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I concur with yr analysis CCM.
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I’m not sure about Chelsea obviously they will win plenty of matches and spurs are a good side who have finished above Liverpool constantly so your bet seems a good one
Cl and cup games will have a big day in how teams or squads cope throughout the season |
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CCM, thought we'd be in single figures for the league after last night's romp but as you say astonished to see 12s. every chance we could say win 7 of the first 8 games now. pretty friendly fixtures coming up apart from your lot
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Hype factor causes a lot of it.
There was no hype about Spurs, or even negativity if anything about signing no players in the transfer window. You only need to watch Soccer Saturday to see this, the things they've said about Spurs the first few weeks have been unbelievable, convinced they're going to have to sell Eriksen or some other key player before the window abroad shuts (doesn't help you have two Arsenal pundits I imagine). Liverpool seem to have bought well, and everyone seems to agree on that, it's hard to tell just how good they are yet. Defensively it definitely looks better though, the Palace game was one they wouldn't have won in previous years, it's hard to quantify this into what is their level. I don't think Chelsea are that good tbh. Think they have been fortunate to get 3 wins, defensively they look very suspect. Kepa doesn't look great either so far, but it's still very early days on him. Overall you have to say City have a huge advantage in the squad depth department. Both Liverpool and Tottenham have the problem of if a few key players get injured they are in big trouble imo. |
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I don't think Chelsea are that good tbh. Think they have been fortunate to get 3 wins, defensively they look very suspect. Kepa doesn't look great either so far, but it's still very early days on him.
I'll start by saying I don't see us as title challengers at the moment and for now top 4 is the main priority but you don't think we're that good? Our pre season was about as shambolic as you could get with the former manager taking the first 3 or 4 days of training. This after the original date for players to come back had to be put back a week due to all the uncertainty behind the scenes. Within a week of training under Sarri we were flying off to Australia for one poxy game thus eating into more of the preparation time. Some of our most important players were involved until the final weekend of the World Cup meaning they came back 5 days before the start of the PL season. We have a new manager imposing a completely new style on the team. The potential for a total shambles in the first month or so was huge. Instead, you already have a side who went close to breaking the PL record for possession against a side who, after seeing us in 2 games, decided they had to resort to the tactics they used against Man City last season. We're light years ahead of where I expected us to be at this stage. One of the biggest concerns before the season started was the Thursday/Sunday grind in the Europa League. There's an argument right now though that we could play an alternative 11 in the Europa League for most of the group games given that, in the first 3 games, the likes of Fabregas and Cahill haven't even been on the bench. There's still the possibility of it changing in the next couple of days but for now we have a much larger pool of players available to us than has been the case for 2 or 3 years. The season hasn't really started yet. The top clubs have had the inconvenience of the World Cup to deal with this year but things get trickier for them when European commitments kick in. Tottenham will take a lot of confidence from that win last night but their main concern is how they'd cope if they lost players like Kane or Eriksen for a prolonged spell. Liverpool are stronger this season obviously and could go close with the front 3 they have and the added depth in the squad. United are in big trouble already and City are still the team to beat. |
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To be fair to Mouriniho, he can only tell his players how he wants them to play best under the conditions of the game and to be fair, Utd could and should have scored a few the first half. Problem was Spurs hassled them for every ball last night which eventually put Utd off their game and under pressure.
The main problem lies with the players. Only Luke shaw came out with any praise, but in all honesty, as a non man Utd fan, not one of them is good enough to put that shirt on, and when I hear players like lingaard saying he's too tired to play, then jetting off on holiday with his mates, it's the reason why I have come to dislike footballers so much...could you ever imagine Alex Ferguson or Roy Keane putting up with that? |
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simple answr is spuds win fick all and are serial losers.. might win the odd game in style but ar underachievers big time... same agian this year .. be surprised if they ewin anything , lots of examleasof thios if you look at their record. cutural and historical losers
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Marcce makes a great case for CFC imo esp with ref to Europa league and using a 2nd 11 like AFC did in the group stages last yr gl with ya plays guys. Spurs just don't know how to win things, 4th at best for me this yr
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i was referring to winning anything sofaking and i was not being disrespectful. if they want to win titles/cups then they need a bigger and stronger squad. Levy will ot invst and that is whythey tend to run out of gas as the seacon progress.
