EPT2024 - 2026 Football Thread - Page 76
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51490 Posts
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WombaT
Northern Ireland25482 Posts
On August 10 2025 00:27 Pandemona wrote: Might have only been a pre season game, our first one (one week before season starts!) but wow Estevao played so well vs Leverkusen, what a player i cannot wait for this season. Chelsea look amazing going forward, i still think we will suffer defensively, but wow our offense is going to be crazy good! According to the BBC’s long-term South American football journalist, Tim Vickery, Estevao is the Brazilian talent. Possibly the best since Neymar, who also I think personally underachieved and still had unbelievable peaks and is a tad underrated. Better than Endrick, better than Vini Jr or whoever else. If he’s even in that ballpark, and he settles that’s a hell of a signing indeed. Vickery is usually on the money, and when he isn’t it tends to be from a player he hyped getting crippled by injuries, and not them lacking the requisite talent. I already think Chelsea are in with a shot for the league as it is, if Estevao hits the ground running and is as good as he’s rated, rather than taking a year of promising but inconsistent form to settle, that shot just increases. If we get peak Cole Palmer again, with all those other wingers, 3 good 9s with slightly different strengths around him, all firing simultaneously, that’s pretty potent alone. Their midfield 3 if they go with Lavia/Caicedo/Fernandez is bloody good as well if they can find the right balance. Their defence isn’t bad either, I mean it’s probably not Arsenal’s, but it’s not a gigantic weakness. I think much will depend on Maresca. He started very well, when they played with a bit more fluidity and improvisation. They actively got worse the more he insisted on control and sterile possession, then they had a good Club World Cup. I felt his initial phase was basically building off Poch’s late momentum and running with it, and the side got worse the more ‘Maresca’ he made it. I think if Maresca lets the handbrake off to some degree, and adjusts Chelsea are a scary team indeed. If you give Palmer license to try things, and those forwards a bit more freedom to take players on and make risky runs, that’s pretty good. I still think Palmer’s legitimately the best all-round 10 in Europe, I think he’s in that weird zone when an English player is legit that good, we tend to underplay it in this country, but we overrate a lot of other players. See also - Harry Kane clearly being one of the best 9s in Europe forever. Yeah Yamal is maybe better at what he does, but I dunno if he is better if he’s playing centrally. Wirtz and Musiala are great players as well, but I think Palmer is better across more areas than they are than him. He’s an incredible finisher and passer, they’re not bad at either but I don’t think they’re as good there. Those two are probably better running with the ball, but it’s not like Palmer is bad at that. At their worst last season Chelsea would control games, but it was super sterile and you just had people tapping it about and afraid to try things. You’re the Chelsea fan mind, you’ve seen a lot more of them than I! What do you think Pande? | ||
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gTank
Austria2569 Posts
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51490 Posts
On August 10 2025 01:28 WombaT wrote: According to the BBC’s long-term South American football journalist, Tim Vickery, Estevao is the Brazilian talent. Possibly the best since Neymar, who also I think personally underachieved and still had unbelievable peaks and is a tad underrated. Better than Endrick, better than Vini Jr or whoever else. If he’s even in that ballpark, and he settles that’s a hell of a signing indeed. Vickery is usually on the money, and when he isn’t it tends to be from a player he hyped getting crippled by injuries, and not them lacking the requisite talent. I already think Chelsea are in with a shot for the league as it is, if Estevao hits the ground running and is as good as he’s rated, rather than taking a year of promising but inconsistent form to settle, that shot just increases. If we get peak Cole Palmer again, with all those other wingers, 3 good 9s with slightly different strengths around him, all firing simultaneously, that’s pretty potent alone. Their midfield 3 if they go with Lavia/Caicedo/Fernandez is bloody good as well if they can find the right balance. Their defence isn’t bad either, I mean it’s probably not Arsenal’s, but it’s not a gigantic weakness. I think much will depend on Maresca. He started very well, when they played with a bit more fluidity and improvisation. They actively got worse the more he insisted on control and sterile possession, then they had a good Club World Cup. I felt his initial