Around the Premier League 2013-14

Jump, when we did our stadium tour, they explained it's because the players want the grass wet and slick for the ball to slide across the pitch. But there is probably such thing as too much water. They water at half as well.

 

Wow. Scousers sure spit the bit at Selhurst Park. Very Fulham-esque. Nice to see the a-hole that is Luis Suarez shedding croc tears.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/crystal-palace-3-liverpool-fc-7075144

 

yeah, the scousers blew it. Such joy. :banana-dance: and how about Crystal Palace's fight even though they had nothing to really play for?

 

One name answer: Tony Pulis.

How he took Palace that looked to be dead certs for the drop when he got hired and not only survive, but to an 11th place finish (looks like they are locked into that spot), is the best managerial job since Our Woy back in our Europa run. I've only seen them play a few times, but their style doesn't remind me of those neanderthal style teams he had at Stoke. Except for the fact they are extremely organized and all oars row in the same direction.

I do like Gerrard, but to see him trying to console that pr#@k Saurez and wave off the cameras after they chocked made me :lol:

 

First off, that was an incredible match. Second, Gordon Gecko isn't always right.

Liverpool got greedy. Palace are a very tough team to break down and Liverpool had to work their socks off to do it. But they did, and got 3 goals in 55 minutes. Then as they continued to push in the long shot hopes of cutting into their goal diff deficit, they gassed themselves out. As they kept working for that 4th, the center mids and fullbacks were slower and slower to get back when Palace countered. Palace wound up flubbing most of those possessions and failed to put Liverpool under much pressure, so I guess the Reds felt there was little risk in continuing to push for more goals.

But then Pulis showed why he's a good manager. He subbed off 2/3 of his forwards/wings for fresh legs in the 65th and 71st minutes. All of the sudden, the counters became more frequent, and they finally nabbed the breakthrough. I thought at 3-1, Rodgers would call off the dogs and take the 3 pts but they kept pushing. Then it hit 3-2, and frankly, it looked like Liverpool panicked. Credit to Palace for once again showing that this notion of "they have nothing to play for" is nonsense. But someone at Liverpool dropped the ball by not hitting the brakes and saying, let's just take this win home and see what happens. They weren't going to overcome that goal differential anyway.

I know Suarez did a lot of damage previously and it may take a long time (and possibly never) to turn peoples' opinions. But he served his punishment and responded with one of the most prolific seasons in Premier League history. And he's been pretty well behaved as well. I know there are those who say he's a diver. I won't say he doesn't, but I think he's accused of diving far more often than merited. And he's cut it back quite a bit this year. Anyway, hate Suarez, hate Liverpool, that's everyone's prerogative. I've gained a large measure of respect for his game this season. That dude has more heart and put in more effort this season than our entire squad of zombies at the Cottage.

 

Spot on about Liverpool trying to cut down the GD instead of just seeing out the 3 points. I don't hate Liverpool, and to be honest have quite enjoyed watching them play. As far as Saurez, no one can deny his amazing talent, motor, and better behavior this campaign. His season merits being in the discussion as the world's footballer of the year. However, he dives...ALOT (Matt are you looking at him through rose colored fantasy league glasses?). His history speaks for itself and he will come off the rails again in the near future (he is the scorpion on the frog's back, it's his nature). While I'd rather of seen Liverpool win the league over Citeh, I do enjoy seeing Saurez cry, if anyone ever deserves karma BITING him in the arse it's him.

 

People mature differently. At 27, yeah, I'd expect him to be further along that process. But I wouldn't rule it out that the past is in the past.

As for the diving, it's a lot easier to lose balance and go down when you're going all out with pace. Darlington Nagbe leads MLS in fouls drawn. Is he diver? Or is it a byproduct of his pace and effort? Look, I get Suarez is South American and that's an accepted part of the game, so I'm not ruling it out altogether. But I do think he's accused in instances where his going down is a byproduct of contact while he's going all out. There was one recently (City maybe) where he was running and trying to get around the cb who was trying to leverage him off the play. As the ball gets to the end line, he swings around the defender and throws himself at the ball, trying to keep it in and knock it back across the box. The announcer called it a dive. It didn't get a foul, he didn't appeal for a foul, and I thought it was a great display of effort and desire. It was unsuccessful, btw, and went for a goal kick.

