Topic: The Push Square Football (Soccer) Thread

Surprised by people saying the cup was close to be honest. I thought City played in second gear and Sterling should have buried Liverpool really. I guess the fact it went to pens means that it was close, though.

I didn't think it was a great game to be honest, and losing on pens is always cruel.

Arsenal lack that killer instinct. Plus they do not have a good enough striker its always been a shame that the manager seemed to dislike spending money on established players he nearly always went for youth. If he had bought that 50-70 million pound striker it could have been a whole different story.

@iDangerMouse_: Your last post jinked spurs. Haha.

I still think Tottenham can win it though.

Leicesters last 3 games of the run in are tough. I reckon they only need 9 points to definitely have champions league footy. Mad.

It would be a truly crazy season if Leicester won the premiere league and Westham qualified for the Champions League.

The league as it is now is how it'll finish, we'll give Van blah an entire season to prove he's w*nk, we'll end up with Mourinho and have more boring football. Mata probably heard he was arriving and decided to sabotage champions league qualification. Well done Leicester, Arsenal and City have been pitiful.

Leicester are 11 points clear for a champions league place with only 27 points to play for. Insane. If Leicester can manage a win on Monday against Newcastle they only need another 6 points to secure champions league due to competing teams playing each other below them.

My team Everton put Chelsea out yesterday too, great end to the game. Chelsea looked average, I think Abramovich has to rebuild - that team wont compete next year its not good enough. Hopefully for Everton that's the catalyst to kick on, our squad is great but we are so inconsistent. Coleman looks a shadow of the player 2 years ago, but Baines is back (finally) Lukaku is firing and Barkley has added some end product to his game.

That was an absolute screamer from Lukaku - I'm not a fan of Chelsea at all, so it was good to see them put down like that.

Liverpool's game against United at old Trafford next Thursday is gonna be huge. The reverse fixture was a really good one for us - the best thing is that we denied United the away goal and kept a clean sheet. I don't want to jinx anything, but our defence has improved over the last couple weeks (Sakho especially) and our midfield, especially Can, did a really good job of controlling the tempo. The fact that we only need to score 1 on Thursday for United needing to score 4 is a good feeling, but this match is far from over. United are very hard to beat at Old Trafford.

@Anchorsam_9: You're guaranteed to go through. There's no way we won't let one in.

Agree with you on Chelsea by the way. Would love to have Lukaku at Old Trafford to be honest. I think him and Martial could form an amazing striking partnership.

Lukaku was class yesterday show why we paid 28 million for him. When Stones came on I had a sense of dread even though it was near the end of the game. I would be happy for him to go in the summer we are a better side without him. Use the money to build up the squad in other areas. Funo is a great player but we will need another defender to come in because Jags will not be around forever. We have got some good young defenders but they will need a few more years to mature. Galloway could become a central defender I think he will be more suited to that role. Our youngsters are doing well out on loan. Our side will only get stronger over the next few years. Glad Robles has kept his place in the side he deserves it.

Glad to see Benitez back in the Premiere League I like him as a person and manager. I think he can turn Newcastle around.

Yeah, I don't often watch United anymore. The stats tell you why. It's like watching water evaporate while an invisible gremlin slowly eats and scratches a nesting burrow in my stomach. Moyes was a plank and Van Gaal is a clown. My choice for next year would be Hughes but that won't happen.

Moyes problem at United was that he never got the full support of the Board with the funds needed to rebuild the team. Giggs being there also did not help you can tell he is just waiting ithere to take the managers job from the person he is meant to be assisting. United knew what they were getting with Van Gaal he has had the same style of play with his previous teams.

In my opinion Moyes inherited an ageing team that was already on the way down - cracks had certainly appeared in Ferguson's last season. It was no secret that he needed a big overhaul of the squad to maintain the success that Ferguson had delivered and was always going to struggle trying to follow him. I think 99.9% of managers would have struggled trying to follow that 'era' with the team they inherited.

Hindsight also plays a part in peoples minds. Seeing how certain players that have left and their success, compared to the performances of those that stayed. Van Gaal isn't Ferguson and has his own ideas and way of playing. It may not be the Utd way - certainly not the way Ferguson expects, but it is his way. Its not much different from his other teams. He was brought in because of his 'stats' as a manager, not because of the way he plays. I do believe that managers are more suited to certain clubs because of their philosophy and style of play. This style of play is usually established though during their most successful era and its not easy to have the same 'style' with different players, managers etc and of course the way football has changed over the years.

Don't think you can put all the blame on Van Gaal. Fact is, United currently has way too many average players or not performing to their best and if it wasn't for De Gea they'd probably be mid table or worst.

@WanderingBullet: £300 million? Yeah, he's had it tough.

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi: Let's face it, quality or not, players nowadays are just overpriced. Sure he hasn't bought well, but at the end of the day players still gotta perform when they hit the pitch.

Rooney was terrible during the first half of the season and he's the a captain for both club and country getting paid 200k a week.

@WanderingBullet: if you probably ask any fan of arsenal, city or Chelsea would they have wanted any of the players we signed they'd probably have said no before and after, martial is promising but so was welbeck and hernandez, persie was slipping and Wayne is slipping too, playing well for a third of a season isn't good enough

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi: I don't agree with that, I think they would prefer Martial over players like Welbeck or Bony. With Martial, you just gotta give him more time. Don't forget players like De Gea, Ronaldo, Vidic or Evra didn't start well either. Chicarito is tough one, I felt he didn't get a fair chance, every time he didn't score he would get benched during the next game whereas Rooney always starts regardless.

Whatever happens next season, they definitely need to offload players like Fellaini, Carrick, Valencia and probably Rooney as well just to name a few. Schneiderlin has been average whereas Depay has been really disappointing but I'm hoping they can turn the corner next season. It's a shame Shaw got that terrible injury, I've been impressed with his performance earlier in the season.

A lot of the "disappointment" focus seems to be on Man Utd/Chelsea/Newcastle, but no one seems to have noticed how poorly Crystal Palace are doing now. This image shows a lot:

They've gone 12 games without a win, losing 8 in their last 10, and the last time they won was in December. Obviously it's a bit of an overreaction to say they'll be relegated, but they're 3 places off of the drop zone and in awful form. Could they go down?

Palace are not scoring goals so they are potentially in trouble right now. Once you get that losing mentality its hard to shake it. You have got to think Newcastle will start picking up some more points as well. For me it will be Villa, Norwich and one other probably Sunderland