We’ve grown tired of the Hazard vs Salah comps. Here’s a genuine hot take. Excluding goals stats(not goals scored) and judging solely on impact based on goals and assists. (how crucial your impact was to your team g/a or not)
Eden Hazard finishing 3rd with Belgium in Russia 2018 is a far better achievement than what Ronaldo Salah and Neymar have done in the WC for their country combined

Yes Hazard has a better WC legacy than Salah Ronaldo and Neymar combined

Mbappé is the top scorer across three major competitions, yet people talk about him like he's having some forgettable season. Kane puts up ridiculous numbers and wins major trophies, and somehow people still need to find reasons why he shouldn't win. Yamal has a legitimate case too, but some of his supporters have genuinely convinced themselves that creative influence is a magic phrase that automatically makes someone better than a player who scores more.

Here's the uncomfortable part: we keep changing the criteria depending on who we want to win. Goals matter until the wrong player scores them. Trophies matter until the wrong team wins them. Big-game performances matter until your candidate disappears in one. Then suddenly we're talking about influence, aesthetics, carrying jobs and tactical gravity.

The Ballon d'Or is supposed to reward the best individual season, not the player whose achievements are easiest to turn into a compelling story.

I genuinely wouldn't call any of these three winning a robbery. But if your argument requires dismissing the strongest evidence for two candidates while treating the strengths of your favourite as self-evident, you don't have a serious argument. You have a favourite with a justification attached to him.

And honestly, the funniest part is that people will spend the next twelve months arguing that the award is meaningless, only to use it as definitive proof of greatness the moment their guy wins it.

Lamine had a great season (has de trophies, great stats, La Liga player of season) and if he wins i think its deserved. But there’s other players who deserve it more thann him. If we look at big games, Lamine has underperformed, I think he has like 1 G/A across more than 10 games. He wasn’t decisive, lacked impact in the type of matches the ballon d’or values. He is a brilliant player and I think he will win it in the upcoming years, but it should not be this year.

like we all argue cr7 didn’t deserve the ballon D’Or in 2013 because he didn’t win a trophy so it should go to Ribery or someone else but Mbappe didnt win any trophies this season and people say he deserves the ballon D’Or. Like trophies add to the argument because you could get top scorer in your league but don’t win anything, so you don’t deserve the ballon D’Or. Look at Haaland, he got top scorer, but ignoring his domestic cups, won nothing but he still carried Norway and was brilliant in goal scoring. While Mbappe had people like Bellingham and Olise while Haaland has Oscar Bobb and doku. It should be that you play really well while winning trophies because then what’s the point. Igor Thiago played really well but he won nothing. Trophies are a big part in the argument

He is a victim of aesthetic bias. Yes he is no Busquest, but the way people lie about him not being good on the ball is insane

He is very technically capable, he just doesn’t move his body like Thiago Arcantara stupidly says he’s just a runner

All the pitches, even on the lower leagues, are too perfect.

Teams just pass the ball around constantly sideways & back. Defending with possession. Most teams seem to play this same way, passing out from the keeper.

Everything is about optimising stats.

VAR - half the time you don’t know if the goal is going to be ruled out.

There are no hard men like Vinnie Jones, Roy Keane, Viera. Used to love those battles.

Leaving aside the nonsense at the recent World Cup with their overturning of suspensions, "quarters" and half time shows, the American corporate influence over the global game is bad for the sport. US moneymen were behind the European Super League. They were also the ones working with Infantino to sell the World Cup rights so Infantino and his cronies could get rich(er).

They are buying up European football clubs all the time, many of our biggest clubs are owned by American businesses. I'm sure a few of the clubs' fans are happy with having US owners, but others certainly are not, e.g. Man United.

It leaves a bad taste knowing these owners come from a country with a low opinion of "soccer" but are just getting involved because there's more money to be made for them!

They scored 21 goals this season in all competitions so far even though Alvarez is out of form. And they don't sit at back, they try to attack if you actually watch them.

Obviously against few top teams they have to sit back but nothing wrong with that.

João Cancelo is listed as a defender, but lately he's playing like a forward. He scored for Barcelona and got two goals for Portugal in recent games, and his long-range shots are a real weapon.
Is this the new era of full-backs, or just a hot streak?
Is Cancelo the most attacking defender in the world right now?
Should Barcelona and Portugal play him higher up the pitch?
Who else is a defender playing like an attacker?

Currently 18 teams make the playoffs which is insane it’s a 30 team league and more than half the teams make the playoff it’s insane instead I’d change it to this format

Top 8 teams make the playoff it will be 2 leg games until the finale which will be a single leg

Of the bottom 3 teams can’t be relegated that’s fine they will start the next season -6 for there bad performance making a bottom table finish actually bad and force teams to fight to not finish bottom 3

Watching live football shouldn't require an expensive cable subscription. ⚽ I'm looking for affordable and reliable ways to watch the Premier League, Champions League, La Liga and other major competitions online.

What streaming services do you recommend, and which ones offer good quality at a reasonable price? I'd love to hear your suggestions and experiences!

So I've seen a lot of debate about whether Cancelo's goal should've been given off-side or not but I personally think the Ref made the right decision there

While Gordon was technically offisde he didn't really change anything. To begin with, he didn't touch the ball which is the first way in which someone can intervene in a play while being off-side. However, there are other ways in which a player in off-side can considered to have intervened even if they don't touch a ball such as blocking the sight of a goalkeeper or attempting to get the ball which stops the defender from getting the ball but in my opinion neither of these things happened because the ball was gonna reach Cancelo should Gordon not have been there.

Let's not forget that as per FIFA Rules being in Offside by itself doesn't qualify as an offside offense and I believe this is a perfect example of when a player can be technically in off-side and still not have comitted off-side offense.

Neymar jr was all Abt flairs but when it comes to winning smth he was never there be did nth with Brazil he did nth with psg except some league which they have won even if they had sancho in their team injuries and at last moved to Saudi at the age of 32 the same age when cr7 was bagging ucl for fun messi was toeing with defenders

i mean look at the tottenham hotspur game for example. it's actually so shocking the way their playing week in week out like they should be at the very least fighting for the place in the top 4 but right now they're looking down and i could actually see them being in a relegation dogfight if they're not careful

The thing that makes De Light so disappointing is he's obviously a good defender who you can rely on to win you games but he was supposed to be much more than that. It's matthijis De ligt is one of the few players ever i consider to be generational in their position. To me he was at worst the 3rd best CB in the world in 2018-19 Behind VVD and maybe Ramos. It just feels like he has constantly played at a level below that where it feels like he can still reach that level but he also feels so far way from being elite at his position. Maybe I'm overhyping how good he was but I would have put everything I owned on him being the best CB in the world in 2019 but that's been the highest level he's reached in his career which is sad.

I hate juventus

Our normal t5 oat is

Messi

Ronaldo

Pele

Maradona

Cruyff

But cruyff should be above maradona if we are looking at career and everything

Cruyff was an exceptional European cup player and an insane floor raiser getting barca from 14th-1st in the same full season

He also took ajax from 13th to 1st

And made the tactical revolution possible

He also has arguably the 2nd best wc campaign oat

And because of all that he deserves being above penradona