Ongoing Soccer Thread

[blacksun]

Im in awe of Benayoun.
As to why he isnt a starter every week i thing its partly do to the fact that his best position is AMC and Gerrard owns that spot.
But that shouldnt matter he should play every game, doesnt matter if its on the left or right wing or in central midfield he just doesn disapoint.
I kinda liked they way it was today, Gerrard playing a litle more holding role controling the build up with Yossi in a free roll running rampage on the Burnley defence/midfield.

Rafa doesnt trust Gerrard in CM tho thats been clear since he arrived. He played there today 1. cos it was Burnley and 2. Cos Masch wasnt back from argentina. It wont happen much especially when Aquillani is fit and as you say is unfortunate for Benny as thats clearly his best position. The good news is that if Gerrard is lost to injury at any point we have a natural replacement.

 

[Az__Avfc]

Thankyou Gabby, 5 in a row against small heath alliance now. Love it.

On Adebayor, forget about running up to the fans to celebrate. You knew it would happen he's already made his feelings about his time at the club, although I do agree this isnt a very professional way of doing things. It's the stamp on van Persie that should be of concern, should be in for ban if the FA can be bothered. I don't get why match of the day made a bigger deal over his celebrations rather than the stamp. If I scored against the blues I would do exactly the same as Adebayor.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

Welcome to our new game show - "Are You A Better Manager Than Alex Mcleish?"

Question 1: You have a game at home against your big rivals coming up today! The time has come for you to announce your lineup and talk strategy with your team. The crowd is likely to be loud and lively and getting them onside will be important, and your opponents will be vulnerable defensively, as they're starting with one crap defender and three new signings who have never played together before.

Do you...

(a) Annouce a balanced but slightly attack-oriented lineup and encourage a strategy in accordance with this, knowing that pushing forward may well open up some of those defensive frailties and get your home crowd and players encouraged.

(b) Annouce a stupid 4-5-1 system with your worst striker as the lone forward and play so idiotically defensively it almost seems like you'd be happy with a 0-0 draw and by playing so cautiously allow your opponents to dictate the majority of the game from the area in which they are strongest by far.

If you answered (a) congratulations - you are indeed a better manager than Alex Mcleish! If you answered (b), bad luck, but I'm sure the Birmingham board will be in touch when we next need a new manager.

Seriously Mcleish is like a ****ing awful version of Trappatoni. All our home games this season we have played the same overly cautious crap (even against bloody Portsmouth) and the board wonder why we can't even fill the ground for a game against Villa, lol.

Considering shoving a tenner on him for next prem manager to get sacked/resign but I'd probably be betting with my heart rather than my head. :x

Anyway, well done to villa today for being slightly less awful than us, I guess.

 

[Az__Avfc]

^^^^^^^

lol.

Yeah I really do believe Mcleish would of been buzzing with a 0-0, tbf I think he just didnt want a repeat of last time. I feel sorry, actually I dont, for your fanbase. £48 a ticket is a joke, its no suprise you dont sell out, even the games against us. I don't think you sold out in 2007, not sure how much the tickets were then.

Mcleish has created a side that can perform defensively but it has come at a cost to your attack and creativity. I thought blues would stay up this season due to other sides being poor but now im doubting it and I think its gonna be another relegation season, 2 goals in 5 games says it all really at this rate theyll finish with 36 goals for the season.

 

[switch0723]

Adebayor is my new 3rd favourite player behind Peter Crouch and Titus Bramble after that game against Arsenal

 

[S93]

lol Titus Bramble.
Arguably the best bad player in the world.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

he's not a bad player - he just made the mistake of moving to newcastle. he was decent before he went there and decent after he left - the newcastle years were pretty bad though.

uninteresting factoid - i met titus bramble and jermaine jenas in a cinema when i was at uni in newcastle a few years back~

 

[S93]

Pretty bad is a litle bit of understatment imo.But yeah ok maybe he isnt all bad but just seeing him in any PRM line up bring a litle lolz out in me.

 

[Gesshoo]

Titus Bramble is one of those players who can be very good - but you know that before too long a huge screw-up is inevitable, especially when he starts to believe he is a footballer and not just a defender! That's why Wigan probably suits him better - they won't expect to have signed a footballer unlike Newcastle who thought they had - for a while at least.

 

[Aud300]

Welcome to our new game show - "Are You A Better Manager Than Alex Mcleish?"

Question 1: You have a game at home against your big rivals coming up today! The time has come for you to announce your lineup and talk strategy with your team. The crowd is likely to be loud and lively and getting them onside will be important, and your opponents will be vulnerable defensively, as they're starting with one crap defender and three new signings who have never played together before.

Do you..
(a) Annouce a balanced but slightly attack-oriented lineup and encourage a strategy in accordance with this, knowing that pushing forward may well open up some of those defensive frailties and get your home crowd and players encouraged.

