The on topic thread

[Magma]

but he was bald #fraud

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Lebron is great but he aint no Tom Brady thats for sure

 

[Art Vandelay_]

wash your mouth out with soap

**** that, let's just kill him instead.
About time capital punishment returns.

 

[jd2010]

Cruyff14

 

[Cruyff14]

Haha, moderate yourself first before calling me out.

Er, OK.

 

[FAITH]

He never sits down, he is even rarely flat footed during a game. He is not like Klopp who is a proper idiot, Klopp will be sitting down and then a goal goes in and he jumps up off his chair and starts losing it. I watched Conte in charge of Italy at the Euros in France. I am happy Chelsea have found a nice coach as I like the stadium and the area around Stamford Bridge, they deserve some success again.

youd be a perfect fit as a cfc supporter imo

 

[FAITH]

anyone watch the 2 a-league games last nit, top quality. better than many bpl games ive seen this season.

 

[Zidane98]

anyone watch the 2 a-league games last nit, top quality. better than many bpl games ive seen this season.

I did particularly enjoy the 2-0 win to MVFC

 

[FAITH]

I did particularly enjoy the 2-0 win to MVFC

you guys are lucky we have incompetent owners

 

[Latro]

 

[FAITH]

 

[Fryer Tuck]

Do recommend seeing the lastest ep of the grand tour for Hammond and mays lack of knowledge about Chelsea

For any Chelsea fan:


Got all the big names too. Lolled when Clarkson subtitled Gary Cahill.

Clarkson is a genuine Chelsea fan, so there you go!

 

[chef]

For any Chelsea fan:


Got all the big names too. Lolled when Clarkson subtitled Gary Cahill.

Clarkson is a genuine Chelsea fan, so there you go!

Haha, loved the subtitles

Clarkson is a lifelong Chelsea supporter.

 

[FAITH]

had a friendly chat yesterday with someone about what would you rather have:
1) a top manager (like SAF at his best) & good players but no one world class; or
2) average manager (lets say Pep) & Messi (with a few pretty good players around him)

so essentially top manager and good players or average manager and great player/s.

 

[Magma]

the one who wins.

 

[Fryer Tuck]

Well, the big day coming this Wednesday (for us)... and a possible merger of the Americas... well, good bye US and Mexican football... hello virtually all of South America (even the US and Mexico seem to struggle from time to time, and against the rest of South America, it's likely we're going to go from 32 teams with the US and Mexico, to 48 without them... I'm actually going to laugh if this happens for 2026, because it will have backfired in their face massively. I don't think even China would make a 48 team World Cup.

 

[Fryer Tuck]

had a friendly chat yesterday with someone about what would you rather have:
1) a top manager (like SAF at his best) & good players but no one world class; or
2) average manager (lets say Pep) & Messi (with a few pretty good players around him)

so essentially top manager and good players or average manager and great player/s.

As a Leicester fan, I am very obliged to say that first one. Because the later won't be happening any time soon!

Then again, if you have the 2nd... it's probably won't be long until you get a WC manager anyway.

 

[Latro]

Well, the big day coming this Wednesday (for us)... and a possible merger of the Americas... well, good bye US and Mexican football... hello virtually all of South America (even the US and Mexico seem to struggle from time to time, and against the rest of South America, it's likely we're going to go from 32 teams with the US and Mexico, to 48 without them... I'm actually going to laugh if this happens for 2026, because it will have backfired in their face massively. I don't think even China would make a 48 team World Cup.

No way FIFA structures qualifying that makes it hard for the USA to qualify.

 

[jd2010]

had a friendly chat yesterday with someone about what would you rather have:
1) a top manager (like SAF at his best) & good players but no one world class; or
2) average manager (lets say Pep) & Messi (with a few pretty good players around him)

so essentially top manager and good players or average manager and great player/s.

#1

Likely to win more often.

#2 is basically Pellegrini. Won at city because his team were so much better than everyone else. But couldn't sustain it because he wasn't that good

 

[Zidane98]

Better off having a great manager than a few great players. No bether example of this than SAF and to a lesser extent Klopp at Dortmund (and hopefully LFC!!!)

