Barclays Premier league 07/08 thread

  • Thread starter Dave A
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Well, Grand Slam Sunday was a bit of an anti-climax, as it always is. Man U didn't really get into 3rd gear, let alone top gear. Liverpool were beyond useless in the second half, we jsut sat back and caught them on the break because they were never a threat after half time. Tell you what though, after Liverpool moaning thier heads off about the way Bolton played, hoofing the ball up field, they should look at thier own team. I've never seen the ball hoofed up so many times in a single half ever.

I was hoping for a draw between Le Arse and Chelsea, but I had a feeling Arsenal would win it, they're just a better side at the moment. And tbh, I don't mind Arsenal doing well when they're playing good football, unlike say Everton who play 5 in midfield they all just play behind the ball. I don't mind Arsenal doing well, as long as they're not doing quite as well as Man U.
 
Dave A
Man U didn't really get into 3rd gear, let alone top gear. Liverpool were beyond useless in the second half, we jsut sat back and caught them on the break because they were never a threat after half time. Tell you what though, after Liverpool moaning thier heads off about the way Bolton played, hoofing the ball up field, they should look at thier own team. I've never seen the ball hoofed up so many times in a single half ever.

...And tbh, I don't mind Arsenal doing well when they're playing good football, unlike say Everton who play 5 in midfield they all just play behind the ball....
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There's only one way to play when you're facing a team with a 6 man midfield who're playing everyone behind the ball. Man U came to Anfield with no intention of playing their usual attacking football to win, they played defensive football with the goal of not losing. At the end they get one of their 5 shots in the game on target, and snatch the points. Liverpool by contrast had well over 15 shots throughout the game, and were thwarted by good defensive play by Man U players on the line on several occasions with the keeper nowhere to be seen. Christiano Ronaldo spent most of the game playing Right Back, it wasn't exciting to watch, but Fergie's defensive tactics paid off, and you lot left Anfield with the points after the same sort of Smash-and-Grab raid that you did last year! (and was probably going on at several Liverpool player's homes during the game! :P)
Unfortunately it's Man U's ability to steal points off the back of what can hardly be described as a dynamic display, that seems to keep them floating on the top tier of the Premiership year after year. :grumpy:
Still, I can't say Liverpool haven't been guilty of adopting the same tactics at Old Trafford either, and for several years Danny Murphy's smash and grab goals were enough to see us leave there with the points! I remember the Man U fans complaining about those sort of tactics then, and yet they're more than happy to overlook the fact that when Man U adopt them and win, they're just as guilty of the same thing! :dunce:

It's kind of ironic that you criticise Everton for playing this way, after Man U's tactics on Sunday! :sly: However, I know what you mean, Man U reserve this tactic for the key games against the top teams, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, whereas Everton play that way against everyone!
 
Last year was by no means smash and grab, this year can be debated but last year we had Liverpool pinned in their own half for the majority of the game. I suppose in that sense that makes this game a smash a grab. Liverpool didn't need to do the long ball all through the second half, thier better chances were in the first half when they wern't, then after they brought Babel on he started to create runs with the ball and opened the game up more. We simply contained your long ball play, if you'd tried to play through us we wouldn't have sat back essentially for the last 45 mins.

Ofcourse football fans are fickle, all that matters is thier own team, your damn right about that. I used to post on BBC's 606, I still do occasionally but it's a nightmare to find intelligent discussion. I like the old Chelsea buying the title line, yeah sure they wouldn't have had the success without the money, but if someone offered to take over your club and invest that much (provided you were a club that could benefit from a new squad, Man U wouldn't, and I don't think Arsenal would barring perhaps some depth to comepensate for injuries) your not going to say no bog off. So I agree with that point, but I don't think we'd have sat back that much if you played through us, then again we'll never know so the argument is moot anyway.

