Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 2:43 pm  

I'm surprised so many think Torres was a great "flop". Undoubtedly, very poor. Looks disinterested, unconfident, under motivated.

But then at what point is a player who is all those things supposed to change over night? He signed for a new club, and continued the state he was in then. Chelsea took a similar gamble with him that they did when they signed Veron from United, and the same result. The only difference is, Torres had shown supreme form and fit in with premiership football in the distant past but he was still completely off the boil when Chelsea came in.

Signing of the season is definintely Hernandez, what a deal! But anyone saying Luis Suarez is perfectly entitled to, he has helped liverpool turn their season around. That lad has a lot of skill.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 2:47 pm  

Player; Kompany

Manager: has there been an OUTSTANDING one this year, I don't think there has

Goal: Rooney (gggrrrr) or either of Tevez's efforts v Stoke on Tuesday

Match: Newc v Arsenal

Signing: Hernandes

Flop: Torres,Cole (where has that form of a few seasons gone, I'd rather play George Cole)

Pundit: Souness. At least he's someone who's acheived as a player and manager

Innovation: RL style timing (an end to Fergie time) PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN, and it will bring an end to all the conspiracy theories

Gripe: Part of my Sky subscription going to Paul Merson (he makes my pooh itch), feining injury/kicking the ball out of play when players have merely been 'tapped' then roll around in agony

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 3:55 pm  

lefty goldblatt wrote:

Innovation: RL style timing (an end to Fergie time) PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN, and it will bring an end to all the conspiracy theories

We're Man United, We'll do what we want.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 8:46 pm  

Nikaed wrote:

We're Man United, We'll do what we want.

Got to say, anyone moaning about "Fergie time" and then in the same sentence lamenting about conspiracy theories has to be joking...don't they?

Remember "Dalgish time" against Arsenal? No? I'm sure we all would if people were still moaning about them scoring after the allotted time. The fact that both decisions were correct makes the whole thing even more ridiculous.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 8:48 pm  

Torres is as much of a flop as Dzeko & Carroll are, so you would have to put them on par. I don't think all can be considered flops, simply as coming into a side mid season does not always work. Evra & Vidic, but Evra in particular looked hideous when he joined United mid season etc.

Some bad signings this year, in terms of lack of impact that has really affected their clubs :

Koscielny - Without Vermaelen they needed a rock, he was paper.
Barrera/Reid - They literally didn't help West Ham a jott, they cost 8 million between them.
Jovanovic/Cole - Might have been free's - pointless, there side has lacked width & creativity at times.
Boselli - Wigan's record signing, has he scored ??
Santa Cruz - Never go back, Roque.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 8:53 pm  

Chris Dalton wrote:

Remember "Dalgish time" against Arsenal? No? I'm sure we all would if people were still moaning about them scoring after the allotted time. The fact that both decisions were correct makes the whole thing even more ridiculous.

Remember what?

Dirk scored in the 101th minute after a lengthy amount of added time was played for Carragher being knocked out (that was 4 minutes at least), substitutions, Arsenal's d!cking about with the penalty and the aftermath celebrations thinking they'd won the game, Arsenal taking as much time as they could trying to run the clock down after being 1-0 up, then our penalty (again; another stoppage in play).

You do realise it's a minium of however many minutes?

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 8:55 pm  

JWP wrote:

Boselli - Wigan Athletic's record signing, has he scored ??

He was shipped off to Genoa.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 9:11 pm  

JWP wrote:

Torres is as much of a flop as Dzeko & Carroll are, so you would have to put them on par. I don't think all can be considered flops, simply as coming into a side mid season does not always work.

I disagree JWP. I consider Torres to be more of a flop because of his pricetag and the qualities he has. On his day, for me, Torres is one of, if not, thee best striker in the world, and everybody is aware of his attributes. He's a class player who benefits from playing off somebody, but even still 50 million quid is alot of money for anybody so with that price, you're always going to have that weight of expectation and added pressure on your shoulders. I personally expected Torres to score a hat load of goals for Chelski this season playing alongside Drogba, however that isn't the case, if 50 million quid brings you 1 goal in 4 or 5 months - well then that's very disappointing.

With Dzeko you could argue the case of him being in his first season of English football and him needing himself to find his feet and adjust, as is the case with alot of players. You could argue Carroll has been a flop, however the way he's contributed when he's played this season he's done very well and hasn't do alot wrong, he's also been sturggling with injuires. He probably should of scored more goals, however his contribution has been of a good standard.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 9:13 pm  

Lord Tony Smith wrote:

Remember what?

Dirk scored in the 101th minute after a lengthy amount of added time was played for Carragher being knocked out (that was 4 minutes at least), substitutions, Arsenal's d!cking about with the penalty and the aftermath celebrations thinking they'd won the game, Arsenal taking as much time as they could trying to run the clock down after being 1-0 up, then our penalty (again; another stoppage in play).

You do realise it's a minium of however many minutes?

Did you bother reading the post?

Because if you had instead of flying off on a rant you'd notice I said it was a correct decision to give you that amount of time. It was also a similar circumstance to Owen's goal against City, i.e. injury time being extended to take in to account goal celebrations and time wasting but people wont stop complaining about it and Alex Fergusons "magical influence".

So let me put this into thickie terms which you might bother paying attention to: I agreed with the amount of injury time in the Liverpool Arsenal game in question.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Thu May 19, 2011 9:34 pm  

Lord Tony Smith wrote:

I disagree JWP. I consider Torres to be more of a flop because of his pricetag and the qualities he has. On his day, for me, Torres is one of, if not, thee best striker in the world, and everybody is aware of his attributes. He's a class player who benefits from playing off somebody, but even still 50 million quid is alot of money for anybody so with that price, you're always going to have that weight of expectation and added pressure on your shoulders. I personally expected Torres to score a hat load of goals for Chelski this season playing alongside Drogba, however that isn't the case, if 50 million quid brings you 1 goal in 4 or 5 months - well then that's very disappointing.

With Dzeko you could argue the case of him being in his first season of English football and him needing himself to find his feet and adjust, as is the case with alot of players. You could argue Carroll has been a flop, however the way he's contributed when he's played this season he's done very well and hasn't do alot wrong, he's also been sturggling with injuires. He probably should of scored more goals, however his contribution has been of a good standard.

I think there's a lot of bitterness shown towards Torres in general, obviously this is even more damning from Liverpool fans who feel he walked out on the team late in the window etc, folk seem keen to find an excuse for everyone else yet when it's Torres 'flop' gets banded about, when it's clear as a bell that it's more about Chelsea not helping him then him not trying, I think he's put more of a shift in for Chelsea than I reckon he's been used to before, Ancelotti said this about him :

"He likes to receive the ball at a certain point, so we have to improve this. Sometimes he moves well on the wrong side of the centre-back and the ball does not arrive at the right time.'

So he knows the problem, it's the system/midfield that Chelsea currently have.

I could understand it if he was being played clean through time after time and couldn't the preverbial cows booty but saying he's feeding on scraps it's being kind. Sunday just gone, he set up a goal with a near post flick on, that looks his best hope at times losing his marker at a set piece.

I think Chelsea will devise a system to incorporate Torres, they'll have to as they need to build the team around him. I see Carroll as a bigger problem actually, I like him a lot, but whilst he's been injured Liverpool have found form playing a very neat, on the deck, passing style of football, he will slow this down immensely, finding a way of incorporating him into a 'Liverpool' style won't be easy.