2022-23 English Premier League Discussion Thread

[LDNMagic90]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

[Baphomet]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

I've been around for many years on this board as have a few others like HIF, magik, Shaazaam and Foye, through the highs and lows. Things seem to be on the upswing again.

It's a World Cup year as well, and that always brings a bump in activity, especially with the US competing.

[LDNMagic90]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

I've been around for many years on this board as have a few others like HIF, magik, Shaazaam and Foye, through the highs and lows. Things seem to be on the upswing again.

It's a World Cup year as well, and that always brings a bump in activity, especially with the US competing.

Ah right, I've lurked around for a while to be fair before making an account on RealGM - It was originally for the Magic. I didn't think the soccer forum was active much so I didn't pay it no mind until I think last summer? But yeah I'm always happy to contribute and discuss as I love football and it's the sport I grew up playing and watching.

[wco81]

Looks like ABC/ESPN is broadcasting more games.

Saturday they showed the Dortmund vs. Bayer Leverkeusen match and next week, it's going to be the Barca game vs. what sounds like a promoted club.

EPL matches at the same time should draw higher ratings but the Dortmund game was on ABC, their main channel, while the EPL games were on USA Network, which doesn't have as broad a reach.

[KG Leonard]

Maybe time for the leadership to understand the coach isn't the problem but the players like those two,Mctomeney(sp?) types don't the have the skill,technical ability? It looked like a parody watching them not having a Thiago/Rodri/Kimmich type coming deep for the ball so Maguire tries to play from deep like he has the ability of City/Liverpool type defenders. Also Jesus Sancho/Rashford has no confidence to get past anyone.

For Den Haag's sake I hope he gets De Jong, several other quality players in the transfer window that fit his ideas.

Yeah, my hope is that by playing McFred it puts that nonsense to bed for everyone in the organisation and provides the impetus for some deals to be finalized.

Am I evil to hope that Man U go into the season relying on Fred and McTominay?

I feel bad for Man utd fans seeing money wasted,great young players ruined but I don't really care if they keep sucking. I grew up AS Roma fan, a normal football team that isnt in G14, Super League level. It is funny seeing Man utd, Barcelona, PSG wasting billions and still not winning a big title in years. It is not evil at all


https://youtu.be/VCMg5OeMM_U

Also I saw live with my father, brothers Manchester United beat my beloved Roma 7-1 in Champions League, saw the angry tears of my idol, hero Totti, hard to forget that day. I experienced the Civil War in Somalia but that CL day felt worse, tougher emotionally. Finally i understood a football game could make players, fans cry so, yeah I will laugh at Fred, Maguire "starring " in Man utd games season after season.

[KG Leonard]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

PL is the only show in town for international fans.

Sure City is dominating PL but for entertainment Liverpool can stil draw at Fulham, City lose to lesser teams. So I'm also glad to see the activity here. I enjoy seeing the local PL fans POV on PL.

For me I like following every PL team but (City), Nottingham, Leeds, Aston Villa,Tottenham, Everton are big classic teams here in Sweden outside the big 4 four of PL era Arsenal-Chelsea-Manchester-Liverpool.

As you can see by me username, I came to Realgm because of Boston Celtics, KG is Kevin Garnett, Leonard= Kawhi Leonard, my fav NBA players. I use to lurk mostly in the soccer forums before.

[Shaazzam]

Yeah, my hope is that by playing McFred it puts that nonsense to bed for everyone in the organisation and provides the impetus for some deals to be finalized.

Am I evil to hope that Man U go into the season relying on Fred and McTominay?

I feel bad for Man utd fans seeing money wasted,great young players ruined but I don't really care if they keep sucking. I grew up AS Roma fan, a normal football team that isnt in G14, Super League level. It is funny seeing Man utd, Barcelona, PSG wasting billions and still not winning a big title in years. It is not evil at all


https://youtu.be/VCMg5OeMM_U

Also I saw live with my father, brothers Manchester United beat my beloved Roma 7-1 in Champions League, saw the angry tears of my idol, hero Totti, hard to forget that day. I experienced the Civil War in Somalia but that CL day felt worse, tougher emotionally. Finally i understood a football game could make players, fans cry so, yeah I will laugh at Fred, Maguire "starring " in Man utd games season after season.

Heh, this video made me smile lol. What a goal by Di Rossi though, holy smokes.

We've never come close to replacing Carrick, even though this game he scored like 2 of what seems like his 6 goals for the club. Dude just ran ****.

Was wild seeing Alan Smith. I remember the 0-0 draw with Liverpool where I think he broke his leg. My mom had a heart attack the night before, and she was transferred from one hospital to another for some reason. After riding over in the ambulance with her, they took her away to do doctor stuff and I had nothing to do but wait. So I flipped on the game in the waiting room. **** game, Smith broke his leg, but at least it took my mind off the possibility of my mom dying for an hour or so.

Good news is she's still kicking, even after surviving cancer a decade later, and we're tearing it up at a cottage this week with my fam.

Moral of the story is... **** Liverpool.

[Cactus Jack]

Looks like ABC/ESPN is broadcasting more games.

