(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[Angel4576]

All depends on whether or not your defence rely on your keeper to orchestrate the defensive line. Our's do, and Bywater can't do it. Consequently, disaster waiting to happen.

Your defence is much better than our's so perhaps it'll work out. Bywater's actually a pretty good shot-stopper. Other than the lack of communication skills, his only other real fault is his distribution. More often than not his kicking either goes straight out, or finds the nearest forward!

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Cardiff 0-2 Ipswich. What a stupid result, especially with Swansea, Forest and Norwich screwing up earlier. The first half was one-sided beyond belief and saw us hit the bar, have the ball bounce just slightly wide of the post and have a goal disallowed on a marginal offside decision. Oh, and their keeper making 4 outstanding saves, fingertips twice and thrown-out foot once. By contrast, Bywater probably only had one save to make all game, all he had to do otherwise was pick the ball out following two quality kicks from Jimmy Bullard. Once he scored his first we didn't get another look in, and Jones was 15 minutes late with his subs again.

Fifth defeat in a row to Ipswich, but gutted nonetheless. Now that's a bogey team.

 

[Starkers]

Jimmy Bullard is one of those players I think everyone (championshio or lower prem that is) wouldn't mind in their team...just so long as he stayed fit and they could afford him!

Credit to Paul Jewell, he's doing a good job so far!

 

[Jax]

Forest sign ANOTHER STRIKER Kris can't score out of Scotland Boyd. We have 8 or 9 strikers on our books now and yet a crumbling defence due to injuries

FFS Davies no wonder we are down to 6th and on the verge of losing our spot in the playoffs.

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Arsenal dumped out to Barcelona who are not as good as they think they are due to a woeful defence, if you attack Barca they crumble. Also Van Persie's sending off was the worst call of the entire season, SERIOUSLY from the ref blowing his whistle to the ball leaving his boot 1 SECOND had gone not the fact that he couldn't hear a thing...

UEFA will probably punish the ref by giving him a semi final match or a final instead of throwing him out of the cup for this season.

 

[Angel4576]

Arsenal - bottom line, teams who don't register a shot on target don't deserve to win games. The sending off was incredibly harsh, but the unavoidable truth is that Barcelona deserved to go through tonight. However, I agree, they're not that great, especially at the back.

Forest - must admit, it's the only glimmer of comfort that we have at the moment, seeing them implode again!

Derby - 1-0 up again and trying to defend it for the rest of the game. Que defeat. FFS.

 

[Starkers]

Typical Billy Davies, get a team playing well but once the rot sets in he's incapable of righting the ship, and signing Boyd seems odd, I know Forest weren't scoring but you at least had options up front!

Still at least Forest will be in the championship next year at the very least...Lord knows if Sheff Utd and Boro build on their victories we could be in the shit!

 

[Angel4576]

I'm looking on the positive side now - if we DO go down then it's almost certainly the end for GSE and our current owners.

Every cloud......

 

[Starkers]

Yeah and sometimes you have to go down to come back stronger...what worries me is that for every Forest/Leeds there's a Sheffield Wednesday and I'd hate us to end up in their state.

Let's face it, I think practically any other club in our position would have sacked Nigel by now I want to see him succeed, and I don't think our position is wholly down to him, and I'd hate him to be Glick/GSE's scapegoat. I wonder if the actual owners are aware of our position, or if GSE are carefully spinning the situation? Surely the realise if we go down then the club's value plumets yet further? Oh well, like you say Gadsby will get us for a song if we are relegated!

 

[Angel4576]

I think the full extent of the current situation is that there's plenty of blame to go around;

Manager - for the tactics
Board - for the serious lack of investment
Coaching staff - for not getting the best out of the players
Players - for the woeful lack of desire/effort on the pitch
Fans - for creating a poisonous atmosphere at PP

That last one's particularly problematic as our form over recent years has been heavily reliant on our very strong home form. This year, especially at the moment, it seems like our players would rather play away than at PP, and it's reflected in the results. Of course the argument is that the players should give the fans something to cheer about and not to moan about, but it's a vicious cycle at the moment. The players play rubbish, so the fans boo, which makes the players play worse, which makes the fans boo louder, etc etc etc.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Message to Dave Jones: how can you NOT get this side promoted? Look at the players you have. You do know half the squad will be gone if we blow it this time, don't you? Not just the loanees, just the likes of Bothroyd and Chopra too. I know we have a terrible record against the bottom clubs, and that just about sums the club up for the last 3 years, doesn't it? That and blowing every big match when the pressure's on and falling to the worst teams in the division time after time.

I still think we can do it, I really do. But that's based solely on being able to put away Boro, Derby (sorry), Barnsley and Pompey at home, as well as Preston and QPR having secured their respective fates by the time we play them. We still have the best run-in as the rest of the top 10 have to play each other a few times, but this can only happen if we sort it out and stop bottling it.

And learn to make substitutions BEFORE the 83rd minutes for fuck's sake!

 

[Starkers]

Damn is anyone having a good time at the moment? I see even Leicester fans are moaning!

