Champions League 16th/17th *Spoilers*

Tummy said:
A lot of "top" managers blame something else for the loss, often sending the media off talk about that. Taking the focus off the fact his team lost.

RE: Fergie and the ref being unfit, ect ect
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Every single manager worth his wage will defend his team and take the criticism for them. All they have to do is say one or two headline catchers and they pressure is taken off the players. The press and the average man in the street (Peg) will fall for it 100/100 'cos they love to hate

[ASSE]Hinchy;15985232 said:
Porto are a really disgusting side. The diving, moaning and fouling was really frustrating to watch. Reminds me of their UEFA Cup win against Celtic a few years back. That was the most disgusting display I've ever seen.
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Agree with this, their constant diving was atrocious, every time they were touched they were down. The cynical fouls were also terrible. They gave themselves a bad impression
 
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Got to say I didn't see a single dive in the last 30 mins (all I watched), there was quite a few fouls but nothing really malicious, they'd obviously been given instructions to close down quickly and unfortunately that can lead to fouls with quick footed players like the Arsenal side. In fact the worse thing I saw was Fabregas pushing over a defender with the ball out of play, just utterly unnecessary and you expect better from a captain. He's lucky the ref was looking the other way.
 
They weren't diving with no contact, every time they were brushed they were on the floor. You'd need to concentrate and be looking for it to see it imo. They did Fabregas on about 20 occasions, about 5 players got booked for fouls on him, not accidents.
 
There were 19 fouls in total, I very much doubt they were all on Fabregas. There were 4 yellows, one for kicking the ball away, one for a foul on Walcott. The other two were fouls on Fabregas.
 
Linoge said:
I felt Valencia should have come on sooner and for that utterly useless waste of space Park. He did absolutely sweet **** all for 90 minutes. We effectively played with 10 men the whole match.
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Totally agree - the only problem is that both Nani and Valencia are both 100 times better on the right compared to the left

I still think Valencia should have come on a lot sooner though instead of Nani (or pushing Nani over to the left and pulling Park off) even if Nani then didnt do anything more than Park did originally

Quite amazing how many decisions went AC's way and yet even Ronaldinho elbowing players in the face got no reaction from the ref :confused:
 
Shamikebab said:
There were 19 fouls in total, I very much doubt they were all on Fabregas. There were 4 yellows, one for kicking the ball away, one for a foul on Walcott. The other two were fouls on Fabregas.
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Felt like way more, put it this way, I rarely see Fabregas get so riled with the other team that he actually stands up to them and starts a ruckus (half time etc), I've actually never seen this :D
 
I actually thought Park played ok, he did what he usually does in CL games which is keep one of the opposition players quiet, in this case Pirlo. What was strange is that when we had the ball Fergie seemed to have told Park to stay central and had Fletcher out wide most of the time. I think the main change I would have made would have been starting Brown at right back, it was a mistake to stick Rafael up against Ronaldinho, he doesn't have the experience yet to handle a player of his ability (although he didn't do too badly)
 
Cant believe people are moaning about Park after the game against Milan, some people are just blind

Yes ok he's not the most clinical or creative of players but his positioning and workrate against Milan was first class

One of his best games for us this season
 
Shamikebab said:
There were 19 fouls in total, I very much doubt they were all on Fabregas. There were 4 yellows, one for kicking the ball away, one for a foul on Walcott. The other two were fouls on Fabregas.
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At half time I think it was you that pointed out Porto had made 6 fouls. At half time Fabregas had been fouled five times.
 
K1LLSW1TCH said:
At half time I think it was you that pointed out Porto had made 6 fouls. At half time Fabregas had been fouled five times.
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Well yes but as the game goes on there is likely to be more fouls, simply a case of tiredness affecting players judgement and the like. Obviously Fabregas is Arsenal's best player so they would be closing him down as quickly as possible to limit his time on the ball, and it clearly worked.
 
Tom84 said:
Yes ok he's not the most clinical or creative of players but his positioning and workrate against Milan was first class
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as soon as he got the ball he lost it though, workrate on its own means nothing at all (running around like a headless chicken has lots of workrate, but nothing gets done) - ok so positioning stops an opposiing player getting the ball, but sorry Man Utd should be getting squad players that can do more than just mark people out of games, the calibre of player has to produce for his own side also
 
Shamikebab said:
Well yes but as the game goes on there is likely to be more fouls, simply a case of tiredness affecting players judgement and the like. Obviously Fabregas is Arsenal's best player so they would be closing him down as quickly as possible to limit his time on the ball, and it clearly worked.
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Are you serious? Before the game they told the press they were going to stop Fab by any means and they were OBVIOUSLY targetting him on purpose last night. :/
 
jakeke said:
Are you serious? Before the game they told the press they were going to stop Fab by any means and they were OBVIOUSLY targetting him on purpose last night. :/
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That's funny, I think I just said that didn't I? You're acting like every time he touched the ball two players jumped in and punched him or something. There's nothing against the rules about closing players down. If they fouled him then they gave away a freekick, if they did it badly enough to warrant a yellow card then they got one. I swear if Arsenal fans had their way the opposition would all have to stand aside and clap the Arsenal players on their way to the goal.
 
You said they were closing him down, they weren't, they fouled him out of the game. Which to me is pointless, why be a footballer if all you're going to do is ruin the finer things because you can't do them yourselves.

When I play football I love playing against a great player, I'd never dream of fouling him 'cos he was better than me. I suppose different folks, different strokes

Also, if you take a glimpse around the net, most Arsenal fans are aggrieved at what little protection Fab got and how the ref totally mismanaged the game in that respect, gave the cards out way too infrequently, didn't try and stop it at all
 
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[ASSE]Hinchy;15985232 said:
Porto are a really disgusting side. The diving, moaning and fouling was really frustrating to watch. Reminds me of their UEFA Cup win against Celtic a few years back. That was the most disgusting display I've ever seen.
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They really are, was pretty shocked at how much they got away with.

The Ref was pretty poor, wasnt he the same guy that didnt see the handball in the game with France and Ireland a few mths ago??. Shcoking game by him in all honesty...first he shouldnt have let that goal stand and secondly how the **** he couldnt see that Rosicky was taken down in the box is beyond me...the blame is equally on him and the assistant ref as well.

Anyhow can only hope Arsenal on the return leg put a few past Porto...hopefully we will have a better ref...makes me think that some of these refs must be on the take with the amount of utter stupidity thats going on week in week out:p.
 
jakeke said:
You said they were closing him down, they weren't, they fouled him out of the game. Which to me is pointless, why be a footballer if all you're going to do is ruin the finer things because you can't do them yourselves.

When I play football I love playing against a great player, I'd never dream of fouling him 'cos he was better than me. I suppose different folks, different strokes

Also, if you take a glimpse around the net, most Arsenal fans are aggrieved at what little protection Fab got and how the ref totally mismanaged the game in that respect, gave the cards out way too infrequently, didn't try and stop it at all
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That's funny, us United fans always complained that Ronaldo never got enough protection and were shouted down.

I saw plenty of successful tackles on him so they hardly just fouled him out of the game.

Did Arsenal play the game without fouling their opponents then? It's part of the game, Porto play particularly aggressive tactics which leads to quite a few fouls, it was great to watch though, several times they caught Arsenal in position and counter attacked just because players were closing down so well. It's just a particular style of football and is no less valid than any other.
 
Agree, Ronaldo never got nearly enough treatment. Most top players don't. Big issue I have with refs in general

There were a lot of cynical fouls that gave me the feeling the ball didn't matter, as long as the man ended up on the floor.
 
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