heck post some MLS takes if you're feeling frisky

And did anyone win a move to some much bigger club with their Euro performance?

i liked PSVs chances to get into the CL group stage with both of them, but Dumfries is a man of his time so a payday beckons

Atalanta probably gonna get cleaned out too, but they're gonna make a ton of cash. They want to keep Pessina, but Gosens, Romero, and Maehle all impressed this summer and could be on the move.

Other Denmark players like Damsgaard and Stryger Larson probably ironed out their pockets as well.

Love to see it:

https://twitter.com/nffc/status/1415057682680188930?s=21

Reports are that his new 5 year deal with Barça comes with a 50% pay cut!
Goddamn he loves this club.

But, if reports are to be believed, he could have gone to PSG, who, based on their summer signings, might be the UCL favorites and not taken a 50% pay cut.
I'm, obviously thrilled that he's staying, and that he's sacrificing so much for the club.

Ultimately though, you're right. It ain't like he's gonna take my salary lol

I suspect it was back to Pep if he actually left (though maybe Neymar coulda talked him into PSG. Ironic, then, that Neymar would leave to make his own name then beg messi to get over the hump if that had happened)

regardless, this is glorious news.

though I don't know how i feel about the saul-griezz swap rumors. even with some money going from atleti to barca, saul is basically 5th midfielder for atletico now with de paul added and while he'd be a nice workhorse addition for barca, feels too much like giving atletico luisito and then being shocked when it helps them.

-----------
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

just another Pjanic situation.

Unless we finally plan on sitting Busquets, he's not gonna play ahead of Frenkie or Pedri and could stunt Illaix's growth. Not to mention we still don't have the Riqui Puig case figured out.

We should be getting Coutinho and Dembele off the books and then... I don't even know. I guess we've got Memphis and Aguero as strikers, Eric Garcia as CB cover. Still need a LB.

Man, I have no idea what this squad is gonna look like on the field.

>just another Pjanic situation.

Not quite as bad as that. I see him playing the Seydou Keita supersub role that they kinda had Ilaix playing but Ilaix wasn't ready for it. And then Ilaix and Riqui both should get occasional starts and regular copa plays and be subbed off. And Busquets should definitely get more regular rest.

>We should be getting Coutinho and Dembele off the books and
>then... I don't even know. I guess we've got Memphis and
>Aguero as strikers, Eric Garcia as CB cover. Still need a LB.

I'm scared Couts isn't going anywhere. And if Greiz goes, I think Dembele stays. I don't think they get rid of both attackers.

I think they're planning to use Dest as LB cover so that Alba/Dest/Emerson rotate the LB and RB spots and then Balde might get spot moments with the idea that he's gonna replace alba in a year or two. I don't think they're signing a LB because Emerson and Dest both deserve playing time. and to save money. but it does mean LB/RB are thin. Wish they had a barca b player on the cusp right now for those slots. balde's a talent but too young.


>Man, I have no idea what this squad is gonna look like on the
>field.

it's almost fun to think about except i don't have enough faith in koeman to figure it out.

-----------
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

I, for one, am hoping Griezmann stays. I don't know how much Aguero has left in the tank or how good Memphis will be for us. Dembele is out 4 months and we already know that Coutinho doesn't work in our system. Fati is still rehabbing, Trincao gone. So to give away an attacking player who contributes as much as Antoine does... Can we not?

We should just lean into seeing the turnover that should have been for next year coming this year. the only question is if koeman will embrace the youth movement and if Laporta can force his hand by getting rid of some unnecessary vets.

