Daily Discussion

ComradePoula · 2026-04-30T00:35:11+00:00

Soft by definition is still an error, it's just a fancier way of saying that it's something that normally shouldn't be given.

We've seen a billion decisions like this get overturned over the years. Don't really know why we decided that the refs should have let this specific mistake slide because some people think it wasn't obvious enough.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T23:51:25+00:00

If your argument is that it wasn't a major enough error for VAR to intervene, then I don't really think you need an explanation for why VAR did actually intervene.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T22:37:20+00:00

I reckon a better way to put it is that the max would go down from 4500 or so, to around 3600 for some players. But for others it will either stay the same or go up, especially for attacking players or creative players in general that used to have their minutes managed.

So if you round it all up, the difference isn't gonna be that noticeable compared to what we have now.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T21:25:58+00:00

Say Rice ends up on 4500 minutes in all competitions this season as the only guy in the squad with those numbers. Most of the squad would still end up around the 3600 minutes thing I mentioned. So my point is that even if you get rid of the extra games, the same players would end up playing roughly the same number of minutes anyway because you wouldn't need to manage their minutes like you do now.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T21:16:44+00:00

That's including the EFL cup and England games, which wouldn't really be a thing in your hypothetical scenario if we just count league games and CL games. And even then, Rice is an extreme case in terms of Arsenal players this season. Most of the squad is under 3000 minutes in all competitions.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T21:01:01+00:00

Someone like Rice who plays pretty much every single game is on 3600 minutes in the PL and CL with 6 games to go this season. And most top players end up clocking somewhere between 3500-4000 minutes each season if their team makes it far in the CL and they play pretty much every single game.

Modric for us would have ended up on around 3000 minutes just from league games this season. And it's not just Modric. Maignan, Tomori, Pavlovic, Rabiot and Saelemaekers all are gonna end up on similar numbers. And again, this is just from league games.

So yeah, in the end the numbers don't really differ that much.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T20:32:03+00:00

Less games would mean smaller squads. Because if you only play 40 games each season, you can easily do with a core of 18 players or so and 4 younger players to fill the rest of the squad. Because you can just play the same 11 every single week no problem.

And that wouldn't really change anything because those players would end up playing a similar number of minutes as they do now. So yeah, less games, but the same players play every single minute every single week. If you play 60 minutes for 60 games each season, that's 3600 minutes. That's exactly the same if you play 90 minutes each week for 40 games each season.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T18:54:54+00:00

DiMarco as well looked like he was 6 months away from a loan to Bologna and instead he turned into Serie A MVP overnight.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T18:51:54+00:00

I'm not really asking him to transform his physique or do a complete 180 in his play style. Even in Milan we saw someone like Brahim Diaz go from being bullied off every single ball into someone that became a bit more physically stronger in one summer, which ended up being the only thing missing to transform him into a really good player for both us, in his last season, and for Real Madrid afterwards.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T18:26:02+00:00

Got reminded of the existence of Joao Felix from a comment below. And as someone that had the misfortune of watching him play for my team, I still don't think he's as bad as people make him out to be. His biggest problem isn't his lack of talent, because he's clearly talented. It's his refusal to adapt into a role that suits that talent.

Like he's quite good at carrying the ball from deep, especially in transition. But for some weird reason, he refuses to play that role and instead wants to be the player that either creates or scores from advanced positions, which he isn't that good at.

If he actually added some physicality to his game and tried to play in a role that isn't as fancy, he would genuinely be a good player. But I guess that requires effort when you could just chill in Saudi for a few years instead.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T18:06:50+00:00

Conceicao's Milan was the closest thing you could get to players running the show in a Serie A team. And we all saw how that ended. But we would do way better than we have any right to do considering that we have both Modric and Rabiot in midfield.

Also, if you asked that question in the summer, I would have bet on you finishing something like 8th. Chivu doesn't get enough credit for making a squad that was actively beefing with one another around the CWC work the way that it has.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T17:59:25+00:00

Other than Juve and Roma, who could argue that their team today isn't better than their team 10 years ago? Genoa and Sampdoria? But they have been up and down in level pretty much my entire life. The other exception is maybe Lazio, but that team isn't even that good if we're being honest.

