Unpopular Football Opinions

[Devil-Dick Willie]

An unpopular opinions thread eh? Without looking at any of the prior discussion, I think, from a completely independent point of view, that culturally football has little significance in the usa

[Machado]

Brian having a mare and caught lying again. One of the worst humans of all time. Up there with 6ix9ine and Hitler.

[Guest]

@Eco how do you personally define popular? Personally if it was 1 in 10 or less I wouldn't consider that massively popular.  Although at the same time cricket is considered a popular sport in England and it probably has about the same support. Also in England a lot of girls don't follow football so although football is followed by probably more than one in 3 men it is significantly less with women. 

 

[Cicero]

1 hour ago, Machado said:

Brian having a mare and caught lying again. One of the worst humans of all time. Up there with 6ix9ine and Hitler.

The latter also faked his death 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Machado said:

Brian having a mare and caught lying again. One of the worst humans of all time. Up there with 6ix9ine and Hitler.

Having a mare for having an opinion? Caught lying? Go to bed you fucking sheep.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

An unpopular opinions thread eh? Without looking at any of the prior discussion, I think, from a completely independent point of view, that culturally football has little significance in the usa

It is growing, no doubt about that. However, it has literally no importance in USA history, which I guess wasn't the discussion but as we mentioned, it is still the 5th or 4th sport (depending on where people rank Hockey). It's still seen as a "sissy sport" sadly.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Spike said:

 Brian reacts exactly how people expect him to yet don't really change their approach to him. Sometimes you can look at others to change, and sometimes you have to look at yourself to change. It's kinda like clockwork, Brian reacts exactly the same way everytime, and people dialogue with him the same everytime. I don't think anyone's at fault for it because everyone expects Brian to change and he expects everyone to change. It goes around, around, around.

I just don't like being attacked for having a simple opinion, but unlike others I can actually apologize and try to settle things down. I try to be fair in that sense.

[Cicero]

38 year old Zlatan is breaking records left and right in that league 

[Azeem]

Bandwagon that comes with football, you won't see that in any other sport.

So football is fashionable almost everywhere but culturally significant also ? Not everywhere 

[Eco]

On 25/09/2019 at 08:44, Gunnersauraus said:

@Eco how do you personally define popular? Personally if it was 1 in 10 or less I wouldn't consider that massively popular.  Although at the same time cricket is considered a popular sport in England and it probably has about the same support. Also in England a lot of girls don't follow football so although football is followed by probably more than one in 3 men it is significantly less with women. 

 

Well, I look at the stats on TV Viewership and attendances, both of which are good for soccer here in the States. 

I also would look at youth involvement, and I would guess that soccer is the most popular sport with children here in the States, and that just filters up, especially now with all the dangers of American Football and parents not letting their children play it. 

[Smiley Culture]

It’s all a bit shit, this Football stuff, isn’t it? Not Football itself, because Football is brilliant and there’s not a lot better out of there than watching twenty-two lads kick a ball around, but all the bullshit that goes with it. I feel like I drive to work on a Monday and the talking points aren’t stuff like bottom of the league Watford beating Manchester United or City beating Leicester but it seems like it’s either talk about VAR or, more recently, racism and it’s just demoralising.

Most people hate it but VAR is here to stay. Granted, there will probably be changes to how it’s policed and who’s in charge of it but it’s not going anywhere. I’m not sure why people still talk about it as if it’s some super computer on a rampage against humans like some sort of terrible 80’s Sci-Fi film either. 

It’s also 2019, nearly 2020, and we have people abusing people based upon the colour of their skin and the fact that they happen to have the propensity to play Football for a different team than the one they support, whilst lauding heroes past and present that have different skin tones and nationalities that have played for the club they support. 

Maybe it’s the fact I’m an adult and there’s other stuff in life but Football has certainly lost some of its sparkle and romance. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike football and I’m not going to stop watching it on TV or live but it just feels a bit shit lately. 

[Mpache]

The Copa America must invite 2 teams in order to remain a solid format.

I've seen people suggest the Copa America be 10 teams - 2 groups of 5. I hate this idea, because it's what is used in the youth tournaments and it sucks. It requires a team to have a rest day and if you rest on the wrong date, you are at a massive disadvantage. It can give you a huge mental block that you otherwise wouldn't have until the third matchday in a group of 4. Not only that, but it's in a span of 2 weeks and 4 matches. In a league, it works because you have plenty of matches to catch up, but in a short tournament, it doesn't work. Even at club level I hate it, but it's way better than in international football.

