General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

L'prof

I’d agree with previous posters tbh. Ronaldo is one of the greatest to ever play the game but for the most part he did it best elsewhere

He had one phenomenal season in the PL, no question, but for a man who is known best as a goalscorer he’s ranked 33rd in the PL goal scoring charts. Genuinely could never understand his name being mentioned in any of these best of PL lists

Weepsie

Also, Michael Owen won the balloon dor while playing in the league. So does that put him ahead of shearer

noodler

No forward, Salah included, has had a single PL season like Suarez did.

It doesn't get you on lists like this which were weighted by time spent in the league but still.

Quazzie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613648#Comment_121613648

Suarez highest scoring season was 31 goals. Salah scored 32 in a single season and last year Haaland scored 35.

What exactly did Suarez do in a single season that no one else did?

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613674#Comment_121613674

He was nuts that year alright though in all round play, doing some crazy outrageously high level things. Got 17 assists on top of his 31 goals too, so comfortably beats the other two for combined goals/assists.

In an all time PL XI I’d have to have Mo ahead of Suarez even still though, for consistency and longevity rather than burning bright and then leaving. Same with Haaland for now, but if he stays doing what he’s doing for a while longer he’ll be a shoo-in.

pjohnson

I'd have Salah some way ahead of Suarez tbh.

doc_17

Massive game today for Spurs and Utd. Hopefully the defences continue their recent form today!

The Rooster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121612827#Comment_121612827

You couldn’t smash into keepers in the 90s! Maybe you could in the 70s. The ‘goalkeepers are a protected species’ has been going on since at least the mid 80s, and the refeeering of contact with keepers has not changed in any material way since then.

Not enough titles imo for Salah. Same argument could be made against Shearer.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613835#Comment_121613835

Ian wright smashing 2 footed into schmeiceal says otherwise.

You could certainly do a lot more around keepers than you can now.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613845#Comment_121613845

That's an arguments against the teams they played for rather than the players.

Anderson has 3 or 4 premier league titles but he's not ever going to be in the conversation.

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613674#Comment_121613674

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613739#Comment_121613739

Again, it's the season in question, Rebel's post but also the fact it was a very average team that he dragged to the brink of a title.

It's hard to explain the differences. Some of Suarez's contributions were just jaw dropping

K-9

Suarez was something else (in all ways) and there was no way that Rodgers team was even coming close to a title challenge without him, but Salah has done it consistently every season. Even the last couple of seasons when teams have him figured out, he still posts serious numbers of goals and assists.

As for titles, that big asterick is there for City on the 2 seasons Liverpool pushed them right to the end.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613174#Comment_121613174

Sorry, but I listed exactly why his PL achievements make him a great and you respond by saying that what he won outside the league doesn't matter? Is that a politicians answer?

I said nothing about what he did outside the league. I didn't need to, it doesn't need to be the "best players who made appearances in the PL". Everything I said was about what he did inside the league.

And what he did as a PL player outstrips basically all these other names being thrown around. Doesn't matter what happened in Spain, a Ballon d'or, Champions league, a treble, 3 PL titles in a row, those are PL achievements that the other contenders could only dream of. There is no rational reason why he should be ignored in this conversation, and most certainly not because of handwaving that he was better elsewhere.

eh i dunno

Tomorrow could be an interesting day in the premier league.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613937#Comment_121613937

What's happening tomorrow?

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613937#Comment_121613937

What happens tomorrow? More news on FFP charges or something?

eh i dunno

More clubs to be charged. This season could be an absolute mess

Kiith

Will be hilarious if other teams get points deducted before City even get to court.

The Rooster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613890#Comment_121613890

No you couldn’t. And one incident doesn’t prove your point. Just have to see Luton’s goal v Burnley this weekend and Ederson getting totally clattered yesterday. There are always going to be exceptions but keepers are protected and have been for decades.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613953#Comment_121613953

Is this speculation or has there been an official annoucnement?

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614028#Comment_121614028

Edersons happened when the player was offside. There could be no protection

The luton Burnley thing was absolutely nothing. It was really weak goalkeeping

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613931#Comment_121613931

The balloon d'or is outside the premier league. It's for everything and it's for a single season.

In reality he had one of of this world season. 2 good seasons and 4 seasons where he was exciting albeit incredibly frustrating.

That one outstanding season , and him being part of an outstanding team are not enough for him to be in the conversation for all time league 11 imo.

Best footballer to be in the league, yes certainly up there.

~Rebel~

Yeah, like if we’re counting one-off incredible seasons, then should super Kevin Phillips be considered for his 30 goal season? 😅

giveitholly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613953#Comment_121613953

Any idea what clubs? Obviously not City anyway because they are above the law

The Rooster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614054#Comment_121614054

And Schmeichel would have got a free for that Wright incident 99/100. The point is some contact is allowed with keepers, but refs often offer too much protection, and there has been no change in that in decades.

BTW, VAR reviewed the Ederson incident. If that had been deemed to be violent conduct against the keeper a red card would have been awarded, regardless of the offside.

