Topic: The Push Square Football (Soccer) Thread

@WanderingBullet No one else does it because its stupid. Much rather have a proper game with proper rivalries, rather than the fake support in a nothing game of egotistical sports tarts. We support the badge.

@themcnoisy Well said!! The only time we see something similar is for 'charity' and/or testimonials. Soccer Aid for example - although that does also have non-sporting Celebs on either side and retired footballers.

You won't get a Premiership All-Stars vs La Liga All-stars just for the sake of it. Even some of our domestic Cup games aren't always the most 'competitive' line-up of players, a chance for the fringe and youth players to get a match whilst the best players are rested for the next league or European Cup match. The 'all-stars' from the UK Premiership play enough proper competitive matches let alone a pointless showcase. Some teams will end up playing nearly 70 games in 9-10mnth season for their club, let alone any international matches all over the world.

Liverpools 'Season' finished on June 1st but a few days later had to turn up for International duty for the European League matches, the Africa Cup of Nations and the Copa America. Preseason started back in the first week of July whilst many of the players were still on international duty playing in these tournaments. You could argue that these players don't really need a 'preseason' playing friendlies all over the world to prepare and build back up to fitness for the start of the Season but they are not all playing the same system and certainly not with the same players - not had a break either to refresh the mind and body!!

@themcnoisy "fake support in a nothing game of egotistical sports tarts"?

Honestly, I don't mind watching a weekend of this (All-Star event) than the EFL Cup, international qualifiers or friendlies.

Predictions for this season:
1) Manchester City
2) Liverpool
3) Tottenham Hotspur
4) One of the other big six (probably Arsenal)

Pretty much the same as my prediction for last season.haha

@WanderingBullet I feel the gap between Man City and Liverpool will be bigger this year as City have a few new additions to strengthen them but Liverpool haven't done much and are only an injury or two away from struggling.

Spurs could well close the gap but then again, they could also do a Spurs at any point.

It'll be interesting to see how Leicester and Everton do with their additions.

@Frigate it's only 1 game. I know we all expect the big teams to win every match but these results do happen.

@Frigate I quite like Barca. The nou camp is a bit run down these days but it's still a good club with a decent history. Im not too sure how they became the one of the biggest clubs in the world though - it's all a mystery - maybe the fact they are fan owned? Or based on the domination when Pep was in charge?

I don't understand how Barca is bigger than Liverpool, Man Utd or even looking further afield Dortmund, Juventus or Milan.

@Frigate Aduriz at 38 years old, in his final season, coming on with two minutes left to score and overhead winner against is a pretty great story 🙂
Hoping my Villa can pick up our first win against Bournemouth today, we played fairly well against Spurs I thought but hoping we can be more attacking at home and Wesley can get his first goal!

@Frigate of course, totally forgot about the politics.

@hego up the villa. Good to have you back in the prem.

Referee Mike Dean.

@0:58 is the best part.

I red a lot of jokes about Lukaku when he left Man Utd for Inter, but since now he scored thrice in the first 4 Serie A matches, all won by Inter. What went wrong with him at Man Utd?

@andreoni79 It's just the terrible standard of Serie A instead

@andreoni79 It is bizarre how they sold him without having a replacement in mind. Rashford and Martial are good but are much better cutting in from the flanks.

And Arsenal, their defense has been awful for years and yet they fail to get any commanding defenders or a solid defensive midfielder. That team has no leaders and a soft spine.

@Thrillho Well, the last trip to Italy of the CL defending champions seems to contradict you

@andreoni79 That's one game, doesn't prove that the whole league is better all of a sudden.

@andreoni79 @Frigate I’m sure Lukaku had a flying start at United too and possibly Everton as well. But maybe the league will suit him better. Who knows yet.

I’m more interested to see how Ramsey gets on at Juve. Got his first goal for them at the weekend.

I reckon Antonio Conte has much to do with Lukaku's form. They've built up a good relationship from in the short time he's been there.

Chelsea - Ajax, hahaha!

@Kidfried Seeing as Chelsea beat Ajax on their ground, and Ajax will have two players missing from their next game, I would not be laughing if I was a Ajax fan. Plus Chelsea came back from being 4-1 down and were the only team who looked like winning towards the end.

Did anyone see the football last night on Amazon Prime? The picture kept going all fuzzy, like it was out of focus or something. I could only watch it for about 30 minutes. Hopefully it be better tonight when there are more games to watch, so I can watch the scouse Derby.