You're still there or there abouts, but I guess this is the time of the season where teams start to get very nervous (no matter which end of the table they're at!) Hard to gauge who the form team is in relation to the promotion places, Norwich and Leeds I guess--what I do like to see is that none of the top 6 (currently) are teams who came down.

Angel, I completely agree about the fans. Boo at the end if you're unhappy, I've never understood how anyone thinks booing a player in the middle of a game is really going to help matters...and don't get me started on the kind of muppet who boos a played when the team sheet is called out.

 

[Garak]

Well, it really hasn't been a good couple of weeks for Arsenal.

First, there's the Carling Cup fiasco, completely blowing their opportunity to win hardware for the first time in 6 years. I mean Birmingham, really?

Then there's the nil-nil draw at Sunderland.

Then there's the debacle of a game they went shotless in against Barcelona, looking more soft and underprepared than I'd seen them be in some time.

And now the Spurs advance in the Champions League today after beating AC Milan on aggregate.

Oh dear.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Then there's the debacle of a game they went shotless in against Barcelona, looking more soft and underprepared than I'd seen them be in some time.

Are you kidding? Arsenal lost against very likely the single best football team ever assembled in the history of the sport; just barely and after a shitty red card. No shame in that at all. I mean, that game was just amazing; both legs were. If I compare that to the sort of football I see every week I can only get depressed, it's ridiculous. Seeing that level of skill in all aspects of the sport is almost alien to me.

 

[Jax]

Are you kidding? Arsenal lost against very likely the single best football team ever assembled in the history of the sport

I have issues with that because I feel that people allow Barcelona too much time on the ball because there scared but if you get stuck into them, Barca are very very average at the back. No doubt they are the best at the moment but I remember Man Utd of 1998-1999 having such a total balanced squad but upfront like Barca they had amazing attacking flair with Scholes, Giggs, Beckham, Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer...

That Utd team passed the ball very crisply, had real pace, flawless techinal ability and brutal in front of goal at times.

I would love to see a 1999 Man Utd team against 2011 Barcelona team

 

[Starkers]

So will QPR be docked points, and if they are how many and will it cost them promotion?

I think the moral of the story really has to be; if you can't buy a player out right, steer clear!

 

[Angel4576]

QPR will most likely get a fine and suspended minimal points deduction.

Barcelona, a dream to watch, but their defence isn't great. Can't see them, or Real Madrid, winning the CL this season. T'would be funny if Tottenham did, if only to rub it in the faces of Chelsea and Arsenal. No London side's ever won the European Cup/Champions League - ironic if Tottenham managed it at the first time of asking!

Must admit I didn't particularly agree with the commentary on the Tottenham vs Milan game on ITV the other night. Milan dominated in as much as Tottenham were happy to keep them at arm's length. They dominated possession but spent most of the time going sideways or playing it around the halfway line. As far as decent chances go, Spurs had just as many as Milan did. Personally, I thought Spurs looked fairly comfortable. Shame Arsenal went out, a Spurs vs Arsenal would have been a fantastic QF.

 

[Jax]

I would of loved a Spurs vs. Arsenal Q/F cause really the CL has been pretty boring this season minus Spurs. I was surprised by Spurs on wednesday night but am guessing injuries have taken its toll a little on the squad so there not quite firing on all cylinders. If Spurs met Barca they would probably lose by quite a few but ypu can imagine both legs being like 4-2 Spurs would really get at Barca and not back off all the time.

Gerrard is out for a month, not surprised by the timing with FA cup this weekend (so dunno if they have a PL game or not) and England not long after. Capello will probably play Lampard and Wilshire and not let either push forward against Wales.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

QPR won't have a points deduction. It's too good to be true. Be bloody amazing if it did happen though - especially because the rule they're alleged to have broken was brought in following the Tevez affair, action championed and encouraged by... now-QPR manager Neil Warnock!

Generally speaking I don't like Spurs, but they've been great to watch in Europe this year. I wouldn't agree they were 'comfortable' on Wednesday though, but it was a great game, a great tie in fact. I couldn't believe how quick and crisp Milan were, and Seedorf was a different. If it weren't for Sandro, I don't think Spurs would have survived!

Arsenal was an embarrassment from what I saw, but I had Radio Wales on listening to the Palace game and was too busy shaking my head in my hands in disbelief at yet another insipid fuck-up to be interested in the World's Worst Red Card.

Also, I wouldn't agree Barca's defence is as poor as Jax suggests. It was on Tuesday because their first choice CBs were unavailable, but normally they're good. Their weakness I would have said was the space their full-backs leave by bombing up the field all the time, but it still takes a great team to beat them. It's all very well saying get the ball and get at them, but how teams can?

Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Andriy Shevchenko, 55, run rings around Man City. He was and still is a class act.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Thank you Derby

Anyone who's not seen Ashley Williams' own goal, look it up on Youtube or wherever. Pure comedy that also exposes Swansea for the boring passing lightweight media darlings they are (a little bias there I admit!)

 

[Starkers]

You're very welcome!