The TT Football Club

No wins in 3 Europa League games but they haven’t lost either. Could be worse. The manager could be bald, talk about the prochess, and how the club is in good shape 11th in the league and 21st in the Europa League.

Oh, nevermind. Good job INEOS
 
Feña14 said:
That’s UEFA for ya. Gifted Man Utd a place in a competition that is beyond them, and demoted Chelsea to do it :p

So now they’ve weakened the Europa League, whilst they’ve got Chelsea playing the B team and 16 year olds who are hammering some of the strongest teams in the competition.. which is making a mockery of the Conference League, a tournament they’re trying to promote. Nice one, UEFA (y)

I’m joking. Kind of. They really do need to sort out who qualifies. Regardless of who it effects. For your performance over a 38 game season, celebrating at the end of it, only to have it taken away a few weeks later isn't really the way to do things.

As for Yanited, unbeaten against Porto and Fenerbahce away is actually a very decent showing. Only misstep really is the dropped points at home in the first game. Even with ETH, I find it hard to believe you won’t be qualifying :D
Click to expand...
Conference League has no business existing at all tbh and if it does they shouldn’t let teams like Chelsea compete in it. The whole point is to let smaller European teams that maybe don’t have a spotlight compete on a grander stage and have a chance at silverware. Chelsea being there invalidates essentially the whole league, and nobody will be talking about that Slovakian team making a dream run to the semifinal, they’ll just talk about Chelsea.
 
And if it wasn’t Chelsea, it would’ve been Man United and the same story would repeat.

If you want conference league to actually be something interesting, bar entry for teams in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Take out England, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany. Or whoever the top 5 is, usually Portugal interchanges with France. Let that one team from Ukraine or Croatia or Belgium have their day. It’d be more interesting that way. The last winner was a Greek team which was great. But the ones before were English and Italian and this year the winner is probably gonna be an English or Italian team.

That’s just my two cents.
 
Fabresque said:
Conference League has no business existing at all tbh and if it does they shouldn’t let teams like Chelsea compete in it. The whole point is to let smaller European teams that maybe don’t have a spotlight compete on a grander stage and have a chance at silverware. Chelsea being there invalidates essentially the whole league, and nobody will be talking about that Slovakian team making a dream run to the semifinal, they’ll just talk about Chelsea.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Maybe it could be like the old Cup Winners Cup. Obviously the bigger teams are likely to win the domestic cup competitions and qualify for the CL automatically, but it could then be passed down to the losing finalist. If they’re in it then whoever got to the semi’s and isn’t in Europe etc..

I believe Kaiserslautern lost the German cup final, they’re in Bundesliga 2. I think a Ligue 2 side in France made the semi’s. It would be a wild and whacky tournament, the prize money would save those clubs and West Ham or Olympiacos would still get their European adventure and have a decent chance of silverware.

The Europa League as it stands already feels like a knockoff version of the Champions League. The Conference League is like a fake version of the fake version. Make it different in some way and you might have something!
 
Feña14 said:
That’s UEFA for ya. Gifted Man Utd a place in a competition that is beyond them, and demoted Chelsea to do it :p

So now they’ve weakened the Europa League, whilst they’ve got Chelsea playing the B team and 16 year olds who are hammering some of the strongest teams in the competition.. which is making a mockery of the Conference League, a tournament they’re trying to promote. Nice one, UEFA (y)

I’m joking. Kind of. They really do need to sort out who qualifies. Regardless of who it effects. For your performance over a 38 game season, celebrating at the end of it, only to have it taken away a few weeks later isn't really the way to do things.

As for Yanited, unbeaten against Porto and Fenerbahce away is actually a very decent showing. Only misstep really is the dropped points at home in the first game. Even with ETH, I find it hard to believe you won’t be qualifying :D
Click to expand...
Ten Hag talking about Ugarte having to learn the Man Utd style, yet he contradicts himself once more while trying to play our right back as number 10. People speculating that he was playing there to save Bruno, not outshine him. I dunno about that. It's not exactly Pep moving John Stones around. Ah well, the life and times of Ten Hag United ball.

Onana has been playing well lately, bless him. I'd say it's between him and Eriksen for our player of the season so far, not exactly spoilt for choice. I'm worried about Amad, I don't want him to leave. I guess the one bright spark tonight was Ugarte. Several crucial tackles, one preventing a goal and another to set uo our goal. Lord Bruno back on Sunday though. No dobut Tinker Hag will do his thing.
 
As for Europe. I'd put it back to how it was when I was growing up. A cup winners cup for cup winners, replacing the conference league. No extra invites., just cup winners. Uefa cup can be 3-5 and Champions league for 1-2. Yeah, wouldn't work, I understand how too much money involved.
 