BenK

Ronaldo's incredible season went a long way to United winning the treble. Longevity is an important factor no doubt but his achievements for that season alone would have him there in my view. His other seasons were far from average too.

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614118#Comment_121614118

He's some lad that could win 3 PL titles in one season. Quite a feat that.

Is this just some anti-United thing I suppose?

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614237#Comment_121614237

I’m more a fan of looking at player performances and records than medals won, since it’s by default a discussion on the individual rather than the team.

I’m being facetious with Phillips mention obviously, but imo it’s an example that undermines Suarez and Ronaldo’s claims to at least an extent - imo to be a great of the league means to have impacted the league over a reasonable period of time rather than burning bright briefly. Henry was exceptional for a good run of years. Shearer was exceptional for a good run of years. Roy Keane was exceptional for a good run of years. Suarez and Ronaldo weren’t. So in a conversation with no shortage of competition, that puts them behind others. Now, for a conversation of best ever PL season performances, they’d be right up there.

Ultimately how anyone chooses to look at the question is quite subjective though, so there will never be agreement, and that’s fine.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613898#Comment_121613898

Yeah I adopt the American approach, winners only in my all time 11. Could argue Augreo over Shearer too.

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613931#Comment_121613931

Well, he is part of the conversation.

But people are making the argument that other players have had just as good a season and also have longevity at the same time.

The Ballon d'Or has somewhat turned into a team achievement award the last decade-ish aswell. Basically whoever wins the Champions League and/or the World Cup has a player on that team receiving the award. It doesn't necessarily mean they are the best player in the world. That's not to say that Ronald didn't deserve it back in 2008 either, it's more to at say that since 2016 ish, the award has become devalued in my opinion. Modric winning it, Lewandowski not winning it, one each of Messi & Ronaldo winning it when there were better individual seasons than they one that they had. For example Haaland could easily have won it last year but didn't. Suarez deserved one back around 2015/2016 but didn't get it because of his biting incident a few years previous.

ctrl-alt-delete

A mental amount of time deliberating on that goal at Goodison. Correct decision, but why so long?

ShamoBuc

VAR taking an absolute age for that decision, nearly 4 minutes.

Offside given, bit strange as he was no where near the line of vision of the keeper I thought.

Steviemak7

They were looking at wrong offside. The guy originally receiving the ball was a yard offside.

Steviemak7

Clearly offside but then they spent a minute checking the interfering in the keepers line offside. Which was irrelevant after this one. Very strange. I'd love to hear the conversation because I think they were very close to completely messing that decision up.

tinpib

Think this could be the bloodiest half of prem league football Ive seen in a while.

Pauliedragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614014#Comment_121614014

There was a sports lawyer on a podcast a few months ago he said minimum of 3 years he thinks before we hear a final decision on city because it's 115 individual charges plus the fact city will have lawyers that the Premier league lawyers look like 1st year students. Also he said after those 3 years with appeals etc it could go on for a lot longer than 3 years.

K-9

The Guardian Football weekly mentioned 2025 about City. They'll challenge everything I'd say, going on their record to date. Do a Mr. Bates vs. the Post office job on it.

Mr. Guappa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614377#Comment_121614377

Nuts. Almost 4 minutes when you could see after 5 seconds that the wide player was off.

Robson99

Schmeichel, Irwin, Desailly, Ferdinand, Cole, Keane, Scholes, De Bruyne, Ronaldo, Shearer, Henry

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614118#Comment_121614118

Michu at Swansea and Amr Zaki at Wigan enter the chat.

pjohnson

And its good that Lutons goal was let stand the last day. Trafford just sprinted into Adebayo for no reason other than looking for a soft free. He wasn't anywhere near getting the ball.

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614572#Comment_121614572

What I found funny about that incident was Kompany going on a big rant about referees and VAR when a couple months ago he was laughing at other managers complaints saying "humans make mistakes" and basically get over decisions that go against you.

ShamoBuc

This game really needs a goal, preferrably an Everton one, to liven up. Feels like an eaarly Saturday morning game.

Coleman now Everton's player with most appearances.

ShamoBuc

.... or a Tarkowski tackle!!

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614662#Comment_121614662

Before that Tarkowski tackle, Diabi (?) was fouled, didn't go down, but no foul or penalty given.

That's why lads hit the ground like they were shot every game. Honest play is penalized.

That's a very lightweight midfield United are fielding today!

y0ssar1an22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614490#Comment_121614490

but mr bates was innocent is the difference

tom1ie

On a slight tangent here but holy Jaysus the amount of betting adds on before the start of the match is incredibly annoying, considering the difference in the volume up to max for the adverts compared to the volume of the pre match conversation.

Very annoying.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614829#Comment_121614829

Imagine if you had to pay to watch it behind a paywall??

What's the odds of Onana picking up a knock in this game and pulling out of the AFCON altogether?

ctrl-alt-delete

Great goal, Rasmus smashes it in for the early lead.