EPL 2021 / 2022

the Top two are too hard to pick because they are both still contending for multiple titles and that and injuries will determine it. I suspect Chelsea will take the FA Cup and Liverpool the Title. I can't see City getting no silverware so I guess that means they finally win the CL, But really all permutations are in play.

I think United are a joke so have only looked at Spurs v Arse in the race for 4th. All the remaining fixtures are affected to a large degree by the mood of their opposition. Particularly at the bottom if results start dropping off and a team mentally gives up and heads for the beach then the impact on the table is immense. Momentum will be key. For what it's is worth -

Spurs 57 points
Brentford (A) Leicester (H) Liverpool (A) Arsenal (H) Burnley (H) Norwich (A)
DM predicts 71 points

Arsenal 57 points
Man U (H) West Ham (A) Leeds (H) Spurs (A) Newcastle (A) Everton (H)
DM predicts 71 points

Leeds 32 points
Palace (A) Man City (H) Arsenal (A) Chelsea (H) Brighton (H) Brentford (A)
DM predicts 36 points

Everton 29 points
Liverpool (A) Chelsea (H) Leicester (A) Watford (H) Brentford (H) Palace (H) Arsenal (A)
DM predicts 35 points

Burnley 28 points
Wolves (H) Watford (A) Villa (H) Spurs (A) Villa (A) Newcastle (H)
DM predicts 34 points

Personally I hope Burnley make it as I feel Leeds and Everton have more improvement in them and next season it looks like a real dog fight to avoid relegation.

City appear to be stumbling to the line, but they've got the easier run in. There's a chance that LFC could concentrate on everything and win nothing.

Well that was emphatic

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Well that was emphatic

I watched the last 10 before half-time this morning and Fulham looked like they were going to score every couple of minutes - obviously in the 2nd half they cashed in. They play some good football, nice mix between passing through, going wide and going long. Will they prosper next season? Depends on a lot of factors.

Big game tomorrow Bournemouth v Forest. A draw and Bournemouth need a point on the final day, a Forest win and they are level on points but Forest have a better goal difference. Both of those look well equipped to win the play-offs.

Oldham relegated from the football league and the first team that played in the premier league to drop out. Another sad tale of a useless owner.

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Well that was emphatic

I watched the last 10 before half-time this morning and Fulham looked like they were going to score every couple of minutes - obviously in the 2nd half they cashed in. They play some good football, nice mix between passing through, going wide and going long. Will they prosper next season? Depends on a lot of factors.

Big game tomorrow Bournemouth v Forest. A draw and Bournemouth need a point on the final day, a Forest win and they are level on points but Forest have a better goal difference. Both of those look well equipped to win the play-offs.

Oldham relegated from the football league and the first team that played in the premier league to drop out. Another sad tale of a useless owner.

goal difference of 1, we are not talking a big difference

Big game for the cherries and looking like a big banana skin as Forest have been on a great run

@bayimports It's not a big difference but it will of course increase if Forest win.

Having played both teams in the last fortnight Forest were much the better side.

I would far rather Bournemouth get promoted, despite Parker being a bit of a knob, because I think we are more likely to take six points off Bournemouth in the EPL than Forest.

I reckon if they do have to go through the play-offs, Forest will make it anyway; but I'm picking Bournemouth will dip out if you don't get automatic promotion .

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@bayimports It's not a big difference but it will of course increase if Forest win.

Having played both teams in the last fortnight Forest were much the better side.

I would far rather Bournemouth get promoted, despite Parker being a bit of a knob, because I think we are more likely to take six points off Bournemouth in the EPL than Forest.

I reckon if they do have to go through the play-offs, Forest will make it anyway; but I'm picking Bournemouth will dip out if you don't get automatic promotion .

Bournemouth have not been themselves in the last 12 weeks, I wouldnt be surprised if automatic promotion doesnt happen they will dip out either. Not because I dont think we cant beat the other teams on the day, because I still thinkwe can and should but because we have lost all momentum and confidence

So it is Liverpool into the UCL final - 3-2 on the night and 5-2 overall but Villarreal gave them a real scare by being 2-0 up at half-time.

More importantly, Bournemouth beat Forest to seal promotion and push Forest into the play-offs. Forest will play one of Sheffield United, Luton or Middlesbrough as will Huddersfield.

@bayimports Congratulations.

