English League Football [19th - 23rd Feb 2010] **spoilers**

Ohhhhhhhhhh. Could have been a hattrick there. :D

23 goals from 27 league games this season. Incredible.
 
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Rooney will be taken off soon and he'll not be pleased about it being on a hattrick. :p

Kieron Dyer is alive. :eek:

edit: And how many times has Berbatov intercepted a clearance with his face. :D
 
andi said:
Apparently Rio has a back injury, and will miss the CC final too.
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Oh for **** sake. :rolleyes:

It would be nice, just for a month or two this season, to have our two first choice centre-backs fit on a consistent basis.

Surely it's not too much to ask?
 
It is getting beyond a sick joke now

Rio's fit Vidic isn't, Vidic' fit Rio isn't, it's been the story of the season to be honest. It's just cruel to have Rio back only for him to go and stupidly get banned and the night his suspension ends he gets injured again at the exact same time Vidic finally straps on a pair and gets himself in the team :mad:

Having said all that it looks like we played well tonight, Rooney is just in stupidly good form, would have had goal of the season wrapped up had that dipping volley on the turn gone in and not hit the roof of the net :(

Berbatov linked play brilliantly, Scholes continued his recent majestic form, Gibson looked good and Valencia is surely now the most effective winger playing in the Premiership (10 goals and 7 assists in all comps I think)

Just a shame we couldn't of got at least a point at the weekend, need Chelsea to slip up at home now..... hopefully City or West Ham will do us a favour
 
Anyone watch the Barca game tonight? Was appauling in terms of refereeing, Stuttgart outplayed them for all but about 5 minutes of the game after the goal. First half the goal was superb, then there were two high balls into the box where the first, Ibra wasn't looking at the ball, only their striker and just ran into him and knocked him over, freekick to Ibra, it was a penalty in any other game ever. Likewise another ball, cross into the box defender not looking at ball, striker only looking at ball, he put one foot infront of one of the strikers and elbowed him hard in the chest, another clear as day penalty.

THere was also a cross into the box, ball going directly to a Stuttgart player 6yards from goal and it hit Pique's hand, not necessarily on purpose, but it stopped a clear goal scoring chance, seem them given pretty often.

Then there was a clear as day freekick outside the box, completely ignored, Barca went up the other end got a freekick and scored from the ensuing mess from the freekick, so that shouldn't have happened. There were another 10-15 poor decisions where he was giving freekicks to Barca, for fouling Stuttgart players. Shame as they played some great football and thoroughly deserved a large lead into the second leg, which would also have made for a much better game at the Nou Camp.


As for Utd , its worth noting that Valencia hasn't got an assist or a goal against anyone outside of the bottom half, except Everton. 18 of Rooney's goals have come against the bottom half, with the other 5 against Arsenal(2), Spurs, CIty, and Birmingham on the opening game of the season, WAY before they got going. Only one of the his goals against the top 5 was a penalty.

Problem is, this is just a year where everyone, not just Rooney, is scoring significantly higher. He's now always playing the same position and staying further upfield, Fergie finally gave him a single position and he's finally staying upfront more often and doing less running around like a headless chicken in midfield, the thing half the Utd fans said he was brilliant at for the last few years, like Tevez, whose also not doing that and also scoring massively more. I've said for 3 years or more than if Rooney and Tevez stopped their midfield antics and played the position they were given, they'd actually be around, as strikers more, for other players to give them the ball in goal scoring chances. Problem with Utd last year was Rooney/Tevez were far to often 30 yards deeper than they should have been, so Valencia(had he been there) or Berb's would get the ball and not have the guy to play in behind. A striker who runs around kicking midfielders, is a bad striker, who really just gives the midfield players with the ball no one to pass to. A striker who plays as a STRIKER who stays up the field, makes everyone play better.

The thing is in the past a lot of the bottom 8-10 teams would play 4-5-1 against the big teams, and just sit in their own half, and they'd do that against most other teams aswell. This year, your Burnley, Wolves, Blackburn, Bolton Stoke and plenty of others are all playing more attacking football, which means they are conceding more to the top teams aswell as everyone else.

I think ROoney's having a very good season, but its amplified by a pretty significant change in the way the premier league is playing, which is FAR more open and less defensive this year. Rooney's obviously having a much harder time against higher quality defenses.
 
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Just shows what we have been missing at the back all season - even just one fit first choice centre half and it looks a whole lot better. I love Vidic and think he is brilliant, but Im not convinced he is going to stay ("I will see out my contract" which Utd arent going to let run out), so this summer is the last year we can get the megabucks he is worth before it goes down drastically. Rio is never fit and we cant seem to sort out his back issues means we NEED two 1st choice centre halfs (Smalling is for the future not next few seasons)

Ive been saying since last summer that Valencia is a really decent purchase, maybe slightly over priced (but being Man Utd we should be used to that unfortunately). I really have no idea why we are re-signing Nani (if rumours are true), Valencia is CONSISTANTLY better, and everyone knows Nani's form has probably already turned again (lol) and neither can play on the left. If this is how good Valencia is after a 3/4 of a season, imagine how good he should be in 2 more seasons (where Nani is now) - they will be like chalk and cheese. (btw BBC are saying Valencia only has 6 goals so far - plus one recent deflection which I think should be his also, not the 10 claimed above), really hope he gets into double figures for the season though, he really deserves it.

Rooney's heading is really impressive now - he must have worked as hard as he has recently stated to improve so dramatically in this particular skill. Why Neville is even getting on the pitch is a complete mystery to me, he WAS a great player but this really has to be his last season as a player (even more so than Scholes imo, who I want to see retire in the summer also unfortunately)
 
drunkenmaster said:
As for Utd , its worth noting that Valencia hasn't got an assist or a goal against anyone outside of the bottom half, except Everton. 18 of Rooney's goals have come against the bottom half, with the other 5 against Arsenal(2), Spurs, CIty, and Birmingham on the opening game of the season, WAY before they got going. Only one of the his goals against the top 5 was a penalty.
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Players in scoring more against worse teams SHOCKER!
 
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