Accepting that Riqui Puig is just buried in Koeman's doghouse, it's still easy to see the "next gen" of barca take over this year

to me:
attack: ansu/memphis/griez with braithwaite, aguero, and dembele for depth/rotation. and collado sticking around because he's la masia through and through

mid: Fdj/busi/pedri with roberto, demir, and..sigh...coutinho and pjanic along with Puig

CB: Pique/Araujo with Minqueza and Garcia as primary backups and Lenglet and Umtiti as just excess on excess.

wingbacks: Alba/Dest with Emerson equal playing time (and Dest can play LB) until Balde gets time at LB. and minqueza if necessary

that's not a bad squad--comfortably in the UCL spots and depending on if atletico looks any weaker than last year, could compete for la liga. it'd be a lot better with messi, but if having messi get replaced with someone who brings more defensive effort and the squad stops just assuming it's better than its competition, the drop off might not be as bad. but, honestly, it's youth movement time. it's been youth movement time, but now the squad has the youth talent in bulk.

-----------
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

Flamengo are playing some club from Argentina called Defensa y Justicia, might be one of the greatest club names I’ve come across

my only rooting interest, Atletico Nacional, flamed out hard

Flamengo looked really fuckin good in what i watched

it's a weird fit since clearly he and Zlatan can't be on the pitch at the same time, but he must figure he'll get just enough exposure that he'll stay in Deschamps' good graces. He had several offers to come back to Ligue 1 but that must have felt like a steep drop-off after the EPL, not to mention his salary demands would never have been met

love this. go drop a bag on a CDM next. need to get all of our business done by 8/1

Glazers shook. Though y'all always spent.

Still think Sancho isn't the world changer he's being me out to be.

But still a great get+ this one makes a great window

>Still think Sancho isn't the world changer he's being me out
>to be.

hope I'm wrong, the potential is clearly there but he didn't quite put his stamp on proceedings in the games I watched.

>Still think Sancho isn't the world changer he's being me out
>to be.

All the raw talent in the world but will go through extended spells of head scratching nothingness.

And obviously those Bundesliga numbers are inflated. Chelsea's resident Germans have said multiple times how surprised they were by the speed and size of PL defenders and their numbers last season speak to that.

He'll probably be fine but I'm not sure "fine" is enough to justify that transfer fee.

https://imgur.com/a/F648RAP

Everton announce a "first team player" is suspended while a police investigation is being conducted. Rumors broke yesterday he was going to get arrested for soliciting underaged girls

damn

I was about to mention the Olympics tournament here. Men's group games are 'tomorrow', the timing for the games out here is definitely hard to catch. The Women's side tends to feel like it has a bit more weight within their international scene.

Sweden definitely seems to have USA's number, at least it's not a knockout game like the last Olympics when they knocked them out, the 3 goals is def a more impressive performance from the Swedish side though. Maybe those USWNT warm up games really weren't a challenge enough, it's still hard to see that team not finding their groove.

I'm hoping Canada can go further than Bronze this time but who knows. Sinclair got another goal in a draw with the hosts. I forgot about Great Britain going all together, didn't realize how it would look, it's funny to see Caroline Weir and some others playing with the English players instead of Scotland internationally.

PSV waiting to cash a $50M check, and still pretty much punched their ticket for the next round of CL qualification

idk if any of yall watch these early qualifiers but its kinda fun watching these teams play with this kind of intensity in July

>idk if any of yall watch these early qualifiers but its kinda
>fun watching these teams play with this kind of intensity in
>July

for me mid-late July is strictly for pointless exhibition games like Augsburg-PSG so I can half-bake some opinions about like Xavi Simons and <insert 17 year old academy kid>

Thought he did a bang-up job as assistant coach. Interested to see where he takes over.

boycotting these 'Pics so not like I got a lot of sports keeping me busy lol

I need to get started on making a transfer and then undoing it and then redoing it 12 times before the season starts.

go get a CDM. and then take a free hit at a 4th player.

Ole got United as a whole operation looking competent again, not just the on-field portion. transfers moving much better. youth teams producing.

