PL shit that doesn't need it's own thread.

[SALTIRE]

If a player with teeth and celebrations like his played for United you'd want him dead.

You'd love him as much as we do (well Pags maybe not the miserable sod! ) if he did for you lot, what he does for us. He's just bloody brilliant, and my favourite Liverpool player currently.

 

[Stevencc]

You'd love him as much as we do (well Pags maybe not the miserable sod! ) if he did for you lot, what he does for us. He's just bloody brilliant, and my favourite Liverpool player currently.

He's a very good player, he's also just a bit of a poncey tosser.

 

[SALTIRE]

He's a very good player, he's also just a bit of a poncey tosser.

Well I suppose he's exactly the way we feel about Pogba.

 

[Pagnell]

I love Firmino. It's simply that, unlike Saltire, I need a reason to believe a player is the best ever in his position other than him breathing and wearing a Liverpool shirt.

 

[epic73]

He's also got two legs.

 

[SALTIRE]

He's a player that excites, that does things a bit mad, and is amazing at what he does, and may well be the best around at what he does. Firmino is fucking brilliant and having him around these next few years with this extension being agreed, is going to be lot of fun - and hopefully a successful period too. Been a long time since we've had much to get excited about, and I'm just giddy at what might be!

 

[epic73]

may well be the best around at what he does.

Surely you're joking now.

 

[Bilo]

If Firmino is the best in the world at what he does, it's because there's no other player out there playing his exact role. Is there another player you'd rather have doing what he does? No, but that isn't to say there aren't better nines out there. Harry Kane, for example, is all things considered a much better player than Firmino.

 

[G.B]

firmino is proof that football manager can be an effective scouting tool.


in other news, this is deemed violent conduct and worthy of a 3 match ban...

attempting to punch someone in the face is not. the f.a are daft cunts.

 

[Bilo]

firmino is proof that football manager can be an effective scouting tool.

This is proven and disproven multiple times every year. I don't even remember him being that good tbh

 

[G.B]

he was pretty decent on it beelo mate. it turned out well enough for the hoffenheim scouts.

a lot of clubs are using the database nowadays and it kinda makes sense given they're effectively the largest football scouting network in the world, coupled with how data driven football has become. mls clubs in particular are reportedly scouring through it for bargains. and the fai were previously using it to desperately search for players with an irish passport according to sports interactive.

 

[Bilo]

Solid stats. And yeah, it’s the largest scouting network by some distance, I was just saying them getting Firmino right proves nothing. Whichever version that is from, it probably includes some -10 that hung up his boots at 21.

 

[G.B]

i know, it was a mostly tongue in cheek comment. though tbf similar can be said of football clubs scouting networks. for every success there's hundreds more "promising youngsters" that end up stacking shelves at tesco. still, it's interesting what fm/prozone etc have become. the idea of using fm as a real world scouting tool would have been laughed at in the days of cherno samba.

 

[SALTIRE]

i know, it was a mostly tongue in cheek comment. though tbf similar can be said of football clubs scouting networks. for every success there's hundreds more "promising youngsters" that end up stacking shelves at tesco. still, it's interesting what fm/prozone etc have become. the idea of using fm as a real world scouting tool would have been laughed at in the days of cherno samba.

I'm sure the wealthier clubs aren't using FM for scouting players, they have access to resources and statistical analyses that will be far more in depth than what FM does. The amount of websites where you can get good statistical analysis of games, teams and players has went up dramatically in the last few years; but clubs will have much more tools at their disposal than what the public get access to; and tbh they should have as well since they will be the ones paying hard cash for those players at the end of the day.

 

[G.B]

Depends what you mean when you say using FM for scouting. My comment about Firmino proving FM is an effective scouting tool was tongue in cheek, as a Hoffenheim scout initially discovering him as a "wonderkid" at a 2nd division Brazilian club in a computer game, going to watch him in real life and him then turning out to be a quality player that netted his club huge profit is an oddly funny story. But FM, or rather it's database, is used for scouting, just not in the way it seems you think. It's their masses of data, much of it hidden from the public, that clubs want. Not just player ratings. I doubt many managers or scouts at any level are simply going to a club owner and saying "he's got 18 finishing on FM and he scored 35 goals for me last season, let's sign him to lead the line". But the database is certainly now being used as one of many scouting tools and has been for a while, whether that's just for information on certain contract details, or because the player is promising in the game itself like in Firmino's case, rare as it probably is. Prozone literally designed a recruitment service with information from their database. Also depends what you mean by wealthy clubs. Everton signed a deal to use their data years ago, and the company have previously stated they work with PL and CL clubs, amusingly adding that an unnamed PL club just wanted the height and weight stats of players. How typically English. I bet it was Stoke.

Point is they've spent many years building a huge, and in depth, database with the help of thousands of people covering all areas of the world, many of them professional scouts. Of course football clubs are interested in using their data.

 

[Johnnyt]

Hes not bad for a racist.

 

[G.B]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...-league-fixture-list-engineered-stop-biggest/

 

[Benji]

They should use their fixture engineering powers to stop away fans making country-spanning journeys for early kick offs and midweeks.

 

[Bilo]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...-league-fixture-list-engineered-stop-biggest/

I remember reading this years ago, it isn't a scoop. What, people thought this was a coincidence up until now?

The FA Cup-semi was new to me though.

 

[G.B]

hur hur and that

 

[Stevencc]

Swansea.

Officially mugged off.

 

[Stevencc]

If Yaya Toure is leaving Manchester City Football Club after eight years of service, clap your hands.

 

[Pagnell]

Stoke or Swansea. I'm trying to work out which team will be missed less.

 

[epic73]

They can both go down to L1 with Sunderland imo.

 

[Stevencc]

Rui Faria is leaving United at the end of the season.

Kieran McKenna is apparently taking his place.

 

[SALTIRE]

Never liked that copycat dick; wonder if Arsenal are in for him?

 

[Nilsson]

Rui Faria is leaving United at the end of the season.

Could be good news. Fergie always benefited from regularly changing assistant coaches. Jose could do with someone with some different ideas, hopefully he doesn't just get a yes man.

Never liked that copycat dick

This reminds me of this guy, genuinely unsettling

 

[SALTIRE]

Could be good news. Fergie always benefited from regularly changing assistant coaches. Jose could do with someone with some different ideas, hopefully he doesn't just get a yes man.


This reminds me of this guy, genuinely unsettling

He's the physio or nutrition guy I believe. I think he looks like Gordon Freeman personally.

Still Faria was annoying as hell in his time, especially at Real Madrid, where he copied every mannerism and paroxysm of emotion Mourinho showed. Maybe in the end, he just grew tired of the football Mourinho plays, and will seek out his own style in management - it wouldn't surprise me; Wagner was with Klopp at Dortmund yet doesn't play the same style at all.

 

[Stevencc]

He's the physio or nutrition guy I believe. I think he looks like Gordon Freeman personally.

Still Faria was annoying as hell in his time, especially at Real Madrid, where he copied every mannerism and paroxysm of emotion Mourinho showed. Maybe in the end, he just grew tired of the football Mourinho plays, and will seek out his own style in management - it wouldn't surprise me; Wagner was with Klopp at Dortmund yet doesn't play the same style at all.

You are reaching here, he's been firmly entrenched in Mourinho's anus for seventeen years. He just wants to go into management for himself.

He's always annoyed me too, by the way.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

I think the prospect of Mourinho appointing anyone who might challenge his coaching ideas seems fairly remote tbh.