: Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:51 pm  

LFCRhino wrote:

Sorry I meant good defenders that are good enough to replace King the crock, lets face it if they would rather play him with no training they cant be owt special can they??

Bassong is quality, they have Woodgate and Corluka who are both decent enough on their day. They have four decent centre backs, one of them also being a right back, hence the signing of Naughton who looks a decent right back for his age.

King's a top player, it's crazy how he's one of the best defenders in the league yet he can barely train, but it is odd that a club with ambitious plans are happy to accept they have a player who will play once a week and won't train. People are talking about taking him to the world cup, but I just don't think he's reliable enough physically.

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:56 pm  

Robbie Rotten wrote:

Bassong is quality, they have Woodgate and Corluka who are both decent enough on their day. They have four decent centre backs, one of them also being a right back, hence the signing of Naughton who looks a decent right back for his age.

King's a top player, it's crazy how he's one of the best defenders in the league yet he can barely train, but it is odd that a club with ambitious plans are happy to accept they have a player who will play once a week and won't train. People are talking about taking him to the world cup, but I just don't think he's reliable enough physically.

He'd be my third choice centre back for England but like you've said, it's impossible to rely on him and I don't think you can have someone in a World Cup squad with his problems.

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:13 pm  

Robbie Rotten wrote:

I thought City's full backs were poor. Park is no great shake but I was never impressed with Bridge. City need somebody world class, I hear Dossena's available.

Anyway, I raised doubts about City's full backs before the season started and I still have my doubts, Richards is quick but lacks agility to defend 1v1, Bridge is just an average to decent player IMO.

I think Lescott and Toure can be good partnership but time will be needed for the partnership to work, they'll need to understand eachother's strengths and weaknesses and learn to compliment eachother. It doesn't happen overnight but their defence was solid prior to the games against Arsenal and United. There's no shame in your defence being made to look poor against them, but there's still a lot to work on.

Richards' weakness is not 1v1. That's one of his strengths IMO. His major weaknesses are: positioning (this has worsened in the last year); concentration levels and; he poses too much.

As for Bridge - he had a shaky start but he played ok. TBF he has been excellent this season. Much better than last year.

You're right about Lescott and Toure. They need some more playing time together. They were generally good on the ground, but the lack of physicality shown when the ball was crossed in, was poor.

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:23 pm  

Robbie Rotten wrote:

Bassong is quality, they have Woodgate and Corluka who are both decent enough on their day. They have four decent centre backs, one of them also being a right back, hence the signing of Naughton who looks a decent right back for his age.

King's a top player, it's crazy how he's one of the best defenders in the league yet he can barely train, but it is odd that a club with ambitious plans are happy to accept they have a player who will play once a week and won't train. People are talking about taking him to the world cup, but I just don't think he's reliable enough physically.

Talentwise King is superb and I can see why Spurs would persevere with him, there problems are compounded at the moment though with injuries to the other three centre backs. Your are right about the world cup, as good as he is we just can't rely on him and it looks fairly certain that Upson is currently third choice at the moment.

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:42 pm  

PAUL M wrote:

Talentwise King is superb and I can see why Spurs would persevere with him, there problems are compounded at the moment though with injuries to the other three centre backs. Your are right about the world cup, as good as he is we just can't rely on him and it looks fairly certain that Upson is currently third choice at the moment.

Would have Lescott ahead of Upson personally

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:09 pm  

Bridge had a stinker yesterday. Richards wasn't much better.

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:11 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

City are definitely a candidate for the league this year, but I get the feeling a lot will depend on the fitness of Adebayor.

By the way, will he be off to the African Nations?

As of yet no, The only teams to have qualified so far are:

Angola (Hosts)
Tunisia (Group B)
Algeria (Group C)
Ghana (Group D)
Côte d'Ivoire (Group E)

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:27 pm  

RedTez wrote:

He (G Neville) was warming up.

And you would have thought that he knew that 3 subsitutions had already been made.

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:04 pm  

http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/badadebayor/playgame

http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/badadebayor/playgame

: Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:07 pm  

Enfield Exile wrote: The paranoia surrounding the whole Munich thing is so very....what can I say...scouse like. It's very much, "I am a victim", "The world hates me/us" and "Everybody wants to poke fun at us about Munich". Bellamy celebrates like that whenever he scores. Like Adebayor and the way he "celebrates like that every time he scores"? SSN showed a compilation of his celebrations and he only celebrates like that (not the 90 yard run - that is out of character in any context) every now and then. I would imagine it's the same with Bellamy. As I said, odd that his raised his arms again as he went past the United fans ... Not similar at all. For a start, Cantona left the field of play. And Cantona wasn't a coward? He gave someone, who was sitting down, a karate kick with his football boots on. Bellamy, slapped teh player. He didn't punch him. He used a clench fist to the face (cf. the photo floating about). I'd call that a punch mate ... D.D. wrote: Granted, United murdered us in the second half but we were were seconds away from an unbelievable 3-3 draw at the home of the three times champions. Three times Champions? Come again ... don't go confusing the number of Championship trophies we have with the number of McDonalds employee of the month stars on your badge. Without Adebayor we were always going to struggle to keep the ball at the other end of the field and we were always going to be on the backfoot. You have combined GDP of most Africa to play with and you're still reliant on one average striker. You bought at least half a dozen of them in the summer, don't go rolling that excuse out. ... the signs are very promising. There is a new team in town and it's here to stay. Where have we heard that before ... ?

Enfield Exile wrote: The paranoia surrounding the whole Munich thing is so very....what can I say...scouse like. It's very much, "I am a victim", "The world hates me/us" and "Everybody wants to poke fun at us about Munich". Bellamy celebrates like that whenever he scores. Like Adebayor and the way he "celebrates like that every time he scores"? SSN showed a compilation of his celebrations and he only celebrates like that (not the 90 yard run - that is out of character in any context) every now and then. I would imagine it's the same with Bellamy. As I said, odd that his raised his arms again as he went past the United fans ... Not similar at all. For a start, Cantona left the field of play. And Cantona wasn't a coward? He gave someone, who was sitting down, a karate kick with his football boots on. Bellamy, slapped teh player. He didn't punch him. He used a clench fist to the face (cf. the photo floating about). I'd call that a punch mate ... D.D. wrote: Granted, United murdered us in the second half but we were were seconds away from an unbelievable 3-3 draw at the home of the three times champions. Three times Champions? Come again ... don't go confusing the number of Championship trophies we have with the number of McDonalds employee of the month stars on your badge. Without Adebayor we were always going to struggle to keep the ball at the other end of the field and we were always going to be on the backfoot. You have combined GDP of most Africa to play with and you're still reliant on one average striker. You bought at least half a dozen of them in the summer, don't go rolling that excuse out. ... the signs are very promising. There is a new team in town and it's here to stay. Where have we heard that before ... ?