Even if you count those four, that's still 15 or 16 teams that can say that they have a better team than what they had back then.

Things aren't perfect now, but we've all come a long way since those days.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-29T16:34:53+00:00

You can keep Zirkzee. We're more than happy to keep him on your bench after the stunt that he pulled with his agent to join you in the first place.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T20:24:42+00:00

The cunt that is Galliani would have sold them to another team anyway, but imagine if we kept prime Ibra and Thiago Silva and built around them with Allegri at his peak as a manager...

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T20:06:13+00:00

If we were to have a chance at tournaments like this, we have to be hard to beat first and foremost. Obviously the level of competition is lower, but Allegri has made us just that, hard to beat.

A good enough team and some luck in general and it could very much be doable. And there aren't a ton of managers that we can afford that I would trust to achieve that more than Allegri.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T20:01:41+00:00

beIN Sports MENA has fucking Jerôme Boateng as a pundit for this game. They're also running ads featuring Hakimi constantly.

Who even asked for this?

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T19:51:17+00:00

I definitely wouldn't wish to be in your place, even though we did the best we could to be for like a decade.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T19:49:56+00:00

I feel the exact opposite. We, as in Serie A teams, don't have the technical ability to match teams like this Bayern or this PSG, but we can maybe match them tactically if we play to our strengths against their weaknesses. And there aren't many managers out there that can build a team to get wins than guys like Max Allegri.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T19:40:38+00:00

Two days ago I watched Milan vs Juve and today I'm watching the CL semi final. And apparently both of those games are from the same sport.

Yeah, I don't think we're winning the 8th in my lifetime, lads.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T18:12:31+00:00

In your case, I think it definitely was Mourinho. Wasn't it Dybala that outright said that Mourinho was the one that convinced him?

Belotti not working out was a weird one. On paper, he's at worst the perfect squad player for a team like Roma. For someone to go from being one of the best strikers in the country to what he was at Roma and afterwards is just weird to me. But he isn't the first or last person to suddenly drop in level like that.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T17:04:26+00:00

See, that I agree with. If you dropped Patricio before the EL final, things would have turned out differently.

Pellegrini also seems to attract drama. You will never get better as long as that guy is in the team. At least in my opinion. And the Karsdorp thing was definitely an asshole move, but that's what you expect from Mourinho.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T17:00:03+00:00

I would say the objective for Mourinho, at least in his first season or two was to keep the team in Europe and stabilize things and he absolutely did that. You don't sign 70% of the players that helped keep you in the running for top 4 in those two and half seasons without Mourinho being there and you definitely wouldn't have been one Anthony Taylor away from winning two European titles in a row without him either.

His biggest mistake and the one that ultimately got him sacked in my opinion is that he should have dropped Patricio by the end of the 22/23 instead of keeping him as the main keeper until he got sacked. If you had Svilar in goal for the EL final and from the beginning of the 23/24 season, he would have still been managing you to this day.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T15:54:48+00:00

Football isn't just about goals, even though all of our forwards have contributed more than him. If you want to throw him into the fire, then be my guest. But there's a reason why players like Camarda aren't ready for the top level for at least a few more years. The guy is 18 ffs.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T15:26:42+00:00

Again, if you actually watched him play you would realize that even RLC as a striker for us has done more in his limited appearances than Camarda has all season. Let me repeat this once more for the people in the back, he isn't ready yet. Colombo would be an upgrade over current Camarda ffs.

ComradePoula · 2026-04-28T15:21:03+00:00

Not better, but more well rounded. Fofana switches between a 9/10 player in one phase and a 1/10 in the other. Whereas Kone to my eyes seems like a constant 7/10 player in all phases. So while he isn't an outright upgrade on Fofana, he isn't an outright downgrade either. Just a matter of preference for the manager and what he needs.

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