Things You Hate To Admit

[Spike]

Essentially what about football do you hate to admit?

I hate to admit that Karim Benzema is better than I think he is, because I fucking hate him and everything about him. I thought he was cruising on easy street by playing on an elite team where he can statpad against 5-0 Eibar because Ronaldo already scored four times against them. But he has been carrying Real Madrid this season and it's showing that Real Madrid made the right decision keeping him and telling Piguian to fuck off, because the latter can't even score against mentally-handicapped American defenders for David Beckham's team.

I still fucking hate him and think he doesn't deserve the praise because he is a slimeball that fucks underage prostitutes and blackmails other professionals with his goon friends from the slums.

[Mpache]

- Renato Tapia is better than Pedro Aquino

- Peru has gotten much worse since the last Copa America

- Bundesliga is better than Serie A now.

- Suarez is nowhere near what he used to be.

- River Plate is better than Boca Juniors.

A few of mine.

[Dave]

I hate to admit it at the risk of being called a xenophobe but Football Manager don't have Rentao Tapia as one of the top 50 midfielders in South America for good reason.

[DeadLinesman]

4 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

I hate to admit it at the risk of being called a xenophobe but Football Manager don't have Rentao Tapia as one of the top 50 midfielders in South America for good reason.

 

[Spike]

Football Manager is only fun when the database has been edited

[Whiskey]

Dropping points to Leicester does not mean that you should shut your club down.

[Smiley Culture]

I’ve probably watched less football this season than ever before and mostly, I’ve not particularly missed it or been upset at missing a game. 

[Lucas]

Neil Warnock.

Bloke is a fucking cock and has wound me up no end from time to time and yet, here I am still liking the prick.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

PSG deserve a fair bit of credit for how sensibly they run the club. They're no Man City, but their transfers and managerial appointments are well thought out and the team is well built. 
My club will be relegated this decade. 

[Azeem]

International football is a bit shitty

[ScoRoss]

Watching your team being entertaining and 'free flowing' isn't as enjoyable as having a winning team. 

Playing out from the back, having attacking full backs, midfielders getting forward. It's all great.

But if you don't win, I'd much rather seen my team shitfest their way to a 1-0 win anyday 

[Spike]

Watching your team win via shitty lockdown tactics is only tolerable short term.

[Mpache]

6 hours ago, McAzeem said:

International football is a bit shitty

It's worse than club football for sure, but I can guarantee you this isn't the mentality outside of England.

My favourite tournament in the world is WCQ in CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. Never gets old.

[Whiskey]

9 minutes ago, Mpache said:

It's worse than club football for sure, but I can guarantee you this isn't the mentality outside of England.

My favourite tournament in the world is WCQ in CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. Never gets old.

It stems from the quality of the league. English people aren't that arsed about International football because we have the best league in the world, poorer nations will obviously like International football more due to the poor standard of their domestic matches. 

[Mpache]

2 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

It stems from the quality of the league. English people aren't that arsed about International football because we have the best league in the world, poorer nations will obviously like International football more due to the poor standard of their domestic matches. 

That is true, but I think there is more to it.

Why wouldn't a Brit prefer to watch a competitive match like West Brom vs Chelsea over shite like England vs San Marino which is only going one way?

In South America the competition is always there, and in North America in the 2nd half of qualifying it's also there.

I also think lower countries have more to be proud of if their country qualify to a World Cup.

[Spike]

The English are delusional about the quality of their league. It's the SKY propaganda model, SKY runs the Premier League so they will always say it's the best in the world and the knuckle draggers will repeat that idea ad nauseam. It's their flagship, they want global saturation of the brand, so they will always prioritise and lift up the English leagues, the tell the pundits, the reporters, journalists, and I'm sure the players and managers are suggested to mention that by SKY.

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 hours ago, Mpache said:

That is true, but I think there is more to it.

Why wouldn't a Brit prefer to watch a competitive match like West Brom vs Chelsea over shite like England vs San Marino which is only going one way?

In South America the competition is always there, and in North America in the 2nd half of qualifying it's also there.

I also think lower countries have more to be proud of if their country qualify to a World Cup.

For me, as someone that's got the nation he was born in and the nation my mum's from - and one of those nations is England, a squad which has more quality than a lot of other national teams... generally qualifies for tournaments pretty easily (except for some very, very embarrassing years) - but also generally, for the quality they have on paper, we seldom get results or even performances (last world cup aside, which I think a lot of us were just expecting England to be totally dogshit so ending up semi-finalists was bizarre) we'd like. It's just frustrating.

But part of the nature of international football is the quality is seldom as good as the top leagues (which makes sense, because it doesn't matter how good players are - good players that don't train and play with each other constantly aren't going to be as good as players that do train and play with each other constantly). There's less chemistry between players and the tactics reflect that by managers typically favouring to be more compact and the best national sides are the ones that get the basics right more often than not, regardless of how much individual talent they might have.

But watching Iran is way more fun, even if they're one of the better Asian countries. They're comparatively much more shit than England - and there's so many domestic Iranian players I have basically no familiarity with any of them... so I have to learn about these players just from watching shit international football. And watching them in the World Cup is cool - I've seen BOTH of Iran's World Cup wins. I've seen them to toe to toe with good sides in a World Cup and not totally embarrass themselves and the country.