 

[FAITH]

My neighbour said he'd rather barca team with any manager. Pep, Enrique, Tito all average managers yet barca is dominant.

 

[Fryer Tuck]

No way FIFA structures qualifying that makes it hard for the USA to qualify.

Well, unfortunately for FIFA, they've shot themselves in the foot with this. I mean, with CONCACAF, they had a system that was just perfect. Top 6 goes to the 4th round, and then just needing to finish top 2, and again top 3 with a playoff opportunity in the should they finish 4th. Everything in CONCACAF was designed to ensure that the US and Mexico always made. For them to fail, they would need to do a Canada (and despite how easy Canada gets it, they still manage to fail.)

So, let's take this new format, now 45 teams strong. How to orginise seedings? Natrually we want to eliminate as many of those annoying island nations as much as possible.

How many qualifying places? Hmm, let's see, NA had 3.5, SA had 4.5, so that's at least 8, oh, but they've increased it to 48 teams... let's go with 12 teams from the Americas.

Now with 12 places, they surely can't do the hexagon of the North, they'll need to do multiple groups... but the question is... how many teams will be in the final round, and how many groups?

I'm predicting 20 teams (Because like we need any more of the Caribbean butt-munches to dilute the pools. Also, 10 from NA, and 10 from SA! Even stevens!) in 5 groups of 4, top 2 qualify, and then we'll have a play off of between the 4 best 3rd placers for the final two spots.

Let’s go one step further and pretend we’re going to apply it to 2018. Let’s assume the 10 best NA teams on rankings make it.

Costa Rica, Mexico, USA, Panama, Haiti, Honduras… Curacao?! (What the hell?) Jamaica, T&T, and Guatemala… hmm, I don’t see any Maple ‘Leafs’ here, so nothing has changed there.

Now, based on the combined rankings, let’s seed them Based on Rank currently:


1 Argentina
2 Brazil
4 Chile
6 Colombia
9 Uruguay

17 Costa Rica
18 Mexico
19 Peru
20 Ecuador
28 USA

40 Paraguay
58 Panama
59 Venezuela
73 Haiti
75 Honduras

76 Curaçao
77 Jamaica
78 Trinidad and Tobago
79 Guatemala
95 Bolivia


Now remembering that the likes of the other South American nations will likely fare better (including Bolivia), the USA’s only hope is if they get lucky enough to draw two other NA sides.

Let’s not forget that if they land in the 3rd Group of Seedings, it’s going to be even more difficult to proceed. Switch Paraguay and the US around, and it’s a lot more difficult. Let’s not forget that it’s also very likely to be the reality, because the weaker SA nations now have island and CA nations to thrash about, and they will go up vs the likes of the NA nations. So the US being a 3rd Group nation is very likely, especially without the Gold Cup to bloster them.

The US don’t just have two other rivals, they have 8-10 more of them, and even with the increased number of places, they are a real chance of missing out.


But I do get the idea of the merger, it will make the US team stronger over time playing stronger opponents... though at the same time, the Yanks don't like to back a loser, and well, they won't be winning for a while yet, so it could really hurt them.

 

[jd2010]

I like the idea of the merged Americas qualifying. Both are currently shit. So anything is better than leaving it as is

 

[typeclub]

Depends which league you're talking. If you want the EPL you can make do with just a good manager.

 

[Fryer Tuck]

I like the idea of the merged Americas qualifying. Both are currently shit. So anything is better than leaving it as is

Gasp!

Are you dissing the South American Qualifiers?! It is like THE Ultimate in qualifying. An 18 round robin system that sees opponents play their continental bothers over the four year cycle.

It is the best system you can have for a 10 nation confederation, and these days, with all 10 with a sniff of a chance, the competition is even fiercer!

And you want to give up the Round Robin for likely the NA system, which let's face it, is far more likely to happen.

If you want crap, Africa's calling. Such a poor way of qualifying...