Man U are imo without a doubt the best team in the Prem in terms of the quality we have on the ptich. I don;t say that every season, I thought Chelsea were a few seasons ago and that year Henry should have won player of the year but didn't, Arsenal were. But right now we have a very versatile squad, we're very fast in attack and we have arguably the best central defensive partnership in the country in Vidic and Ferdinand. We have the strenth in depth to cope with injuries, we still have Neville and Scholes injured and they're both key first team players. Liverpool are no doubt a much much better side this year but I can't see them competeing for the title over the course of the season, Chelsea, nowhere near capable of what they were two seasons ago imo but still a good side. Arsenal have a fantastic first team, but they struggled a bit without Fabregas. A few first teamers injured could be a nightmare for them. Anyhow, we'll see at the business end of the season.
 
Some good games today, Chelsea v Villa being one of them, 8 goals 3 red cars and 1 point each. Liverpool beat Derby 2-1, could have been more. Man U beat Sunderland 4-0 (smile Roy) without much effort. I'm hoping Portsmouth can do something against Arsenal at least snatch a draw. That'd make my day.
 
Well I got my wish, Portsmouth held Arsenal to a draw and we are now top of the table. Hopefully for the rest of the season. After a poor and out of character start to the season we now have (in the league) the best defensive record this season, we match Arsenal in sharing the best attacking record this season and we have the best goal difference. Not a bad position, but we'd be fools if we though the second half of the season would be easy.
 
I doubt that, though they are sneaking up points wise.

Dissapointing game on Saturday, West Ham seem to be a bit of a bogey team for us at the moment. Everton let me down as well, but I'm glad Liverpool dropped points again. I guess were waiting for Arsenal t slip up again now.
 
Tbh I realy don't think Avram is the man for the job, I can't see him tactically outclassing venger or Fergie. Plus I thought he was going to play exciting football (which sucks) but nothings changed and we are still playing the same way that we were under Jose.

COME BACK JOSE ;_;
 
At least Jose was a character, I've never thought of eggs the same way again.

Tbh I didn't think Grant would be at Chelsea for long, but then he signed that 3 year contract so Roman thinks he's got something.
 
We're beating Birmingham 1-0 at half time, it's all been one way so far. Birmingham have had maybe two or three breaks but haven't looke threatening at all.
 
Dave A
We're beating Birmingham 1-0 at half time, it's all been one way so far. Birmingham have had maybe two or three breaks but haven't looke threatening at all.
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I'm just glad tevez scored for my fantasy team, hopefully fabregas got an assist?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
 
We played well in that first half but we didn't look to good in the second. We've started holding off teams once we get infront and I'm not liking it. It's like we're inviting them to attack us. We need to get back to keeping in the other teams faces, doesn't matter if we're already ahead, try to score again. We've stopped doing that recently.
 
MildAshers
Alan Shearer is faviroute to take over, good odds on for Mourinho as well.
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I don't think that'll happen.

Martin Jol, whats the odds on him?
I don't see how a manager can work when everytime he loses the fans say 'Bring in Shearer' and 11th isn't too bad at this stage of the season. What happens if Shearer does really bad?
I was speaking to a mate of mine who's a Newcastle fan and he said 'Newcastle is an impossible job.' and hes right.
Are Newcastle really a top 6/7 side?
 
I think Martin Jol is the fave to take over, either way I thought they'd have given Sam the full season. I mean Newcastle arn't going to mount a challenge for anything now anyway.

Managers arn't given enough time anymore, it's shocking. Not that I rate Sam highly, I don't like his tactics but still, can you imagine if Fergie wasn't given the time he needed to re-build Man U's structure that Ron Atkinson destroyed when he was in charge.

A lot of fans, well people in general think that Fergie's Man U career was saved when we beat Forrest in the FA cup 1-0, a lot of people think that he would have been sacked if we lost. The truth is that his position was fine, the reason for this was because Fergie was re-building United from the ground up. Sure he made changes to the first team, but the real work he was doing was in the teams structure, he brought in a great youth system, he got the first team working shortly after than and we started winning things from there. But we only really shined when the youth system paid off when young players such as Beckham, Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Scholes and Butt all appeared in the team. Alan Hansens famous comment "you'll never win anything with kids" was promptly shoved down his throat and we won the double in that 95-96 season.