Feña14 said:
Agreed. Maybe it could be like the old Cup Winners Cup. Obviously the bigger teams are likely to win the domestic cup competitions and qualify for the CL automatically, but it could then be passed down to the losing finalist. If they’re in it then whoever got to the semi’s and isn’t in Europe etc..

I believe Kaiserslautern lost the German cup final, they’re in Bundesliga 2. I think a Ligue 2 side in France made the semi’s. It would be a wild and whacky tournament, the prize money would save those clubs and West Ham or Olympiacos would still get their European adventure and have a decent chance of silverware.

The Europa League as it stands already feels like a knockoff version of the Champions League. The Conference League is like a fake version of the fake version. Make it different in some way and you might have something!
Click to expand...
It’s all a shambles anyways mate none of this is good enough. It’s all for UEFA to keep raking in the money. This new format they’ve done is essentially what the Super League was gonna be yet we squealed at the idea for that (rightfully so). But everyone was fine when UEFA did it. They just made a super league right under our noses after they got done tarnishing Perez’ idea LOL.

My dad still remembers when it was the European Cup and only the league winners from each country were invited. It was more interesting that way me thinks. Teams with less money like Steau Bucharest, Red Star Belgrade were winning. They could compete. Nowadays you’ve got the best 5 leagues in Europe sending like 20 teams to the competition, clogging up the spots and ensuring a winner will almost certainly be from there.
 
I can appreciate tennis for not expanding it to 10 grandslams a year or something whacky, they've kept the big four, while fourth and fifth placed football teams can play in the CHAMPIONS league.
 
Poisoned Slice said:
Ten Hag talking about Ugarte having to learn the Man Utd style, yet he contradicts himself once more while trying to play our right back as number 10. People speculating that he was playing there to save Bruno, not outshine him. I dunno about that. It's not exactly Pep moving John Stones around. Ah well, the life and times of Ten Hag United ball.

Onana has been playing well lately, bless him. I'd say it's between him and Eriksen for our player of the season so far, not exactly spoilt for choice. I'm worried about Amad, I don't want him to leave. I guess the one bright spark tonight was Ugarte. Several crucial tackles, one preventing a goal and another to set uo our goal. Lord Bruno back on Sunday though. No dobut Tinker Hag will do his thing.
Click to expand...
Ten Hag talks as if he has job security which is telling because he essentially does. Seriously, Mazraoui as a #10? Is he huffing glue before making the lineups?

I’ve seen weirder. Klopp once put Steven Caulker up top as a striker. And the one I still remember was psycho Stuart Pierce putting David James up top as a striker. He was a fcking goalkeeper for crying out loud. John Mackem was an actual striker paid by City to score the goals and he was left on the bench for THAT. I bet he felt like strangling Pierce LOL.

Onana is the furthest thing from the problem despite him being a scapegoat every week. Especially by Goldbridge, he constantly talks down on Onana. Utd have way bigger issues than goalkeeping rn. Like the fella that’s about to come back on Sunday. Bruno really should not be playing in the midfield. Just stick him up top. Makes infinitely more sense. I’ve been saying for years he just leaves the midfield open because he wants to roam forward and United ever since the Ole days cannot control a game because of him. He’s a straight up detriment to the club yet they wanna accommodate him because he has good statistics. Stats aren’t everything, watch the football with your eyes.
 
Federer and Del Potro said:
We did. As for the Lewy-Harold debate after yesterday:

hqdefault.jpg
Click to expand...
I can't say Harold would have missed that chance in the 82' or that the quality in midfield between the two clubs is remotely comparable.
 
optic yellow said:
lmfao I love comments like this because even though I know I'm going to TW I always forget I'm on a tennis forum when in this thread in particular
Click to expand...
I don’t even frequent the tennis forums much at all anymore. I end up just trolling most of the time. I’d much prefer speaking with you lot about footy than going into the weekly Big 3 threads and engaging the warzone going on.
 
Poisoned Slice said:
Ten Hag talking about Ugarte having to learn the Man Utd style, yet he contradicts himself once more while trying to play our right back as number 10. People speculating that he was playing there to save Bruno, not outshine him. I dunno about that. It's not exactly Pep moving John Stones around. Ah well, the life and times of Ten Hag United ball.

Onana has been playing well lately, bless him. I'd say it's between him and Eriksen for our player of the season so far, not exactly spoilt for choice. I'm worried about Amad, I don't want him to leave. I guess the one bright spark tonight was Ugarte. Several crucial tackles, one preventing a goal and another to set uo our goal. Lord Bruno back on Sunday though. No dobut Tinker Hag will do his thing.
Click to expand...

