Thing is Kante is not a specialist destroyer, he is pretty decent on the ball as well. He is considerably more versatile than Lucas. I agree that's not where you should be splashing the money you have available, but he would certainly start if you had him.
Thing is Kante is not a specialist destroyer, he is pretty decent on the ball as well. He is considerably more versatile than Lucas. I agree that's not where you should be splashing the money you have available, but he would certainly start if you had him.
Scouseinthehouse
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We don't play that way. That's the point. To me, he's Makelele, without the playmaking ability he had. We don't use a sitter. As rangy as he is. Which he ostensibly did at Leicester and does for France. Very rarely has anyone been used like Kante was for both under Klopp at L'pool. A handful of times he'll switch to a 4-1-4-1 or some variation. But in the main that style of midfielder isn't really used and it's more the collective.
Is he making a point against someone or has he just randomly come up with this? I should post random things as well maybe I'll get a few likes.
ninjaskill
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Im making the point that most goals rely on skill and luck so you can't not count some because the my feature it. Also making the point that a number of teams are missing players for various reason and finally that lots of teams are learning new systems and if you apply that to liverpool then you should apply it to everyone
Scouseinthehouse
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Turns out it was a straw man to make a 'point.'
I understand both points Scouse. While you were certainly a wee bit unlucky to concede three goals due to deflections and outrageous skill, the best defenses find a way to keep clean sheets either way.
Theatre of dreams
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Not this early both teams will drop points. City do look good though. Same as us not played anyone yet.
This is no coincidence. Pep has improved every team he's been at. As a result, City were my favourites before season start.
Theatre of dreams
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Yep. Should be faves. Bit early for s six pointer though.
Hard to say he improved Bayern, they were European champions when he joined... they wasn't when he left or throughout his reign.
They were already the official favourites (bookmakers). With the players they have, they've really underachieved in recent seasons if I'm being honest, and I know may seem strange to say as they've won a couple of league titles over the last 5 years or whatever, but you can't help but feel that with that squad, with United in a horror spell under life without Fergie, they should've been dominating England and getting to the Semi final of the CL year in year out as a bare minimum, 4th last season (just about, on goal difference) for them was a really poor finish. They've got Pep in now to try make them a force, the only problem is, United aren't led by a manager who bought relatively poorly and went about things the completely wrong way, they have the services of a born winner in Jose Mourinho, with the likes of Ibra, Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Bailly recruited to bolster them, and Chelsea aren't the side that simply didn't play last season. I'm not saying Pep won't win the title and start to make City a force in Europe, I would never rule that out with what I've seen so far, but his task is tougher than that of Pellegrini. Pellegrini was a gentleman, that's what got him out of jail recently with what was in my opinion, some pretty unacceptable seasonal performances recently. City missed a trick in recent seasons, could've firmly stamped their place in history by dominating for almost half a decade.
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I have to agree with scouse here. Analysis of Klopp's midfielders show that they are already the best in the league at the high press, winning the ball back and preventing other teams from completing high quality passes. Kante won't add much. The problem is that Liverpool's central midfield undershoot their expected passes meaning that you need a central midfielder that's energetic and can initiate attacks from deep. It seems that Klopp wanted Xhaka then tried to go for Dahoud. While he has a high work rate and being highly mobile, he physically isn't there yet. He isn't athletic at all and lacks stamina. He often let Xhaka do all of the defending last season.
Theatre of dreams
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City have defo under achieved all things considered. So have Utd in recent years due to poor mangement.
Theatre of dreams
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City have been poor since West Ham scored. It's about the only thing City lack imo is real leaders and big personalities when things arnt going there way.
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ninjaskill
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Not able to watch the game but heard aguero lashed out with his elbow. A nice three match ban would be perfect and more re than deserved if he did elbow someone
Chelski Shogun
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He'll receive a retrospective ban or at least he should, it's a clear elbow on Reid.