Saturday they showed the Dortmund vs. Bayer Leverkeusen match and next week, it's going to be the Barca game vs. what sounds like a promoted club.

EPL matches at the same time should draw higher ratings but the Dortmund game was on ABC, their main channel, while the EPL games were on USA Network, which doesn't have as broad a reach.

NBC did a brilliant job of moving EPL games to stream exclusively on Peacock. So now people with just basic cable won't have access to games. Unless they pay for the added subscription. Brilliant.

[Cactus Jack]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

I've been around for many years on this board as have a few others like HIF, magik, Shaazaam and Foye, through the highs and lows. Things seem to be on the upswing again.

It's a World Cup year as well, and that always brings a bump in activity, especially with the US competing.

Completely forgot about it. It's odd. I wonder how it will affect ratings.

[HIF]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

I've been around for many years on this board as have a few others like HIF, magik, Shaazaam and Foye, through the highs and lows. Things seem to be on the upswing again.

It's a World Cup year as well, and that always brings a bump in activity, especially with the US competing.

Competing being a relative word

[HIF]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

PL is the only show in town for international fans.

Sure City is dominating PL but for entertainment Liverpool can stil draw at Fulham, City lose to lesser teams. So I'm also glad to see the activity here. I enjoy seeing the local PL fans POV on PL.

For me I like following every PL team but (City), Nottingham, Leeds, Aston Villa,Tottenham, Everton are big classic teams here in Sweden outside the big 4 four of PL era Arsenal-Chelsea-Manchester-Liverpool.

As you can see by me username, I came to Realgm because of Boston Celtics, KG is Kevin Garnett, Leonard= Kawhi Leonard, my fav NBA players. I use to lurk mostly in the soccer forums before.

Anyone who puts Nottingham at the top of a positive list goes waaaaay down in my estimation

[KG Leonard]

By the way guys, I'm loving the activity here! It feels like more people are engaged with football this year on here.

I've been around for many years on this board as have a few others like HIF, magik, Shaazaam and Foye, through the highs and lows. Things seem to be on the upswing again.

It's a World Cup year as well, and that always brings a bump in activity, especially with the US competing.

Competing being a relative word

I love listening to Espn FC poddcast, the Americans hosts there, the shows that think US national team will be so good in WC like Pulisic is killing the PL in Chelsea haha it is a bit funny.

Sweden has sucked since Euro 2020, missed the WC in playoffs loss to Poland so World Cup isnt exciting for me plus hard to get excited for the most corrupt FIFA WC ever in Qatar.

[Baphomet]

I love listening to Espn FC poddcast, the Americans hosts there, the shows that think US national team will be so good in WC like Pulisic is killing the PL in Chelsea haha it is a bit funny.

Sweden has sucked since Euro 2020, missed the WC in playoffs loss to Poland so World Cup isnt exciting for me plus hard to get excited for the most corrupt FIFA WC ever in Qatar.

At least Sweden has Kulusevski who looks like he could be a top player soon.

[Cactus Jack]

I love listening to Espn FC poddcast, the Americans hosts there, the shows that think US national team will be so good in WC like Pulisic is killing the PL in Chelsea haha it is a bit funny.

I always think of this rant when the USMNT is talked about lol.

Watch on YouTube

I think after not qualifying for Russia the expectations are likely the lowest they've ever been. At least that's my take. They're just not relevant. The US Women's team is far & away more popular.

[Shaazzam]

OT: Canada is going for the 'chip!

[KG Leonard]

I love listening to Espn FC poddcast, the Americans hosts there, the shows that think US national team will be so good in WC like Pulisic is killing the PL in Chelsea haha it is a bit funny.

Sweden has sucked since Euro 2020, missed the WC in playoffs loss to Poland so World Cup isnt exciting for me plus hard to get excited for the most corrupt FIFA WC ever in Qatar.

At least Sweden has Kulusevski who looks like he could be a top player soon.

Yeah we have Kulu, Alexander Isak who I hope goes to PL from La Liga, they are 22,23 years old.
Bless Conte it was so frustrating watching Kulusevski in Juventus when they were so bad with Pirlo, who never should have been allowed to coach a top team. His playmaking winger playing style was made for PL, Juventus was too slow for him.

[LDNMagic90]

So Gerrard, Lampard, Hasenhuttl, Lage and Rodgers are the managers favourite to lose their jobs.

Gerrard is starting to pull away from the other managers being the favourite to be sacked (totally agree).

I can't see Rodgers being sacked, unless something crazy happens. Maybe he could leave his post but I would not understand why he would?

Everton fans seem to like Lampard so I'm not sure on that front.

Hasenhuttl I could see him leaving to be honest, he was close to last season but stayed on.

Lage possibly I can see him being made a scapegoat if Wolves struggle.

[Baphomet]

So Gerrard, Lampard, Hasenhuttl, Lage and Rodgers are the managers favourite to lose their jobs.

Gerrard is starting to pull away from the other managers being the favourite to be sacked (totally agree).

I can't see Rodgers being sacked, unless something crazy happens. Maybe he could leave his post but I would not understand why he would?

