Loyalist

WHAT DOES THE NEW OFFSIDE RULE MEAN FOR FOOTBALL? Making a few bold predictions: 1. Low blocks become the norm. This is an easy call. It’ll be too risky to play high lines, and a lot more difficult to pull off offside traps. Quick attackers will punish you easily. 🧵 [1/5]

@Sir_Fin @ediological I doubt he was ever an RW. More like RM back in the day, the way Becks was an RM and it must have been rare.

@ediological Best days? His RW apps were early days and make shift. Just like saying Saka’s best days were at left back.

Telling us you weren’t there? Right winger?

@GBAndroi @js_bakk @McFlybowy @Hackwithjacob You don’t know enough about both sides of the argument to be in it. You obviously mean well, but I think you should sit this one out, my man.

@js_bakk @McFlybowy @Hackwithjacob Acting Pep wasn't coaching a team that had just won the league twice before he arrived. Pep inherited top quality players along with unlimited money. Fergie came to united at our absolute lowest in the late 80s but most were either too young like me or not born then to know this.

The strongest case for Sir Alex Ferguson over Pep Guardiola is actually pretty simple. Football management is more than tactics. Pep may have influenced football more stylistically, but Ferguson mastered every single aspect of management at the highest level for over 25 years. He wasn’t just coaching a team, he was running an empire. What makes Ferguson unique is that he built multiple great teams from scratch and kept winning through entirely different football eras. Most managers have one peak cycle. Ferguson had about four. The early 90s side with Cantona was different from the Treble side. The Treble side was different from the Ronaldo/Rooney era. Then he still won another title in 2013 with a squad that honestly had no business dominating the league the way it did. That level of reinvention over two decades is probably the hardest achievement in football management history. And unlike Pep, Ferguson did not always have the best squad, best structure, or most money. He regularly outperformed stronger teams through mentality, adaptability, and sheer force of leadership. There’s a reason rival fans still talk about “Fergie Time” almost like mythology, his teams psychologically overwhelmed opponents before games even started. Another thing people underrate is how difficult Ferguson’s environment was. The Premier League during his era had constantly changing rivals: Arsenal under Wenger Chelsea under Mourinho with Roman Abramovich’s money Liverpool historically Newcastle’s rise in the 90s Blackburn spending heavily Then later the rise of billionaire-backed clubs Yet Ferguson remained the constant. Pep, meanwhile, has mostly coached elite, ready-made superclubs with extraordinary infrastructure already in place. That’s not his fault, but it matters in historical comparisons. Ferguson turned young players into world stars repeatedly. Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney different generations entirely. Pep improves elite players, Ferguson often created them. And then there’s the longevity argument, which is massive. Staying at the top for 25+ years in football is nearly impossible now. Dressing rooms change, tactics evolve, player power grows, ownership changes happen, pressure increases. Ferguson survived all of it and still retired as champion. Pep may end up as the greatest tactical coach ever. But Ferguson’s argument is that he was the more complete football manager leader, builder, psychologist, developer, winner, and cultural architect all in one.

The fact that FC Barcelona can bring in a player like Álvaro Cortés with 0 professional minutes and he immediately looks like one of the best players on the pitch speaks volumes about how dialed in the La Masia system really is. This isn’t normal. At Barça, it’s never too early always right on time. Huge credit to the people working behind the scenes developing these kids every single day. La Masia is what makes this club one of a kind. We are, and always will be, Més que un club.❤️💙 x.com/FCBarcelona/st…

Came as a star. Leaves as legend. Thank you, Robert Lewandowski, for every goal, every battle, and every magic moment wearing these colours. Culer forever. 💙❤️

@G_Samito @_Olalek You’re misremembering. He was happy to play with Busquets. He asked to go on loan (not to leave) when Xavi went to the press and said he was “counting on Pjanic”, yet another DM ahead of him. Xavi eventually sold Nico cause he didn’t see him as a 6 and also sold Pjanic. 😂

@_Olalek I’m just really reflecting on Fermin’s evolution in the team. It was not gonna be easy for him when he started. There were names but he stayed and fought. Busquet was in the last year of his career and this dude couldn’t even stay to compete 😅 Like last year!

