Re: Football Chat : Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:29 pm  

the reported fee of 3m + 2 youngsters for an average left back. fulham have got the better deal.

cant understand everton letting yobo go - it does seem to leave them with little depth in the centre of defence. it was only the other day moyes was saying he sees rodwell as more of an attacking player for the time being. so that would leave jagielka, distin and heitinga with neville an un-natural choice.


dont think city have done too bad getting 22.5m for robinho considering how unsettled he was, and poor last season. him and ibrahimovic will be able to have a good dummy spitting contest in milan together. interestingly, robinho's first season with city saw him play less league games than in each respective season at madrid, but he scored more goals than in any of those seasons.

Re: Football Chat : Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:37 pm  

Hleb is a decent signing for Brum, I'd have him at Liverpool. Glad Babel is staying though, he has the potential, I rate him alot.

Re: Football Chat : Tue Aug 31, 2010 10:04 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

Good strikers have a knack of scoring no matter what they do. They miss-hit a shot and it ends up wrong-footing the keeper and going in. They do an air kick with the right leg and the ball hits their left leg and goes in. They sky a cross in the Charity Shield match and it smacks them in the face and goes in.

Di Santo is the absolute opposite of that. He can do everything absolutely perfect and he still won't score.

Put it this way, he could go into a brothel with money overflowing from every pocket, he could be carrying gifts of expensive jewellery and flowers, he'll be clean, well dressed and treat the women with respect and kindness. He still wouldn't score.

I think Blackburn fans appreciated his hard work and good play outside the box, but I figure they have gotten sick of him being an anti-goal machine.

That's my worry about him. Maybe he can create the space for Boselli though

Re: Football Chat : Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:45 am  

74' wrote:

Hleb is a decent signing for Brum, I'd have him at Liverpool. Glad Babel is staying though, he has the potential, I rate him alot.

Folk talk of his potential but apart from the odd decent goal, he has been largely $hite for Liverpool since he arrived

Re: Football Chat : Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:28 am  

PAUL M wrote:

Man City's line up confused me on Sunday, surely Silva would have been better in the role Toure played, I'd have thought Yaya would have been deployed in one of the holding roles occupied by De Jong or Barry.

Yaya Toure is not playing as a holding midfielder at City.

The aim is to play a 4321 although it is not working at the moment as the only two full-backs we have who can provide the width are Kolarov and Boateng. Both are injured. The formation will also be more effective when Balotelli is fit as Johnson and Milner are not suited to those roles. Johnson will get used to it but Milner ios likely to be part of the midfield 3.

I would think Silva is being gently introduced to English football so he will probably play more minutes against the lesser quality teams. In the game against Spurs he seemed over-awed by teh pace of the game and the congestioon in midfield. He got better as teh game went on. Against Timosuara (sp?) Silva was made to look ordinary because of Adebayor's lack of football intelligence. Silva was constantly looking for the pass but Jo and Adebayor had no idea how to make a run.

Re: Football Chat : Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:33 am  

MrPhilb wrote:

A few of them where fouls yes which is why he was booked eventually, none of them where bad challenges though.

There were at least 5 challenges on Barton by a number of players, that deserved yellow cards. A gutless performance by the referee.

As for bad challenges, you obviously missed the last challenge on Barton by Henry.

If any of those five or six challenges had been made against the likes of Torres, Gerrard, Drogba, Fabregas etc., there would have been at least two red cards in that game.

Re: Football Chat : Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:31 am  

Enfield Exile wrote:

Yaya Toure is not playing as a holding midfielder at City.

The aim is to play a 4321 although it is not working at the moment as the only two full-backs we have who can provide the width are Kolarov and Boateng. Both are injured. The formation will also be more effective when Balotelli is fit as Johnson and Milner are not suited to those roles. Johnson will get used to it but Milner ios likely to be part of the midfield 3.

I would think Silva is being gently introduced to English football so he will probably play more minutes against the lesser quality teams. In the game against Spurs he seemed over-awed by teh pace of the game and the congestioon in midfield. He got better as teh game went on. Against Timosuara (sp?) Silva was made to look ordinary because of Adebayor's lack of football intelligence. Silva was constantly looking for the pass but Jo and Adebayor had no idea how to make a run.

I thought that is why they had signed him tbh, as a holding player. The system on Sat 4231 t me would have been better with Silva as one of the three and probably Yaya alongside Barry.

If they play 4321 I am guessing the three would be Milner, Barry, Toure, with Silva, Ballotelli as the two and Tevez up front although Tevez and Balotelli could interchange I guess.

Re: Football Chat : Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:33 am  

Enfield Exile wrote:

There were at least 5 challenges on Barton by a number of players, that deserved yellow cards. A gutless performance by the referee.

As for bad challenges, you obviously missed the last challenge on Barton by Henry.

If any of those five or six challenges had been made against the likes of Torres, Gerrard, Drogba, Fabregas etc., there would have been at least two red cards in that game.

I agree anyone other than Barton and yellow cards would have been dished out. Henry deserved more than one booking and wa lucky to stay on imo. I don't like Barton but there has to be the same rules for all players.

Re: Football Chat : Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:32 am  

Enfield Exile wrote:

Yaya Toure is not playing as a holding midfielder at City.

The aim is to play a 4321 although it is not working at the moment as the only two full-backs we have who can provide the width are Kolarov and Boateng. Both are injured. The formation will also be more effective when Balotelli is fit as Johnson and Milner are not suited to those roles. Johnson will get used to it but Milner ios likely to be part of the midfield 3.

I would think Silva is being gently introduced to English football so he will probably play more minutes against the lesser quality teams. In the game against Spurs he seemed over-awed by teh pace of the game and the congestioon in midfield. He got better as teh game went on. Against Timosuara (sp?) Silva was made to look ordinary because of Adebayor's lack of football intelligence. Silva was constantly looking for the pass but Jo and Adebayor had no idea how to make a run.

Silva's a concern for me. I hadnt realised just how slight a figure he is until I saw him in the flesh. He's obviously exceptionally skilfull, I'm just not sure that he's strong enough for the PL and that he might not be another Robinho signing (although without the attitude). On Sunday his introduction turned the game in Sunderland's favour, he lost the ball far too easily.

Early days I know. He'll adjust to the pace of the PL, just not sure about the physicality.

Everything else about City's start to the season has gone as well as could reasonably expected given the changes made, not just to personnel but to the tactics and formations. But Silva's a worry.

Re: Football Chat : Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:49 am  

Apparently this is the "NEW" England shirt Apologies if its previously been metioned I think its sjit FWIW and its basically the same as the "OLD" one

Apparently this is the "NEW" England shirt Apologies if its previously been metioned I think its sjit FWIW and its basically the same as the "OLD" one