The Soccer Thread (Version 8)

They should have had a couple of more but Pogba was making the wrong decisions on the break. Burnley were pretty toothless.

I’m guessing that Mata is sacrificed in the Sánchez era but he’s done really well this season and works his butt off tracking back.

 

Liverpool is about to lose to Swansea, because, why not? Park the fucking bus, Swans .. outshot 17-4, outpossessed 71-29. Up 1-0.

 

No talk on Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal to MUFC for Mkhitaryan? The rare player-for-player trade in the EPL.

Alexis Sanchez: Arsenal forward joins Man Utd in swap with Henrikh Mkhitaryan

 

Mkhitaryan was really an enigma. He sporadically could boss a game but was off of the pace so much of the time. Mata was simply a better version of him the past year and you really couldn't play both together.

Sanchez is like Kyrie -- if you can get a player like that, you get him. The rotation of 6 players for the 4 attacking spots is pretty good. I just hope that Rashford and Martial aren't sacrificed too much. I'd like to see Rashford play the no. 9 and give Lukaku a break every now and then.

 

Liverpool gacking against Swansea sure makes the bottom half interesting. Six points between 10th and 20th. That's insane.

 

Put another way, ninth place (Everton) only nets them six points of relegation safety. I’ve never seen the league so bottom-heavy.

 

It's a weird year. In the semi-recent past, teams have stayed up (finished 17th) with 34 points. They've also been relegated (in 18th) with 42. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a strange relegation and/or survival story this season, but I'll damned if I know which club and how.

 

The separation is intense, and since the year's not yet two-thirds over, will get more intense. I would guess any year where one team is so dominant as City has been sees others drop closer to the bottom, because bang, there's two losses. But Spurs (my team) are still out of the top four with the league's best striker and close to all-national team players for the other 10 starters. A draw on the road to anything other than another top six club is seen, not incorrectly, as a mini-catastrophe. How are the Burnleys, West Hams, Evertons and other mid-level clubs supposed to compete with that, let alone with City.

 

Out of curiosity, I looked at the Championship table. Looks like Wolves are headed back to the top flight, while Aston Villa are in the playoff zone with Fulham just outside. A lot of big clubs jockeying for promotion.

(Poor Sunderland and Hull City, on the verge of dropping to League One.)

 

This may be the year where the bottom drops out on the Gunners. I just wonder if Spurs can keep Kane and Dele after the summer.

 

How the team does in the Champions League elimination rounds will have much to do with that, I think. Spurs has all the stars needed to be a perennial contender, but not enough depth to surmount what seems to be a constant problem with injuries to important players.

 

I think that's important. But if it is true that their wages are radically below market, sooner or later, the best players are going to force their way out and Levy makes good deals.