OFFICIAL FOOTY THREAD ⚽️: Rodri wins 2024 Ballon d’Or

[tomdiginson]

 

[Bantz Lord T]

Poor guy..

 

[rolaholic]

What a joke.
Expect a lot of yellow cards, he gives out the highest amount pretty much every season in the Bundesliga.

I've mentioned Zwayer's background story before during these Euros but in case anyone needs a reminder:
Felix Zwayer accepted bribes to fix matches for €300. Let that sink in. Bribery and matchfixing for pocket change.
There was a much more corrupt referee organizing the matchfixing, and Zwayer became a key witness in the investigation and effectively avoided permanent accountability and consequences by fully cooperating against the main guy at the top.

Idk about others but I think accepting bribes for pocket change money is arguably more corrupt than doing so for actual substantial amounts. If he was willing to do it for pocket change and only escaped accountability by snitching, why should he ever be trusted in an environment where the money would be massive?

Looks like common sense may still win the day.

 

[aepps20]

Having a guy ref that took bribes is insane. Common sense ain’t so common.

 

[rolaholic]

Awesome seeing Luis Diaz's pops getting to celebrate his son not too long after that whole ordeal

 

[Bantz Lord T]

I think Colombia will reach the final. They're really good.

 

[tomdiginson]

Poor guy..

Grand closing unfortunately.

 

[fluid hips]

 

[aepps20]

I will say that having a ref that took bribes do the England match is on brand. Hopefully Ivan takes da winning PK after he slips da ref An American Dollar after Ivan takes da over bet line.

 

[fluid hips]

bring this back for shootouts and keep the current penalty system for in game pens. had no idea cruyff liked this system and said Europe should try it

Terrible idea. You can easily chip the ball over the goalie's head

 

[Belgium]

A penalty is a 0.79 xG, just deal with the fact it’s probably gonna turn out to be a goal.
Those pundits complaining incessantly about those run ups ironically doesn’t sound much like a ‘real man’ to me.

Is there even longer term statistical evidence the stutter runs are more successful?

 

[sfc415]

I might be wrong, but I feel like Neymar made the slow run up/stutter popular. He seemed to actually be good at it though. Didn’t he also have some type of fake kick that got banned?

Anyway, whenever I see these stutter step penalties, I can tell they’re most likely going to be saved. Even when they do go in, they seem to barely go. Why even risk it? If you put enough power and pace through your kick, even if the keeper guesses right, he might not be quick or strong enough to save it.

 

[Bantz Lord T]

I might be wrong, but I feel like Neymar made the slow run up/stutter popular. He seemed to actually be good at it though. Didn’t he also have some type of fake kick that got banned?

Anyway, whenever I see these stutter step penalties, I can tell they’re most likely going to be saved. Even when they do go in, they seem to barely go. Why even risk it? If you put enough power and pace through your kick, even if the keeper guesses right, he might not be quick or strong enough to save it.

Pretty sure Brazilians have been doing since long before Neymar. Some guys used run up and make a complete stop to force the keeper to dive, then kick it into the empty net. That got banned a while ago.

 

[imasoleman18]

Poor guy..

this is a bad decision imo, they should have bought a more veteran guy or a mid teir striker, even that german kid would have been a better buy i think, but hope im wrong and he and rasmus tear it up

 

[Verde Shuttles]

Getting Ugarte is a nice move, idk about Zirkzee and MDL, and finally moving off some of those RWs seems sensible.

 

[vtotheinay]

rolaholic why are y'all signing de ligt and branthwaite when you have lisandro too?

 

[degenerate423]

rolaholic why are y'all signing de ligt and branthwaite when you have lisandro too?

As much as I like Licha, he’s been injury prone.

 

[rolaholic]

rolaholic why are y'all signing de ligt and branthwaite when you have lisandro too?

Like degenerate423 mentioned, Lisandro has had his share of injuries since joining, he missed most of last season so more depth is always a must.

Also lost Varane, Evans is out of contract currently and from reports INEOS are more than willing to sell Maguire as soon as a good offer comes so the talk at the start of the window was always around adding 2 CB's.

It's why the club has also been linked to Todibo, Yoro, Chalobah, Bremer, Adarabaiyo before he joined Chelsea and Guehi this summer.

Would rather avoid buying from PL clubs though myself, the tax isn't worth it.

 

[fluid hips]

 

[imasoleman18]

Getting Ugarte is a nice move, idk about Zirkzee and MDL, and finally moving off some of those RWs seems sensible.

if they can get a 65M rated MDL for 45M like its being reported ill take it for sure but they gotta start selling off the trash players before bringing people in

 

[imasoleman18]

theyre being linked with that turkish LB today too he should be rather cheap so sign me up lol im sick of them splashing the cash on MID players i dont really wanna see this club spend 40M+ on a player for the next year or 2 honestly

 

[fluid hips]

Kylian got bowlegs too

 

[rolaholic]

My guy , prototypical poacher/fox in the box 9 and one of the best finishers I've seen to this day.

Really hope he can help level up these forwards this season, finishing was awful last year

Spoiler

 

[Coupé It]

Really? For all their success, Palmeiras doesn’t really play a style of football that Brazilians typically want from their national team.

Yea, that’s what the critics say. “It wouldn’t be a good fit”.

But some Brazuks are like “**** style, we’re beyond that now”

Idk. We’ll see.

 

[cs02132]

RvN about to come back to the same exact locker room he used in 2003