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I think a big part was the West Ham formation... 5 at the back allows space in midfield and City dominated it. Less so in the second half when they switched to a 4
We will see. United still have a few key improvements to make.
This was United last season:
Shots against: 3rdShots on target against: 2nd
Possession: 1st
Pass% For and Pass % against: 3rd
Shots for: 15thShots on target for: 12th
Expected goals For: 11th
Mean xG per shot: 10th
This shows that LVG left a good base. Lots of safe possession and very few high quality shots conceded. The issues were at the other end of the pitch. Mourinho needed so somehow craft a team with at least 15 extra points. Shot quality was literally average and shots for were 15th in the league. United don't have a monster attack so that's the defining factor for this season. The good news it that Ibra has come in with a bang and Mkhitryan has come in from an elite season with an expected goal contribution of 0.7 per game.
My predicted top 4 in any order are: City, United, Arsenal and Chelsea
City: Ever so slightly undershot expected goal and shots on target last season but still ranked among top 2 attacks in the league. From an attacking perspective, they have seen a sizable attacking decline every year since 2013/14 when them and Liverpool scored insane amounts of goals. The ageing full backs have been an issue and unsurprisingly, Pep couldn't get his target (Bellerin). Guardiola vastly improved all of his teams and his teams usually have virtually no weaknesses.
United: Van Gaal got everything right but attacking. Depay and Martian have potential but the attack was underwhelming. Mkhitaryan has had an elite season and despite his great start, we will see how well Ibra does throughout the season. De Gea had a world class season after the unsustainably inconsistent hot-streaks and big declines of the season before. But do remember that Unted weren't attacking monsters like Arsenal/City are. Creating chances at the rate of last season's top 8 would be adequate with the same shot quality.
Arsenal: Undershot expected goals in the second half of last season and team couldn't hit a barn door. Defending has gotten progressively better to the point that we conceded shots from the longest distance in the league (19.5 meters on average) which has helped our above average save percentage. This is reinforced by the fact that we conceded the fewest 'big chances'. Overall attacking play and chances creation overtook City last season as we had the closest shot distance. We were an attacking monster last season Means that success depends on strikers.
Chelsea: Conte is a very flexible coach and very defence first. Batshuayi has good numbers and nobody made as many tackles or interceptions per game than him. Chelsea limited opponents to the 4th furthest shooting distance in the league last season and had the 4th high expected goals per season. This shows some efficiency. The replacement of Fabregas may perhaps be reasonable after he saw his dribbled past numbers up to 2.5 per game from 2. Replacing the ageing defenders would help. It looks like Conte will sign a central defender and full-back to address this. A big issue is the real and expected goals from attackers which tanked last season. Chelsea were never an exceptional attacking team and this will in the main define how well Chelsea do unless they fail to strengthen at the back.
^ Tbh I'm not overly interested in certain stats like that, the most important stat is scoring more goals than your opponent, and to give yourself the best chance of doing that, you need to first of don't concede/or at least not many... why not mention the fact that United had the joint best defence last season? 
Also, to talk about United creating chances like a top 8 side under Van Gaal and his system, whilst Van Gaal has been sacked and replaced by arguably the best manager in the world, and that horrible style has been thrown out the window, makes that comparison rather irrelevant.
Maybe they struggled to score goals under LVG, but under Mourinho United have bought the man with the most assists in the Serie A, bought the man with the most assists in the Bundesliga, bought the man with one of the most goals in Europe, not to mention they're starting to attack the old United way, I'm not worried at all about creating chances this season
Also, to talk about United creating chances like a top 8 side under Van Gaal and his system, whilst Van Gaal has been sacked and replaced by arguably the best manager in the world, and that horrible style has been thrown out the window, makes that comparison rather irrelevant.
Maybe they struggled to score goals under LVG, but under Mourinho United have bought the man with the most assists in the Serie A, bought the man with the most assists in the Bundesliga, bought the man with one of the most goals in Europe, not to mention they're starting to attack the old United way, I'm not worried at all about creating chances this season