It feels like ETH’s ineptitude is being compounded this year off the back of Slot and Maresca coming in. There’s no Pochettino there to make ETH look slightly more competent than he is. There are two brand new managers running absolute rings around him.

Just watching Liverpool last night, seeing Gravenberch playing his new role. There’s Nunez who looks like he’s finally received some coaching and is using his talents in the right way. It’s the same with Mudryk, the last 5-6 games he’s played? He’s been phenomenal.

The Chelsea B team somehow looks better than the first team. Granted, the first team play the tougher games, but the B team are more advanced tactically. It was a kind of 3-3-4 today. Enzo in the single pivot, where he ran the show. Again, easier opponents than the first team, but it shows Maresca is only on step 1 of the 500 he wants to morph into over the coming years.

Chelsea and United were very similar last year. Outdated, flawed, tactically very basic, lots of running around, vibes, easy to play against etc.. we look 1000% better, Man Utd are as bad as they have been for the last few years.. I’m told Sir Jim is switched on.. is he really not getting it? Just put 2 and 2 together fella, it’s not rocket science.. it’s staring you right in the face, surely!
 
United don't have the Jimmy's or Joe's to be anything other than mid-table. Much as I don't like Tin Frog that's just facts. That lineup they trotted out today is pure mince.

Any manager was going to look good with Liverpool with the team they got to inherit.
 
Federer and Del Potro said:
United don't have the Jimmy's or Joe's to be anything other than mid-table. Much as I don't like Tin Frog that's just facts. That lineup they trotted out today is pure mince.

Any manager was going to look good with Liverpool with the team they got to inherit.
Click to expand...
It’s true the players are mince but Ten Hag bought most of em and played a fullback at #10. The standard of the club is below the floor.

Hansi Flick’s got a bunch of kids top of La Liga playing like the best team in the world rn but Ten Hag needs £1billion, 50 coaches and analysts, and 20 Ajax players to string together 3 good performances. And @Feña14 was right. Maresca and Slot come in this year and get instant results and progression with groups they’ve had little to do with. I already mentioned Flick. Even Vincent Kompany a manaher who was relegated last year has a Bayern team in a bit of a shambles top of the Bundesliga. No more excuses for Ten Wigs. He ain’t even close to being good enough.
 
Feña14 said:
The Chelsea B team somehow looks better than the first team. Granted, the first team play the tougher games, but the B team are more advanced tactically. It was a kind of 3-3-4 today. Enzo in the single pivot, where he ran the show. Again, easier opponents than the first team, but it shows Maresca is only on step 1 of the 500 he wants to morph into over the coming years.
Click to expand...
I really don’t wanna bring in many more players the coming years. Just what we absolutely need. Goalkeeper is a priority and I couldn’t believe they ignored it this summer and didn’t bring in a starter-caliber. Jorgensen can be the future but we needed someone NOW. Probably LB needs to be considered. Cucurella is pretty good but not sure if he’s the player we need if we’re gonna make a title charge in the next few years. Plus he’ll be 30 by then. Don’t even bother with Chilwell.

There’s more natural talent in the B team I think. The main lot work a bit harder and are more seasoned. Mudryk has been really really really good lately. He’s getting there. For what was probably a mistake of a signing Maresca is the 2nd manager trying to make it work with him. He must have something about him.
 
Broken record time, although it remains that way with me until something changes. Unfortunately, I've no other subjects to talk about.

''This team is embarrassing, Garnacho running around like a terrible team mate, he doesn't pass, I'd be fuming if I was Rasmus. This team doesn't want to play for each other, they don't want to know each other.'' Damn.
Federer and Del Potro said:
And Johnny Evans, who was a key part of the MK Dons embarrassment, is still here 10 years later 8-B
Click to expand...
And he's our best player. It just gets weirder the more you think about it.
 
Uncle Junior would've had Erik Ten Hag ''sacked'' a couple of years ago.

Come on, uncle June. I've said many times that Erik Ten Hag has some good ideas. He's going to turn it around.
tone.webp


Somebody said men wearing high heels was a good idea, that didn't make it right. I don't like the guy, he talks in anagrams and it is a results business, my dear nephew.. It sounds like Sir Jim has you in his pocket. Listen to me. Either you take care of this or I will.
juner.jpg
 
Fabresque said:
I don’t even frequent the tennis forums much at all anymore. I end up just trolling most of the time. I’d much prefer speaking with you lot about footy than going into the weekly Big 3 threads and engaging the warzone going on.
Click to expand...
Thankfully with the results this year Sinner v. Alcaraz is starting to really pick up as a component of the pro discussion thread meta.
 
optic yellow said:
True I can't deny this. I will accept the draw.
Click to expand...

