Pretty nerd question here but for anyone that used to use FBref, what’s the alternative now that they had to wipe their data?
Why did they have to wipe it?
Per their announcement in late January:
Unfortunately, last week the provider of our advanced soccer data sent us a letter terminating our access to their data feeds and requiring the deletion of their data from the site immediately. As a result, we have removed the provider’s data from FBref and Stathead in compliance with their demand.
Diabolical. I love that website
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Yeah, it was really handy.
https://x.com/i/status/2020091411434209759
What a special player Zlatan was.
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he is fucked
Benjamin Mendy was on trial for 8 counts of rape. Thomas Partey is now up to 7 counts.
Young Ibra’s footwoork and balance… You’ll never see a 195cm, almost 100kg player moving like that again, with the ball (or withouth it alone). Reminds me of Gyokeres ( 
).
His prime was at Inter (maybe at Milan too), but for some reason got the most hype at PSG where he was far less impressive.
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Pinging @SRCJJ
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Just a complete midfielder he was so good at everything.
That Milan team was the best of the decade and that midfield with Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf and then Kaka spearheading
Ridiculous player. Ridiculous team.
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Heard United fans call Mainoo the new Seedorf lol
https://x.com/i/status/2022355832068001885
I genuinely miss players who had the audacity to casually take shots like this.
Who are even the long shots specialists at the top level now? Szoboszlai? Foden? Fernandes? Valverde?
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I think that’s very debatable.
I think that team underachieved massively and they tend to get overrrated these days.
Massive players individually, but what they did as a team, in terms of trophies was underwhelming considering the quality they had.
They absoutely should have won more than one CL around 2003-2006 when they were the best team in the world in terms of the quality of the squad. They were absolutely able to win it in all those 4 seasons but sometimes failed in an way that can’t be explained lol.
Obviously lost that 2005 final in a freak way, got closely (that dissallowd Sheva goal that absolutely should have stood) knocked out by Barca in 2006. That freak knockoud by Deportivo in 2004. I guess they just got too confident in those games against Deportivo and Liverpool.
Although, in 2003 most of their CL games were super narrow. Ajax, Inter, and the final obviously. Juve were surely the better team with Nedved. Quite lucky to win that title.
Also almost got knocked out by PSV in the 2005 semi final where threy got got totally outplayed in the second leg and got saved by that Ambrosini goal in the final minute.
They were a pretty unpredictable team, despite all the quality and massive experience they had.
I had to remind myself of all of this because I also sometimes had a tendency to look at this team through rosy glasses.
They won that title in 2007 surprisingly when most of the teat was on a decline and after Sheva left them, but Kaka had a monstrous season and probably had one of the most dominant individual CL seasons ever.
And when you look at the Serie A that’s were they underachieved primarily. Only one Serie A title in those years, 2004, while Juve were the most successful team at the time domestically (with some cotroversies lol).
Berlusconi had a very very strong desire for the Champions League and that was always the main aim for AC Milan. European football was a much more competitive landscape at this time too as there was much greater spread of talent across the top teams. Ancelotti remit was to be a success in Europe and 3 finals in 5 years reflects that.
Juventus were also a domestic juggernaut managed by perhaps the greatest league manager of his generation in Capello. Obviously Calciopoli played its part but Capello was hyper focused on the league at the expensive of domestic and European trophies. Milan were the opposite - they had a focus on Europe at the expense of everything else.
I do actually agree that the semi final defeats were a stain on his record at the time but Milan were undoubtedly the best team in Europe in that period. I’ve always thought that Berlusconi obsession with Europe was a bit nuts because they underachieved domestically because of it. And I also think Galliani and Berlusconi had a tendency to prioritise buying older players which meant you needed to manage the minutes of the players and the intensity of games a bit more.
But in general I think European football was tremendously competitive that decade so even without the trophy laden run they were the standout team in my eyes.
Such a crazy match this was 
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That’s proper football!
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