phase was basically building off Poch’s late momentum and running with it, and the side got worse the more ‘Maresca’ he made it. I think if Maresca lets the handbrake off to some degree, and adjusts Chelsea are a scary team indeed. If you give Palmer license to try things, and those forwards a bit more freedom to take players on and make risky runs, that’s pretty good. I still think Palmer’s legitimately the best all-round 10 in Europe, I think he’s in that weird zone when an English player is legit that good, we tend to underplay it in this country, but we overrate a lot of other players. See also - Harry Kane clearly being one of the best 9s in Europe forever. Yeah Yamal is maybe better at what he does, but I dunno if he is better if he’s playing centrally. Wirtz and Musiala are great players as well, but I think Palmer is better across more areas than they are than him. He’s an incredible finisher and passer, they’re not bad at either but I don’t think they’re as good there. Those two are probably better running with the ball, but it’s not like Palmer is bad at that. At their worst last season Chelsea would control games, but it was super sterile and you just had people tapping it about and afraid to try things. You’re the Chelsea fan mind, you’ve seen a lot more of them than I! What do you think Pande? Pretty much spot on, most of this is going to come down to how good Maresca is now, he has the tools at his diposal. I think you are kinda right on our defense, but i dont know if you are accounting the fact that Colwill did his ACL on first day back for pre season so now we are our best defender short for the season lol. Leaves us with Tosin, Fofana, Badiashile (injured until september) and my favourite Trev! We do have Hato now, but he is 19! and i would prefer him as cover to Cucuerall anyway. So imo our defense which was needing a big leap to become stable and strong, has a massive hole in it. I also think this seasons premier league will see a massive gap between the top 4 and everyone else. Every team minus the top 4 has gotten weaker, Spurs and Yanited were so shit last season that even though they might theoretically improved, surely they are not going from relegation to top 4 contenders, so i see them battling it out from 5-8 with the others, but even then Newcastle are struggling to spend there money and will lose there best player, Villa can't spend there money and have not gotten any better. Brighton are the only ones that even though they lost Pedro might be able to consolidate on that top 6-8 spots. Bournemouth lsot a lot of players, Everton can't spend there money and get people in either, West Ham are just crazy. Notts Forrest i think will have a hard time with Europe and domestic games as squad too thin, plus lost a couple of players. Palace also haven't gone forward. Then you into the bottom half lower side of it and that's just going to be really poor compared to the top 4. Think this season Chelsea should concentrate on champions league and top 4 push to then try and attack scouse at the top next season. | ||
GTR
51463 Posts
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evilfatsh1t
Australia8665 Posts
On August 10 2025 02:50 gTank wrote: I dont know if its because of the RB Leipzig squad sucking a lot but Sesko didnt look like a 90M€ guy to me. Not the best signing I would say. says more about the lack of good strikers in this era. seskos price is just a result of supply and demand. i do agree though that signing him doesnt give me much confidence. i think theres a larger than 50% chance he ends up like hojlund, which is why originally the club looked for a slightly older striker. | ||
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51490 Posts
On August 10 2025 08:47 GTR wrote: tim vickery is one of the best football pundits in the world. shame he's in brazil so we seldom hear from him in the english-speaking media but he's definitely one of those guys you drop everything to listen to. He is on TalkSport once or twice a week talking about stuff, i listen at work and enjoy his segments. He was saying the likes of Enderick were doing it right and all these Brazilain talents need to do what Joao Pedro did, go Watford > Brighton > Chelsea, not like Enderick who clearly needed to play more in Europe before joining Real Madrid. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland25482 Posts