I honestly think they're pretty close to equal at their respective best ever. Lewandowski having 2x more goals than anyone in La Liga this season is super impressive. I always knew he wasn't just a Bundesliga merchant because of his UCL goal output, but it's nice to see him proving it in another league. And obviously we know Kane isn't a Bundesliga merchant with what he did in England.

You are right though Barcelona's midfield is the best in the world at the moment. Their only weakness is the D and the fact they're down to really mediocre GK's. Looking forward to El Clasico this weekend
 
Fabresque said:
I really don’t wanna bring in many more players the coming years. Just what we absolutely need. Goalkeeper is a priority and I couldn’t believe they ignored it this summer and didn’t bring in a starter-caliber. Jorgensen can be the future but we needed someone NOW. Probably LB needs to be considered. Cucurella is pretty good but not sure if he’s the player we need if we’re gonna make a title charge in the next few years. Plus he’ll be 30 by then. Don’t even bother with Chilwell.

There’s more natural talent in the B team I think. The main lot work a bit harder and are more seasoned. Mudryk has been really really really good lately. He’s getting there. For what was probably a mistake of a signing Maresca is the 2nd manager trying to make it work with him. He must have something about him.
Click to expand...

I’m the same. Overall this phase has been pretty successful. Palmer, Jackson, Estevao, Caicedo, Madueke, Veiga etc.. but it feels like we now need to move onto squad building. People we sign should be upgrades on what we already have and be players we are missing.

Goalkeeper is definitely one, but this Penders does seem to be a good one. They say Bayern wanted him to replace Neuer (after yesterday, I can see why :-D). He is very young though, I’m not sure he will be ready in the next 18 months.. which could be an issue. I think a couple of bruising, lockdown defenders that allow Colwill to be the elegant ball player would be a key upgrade (mentioned Diomande and Lukeba). I do think a big monster number 9 is key too. A Duran, Sesko, Samu.. not a 17 year old who might be good one day. A full back who can be an 8/10 is important too. Maybe a left winger at some point. It’ll probably be further down the line, maybe a final piece of the jigsaw kind of thing in a few years.

The good news is we’ve bought well and sales should allow us to tweak the squad and build, but we’ll see in time. Right now I’d say we’re still obsessed with youth and “opportunities”, which could be a limiting factor.
 
One big benefit of the Conference League, was that it was reduced the size of the Europa League, which was previously far too big.

Before the Conference League came into being, many teams had to play 4-6 qualifying matches to get into the Europa League group stage, and after that there was a full round of 32. There were just too many games involved in it.

Also the fact that it gave Olympiacos an opportunity to become the first Greek club ever to win a European trophy, was also a big benefit.

The expansion of the Champions League, which started in 1997/1998 and then ramped up another level from 1998/1999, clearly helped widened the gulf between top European leagues and the rest, ensure that more of the best players became increasingly concentrated within a smaller number of leagues, with the top clubs in those leagues building up super squads etc.

I personally think at that most, no more than 3 clubs per league should ever have been allowed into the Champions League. 4th place teams from certain leagues getting in just seemed excessive IMO, before we got to the present day scenario where some leagues now get a 5th place as well. I'd have said that the top 5 leagues or so per the coefficients should get 3 places (though probably with the 3rd place teams going into the final qualifying round and not straight into the group stage)), the next rung of leagues 2 places, the next rung 1 automatic group stage place, and the final rung a place in the qualifiers. But clearly there's no going back now.
 
Last edited:
I do think Champions League is the main culprit because of how many teams are involved. But that's just me concentrating on the word Champions. Then I also think, we wouldn't have this nice story for Aston Villa going on right now, so give and take. 3 clubs per league maximum and 2 automatic qualifiers sounds nice in my mind.
 
I love Jose Mourinho.

''Probably in England people will speak of two or three players for Manchester United who did not play, you do not know how many of us didn't play. At the start we had four players out of the list, and we had injuries. We had to do a crazy puzzle. Our performance was extraordinary. I could not ask any more from the players.

''Andre Onana made two fantastic saves. They scored in a situation we knew they could. We had a phenomenal performance.

"Come on, Onana saved the result. My goalkeeper didn't make a save, he made two impossible saves in 10 seconds. He was the most decisive player in the result. Of course he didn't make 20 saves but he made two that were incredible. I know English media will say Manchester United didn't play well but I think it would be fair to say we did an extraordinary match and we were better than them. A good result for Manchester United."