Basically, managers shouldn't be given three or four months, it takes a lot longer than that to build a solid foundation on and a manager like Fergie wouldn't hold a job down in the league these days if he was just starting out. I admire Arsenal in way, well in two ways, one because they play good football but also because they've stuck with Wenger, he's built a good team, not just a good starting 11, but a good team a good structure to the club from the youth upwards and look at where Arsenal are now compared to 10 years ago.
 
Shearer may be with the bookies, but that's it. The bookies don't decide who it will be, the Newcastle owners do, ie Mike Ashley and his team of advisers. I'm fairly certain that top of their list of realistic target will be Jol, the top top of thier list should be Morinhio but he's not a realistic target. Probably worth calling just in case though, the wort that'll happen is he'd say no and you cross his name off.
 
Why? He had Spurs playing really good football, it was only a shaky start to this season that got him the sack, before that he was doing fine. Even then the shaky start was just an excuse because the Tottenham board wanted a high profile manager. One of the daftest sackings of recent seasons though imo was Chris Coleman from Fullham, once again, one bad patch and sack the manager, no let's see if he can work through it or not first. He was doing alright managing Fullham, they're in a sorry state now though.
 
His accent really bugs me:P

Plus I would rather have Shearer, popular with the fans, may actually last mroe than a year and probably knows how to get the team playing having played with them before. Roy Keane has done a sterling job at Sunderland and I would pay anything to see Newcastle v Sunderland with Shearer and Keane on the touchline.
 
I like Shearer, it's just that his lack of any experience and any coaching certificates (unless he got them and I just never read about it) put a question mark on him, someone will have to take the leap of faith eventually. Besides, as I said I like Shearer, I'd hate to see him take the reigns at Newcastle only to be blasted for them to continuing thier tradition of underachieving. Newcastle are the Premier Leagues biggest underachievers imo, on paper they're a decent side, they just always have big injury problems or too many players out of form. If Shearer got the job I'd love to see Newcastle start to do well, I'd like to see Shearer in managment, but I still think Jol will be higher on Ashleys list with a good record under him.

And yesh, hish acshent ish annoying.
 
Only_in_f1
Are Newcastle really a top 6/7 side?
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No. Newcastle are a Championship side. They clambered up on the back of Kevin "LUV IT" Keegan and have somehow stayed there. It won't be long before they - and Fulham - are back where they belong.
 
Dave A
I like Shearer, it's just that his lack of any experience and any coaching certificates (unless he got them and I just never read about it) put a question mark on him, someone will have to take the leap of faith eventually. Besides, as I said I like Shearer, I'd hate to see him take the reigns at Newcastle only to be blasted for them to continuing thier tradition of underachieving. Newcastle are the Premier Leagues biggest underachievers imo, on paper they're a decent side, they just always have big injury problems or too many players out of form. If Shearer got the job I'd love to see Newcastle start to do well, I'd like to see Shearer in managment, but I still think Jol will be higher on Ashleys list with a good record under him.

And yesh, hish acshent ish annoying.
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How is Shearer gonna get experiance without a job.

Famine
No. Newcastle are a Championship side. They clambered up on the back of Kevin "LUV IT" Keegan and have somehow stayed there. It won't be long before they - and Fulham - are back where they belong.
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Oi you, Newcastle are not a championship side, we are just a bad premiership side.
 
He will get a job, but not many people get thier first job in a the top league at least not without being an assistant manager first. He is in the running if he wants it, no doubt about that. I'm not saying he isn't, I'm just saying the Jol is more likely to be top the hit lisht.
 
Just read also that Shearer has ruled himself out and is happy on MOTD. Damn.

Sky sports have claimed the next manager will be English and is currently employed as its been said they will "go through the correct channels". Harry Redknapp perhaps?
 
MildAshers
Sky sports have claimed the next manager will be English and is currently employed as its been said they will "go through the correct channels". Harry Redknapp perhaps?
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Bet your glad that rules Steve McClaren out.

Also it didn't say employed as what. Maybe a coach at top side?
 

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