Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [28th April - 2nd May 2012]
- Thread starter Robbo
- Start date
Would be even more lulz if Wigan end up being relegated after their good run of results
Saying that I wouldn't be surprised if we do end up 5th
Associate
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Yep. It'll be a miracle if they survive this year after losing Holden and Lee in the summer then Gardner and Muamba later in the season. Add those injuries to losing Sturridge when he went back to Chelsea from his loan as well as Cahill and Elmander and they've had a very tough season.
Edit: Just looked at the Physio Room injury league table and forgot about Mears. Signed on the 29th of July and broke his leg on the 4th August
Holden was out for 6 months because of that Evans tackle, then he played a match against Villa in the league cup (he bossed the game) then he had a scan and it was found that he needed further surgery and now he's been out since September. Then Lee had a double leg fracture in a friendly against Newport County (Note- not for the faint hearted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eImu9BOPXTc). A big loss was Ricketts in a match last Feburary-ish, he was out for over 10 months. At one point I think it was in November we had 15 players out injured including youth players who were on the verge of playing for the first team.
On top of having Paul Robinson at LB who has no pace and was made to look terrible by Macclesfield. But to be fair he has been a good player for us up until this season.
I don't think we have missed Cahill that much, not as much as Elmander who may have not scored loads of goals but always put a good shift in. I think without Sturridges goals last season we'd have maybe gone down last year. We've missed Matt Taylor a bit too who tracks back a hell of a lot more than Petrov. It could also prove to be a mistake selling Al-Habsi to Wigan...
I'm not really sure why we are where we are. I think its a combination of players we've signed to replace good players that just dont cut it (Eagles, Ngog, Pratley) and injuries partly- but we've had a full strength team in the past and still not played well for several games. There's been some games (home league match vs. Chelsea first half) where we've made Blackburn's performance vs Spurs look Barcelona-esque.
Reo-Coker, Eagles and Ryo have knocks from the volume of games they've played recently too. We've not exactly had the rub of the green with injuries but sometimes I think our time is up in the prem! Not giving up though, we could get a point in the next 2 games and stay up still.
Cheering on Newcastle, how the mighty have fallen!
Would be even more lulz if Wigan end up being relegated after their good run of results
Saying that I wouldn't be surprised if we do end up 5th
Still sweating on a ticket for the Blackburn game
Yup, Wigan are not safe, 2 games to go, can still go down, Arsenal can still finish 6th
Soldato
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You realise Wigan brought 200 fans to Stamford Bridge this season?
You wonder why you're probably even more disliked than me on here
We were 4-0 up, the game was dead and buried.
Fans leaving 5 mins before the game ended
What no Plastic flags!
I watched 70 mins of the game and Chelsea fans are a disgrace. Quite as a mouse.
love it
Watching it over and over on the skysports again. Utterly ridiculous to even try to shoot from there never mind trying to curve one in with the outside of his foot.
Even Cech had to laugh at amazement
Rednapp "that shot is almost illegal" lol
A goal or two and he's on for breaking Shearer most goals in a calender year.
Very pleased with the performance but we all knew it was coming we been doing it since last season after a very poor result we always bounce back and get a stunning one
Absolutely, we'd be third now if we'd won that one.
Not to take anything away from Wigan, because they beat us good and proper, but it did seem like we went into that game assuming it was a formality.
Someone must have forgotten to tell them that until that match, Wigan were right behind us in the 'recent form' league.
Out of our last four games, I didn't expect the Wigan game to be the one where we dropped points.
I agree it's terrible.
The champions should definitely get the right to defend their crown, but it shouldn't be at the expense of a team whos earned a place.
Should figure out a way to implement a 5th spot should it happen. But no, that would be too 'fair' for UEFA to consider.
Caporegime
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- 18 Oct 2002
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If Newcastle get fourth, or even third and miss out it will be a travesty. They have to be the neutrals favourites this year, great goals, some excellent attacking football, all on a very tight budget and well run business plan which somehow endears them to us, use its still 40-60k a week but it's great to see a "cheap" team beating the likes of teams with 150k+ a week earners in them.
IT is for me really hard to say how brilliant Pardew is, business wise and the choices made on who to bring in have been just spot on(ok, egghead maybe not but he was cheap). But simply having a couple top strikers makes ALL the difference in this league.
It baffles me how SO many teams in the top half of the table simply don't have two top notch strikers, especially with the money certain teams have spent. Also the reluctance to play two strikers in a very offensive team. Play more top notch strikers and get the ball forward, you'll get goals and win games. It just is essentially so simple but I feel more like berating other managers for being stupid than talking about Pardew being a genius for doing something sooooo obvious. I mean go back 10 years and few if any teams were peeing around with being overly defensive and ignoring strikers.
I can't believe that Arsenal have basically one striker, and Utd have two but refuse to play one of them, Chelsea won't play two and with their spending at no stage since Mourinho have they had two really top notch strikers playing well together and very little depth upfront.
Don't get me wrong, Pardew has most of the defence playing better as a unit than they are individually, got the team working, a great system. But Brum had a working defence as well, the success stems from the simplicity of having great strikers, playing more than one and being willing to attack anyone.
IT is for me really hard to say how brilliant Pardew is, business wise and the choices made on who to bring in have been just spot on(ok, egghead maybe not but he was cheap). But simply having a couple top strikers makes ALL the difference in this league.
It baffles me how SO many teams in the top half of the table simply don't have two top notch strikers, especially with the money certain teams have spent. Also the reluctance to play two strikers in a very offensive team. Play more top notch strikers and get the ball forward, you'll get goals and win games. It just is essentially so simple but I feel more like berating other managers for being stupid than talking about Pardew being a genius for doing something sooooo obvious. I mean go back 10 years and few if any teams were peeing around with being overly defensive and ignoring strikers.
I can't believe that Arsenal have basically one striker, and Utd have two but refuse to play one of them, Chelsea won't play two and with their spending at no stage since Mourinho have they had two really top notch strikers playing well together and very little depth upfront.
Don't get me wrong, Pardew has most of the defence playing better as a unit than they are individually, got the team working, a great system. But Brum had a working defence as well, the success stems from the simplicity of having great strikers, playing more than one and being willing to attack anyone.
Dream scenarios:
Spurs get 3rd, Arsenal get 4th but then Chelsea win the champs league.
This would be annoying as Chelsea fans are *****
Spurs get 3rd, Newcastle get 4th, Arsenal get 5th, Chelsea get 6th and lose the final.
^ Thats the better option.
Likely out come
Arsenal get 3rd, Spurs get 4th, Newcastle 5th Cheslea win the champs league by an offside goal so we dont get champs league.
Spurs get 3rd, Arsenal get 4th but then Chelsea win the champs league.
This would be annoying as Chelsea fans are *****
Spurs get 3rd, Newcastle get 4th, Arsenal get 5th, Chelsea get 6th and lose the final.
^ Thats the better option.
Likely out come
Arsenal get 3rd, Spurs get 4th, Newcastle 5th Cheslea win the champs league by an offside goal so we dont get champs league.
Yup, Wigan are not safe, 2 games to go, can still go down, Arsenal can still finish 6th
I'd rather take 6th than struggle to stay up
...Pretty much this but with Chelsea losing the CL final therefore they don't get CL football next season...mind you if that happens, perhaps they will win the Europa title
...its not as prestigious as the CL title rather more like a mickey mouse Euro title