El Plastico: Renters v The Berts

Originally Posted by Lazlo Panaflex

Wheels came off when raw Wilkins got sacked for turning up to work every day with a bag of cans. Carlo couldn't communicate with the players and fell out with big Roman.

I hope he goes back. He's not as good as he once was.

Thats right.

Lovely breakdown/rant from Ray last season live on talksport with that ginger.

Also enjoyed his tiff with the fat journo LVG emotionally crushed.

Originally Posted by saffers

City have proven themselves as upgraded on last year

Didn’t they start off last season the same away? I recall most pundits saying the league was done and dusted in city’s favour by the end of September.

They’ve upgraded in the sense they have more depth in attacking positions so he can rest players without much drop off, and they’ll be fresher as the season goes on because of it, but the same weaknesses remain.

Conte had a shocker tonight in team and subs but City deserves it the @#%&!s.

Still think teams can get at them, and it’ll be intterested to see how they perform when it gets later on in the year.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

They are clearly the best pure footballing side in the country. Utd are far more functional in comparison, but can be as effective in their own way. Heavy pitches, a few injuries, think, hope, Utd might be better set up to deal with those issues over a full season.

Chelsea should be no higher than third, not the team of last year with some of their moves and Hazard looking for his best form. Even last year they were solid and competent rather than exceptional, the best of a mediocre bunch.

And same with Chelsea. They pretty much started out like this last season. But I guess champions league will prevent them going on a run like last time.

Originally Posted by Knockers

I think we look good but City look terrifying. We're not at their level at all IMHO. I'll chill when it's absolutely impossible for them to win the quadruple. God look at their £#%&!ing fans. Having a ball. I feel stabby.

I dont disagree significantly. Fact is though we're 7 games in.

The crowning of city sounds an awful lot like when they went to OT this time last year and played even better than they did today and won.

Not sure Chelsea fans will be overly concerned either, they were getting tonked back to back by Liverpool and Arsenal this time last year.

Lot of things can happen quickly. Heck we might fall off completely in the next two months. If you'd have said this time last year that Chelsea would go on a 16 game win streak I wouldn't have believed you.

Originally Posted by redhegemony

Chelski were poor - low energy - never really threatened or dominated a stage of the game. City took advantage and flowed forwards.

We won't give City that much space to play in and will be far more dangerous going forwards.

Of course he will. You're not competing with them in midfield with bogbrush.

He'll park the bus and launch it over their press at Lukaku and bogbrush

https://twitter.com/DuncanCastles/status/914243891011969025

Originally Posted by ScarFace

https://twitter.com/DuncanCastles/st...43891011969025

Won a title with another man's team and now wants to do one when the going gets tough.

Fraud.

Originally Posted by ziggyman17

they are joint top with us, they have beaten Chelsea by a single goal, they looked poor against Liverpool until the sending off, drew at home to Everton, we have hit four goals in 4 league games, that is not to be sniffed at, we still have Zlatan to come back and used properly in the second half of the season and he could be a big game changer for us, add him to Lukaku, Rashford and Martial and we have the fire power to win this league, we have a better goal keeper and defence and that could be the key to winning this league this season..

You don't have to promote the benefits of our side. I'm onside. I like us.

As for City, they weren't poor against Liverpool. Let's not kid ourselves. They were 1-0 up and conceded a chance to Salah. It was fairly even.. and they were a goal ahead

They beat Chelsea by one goal? Should they win by more until we're impressed?... did you watch it? Sorry, but if we'd won there like that we'd be all over it.

I thought they played well and looked good. And we look good too.

Are both those things ok?

I have seen nothing to suggest we have a better defence. They've conceded zero goals to Chelsea and Liverpool

Let's not be mongs and acknowledge teams when they play well.

We bump Liverpool threads suggesting Lukaku wouldn't make their 11. Let's not do the same.

Originally Posted by Billy Redface

You don't have to promote the benefits of our side. I'm onside. I like us.

As for City, they weren't poor against Liverpool. Let's not kid ourselves. They were 1-0 up and conceded a chance to Salah. It was fairly even.. and they were a goal ahead

They beat Chelsea by one goal? Should they win by more until we're impressed?... did you watch it? Sorry, but if we'd won there like that we'd be all over it.

I thought they played well and looked good. And we look good too.

Are both those things ok?

I have seen nothing to suggest we have a better defence. They've conceded zero goals to Chelsea and Liverpool

Let's not be mongs and acknowledge teams when they play well.

We bump Liverpool threads suggesting Lukaku wouldn't make their 11. Let's not do the same.

Totally agree. Saying that City are in good form and will go close to winning the league isn't exactly a controversial viewpoint is it - there's only PSG in world football who've spent more money than them in the last 2 years - they absolutely should be going close to winning the league.

With that being said, you'd think acknowledging that they have a good side is akin to some sort of heresy on here. Come on, we're not 12 year olds, it's okay to admit that, we're not going to lose any internet top red points.

Originally Posted by Sparky***

Totally agree. Saying that City are in good form and will go close to winning the league isn't exactly a controversial viewpoint is it - there's only PSG in world football who've spent more money than them in the last 2 years - they absolutely should be going close to winning the league.