UGH. Palace won't be at full strength until next spring....really next season for him to fully recover. But Zaha finally gets to operate on a squad that attacks.

had a decent squad with some young talent but couldn't figure out what to do with it

well, he says they are going to attack. That is what I have been waiting to see with Zaha, Ayew, Benteke and Eze

An attacking four of Watkins, Grealish, Buendìa and Bailey??? Ahead of the back five we’ve got? Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt

i mean, i'm rooting for United, but i just kinda fell in love w/ Ollie Watkins for reasons i have no idea about, and who doesn't love Jack Grealish.

you guys have been getting some pretty high praise/expectations from soccer talking heads...hope that pans out.

I love Jack, don't get me wrong. But for what City have and what they need, a rapid striker who works his balls off in the press and has excellent movement instincts would be a perfect fit in front of Foden/KDB/Bernardo/Mahrez/etc. And he'd be half-to-3/4 the price of Grealish (most likely).

i could see that working out.

no matter what, if Watkins continues tracking as he is currently, Villa gonna have to cash out on him from some buyer whether it's Citeh or someone else.

We have the fifth richest owners in the Premier League right now. And I'm sure Wes Edens wants the same success with Villa that he just saw with the Bucks.

For Watkins, if he has another season like the last one, I don't doubt he takes DCL's spot on the World Cup squad (and if Grealish stays and continues to feed him, he's going to be undeniable for Southgate). So then it's just a question of how the team progresses and what sort of silverware we can compete for.

35/40mil transfer fee, seems like great business for that versatile and young of a defender. Apparently final details depend on whether Zouma goes the other way. He'd nailed down a spot under Lampard but Tuchel clearly favors Rudiger

I see a few teams were auto-entered.

If not => https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/fp1wke

Is there anyone on this men's team worth tuning in for?

USWNT got through to the semis by the skin of their teeth.

I love rooting for them but they've been so dominant for so long and so mediocre right now that I secretly kind of want to see someone else succeed.

so I'm not that happy about that crappy group stage the USWNT put up to get that draw, and now my Canadians have to face you in the semis. :(

Those were some clutch pens though, and I still like you're players, just can't root for the team!

I only got to see the added time for that USA/NED game since it was the last broadcast, this morning. Canada went to pens to, would've been tense to watch. Sweden still looks solid but the Japan team unfortunately wasn't at the level they probably hoped for this home tournament. Australia getting that Great Britain squad in extra time is a cool story, a lot of them play in England clubs now so they knew who they were going up against.

Hopefully Canada can get revenge for Olympics 2012 in the semis and then revenge again against Sweden for the last World Cup.

Man City have lodged a 100 million GBP bid for Grealish. Villa have an increased contract ready for him. Jack gets back from post-Euros holiday this weekend. Soooooooooo we shall seeeeeee.

Also, Villa severely lowballed Southampton for JWP. 25 mill is not gonna get it done.

Our attack is going to be deadly no matter what.

won Nations League, and then won Gold Cup w/ the 2nd and 3rd string. the future is looking good.

we need to see the a-team coast into the world cup.

and i know this is next to impossible for a us team, but i would love to see them play something that resembles aesthetically pleasing football. at least in patches. i know this has been impossible because concacaf, but this is a new generation. a generation being cultivated in europe. would love to see that extra quality and swag in qualifying.

USWNT has had a generation that may never be equaled, but it's time to start looking at the next one.

At no point in this tournament did they look dominant.

that went beyond the winning

but yeah, it was definitely a struggle throughout and some key pieces looked out of wack

lots of young talent coming up though, should be interesting to see this next group take over

their women’s national teams ( except Brazil...smh), and are producing talent that
is just as prolific as the USWNT.

US women used to only have to worry about Germany and Sweden, but now
Japan, France, Australia, and Canada have quality teams that will
be competitive in every match.

The days of facing women who also work part time blue collar jobs
are over. We will see what they are truly made of in the coming years.

Man, I didn't realize how invested I was in Canada really winning. Fleming has always been one of my favourite players so seeing her step up and bury that pen still gives me chills in replays.

Hopefully my revenge angle keeps working and they have an answer for Sweden. And I love that this gold medal match isn't at 4 am for me.

