Football 2010-2011

[The Nal]

but arsenal will play to attack and win won't they? especially at home. which only means one thing!

i can see barca winning quite comfortably over the two legs.

[ampersand]

Oh they’re certainly favourites but they do concede goals. If you watch 5 Barca games in a row, 2 or 3 of them will be average wins and average games, just like any top team.

They’re not the Harlem Globetrotters the media make them out to be is what I mean. Although when they click, they are unreal.

[TheGayTent]

If you're lot keep shooting hes bound to make a mistake. He always does and always will with that attitude.

[TheGayTent]

you got lucky last night. Another crackin' goal by Cole.

Not sure if you were there or watching on the box, but I pissed myself at the commentator saying "ferguson is running the game" at the exact moment he stopped running the game, as WHU broke forwards and scored. Brum disappeared after that.

[eFestivals]

Hes not going to a porn cinema.

I dunno about that Neil, the invincible Barca sides of the last few years have been tested/beaten by “worse” sides. Everyone is capable of losing on their day. Inter kept Messi very quiet last season and beat Barca over two legs, with an inferior team. Arsenal are playing some good stuff now, much better than the hammering they took (last season was it?).

And they have lost in the league this season too.

oh, I know. You appear to have taken my post with much more seriousness than was meant at this end.

I'd love to see Arsenal beat them - and it might happen. But most likely it won't.

[eFestivals]

Not sure we were that lucky. I thought we bossed the game first half and Brum could quite easily have been 3-0 down.

Sure the goalkeeper made a ricket, but to not concede for half an hour with 10 men shows a certain stubborness.

Tie still very much in the balance.

I didn't catch more than a couple of snippets of the first half, so I can't comment on that.

Brum were all over you in the 2nd tho, and up until you scored it looked like they were gonna beat you. And you got somewhat lucky (given how they'd played till then) with just how much that goal seemed to deflate them.

You defo did well with ten men tho, it wasn't really that noticeable that you were a man down, aside from the occasions that Piquionne was turning in circles trying to find an outlet for the ball.

I'd say you've got a decent chance of winning the tie, given that Brum find it hard to win any game. That one goal lead defo puts you slightly ahead.

[lharris92]

you got lucky last night. Another crackin' goal by Cole.

Not sure if you were there or watching on the box, but I pissed myself at the commentator saying "ferguson is running the game" at the exact moment he stopped running the game, as WHU broke forwards and scored. Brum disappeared after that.

[TheGayTent]

I didn't catch more than a couple of snippets of the first half, so I can't comment on that.

Brum were all over you in the 2nd tho, and up until you scored it looked like they were gonna beat you. And you got somewhat lucky (given how they'd played till then) with just how much that goal seemed to deflate them.

You defo did well with ten men tho, it wasn't really that noticeable that you were a man down, aside from the occasions that Piquionne was turning in circles trying to find an outlet for the ball.

I'd say you've got a decent chance of winning the tie, given that Brum find it hard to win any game. That one goal lead defo puts you slightly ahead.

[The Nal]

oh, I know. You appear to have taken my post with much more seriousness than was meant at this end.

[eFestivals]

Interesting idea basing one team being lucky to win a game on watching just one half

not at all - not within the context of what happened.

WHU were ahead, but Brum were all over you and scored, and then things were even score-wise. At that point it looked like there'd only be one winner, and it wasn't going to be WHU.

I reckon it's quite possible that if you'd not had matey sent off (what was the nutter doing? ) that you;d have lost. It seemed to be one of those games where you played better with ten than you did with eleven.

Brum had a lot of possession in the 2nd half but were devoid of ideas and creativity - other than launching the ball in the box of course.

very true - but all the same it was a tactic West Ham were finding very difficult to deal with early in the 2nd half.

[eFestivals]

Anyway .... this season now has the chance to prove something the best it can be, once and for all. Is the success of Fergie down to his skills alone, the resources of the club, or a mix of the two?

Dalglish has a better record than Fergie (not as many trophies, but he managed for a far shorter time at LFC). But it's also the case that when he was manager before that LFC were the best resourced club of that time.

Now, if the success of a manager is all down to that managers skills and nothing else, then Dalglish should get LFC performing well with the players they have, and they should end up finishing 6th at very lowest (if you look at the table, getting to 6th will be a breeze with just a slight upturn in form). Even 4th doesn't look an impossibility* given the points gained so far by Spurs & Chelsea.