@KiwiPie Klopp's half time team talk would be an interesting listen. Liverpool were owned in the first half. Showed great character and commitment.

Still in with a shout of 3 cups. League looking a little too hard I reckon.
Both they and City have similar run ins. Each play Villa and Wolves. City has Newcastle and West Ham. Liverpool Spurs and Southampton. Difficult to see City providing an opening. Plus Liverpool have the FA Cup Final as well.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie Klopp's half time team talk would be an interesting listen. Liverpool were owned in the first half. Showed great character and commitment.

Still in with a shout of 3 cups. League looking a little too hard I reckon.
Both they and City have similar run ins. Each play Villa and Wolves. City has Newcastle and West Ham. Liverpool Spurs and Southampton. Difficult to see City providing an opening. Plus Liverpool have the FA Cup Final as well.

In with a shout?

Mate, you can engrave the 4 trophies already.

@dogmeat thank you! happy for the team, would have been a disaster to limp into playoffs, so good reward for a great season and won the game that mattered! Back up we go...(even for one year lol)

@bayimports Staying up next year looks daunting.

Newcastle have improved out of sight. Everton can't be as bad again. Burnley are improving.

It's been fantastic following Fulham this year. 3 times scored 7 and twice 6. 100 goals best (equal) defence. The movement and ambition have been glorious at times. A season of almost uninterrupted highlights.

Yet if we play like that in the Prem we will be Norwich. Our ambition has to be to play boring pragmatic football and grind out the odd result and hope there are three worse teams than us. Need to get a good start.

My consolation / hope is that when Fulham went down to 2014 not one pundit saw it coming. We were firmly ensconced as a mid table stalwart for 13 successive seasons and then the sky fell in. Hoping the same happens next season to a Palace or similar.

@MajorRage said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie Klopp's half time team talk would be an interesting listen. Liverpool were owned in the first half. Showed great character and commitment.

Still in with a shout of 3 cups. League looking a little too hard I reckon.
Both they and City have similar run ins. Each play Villa and Wolves. City has Newcastle and West Ham. Liverpool Spurs and Southampton. Difficult to see City providing an opening. Plus Liverpool have the FA Cup Final as well.

In with a shout?

Mate, you can engrave the 4 trophies already.

lol

League cup won
FA Cup Final
Champs league final
90 points in the league

Hell of a year.

@mariner4life

It'd be a hell of a year even if you only finish with the League Cup and Runners up in the other three. Not that anyone will see it that way no doubt and not that I think it will eventuate.

So has the Klopp era surpassed the Paisley one and if not what more needs to be achieved?

Surely if they do manage the quadruple it ends the debate?

Add to the accomplishments getting Klopp to extend.

@dogmeat Paisley won a lot of silverware

For all the great play and going deep in to seasons, in the end, people remember trophies, not almost trophies.

Still a great fucking season, and i hope at the end Liverpool fans are happy.

@dogmeat the Saudi money at Newcastle looks like it was well directed and I still think we should not have gone down when Eddie Howe was in charge.

I think we have managed our finances well and that is important, if not for next year but for the future. Lets see if Parker ball works in the prem

@bayimports said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@dogmeat the Saudi money at Newcastle looks like it was well directed and I still think we should not have gone down when Eddie Howe was in charge.

I think we have managed our finances well and that is important, if not for next year but for the future. Lets see if Parker ball works in the prem

It didn't work last time. But hopefully he's learned a lot

As a Notts County fan with little success for the past few decades, the continued failures of Forest have been most pleasant so well done to Bournemouth for denying them promotion. And Forest have some past play-off failures to give me hope.

For Liverpool, would winning the quadruple be the greatest ever UK club achievement? Is it better than Celtic in 1967 who did a similar quadruple (plus they also won the Glasgow Cup). They also won the European Cup with a team of Scots all of whom were born within 30 miles of Celtic Park.

@KiwiPie you never know finals can do strange things to teams. Forest have to do battle.

The other good news for Bournemouth is that David Brooks announced he is cancer free.

@KiwiPie You did have that brief glimmer of hope when Sven was named Manager, signed Sol Campbell and kaspar Schmeichel before it all turned out to be a con job.

