The Football Thread 2017-18

[DML]

Giggs set to be named Wales manager. Hopefully now all the pundits will shut up about him not getting an opportunity.

What an enormous downgrade.

[Hank Scorpio]

After how well Coleman did with that squad, the Euro’s mainly as they should of qualified from that World Cup group, Giggs has a massive job on his hands. At least this will stop the Class Of 92 mafia harping on about him getting a chance at United.

[PaperMacheMario]

I think that’s an awful appointment, he’s been linked with lower table Prem teams with no success and I think there’s a reason for that. I just don’t think he has what it takes to manage.

On another note, there can’t be many managers whose first job was an international team? Or maybe there have been and I’m being stupid.

[Corazon de Leon]

It's not *technically* Giggs' first job either, he's done caretaker stuff for United.

[PES Fan]

I think that’s an awful appointment, he’s been linked with lower table Prem teams with no success and I think there’s a reason for that. I just don’t think he has what it takes to manage.

On another note, there can’t be many managers whose first job was an international team? Or maybe there have been and I’m being stupid.

Mark Hughes

[shadow202]

Fantastic game [emoji38] City lose their unbeaten run and Liverpool gooseberry fool the bed yet again after taking a seemingly insurmountable lead. It really was the perfect match.

When we were 4-1 I said to my mate I'm still not confident that we are actually going to win this but thankfully we actually seen this one through.

[Saint of Killers]

Fantastic game [emoji38] City lose their unbeaten run and Liverpool gooseberry fool the bed yet again after taking a seemingly insurmountable lead. It really was the perfect match.

When we were 4-1 I said to my mate I'm still not confident that we are actually going to win this but thankfully we actually seen this one through.

I was probably as fretful as yourself But yeah, going by both teams' respective forms this season, the game wasn't over at 4-1, not with the amount of time left anyway.

Can't decide if I like Firmino's or Mane's as best goal of match. Loved Firmino's wee shoulder barge, but Mane's technique to get off such a straight shot was gorgeous also.

[shadow202]

Fantastic game [emoji38] City lose their unbeaten run and Liverpool gooseberry fool the bed yet again after taking a seemingly insurmountable lead. It really was the perfect match.

When we were 4-1 I said to my mate I'm still not confident that we are actually going to win this but thankfully we actually seen this one through.

I was probably as fretful as yourself [emoji38] But yeah, going by both teams' respective forms this season, the game wasn't over at 4-1, not with the amount of time left anyway.

Can't decide if I like Firmino's or Mane's as best goal of match. Loved Firmino's wee shoulder barge, but Mane's technique to get off such a straight shot was gorgeous also.

Yeah our attack is awesome to watch but the further back you go the worse it gets, I was happier for Mane scoring after he has come under a bit of criticism recently.

One thing that did annoy me though was everyone going on about Karius and the saves he should have made etc but Ederson made a stinking mistake for Salah's goal which I haven't heard mentioned very much.

[Saint of Killers]

Telegraph have a article on Lingard. Thought I'd copy and paste the whole thing as it needs (free) registration before you can read the whole thing.

How Jesse Lingard rose through the Manchester United ranks - just as Sir Alex Ferguson predicted

Paul McGuinness has spent the best part of 45 minutes talking about Manchester United’s man of the moment, Jesse Lingard, when the conversation starts to wind up.

“It seems to have gone unnoticed but he’s a really talented player,” United’s former Under-18 coach says. “I have to check myself sometimes and think ‘Am I biased here?’ but isn’t he the best player on the team at the moment? Someone said Ross Barkley is a snip at £15m to Chelsea. Well Jesse Lingard looks quite good value, doesn’t he?”

It is a peculiarity at a club that takes great pride in its youth system that some products of that academy have faced such a battle for acceptance among elements of the fanbase. Tom Cleverley could relate to some of the criticism Lingard has had down the years but those United supporters who seemed to forget the forward was one of their own have lost their voice of late. Jose Mourinho’s talisman has not been Romelu Lukaku or Paul Pogba but a player who, as of Oct. 21, had still to make a league start this season.

Eight goals in his past 10 games and 11 all told have installed Lingard as United’s top scorer behind Lukaku, and while the Belgium striker and other big names have struggled to live up to their billing in recent weeks, it is a kid from Longford in Warrington who has been on the club’s books since he was seven who has been leading the charge. It could be the same again when Stoke City visit Old Trafford on Monday evening.

