General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

Women's football is very watchable. But I'd still prefer to watch mens football.

Remember seeing something on the united defensive line last season and it was high/middle of the pack (miles behind Liverpool and City).

Not disputing this - we were deep and countering vs Liverpool and despite the scoreline Arsenal dominated the possession at OT and forced United back.

Would expect that the line was higher vs Brighton and Brentford, and then freaking anchored following those horror shows. I have no belief that the shape/positioning of the side now is what EtH wants it to be, but after the Brentford game he had to go into firefighting mode.

If Casemiro can get up to speed, and we can get Martial into the CF position (better at linking and holding up than ROnaldo is.... sigh) I think we could see the line move further up the pitch. though with DDG in goals and his aversion to leaving the 6 yard box maybe not. United probably need to replace the keeper before we can really push the defensive up, as it is there will be too big a gap between the defense and the GK.

He'll be at one of Europe's biggest clubs within 5 years. I remember a lot of discussion when Brighton sacked Houghton who had kept them up and signed a midtable championship manager in Potter.

What the media ignored then and continue to ignore is Tony Bloom statistical modelling machine (media ignored by Blooms design). Bloom is one of the greatest minds to have ever lived, never mind great in a football sense. He's playing on a completely different sphere to most other football admins. You can imagine that De Zerbi has been performing off the charts on said metrics, just as Potter was back then and the likes of Pep has since he started in management. You can be fairly sure he'll be a success and Brighton will be going nowhere for as long as Bloom keeps his interest

Anyone surprised anymore about how and where City get there money breaking rules to suit themselves.

I don't know why City bother with all the cloak and dagger stuff TBH.

Their own fans don't care (bought and paid for in a sense).

UEFA and the EPL have proven toothless, and have been cowed by the deeper pockets of the UAE that have promised to drag them through every legal wormhole possible to avoid any punishment.

Opposition fans in the main don't care either reply at this stage, they've seen what City are doing and what is bound to happen at Newcastle, and are largely resigned to playing in a different league to the oil guys.

I honestly don't know why they even bother covering it up.

'Bloom is one of the greatest minds to have ever lived'. I had to Google his background after reading that statement. I feel you might be giving him a bit too much credit!

When a club like man city claim to make greater commercial revenue than the likes of United and Liverpool you know it's all bull.

With Avon on this one Bloom is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of his generation.

Ten Haggs United actually play deeper tan Ole's ( deepest average line in the league this season) but as you rightly point out they look for the extra pass or two before getting a striker away,

Ten Hagg has done well , he has done what he had to do , many mangers fail because they try to stick to there " philosophy " He noticed after the first two games it wasn't working as it was to early for the player he had available so went back to basic's that is good management ,

So nobody is criticising him all we saying is the make or break of his job will come when he has to try to transition them to a front foot possession orientated side,

De Zerbi is a very interesting appointment ,

it'll be very interesting to see who ends up in there jobs longer between himself & Potter,

I love Potter he is a brilliant coach but i think Chelsea was the wrong top 6 club for him,

What are the knock-on effects of these dodgy deals though? When 1 or 2 clubs are getting money for sponsorship they could never have gained on the open market?

What does that do to the clubs that are trying to compete with them? Do they go bankrupt trying to compete or do they just accept that they cannot make up a deal for 500m - 1B out of nowhere and are now a 2nd rate team?

FFP should not be about stopping a club from eventually challenging the top clubs but it needs to make sure they are not inflating the whole market beyond repair, causing issues for other clubs. It is very clear that is what Man City are doing, sure they were caught but got off because the evidence was time-barred. But the evidence was still there and everyone knows they cheated before and are at it again now.

Have no issue with clubs growing over time to challenge but have every issue with making up bogus deals to artificially inflate income to skip over other clubs so you can clean the image of your country to the western world. It is a very very bad road to go down.

I didnt mean you specifically want to keep the big clubs big. And again, so what if an owner does that? As long as that company commits to keep paying what difference does it make? The club is protected as they are guaranteed the sponsor money that covers their bills.

If you think these deals distort the market then it should be a budget limit rather than a % of revenue. FFP doesn't stop United spending 200million on a player but it does stop Newcastle.

Spurs (826 M), United (600 M) , Arsenal ( 201M) , Liverpool (208m) are all also in debt ,

From last May there was only 4 clubs reported in Europe in zero depth are PSG, City, Chelsea & Leister

Running football clubs is no easy task ,

Oh ye I'm 100 % aware of all of that

Its like most things in life that are set out with the idea of fairness but end up being corrupted