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

I serious doubt Keane is going to throw a punch at a 70 year old man live on Sky!

I was speaking metaphorically. Keane would empty him. Souness is a bitter old fart it’s good that his time is nearly done on SKY and hopefully everywhere else.

Fatigue? 😂 It's the beginning of March. Liverpool last season competed at the top for every competition, going to extra-time and penalties in both the Carabao and FA Cup finals. Played in the Champions League final and battled for the League down to the last day. Their last game was 28th May.

United aren't competing for the Premier League title and they're playing in the Europa League. Plus they've had some very handy Cup draws.

Barcelona also beat Real Madrid 1-0 this week. They are the best side in Spain this season and were the strongest possible opponents for Utd in the EL and Utd fully deserved their win over 2 legs.

I know there is club bias going on here as always but I mean come on!!

Also for those favorable draws... Well I suppose they could have had more difficult ones if the bigger teams didn't get knocked out.

Luck of the draw - you beat who you get. The joys of cup football.

UTD are also at the start of a rebuild under a new manager. In his 1st season the season after the clubs worst ever PL finish. So the squad depth is shall we say a bit shite.

Pool were at or near the peak of a team they have been building under Klopp since 2016.

The comparison doesn't work. And Klopp even still told us every week that his players couldn't handle it and it was too much for a team he had been building for 5/6/7 seasons

Also Utd are still competing in the PL. To finish in the top 4 or any position you have to compete 😂 They don't have the quality to win it yet but they do need to compete in every game.

AND there's even more games in the EL than the CL.

Utd are allowed to be fatigued or a poster question are they fatigued after playing almost every 3 days for weeks / months

Re your last point about players getting a 'knock' and missing the international games. This is no longer up to the clubs as players can be called up to the squads regardless, and doubt any of those players involved in competitive qualifiers for Euro2024 would want to miss the games anyway (e.g., England have Italy away and Ukraine home, as big as it gets in qualifying games realistically).

South Americans are only playing friendlies so a reasonable chance they might give them a miss. Though the South American players tend to be hardcore about playing for their country.

ah fair enough, I thought it was the Nations League this time around and all friendlies.

United would want to reconsider their captain, contrast a leader like Henderson to a whinging, feigning injury captain like Bruno.

There is a drop off for sure, and ETH of course is going to play his best players in the important games. But there was plenty opportunity for rotation that the manager did not take up. Putting out the same starting 11 game after game is dangerous.

the likes of Elanga, Maguire and McTominay etc can play against Sheriff, Ominia Nicosia & Reading though. But they didn't. The 2nd leg of the Notts Forest cup tie was another prime candidate for rotation as the tie was over, Reading, Burnley etc. Linelof played a couple and CB seems to be the only position that gets rotated any bit. Man Utd played 31 games before Eriksen got his injury, he started 27 of them, playing in all 31. Never rested. Was there a need for him to play 90 mins against Burnley while Van Den Beek sat on the bench? That game was his 3rd start in a week. It wasn't needed.

I'm not suggesting to start squad players in the important PL games, but he should have used them in the cups at the least, sprinkled with the odd league start. It could have big consequences at the end of the season.

But this is it. ETH obviously feels he does need to play those players in any game of meaningful impact to our season.

All you've named there is a bunch of games that could have been thrown by players I don't trust and neither does ETH.

In 2 seasons time if he is doing the same thing after building his squad out then it will be OK to ask questions but right now he is doing what he feels right for this group of players and to be fair to him he has been proven right a vast majority of the time.

He tried to rotate early on - the Real Sociedad game at home in the EL. Lindelof, Maguire and Elanga all started. After playing Varane and Martinez against Arsenal... Guess what happened. Loss.

Utd won the 5 other games in the group but finished 2nd on GD. We had to try and chase that group from day1 after that loss at home. It cost us top spot and meant an extra 2 games against Barca. ETH learned a lesson that day.

There's no way in hell you are gonna convince me that we can start dropping in the squad players and we'd have won as many games as we have this season. I've watched those players fall flat on their arse for a long time now.

You asking why Eriksen played so much before the injury shows you didn't watch (or maybe understand)Utd. There was no player of a similar profile to Eriksen in the squad. No midfield playmaker to replace him with. When Fred plays he runs around a lot but he doesn't have the ability to move the ball between the phases like Eriksen does, pick a pass from deep like he does. From back to front he's involved in linking it all together. Taking him out changes how ETH has to set up his whole team. It changes how the team attacks.

I'm sure as Pool fan you can understand the difference it makes having Thiago in midfield vs Milner? How often would you be happy for Klopp to rotate in Milner for Thiago (presuming he's staying fit)? Don't think it would be too often. Especially games you need to win.

Why is he holding his face?

I think a result like this was on the cards for Utd - not so much 7 but being well beaten. Keane was spot on when he said they have been giving up opportunities to opposition teams but have been getting away with it.

Probably the biggest worry for them is the complete capitulation when it became clear the contest was over. Fernandes is no captain, there was zero leadership from him, it was bizarre seeing him ask to be subbed off.

But I expect Utd to get over it quickly enough. Doesn’t really change anything for them, they were never in the title race and are comfortably in the CL places. They’ve bounced back from their other horror shows this season quickly enough too.

It’s hard to know what to take from it for Liverpool too(apart from the sheer enjoyment of putting 7 on your biggest rival!). The team has been slowly improving but they need to replicate that kind of display against Bournemouth before it really means anything. Would say with no other competitions and hopefully players coming back they’ll fancy their chances at 4th.

No denying Robertson is a **** house on the pitch but I've never seen him feign injury. He's an aggressive no nonsense tough full back