I would kinda prefer ManC to win it over Arsenal - even though it makes me feel dirty just saying it. It would just end up being chalked up as another win for them to go with the other cheated to titles. Arsenal’s tactics, the dark arts, Arteta, the playing for corners and tactics used on those corners - where players seem to be coached to mostly but not quite foul. No, not like that.
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Arsenal are the epitome of arrogance, players, manager and supporters.
There isn’t a more despisable cunt playing than Gabriel. A fucking shithouse, needs a serious clatter early every match instead of letting him be the main man.
Arteta is like a fucking yelpy dog, outside his technical area without censure. Needs muzzling.
Their "supporters " branding us as “Victims” while they whine like fuck about injuries and decisions .
They brought Sunday league football to set pieces and go unpunished for consistent fouling in the opposing penalty box.
They eulogise about the invincibles, a team that wouldn’t hold a candle to our second placed teams in the City cheating victories. Even their best player of the time Viera was an arrogant twat with his vicks plastered all over his shirt, like a finished porn star.
Henry is constantly mentined as the best PL player…
Heres a bit of news
Salah > Henry.
Fuck them.
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I’m whatever, doesn’t interest me that much because we’re far from it. Our season bothers me more than enough to leave the title race aside in terms of emotions. I’m following it very coldly.
But I see where you’re coming from, I also wouldn’t mind if Arsenal are about to succeed, as they got close in recent years. Just for the variety as you say, so that it isn’t City that often.
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Arteta complaining about the chaos Brentord caused from set-pieces last night was particularly amusing.
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In 23/24 season, when it began to look as though we were out of the race, I was hoping it would be City rather than Arsenal to win it, because if anyone was going to break fheir monopoly on the title it should be us, after all our near misses, certainly not the Arse!
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City to win it. Fuck City but I really want more fucking anger at their cheating ways than just from Liverpool fans and the more often Arsenal can get the shaft, the better it is.
Also, fuck Arteta and this Arsenal side. Really would not want to give them any real credibility because as a whole they are really, really unlikeable.
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Arsenal are so dislikable I have seen United fans wanting City to win the league over them.It is also funny to see how nervous Arsenal fans are on social media.They are 1 loss away from having a mental breakdown.
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Yeah. Football is also a very copycat game. Arsenal’s evolution from becoming title challengers as an exciting in your face side into this has already seen lots of the league follow elements of their game. I would love to see it not rewarded. Partly for pure footballing reasons, but partly I want other teams looking for an effective thing to copy to see a different direction to go in.
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I hope City win it because
- So fucking what.
- I don’t want their brand of dull as shit football to become the blueprint for other managers (including our own) to copy.
- A tight race keeps them from being able to throw everything at the Champions league
- Arsenal fans are particularly arrogant and entitled
- It would be really, really funny.
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Almost Spursy’esk
Point 2 is the reason why I wouldn’t like to see them win it. It’s horrible to watch, and the sad thing is they can play better than that but choose to go back to the same tactic, however they can get lost in relation to Brentford doing it.
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I’m not afraid for the future of football in this league or wherever when it comes to set-pieces.
It means that 19 clubs in the 25/26 season try to copy what Liverpool did in 24/25? Of course it’s not what happens and it’s impossible anyway. To get to the level Arsenal what they do with set-pieces it most probably needs be worked at for a few years and also have the right type of players for it. A portion of it can be improved very quickly and hopefully that’s what happens currently with us post-Briggs.
Set-pieces are an isolated phase (if we break it into 5) of the game where naturally everyone tries to come up with something that can generate more control over it, defending it and an extra way of scoring.
Whether a corner is taken short for extra combination play and trying to also aim for the second phase with good counter-pressing or direct/long, I don’t care as long as in that moment and those few seconds it brings us advantage.
Whether it’s a short throw-in or a long one, I also don’t care. I do understand if someone just by taste doesn’t like seeing Kayode catapulting a long throw into the opponent’s box.
What can also be different is the tempo before taking these set-pieces. I agree that it’s more attractive when it’s not so slow. We’ve seen Virgil sending commands to our corner taker about the pace of the process. Sometimes quicker, sometimes a bit slower.
Nobody likes aimless long balls from the back, but few teams do that anyway these days, because the game has evolved. The game is more broken into different phases. Even lower quality ones like Dyche’s Burnley or Brentford both under Frank and Andrews. What they do in possession can be totally different to what they do when the opponent starts from goal kicks (there can be a very high press, certainly not a deep block at all times), gets into midfield or in your half, both transitions. Set-pieces are the extra phase and isolated.
PSG start many of their games with a long ball out of play, deep into the opponent’s half. They want to stamp their press immediately. It lasts literally a few seconds, then the game becomes ‘normal’ again and most people agree that they’re an exciting team to watch.
I’ve heard all kind of conflicting tastes where people want more direct football, but then might dislike long passes, crosses or throws. Some might want more attractive football with the ball on the floor, but then might dislike short corners and would rather corners to be simply to “stick it in the mixer”. How does that work? It’s impossible to please everyone. People are sometimes unsure themselves about what they like or want to watch.
I don’t think teams will suddenly play a brand of football that can only increase chances of having more set-pieces, but am I surprised that it’s simply a phase of the game that was always there and football in general always tried to come up with different ways to defend/attack better? No. Regardless of the sheer amount of it this season (we’ll see how it is going forward, it cannot go up all the time), you still have variety in styles, how teams play.
And I’d say that’s the thing we all like to see.
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I just think its a fucking bland way of playing football.
Each to their own… enjoy it if you wish.
Should be in the Armchair Tactics thread?
Leave here to discuss that boring, self entitled shower of pricks?
Or the famous random football debate thread.
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I feel dirty for saying it, as they are bad cheats, but I probably want Man City to win the Prem. Just add it to the pile of other meaningless trophies they cheated their way to. And maybe it will fire Arsenal up enough to ask some questions about the 115 charges, and what’s going to happen about that.
Fingers crossed, but maybe when Guardiola steps down (summer?) there might be some action against Man City.
In another universe I would like the less cheaty team to win, which would be Arsenal. But even then, I’ve grown to dislike them so much that I can’t bring myself to wanting them to win anything. Dark arts. Arrogance. Set piece FC. Lego head out of his box.
If Arsenal win it might give them the belief to stick around as winners for a while, given their squad. If they lose, again, it just adds to the self-doubt and possibly opens the door a bit more for next season’s resurgent Liverpool.
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Their 3-1 win against us early in the new year of Klopp’s final season is one of the most complete performances I recall seeing. We were top of the league and flying. Our only loss had been the farce against Spurs in the autumn and we’d just thrashed Newcastle and Chelsea. We had every reason to think we should get a result if we played well, and we did play every bit as well as you’d expect a title challenging side to, but were still deservedly beaten by a team that just did everything a bit better. It was an incredibly impressive performance from them and I dont think they ever played in that way again against another top side.
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‘Lego head out of his box.’ … I’m not sure you meant it the way that I interpreted it , but it made me lol. 
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If it was funny, I almost certainly didn’t mean it 
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What I care about is that long throw ins are now being treated differently by officials, and they need to get a fucking grip because it’s taking the piss.
The game is being paused while the centre backs get up the pitch, the box gets loaded, all the jostling goes on, the ball gets dried and the players takes ages winding up the throw from miles away.
It’s got to the point where the referees will happily let long throw antics carry on for maybe 20-30 seconds after the point where a card would have been shown if the player was setting about a normal throw.
A throw is a throw is a throw. 10 seconds max. If you want a long one, you don’t get any more time to piss about with it.
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