Our own fans used to get on Dempsey for "always falling down". But that guy took a pounding a lot of the time too. Did he go down to win free kicks? Sure. But how many times did he fight to keep his feet or was he legitimately fouled and brought to ground? When you bust your ass and put teams under pressure, that's going to happen more. I think too often people mistake effort for diving. Taking the fantasy glasses off, how about Eden Hazard? I only owned him for all of 2 games. I'd say the same thing about him, but a lot of people say he's a diver as well.

 

Today's results decided almost everything, leaving little drama for Sunday.

City poured it on in the second half against Villa, and short of something strange happening, will win the title (just needing a draw at home against West Ham).

Meanwhile Sunderland continued their crazy run of form and are officially safe after beating West Brom.

So City wins the league, with 'pool, the Scum, and Arsenal in the Champions League spots. Everton will go to the Europa League. Spurs are currently sitting in the other Europa spot, but there's an outside chance United could catch them.

Norwich and Cardiff will join us in the Championship. Sunday may be the one day where I'm rooting for the Scum, just so that we don't finish the season bottom of the table.

 

Wow, just wow. Amazaing feat congrats to Josy, Poyet, and all the other players. It must be nice.

 

Sunderland's first four-game winning streak in PL play since 2000-01.

 

Well Ag, all I can say is you're lucky I'm not in charge because if I was there would be very harsh penalties for comparing Darlington Nagbe to Louis Suarez. I have to believe this is just based upon the foul statistic and drawing a somewhat logical but inaccurate conclusion and not from seeing the fouls Nagbe is suffering. There is no comparison between the fouls on Nagbe and those on Suarez where when the latter goes down we have to view it in slow motion to decide if we think there was enough contact for him to go down. There is no doubt about the fouls on Nagbe. Last season he was not only the most fouled player in the league (as he is this season) but he was awarded the MLS Fair Player of the year award. You don't get that award by being a diver. Plus he has already had to come out of three games this season as a result of the knocks he'd picked up.

Like Hatter said in another thread the league has a problem in this regard. There are certain players like Dempsey they are protecting and certain players they aren't. What I saw in the Crew v KC game last weekend was even worse than what I see with Nagbe. KC just fouled Higuain the second he got the ball. At least with Nagbe players generally wait until he has beat them.

 

Don, I have no hatred for the Deuce (surely you know that???), I hate Seattel. So if he doesn't do well for them rather than be bummed I can enjoy the fact that he failed for Seattle, who has received special treatment from the league in getting Dempsey and MANY other issues. They have Nazi-minded fans too unlike the unique Timbers fans who sing you are my sunshine

Clint was getting fouled a lot but the difference is Klinsmann and MLS took notice and you saw yellows and then the blatant fouls subsided.

 

Sunderland earned it. Too bad Jozy continues his scoring slump. Had a chance at 2-0 to finish the match and on a play he would of scored 99 out of 100 times last year he flubbed it. I guess I'm the only one concerned about a guy who can't hit water if he fell out of a boat. :?

 

Joe, you're never going to convince the Hat that strikers have to score goals. We've gone round and round over AJ in the past. I get his point and agree with it to an extent, but I think we're going to need goals from Jozy for the US. I'm concerned by his lack of them and that he looks like he's struggling with his finishing.

Mo, the only comparison I made between Nagbe and Suarez was that they play all out and with pace and both draw a lot of fouls, likely (or partially) as a result. I asked if Nagbe was a diver rhetorically and then offered a more plausible explanation. If that counts as blaspheming St. Darlington of Nagbe, then yeah, I'm glad you're not in charge. My point was that, owing to the fantasy league, I've watched a number of the elite players more closely this year and I've come away with a greater appreciation for them. I've also found myself disagreeing with the diving accusations that announcers seem to dole out in kneejerk fashion. That's not to say that these players don't dive or try to draw fouls, just that it's not as bad as the perception. In my opinion, at any rate. Going back to Suarez and Nagbe, I wouldn't compare them on any level beyond the one I did b/c it wouldn't be a fair comparison. Suarez is an infinitely better player. Nagbe is clearly better at sportsmanship.

I do agree that MLS does a rather piss poor job of officiating their matches. As for needing slow mo instant replay, I'd suggest maybe players in the best leagues in Europe are a little more adept at discreet, professional fouls than some of the hackjobs you see in MLS. And part of that may be a result of the fact that you can get away with it in MLS so you don't have to be so discreet.