On August 10 2025 08:47 GTR wrote: tim vickery is one of the best football pundits in the world. shame he's in brazil so we seldom hear from him in the english-speaking media but he's definitely one of those guys you drop everything to listen to. If you want a further Vickery fix, he’s on weekly on Radio 5 Live’s World Football Phone-In (available as a podcast), which started as a short segment with the host of ‘Up All Night’s’ Dotun Adebayo’s show and over the proceeding 20 years turned into a 3 hour monster, where you’ve got people asking questions of not just Vickery for South America, but a rotating cast of folks from other continental areas, although Vick is the only lock. The same duo also do the offshoot Brazilian Shirt Name podcast in which they take a single match that a guest wants to chat about, usually a journalist or sportswriter. It’s all good stuff. I think what sets him apart from many is he’s also very good on giving you a sense of the culture and politics that surround or interact with the game over there too. Although has Vickery himself has said, and he does get asked frequently why he’s not doing so much regular UK work, the game has moved on so much since he got there. Brazilian football is strengthening again somewhat, but it, and other South American leagues are increasingly a mix of young will-be stars destined for Europe, has-beens who can’t cut it in Europe’s top level anymore, and with a big middle class of never-will-bes who are good footballers, but not good enough for that level. Outside of international duty, he gets to see the real top players less and less, so he thinks he’s got less value than many European journalists in chatting about how some of them are getting on it Europe. Which makes a lot of sense to be fair, but more Vickery would always be good! He’s usually wheeled out for a Club World Cup style event as he knows those clubs, or a World Cup where he’ll know quite a bit about all the international South American sides | ||
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51490 Posts
New season is coming!!!!!!! | ||
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Bacillus
Finland1942 Posts
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FlaShFTW
United States10170 Posts
On August 11 2025 04:46 Pandemona wrote: Lol that penalty shootout between scouse and palace was shocking! Awful pens! Fairplay to palace winning that, but im sure scouse do not care and will focus now on the new season. New season is coming!!!!!!! It's ok, we avoided the Community Shield curse, all according to plan  Yes, Wirtz and Ekitike looked really sharp out there, but one problem is our press and defensive end. I think Slot is going to need to find the balance between some of those attacking moments that looked incredible, and still keeping clean sheets. Of course, Macca and Gravy being out meant we didn't have the best defensive midfield either, but I think Wirtz and Ekitike can definitely hustle a bit more to help recover on transition moments out of possession. It's probably the biggest loss in that department for this with this new squad where we're going to go from Diaz/Szobo press to an Ekitike/Wirtz press where we're definitely losing a lot of defensive work rate. Still excited about the season though, and finally talks about getting Guehi or that 18 year old Serie A defender are now materializing to reinforce our backline. | ||
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MJG
United Kingdom1092 Posts
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DropBear
Australia4356 Posts
GK - Gulacsi, Urbig DEF - Grimaldo, Ginter, Mwene, Kristensen, Maehle MID - Musiala, Baumgartner, Arnold, Andrich, Irvine FOR - Schick, Adeyemi, Undav | ||
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9660 Posts
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FlaShFTW
United States10170 Posts
Also, anyone to join another FPL league? https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/htc21a Here's my lineup: GK - Raya, Kelleher DEF - Wan-Bissaka, Guehi, Ait-Nouri, Araujo, Rodon MID - Baleba, Salah, Palmer, Caicedo, Cherki FWD - Haaland, Welbeck, Guiu | ||
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Bacillus
Finland1942 Posts
Apparently Premier League Match Centre (Official PL stance?) tweeted https://x.com/PLMatchCentre/status/1956439893661696199 The referee’s call of no red card to Senesi was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the action deemed not to be a clear handball offence nor denial of a goal scoring opportunity (DOGSO), due to the distance from goal. The 'not a clear handball' is pretty baffling. It's a full arm length swipe at the ball. The distance, I have no clue. I just hope it's clarified somewhere and applied consistently. | ||
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sharkie
Austria18418 Posts
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51490 Posts
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9660 Posts
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evilfatsh1t
Australia8665 Posts
seems like everyone thinks utd will be somewhere around the 8th place or so and that would still be a good season. to me finishing 15th was absolutely a freak season and is too low of a benchmark to start with to say 8th would be a 'successful' season for us. | ||
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