Look on the bright side one year later and you could have been the first Premier club relegated out of the Football League. As I recall you did pretty well that year until Easter and then it al went tits up? Surely Luton offer an example of how you can come back. They went down from PL with you didn't they? and you also always have the glory of the Juve association

How're County doing this year?

@mariner4life said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

lol

League cup won
FA Cup Final
Champs league final
90 points in the league

Hell of a year.

They are such a superb balanced team. Klopp is a great manager, although he's not quite all time great for me yet as all the success hasn't quite undone all the lost finals. I think a second CL or PL will put him in that pantheon.

Regardless, Liverpool have shown what happens when you select a good manager, give him time to create his team and stick with him for a number of years.

An absolute benchmark to follow. I had hoped we'd do the same with Frank, but we didn't. Not that I can complain about Tuchel.

My Oh My

the wait goes on for City.

Two goals from Madrid in injury time to level the tie and then the winner in extra time

Real will be full of belief that this is their year

Unbelievable

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

My Oh My

the wait goes on for City.

Two goals from Madrid in injury time to level the tie and then the winner in extra time

Real will be full of belief that this is their year

Unbelievable

They are like the ABs at RWC pre-2011

@MajorRage said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@mariner4life said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

lol

League cup won
FA Cup Final
Champs league final
90 points in the league

Hell of a year.

They are such a superb balanced team. Klopp is a great manager, although he's not quite all time great for me yet as all the success hasn't quite undone all the lost finals. I think a second CL or PL will put him in that pantheon.

Regardless, Liverpool have shown what happens when you select a good manager, give him time to create his team and stick with him for a number of years.

An absolute benchmark to follow. I had hoped we'd do the same with Frank, but we didn't. Not that I can complain about Tuchel.

not sure he's even close to ATG level is he? for all the improvements at the Clubs he has managed, there isn't enough trophies in the cabinet. I just like the fact that Liverpool are a side that compete for lots of things and play pretty good football.

The 2nd paragraph is key there. A manager with a philosophy and an ownership group committed to putting the right resources in place to ensure that philosophy has the best chance at succeeding. Players are developed, gaps are plugged by (mostly) finding the right players. Depth is built every year. It sort of looks sustainable too.

See what happens when/if Salah fucks off to Spain for ludicris money i guess.

Crazy tie this morning. City are through, and then bang bang bang City are out. Football eh? bloody hell.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

My Oh My

the wait goes on for City.

Two goals from Madrid in injury time to level the tie and then the winner in extra time

Real will be full of belief that this is their year

Unbelievable

Liverpool are surely favourites for the final but if any team "has their name on the cup" it must be Real Madrid this season - seemingly down and out in all knockout ties in the second leg but each time coming back. They didn't really look like scoring as full time approached and Grealish almost scored twice - then bang, bang. Incredible.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie You did have that brief glimmer of hope when Sven was named Manager, signed Sol Campbell and kaspar Schmeichel before it all turned out to be a con job.

Look on the bright side one year later and you could have been the first Premier club relegated out of the Football League. As I recall you did pretty well that year until Easter and then it al went tits up? Surely Luton offer an example of how you can come back. They went down from PL with you didn't they? and you also always have the glory of the Juve association

How're County doing this year?

The con job is fascinating - if you want to know more it is covered in 6 parts in a podcast "Sport's Strangest Crimes" and Notts is just a part of it. Sven going to North Korea is a great tale which I hadn't heard about until I listened to it. You wonder how Notts fell for it but the conman did actually own a bank in the middle east so when he gave them a banker's draft to guarantee the funds it was pretty convincing.

Even though it all turned sour, we did have a great team on the back of it (Kasper was fantastic, Sol played 1 game but there were better signings) and it did lead to promotion (the only time since Big Sam did it in the late 90s). A couple of years later we managed to be in the Div 1 play-off spots in November and then relegated (kind of a reverse Forest from this season).

Luton dropped out of the league a few years before us. We did compete with Coventry in a League 2 playoff not so many years ago. controversial pen and they were promoted and look at them now.

This season we are 5th in the national league, looking good to make the play-offs but won't be favoured to win them - 6 teams go into the playoffs with just a single promoted team and whichever of Stockport or Wrexham doesn't get automatic promotion will probably go up via the play-offs.

@KiwiPie Thanks I have subscribed to that pod. Russell King sure is a strange story.
The other seasons - Allen Stanford and Shergar look interesting too.

