FOOTBALL: Season 2006/07 Discussion Thread

Dio · Post by **Dio** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:05 pm 0

He was always a bit of a chunky lad. I'm confident he'll be back up to scratch in no time - three years ago he was the best left-back in the Premiership by a mile for me.

PaulEMoz · Post by **PaulEMoz** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:13 pm 0

Dio wrote:He was always a bit of a chunky lad. I'm confident he'll be back up to scratch in no time - three years ago he was the best left-back in the Premiership by a mile for me.

I think the chunkiness was part of his appeal. There was no need for him to use finesse, when he could just plough straight through opponents. If he can get fit again, I'd love to see him overlapping on the left with Duff or N'Zogbia.

merman · Post by **merman** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:19 pm 0

PaulEMoz wrote:
Dio wrote:He was always a bit of a chunky lad. I'm confident he'll be back up to scratch in no time - three years ago he was the best left-back in the Premiership by a mile for me.
I think the chunkiness was part of his appeal. There was no need for him to use finesse, when he could just plough straight through opponents. If he can get fit again, I'd love to see him overlapping on the left as far away from the pie stand as possible.

fog · Post by **fog** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:04 pm 0

Darth Bungle wrote:Guess who's back!

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/ ... 94,00.html

Bernard is back at Newcastle. I thought the first signs of the fact that Souness was going to fuck up Newcastle was when he sold Bernard and unsettled and then got rid of Robert, it's like he thought "I'll come in, fuck up the left wing and go from there".

We can blame Souness for a lot of things but certainly not Bernard. Souness wanted to keep him but Bernard was advised by his agent to move on for more money. He got a lot of stick from toon fans when he decided to leave but I guess that will all be forgotten now.

I was sad to see Bernard leave when he did but certainly not sad to see the back of Robert.

Bernards still only 26 so I guess it's all down to his attitude now. He's got a lot to prove before January as that's when the Bridge deal will be resurrected.

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:11 pm 0

Yes I shal stand up and say I was wrong. Defoes 1 goal in 16 games for England has been wiped away by his fantastic two goals against the mighty Andorra. He is the kind of striker who can win England Euro 2008.

</sarcasm>

Flabio · Post by **Flabio** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:05 pm 0

I can't believe I sat through all that. Goals are always fun, but it was like watching a local pub team take on the premierships almost finest. And for a team with a rep for dodgy tackles and lots of yellows, they went down under a challenge faster than Drogba does.

The BBC suggested there was talk of making the smaller countries play a prelim round in future. What point is there in having Andorra in the group? Everyone else in it will beat them. May as well have a prelim round, games that they stand some chance of actually winning.

4-0 for Forest though. Get in.

Dio · Post by **Dio** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:08 pm 0

Good way to deal with a poor team - both England and Scotland. Good job all round.

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:41 pm 0

Flabio wrote:What point is there in having Andorra in the group? Everyone else in it will beat them.

So they can have their day against a big club?

One could say Northern Ireland would be grouped in the pre elims. They beat us. Macedonia drew with us at home quailifying for 2004.

This is the small countries day in the sun. Don't let the overpaid footballers make you beleive it's beneath them to play these games.

PaulEMoz · Post by **PaulEMoz** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:17 pm 0

Still disappointed in the amount of sideways/backwards play. It's almost like we've become too English, and don't want to humiliate poor opponents. "Oh, we've won this, lads, let's be nice".

For once, we could have had ten and sent out a real statement of intent, but were just a bit too gentlemanly about the whole thing.

That said, it's better than the two-nil we'd have had with Sven, and still a good way to open qualifying. I really shouldn't grumble too much.

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:59 pm 0

Indeed. With Sven we only beat the mighty Lichenstein 2-0. And struggled mightily to beat the powerhouse Azerbaidgan (sp?) 3-0 (who Poland beat 8-0).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 308600.stm

You know what? Considering the quality available at the three big clubs, the need to adapt to England and the disputes he suffered during his time at Corinthians (including being stripped of his captaincy in front of the press with the manager saying words to the effect of you f'ing Argentine johnny foreigner) I can fully believe that and thought that's why he went there. Not like that fuckwit Shaun Wright Phillips who could see his career go down the tube being superglued to the Chelsea bench because he thought he was better than he truly was and smelled the money. If only more players realised they could be the defining leader of a side instead of one star being outshone by their surroundings then maybe the league would be better balanced.

West Ham look a truly class act right now. Tevez, Mascherano, Carroll, Ferdinand, Reo-Coker, Konchesky ... they've got some quality there.

merman · Post by **merman** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:01 pm 0

Some good stuff in the England game, still don't think Defoe is good enough with Johnson and Bent scoring more regularly at club level, but it was the second best game I watched yesterday...

Went to Portman Road for the Richard Naylor Testimonial, the current team versus the Wembley 2000 play-off winning team. Great fun, lots of old faces like Matt Holland and Richard Wright playing again, and a HUGE standing ovation for Naylor at the end when he levelled the scores at 3-3 with a penalty...

PaulEMoz · Post by **PaulEMoz** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:13 pm 0

merman wrote:still don't think Defoe is good enough with Johnson and Bent scoring more regularly at club level

Don't you think that has a lot to do with the fact they both play more regularly at club level?

Mind you, I'm a big Defoe fan. I wish we'd signed him.

merman · Post by **merman** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:23 pm 0

PaulEMoz wrote:
merman wrote:still don't think Defoe is good enough with Johnson and Bent scoring more regularly at club level
Don't you think that has a lot to do with the fact they both play more regularly at club level?

Mind you, I'm a big Defoe fan. I wish we'd signed him.

Yes and no - it would be better for Defoe if he was playing regularly. But even compared to Crouch or his own Spurs team-mate Lennon yesterday, Defoe didn't seem to have much PASSION about playing for England.

PaulEMoz · Post by **PaulEMoz** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:46 pm 0

merman wrote:But even compared to Crouch or his own Spurs team-mate Lennon yesterday, Defoe didn't seem to have much PASSION about playing for England.

That's a difficult one to comment on. Lennon came on, and immediately set up a goal. But he spent most of the rest of his game passing sideways or backwards. So whether he was passionate or not, he wasn't that effective. He could have skinned the Andorra right back every time he got the ball, but most of the time he stuck to Eriksson's bad old ways, and just stood there looking to play it safe.

I really don't see where the passion thing comes into it. I don't think any of them cared more or less than any of the others.

shimeril · Post by **shimeril** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:00 pm 0

Guru-Meditation wrote:West Ham look a truly class act right now. Tevez, Mascherano, Carroll, Ferdinand, Reo-Coker, Konchesky ... they've got some quality there.

Jeepers, that's 2 star signings there. I almost soiled myself when I saw that. Very, very shiny.

Hope they all stay awhile.....