Weekend Football Thread 23-26 *spoilers*

I'm concerned about the partnership between Rooney and Berba. Both players I love to watch but there does not seem to be any chemistry between them. I think both thrive with a pacey lead the line forward aka Saha.

Buying a CM is a difficult business, Hargreaves is set to return and I really rate Fletcher. Creatively we could look to buy but realistically who is available and would step into our team and improve it? In my dream world we sign Fabregas, already prem proven and has all the talent in the world, but that’s never going to happen.

I think it would have been nice to have signed a “big” name for a large fee, just in part to appease the fans. David Silva is being mentioned, but quite frankly he may be too light weight to play in the centre, although on the left he may be an option. LLajic is coming in January and by most accounts is meant to be top class.

I dunno, let's just hope SAF has a master plan.
 
Ljajic is 17 though, hardly the solution to all our problems. We do need a midfielder who wants to attack. Scholes, Carrick, Hargreaves, Fletcher all don't really.
 
Shamikebab said:
Nani was on for about 5 minutes and had two shots on target, more than anyone else had managed in 90 mins! I swear people just come on here and write "Nani was bad" without actually watching the game. He did far more than Giggs did in the whole match!
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I think you are the one that looked at the stats, not the game. IIRC the ball dropped at his feet and he basically passed the ball back to riena, and the 2nd shot was from a freekick which he also tapped into riena's open arms. The guy is rubbish.
 
Woooah people are way too quick to react. Song has been excellent consistently for months and has been motm many times in a role where it's very hard to shine. He wasn't as good today but neither was Arshavin, why aren't people calling for his head? In fact he's been ordinary all year really where Song has been vital.

He was bound to have an off day sometime soon and the whole team were playing in 1st gear after the 2 goals, making his job a lot harder than it should be when the players ahead of him are strolling around and allowing pressure. He's a young player, give him a break :/

Edit - Also the penalty was a bit dodgy for me, Carlton Cole had spent the whole afternoon literally fighting off 2 or 3 men every time he had the ball, then he gets a tap on the side of the foot and he's straight down. I know it was a penalty but a bit harsh on Song.

Barcalona are amazing ...
 
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So annoyed we didn't close out that game, just didn't turn up in the 2nd half, lazy lazy lazy players! Didn't learn anything from the Champ league game :(

Not looking forward to the Derby and the inevitable goal by Jenas!
 
Owenb said:
I think you are the one that looked at the stats, not the game. IIRC the ball dropped at his feet and he basically passed the ball back to riena, and the 2nd shot was from a freekick which he also tapped into riena's open arms. The guy is rubbish.
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Nope, the first shot he cut inside and tried to curl it round him.

Ok so what were all the great efforts Rooney had? And Berbatov? And Giggs? And Carrick? And Scholes?

It just amazes me that people on here are singling out Nani of all ******* people for having a bad game when he came on for the last 10 mins, where we basically resorted to hoofing the ball up the pitch yet managed to have our second shot on target of the match. You think they might be a little bit more critical of the players that played 90 mins yet did sweet **** all.
 
Just watched the game, only ourselves to blame. We just sat back and let them bring the game to us instead of closing it out. Diaby yet again completely pointless and our goalkeeping situation is a little worrying, all of them far below par. What with all the other results is very disappointing to just draw :(.
 
drunkenmaster said:
No but looking at todays squad, you could probably buy better Dm, CM, left and right wing, right back and be a far better team than todays was. You might not be able to get a single player whose better than Ronaldo, forget Ronaldo though, you can improve fairly easily on a good 6 positions in the squad.

Giggs, as he was last year but for the blind idiots, a fantastic player on his day, but with "his day" coming few and far between. Till Feb last year he was awful, had 2 great months and sporadically good till the end of the season. This year he's had 2-3 awesome performances, and some crap ones like today. Theres a heck of a lot of room for improvement in that squad.

But I'll again say it Berbatov is crying out for a Owen type to start regularly infront of him, why he's a big man up on his own I'll never know. LIkewise Rooney's single sustained unbeatable form long run of games, came at left wing. Frankly as today showed, his attempted throughballs in behind were poor as anything. His passings never been his strength, his best strenght is probably very powerful running, which from the wing he gets to do constantly, he's actually got a fantastic delivery from the wing, again something he doesn't use as a striker, and well, he's never been prolific, he played a LOT on the wing last year and still got the same kind of goals he usually got.

