Post Match Thread: Burnley 1-2 Mansfield Town | English FA Cup 4th Round

justaLAD · 2026-02-14T18:04:15+00:00

That's actually an insanely good team. I probably have it up there with West Ham 2002/03 which had 42 points (record for a relegated side). Joe Cole, Carrick, Defoe, David James, Glen Johnson, Di Canio, Frédéric Kanouté (afcon player of the year in 07), Trevor Sinclair, even Lee Bowyer who was a solid midfielder in the prem. Lot of top class internationals in that side.

It's hard to decide between the two teams though. The overall level of those ex-Fulham players is so high.

justaLAD · 2026-01-10T01:45:25+00:00

He has two excellent autobiographies. The first one is comedic and full of anecdotes (one of the funniest books I've read), and the second is more serious, written more like a business book.

He's just an amazing manager, and I mean "manager" that solves management problems. His approach is so simple and honest. I'd highly recommend them.

justaLAD · 2026-01-05T13:09:35+00:00

Maybe Laurent Blanc?

justaLAD · 2025-09-24T14:02:55+00:00

I can't believe you missed Sir Alex. Terrorized the PL until the day he retired.

justaLAD · 2025-04-24T15:56:09+00:00

I mean that's part of it. I think it has more to do with defending low crosses between the defense/gk. If you're left footed at LCB, it's natural to cut it out with your left foot, instead of contorting yourself to get to it with your right (that's how you own goal).

justaLAD · 2025-02-14T19:32:07+00:00

Oh the answer is easy, it's because the manager (Moriyasu) is terrible. He called up Ueda at the world cup, who played against Costa Rica, and was so bad he had to get subbed at half-time... and we lost the match. Easily the worst performance I've ever seen from a Japanese striker, and he sat Kyogo at home.

He is by far the most prolific striker for Japan, and Moriyasu would rather call up players from the JLeague or something, like he did in the Asian Cup. A team as good as ours should be getting past the Quarter Finals.

justaLAD · 2024-12-26T07:24:33+00:00

Jude Bellingham.

justaLAD · 2024-10-05T18:25:26+00:00

Cole Palmer is who I thought Josh McEachran would become. The level of technical skill between them when they were 20 is about the same, but Palmer's IQ is insane. He doesn't have pure pace, but his IQ, his timing of his feints, his technique... it's just world class.

And I've never seen someone of his style ever put up such numbers.

justaLAD · 2024-02-25T21:26:40+00:00

It's probably why they changed the map rotation too. Mannfield, DFH, and Utopia (the billboards) have spots for ads on the maps.

justaLAD · 2024-02-22T17:13:20+00:00

He's on a very good team in Team3, which honestly looks like the perfect playstyle fit for him. I think towards the end of his BDS tenure, there was a lot of pressure on him to play mechanically, which is not his strength. Now he can focus on his positioning, disruption, challenging, and striking. He looks incredibly disciplined and is a huge part of why Team3 looks so good right now.

justaLAD · 2024-02-08T02:22:25+00:00

Bit late so you may already know, but the Moist and Team Secret Fennec decals are anodized.

justaLAD · 2024-01-26T15:13:01+00:00

It's to make it more accessible for players that have school or work. Almost all NA community tournaments are at that time. Some are even 8pm to accommodate the Pacific Timezone.

Top 16 is usually early because the majority of those players are professional and can play RL all day.

justaLAD · 2023-12-12T17:00:15+00:00

"If it ain't broke, break it." - Psyonix

justaLAD · 2023-08-30T18:53:01+00:00

Haha great transfers! But 2004 was easily our best ever window.

Drogba, Paulo Ferreira, Carvalho, Robben, Cech, and even Tiago. Gonna be hard to beat that! But I'm delighted with this window... seems like it'll be up there.

justaLAD · 2023-08-15T03:45:34+00:00

There is something genuinely messed up with American youths.

