i've been thinking hummels could make a great libero instead of central defender

i don't know who could replace klopp-- i just know that what he's doing is not working.

and in part i say i don't know who could replace klopp because i don't know what kind of squad dortmund will have left after this season.

HEY, HOW ABOUT BIELSA??? :D

seriously, he's also a practitioner of gegenpressing so it wouldn't be such a leap.

Bielsa would be an obvious choice for the very reasons you give. And it's not as though, after Klopp, the fans wouldn't be used to eccentricity. Although I've heard PSG and Inter are also looking at him.

Have you seen him in dressing room mode? Amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjx8RY7_NQ4

that was great

"eat poison"

"do not complain"

"i congratulate you all"

amazing speech

so i've been looking

they're in 4th place right now 1 pt behind monaco, but monaco already played friday

4pts behind lyon (who plays wednesday), they won't catch up this week. psg is only 1 pt ahead of that.

where will they be at the end of the 9 dates he mentioned? first they beat up lens 4-0, then they lost to psg 3-2 (the zonal marking article). and today...?

epic drama in the making--"date #3". i might try to catch a stream of today's match-- will happen late in the day (night where you guys live).

If you're able to catch it, the Manchester derby is about to start. Always interesting, even if neither team are realistically challenging for the title.

thanks! i've got some things lined up this morning-- but arsenal in 2nd place? (i just looked since you mentioned the title). how did this happen??

Arsenal have been the in form team during the second half of the season, and if the league lasted another say 5 games, you might fancy them for the title. But as it is Chelsea have just built up too many points early on, despite being very average in the last few months.

MU just annihilated MC (the 4-2 score massively flatters City). Pellegrini is surely gonna get the sack in the summer but, while we know they want Guardiola, it doesn't look like he'll be moving from Bayern before his contract is up - and if he does go to the Prem, everything suggests he wants the Utd job, anyway. Big dilemma for the City owners. Ancelotti? Rafa?

The rumours at the moment are Benitez which I can very much see. So how shit is Mangala again?

Yeah, you definitely win the Mangala argument.

Benitez makes sense but only if he accepts that, come the following summer, he''ll be treated like a spare part by the owners as they go all out to land Guardiola. After what happened at Chelsea, though, he'll at least know what to expect.

Either way, listening to the final round of the Masters at Augusta right now. I'm hoping Justin Rose will do it but I think it'll go to Jordan Spieth.

holy shit i spaced out the marseille game!

i think the 2nd half just began

----

UPDATE

i could not get a stream to work for me (i really tried) but i just found out bordeaux won 1-0!!

dammit, bielsa.

disappoint!

maybe he should have said "eat the poison. life sucks get used to it. rewards not guaranteed"

maybe they should find an existentialist coach instead of a catholic one. REWARDS NEVER GUARANTEED. ENJOY YOUR STRUGGLE.

there is no santa claus. don't lie to the children.

oh man. i should try to catch a game (probably not the CL ones they lost, which i can watch recorded?). i used to like them a bit, except they were perpetual non-scorers and it got frustrating.

To be honest, Arsenal have only been the best of a pretty average bunch. Their downfall in the CL, like all the other English teams, says it all. Maybe this is just a bad season for the Prem but, relative to the other big European leagues, the quality does seem to have gone down. Maybe it's just too satisfied with its own commercial success. Its trademark unpredictability still makes it massively watchable but the price being paid for that, in terms of quality, definitely shows itself when teams like Chelsea, City, Arsenal, etc, meet their equivalents from other countries.

Even in terms of players, the Prem is packed with very good ones but would any of them make a world XI right now? Although that's bound to change once the TV money comes into play.

Either way, this season hasn't been a very good advert for Brand-Prem.

Official: Klopp's going at end of the season

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ussia-dortmund

damn! had to be. a pity he's not taken a sabbatical. he seems to have run out of ideas. he needs to go smoke some marijuana in brooklyn like pep the baroque.

you did realize the fundamental premise of Catholicism is the inherent value of the ascetic struggle right? That the reward of life is to endure natural suffering with Christian dignity? That Christians are meant to suffer in the trenches with the sufferers? Yes i know, theology is out of your league but if you can't promise to try, can you at least promise to try to try?

It's not an ideal time to leave, in terms of situations vacant. Man City apparently aren't interested and I can see Arsenal sticking with Wenger. Outside the Prem, I'm not sure. Ancelotti's job at Real is in doubt but they'd have to see Klopp as a downgrade if he came in as replacement. France? Holland? Italy? Surely he won't move to another German club.

A Sabbatical might be the best move, not necessarily to sort himself out but to wait for the right job to come up.

Till recently I'd have said Bayern but Barcelona right now look awesome.