tale last season promised so much delivered ittle -even finished top of their championship grup beating Real Madrid but it all petered out tonothing. season before great run to catch Leicester and win the title but guess what they petered out again and finished with nothing. I could go on .... levy needs to strenghten the squald - they have avery good manager and a good team ethic and play football the right way but if it stays as it is they will just not compete at the very highest levelmnand win things. the really big danger for them is that their best players eventually get fed up and move on to clubs that will win things. Darrwen Gough summed it uop today on talksport when he said they have am 11 top 11 players that couls compete with any of the best maybe but its not about your best 11 its about your squad and strength in depth and both city and liverppol have addressed this in recent years with good additions . Spurs havent and the difference shows at the end of every season |
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Tough read that, dragon.
Swollen thumb? Or been on the sauce? |
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fat fingers sol sorry
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No hard feelings.
Just proof read it next time. ![]() |
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Very tough ask to win the PL or CL when you're up against clubs that throw billions at it and domestic cups have lost all their prestige and are pretty meaningless these days. Leicester winning the title was a freak season and Spurs were always playing catch-up after a very poor start to the season. Finishing in the top three for three years running (including last season where they played 38 games away from home) with a negative net spend is certainly not an underachievement.
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how many times do we have to go over the same old ground ?
there was never any chance of catching leicester. spurs only won 6 of the first 16 games. by the time we were in with a chance it was too late and leicester (or spurs for that matter) hardly made a mistake in the run in until it was over. would have needed to win something like 17 out of 19 games 2nd half of season to catch them. absolutely impossible must be 100/1 at least the 3 consecutive top 3 finishes and as sofaking getting 77 points playing no proper home games was a remarkable effort last season no reason why spurs can't get somewhere towards 90 points this if things go well and important players stay fir (got 86 points 2 years ago). the likes of kane, eriksen and dele are not even at their peak yet all those saying spurs can't win this and can't win that have to be right every season. spurs only have to get it right once |
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you have not addressed my point about the depth of the squad and levys approach to the transfer market. that i believe is your achilles heel. I shou have added you could also be in danger of losing your manager not just your players
no typos!!! |
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Sounding a bit like an AFC who were happy with top 4 spots, at that point we prob had a negative spend too, only last few season Wenger started spending real big money on so called superstars but that didn't work and we are where we are now. It is obv getting tougher these days with some teams not only in Prem but Europe seemingly having unlimited funds to spend, Pool and Spurs do have great Managers in place, Chelsea,s could prove to also cut the mustard here in time, jury will be out for now ref the AFC guy and Jose, who knows what he,s gonna do, prob end up walking.
Decent start for Spurs but a settling in period is around the corner at the new stadium, might take a little time to adjust to that as well, do agree about the price being value as mentioned though, funny how big Utd and AFC after 3 games, just goes to show the sign of the times right now |
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i might add have finished in front of liverpool for 8 of the last 9 seasons. everyone except city will need luck in keeping their best players fit most of the time - liverpool would be absolutely sunk if they lost salah for a prolonged period
just cos levy does things differently to every other club doesn't mean he's wrong. the squad's as deep as it's ever been. around 21 proper senior players and our first choice bench would be something like vorm, sanchez, rose, winks, waynama, lamela and son. no weak links there no inclination in any of the key players to leave. quite the reverse. poch and kane are committed long term. he'd be the real madrid manager now if he wanted it. poch has spent 4 years building the club and it goes from strength knocking off all these hoodoos - can't win at the big away grounds 7 points from last 9 there thanks very much. he's not gonna leave just as we move into the new ground and the dividend may be about to pay out |
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so why have they not wony anything in recent years . the answee to the ops question is that the market doesnt unerestimate spurs they usually get it right and the reason is they dont win anything- period
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That point is flawed Dragon. Liverpool haven’t won anything for ages either and are 3/1 for the league.
