EPT
2024 - 2026 Football Thread - Page 92
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LennX
4570 Posts
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9958 Posts
On October 20 2025 02:03 sharkie wrote: I actually think Marinakis is really that bad. Nuno's success prolly made you blind! ?? 3 managers in 5 years is not that bad. Everyone was telling him to sack Cooper after 2 months in the Premier League, but he gave him a new contract instead. I don't understand where you are coming from here, I could name you a bunch of teams who have gone through way more managers than Forest have recently. | ||
FlaShFTW
United States10530 Posts
On October 20 2025 04:04 Jockmcplop wrote: ?? 3 managers in 5 years is not that bad. Everyone was telling him to sack Cooper after 2 months in the Premier League, but he gave him a new contract instead. I don't understand where you are coming from here, I could name you a bunch of teams who have gone through way more managers than Forest have recently. I think it's more like, why did he sack Nuno and bring in Ange when it was clear the team was working well under Nuno and Ange was the exact opposite of Nunoball. Well, they have Dyche now who is more or less similar to Nuno so it'll probably work out well and get your team back on track. Holy god we are fucking right shite. Bit if unluckiness hitting the post so many times but not finishing those chances and once again failing to defend a benign set piece... | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27236 Posts
On October 21 2025 05:53 FlaShFTW wrote: I think it's more like, why did he sack Nuno and bring in Ange when it was clear the team was working well under Nuno and Ange was the exact opposite of Nunoball. Well, they have Dyche now who is more or less similar to Nuno so it'll probably work out well and get your team back on track. Holy god we are fucking right shite. Bit if unluckiness hitting the post so many times but not finishing those chances and once again failing to defend a benign set piece... Nuno basically sacked himself to be fair | ||
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9958 Posts
On October 21 2025 05:53 FlaShFTW wrote: I think it's more like, why did he sack Nuno and bring in Ange when it was clear the team was working well under Nuno and Ange was the exact opposite of Nunoball. Well, they have Dyche now who is more or less similar to Nuno so it'll probably work out well and get your team back on track. Holy god we are fucking right shite. Bit if unluckiness hitting the post so many times but not finishing those chances and once again failing to defend a benign set piece... The issue again with all of this is it is just a story being invented by the media and the actual facts don't agree that story at all. Everybody just wants it to be Marinakis' fault so they twist all of the facts, including basic stuff like Forest's results and form, to make it fit. Forest were in pretty poor form from about February onwards, and the team wasn't working very well under Nuno at all. He had tried to transition to a more possession based style in about February last season and it never worked. Add to that the fact that he was deliberately sabotaging every single match with his insane press conferences meant to undermine and sabotage the club when we had matches to focus on, and there wasn't much choice but to get rid of him. All of this comes from a very 'reddit' like place. Marinakis is a bad guy, we all know that, so the idea is to make every single thing that happens that is negative at Forest Marinakis fault because that makes a nice simple story for all the redditors to tell instead of people having to actually inform themselves and deal with all the details and complexities of what is actually going on. Anyway, I'm not trying to have a go at anyone here in particular, I just get frustrated with having to explain the basics over and over because people prefer to believe 'Marinakis bad, therefore if its bad, its Marinakis'. I'm quite excited for Dyche, Stone and Woan to make their return to the City Ground. Some absolutely legendary Forest players  | ||
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sharkie
Austria18721 Posts
On October 21 2025 05:53 FlaShFTW wrote: I think it's more like, why did he sack Nuno and bring in Ange when it was clear the team was working well under Nuno and Ange was the exact opposite of Nunoball. Well, they have Dyche now who is more or less similar to Nuno so it'll probably work out well and get your team back on track. Holy god we are fucking right shite. Bit if unluckiness hitting the post so many times but not finishing those chances and once again failing to defend a benign set piece... I find it ridiculous that Slot has benched Wirtz most of these losses - Wirtz is the one he should turn to, huge potential and young. You build teams -around him- not without him. He is trying to play last season's team without last season's pressing monsters (Diaz, Nunez, Jota) | ||
GTR
51665 Posts
welcome back lord dyche | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27236 Posts
