Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:17 am  

The African Cup of Nations has been an absolute farce. An entertaining one no doubt but a farce. I'd hate to tar all with the same brush, but it just seems to me that Africans have a rather feiry nature and deliberately assembling a collection of them is like smoking in a fireworks factory.

It has proven though why the World Cup should never have been given to South Africa. Security is an absolutely huge issue there anyway, without so many easy targets. There will be kidnappings, murders, stabbings, shootings, car jackings and crowd trouble.

Should make very good TV viewing.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:34 am  

Paddy Evra wrote:

Go on Fletch!

PICTURE THEFT!

Fletcher....looks....errrr.... on the front foot in that picture

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:38 am  

Walshovski wrote:

Good to see City fans now have United's debt to sing about along with Munich. Will start worrying when they are singing about things that actually happen on the pitch.

Mate, United fans songs are mainly about us, scousers and Leeds. The majority of the chants / songs are nothing about football.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:43 am  

PAUL M wrote:

Funny cos I saw VDS running over to Bellamy to help him and trying to prevent anything further been thrown!

You didn't notice him run over and pick up the coins and a bottle, then dispose of them, before the ref got there. Even Barry refused to give one of the coins to Van De Saar as he knew what the goalkeeper was up to. Now I can understand club bias (I don't understand why you support United but that's another issue) but your claim is nonsense.

As for the Utd can't play any better but City can comment

We can play better than last night. No doubt about it. Can United play any better? Certainly not much better. When you get your stars in like Anderson (I told everyone on here he was terrible - took some of you two years to notice), Smalling and Valencia, maybe you will be even better. Those three are genuine world class talent.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:02 am  

Not really sure about the comment regards United not being able to play better. I think we can play much better than that. First half was pretty poor in truth. Carrick didn't have his best game, defensively we were suspect again. Bellamy was not closed down on the cross for the goal, Carrick and Brown just watched him cross. Giggs had the beating of Richards all night, but didn't have the pace to get away.

Whilst United play with one up front, we will never be as effective for me. City allowed players like Fletch and Scholes to get up and support Rooney due to their defensive tactics. If a team would've shown more ambition going forward, it would've limited the midfielders support of Rooney.

On City, I think De Jong is excellent at what he does, but offers nothing going forward. Playing Zabaleta along side him was a telling decision. SWP and Garrido looked like fishes out of water, not good enough. The positives for City were certainly Kompany and Boyata. Although he looked nervy, Boyata looks like he is a great prospect. Kompany is City's best outfield player most times I watch them.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:10 am  

Where did this Boyata character come from? I see from Google that he's Belgian, but how long has he been at City?

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:36 am  

RedTez wrote:

Not really sure about the comment regards United not being able to play better. I think we can play much better than that.

As I see it, you are very much becoming a one-man team. Rooney was playing as well as he has done. I cannot see what else you could squeeze from your team, bar your midfielders going beyond Rooney. But then we didn't allow you to do that in the first half as we would have punished you on the break.

First half was pretty poor in truth.

You mean we snuffed out any potential threat you had?

In the second-half we tired a bit and we began to give silly free-kicks away, which brought pressuere on ourselves. When you do that, you are eventually going to wilt under the pressure.

I feel that if Adebayor, Bridge and Lescott were fit, Mancio would have gone with a 442, certainly in the first leg. When you have a poor LB and a 19-year old with about 4 games experience, you have to provide additional protection to the back four.

I wanted us to attack more in the first half as I don't rate Evans or Brown but Mancio probably felt that he couldn't take that risk, and we only had one other fit striker - Benjani (AKA Floella Benjamin)

Carrick didn't have his best game, defensively we were suspect again.

How many times has he actually played well?

Bellamy was not closed down on the cross for the goal, Carrick and Brown just watched him cross.

The main culrpit was Fabio (I have no idea why people rate him so highly). He was rash, and let Bellamy spin and charge forward.

Giggs had the beating of Richards all night, but didn't have the pace to get away.

I can't agree with that. Richards gave him a bit of space on two or three occasions but generally caught him. Richards did well considering that SWP's defensive contribution wasn't great. Plenty of energy from SWP, but not effective in attack or defence.

Whilst United play with one up front, we will never be as effective for me. City allowed players like Fletch and Scholes to get up and support Rooney due to their defensive tactics. If a team would've shown more ambition going forward, it would've limited the midfielders support of Rooney.

TBF the reason you get to keep the ball so much is because you have 5 bodies in midfield.

On City, I think De Jong is excellent at what he does, but offers nothing going forward. Playing Zabaleta along side him was a telling decision. SWP and Garrido looked like fishes out of water, not good enough. The positives for City were certainly Kompany and Boyata. Although he looked nervy, Boyata looks like he is a great prospect. Kompany is City's best outfield player most times I watch them.

Spanish Gaz is simply not good enough. He's good with the football, and generally uses it intelligently. However, his positioning is poor.

Last year, I said that Kompany is a defender and not a midfielder. He can play the odd game in midfield and look good. I'd go as far as to say that he is best centre-half at the club.

Boyata? He looks okay but he's too nery for me and he has a dodgy first touch. A bit like Nedum when he first broke into the team. However, Nedum looked that bit better to me. I certainly hope he is not made of glass, like Nedum seems to be.