It's hard to imagine the USWNT not bouncing back from this strong, they've always followed a disappointing major tournament with a few strong ones. But hopefully the competition is readier, I really like that Dutch squad and the progress they've been making since 2015 and hope they can keep it with the coach Sarina moving on.

https://twitter.com/fabrizioromano/status/1423036231622004737?s=21

Magilla is crying.

All those jack grealish kits he got off eBay for 19.99 can now be
used as car wax rags.

LOL

Though I did think that if he was going to leave it would be for Madrid or Turin.

Hundred mill will do us well. Ah well, Tyrone Mings will just have to be the next Villa captain to lift a trophy, and Jack will be the 7th or 8th guy to touch City’s next trophy. Oh well oh well.

Literally did not see that coming. Nice!

Especially for any club that's not Utd or City or Chelsea and actually tries to keep decent books.

Compared to 100 mill for Grealish and 73 for Sancho.

you can fill 3-5 spots with young-to-prime age talent with 100M in this market

amazing how big of a clusterfuck this club has been

Had all fucking transfer window to fix this and didnt offload a goddam single player of note.


Except messi.



Fuck

--
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

this is to pressure Tebas to fix the dumbass regulations that are screwing this up for barca and the league (let everyone have a year off from the cap because of COVID fucking up the numbers the cap is based on). Because the statement is so strangely short and no one has said anything publicly.

La Liga itself is worth a lot less without Messi and La Liga has lost most of its biggest stars over the past 5 years (Neymar, Ronaldo, now messi too?!?). It's a fucking scary form of brinksmanship. Laporta has an 11 am press conference tmrw.

jfc.

-----------
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

sheesh.

Or done something. This is just so fucking pathetic.

-----------
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

sucks for me. was rooting for him and Villa on the low.

but now that he's at Citeh? nah bruv.

https://twitter.com/mancity/status/1423375213115416577?s=21

and i hope City chokes.

Want one of those.

USWNT won the Bronze Medal match at least, Australia made them work for it though, the Aussie's actually lost 4-3 to Sweden in the semis too. Rapinoe and Lloyd getting two goals each was a nice FU to the haters (apparently they have haters politically I guess).

That Gold medal game was tense, I feel bad for Sweden, they'll probably rue not getting more goals in the first half when they really held the run of play and it felt like they should have. I was not feeling that confident. The pens were really tense and had a bit of everything, some nerves crept through in some players that looked better in penalties against Brazil, but my fave Jessie Fleming never missed! Feels good.

>(apparently they have haters politically I guess).


And yes, right wingers are OBSESSED with the women's team and especially with openly queer and/or outspoken people like Rapinoe.

She and Trump had twitter beef a while back and she's one of the few people I think who beat him.

Canadian coverage is pretty 'decent' for Olympics and they made a good point of saying this was good for Concacaf as a region with us having both the World Cup and the Olympics and not just the US in the face of EU development. It's a ways off and the World Cup is in the way in an unusual slot, but the Women's Euros next Summer should hopefully be a good tournament, 2017 was a good watch and the rise of the Dutch.

I vaguely recall all the political stuff, it just felt like it was so far in the past, odd seeing it still pop up but makes sense, apparently Trump even said something about it somehow now, however he gets to make statements without social media lol

Especially after they lost to Canada.

They are beyond obsessed.

https://twitter.com/David_Ornstein/status/1424021182022623236?s=20

now barca plans to sell ilaix because his father is demanding too high wages and his (idiot) agent isn't even giving counter-offers back to barca.

ilaix wants to stay, supposedly. what a waste.

not a huge issue with how good Gavi looks, to be blunt, but still what a cluster of a debacle of a summer.

-----------
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

https://twitter.com/barcacentre/status/1423927690072035334?s=20

Messi didn't leave, he was punted.