On October 20 2025 04:04 Jockmcplop wrote: ?? 3 managers in 5 years is not that bad. Everyone was telling him to sack Cooper after 2 months in the Premier League, but he gave him a new contract instead. I don't understand where you are coming from here, I could name you a bunch of teams who have gone through way more managers than Forest have recently. Yeah I think his personality overshadows how he actually runs his club(s) in the perception of many. I mean he’s got Forest into the top division and into Europe on his watch, Olympiakos a European trophy. Ange was a genuine misstep, but he’s not a fool. Bringing in an Edu as the recruitment guy, not a bad idea. Bear in mind many seem to think he’s the Director of Football for Forest, but he’s actually overseeing things across the whole group. Ideally you want your coach and that guy to be on the same page, but friction can happen. It feels there was a complete breakdown there, to an almost bizarre level. It possibly went beyond professional clashes and became very personal. Looking at the recruitment in the summer, and how few of them have featured, strange. There’s some good players there, and plenty who conceivably fit how Nuno sets up his team. I can get sticking with the familiar lineups and feeding them in gradually, but it was almost like Nuno was just refusing to to make a point, even introducing some off the bench. Even storied journalists who cover the Nottingham beat don’t know quite why it broke down so much. One thing that I’ve heard from multiple is that Nuno was annoyed he wasn’t given Adama Traore, but that alone wouldn’t explain that breakdown. I’m interested to see this Forest under Dyche! It’s almost certainly the most talented squad he’s ever had, and a podcast I sub to did a good long-form interview with him where Dyche said he’d like to play more expansive, engaging stuff but he’ll work with whatever tools he’s got. | ||
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gTank
Austria2664 Posts
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27236 Posts
On October 21 2025 21:53 gTank wrote: Happy cake day WombaT! Grazie! Hopefully Inter can deliver for me on such a sacred day | ||
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gTank
Austria2664 Posts
On October 21 2025 21:59 WombaT wrote: Grazie! Hopefully Inter can deliver for me on such a sacred day Looks great so far! | ||
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FlaShFTW
United States10530 Posts
On October 21 2025 17:11 sharkie wrote: I find it ridiculous that Slot has benched Wirtz most of these losses - Wirtz is the one he should turn to, huge potential and young. You build teams -around him- not without him. He is trying to play last season's team without last season's pressing monsters (Diaz, Nunez, Jota) Yeah I don't like it. We're built more like a counter attacking team tbh with some excellent passers. Wirtz needs to start more, and Salah needs to be benched more often. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27236 Posts
On October 22 2025 11:30 FlaShFTW wrote: Yeah I don't like it. We're built more like a counter attacking team tbh with some excellent passers. Wirtz needs to start more, and Salah needs to be benched more often. They’re missing Trent’s ability to zip the ball around quickly, or go long as well. BBC Sport’s football site did quick a good breakdown of it recently. Especially as Salah is so effective, but less overall involved in play overall than younger incarnations. Someone made the point it’s almost a post-Salah rebuild, but he’s still there. I dunno if that’s fair but it does make a certain sense I think it’ll click eventually, I guess the worry for Liverpool fans might be the gap ends up being too big in the league. Arsenal especially don’t look like they’ll drop too many soft points. Pretty crazy night in the CL! Napoli getting thumped, Arsenal walloping Athletico and PSG sticking 7 past Leverkusen weren’t on my bingo card. Still seems Conte at Napoli still struggles to crack the CL code, quite odd given how strong a coach he is at the tactical side of the game. | ||
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Bacillus
Finland2076 Posts
On October 22 2025 18:08 WombaT wrote: Someone made the point it’s almost a post-Salah rebuild, but he’s still there. I dunno if that’s fair but it does make a certain sense I think it’ll click eventually, I guess the worry for Liverpool fans might be the gap ends up being too big in the league. Arsenal especially don’t look like they’ll drop too many soft points. Yeah, I haven't been able to see most of the games, but it feels like things may click much better once Salah gets swapped into some different profile of a player. I'm not too worried about this season for them as long as they can keep dressing room happy and players don't turn against each other or the manager. A lot of the players brough in are centerpieces for the next 5-10 years, so even a season long dip is fine in my books, as long as they can keep people committed to the plan. Pretty crazy night in the CL! Napoli getting thumped, Arsenal walloping Athletico and PSG sticking 7 past Leverkusen weren’t on my bingo card. Still seems Conte at Napoli still struggles to crack the CL code, quite odd given how strong a coach he is at the tactical side of the game. I think they broke some record on goals scored in one matchday. They may have also played more matches than previously though, not completely sure about that. Lots of goals, but not too many nailbiters though. | ||
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sharkie
Austria18721 Posts
On October 22 2025 18:33 Bacillus wrote: Yeah, I haven't been able to see most of the games, but it feels like things may click much better once Salah gets swapped into some different profile of a player. I'm not too worried about this season for them as long as they can keep dressing room happy and players don't turn against each other or the manager. A lot of the players brough in are centerpieces for the next 5-10 years, so even a season long dip is fine in my books, as long as they can keep people committed to the plan. But what is the plan? I don't think anyone knows and that makes people unhappy. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27236 Posts