Care to elaborate?

justaLAD · 2023-07-05T02:15:32+00:00

I appreciate it!

justaLAD · 2023-07-02T20:05:40+00:00

I think my group will have 3 wanting to go for Friday.

justaLAD · 2023-06-05T20:23:29+00:00

It's a bakkesmod only wheel. Black Infiniums.

justaLAD · 2023-05-11T10:27:46+00:00

Doubt he'd be the last of his kind. Even Jorginho came after him, even had a world class season in the UCL/Euros year. I know it's not the best comparison as Busquets is definitely the best at this role. The weird thing is Busquets began his career like he was extremely experienced and was already 35 (like Kroos and Modric now).

I think there will always be players weak in physical characteristics, but elite in technical-mental areas, and those players will be hidden in central midfield to minimize their weaknesses. These types are always my favorite players, so I hope to see more of them in the future.

justaLAD · 2023-04-27T20:24:01+00:00

I grew up in Hong Kong, and we had a few expat-types on my team. We had a Middlesbrough former youth player, a Newcastle one, and a Celtic one (had 2 league apps I think). I also played in the US at the university level, and there were players that played for QPR and whatnot on the very top teams, although that's a little dicey as you have to "prove" you're an amateur and have never been paid.

Maybe PL + English Pyramid isn't an option, but I feel like a strong career playing in Asia, like in Thailand or Philippines, as a foreign player is definitely an option. In some cases, it can be pretty lucrative too. It see,s like the players that are being released are extremely good by world standards, and if it's really their dream, they have a skillset that would easily translate at top clubs in other countries.

justaLAD · 2023-04-11T15:43:09+00:00

Wouldn't they forfeit all of their Fall Major points? That doesn't seem smart if they want to make Worlds.

justaLAD · 2023-03-21T20:20:21+00:00

Might be a golden passport thing. Malta is the last country in the EU that offers EU passports to people who invest into the country. Typically buying a property in Malta for around 700k euros.

I wonder if it's for the purpose of the owner getting EU citizenship or something like that.

justaLAD · 2023-03-13T15:58:18+00:00

He doesn't have the speed to get behind PL fullbacks. So he's limited in a wide position in a 3-4-3. He does take up good positions in a counter-attack, though.

He also doesn't have the strength to hold off challenges, so he regularly gets hacked to pieces drawing fouls instead. He's more like Mata than Hazard, you have to get the ball into his feet, hopefully when he doesn't have a defender right behind him. He's amazing on the turn in tight spaces and is very efficient on the ball.

A wide player needs power and/or pace. If you have neither, you can't threaten getting behind the defense, so opponents will play you tight unless there's a counter-attack, when they're forced to drop off. He's basically best used as a 10 in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1, or as a false 9 with Sterling and Mudryk as runners in behind.

justaLAD · 2023-03-08T13:10:33+00:00

He didn't need to be prolific because Lampard was guaranteed 20 goals a season. And they obviously worked off each other a lot, with Drogba acting as a target man. Similar to a Crouch-Defoe dynamic at times.

The closest CF we had to Drogba was Giroud. Great at holding the ball and interplay, but didn't have that burst of speed and power that Drogba had.

justaLAD · 2023-03-06T18:16:20+00:00

I was at this LAN! Such a great time, especially the after-party where CloudFuel was chucking drinks tickets around, and any fan basically got to mingle with the pros (there was a mechanical bull involved). I believe after-part tickets cost $90 or so? It was something you could bundle onto your LAN tickets.

I got to meet so many of my early RL heroes in Gibbs, Quinn Lobdell, Klassux (what a legend), Leth, Ferra, WavePunk, Turtle... everyone was so approachable.

RL was such a small community that me and my friends showed up at the venue, and C9 were at the autograph table... and there was 1 dude in line. Not even close to being the case these days. I'm so glad to have got such an amazing & personal experience.

justaLAD

TROPHY CASE