Mickolution posted:

Haven't read a football book in ages, but The Damned United may be something to look into. Not Premier League and is fictionalised to an extent, but a great book.

Brendan Rodgers posted:

Ball is round is the best football phrase ever.

Der Shovel posted:

Talk is that RVP has a £10 million loyalty clause in his contract, which he will receive if he sees out his contract at United. Considering his form since ... well, since that game against Villa when United won title number 20, really, does anyone see any chance of that happening?

Who'd be willing to bite if United were interested in offloading him?

The Big Taff Man posted:

He's not been as bad as people say imo. I think he's getting unwarranted stick when he's not getting service.


For people who watched the United match on tele on saturday, was I going mad or did RVP start in a deeper number 10 role before going upfront when di maria went off

The Big Taff Man posted:

For people who watched the United match on tele on saturday, was I going mad or did RVP start in a deeper number 10 role before going upfront when di maria went off

quote:

Van Gaal said: "I am very pleased that Robin scored and that he had a big influence on this game. He scored three goals on the training ground so I had a good feeling for him.
"In the beginning he played at number 10, until I was forced to put him again in the striker's position because of Angel Di Maria's injury (after 13 minutes).
"I think he played better in the striker's position than he did at number 10, where you have to pass more than he did.
"A striker always needs a goal and I am very happy for him that he scored but I am sure he can play better than he did."

Jose posted:

Balotelli is being investigated by the FA for putting this on instagram lol

Mario Balotelli posted:

Not all Mexicans have moustache, not all black people jump high and not all Jewish people love money.

serious gaylord posted:

Please dont use the service argument. You're sounding like an american re jozy.

The Mash posted:

The Big Taff Man posted:

I thought that was part of the plan Saturday tbh, drop him deeper get him more a feel for the ball and let the rest come, rather than have him not get a sniff all game.

straight up brolic posted:

loving whoscored is getting published on the guardian now as part of the "guardian sport network" jesus christ

Hamas Rodriguez posted:

sounds like you had a nice night but what about the football match

Hamas Rodriguez posted:

sounds like you had a nice night but what about the football match

Chris de Sperg posted:

plenty of papers have been looking for sports data journalists lately. Didn't someone publish dzsibot guy even

straight up brolic posted:

yeah but that was the washington post which is much more trash than the guardian and to be fair even dbzsibot is atleast based off real information. Assigning players an arbitrary rating is hardly "data journalism" (Correct me if i'm wrong, i dont spend much time on whoscored)

whoscored posted:

Ratings**

Player ratings are based on each event recorded in the game calculated live automatically using our own algorithms, which comprise of over 200 raw statistics. All events are valued based on a researched perception of the effect on the outcome of the match. Positive events are valued against negative events.

straight up brolic posted:

yeah but that was the washington post which is much more trash than the guardian and to be fair even dbzsibot is atleast based off real information. Assigning players an arbitrary rating is hardly "data journalism" (Correct me if i'm wrong, i dont spend much time on whoscored)

serious gaylord posted:

Gerrard: - "Theres nothing to say about the contract issue."

Hamas Rodriguez posted:

sounds like you had a nice night but what about the football match

serious gaylord posted:

Gerrard: - "Theres nothing to say about the contract issue."

Antares posted:

Some desperately unfunny scorelines this past week, really hope Southampton or Sunderland win 5-0