(b) Annouce a stupid 4-5-1 system with your worst striker as the lone forward and play so idiotically defensively it almost seems like you'd be happy with a 0-0 draw and by playing so cautiously allow your opponents to dictate the majority of the game from the area in which they are strongest by far.

If you answered (a) congratulations - you are indeed a better manager than Alex Mcleish! If you answered (b), bad luck, but I'm sure the Birmingham board will be in touch when we next need a new manager.

Seriously Mcleish is like a ****ing awful version of Trappatoni. All our home games this season we have played the same overly cautious crap (even against bloody Portsmouth) and the board wonder why we can't even fill the ground for a game against Villa, lol.

Considering shoving a tenner on him for next prem manager to get sacked/resign but I'd probably be betting with my heart rather than my head. :x

Anyway, well done to villa today for being slightly less awful than us, I guess.

Wow.. I don't think you can put that any better. Absolutely dismal game . O'Neill should be counting his blessings that the Blues manager hasn't figured out the Benitiez is his best striker with McFadden and Larsson playing slightly off of him.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

seriously garry o'connor is a bad championship striker, never mind premiership.

benitez cost a shitton of money, has looked pretty good when given a chance, and i have no idea why we're not starting with him now unless there's some sort of fitness issue us peons aren't aware of.

our defence does look decent though - roger johnson looks like a solid enough signing and queudrue has (surprisingly) been our best player so far this season by a long way.

as for tonight, is it me or are the champs league group stages getting a little dull? i'd rather have watched a random championship game than man u and chelsea grinding out their predictable 1-0 wins. the real madrid game sounds like it was fun though, heh.

 

[S93]

The Zurich keeper was pretty bad.
Ronaldo´s two goals should have been saved, atleast the second one and his postioning in the 5th one was pretty bad too, couldnt decite if he was gonna come out or stay the line so he just stood in the middle of the box and let him chip it in.

 

[S93]

Seriously Rafa zonal marking does NOT work.
Please just except it and change it and put some players on the posts when defending freekicks/corners.

Playing Lucas and Mach together just doesnt seem to work well either, Lucas/Gerrard is fine,Gerrard/Mach is fine too, but them together just seems bad imo.

Carra had pretty bad first half against West Ham and its not the first time this season he plays bad. Maybe benching him for one game might help?

Well win was good but we where bad in defence and its gonna cost us sooner or later if we dont fix it.

 

[ljove]

PARTIZAN BELGRADE
OUR FOOTBALL SUCKS BUT OUR FANS SIMPLY LOVE THEIR JOB
arty::congrats::boxing::beer::dancing2:

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

Seriously Rafa zonal marking does NOT work.
Please just except it and change it and put some players on the posts when defending freekicks/corners.

Playing Lucas and Mach together just doesnt seem to work well either, Lucas/Gerrard is fine,Gerrard/Mach is fine too, but them together just seems bad imo.

Carra had pretty bad first half against West Ham and its not the first time this season he plays bad. Maybe benching him for one game might help?

Well win was good but we where bad in defence and its gonna cost us sooner or later if we dont fix it.

yeah i think it's more a problem of your defence generally being in awful form. the zonal marking stuff gets a lot of stick (i can't wait for andy gray's weekly half-hour diatribe on it later), but in truth carra and skrtel are both having awful spells and as awesome as glen johnson has been he still can't defend that well, so putting him in a defencce with two centre-backs who are defending horribly just emphasizes the problem.

but the big problem with liverpool is the same as it has been for a while - as soon as torres or to a lesser extent gerrard gets injured - you're screwed.

anyway, now for my weekly blues rambling that nobody cares about - it's amazing how much better we have been playing away from home than at home this season. 3 home games, portsmouth, awful game that we won only because of a last minute pen and because no matter how awful we were we could always rely on portsmouth being even worse. stoke, we were lucky to get a point against poor opposition. villa, another dire game where we conspired to lose against poor opposition.

whereas in our away games we've generally played well. yeah we've lost to spurs and man u but only by the odd goal and i could easily make a case for us deserving a point from spurs on our second half performance there. then we play a really bad hull side yesterday and should have won about 3-0, eventually scoring after mcleish finally twigged that we might want to play two strikers against crap opposition (HURRAH!)

benitez continues to look good, but this was hull and i could have probnably looked good playing them. still, good to see him (FINALLY!) starting. was worried about our defence without queudrue but they only really looked like scoring during the panic in the last few mins.

man u vs man city - lol at foster

e: holy crap this is a good game

 

[Jurn8]

lol I won £2 last time on the pools for 9/10 wtf!

I need everton to hold on and chelski to beat spurs for another 9/10, cheers wolves everytime I back you, you lose and I go against you and you win, have a word!

 

[Swear Engine]

Here's why football is bent. The last line about Xerez's budget sums up why it's just wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8265563.stm

 

[Az__Avfc]

Real Madrid can and always will be able to have massive budgets like this, they arent a business like our premiership teams but are actually a sports club.