After all there's only so many pod episodes about Fulham's Championship glory I can listen to (actually that's not true I'm sure I may missed one somewhere)

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie Thanks I have subscribed to that pod. Russell King sure is a strange story.
The other seasons - Allen Stanford and Shergar look interesting too.

After all there's only so many pod episodes about Fulham's Championship glory I can listen to (actually that's not true I'm sure I may missed one somewhere)

Listened to Allan Stanford story but not Shergar (yet)

@mariner4life said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

not sure he's even close to ATG level is he? for all the improvements at the Clubs he has managed, there isn't enough trophies in the cabinet. I just like the fact that Liverpool are a side that compete for lots of things and play pretty good football.

The 2nd paragraph is key there. A manager with a philosophy and an ownership group committed to putting the right resources in place to ensure that philosophy has the best chance at succeeding. Players are developed, gaps are plugged by (mostly) finding the right players. Depth is built every year. It sort of looks sustainable too.

See what happens when/if Salah fucks off to Spain for ludicris money i guess.

Crazy tie this morning. City are through, and then bang bang bang City are out. Football eh? bloody hell.

I think he's close. He's proven at more than one big club, and shown he knows how to manage the big players, he's just a couple of trophies / cups short in the cupboard. If it wasn't for Guardiola and City, he'd have at least one more EPL & has taken Liverpool to CL final a few times.

I think a second CL or a 2nd EPL would put him right up there.

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

My Oh My

the wait goes on for City.

Two goals from Madrid in injury time to level the tie and then the winner in extra time

Real will be full of belief that this is their year

Unbelievable

Liverpool are surely favourites for the final but if any team "has their name on the cup" it must be Real Madrid this season - seemingly down and out in all knockout ties in the second leg but each time coming back. They didn't really look like scoring as full time approached and Grealish almost scored twice - then bang, bang. Incredible.

It's all about the occasion. Real Madrid have big match occasion in spades and will turn up.

Liverpool have shown to be slightly flaky here, although have hugely improved over recent seasons on this front.

I'll be cheering Real all the way as I can't stand Liverpool. But my money is on Jurgen. It almost feels a bit "in the stars" so to speak.

@MajorRage Couldn't agree less. Real for me epitomise everything wrong with football. The whole Galacticos bullshit, the ongoing pursuit of the ESL concept, the fact that they are effectively bankrupt several times over but still seem to be able to restructure loans at will in order to buy the latest shiny thing.

Liverpool are no saints but Real as a club stinks.

Just to ram home what Klopp has done at Liverpool, this was the lineup for his first game

Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Lucas, Can, Coutinho, Lallana, Origi, Milner. On the bench: Bogdan, Toure, Allen, Sinclair, Texiera and Randall.

That, right there, is why Liverpool were a "UEFA Cup spots" team for a fair while.

@mariner4life Brendan Rogers did pretty good too then - given the cattle he had to work with.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@mariner4life Brendan Rogers did pretty good too then - given the cattle he had to work with.

he's a good manager that's why. Just not quite good enough.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@MajorRage Couldn't agree less. Real for me epitomise everything wrong with football. The whole Galacticos bullshit, the ongoing pursuit of the ESL concept, the fact that they are effectively bankrupt several times over but still seem to be able to restructure loans at will in order to buy the latest shiny thing.

Liverpool are no saints but Real as a club stinks.

Good for you. I actually agree with you for the most part so I think you must only be disagreeing with me on supporting Real in the final.

My reasons for not liking Liverpool are well document and I got bored of that fishing trip a while ago. Did dine out on it for a number of years though.

@mariner4life said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Just to ram home what Klopp has done at Liverpool, this was the lineup for his first game

Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Lucas, Can, Coutinho, Lallana, Origi, Milner. On the bench: Bogdan, Toure, Allen, Sinclair, Texiera and Randall.

That, right there, is why Liverpool were a "UEFA Cup spots" team for a fair while.

It also underpins exactly what Klopp has done. He's changed almost the entire team.

well thankfully all the "omagerd quadruple" talk can go as Liverpool draw, and then City smack 5 past Newcastle to take a stranglehold on the league.

@KiwiPie Listened to the King pod (and Stanford) over weekend. Both fascinating. King particularly. What a complicated tangle of deceits he constructed - and almost pulled it off. Genius level imagination.

Indeed Pep, indeed ....