Why is there such a disparity between LFC and THFC and their prices for the league? |
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cos they've been competing with 5 clubs with more money and 2 or 3 them vastly more money. it's extremely difficult. sure might have won a cup by now lost a final when massive underdogs in poch's first season and a couple of other semi finals
the club is already light years better than 4 years ago. pochettino inherited an absolute shambles of a team really. season before he took over we conceded something like 27 goals in the 8 games against the top 4 teams. an absolute disgrace if you keep knocking on the door chances are you'll burst through eventually. liverpool's trophy cabinet not exactly groaning with the weight of silverware in recent seasons either |
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I imagine looking at last year they are looking at the points gap between the sides behind city and take the opinion Liverpool were the best going forward had an unbeaten home record and have improved their defense on paper
Have also added couple of midfielders in Keita and shaquiry spurs have added nothing and are moving to a new ground which may or may not become a fortress so is a bit of an unknown I’m guessing they are some reasons why Liverpool are ahead in their eyes |
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i take your point ccm but the bookies are not fools and they dont often get their prices wrong, they would be out of business if they did.
i still believe that they are priced up on expectaion and the expectation with spurs is that withot adding to the squiad they will be still way behinfd city and now behind a vastly improving Liverpool ( Champs league finalist and strengthened in key areas) its not rocket science |
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alderweireld and winks hardly featured after october last season and moura just a handful of sub appearances in the league anyway. effectively 3 new players. how many players do you need anyway ?
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so why do you think the bookies are pricing spurs at such a large differntial between the top two in the betting?
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Squad strength is hugely overrated. You just need a strong first 11 and luck with injuries. It's a myth that anyone has squad players just as good as their best players. Who are City replacing Debruyne with ? No one on the same level. Who would Liverpool replace Salah with? They have no comparable player to replace him with.
The squad players of the top 20 or so clubs in Europe are basically interchangeable. Andre Gomes was a Barcelona squad player last season. This season he will be an Everton squad player. |
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liverpool are nearly always artificially short in any market. as for spurs people fall for the hype of no signings being important - we haven't really signed a key player for 3 seasons now - and endless clueless pundits queueing up to repeat it when the continuity and stability of spurs is always the biggest thing going for us
market pretty meaningless anyway. 2 of the last 3 seasons it's been spectacularly wrong at this stage of the season. leicester won from nowhere and chelsea were 30+ after a handful of games |
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Dragon , things have changed in the last 20 years , It's no longer about 'winning things'
It's all about finishing in the top 3 or 4 ,and getting into the showpiece champions league to test yourself against Europe's elite , Spurs are doing just that . If a team in the top 4 wins the FA cup or league cup it barely raises a smile from their fans ...a different ball game to say West Ham or Bournemouth winning the cup as they have no realistic prospects of a top 4 finish . The money involved in the Champions league is another thing and also the ability to draw top managers and players . I guess most Spurs fans would be happy to finish 2nd or 3rd every season from now on and never see an FA cup final . Spurs have more than succeeded imo |
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as for the betting i think Liverpool are on a slightly more upward curve than Spurs ..there does seem to be a solid yearly improvement ...also they reached the CL semi finals this year
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i'd probably have Spurs at 8 and Liverpool around 5.5 ..the gap is too much
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None of the arguments against Spurs on this thread stand up to scrutiny..
'Not won anything' : Winning FA Cups or League Cups are irrelevant to the title race. Pundits said in 2014 if Arsenal could just win a trophy they would become ' and they would use it as a platform to challenge for titles and go deep in the CL. It was just a platform for more FA Cups and they were as bad as ever in the biggest competitions. 'The bookies must be right about the title race: Two weeks ago the bookies said Man United were much more likely than Spurs to win it. Did they get that right. |
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The title will be won or lost when City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs play each other.
Can't see that any of them have played a game that they were expected to lose yet, personally. How far they each go in Europe - particularly Chelsea on a Thursday followed by the Sunday 1PM graveyard slot every week - could also be a key factor. |
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Have you factored in the new stadium syndrome?
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And the idea of squad players being interchangeable doesn't wash either. Look at City's bench compared to the others. Mahrez, Sterling, Sane, Jesus, normally 3 of those are going to be on it for starters, and that's with their best player currently missing. No way can Liverpool and Spurs boast options like that.
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I think squad depth is important to push players internally and to give options to change a game also for rotation in cup games that a club or manger places less emphasis on
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Barcelona's squad players are just as bad. None of them would get in the Arsenal team imo. Indeed they have taken players such as Song,Hleb and Vermaelen off Arsenal, who were squad players for Arsenal. Barca have just had a core of Messi and a few other crucial players who were very rarely injured.
Bernard Silva was a pretty regular starter anyway wasn't he Debruyne is the best in his position in the world and cannot be replaced so there will be a drop off for City. |