When Jose Mourinho joined United as manager shortly after Lingard’s stunning volley against Crystal Palace won the FA Cup in 2016, he sent every player a personalised text message. The one to Lingard read: “Fantastic goal in the Cup final, s--- post on the bus to West Ham”, a reference to the video the forward uploaded on social media of United’s players ducking for cover as their coach was attacked by West Ham fans as it made its way to Upton Park before a league match.

There was a time when Lingard’s presence on social media seemed to rile people. Even the former United defender, Rio Ferdinand - tired of seeing Lingard and close friend, Pogba, publicly perfecting their dab, dance or handshake routines - urged them to focus on getting the team back up the table. It overlooked the pair’s naturally playful humour but, either way, it is no longer a talking point. Lingard has flourished under Mourinho. A move centrally has been particularly liberating and virtuoso performances against Watford, Arsenal, Burnley and Everton among others are shifting opinions.

Sir Alex Ferguson said Lingard would be 23 before he was playing regular first team football at United and the former manager was not mistaken. His United debut in Aug. 2014 was curtailed by injury and it was October of the following year, a couple of months shy of his 23rd birthday, before Lingard played for the first team again. He was 25 last month but it is easy to forget that last term under Mourinho was his first full season as a United player and his journey to that point was not without its hurdles.

Lingard’s story is a triumph of perseverance. He was a late developer, in part because he was so much smaller than his peers growing up. “He was tiny,” McGuinness recalls. “I don’t think Jesse would have got a chance like he did at 99 per cent of clubs but the way we played suited him. We put skill first – combination skills, dribbling skills. Although he looked three years younger than some of the others, mentally he was at the top – one of the funniest, sharpest. Being small in some respects is an advantage because you are forced to think quicker. You have to be more aware.”



Lingard’s father, Roy, was lesser spotted in those earlier years although he is around now. Kirsty, Lingard’s mum, was always supportive of her son but it was Ken, his grandfather, who was a rock in his life. He would constantly ferry the young Lingard to and from training and games, making countless journeys up and down the M62, often with his little dog in tow.

Lingard attended what is now Beamont Collegiate Academy in the tough Warrington neighbourhood of Orford between 11 and 13 before moving to the Ashton-on-Mersey school, where United like to send their youngsters. Lingard now has a younger brother, Jasper, at Beamont and turns up on occasion to watch his sibling play in school matches.

“He gets mobbed on the sidelines as you can imagine!” said Mike McLoughlin, a progress leader at Beamont who was one of Lingard’s PE teachers. “He’s a character but there’s no edge to him. A lot of the lads at the time are still his friends now.” Craig Milburn, assistant principal at Beamont, who ran Lingard’s school football team remembers a grounded, unassuming boy who was a natural athlete and “scary to watch” at football.

Still, Ken feared at one point his grandson might not make the grade at United because of his size but the club kept faith. “You saw Jesse passing all these tests,” said McGuinness, who now works for the Football Association. “He’d get knocked down and kept get backing up again. He’s had a lot of stick and he’s always come back from it.”

One story from the first leg of United’s FA Youth Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in 2011, a competition Lingard and Pogba went on to win, is indicative of his attitude. “About five minutes into the game, Jesse’s gone down,” McGuinness explained. “So the physio sees to him and then come’s over to us. ‘What’s the matter with him?’ ‘He’s so nervous he’s been sick on the pitch,’ the physio said. But the fact is he got up and ended up scoring and playing great in that game.”

Lingard had loan spells at Leicester, Birmingham, Brighton and Derby. The first at Leicester was an eye-opener. He would turn up for training in tracksuit bottoms, a hat and scarf, items banned by United until you had made the first team, and the reports back from Leicester to United were of a player “who doesn’t look like one of yours”. There was certainly a marked change when he pitched up at Birmingham next and scored four goals on his debut.

It is probably symptomatic of how Lingard has flown under the radar that his Cup final goal against Palace ended up being overshadowed by Louis van Gaal’s sacking as manager. But McGuinness had seen him score that type of first time volley plenty of times in training. “I watched that and thought, ‘Yeah, that’s from ‘the cage’, where we played mixed age groups in a fenced area and he had to score with a first time touch’,” he said. “It was fantastic for developing instinctive skills.”

“Jesse’s had years and years of ‘he’s too small, he’s too small’ and then questions about whether he’s good enough,” McGuinness adds. “Imagine how he feels now?’ I bet he’s thinking, ‘I’m not too small now, am I?’”

[Saint of Killers]

Fantastic game [emoji38] City lose their unbeaten run and Liverpool gooseberry fool the bed yet again after taking a seemingly insurmountable lead. It really was the perfect match.

