Greenlizard0's Weekend Football Thread [August 5/6/7 2011]

What a day :D

Will post some thoughts after dinner but I was sitting there glum as **** at half time with our noisy neighbours making all the noise, was so satisfying seeing them go all quiet second half.
 
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lols cant even get the website right
 
Moses said:
Obertan, Smalling, Gibson, Evans = 87 appearances.

Hart, Boyata, Richards = 101 appearances.

That's for 2010/2011, all comps.

:3
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Aren't you a law student? A little concerning if so. Obertan and Smalling aren't products of our youth system and you have only served to prove my argument that City can't relying on their youth system for backup. :confused:

How about we do it this way?

Starts by MCFC youth products in 2010-1: 96
Starts by MUFC youth products in 2010-1: 140

Note that doesn't include sub appearances which would massively weight it in United's favour. It also doesn't include players like Rafael and Fabio who joined aged 18 or over.
 
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Moses said:
Yeah, I said I was being a n00b :'(.

How are you classifying youth products/who are you counting, out of interest?
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Anyone who has been with either club prior to the age of 18, though I must admit I didn't research it that thoroughly (i.e. I'm not checking every single player's history to prove a point on the interwebz :p ).
 
I'd argue that at the moment there is a massive disparity, but City are investing in their youth system and in 5-10 years things will certainly balance out.

/\ What he said too.
 
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Absolutely no qualms from me about today, best team won without a doubt. No idea where our midfield decided to go, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near Wembley. I was nothing short of gobsmacked to see us lead 2-0 at half time, thought it was undeserved (Though De Gea really, really should have done better with Dzeko's effort, it wasn't even that good a strike). Hopefully the loss won't offset his growing confidence of the goals against today and against Inter. He looks so much better already.

Nothing worse than conceding to Nani (and even worse twice, once in bleedin' ET) as I don't think I could possibly dislike a player more, but a game thoroughly well won, congrats :)


Oohhhhh we never win at home and we never win away, we lost last week and we lost today, but we don't give a **** 'cos we're all ****** up, MCFC, ok! :D
 
I don't care if it was a nothing game, it was a damn entertaining one. It was ridiculously harsh going in at 2-0 down, we'd definitely been the better team and De Gea is going to have to do better than that because frankly my grandmother could have reacted quicker to Dzeko's 40 yard 'surprise' shot and she would have been a lot cheaper.

Great reaction second half though, Cleverley and Anderson were excellent together, although I think they are both a little too attack minded to play as the central 2. Goals were all good, can't believe anyone was suggesting we might sell Nani in the summer, he's just brilliant, both calm and composed finishes.

One thing did come out of that match though. Smalling TERRIFIES me as a right back, I have never seen a right back so far up the pitch, he was practically a winger for most of the game and was actually further up than Young for a lot of it!! It's fine and all but his control was pretty poor and I don't think his crossing is that great so I'm not sure why one of the Da Silva's didn't play there, Smalling just looks far better at centre back.

Oh and why wasn't Richards sent off? Horrific lunge, moments after Anderson got a yellow for....well apparently being pushed by Dzeko, great refereeing that.
 
Shamikebab said:
Smalling TERRIFIES me as a right back, I have never seen a right back so far up the pitch, he was practically a winger for most of the game and was actually further up than Young for a lot of it!! It's fine and all but his control was pretty poor and I don't think his crossing is that great so I'm not sure why one of the Da Silva's didn't play there, Smalling just looks far better at centre back.

Oh and why wasn't Richards sent off? Horrific lunge, moments after Anderson got a yellow for....well apparently being pushed by Dzeko, great refereeing that.
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Smalling probably played as he hasn't had as much of a pre-season as the twins have (probably the reason Welbeck started over Berbatov as well), that said I thought he was excellent yet again today he got a little too excited at times and his control suffered but I love to see him so confident in his own ability to make those runs (his crossing was actually quite good as well). Be interesting to see what Arsenal fans think of Smalling? I'd imagine Wenger and co must be kicking themselves for missing out on him.

I think yellow for Richards was fair enough tbh, challenges like that and the ones the Liverpool lot constantly go on about Rafa making in two games against them last season aren't anywhere near red cards (imo)
 
I never said he played badly, I'd just be concerned against a more attacking left back/winger he'd be caught out.

There was one point where the ball came out to the right and Smalling just ran on and made Nani go back and get it :eek:
 
Smalling did get a tad carried away doing his Cristiano Ronaldo impressions up on that right wing but I thought he was pretty fantastic overall. He's a lot like Pique as someone said earlier.
 
Adrianr said:
Though De Gea really, really should have done better with Dzeko's effort, it wasn't even that good a strike
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I think you need to watch it again, it was an extremely clean strike with a lot of power and swerve, if you watch carefully you can see it swerve to the right and then to the left which caused De Gea to put his weight on the wrong foot.
 
I'm not sure if I'm being over critical (or anti-utd/trolling) but to me De Gea was just as much at fault for the 1st goal as he was the 2nd. Utd had a very high defensive line from the set-play (and I noticed from further set-plays that De Gea was telling them to push up too) and the free-kick has travelled all the way to the edge of the 6 yard box before Lescott headed it in. If De Gea wants all that space then he's got to be coming and claiming balls that are anywhere near the 6 yard box.

It will be interesting to see how he deals with corners and free-kicks. I don't believe for 1 minute that he's 6'4" and he's a slight lad too. In Reina's first season or so he struggled to deal with the physical nature of the way some teams set-up against us at set-plays.
 
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BaZ87 said:
I'm not sure if I'm being over critical (or anti-utd/trolling) but to me De Gea was just as much at fault for the 1st goal as he was the 2nd. Utd had a very high defensive line from the set-play (and I noticed from further set-plays that De Gea was telling them to push up too) and the free-kick has travelled all the way to the edge of the 6 yard box before Lescott headed it in. If De Gea wants all that space then he's got to be coming and claiming balls that are anywhere near the 6 yard box.

It will be interesting to see how he deals with corners and free-kicks. I don't believe for 1 minute that he's 6'4" and he's a slight lad too. In Reina's first season or so he struggled to deal with the physical nature of the way some teams set-up against us at set-plays.
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I do agree he will probably struggle with high balls in the box, but I think it's all about getting to know the players around him and gaining confidence with the other players, his distribution and catching seem very good, I think once he improves communication and confidence he will be a top keeper.

Also, how tall is Reina, he always looks small to me.
 
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It's not the easiest of goals to compare but I wouldn't place blame on De Gea for their first goal anymore than I would place blame on Hart for ours, in both goals the sets of players starting positions are a few feet inside the penalty area and the both Lescott and Smalling get the final touch within the 6 yard box.

The only difference I can tell between the two goals is that Lescott still has Ferdinand and Vidic around him whereas Smalling has the freedom of Wembley :p
 
Reina's listed on our official site at 1.88m (6'2"), which isn't the biggest but Reina's problem wasn't so much his size but adjusting to the difference in the way teams attack set-plays over here. He didn't like it when teams put players on or around him and would struggle when trying to come out and claim the ball, and as a result developed a habit of trying to punch everything.

I know Taggart's spoke about the way De Gea commands his area but it will be interesting to see how quickly he adapts when he's got Kevin Davies standing on his toes.
 
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