I like Zabaleta's attitude but he kept giving away silly free-kicks and he was at fault for the 3rd goal. I'd like him to stay as a squad player but nothing more.

[John_D]

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:49 am  

Saddened! wrote:

The African Cup of Nations has been an absolute farce. An entertaining one no doubt but a farce. I'd hate to tar all with the same brush, but it just seems to me that Africans have a rather feiry nature and deliberately assembling a collection of them is like smoking in a fireworks factory.

It has proven though why the World Cup should never have been given to South Africa. Security is an absolutely huge issue there anyway, without so many easy targets. There will be kidnappings, murders, stabbings, shootings, car jackings and crowd trouble.

Should make very good TV viewing.

What are you saying? The World Cup shouldn't have gone to South Africa because of a game between famous chums Algeria and Egypt kicking off a bit 3000km away in Angola? How does that work then? Should we never have a World Cup in Europe again because the Belgrade derby last year kicked off?

You'd hate to tar them all with the same brush, but then go on so to do. That's a bit like the bloke down the pub who says "I'm not racist, but..." before then going on to say something really racist.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:15 pm  

Enfield Exile wrote:

As I see it, you are very much becoming a one-man team. Rooney was playing as well as he has done. I cannot see what else you could squeeze from your team, bar your midfielders going beyond Rooney. But then we didn't allow you to do that in the first half as we would have punished you on the break.

I tend to agree, we need more from other players, ie Berbatov, Carrick etc. This is why I think there's a lot of improvement in United yet.

Enfield Exile wrote:

You mean we snuffed out any potential threat you had?

Yes, City spoiled the game quite well.

Enfield Exile wrote:

In the second-half we tired a bit and we began to give silly free-kicks away, which brought pressuere on ourselves. When you do that, you are eventually going to wilt under the pressure.

I feel that if Adebayor, Bridge and Lescott were fit, Mancio would have gone with a 442, certainly in the first leg. When you have a poor LB and a 19-year old with about 4 games experience, you have to provide additional protection to the back four.

I wanted us to attack more in the first half as I don't rate Evans or Brown but Mancio probably felt that he couldn't take that risk, and we only had one other fit striker - Benjani (AKA Floella Benjamin)

I think as United upped their game, City struggled to cope, meaning that free kicks were given away more frequently. It's a fair point about the inexperience and poor quality of some of your defenders though.

Enfield Exile wrote:

How many times has he actually played well?

Not too many this season, he needs to up it. Last couple of seasons he has been excellent.

Enfield Exile wrote:

The main culrpit was Fabio (I have no idea why people rate him so highly). He was rash, and let Bellamy spin and charge forward.

I thought Rafael did well. He knew that Bellamy would always want to cut inside, and kept showing him onto his left. As soon as he was taken off, Brown allowed him to cut in at will, therfore he created more problems. TBF when Rafael was on the pitch, Bellamy was running with the ball with little end product or nowhere to go.

Enfield Exile wrote:

I can't agree with that. Richards gave him a bit of space on two or three occasions but generally caught him. Richards did well considering that SWP's defensive contribution wasn't great. Plenty of energy from SWP, but not effective in attack or defence.

Maybe my red tinted specs, but I saw giggs time and time again turn away from Richards, only to lack the burst of pace to take him away. In fairness, Richards as great pace, that gets him out of tricky situations an awful lot. Maybe I'm being harsh on Sir Ryan.

Enfield Exile wrote:

TBF the reason you get to keep the ball so much is because you have 5 bodies in midfield.

Spanish Gaz is simply not good enough. He's good with the football, and generally uses it intelligently. However, his positioning is poor.

He looked poor to me, his head seemed to go down a bit too.

Enfield Exile wrote:

Last year, I said that Kompany is a defender and not a midfielder. He can play the odd game in midfield and look good. I'd go as far as to say that he is best centre-half at the club.

I'd agree with that. I thought that when Kompany moved to defence to Midfield last year at Eastlands, City looked much better. I think he is more effective in defence though, and now you have enough good midfielders to allow him to stay there.

Enfield Exile wrote:

Boyata? He looks okay but he's too nery for me and he has a dodgy first touch. A bit like Nedum when he first broke into the team. However, Nedum looked that bit better to me. I certainly hope he is not made of glass, like Nedum seems to be.

He is Nervy at the moment, but has all the signs of a good un. The clearence from under his own cross bar was excellent, saved a certain goal. Maybe a little bit lucky to get the elevation on it, but hiis positional sense was outstanding.

Enfield Exile wrote:

I like Zabaleta's attitude but he kept giving away silly free-kicks and he was at fault for the 3rd goal. I'd like him to stay as a squad player but nothing more.

He would be a good squad player at most premier league clubs. Can he play left back? If so, I'd put him there every week over Bridge and Garrido.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:51 pm  

Alberto Zaccheroni new Juventus manager... looks like Benitez missed out... for now http://es.soccerway.com/news/2010/Janua ... e-ferrara/

Alberto Zaccheroni new Juventus manager... looks like Benitez missed out... for now http://es.soccerway.com/news/2010/Janua ... e-ferrara/