On October 22 2025 18:33 Bacillus wrote: Yeah, I haven't been able to see most of the games, but it feels like things may click much better once Salah gets swapped into some different profile of a player. I'm not too worried about this season for them as long as they can keep dressing room happy and players don't turn against each other or the manager. A lot of the players brough in are centerpieces for the next 5-10 years, so even a season long dip is fine in my books, as long as they can keep people committed to the plan. I think they broke some record on goals scored in one matchday. They may have also played more matches than previously though, not completely sure about that. Lots of goals, but not too many nailbiters though. Yeah it irks me hearing about all these new records, some of which are just because they totally changed the format! I mean that was true with the old format when it was adopted too haha, but at least it was consistent over decades. On October 22 2025 19:02 sharkie wrote: But what is the plan? I don't think anyone knows and that makes people unhappy. Football fans will always be moaning and unhappy, and if there is a master plan it’s not really in Slot’s, or the recruitment team’s interest to reveal it wholesale. Maybe it’s a free hit of a season, who knows? Don’t spend much for a few windows, splurge on a rebuild for the next 5 years+, and if it doesn’t work immediately, no biggy. The big mystery is getting both Ekiteke and Isak. Ekiteke feels too good to be a backup signing, Isak obviously isn’t. Employ Ekiteke as a more versatile drifting option? Or perhaps, play them both as 9s. Crazy if you’d said to kid/teen me that doing so would be an atypical thing in the future, but here we are! Inter are one of the few top sides that do this, but they play a back 3 with wingbacks Maybe the plan is to go more narrow and technical in the middle with Wirtz knitting things together, and full backs being your width more than wide forwards. Kinda how Alonso’s Leverkusen worked. Plenty of possibilities. I think people forget that Slot wasn’t expected to win the league, certainly not favourite to. Maybe he’s just going to swap things around, where the low expectation season with no new players is the one they push on and win, and the high expectation season with many is the rebuild season. As I’m frequently saying, often in defence of Mikel Arteta, it’s bloody hard to win a PL, there’s both very good teams at the top, but also the general standard is pretty damn high. A Bayern, or perhaps a Real/Barca can take a while to settle and get going, but still scrape wins and still be in touch. In the Prem, especially in seasons without proper whipping boys, you can lose to a lot of the league if you’re merely at 80% or whatever. Which can leave you out of touch of real title contention if you don’t hit the ground running, with too much of a deficit to make up on some excellent sides. I think we might see this with Liverpool, they’ll probably click and be excellent, but by then Arsenal might have gapped them by quite a bit. Man City have a shot, even if it’s not a vintage side so long as Haaland is scoring a goal about every 60 minutes On the flip side, Liverpool may end up clicking, be out of realistic league contention, and focus hardcore on the CL, and I wouldn’t rule them out there if that does happen. Although annoyingly as fuck PSG do genuinely seem to be Europe’s best side at the minute, and haven’t dropped off much from last season. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27236 Posts
A really interesting player too, not merely a ‘good touch for a big man’, but technical ability is the main facet of his game and he just happens to be massive. Was watching Newcastle taking on Benfica last night and a lovely wee backwards flick helped make their third. He’s also a bit atypical off the pitch too from what I’ve seen. Guy has cult Newcastle icon written all over him, or even perhaps one for the neutrals. | ||
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Bacillus
Finland2076 Posts
On October 22 2025 19:02 sharkie wrote: But what is the plan? I don't think anyone knows and that makes people unhappy. I think a lot of the longer term plan is about replacing Salah, Konate and VVD at some point. You don't really talk about that kind of stuff in public if you can avoid it. | ||
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sharkie
Austria18721 Posts
On October 22 2025 20:37 Bacillus wrote: I think a lot of the longer term plan is about replacing Salah, Konate and VVD at some point. You don't really talk about that kind of stuff in public if you can avoid it. Wouldn't it been better not to extend their contracts then? Salah and VVD are earning really big bucks now (deservedly) but then I'd expect to build a team around them not to think to replace them? I'd have no problem in gifting Slot a season but his recent changes implicate that is not the case at all. Like I said Wirtz is the player you shouldn't drop. He is the player you build around him On October 22 2025 19:49 WombaT wrote: Also he’s going a bit under the radar, Nick Woltemade looks a pretty damn good player, and he’s hit the ground running. A really interesting player too, not merely a ‘good touch for a big man’, but technical ability is the main facet of his game and he just happens to be massive. Was watching Newcastle taking on Benfica last night and a lovely wee backwards flick helped make their third. He’s also a bit atypical off the pitch too from what I’ve seen. Guy has cult Newcastle icon written all over him, or even perhaps one for the neutrals. Woltermade have made Newcastle forget Isak already | ||
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sharkie
Austria18721 Posts
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