Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:15 pm  

Enfield Exile wrote:

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.

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.

He was clearly stood over Bellamy and looking up into the crowd, it was clearly a ploy to stop anything else being thrown. As for moving missiles, I doubt he was doing it to try and hide anything, the game was live on Sky. Nothing to do with club bias, it's a disgrace that anything was thrown in the first place.

Utd can play much better, 2nd half we were pretty good and could have easily scored 6. We were average in the first half and only played with one up front so there is planty of room for improvement. As for City, they may have done better had Mancini decided not to park the bus, Bellamy down the middle with Tevez would have been much more of a threat as would Ireland from the start of the match. Is Adebayor better than the front two who started the match? As for central defenders I don't see Toure or Lescott as a particularly big improvement on the two who played. The young lad in particular did very well for you.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:32 pm  

What a great derby. The best thing to come out of the 2 legs despite Neville, Tevez and Cook making themselves look stupid, is that it has made it a derby again. I was impressed with City and I agree with EE that with a more solid back four then things would have been different. I also think that if we had Vidic and Rio over both legs that City would have found things more difficult. City have come a very long way in a short space of time and are in a great position to make it into the top four. It's just a shame that they have jokers like Gary Cook associated with the club, surely the owners will realise for the good of the club that he's a grade A muppet and get rid.

[John_D]

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:43 pm  

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.

Kompany has been a centre back his entire career. Only someone with rocks in their head would deploy him in midfield in anything but an emergency situation.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:16 pm  

John_D wrote:

Kompany has been a centre back his entire career. Only someone with rocks in their head would deploy him in midfield in anything but an emergency situation.

He's an excellent footballer though, which allows him to move into midfield in the said emergency. Like I said earlier, when he moved into midfield in the derby at the CoM last year he was excellent.

[John_D]

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:42 pm  

RedTez wrote:

He's an excellent footballer though, which allows him to move into midfield in the said emergency.

Without a doubt. I've been a big fan since I first saw him back when he was a teenage stripling at Anderlecht. He looked a cut above even then.

Not sure he'd get a game at ours ahead of Dave McGurk, Jimmy Sangaré and Luke Graham though

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:51 pm  

Some more John Terry revelations on the way then... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/ja ... ging-order

Some more John Terry revelations on the way then... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/ja ... ging-order

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:02 pm  

John_D wrote:

Kompany has been a centre back his entire career. Only someone with rocks in their head would deploy him in midfield in anything but an emergency situation.

Both Jol and Hughes used in midfield. Although to be fair, Hughes was expecting Johnson to be fit to take a role in midfield but it didn't quite work out.

He's prone to teh occasional stupid error Kompany but he has been the rock of our team since Mancio arrived.

[Wigan6/Leeds1 Andy]

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:13 pm  

StuMain wrote: Some more John Terry revelations on the way then... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/ja ... ging-order Its to do with him shagging another player's girlfriend according to the Daily Wail - don't know who though.

StuMain wrote: Some more John Terry revelations on the way then... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/ja ... ging-order Its to do with him shagging another player's girlfriend according to the Daily Wail - don't know who though.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:15 pm  

Enfield Exile wrote:

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.

I think we can play better. Certainly defensively and there's a few players who can add a lot more to the attacking side of the team.

I don't think you give Valencia enough credit, sure he was a surprise signing to "replace" Ronaldo, but after a slow start to the season I think he's come on loads. He's added goals to his game and he's got a decent ball on him. I'd like to see him attack defences more, but all in all I'm pretty happy with his contribution so far this season, he's certainly been one of our better players.

Re: More Football Chat : Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:20 pm  

RedTez wrote:

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.

TBH mate I viewed it as our energy and intensity levels dropping due to players not being fit (at least three are known to be carrying injuries (e.g. Barry needs a groin op, SWP is still having problems with his ankle and Tevez has hardly trained in the last two weeks). Plus some players have been having to play with knocks for a few weeks now as we have had so many players unavailable. I think it was 9 at one point.

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

It's good that you give him your support but he has been poor, and IMO he was poor pretty much every game I watched him in last season.

I thought Rafael did well. He knew that Bellamy would always want to cut inside, and kept showing him onto his left.

Rafael looked edgy. He was conceeding throw-ins unnecessarily and Bellamy went past him on two or three occasions. Bellamy would have been able to give him more problems if he had someone he could link-up with. Once we got into your half, we rarely had any bodies infront of the ball carrier.

TBH Bellamy is confortable going inside or rolling the player and going down the outside (just as he did in the first 5 mins). He will prefer the inside but he does go down the outside a fair bit.

Maybe I'm being harsh on Sir Ryan.

That's worse than 'Bobby Manc'

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.

Couldn't agree more. I think I also heard that Mancio wanted to sign him a couple of years ago to play centre-half.

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.

I'd give it a while longer before I make a judgement. A few years ago, there was a highly rated teenager by the name of Martin 'Buster' Phillips...

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

Zabaleta has played LB occasionally. For a defender, his passing is very good and he has a good touch. I want him to do well but he lacks the extra yard of pace that's needed. I like the fact that he has fight in him, and he is genuinely tough. He's a typical Argentinian defender