(* that doesn't mean I expect that to happen).

Are those who reckon Fergie's success is all his own doing scared by the return of Dalglish? Nope. Which implies to me that those people don't actually believe what they say about Fergie.

[ampersand]

this is why nobody fears dalglish

[eFestivals]

this is why nobody fears dalglish

yep - he failed to well at poorly resourced clubs.

I think that answers the question about what is most important to any manager's success.

[ampersand]

yep - he failed to well at poorly resourced clubs.

I think that answers the question about what is most important to any manager's success.

[TheGayTent]

not at all - not within the context of what happened.

[The Nal]

On a total different note, has anyone been watching Milan recently? Sifi? They’re hit and miss, Italian league is in the bin, but Thiago Silva is turning into one of the best defenders in the world, top 3 standard. Hes unreal. Great at getting forward, Baresi style, great crosser of the ball and great in the air, quick too. Cant wait to see how he cuts his chops in the Champo League next month.

[TheGayTent]

On a total different note, has anyone been watching Milan recently? Sifi? They're hit and miss, Italian league is in the bin, but Thiago Silva is turning into one of the best defenders in the world, top 3 standard. Hes unreal. Great at getting forward, Baresi style, great crosser of the ball and great in the air, quick too. Cant wait to see how he cuts his chops in the Champo League next month.

[The Nal]

Watching Milan and Italian football in general saddens me at the moment - attendances are way down and still dropping - Milan got under 40,000 the other night.

[TheGayTent]

Saw it yeah, a disaster. I saw them play Samp a couple of years ago and the entire top tier was closed, wasn't even 40,000 at it. The noise coming from the ultras out of the Curva Sud was still ungodly though. Baresi must be brought to tears every time he goes to a game.

[eFestivals]

You're only talking within the context of what happened in the 2nd half. So you're not taking into account the number of chances created in the first half and the number of saves Foster pulled off to keep Brum in the tie.

However many chances they had in the first, (outside of the goal itself) they came to nothing and so weren't really of relevance to the 2nd half - or to the result as a whole.

Really? How many saves did Green make in the 2nd half?

no idea - but I was thinking more of the saves he didn't make. Such as the ball cleared off the line by (was it?) Sears, and the goal itself.

Having said that, I'm struggling to think of any saves at the other end too (in the 2nd half of course).

Edited January 12, 2011 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

talking about Fergie, I see his kid is back at Posh.

A no-brainer on their part of course, as his old man is determined to make him a success by continually giving him Utd players on loan. And his dad got to show what an ungracious arse he is yet again when Preston sacked Darren, by getting straight on the phone and cancelling the loans of the players he let them have.

[TheGayTent]

However many chances they had in the first, (outside of the goal itself) they came to nothing and so weren't really of relevance to the 2nd half - or to the result as a whole.

Edited January 12, 2011 by TheGayTent

[The Nal]

And his dad got to show what an ungracious arse he is yet again when Preston sacked Darren, by getting straight on the phone and cancelling the loans of the players he let them have.

[TheGayTent]

Pulis was worse - how far up the drunkard's arse can he get his tongue?

[eFestivals]

Let's get this right...

...the chances West Ham had in the first half that came to nothing, weren't of relevance to the result as a whole.

...however, the few chances that Birmingham had in the second half that came to nothing, were of relevance to the result as a whole and meant that Birmingham were unlucky.

lol - I'm taking that as you seeing my words as an insult to WHU. All I'm doing is saying what I saw, which I made clear was only the second half.

Surely 10 minutes into that 2nd half you were starting to think it as quite possible that Brum would get the result and not you? They were running you ragged.

The simple fact is that the first half had been and gone. When put against the fact that the commentators were saying it was like two different teams had come out for the 2nd half - and that Brum were running the game - that first half ceased to have much meaning, because even if you'd had 100 chances in that first half you still came out for the 2nd half only one goal up (and that lead didn't last very long either).

Of the chances that Brum had in the second half, one - when they scored - was of particular relevance. And it's not like WHU were peppering the Brum goal with shot after shot after shot.

I didn't say that Brum were unlucky, I said that WHU were lucky - and they were. Because shots were limited; the goal you got was a fluke; and Brum had decent chances of their own (probably more than WHU had, tho I can't be sure about that).

At the end of it, if you weren't thinking you'd got out of jail in that match (particularly as you had a man sent off, and Cole's shit goal) then you're a bit of numptie.