapting to it, or even willing to.

his flaws were never papered over in the CL :P

i do wish the bundesliga wasn't so top-heavy though, for sure