Football Banter Thread

shipinabottle said:
Question, where do we talk about football in general now, here? Seems a bit daft to open a thread for a splash in the pan topic.

Surely plenty still to talk about in terms of press remarks, gossip and transfers.
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Yep, just use this thread.
If you feel the topic's worthy of it's own thread (like when Man.U. get relegated etc.) then start a dedicated thread.
 
You shouldn't have said that Johnny, that's what got the last banter thread closed.

There's no harm in starting new topics. If you want to talk about the various systems LvG will use to shoehorn all Utd's forwards into the side, start a "Tactics, Systems and Formations" thread. If you want to discuss injuries, start a thread for that (we've had one previous seasons) and so on.

That way whenever anybody wants to post some injury news or discuss possible tactics for the weekends matches, they can use those threads.
 
Got to admire some of our judges:

"To be frank you were probably a little tired by the time you got to the ball, it was a longer run than was strictly necessary.

You had consumed alcohol and your stride pattern was a bit out of kilter but, to borrow a phrase, you did bend it like Beckham.

Regrettably it was about 30mph slower than David Beckham and the West Ham goalkeeper did his job by easily saving it.

The professional footballer who followed you did not do any better."
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Should have him on MOTD.

More:

http://www.itv.com/news/2014-09-01/west-ham-fan-bent-it-like-beckham-during-pitch-invasion/
 
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Man City - still have to be the best on paper and firm best if Aguero stays fit. Dzeko has constantly been on the score sheet throughout his time, and Jovetic looks like he can find goals since he's started playing regularly.

Chelsea - Costa has started well, looks a beast, but if he gets injured Loic Remy is unproven in a top side and Drogba is a cameo.

Man Utd - Rooney and RVP have gone way off the boil. Looking lethargic, out of sync, Rooney is a hack and RVP hasn't produced anything of note bar his header at the WC. Falcao on paper is a beast, but ACL recovery is a big question mark for now.

Liverpool - Sturridge is atad greedy at times but a very good forward, Balotelli is a big question mark for obvious reasons, drifts in and out of seasons/games. Lambert is Carling Cup/FA Cup player at best in this team.

Arsenal - Devoid of clear quality up front with Giroud missing.

Could be tight at the top between Chelsea and City depending injuries and such. Could be a grerat season in terms of attacking flair. We've lost Suarez but gained Costa, Falcao and Balotelli.
 
Remy isn't unproven in the league and most importantly, his style of scoring is being pacey and latching on to through balls, not a great footballer but an excellent finisher. With Fabregas behind him I wouldn't be worried about that combination working if Costa was out, without Remy, with Torres's form and a likely not great if played every game Drogba I would think losing Costa would be a huge loss, with someone like Remy and Fabregas to supply him, I don't think they'll have any problems.

In terms of City being best team on paper, I can't agree. Silva/Nasri are so poor in so many games. Liverpool were poor in the second half, the first half it was City's lack of any pace at all down the wings that hurt them, they didn't get those two involved and literally in dozens of games in the past 2-3 years those two have been the weak link against certain teams. Where the midfield sits deeper and/or Yaya is having one of his pretty frequent lazy games, they struggle to get support forward or counter attack with numbers. Navas has that pace, not the quality and is a bit injury prone.

City have wings, central mids, defensive mids, strikers all covered, fitter/stronger CB's as it stands(will see of Mangala changes that and if Kompany can stay fit).

Fernando/Fernandinho don't look anywhere near as good as matic defensively or offensively. Matic frequently gets involved in counter attacks and offers real quality when he does, and goals. Yaya, power, some great finishing, but he's sporadic, has frequent lazy games and isn't particularly strong defensively. When he's at his peak he's brilliant but I don't think I've seen more than 2 or 3 games in the past 5 years he's been good for even 60 minutes of a game, he's often a peripheral player but with bursts of brilliance. Their central midfield isn't as dominating or consistent as Chelsea's and winger wise, Chelsea have all kinds of options, defensive options, pacey options, attacking options, ultra attacking options.

For me at this point Chelsea have a noticeably stronger team on paper than City. City need to buy some genuinely pacey wingers and then need someone more reliable than Yaya. If/when Yaya is injured they have absolutely no one remotely close to his quality in a creative or goalscoring sense.

The one real weakness that Chelsea team has now, is Mourinho. They really should have won the title last year but went to Utd/Arsenal looking for a point, playing too within themselves, got lucky against other teams like Liverpool when they went looking for a draw. That mentality hurts the team in general. If he continues giving up points in tough fixtures it's not because the team aren't capable of getting them but because Mourinho has a weird mentality about those games.
 
He has some 'mechanical problem' with his heart which is no obstacle to his footballing career.
No elite club would sign him if it was a risk, obviously.
 
Robbo said:
Rojo has finally got his visa sorted.
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Indeed.

Probably could have been completed sooner.

JohnnyG said:
He has some 'mechanical problem' with his heart which is no obstacle to his footballing career.
No elite club would sign him if it was a risk, obviously.
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He has problems with his heart, it lead to him failing a medical at Liverpool and I was under the impression it prevented him moving to clubs in the past; A.C Milan, Fiorentina & Arsenal.

I'm just surprised an elite club would take the risk (no matter how small), considering that Fabrice Muamba was only a couple of seasons ago.
 
There is no risk according to the respective doctors, not just club doctors but FIFA ones too who have no other interest in the player barring his health and as far as I know it's just rumoured that his health was the reason Liverpool chose not to go through with the signing.
It's also rumoured that they chose not to for financial reasons, neither of which will ever be confirmed of course.

Edit: It was originally picked up when joining Marseilles and further tests confirmed it has no bearing on his ability to play football.
 
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