Everton fans seem to like Lampard so I'm not sure on that front.

Hasenhuttl I could see him leaving to be honest, he was close to last season but stayed on.

Lage possibly I can see him being made a scapegoat if Wolves struggle.

So what's the story with Gerrard? Admittedly I've only watched a handful of Villa games since he took over, but I thought there was a lot of excitement about him when he first took over, and the results seemed to reflect that.

[LDNMagic90]

So Gerrard, Lampard, Hasenhuttl, Lage and Rodgers are the managers favourite to lose their jobs.

Gerrard is starting to pull away from the other managers being the favourite to be sacked (totally agree).

I can't see Rodgers being sacked, unless something crazy happens. Maybe he could leave his post but I would not understand why he would?

Everton fans seem to like Lampard so I'm not sure on that front.

Hasenhuttl I could see him leaving to be honest, he was close to last season but stayed on.

Lage possibly I can see him being made a scapegoat if Wolves struggle.

So what's the story with Gerrard? Admittedly I've only watched a handful of Villa games since he took over, but I thought there was a lot of excitement about him when he first took over, and the results seemed to reflect that.

So with Gerrad, everything started off well we played decent football and he seemed to have the team playing good again. Then around March the wheels started to fall off, he stopped using the system that he did when he first arrived. He wouldn't sub Coutinho in games when he hadn't been effective, Buendia has been largely a lot better than him and yet he doesn't feature him as much. We have only won 2 games in 12 going back to last season, he has had the summer he wants with the preseason etc and it looks exactly the same type of football. Against Bournemouth we looked like the promoted side, we were completely toothless. The tactic was to cross the ball in the box nearly 40 times against a team that's one of the tallest when we are one of the shortest teams.

He also made a complete mess over the Mings' captaincy thing, we knew he wanted to change it but we all thought maybe Martinez would get it. Instead it's McGinn who is not the worse choice but he doesn't strike me as captain material. He's now had a dig at Mings in the press now which has added on to the pressure for him. I know he's always done this when he was at Rangers, but you'd think he would scale it back in the Premier League.

It's an interesting time for him, because the media are now also saying he's under pressure too. Another thing is, I don't think he's ever had it hard in football... When he was playing he had the world at his feet and I don't think he ever really had to struggle because Liverpool have always been a top team. I get the sense he is in a slight panic mode.

Another key thing in all of this that has gone under the radar in the media, Villa went from having a Captain that was a Villa fan and a manager that was a fan to a guy who is in love with Liverpool. I don't mind that because I can't expect every manager to be a fan of the team they are coaching, but I think with everything it's kind of sucked the optimism out of Villa fans now and has created a slight disconnect between fans and club.

[HIF]

So Gerrard, Lampard, Hasenhuttl, Lage and Rodgers are the managers favourite to lose their jobs.

Gerrard is starting to pull away from the other managers being the favourite to be sacked (totally agree).

I can't see Rodgers being sacked, unless something crazy happens. Maybe he could leave his post but I would not understand why he would?

Everton fans seem to like Lampard so I'm not sure on that front.

Hasenhuttl I could see him leaving to be honest, he was close to last season but stayed on.

Lage possibly I can see him being made a scapegoat if Wolves struggle.

The PL manager merry go round. It's stupid. It seems that these days more than half of the PL managers get sacked each year and more than ever even before christmas.

The reality is that even though the PL teams get a ridiculous amount of money it is still impossible for most of the teams to even dream of finishing higher than 7th and getting the last European place. We have made the PL into a stronghold for the stupid spenders. However the large amount of money that the lower teams gets has increased the pressure on managers (and to a lesser extent players) because they are "earning" salaries that the fans can only dream about.

The five managers you've listed are in charge of clubs that are really unlikely to make Europe ("Big" 6 and West Ham must be clear favourites) but the fans will not be happy with those teams only competing for a top half finish even though that is the reality.

As for the individuals I've always said that managers should have to work there way through the ranks - as assistants and then lower league managers to learn the job. Gerrard and Lampard haven't yet had the chance to do that, so they are still learning on a daily basis, Hassenhuttl is a manager I have a lot of time for. Yes Southampton drop away badly every season but they also have times when they can beat anyone, they're Southampton, not Chelsea. Southampton would be daft to sack him. Brendan, has his problems but he's a decent coach. A lower prem level team is his level, but he annoys the fans (some of them) because the fans have become spoiled over the recent past and because he is apparently on £10m a year. the type of money that fans think should be earned by miracle workers. I've not wanted him sacked, even through the difficult times of last year and eventually we ended up where we deserved 8th and a European Semi-final but our goals have to be at 6th or 7th to make Europe so I understand why he's on the list. Only using 1 sub when your players are tired as he did in the first match of the season was poor management but you have to take the good with the bad. Lage I don't really know well enough but if wolves fans expect better than last year they are going to be disappointed, a top half finish with any coach is the best they should be thinking off. It's also a new league for Lage and takes time to adapt to, though personally I wouldn't have sacked their previous manager.

As for Leicester I'd only want Brendan to go if we had a better younger coach who wanted to coach us. Only Potter really gets me excited as a replacement.