[nfb_10]

Most seem to have written off Neymar as having wasted his chance to end up winning a Ballon D'Or, but barring injury I think he'll win it in 2021. 

[Dan+]

Norwich aren't that bad. Remind me of Leicester 2014/15. Stuck to the bottom but frequently close to getting a result, just cannot quite put it away though.

I reckon they beat us in a fortnight though.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

They remind me of Blackpool 2010/11. Enterprising and organised. Just not quite got the troops and too leaky.

Fuck that was a wild season. Birmingham and Blackpool were both good enough to stay up any other year. 39 pts each. 

[Inverted]

Norwich are like the anti-Liverpool.

Liverpool almost always play better, and the results are always freakishly close to the performances. Never seem to get sucker punched or suffer an unlucky loss in games they edge performance-wise. 

Norwich have their flaws and generally blow a chance here and there, and lose a little bit of focus, but unlike other teams, they never, ever seem to get away with it. 

[Dan+]

12 hours ago, Inverted said:

Norwich are like the anti-Liverpool.

Liverpool almost always play better, and the results are always freakishly close to the performances. Never seem to get sucker punched or suffer an unlucky loss in games they edge performance-wise. 

Norwich have their flaws and generally blow a chance here and there, and lose a little bit of focus, but unlike other teams, they never, ever seem to get away with it. 

That's exactly what I mean about them being like Leicester 2014/15 - no idea if xG was a thing back then but I'd be surprised if we weren't significantly below our xG standing for the majority of that season. The amount of games we lost that we shouldn't have done was ridiculous. When we stayed up it was obviously a super turnaround but I did feel like we'd finally seemed to wise up to how to get the results at this level. We obviously then carried that form into next season and the rest is history.

What I'm saying is while I do think Norwich will drop, I wouldn't be that gobsmacked if they did survive. Fuck, they even had the impressive early win over a Manchester club like we did! Before then not winning again for ages  They are frequently coming close. I think Farke is a good coach and I think they've got some very good players.

I did notice a point about them though that I think is interesting - they don't spend enough. I've always been an advocate of spending sensibly and hate some of the bullshit excuses people come out with for their own club wasting money, but if Norwich are relegated this season you have to ask some questions of them - their net spend in the last five years is minus fifty million. Given you get about £100mil a year (approximately) just for playing in the Premier League - where on earth has that money actually gone? Are they spending it on facilities? To me there's being savvy and there's just being tight, and Norwich are the latter.

[Dan+]

Oh another unpopular one and this will get me some stick from the Germans - RB Leipzig are not the ultimate evil. There is a lot to dislike about them and I do not agree with clubs essentially becoming adverts for a company, but they're not the main evil in this sport for me. I'd sooner them than these clubs who effectively want to kill off the competition. I think as well they've done a lot of good if you look solely at footballing matters - largely investing in domestic players and coaches. Like I wouldn't go as far as saying I like them at all but I can't get that angry at them compared to some other clubs.

[Dan+]

Harry Kane has already peaked. He's been relied on far too much at both club and international level and is paying the price.

Marcus Rashford will go exactly the same way.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

1 hour ago, Dan said:

Harry Kane has already peaked. He's been relied on far too much at both club and international level and is paying the price.

Marcus Rashford will go exactly the same way.

@Storts

[Cicero]

Can Kane get any better? 

[Dan+]

48 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Can Kane get any better? 

That's fair too really. He was hitting exceptional numbers.

I honestly think though he's already slumped. There's a hint of Michael Owen about it.

[Smiley Culture]

No idea how we compare to the continent and I suppose there’s no real history, as yet, we can look at as a barometer but it wouldn’t surprise me if some of these players have trouble in later life, given the amount of games they play. 

[Guest]

When you think about it is staggering that people think they know more than professional football managers. I'm not saying that people aren't entitled to an opinion. But football managers have spent there whole adult life and most of their childhood working in football. They have a team of people around them analysing statistics. They will forget what most fans know about football but fans always tell them what they should be doing.

[Smiley Culture]

- There’s too many teams in the Premier League. 

- I get how damaging it is to domestic football across Europe but just for the pure mystery of it, I’d be intrigued to see a “European Super League” breakaway, to see how teams get on over say 5-10 seasons.