It's just different when the expectation is much lower, imo. But because England has one of the best leagues in the world and so many players in that, it's hard to not have low expectations for England - even if the manager is someone who's just fallen upwards into the England job somehow.

I think any nation should be proud to have a side in a World Cup though. We've seen some high profile absentees from recent World Cups, so it's not like it's particularly "easy" even for the European sides that have to play against some true shite to qualify.

[Mpache]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

For me, as someone that's got the nation he was born in and the nation my mum's from - and one of those nations is England, a squad which has more quality than a lot of other national teams... generally qualifies for tournaments pretty easily (except for some very, very embarrassing years) - but also generally, for the quality they have on paper, we seldom get results or even performances (last world cup aside, which I think a lot of us were just expecting England to be totally dogshit so ending up semi-finalists was bizarre) we'd like. It's just frustrating.

But part of the nature of international football is the quality is seldom as good as the top leagues (which makes sense, because it doesn't matter how good players are - good players that don't train and play with each other constantly aren't going to be as good as players that do train and play with each other constantly). There's less chemistry between players and the tactics reflect that by managers typically favouring to be more compact and the best national sides are the ones that get the basics right more often than not, regardless of how much individual talent they might have.

But watching Iran is way more fun, even if they're one of the better Asian countries. They're comparatively much more shit than England - and there's so many domestic Iranian players I have basically no familiarity with any of them... so I have to learn about these players just from watching shit international football. And watching them in the World Cup is cool - I've seen BOTH of Iran's World Cup wins. I've seen them to toe to toe with good sides in a World Cup and not totally embarrass themselves and the country.

It's just different when the expectation is much lower, imo. But because England has one of the best leagues in the world and so many players in that, it's hard to not have low expectations for England - even if the manager is someone who's just fallen upwards into the England job somehow.

I think any nation should be proud to have a side in a World Cup though. We've seen some high profile absentees from recent World Cups, so it's not like it's particularly "easy" even for the European sides that have to play against some true shite to qualify.

I think in Europe it's much more expected to qualify than in South America if you're a big side.

Other than Brazil, there are no shoe-ins here. You can tell how passionate we were when we qualified to Russia yet I recall the English were booing after a bad performance which saw qualification to Russia. And we drew away to fucking New Zealand.

Personally I only love the international break if it's being played with South Americans or CONCACAF teams. Watching European qualifiers is like watching paint dry compared to South American, which is why I think the nations league is a very good thing. I can watch actual games that interest me and not seeing Romania beat Andorra 5-0.

[Mpache]

38 minutes ago, Spike said:

The English are delusional about the quality of their league. It's the SKY propaganda model, SKY runs the Premier League so they will always say it's the best in the world and the knuckle draggers will repeat that idea ad nauseam. It's their flagship, they want global saturation of the brand, so they will always prioritise and lift up the English leagues, the tell the pundits, the reporters, journalists, and I'm sure the players and managers are suggested to mention that by SKY.

I actually agree that the PL is the best in the world though. La Liga went in freefall, and the Bundesliga is weaker barring Bayern and maybe Leipzig/Dortmund.

[Cicero]

Serie A football is the most boring football out of all the top 5 leagues. Napoli winning the league in 2018 would've been the greatest thing that league has seen in half a century. 

[Mpache]

Just now, Cicero said:

Serie A football is the most boring football out of all the top 5 leagues. 

In entertainment, Bundesliga tops it, and for me Ligue 1 is at the bottom.

PL is second, and Serie A competes with La Liga for 3rd. However, in standard I can't see beyond the Premier League. All it's missing is a Bayern really, but the rest of the league is at a higher standard to the rest.

[Azeem]

I'm too slow to react when I get the ball in front of the goal

[Dr. Gonzo]

20 minutes ago, McAzeem said:

I'm too slow to react when I get the ball in front of the goal

Same

[Spike]

1 hour ago, Mpache said:

I actually agree that the PL is the best in the world though. La Liga went in freefall, and the Bundesliga is weaker barring Bayern and maybe Leipzig/Dortmund.

La Liga isn't in freefall, just Barcelona and Real Madrid and they are still great teams. I don't see why the Premier League is so much better than every other league. Why? Because Brighton can spend more money than Alaves? I don't see what West Ham does better than Sevilla or Tottenham and Villarreal. It's all hype. I don't see mighty Aston Villa being so much stronger than Athletic Bilbao, or Leverkusen. Nor do I think Everton is much better than Roma or Sassuolo.

The only irrefutable fact is that the relegation fodder of all leagues are beyond shit. Sheffield are especially the worst.

 

[Whiskey]

6 minutes ago, Spike said:

La Liga isn't in freefall, just Barcelona and Real Madrid and they are still great teams. I don't see why the Premier League is so much better than every other league. Why? Because Brighton can spend more money than Alaves? I don't see what West Ham does better than Sevilla or Tottenham and Villarreal. It's all hype. I don't see mighty Aston Villa being so much stronger than Athletic Bilbao, or Leverkusen. Nor do I think Everton is much better than Roma or Sassuolo.

The only irrefutable fact is that the relegation fodder of all leagues are beyond shit. Sheffield are especially the worst.

 

hi im new here but all the engrish teams r much better rated on fifa so your argument is silly haha. england league is much better than la liga serie a (silly a i call it lmao) and bundesleague.