Real Madrid gain tax breaks as they are supported by the city of Madrid and its tax payers. Each year patrons pay to be a member of Real Madrid and some pay for a kinda advanced membership which costs far more. Perez paid an absurd amount of money to be the president of the club.

As you have probably noticed Real Madrid always seem to pay massive fees for players but this is because unlike other teams they also buy the image rights of the player which they can make millions from through advertising etc. Real Madrid also negotiate television deals by them selves not as a group such as the premier league, this way they can make far more than other clubs. Real Madrid arent a profit making company, profits they incur are distributed back to the members and to the government.

Servicing these debts wont be a problem for Real therefore they can have afford such large budgets and operate with debt. Obviously a smaller club could never sustain debts anywere near this level but financial reward comes with winning and a well run marketing side to a club which Real have evidently achieved.

The Real Madrid theme park in the article makes me laugh. I wonder what that could possibly include.

 

[acemeh1]

Playing Lucas just doesnt seem to work well.

There fixed that for you.

Drop Carra? Blasphemy - HE IS LIVERPOOL

Benitez has played zonal since day 1 so I dont think he'll change. I think we are lucky (Gerrard + Torres lucky) to be doing so well with $0 cash and indebted up to the yinyang.

 

[Gesshoo]

OK, so even with all the live football I can watch at home, it is still occasionally nice to go a a pub and watch a game - just like being at home - sort of!

So, there is a friend I have made here who is English and a ManU fan - but still a nice bloke, if you can believe that apparent contradiction.

So, there is a bar in the middle of down-town Atlanta called the Brewhouse Cafe. They open at 8.20 a.m. for live games on a Sunday morning (UK 1.30 p.m. kick off). They serve food and drink that early, have about 10-12 big screen TVs and normally get a decent crowd of ex-pats and locals who love their football.

It was almost like being at home yesterday for the double header of ManU-ManC and Chelsea-Spurs, even so far as an almost fight between a loud ManC fan and a big baldy Chelsea fan (the ManC fan backed down in a flash!)

Good fun, and definitely a great way to spend Sunday morning! Even if I had to watch Alex win another one with his clock-watching history that has intimidated so many officials over the years, and having to watch Michael Owen score a late winner for the real enemy - Michael, you have sold your soul to the devil!

 

[beardyian]

Sounds like a good time there Joe, but 8.20am for football lol

It certainly did feel weird seeing Owen celebrate the way he did scoring for....them

Much the way Pompey fans felt after Nugent scored 2 [yes 2] for Burnley, a week after he couldn't find the goal with a giant goalfinding machine from 6 yards out

Thanks Harry 'wheeler dealer' £6 million wasted there, along with the £6 million on Utaka as well - £12 million on 2 donkeys, what a great manager

 

[beardyian]

Sol Campbell has walked out of Notts County after 29 days & 1 game

Meanwhile - try getting this going next time you're at a game>>>>

YouTube - Human LCD : Close Up Video

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

Sol Campbell has walked out of Notts County after 29 days & 1 game

i hear spurs are pretty short on defenders at the moment. :deal:

 

[beardyian]

i hear spurs are pretty short on defenders at the moment. :deal:

Apprently he shouldn't be able to sign for them as he only registered as a Notts Co player in the previous transfer window - still that shouldn't stop Harry trying should it.


He says he left [after 1 game & 29 days] because he wants to play for a club that would help him get into the England World Cup squad :rofl:

1 - he didnt get picked for England even when we (Pompey) we're winning the FA Cup with him.
2 - How long did he take to realise what division Notts Co are in

 

[blacksun]

yeah i think it's more a problem of your defence generally being in awful form. the zonal marking stuff gets a lot of stick (i can't wait for andy gray's weekly half-hour diatribe on it later), but in truth carra and skrtel are both having awful spells and as awesome as glen johnson has been he still can't defend that well, so putting him in a defencce with two centre-backs who are defending horribly just emphasizes the problem.

but the big problem with liverpool is the same as it has been for a while - as soon as torres or to a lesser extent gerrard gets injured - you're screwed.

The zonal marking bs is hilariously trotted out everytime we concede a goal despite us having one of the best defensive records in the league since Rafa got here. No mention of it everytime a team who employs man marking concedes from a set play tho, which happens at least 3 or 4 times a week in the PL alone.

As for the bit about Gerrard and Torres being out and us being screwed, we played 15 times in the PL last year with those 2 in the team at the same time, funny we still managed to run Utd close, imagine what would have happened had we had them fit all season.

I agree about Skrtel and carra tho, carra has been shocking this season and him having no settled partner so far due to injuries has been the reason we have conceded from set plays IMO, bearing in mind we havent conceded from open play so far this season if we can get that sorted we will be fine. I just hope Agger will be back soon as we need him alongside Carra or Skrtel IMO