Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:47 pm  

Mark wrote:

The City fan on the pitch was laughable, mainly due to his shoddy headwear. How bad is the premier league this season? United have been pretty much helpful for most of it and 6 points clear. Cleverly is crap. Liverpool fans think they're doing well and are 7th? Joe Allen is worse than Cleverly. I dislike Suarez but he is one of the best footballers in the league if not the world just not a great striker. Everton started really well for a change and if they carry on the trend of a great second half they should p*ss 4th. Chelsea are a joke. City are still massive.

Depends how you look at it really, we have little to no expectations of the current team. We're still trying to get over the woeful transfer windows of the past few years, we've brought in some younger players like Sterling, Wisdom and Suso.

I think Allen is a class player and the majority of people who dislike him don't really get him. They are the type of people who think Gerrard should be a centre mid so he can 'drive the team forward' or they think playing two 'holding' players is instantly negative and therefore defensive. When Allen is allowed to play the effect he has on our side can't be measured, we move around the pitch exceptionally well and our ball retention is fantastic. He's barely had a chance to get forward and truly influence things because Lucas has been injured, but now he's back I expect to see Allen shine, especially if Gerrard plays less.

Allen reminds me very much of Alonso. He probably isn't as good as what Xabi was at his age, but he still has a great brain and his passing ability is fantastic. I don't think Allen will ever be the type of player that's considered great by opposing fans, they just won't ever appreciate what he does for a team they don't watch regularly. My biggest criticism of his play is his defensive work, I think he can be a little rash sometimes but that will come with experience. He's only going to get better in our side IMO.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:17 pm  

Anybody who thinks Joe Allen is worse than Cleverley should give up on football.

Top player.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:31 pm  

Lord Tony Smith wrote:

Anybody who thinks Joe Allen is worse than Cleverley should give up on football.

Top player.

Sorry, Allen is BOSS.

we all aspire to reach your level of football knowledge.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:33 pm  

Roddy B wrote:

Allen reminds me very much of Alonso. He probably isn't as good as what Xabi was at his age, but he still has a great brain and his passing ability is fantastic. .

Fan of yours mate. But just nearly died laughing. Spearing did what Allen does.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:38 pm  

Liverpool fans really are thick.

Joe Allen like Xabi Alonso? In what way exactly? Their surnames start with "A"?

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Dec 14, 2012 8:36 pm  

Mark wrote:

Fan of yours mate. But just nearly died laughing. Spearing did what Allen does.

You see, that's what you don't get. When Spearing played for us his passing was limited, he could barely pass more than ten yards and his vision was limited. Spearing's passing was like a poor Mascherano. I'm not saying Allen is the wizard that Alonso was, but the effect he has on our team is very similar to Xabi's. He finds people open, he's aware of everybody around him and he's the man teams go to when they want to stop our passing. The moment Diame went off at the weekend Allen had the park to himself, it was pretty easy from then on. Stick Allen in a better side feeding better players and you'd be far more impressed, he does a lot for us but it usually amounts to nothing given the poor quality/wastefulness of our overall attack.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:03 pm  

Roddy B wrote:

You see, that's what you don't get. When Spearing played for us his passing was limited, he could barely pass more than ten yards and his vision was limited. Spearing's passing was like a poor Mascherano. I'm not saying Allen is the wizard that Alonso was, but the effect he has on our team is very similar to Xabi's. He finds people open, he's aware of everybody around him and he's the man teams go to when they want to stop our passing. The moment Diame went off at the weekend Allen had the park to himself, it was pretty easy from then on. Stick Allen in a better side feeding better players and you'd be far more impressed, he does a lot for us but it usually amounts to nothing given the poor quality/wastefulness of our overall attack.

He sounds like a slightly inferior Darron Gibson....

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:25 pm  

I think Allen had gone off the boil after a fantastic start at LFC. But he has been asked to play Lucas' position, to be fair. We might see the best out of him now he has more of a free reign.

Liverpool, all of a sudden, have a bit of competition in midfield. Lucas is back, Gerrard is playing slightly better, especially when he gets further up the park, Henderson has found a bit of form and the German Turk can't buy a start.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sat Dec 15, 2012 1:06 pm  

Joe Allen is just a Tesco Value Michael Carrick.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sat Dec 15, 2012 2:20 pm  

100% Wire wrote:

Joe Allen is just a Tesco Value Michael Carrick.

In fairness to Allen there is nine years difference in age between the two. Carrick was still faffing about at West Ham at the same age as Allen is now.