Today's Football

[greenmark]

Love the action packed December schedule

But hate to see so many good markets play out round the same time

I thought BA Guardian was the solution to that. Perhaps your decision making parameters are not mappable into Guardian.
I confess I no longer use data. although I continue to ferret about. I only bet on football and usually on televised games. I'm sure there must be something in the data that would allow me to program it and walk away but I haven't found that nugget yet. But if I did BA Guardian would be briliant.

[Kai]

Eh there are only so many positions that two eyes can babysit

No matter how many monitors you get!

[weemac]

Eh there are only so many positions that two eyes can babysit

No matter how many monitors you get!

A far cry from the 90s when I travelled the country to buy ex-rental TVs with the teletext function that allowed for the freezing of pages as they scrolled in order to arb between spread betting companies (until they wised up to me). I had them stacked on stools in my living room and the remote controls rigged with bits of plastic to stop them from operating the wrong TV.

[Kai]

A far cry from the 90s when I travelled the country to buy ex-rental TVs with the teletext function that allowed for the freezing of pages as they scrolled in order to arb between spread betting companies (until they wised up to me). I had them stacked on stools in my living room and the remote controls rigged with bits of plastic to stop them from operating the wrong TV.

That is pretty old school, you have my respect

[jamesedwards]

Three games in here's my final placing prediction:

1 Man City*
2 Arsenal*
3 Newcastle*
4 Aston Villa*
5 Chelsea*
6 Brighton
7 Liverpool
8 Tottenham
9 Man Utd
10 Bournemouth
11 Brentford
12 West Ham
13 Crystal Palace
14 Fulham
15 Leicester*
16 Wolves
17 Notts F*
18 Everton*
19 Southampton
20 Ipswich

* (assuming no points deduction)

Ten games in. Updated prediction (assuming no teams suffer points deduction):

1 Arsenal
2 Man City
3 Chelsea
4 Aston Villa
5 Liverpool
6 Newcastle
7 Brighton
8 Tottenham
9 Bournemouth
10 Man Utd
11 Brentford
12 Fulham
13 Crystal Palace
14 Notts F
15 West Ham
16 Wolves
17 Leicester
18 Everton
19 Southampton
20 Ipswich

13/14 games in...

Not much change except at the top!

1 Chelsea
2 Arsenal
3 Man City
4 Liverpool
5 Aston Villa
6 Newcastle
7 Brighton
8 Tottenham
9 Man Utd
10 Bournemouth
12 Notts F
12 Brentford
13 Fulham
14 Crystal Palace
15 West Ham
16 Wolves
17 Leicester
18 Everton
19 Southampton
20 Ipswich

[Kai]

James the type of guy to still put Liverpool 4th even when they mathematically secure 1st

[Euler]

Liverpool on the drift ahead of the match tonight. I thought they were a big price, but they look even bigger now.

[Michael5482]

Liverpool on the drift ahead of the match tonight. I thought they were a big price, but they look even bigger now.

Drift will be due to putting the reserve side out because they have already won the league according to most of their fans There not quite as deluded as Leeds fans yet but they take some beating they won the championship 2 weeks ago

[Archangel]

Liverpool haven't turned up so far. Defence looks wobbly

[Kai]

Liverpool haven't turned up so far. Defence looks wobbly

Most difficult match yet, excellent press with Gordon unplayable at times

Was worried when I saw Quansah start at RB again, unsure of the logic there? Obviously 3 fullbacks fully out along with Konate while 4th can't be risked to start again, but surely Gomez was a no-brainer there

Going to be a very tricky month until they get some numbers back, sadly Darwin pretty much useless at this point and didn't adapt to Slot at all. Maybe time to cut losses there.

Overall see a lot of space for improvement, still a team in transition for me and will elaborate more on that. Jota's availability issues means you can never rely on him to lead the line either (someone like Marmoush/Gyokeres would fit well), while Chiesa is only match fit to play with U23s tonight so Salah still hasn't got a replacement 7 years later. Alisson's injuries are another huge worry, you can see why they lined up Mamardashvili for next season. Endo only got a few minutes all season with Slot giving up on him completely, so Gravenberch doesn't have a replacement either. Questions over Konate's fitness as well, he's never had a big run in the team despite despite developing into a beastly CB. Szoboszlai far too inconsistent at this stage, has much to prove, if Harvey Elliott wasn't out he'd be getting a ton of play time there. VVD's been getting sloppier and has gifted some free Xmas opportunities while Robbo has done the same with a couple free pens, I think Tsimikas has surpassed him at this point. And obviously the big talking point with the contract situations for VVD, Trent and Salah somehow still not sorted yet, all 3 can talk to other clubs in 3 weeks time!! Feel free to lmk if you agree/disagree.

Excellent start for Slot but a crazy amount of work to do still.

[Archangel]

Won't win any league if we have to rely on that donkey Nunez too often ...

[greenmark]

...and Kelleher needs to review his approach. Stay on the line or take control and clear the ball. Don't go then stop. A huge lesson for him v Newcastle I think. And 2 important points lost for LFC.

[firlandsfarm]

After Arsenal's recent teaching of how to score at corners I was intending to post a comment asking how should teams defend against them but I then came across this article on MSN. Yes, an article on MSN that discusses a subject well rather than just looking for click bait!

The real mystery for me is that other teams don't seem to have twigged to do it themselves. Having watched Arsenal it seems obvious to me that to have your attackers at a corner stand behind the back post makes life very difficult for defenders who have to have the skills of Janus in being able to look both forwards and backwards at the same time. Nice trick if you can do it. It leaves the defence either not knowing where the ball is or where the attackers are. This is then developed into a crowded 6 yard box where the defenders have not had the time to set themselves against the attackers and in about 1 second the goal-area becomes so congested that nobody can move! I know some think this tactic is against the rules but I am still waiting to see the rule that says a player must give up their space if an opposition player wants to use it! My first clear experience of this tactic was in a Chelsea game many years ago where John Terry was being chased in the penalty area by his marker at a corner JT ran so close to a team mate that the marker had to drop off or run straight into the defender risking a possible penalty award. Seems to me Arsenal as a team are doing likewise to JT.

The point of this post is to stimulate discussion on how to defend against it.

[firlandsfarm]

VAR should abide by the clear and obvious rule. When you take five minutes to make a decision, that's anything but clear and obvious.

I also think footy should introduce a challenge system similar to Tennis. That puts some emphasis on only referring things that are clear and obvious.

Or as in Cricket when 'clear and obvious' is assessed as half the ball. I'm not suggest football should use a 'half the ball' rule but something similar where there has to be a clear margin and not depend on whether someone clipped their toe-nails before the match!

[Kai]

You knew this was coming soon as Pep namedropped him the other day

Jose Mourinho: "Guardiola said he won 6 trophies while I won 3. However, I won them fair and clean. If I lose, I would like to congratulate my opponent for being better than me. I don't want to win while having 150 legal cases."

Hate him or love him the man is box office and the league is poorer without him!