When we were 4-1 I said to my mate I'm still not confident that we are actually going to win this but thankfully we actually seen this one through.

I was probably as fretful as yourself [emoji38] But yeah, going by both teams' respective forms this season, the game wasn't over at 4-1, not with the amount of time left anyway.

Can't decide if I like Firmino's or Mane's as best goal of match. Loved Firmino's wee shoulder barge, but Mane's technique to get off such a straight shot was gorgeous also.

Yeah our attack is awesome to watch but the further back you go the worse it gets, I was happier for Mane scoring after he has come under a bit of criticism recently.

One thing that did annoy me though was everyone going on about Karius and the saves he should have made etc but Ederson made a stinking mistake for Salah's goal which I haven't heard mentioned very much.

Mane was out for a quite a while yeah? Surprised to hear he's getting stick given that.

Lack of criticism for Ederson may be because it's his first mistake and that it came at a time when the whole City team were under stacks of pressure and playing bad passes. I think pundits will start pointing it out if it becomes a regular thing.

[Rex Kramer]

I think that’s an awful appointment, he’s been linked with lower table Prem teams with no success and I think there’s a reason for that. I just don’t think he has what it takes to manage.

On another note, there can’t be many managers whose first job was an international team? Or maybe there have been and I’m being stupid.

I'd like to know why every single journalist wheels out the 'learned the trade under Alex Ferguson' bit but then no-one then points out that there have been very few successful managers that have emerged from those United teams.

[Winckle]

Still buzzing after that game last night

[Saint of Killers]

I bet if Giggs makes a half decent go of it with Wales he will ditch them as soon as a PL club come sniffing. Guy is desperate. I just do not get why he isn't willing to start managing lower down in the leagues.

[Saint of Killers]

Cyrille Regis dead at 59

Cyrille Regis, former West Brom and England striker, dies aged 59

• Regis was a pioneer for black footballers in the late 1970s
• The striker was capped five times for England

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... es-aged-59

[Photek]

Fantastic game [emoji38] City lose their unbeaten run and Liverpool gooseberry fool the bed yet again after taking a seemingly insurmountable lead. It really was the perfect match.

When we were 4-1 I said to my mate I'm still not confident that we are actually going to win this but thankfully we actually seen this one through.

I was probably as fretful as yourself [emoji38] But yeah, going by both teams' respective forms this season, the game wasn't over at 4-1, not with the amount of time left anyway.

Can't decide if I like Firmino's or Mane's as best goal of match. Loved Firmino's wee shoulder barge, but Mane's technique to get off such a straight shot was gorgeous also.

Yeah our attack is awesome to watch but the further back you go the worse it gets, I was happier for Mane scoring after he has come under a bit of criticism recently.

One thing that did annoy me though was everyone going on about Karius and the saves he should have made etc but Ederson made a stinking mistake for Salah's goal which I haven't heard mentioned very much.

Mane was out for a quite a while yeah? Surprised to hear he's getting stick given that.

Lack of criticism for Ederson may be because it's his first mistake and that it came at a time when the whole City team were under stacks of pressure and playing bad passes. I think pundits will start pointing it out if it becomes a regular thing.

Mane was out for 3 games cos of the red card he just wasn't getting in the team as his form had a dip when he came back. He wasted a huge opportunity against everton with 2 players to his right for a tap in and he hit it wide. He was back at it yesterday though, a great goal, tracked back and pressed well. I think Firmino's goal was the best, to hold off john stones then chip the keeper was sublime but Salah's first touch to kill the ball dead before chipping it was also ridiculous. Wijnaldum and Robertson for MOTM I reckon. I'd give it to Robertson though for having Sterling in his pocket and then closing down half of the City team on his own.

[bear]

Chamberlain's goal was the best because it got the entire stadium hopping early on and that carried on for the rest of the match.

First time in ages that I've been to a match and the away fans simply didn't have a chance to bust out "is this a library" which speaks volumes for how good the atmosphere was yesterday.

[Saint of Killers]

That's a good point about the early goal.

[Glowy69]

Lamberts gone to stoke.

Nick. The football league thread will be your new home

[Winckle]

Chamberlain's goal was the best because it got the entire stadium hopping early on and that carried on for the rest of the match.

First time in ages that I've been to a match and the away fans simply didn't have a chance to bust out "is this a library" which speaks volumes for how good the atmosphere was yesterday.

The city away fans were also the quietest I've heard at Anfield this season as well.

[Blue Eyes]

Appointing Lambert seems a very strange decision, but I guess nobody else wanted it.