-----------
you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

but they are running out of spots for all of their players unless the plan is consistent rotation

if jorginho is a regular all season long, that leaves Mount/Pulisic/Lukaku/Havertz/Werner/Ziyech vying for 3 spots. assuming Mount and Jorginho both start, and since Lukaku cost a buttload of cash, it really comes down to 4 guys for 1 spot

i think you'll have a couple players submitting transfer requests this winter.

a shift to a back four makes sense as the extra attacking player on the filed will help. just not sure tuchel wants to give up the current defensive stability.

but i do think we see either havertz or timo playing next to/off of Lukaku.

and he was going to be part of Chelsea’s makeover from the
old guard to the new guard. But AVB got sacked, and Lukaku got put
on the back burner as a very young player. He was basically forgotten
about, and when Mourinho took over it was a wrap..

He was sent on loan to Everton where he turned into a stud,
so Everton wanted to buy him straight up, and since he was
surplus, Chelsea sold him. With Diego Costa as the main
striker at Chelsea, Lukaku wouldn’t have seen the light of day.
However, Chelsea didn’t anticipate that Conte wouldn’t
want Lukaku anymore a few years later.

Lukaku is in his prime and is arguably the best striker in the world,
and he played in a 3-4-3 system in Italy. Tuchel implements the
same system, so he will be in a formation that he is comfortable
with.

Werner - Lukaku - Ziyech

Mount - Jorginho- Kante - Havertz

Rudiger - Silva - James

( Pulisic and Ziyech can alternate as starters, but Pulisic is just too fragile of player
to get the start)

Tuchel will have a lineup issue on his hand with so many talented
players at his disposal. It will be tough.

Chillwel, Odi, Pulisic, Loftus Cheeks, Kovacic, AZP, Christensen, Alonso,
Emerson.

Hell, some of those players will miss out on being subs as well.

>
>Lukaku is in his prime and is arguably the best striker in the
>world,
>and he played in a 3-4-3 system in Italy. Tuchel implements
>the
>same system, so he will be in a formation that he is
>comfortable
>with.

this is not true. Inter played a 352 with 2 traditional strikers.

Lautaro - Lukaku

Perisic - Brozovic - Eriksen - Barella - Hakimi

Bastoni - De Vrij - Skriniar

there were no wingers in Inter's setup, and all the width came from just 2 players.

>Werner - Lukaku - Ziyech
>
>Mount - Jorginho- Kante - Havertz
>
>Rudiger - Silva - James
>
>( Pulisic and Ziyech can alternate as starters, but Pulisic is
>just too fragile of player
>to get the start)

Havertz is a wingback now? that seems... far-fetched. Mount could do it i guess because hes a try-hard, but this seems ill conceived.

wingback before.

Mount and Odoi we’re deployed as wingback several times last season .
And Pulisic and Odoi just started at wingback vs Arsenal, leading to a 2-1 win

Did you watch Chelsea at all season?

Tuchel experimented with everything, and all wingers and
Fullbacks can play wingback. Wingback is just a hybrid of
those two positions. Alonso is shit defensively, so he is mostly
deployed as wingback to take advantage of his offensive ability.

Victor Moses was a straight winger, but Conte converted him into
wingback in one season at Chelsea.

Werner(speed and passing) and Lukaku are auto starts up front, leaving
the third front forward position open to either Ziyech or Pulisic.

This is in the 3-4-3 formation, so mount and Havertz will have to be deployed
deeper....Kante is the 6, and Jorginho is the 8. ...so Tuchel will experiment
to get his big weapons on the field.

Havertz playing some wingback, I guarantee you will see with Tuchel.
There will be tons of experimentation by Tuchel.

>Did you watch Chelsea at all season?

i didnt say what Tuchel will or wont do.

i said that playing Havertz at wingback seems like a bad idea.

pitch. There are lot of weapons on this squad, so finding the perfect
staring lineup is going to be challenging.

https://twitter.com/david_ornstein/status/1424441876858429444?s=21

Yeah I’m uhh, not a fan of this move, unless they parlay the cash into an attacking mid

I really can’t even see top 6 this year, unless a big surprise comes thru. Auba looking washed

CL or bust I guess