Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:49 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

It's hard to judge like that though. If you put Lionel Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Alves and co behind any Premier League striker and they would suddenly look unbelievably good.

With the slight exception of Victor...

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:45 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

It's hard to judge like that though. If you put Lionel Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Alves and co behind any Premier League striker and they would suddenly look unbelievably good.

But he was the best forward before Barca, IMO. For Valencia he was sublime for years, just like Alves was immense for Sevilla before he went to Barca. The fact they got moves to Barca shows how good they were before they moved.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:46 pm  

Asim wrote:

I wanted to take an Italian friend to the game last night but couldn't as I'd never bought tickets from MCFC before, which seemed odd when people had had a few weeks to get tickets.

They had a legitimate concern about Napoli fans "infiltrating" the City fans so put a number of restrictions in place which made it virtually impossible for any casual supporters to get a ticket. Throw in hour long queues on the phone line, a decision to prematurely pull the online ticketing operation and clearly false announcements that the game was about to sell out and its fairly obvious why a lot of fans just gave up the ghost. Quite a few City fans were also late getting into the ground when the cards that they were issued didnt work at turnstiles.

I missed two away games last season after being told incorrectly by the ticket office that they'd sold out. Earlier this week I bought my ticket for the Bayern Munich v City game. After half an hour arguing with the operator over whether I had enough loyalty points (it turned out that he hadnt been told that the criteria had been reduced) he sold me a ticket but told me that I had to collect it from the ground in Munich. After a further 15 min debate he finally accepted that I had to collect it from the Etihad Stadium. So I expect that there'll be plenty of empty seats for that match, with irate ticketless City fans outside the ground!

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:52 pm  

Funny that Cibaman, as my mate's dad (City fan) used to regularly praise City's ticket scheme when comparing it to Liverpool's old ticket scheme. When I used to go and watch Liverpool, me and my mate would buy fan cards then get our tickets online/on the phone, once we got to one game in Europe, we'd get to them all, which I thought was pretty good, but could imagine that it would be tricky to 'get in' for the first ticket.

Is it a problem with the scheme, or is it purely a problem with the people working the office?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:39 pm  

Cibaman wrote:

They had a legitimate concern about Napoli fans "infiltrating" the City fans so put a number of restrictions in place which made it virtually impossible for any casual supporters to get a ticket.

Fair enough from that point of view, as I was trying to get a Napoli "sympathiser" in then I can't really grumble (doubt she would have caused many issues though, in fact most blokes are usually delighted to see her!)

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:03 pm  

Roddy B wrote:

Funny that Cibaman, as my mate's dad (City fan) used to regularly praise City's ticket scheme when comparing it to Liverpool's old ticket scheme. When I used to go and watch Liverpool, me and my mate would buy fan cards then get our tickets online/on the phone, once we got to one game in Europe, we'd get to them all, which I thought was pretty good, but could imagine that it would be tricky to 'get in' for the first ticket.

Is it a problem with the scheme, or is it purely a problem with the people working the office?

They outsourced telephone ticketing to an agency in Nottingham. The basic problem seems to be that there is no communication between the club and the agency. The bloke who I spoke to when buying the Bayern Munich ticket was doing his best but as he said "Sorry mate, no one here knows whats going on. Its all a bit of a shambles".

I have some sympathy with the club in that they're treading new ground and its difficult for them to assess demand for a particular game. But they make some fundamental errors eg they seemed to think that there would be the same demand for Community Shield tickets as for the FA Cup semi final. So they set unrealisticaly high loyatly points criteria for the initial sales then find that they've got lots of tickets to shift at the last minute, and cant cope with the late demand. And also by then a lot of fans have decided to watch the game down the pub.

They've just announced that there still tickets left for the Bayern Munich away match, but the travel packages have all sold out!

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:17 pm  

Roddy B wrote:

A few things Dan, he's not a bad player, I just don't rate him amongst the greatest players playing the game at the moment. He wouldn't get in my World XI, he wouldn't even get on my bench; it's just preference.

Fair enough, I'm not going to knock that it's your opinion. Personally I'd have him at least in my squad but as a second/support striker to Villa or Pato would be an exceptional partnership IMO. It depends what you're looking for in a forward but I think he'd be a perfect foil for a Pato or a Villa, he offers things that they don't which is why I think Fergie brought in Hernandez and persevered with Wellbeck.

Roddy B wrote:

I know what Rooney's strengths are, he can score goals (not as consistently as he could have though, he's always been a patchy player in regards to goals IMO), he can create goals and he does work hard, but I don't think he's a great decision maker, I don't think he has the full array of passes and I don't view him as a pure goalscorer, and by that I mean, he isn't the type of player who'll put three out of five chances away, he generally gets more chances than most but still doesn't score the most. Before you say "two hat-tricks in a row, blah blah" that's the past few weeks, we're talking years here mate.

Very true, I won't say that but two hat tricks in two games is some going. Not many players can claim that achievement. I'll agree he isn't an out and out goalscorer like Villa or Torres but he chips in with a fair few, regularly going into double figures in the league charts, he should score more than he does but I think his goalscoring record this season could be something special, having said that he's scored at Premier League, Champions League and International level. From what I've seen over the years his passing is quite good, for a forward he can pick out a pass and sets up more goals than most forwards do. He's strong on the ball, has a good bit of pace and his movement is very good too, he's of a big build so he's never going to be lightening quick but he has plenty of pace when he needs it.

Roddy B wrote:

If you were to compare him to a player like David Villa, Villa for me is a better goalscorer, he has better movement and greater speed, he's more agile and he can get into goalscoring positions from the left or middle. I'd say Rooney and Villa are equally as creative, just the creativity burden is placed on Rooney's shoulders more than Villa's, whilst I'd say Villa is greater tactically, with better understanding of movement and possession than Rooney. There's no shame in Villa being better than him, he's the best in the world IMO, but it shows the levels between the very best and Rooney. For me, Rooney needs to improve muuch more if people are to compare him to Maradona and co., as I said, I think there have been plenty of players over the past 10 years who have been better than him, and I've probably missed a few out as well, so putting him amongst the true elite is completely unjustifiable.

I'm not sure I'd say Villa is the best in the world, it's to hard to pick one particular player out and say he's the best. We can say one player is better than another player at one thing but to say one particular player is the best striker in the world is difficult. I see Pato as equally as good as Villa, his movement is excellent he has plenty of pace and can score goals. Like Villa he's agile and always gets himself into goalscoring positions (had his first touch been better on Tuesday he'd have hit 3). I think Rooney's movement is really good, he does have a bit of pace and where Villa's more agile Rooney's a lot more stronger on the ball and could hold it up better. I think the areas where you point out Villa is better there's aspects of Rooney's game that's better than Villa's game. I'd never compare him to the likes of Maradona but they've finished their career's now so who's to say when Rooney retires we won't be putting him in that bracket. For me Rooney holds his own against most strikers around Europe, he has different attributes but his overall game is brilliant.

It's all down to opinions and you're always up there with good ones but I just think to overlook Rooney's qualities and his ability and dim him down to be just a good player is unfair.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Sep 16, 2011 12:31 pm  

Which club had the most home-grown players in their starting line-up in the Champions League this week?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:43 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

Which club had the most home-grown players in their starting line-up in the Champions League this week?

I think you're a Man Utd fan, so I'm guessing it'll be Man United.

But whoever it is, who cares? And why should anyone care?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:13 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

I think you're a Man Utd fan, so I'm guessing it'll be Man United.

But whoever it is, who cares? And why should anyone care?

Well tbf out of the four British clubs involved only them and Arsenal are real.