With that being said, you'd think acknowledging that they have a good side is akin to some sort of heresy on here. Come on, we're not 12 year olds, it's okay to admit that, we're not going to lose any internet top red points.

Encouraging signs of objectivity on here lately after the recent trend of RAWKesque giddy drivel

Originally Posted by Sparky***

Totally agree. Saying that City are in good form and will go close to winning the league isn't exactly a controversial viewpoint is it - there's only PSG in world football who've spent more money than them in the last 2 years - they absolutely should be going close to winning the league.

With that being said, you'd think acknowledging that they have a good side is akin to some sort of heresy on here. Come on, we're not 12 year olds, it's okay to admit that, we're not going to lose any internet top red points.

Yep.

They look good.

That's no reflection on us at all.

Tonight was a big win for them.. and how they did it
. They went to the champions and bosssed them them.

If we did it, we'd be excited.....if we do it, I'll be excited.

But we haven't played those games. We've won 6 from 7. Delighted

So have city. And It's a thread about them and Chelsea.

Again, sorry.

Originally Posted by Billy Redface

You don't have to promote the benefits of our side. I'm onside. I like us.

As for City, they weren't poor against Liverpool. Let's not kid ourselves. They were 1-0 up and conceded a chance to Salah. It was fairly even.. and they were a goal ahead

They beat Chelsea by one goal? Should they win by more until we're impressed?... did you watch it? Sorry, but if we'd won there like that we'd be all over it.

I thought they played well and looked good. And we look good too.

Are both those things ok?

I have seen nothing to suggest we have a better defence. They've conceded zero goals to Chelsea and Liverpool

Let's not be mongs and acknowledge teams when they play well.

We bump Liverpool threads suggesting Lukaku wouldn't make their 11. Let's not do the same.

Good post

I think the point is that we don’t seem to learn anything from previous seasons when doling out the awards in September. City look good, but they’ve looked this good in the past too and won £#%&! all. The league is about fight as well as flair, and I’m not convinced they are fighters.

City did look great tbf. Not so great against Liverpool though before the mane red card. Liverpool were getting in behind for fun.

one saving grace with city might be their stamina. long winter, heavy pitches, teams looking to shut them out - all will take their toll on this whirligig style of play that guardiola is developing.

forgive me for turning into a stats £#%&!er, but here's the distances covered for each team last season:

http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...stance-covered

liverpool top, followed by city, and both had punched themselves out by february. city perhaps have a deeper squad to draw on this time, but it will take its time to gel and there may be fissures that aren't obvious yet. united, meanwhile, are way behind the top teams, and, according to that jonathan wilson piece in the guardian, are even lower this time around (and we're still @#%&!ting also-rans all over the shop). suggests that jose knows this is a strong squad and is settling in for the long haul.

pep is a purist and granted, it's working very well for them atm. jose is a pragmatist and, crucially, has experience of managing a title campaign; he knows when to conserve and when to cut loose. that may well prove the difference.

They drew against the shittest Everton team in years and won in the 96th minute v Bournemouth ffs

Can only say hand on heart wouldn't swap Jose with any other manager in world football.

city are rightly favourites for the title. the only thing wrong here is the confidence in our squad. when it comes to handing out titles in september, we should maybe wait til we've played anyone likely to be in the top six.

Originally Posted by utd99

I think the point is that we don’t seem to learn anything from previous seasons when doling out the awards in September. City look good, but they’ve looked this good in the past too and won £#%&! all. The league is about fight as well as flair, and I’m not convinced they are fighters.

Yes. They have been the best footballing side in the league for a number of years with great quality in attack but have allowed far more workmanlike Chelsea and Leicester teams to walk away with the league without putting up a challenge. A recurring issue was how poorly they responded to adversity, a bad decision, poor result in Europe, would lose focus and have a run of poor results.

I worry about the quality of the league though, there is so much cannon fodder to run up goals against, so few competent mid-table sides you expect a stiff challenge from. From the Utd point of view I am looking forward to this next run of games, against capable sides, want to see how good we really are. Difficult to tell with the state of the league and the soft CL group we have.

Originally Posted by Tiberian

Yes. They have been the best footballing side in the league for a number of years with great quality in attack but have allowed far more workmanlike Chelsea and Leicester teams to walk away with the league without putting up a challenge. A recurring issue was how poorly they responded to adversity, a bad decision, poor result in Europe, would lose focus and have a run of poor results.

I worry about the quality of the league though, there is so much cannon fodder to run up goals against, so few competent mid-table sides you expect a stiff challenge from. From the Utd point of view I am looking forward to this next run of games, against capable sides, want to see how good we really are. Difficult to tell with the state of the league and the soft CL group we have.

In a strange way, that’s where City are going to trip up if at all. They would much rather play an open game against a big team than a packed game against a small one I think. I could see them rolling over an Arsenal or Liverpool who come to play, and dropping points against a West Brom or Stoke who’d defend deep and hit them on set pieces. Look at the Bournemouth game; they were seconds away from dropping points there and Bournemouth are awful.

That’s when Pep goes all touchy face in interviews, pretending he doesn’t speak English and it’s all over.