Erik Ten Hag talked about injuries holding us back again from our ''best performance level.''
 
Chris Wood will inspire some puns tonight. I've had to use the dastardly -8, but didn't go overboard, I just felt he had to be included after the performance during the free hit. According to the sources, he is more than up for it.

One can only hope for a Wood awakening. That would be ravishing.

Title campaign for Arsenal will be excluded after a beating vs Liverpool? hmmmm
 
Poisoned Slice said:
Chris Wood will inspire some puns tonight. I've had to use the dastardly -8, but didn't go overboard, I just felt he had to be included after the performance during the free hit. According to the sources, he is more than up for it.

One can only hope for a Wood awakening. That would be ravishing.

Title campaign for Arsenal will be excluded after a beating vs Liverpool? hmmmm
Click to expand...

You know how we’re getting rid of Haaland soon?

.. I’ve tripled captained the fella :-D

Might be the last week I own him for the rest of the season, and he’s got Southampton. Why not have a bit of fun with it (y)
 
At least ETH likely won't play 4d chess this weekend playing Mazaroui at the number 10 with Bruno not suspended.
 
Fabresque said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1849822351883382817

He’s lost the plot man. His pressers have been completely out of control lately and this sums it all up.
Click to expand...

It’s like he’s fluent in girl logic.

“He asked me if I wanted a cup of tea, therefore he is definitely cheating”.

“He’s got a cold so is getting an early night? He thinks I’m ugly”.

“Red card recinded? The 3-0 loss definitely didn’t happen *puts fingers in ears and screams La La La I’m not listening*”.
 
Finally came to me and a lot less crude.

Some nice penetration down the wings for Forest tonight resulted in a smashing double for Chris Wood. (y)

Speaking of beautiful women. The lady playing Sofia in The Penguin is top notch.

sofia.webp
 
Last edited:
Poisoned Slice said:
2 goals for Wood tonight and motm bonus. Good start for Prats. Get in. (y)
Click to expand...

.. I think I might’ve triple captained the wrong player.

I just saw that Haaland goal on Wednesday where the 6’5 fella jumped 5 feet in the air, with his back to goal, got his leg above his head and back heeled it in.

Surely the robot has had a software upgrade? We’ll find out tomorrow.
 
Feña14 said:
.. I think I might’ve triple captained the wrong player.

I just saw that Haaland goal on Wednesday where the 6’5 fella jumped 5 feet in the air, with his back to goal, got his leg above his head and back heeled it in.

Surely the robot has had a software upgrade? We’ll find out tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Hmm-Upgrades-Matrix-Reloaded.gif


It was a sweet finish. Good luck on your triple captain quest. I don't think I got much out of it last season, but the season before returned a Haaland hattrick.
 
Poisoned Slice said:
Hmm-Upgrades-Matrix-Reloaded.gif
Click to expand...

I really hope so :D

A big score from him this week would be amazing, but you know how this season has gone for both of us. At least this week I’m taking the disappointment so you don’t have to!

As for The Penguin. Haven’t seen it. Isn’t that the actress who was Jordan Belfort’s first wife in Wolf of Wall Street :unsure:
 
Feña14 said:
I really hope so :D

A big score from him this week would be amazing, but you know how this season has gone for both of us. At least this week I’m taking the disappointment so you don’t have to!

As for The Penguin. Haven’t seen it. Isn’t that the actress who was Jordan Belfort’s first wife in Wolf of Wall Street :unsure:
Click to expand...
The optimistic head on tonight. The goals will follow. :p

Yeah, Sir, it's the same girl. This is the first time I've really taken notice of her. She had a small part in The Sopranos as well, as one of Johnny Sack's daughters. I've been making my way through The Penguin slowly, haven't binged. It's been enjoyable, superb makeup department to make the studly Colin Farrell look so hideous, yet not so over the top the way they made Danny De Vito look in Batman Returns.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

pfchang
~The REAL TW Football Club~
5 6 7
Replies
300
Views
24K
bezs
bezs
jamesblakefan#1
TW Fantasy Football 2016
Replies
27
Views
3K
Feña14
Feña14
TheMuzziah
  • Poll Poll
Football 2016/17 Predictions
2 3
Replies
119
Views
9K
Slice'n'dice
Slice'n'dice
kiki
greatest football rivalries
Replies
2
Views
1K
Sudacafan
Sudacafan
jamesblakefan#1
TW Fantasy Football 2012
2 3
Replies
134
Views
17K
johndagolfer
J
Back
Top