Canaries coach Daniel Farke can sometimes be almost frightening looking.
Really pleased with the Champions League results from yesterday. I do expect that Juve will fight back to advance, but their chances of advancing are certainly lower than they were before the match. Real Madrid though, are in deeper trouble and I fully expect they’ll be eliminated.
I may be the only USAian who likes the NIT, er, Europa League, but it’s beginning to look like this one comes down to Man U v Inter, which would be a whole lot of fun. And to quote someone from a 538 Champions League email chat yesterday, I really miss 2019 Ajax. We don’t seem to have a team like that (or like that Mbappe/Dembele Monaco bunch from a couple of years ago) in this year’s tournament.
Arsenal, oof.
A lot of xG models say that Liverpool is good but basically incredibly lucky this year so losing isn’t that surprising. That, to Watford though? Wow.
(watch them come back in the last 5 minutes of the game)
Lyon fans still resorting to fucking laser pointers? Fuck-off.
WELL
How worried are Liverpool fans that the season will be voided?
Not really worried. More disappointed at the nature of it.
Right now, I’d be willing to bet that the suspension of the league will continue beyond the current early April date announced by the FA, with the possibility that no more games will be played at all. Under those circumstances, even if they decide to award the Liverpool the title (a distinct possibility), I’ll still be incredibly disappointed because of the anti-climactic nature of it all. I would have preferred them to clinch the league in front of a raucous Anfield crowd or—perhaps just as good—away at someone like Man City.
For me, a choice to award Liverpool the title would be the right thing to do, but whether they get the title or not, I’ll be disappointed in how it all turned out. And whether they get the title or not, everyone knows that they were going to win the league, and they’ll always be considered the de facto champions even if it’s not officially acknowledged.
In some ways, in making a decision about whether to award the title if the season ends now, the FA is quite lucky. In terms of easy decision-making, if a season was ever going to be curtailed by a global health emergency, this is probably a good season for it. In almost every other Premier League season, there were at least two clubs in the running at this stage (sometimes more), and awarding the title without playing the last 9 or 10 games would have been very controversial. But it’s hard for any rational person to argue that Liverpool weren’t going to win the title this year. They needed just two wins (or six draws) from their last nine matches to clinch, and that’s assuming that Man City won all of their ten remaining fixtures. There are even news stories in the British press right now saying that officials from others clubs would have no objection to Liverpool being awarded the title if the rest of the season has to be cancelled.
To be honest, I think a more difficult decision, in terms of consequences, is what happens with relegation and promotion. Do they drop the teams currently occupying the last three places, and promote from the Championship based on current standings? This is made even harder by the fact that the Premier League team currently in second-last place, Aston Villa, has a game in hand over West Ham, Watford, and Bournemouth. A win for Villa in their next game would have leapfrogged them over all three teams and out of the relegation zone.
It could be, if no more games are played, that the FA might just decide to do a reset, and cancel relegation and promotion for this season. That would let Norwich and two other teams off the hook big time, and would also be a big kick in the nuts for Leeds and West Brom, who looked pretty likely to top the table in the Championship.
The rumour I have heard is that the will be no relegation this year and next season will be 22 (or 23 if they decide the playoffs) teams and 5 relegations but only 3 promotions.
This would not be a workable solution because there is no room on the schedule for 4 or six more league games unless they start the season in July. Also the Euros played either this year or next will affect players available. I would rather freeze the tables the way they sit now and promote/relegate based on that.
Clubs regularly call things unworkable until the city consequences are explained to them.
Fine, those clubs who think it’s a bad idea can volunteer to be relegated in lieu, and all of a sudden they find solutions.
It’s 4 more games. A couple of more Monday and Thursday games and perhaps a shorter pre season.
They could scrap the EFL cup, which virtually nobody would miss, and free up several games.
If they had 23 teams, a problem would be that they can’t all play the last game at the same time, but they could for one year do it like the Six Nations, and everybody plays each other only once for 22 games total, each team getting 11 home and 11 away, randomly determined.
Along with the two domestic cups and the ECL/EL competitions and WC qualifying. Teams already complain about too many fixtures.
It would be a logistical mess but at least a workable one IMO - telling Leeds and West Brom to do one, OTOH, is unknown territory. Be subject to legal challenge and is well against the grain of how football has always worked.
The old First Division was 22 teams.
Watching Konyaspor against Fenerbahce.
Empty stadium, players on bench passing the hand sanitizer. Before captains and refs shake hands, more sanitizer is passed around, and then play is under way, as the whistle sends a powerful (and eerie!!!) echo all throughout the stadium.
Even if a front office clerical worker tests positive, let’s hope Super Lig shuts down soon.
Skip the cup, the Champions League and the Europa League. Postpone the European Championship until 2021 (or possibly winter 2020). That would probably allow the Premier League and similar competitions across Europe to finish before summer, and get a fresh start in every country in September. Of course, if by then Corona still rules, everything sucks.
they could rank teams by points per game played . NHL might do that since they already use points for standings, 2 for a win, 1 for OT or shootout loss.
With 25 players in a Premiership squad they will deal with it if they have to.
It looks like the decision has been made to postpone Eurp2020 until the summer of 2021. That means a decent chance to finish the current premier league. Maybe a later start for the next season and take that useless league cup (or whatever the current name is) from the schedule.
The League Cup is far from useless for lower league clubs when they get to host a giant. Financials are very important for Championship, L1 and L2 clubs.