Unpopular Football Opinions

[Spike]

europa league is seen as demotion from the champions league. it needs its own identity, ideally it should still be the cup winnners cup

[Dan+]

6 hours ago, Smiley Culture said:

It saddens me that plenty of football fans see European Football as some sort of hindrance and treat the Europa League and soon, the Conference League, with contempt. 

I do agree although I do think a third tier one is 'slightly' too far - though the way it's structured is it takes away the bottom 16 teams from the Europa League in the current format, and adds the next 16 down.

[Scouse_Mouse]

1 hour ago, Spike said:

europa league is seen as demotion from the champions league. it needs its own identity, ideally it should still be the cup winnners cup

The Europa League will always be the Champions League's poor relative though Spike. They can market it any way they want but it will always be seen as the European tournament made up of teams not good enough to make the Champion's League.

As far as the CWC goes I think that has had it's day. It made sense when only one team from each country got to compete in the European Cup, and the 2nd and 3rd place teams played in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup / UEFA Cup but it became pretty much redundant when the first two were expanded.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

4 hours ago, Dan said:

I agree with this, I don't see the harm in it if people just take it for what it is.

Because it's useless. It's literally a conglomerate of stats that are objective AND subjective, rolled into a subjective stat that doesn't actually tell you anything more than shots on goal does. 

[Whiskey]

3 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Because it's useless. It's literally a conglomerate of stats that are objective AND subjective, rolled into a subjective stat that doesn't actually tell you anything more than shots on goal does. 

This, 1000%. 

xG is for people who think they could do better than Pep Guardiola because they've gone 20 games unbeaten on Ultimate Team.

[Dan+]

11 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Because it's useless. It's literally a conglomerate of stats that are objective AND subjective, rolled into a subjective stat that doesn't actually tell you anything more than shots on goal does. 

It's no more useless than shots and possession, which plenty seem to fawn over.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

2 minutes ago, Dan said:

It's no more useless than shots and possession, which plenty seem to fawn over.

While I think it's dangerous to use ANY stat as a reflection of a match, including goals scored sometimes, shots and possession are objective. They're a metric that actually happened. 

[Dan+]

44 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

While I think it's dangerous to use ANY stat as a reflection of a match, including goals scored sometimes, shots and possession are objective. They're a metric that actually happened. 

You have a point and I don't think xG is flawless by any stretch. I'm wondering if at times it isn't taking everything into account - for example you play a striker in one on one, he dallies and the keeper sweeps up. My understanding is that doesn't even get marked because no shot was made - which to me is wrong.

[Mpache]

All stats are relevant with context. They are blown out of proportion far too much.

[Whiskey]

10 minutes ago, Mpache said:

All stats are relevant with context. They are blown out of proportion far too much.

Possession is factual, xG isn't.

[Dave]

If xG had a more appropriate name for what it actually is I imagine it would be accepted more in mainstream football.

[Dave]

1 hour ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

While I think it's dangerous to use ANY stat as a reflection of a match, 

Roy, is that you?

[Devil-Dick Willie]

Exactly. A half chance for Haaland is an expected goal
A guilt edged chance for Werner is only going to end up in the net 30% of the time.

XG doesn't understand this, or striker confidence, form, bogeys and the like. 

[Dave]

Chance Quality would be a better terminology than expected goals. Expected implies they're expected to score. Benteke isn't.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

1 minute ago, The Palace Fan said:

Roy, is that you?

Shakhtar completed 618 passes to Romas 366
Shakhtar had 63% possession 
87% pass accuracy to 80% in favor of Shakhtar 
Roma committed 21 fouls to Shakhatars 7
Shakhtar had 4 shots on target compared to Romas 7
Roma scored 3 goals to nil. 

[Dan+]

1 hour ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Shakhtar completed 618 passes to Romas 366
Shakhtar had 63% possession 
87% pass accuracy to 80% in favor of Shakhtar 
Roma committed 21 fouls to Shakhatars 7
Shakhtar had 4 shots on target compared to Romas 7
Roma scored 3 goals to nil. 

How good were Shakhtar's chances? How good were Roma's chances?

I did read an interesting, albeit quite pessimistic thread on it all yesterday which I agreed with though - even despite my thinking that xG isn't bad, the whole thing is making the sport extremely dull.

The problem is I'm not sure how you undo it. I feel like it's what it's envolved into and you can't really go back.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

It's true. Enlightened twats who think up magical stats to predict games are ruining the sport. Glad I'm not one of them. 

[Dan+]

I think there's a place for it but I tend to agree with my mates view that we, as fans, need to stop getting too invested in this kind of thing - I mean there's no way on earth any unironic xG talk would happen on a matchday where we're all at the game.

[Devil]

I only just noticed last night that even Adidas aren't even the official ball sponsor of the Europa league. 

I looked it up online and it's a company called Molten!!

Never heard of them but looked them up and they specialise in Netballs and basketballs. 

Even the match ball has been devalued!!

[Stan]

11 minutes ago, Devil said:

I only just noticed last night that even Adidas aren't even the official ball sponsor of the Europa league. 

I looked it up online and it's a company called Molten!!

Never heard of them but looked them up and they specialise in Netballs and basketballs. 

Even the match ball has been devalued!!

Was it meant to be Adidas? 

Does it matter ? 

[Devil]

1 minute ago, Stan said:

Was it meant to be Adidas? 

Does it matter ? 

No not really but if the major sports brands aren't going to show the tournament respect then it's hard to see how anyone will. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

On 02/07/2017 at 03:08, SkyBruce Championship said:

Newcastle isn't up to 2017 yet 

You there yet mate? 

[Carnivore Chris]

The biggest achievement in football isn't winning the world cup, but winning the treble at club level as you've got to be at your best for 60 games over a 9 month period.

[Whiskey]

2 hours ago, Carnivore Chris said:

The biggest achievement in football isn't winning the world cup, but winning the treble at club level as you've got to be at your best for 60 games over a 9 month period.

Similarly, winning league titles means more than European competitions as for the league you need to do it for 38 (or thereabouts) games.

[Cicero]

4 hours ago, Carnivore Chris said:

The biggest achievement in football isn't winning the world cup, but winning the treble at club level as you've got to be at your best for 60 games over a 9 month period.

That’s actually a good shout.