Come to think of it, Nico Gonzalez really was just one coward. Left the team because he was scared to compete or what? When Fermin came to the first team there was Pedri, Frenkie, Gavi, Gundogan, Roberto as midfielders. He stayed and fought. My fighter 💪

@SirLeoBDasilva @ezekielbaiye but you guys know that Zubimendi, pre-Arsenal, was one of (if not the best), press-resistant midfielder in Europe? My guess is that his ‘decline’ is either (1) mental; or (2) due to an overload in regard to his on-the-ball responsibility.

@ezekielbaiye Arteta should have done better and brought in someone else that could be more press resistant when the game needed

I respect the fact that Zubimendi has been available all season. But he has been poor since December. That’s months ago. That first half of the season, Arsenal faced many low blocks which allowed him not need to be press resistant. Soon as people started attacking us, like United, unfortunately this exposed the fact that he panics under pressure and his passing only shines when team sit back and he has room to operate. Rice has really done a fantastic job in helping him to get us to this point and deserves all the credit.

Atleti created more xG (including non-penalty xG) in both legs against Arsenal than than they did against Barcelona. And we played over 1/3rd of that tie with 10 men. I’m beyond tired of all the lazy narratives about Flick’s high line.

❗️ Clara Serrajordi: "It's been a DREAM for me since I was a child to reach a Champions League final."

@NB_FC_B @maikeeeJ 😂 you’re angry.

@maikeeeJ Sell one of the best wingers in the world and bring 19 year old bundesliga Hype beast for 120M who might flop and doesnt even have HALF the talent we payed for guys like dembele, griezmann or coutinho 🔥🔥🔥

sell and bring diomande

Lmao. He actually plays all his pens to the left. 😂

high line kamikaze nonexistent OOP vs king of OOP in football history: conceding 17 shots, 3 big chances, 2.19xG, to fucking Atleti.

@gfborii @SadiquinhoFCB 😂

@SadiquinhoFCB Yamal hace un 10% de esta jugada y es feriado en toda Cataluña y todas las peluquerías del país…

¿Qué intentó hacer Messi aquí? Cada vez que lo veo pienso que es una de las peores jugadas de su carrera.

What a footballer.

We have one of the most elite coaches in the world in our hands and fans are treating him like he's some scrub like Pochettino. I've never seen someone adapt to so many adverse conditions like Flick has these past 2 years.

People always say this, but how many of the players that City have signed in their history were actually world class / world beaters at the time they were signed? They had zero competition for most of their signings, zero, including Cherki. They’re basically a better Chelsea. 😂

Llevaba buscando este video desde anoche. Cuando se dice que todas las jugadas grises nos caen en contra es básicamente esto. Lo que a nosotros nos ha costado 3 expulsiones y sus correspondientes eliminatorias, el año pasado para otros fue amarilla y au.

Factual from Guillem, we Catalans wouldn’t want it any other way. Give Flick better players and he would achieve a lot more.

Are you guys watching the games at all? Flick’s side is closer to the best version of Barça than Xavi’s side ever was. Save for a few games here and there, when we lose, we lose as the better side—not just through sterile possession, but all round.

…people who don’t understand football enough to make the comments they make. It’s insane.

@Cryptocris77 @MadridistaDave Mbappe, yes. None of the others. They just play in teams that are suited to their strengths.

@MadridistaDave Yep, he’s not the best itw, olise, Kane, Mbappe and Dembele are all more consistent, decisive and better, I agree he’s great to watch though, I just don’t think he’s quite that level yet

Yamal didn't have a bad game but I can't stress enough how important it is to see games like this through as a true great of the sport. It's not enough just to have a good game if you can't singlehandedly decide ties. This is the standard for the convos y'all put him in.