(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[Starkers]

Why is it always us!

Oh well we can concentrate on the league now till the New Year at least

[Angel4576]

Irritatingly, there were many positives last night - Jacobs was brilliant, literally setting up all five of our goals. Will Hughes was fantastic in midfield, ran them ragged. Tyson scored his first competitive goal, Keogh scored on his debut, etc.

Sadly, all undone by some of the most calamitous defending I've ever seen. As soon as we took Roberts off they absolutely raped Naylor down our left side. As soon as they pulled one back, that was it, keystone cops time where we made an average league one side look like Brazil from the 70s.

[Starkers]

I'd heard it was the subbing or Roberts and Bryson that did it, but hopefully we'll have an approrpiate understudy for Roberts soon and given both were carrying knocks it made sense to take them off.

I'm really chuffed for Tyson scoring in the last two games. He's no world beater, and certainly not a 20 goal a season man, but I really felt for him the last game of last season, he was trying so (too) hard and nothing was coming off for him. Hope he relaxes and pops a few goals in for us this year.

[Angel4576]

^^ It WAS the subs.

We brought on Naylor at LB for Roberts. Naylor is completely right-footed. Their winger just turned him inside out. All of the later goals came down that side.

Bryson was replaced by Bavies - who doesn't know the first thing about helping the defense, hence our covering midfielder went off just as they started coming at us. A protected back 4, in the space of 2 subs, became effectively a decent back 3 plus 1 played completely out of position, with no cover from midfield at all.

Tyson will be fine this season. Now he's off the mark, his confidence will have had that pick-me-up that it never got last year.

[Jax]

ENG play, well actually pretty darn decent a better system and actual completed passes ...

Butland (6.5) - Didn't have much to do though made one smart save, nothing he could do with the goal. Clear potential to be better than Hart IMO.

Walker (6.5) -Decent going forward and apart from a few shaky moments looks alright at the back, still early days at this level for him.

Jagielka (7) - Great goal and played with his heart though needs to work on being closer to the striker when ball is played over us.

Cahill (6.5) - Solid enough, looks a little leggy after coming back from injury. Main defender for me at 2014 now with Terry/Rio's reign virtually at an end.

Baines (6.5) - Caught out a few times at the back but looked good going forward, just need more caps to gain better experience at this level.

Johnson (7) - Needs to work of defending but going forward on the right, caused Italy no end of problems.

Young (6) - Struggling to make an impact lately and I think a much more pacey player like Chamberlain will steal his ENG spot soon.

Carrick (7) - Assured display and good to have him back though was at fault for Italy's goal. Crisp passing and will be the be the perfect fodder alongside Parker in a middle 3 to allow Gerrard/Cleverley to push on

Lampard (7) - First real time he looked comfortable in the deeper role but still got forward well. One of his better passing games for ENG in recent memory.

Cleverley (8) - Superb debut with sharp passing and good defensive abilites when needed. Never paniced and got others into the game, needs to just push on and shoot when given the chance.

Carroll (4) - Didn't get involved and doesn't suit the lone striker system, simply too slow.

SUBS
Ruddy (7) - A couple of smart saves and clearly number 2 for ENG until Butland gains more club experience.

Defoe (7) - Great goal and when Rooney doesn't play, he must be the prefered option in this system, always full of pace.

Lescott (6) - Did nothing wrong at the back but two stupid fouls in the box robbed us of goals at the other end.

Milner (6.5) - Better than the Euro's and whipped in a few good balls but he should be playing in the centre more

Bertrand (N/A) - Not much time but cleared off the line, one for future

Livermore (N/A) - Not much time.

[HappyDayRiot]

Starkers wrote:

---

Why is it always us!

Oh well we can concentrate on the league now till the New Year at least

At least you had a side to put out and it was entertaining - we had barely half a dozen first teamers in our squad and a dozen academy players. Making us play that game, and Sky moving our first game to Friday night, and the international friendlies, have absolutely destroyed any chance we had and I wish Northampton well. They could not have got a luckier draw than us.

Let's hope we both light up the league now.

Arsenal must be laughing their arses off at United. £24m for a 29 year old who will likely be injured for a long period? Astonishing business that completely pays for Giroud, Podolski and, best of all, Cazorla.

It's entirely possible Fergie has gone mad.....or this is the best strike partnership ever and they win the league with 120 goals scored.

[Starkers]

It could go either way. On paper Van PErsie and Rooney should be phenomonal...but as the saying goes, football isn't played on paper...

Part of me wonders if this isn't a prelude to Rooney being sold sooner rather than later?

And yeah, be nice for both of us to do well this season!

[Angel4576]

If RVP stays fit then I can't see United NOT winning the league tbh.....

[HappyDayRiot]

Depends how many teams have the quality to tear through their full-backs I think. Evra's not such a good defender these days, Rafael was laughably bad for Brazil and is a constant red card danger, and Fabio has gone to QPR. They're very light.

Central midfield doesn't look as good as anyone else's either, even with Kagawa. Surprising they bought RvP instead of another midfielder or two. Are United going for a 'you score 4, we'll score 5' approach to title-winning?

[EmoBorg]

As a Gunners fan, I am sad to see RVP join Man U, I saw the pictures of him smiling, posing and training in Man U training kit. It make me sad. It is like seeing your ex GF with another man and she is so happy. That really wrenches one's heart.

The angel in me tells me to wish him well, because of his past services to the club and respect his wishes.

The devil in me wishes that he gets a long term injury and he is later sold to a third rate team.

oh, the duality of man.

[Jax]

and so it begins...

[Yoda]

Liverpool....

[Jax]

Forest score and win for the 1st time on the opening day of the season since 2007 .

[Starkers]

Hmm, well Derby's season becomes clear, we have a team capable of scoring for fun, but not one who can hold onto a damn lead! I predict a roller coaster of a season!

May be better if we can sign someone like Sammon to hold the ball up...still kudos to Tyson, the new most dangerous striker in the division

[Angel4576]

Sammon was at PP for the game, he was sitting next to Barker and chatting away with him for most of the 90 minutes. According to Clough, Freeman is almost signed as well. We've also got another striker on trial from Livingstone, Mark McNulty. He looked good in the midweek game at Matlock. We've also got a pair on trial from the States - Tom Reilly, a centre half (who looks really good), and Danny Barrera, a midfielder.

Really like the look of Reilly, for a centre half, his range of passing looks incredible.

Today, we flew out the traps in the first half, but our midweek exploits against Scunny eventually caught up with us - a lot of our players looked fooked after an hour. I think Clough made a mistake in bringing on defensive subs with half an hour to go. It sent out the wrong message and mean't that we were trying to hang on for 2-1 with half an hour of the game still to go. It really wasn't a surprise when they equalized, and they might even have won it.

To be honest, that's substitutions in two games now that have cost us two wins. Bolton and Wolves away in the next two games. Yay.....