Considering he was so consistant there, and very inconsistant as a striker who doesn't work well as a front two with Berb's, its madness to play him there.
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Problem when you sell a player like Ronaldo is two fold.

1) Imho he is irreplaceable. You are never going to replace like for like. He was a world class player at the top of his game.

2) Utd made the mistake of insisting that the money for Ronaldo was paid in 1 instalment. Every selling club knows you have cash and they can command their price.

I agree with the RB scenario, O'Shea is the victim (like Phil Neville before him) of his own versatility. He is neither a commanding fullback, Central defender or central midfielder.

DM I really think that Fergie must have absolute faith in Hargreaves road to recovery. Again in my honest opinion I think when he is fully fit, he is a fantastic player. So good, Barry would not have anywhere near as many caps if it wasn't for Hargreaves injury. Whether he returns in the long run as the player he was 3 or 4 years ago is a different matter.

CM, Well Carrick is an enigma this season. How does a player go from one of the first names on the team sheet to being an also ran ??? Something looks to have happened in the first week of the season because Fergie does not seem to fancy him at al. This guff about him being a late starter in terms of 1st team fitness wise is a load of guff if you ask me.

Something is not sparking thats for sure
 
esK` said:
He may be a ex toffee, but he is still a Pool fan.
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Gray is the most anti pool, man u loving commentator around :confused:

I could post a few comments from other liverpool supporters stating in no uncertain terms what they think of Andy Gray, but it's not for this forum.
 
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Loki said:
Problem when you sell a player like Ronaldo is two fold.

1) Imho he is irreplaceable. You are never going to replace like for like. He was a world class player at the top of his game.
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Clearly you can't replace him like for like but 1 thing you needed to do is try and replace his goals, which you didn't do.

There's a lot of talk about how we rely on Gerrard and Torres for goals and creativity but any bias aside, I honestly think there's more pressure on Rooney & Berbatov (more from the creative side of things) to do that for you.

No matter what midfield 4 you put out, you're really struggling to see a real goal threat. Giggs ocassionally pops up with a goal and Nani at a push but that's it. Last year with Ronaldo banging in 30 goals and then Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov getting ~15 each it didn't matter but with no Ronaldo (even if Owen can score the Tevez goals) you're looking to Valencia and Nani to make up those goals and it's not going to happen.
 
In the end we have to buy a midfielder who can score. Carrick might get one or two a season, same with Scholes if he's lucky, Giggs might manage 5 in a good season, Ando might possibly get 3 if we're lucky, Valencia could potentially get 5 maybe this season, Nani is probably the most likely to get closer to the 10 mark if he gets enough games but we don't have anyone from midfield that can score goals like Gerrard, Lampard or Fabregas can.

That lack of any kind of threat from midfield puts an immense amount of pressure on the front two to take on the entire defence by themselves.
 
That tackle by Carragher was spot on. Not only did he get the ball no one even appealed for a penalty.

Edit: And the push on Giggs hasn't even been shown.
 
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Nice compilation of Vidic taking out Torres time and time again on Motd. Could have been booked 3 times before he got his first.
 
[ASSE]Hinchy;15172304 said:
Sorry but Song is a very very stupid footballer. Its as if he doesn't actually have a brain. Nor does he have any vision to pick a pass at times. I've stuck up for him for a while, but if Arsenal want to win things, he needs to be replaced.
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Watch it again. He barely touches him and he goes down like a wet kipper.

We should have won it earlier but that was a poor decision.

drunkenmaster said:
Still think Arsenal have a more than capable squad for winning the title, and the champs league, however if we keep starting Song/Diaby and Denilson when he's back, over Rosicky, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela, and others for no apparent reason(as we did last year) I can't see it. We've now played 2 against the top half, lost both, played 7 against the bottom half, won 5 and drawn 1, when tbh, West Ham played (for the final 35-40mins) like a top half team of last year. Well, as we play more top half teams we'll drop back if we keep playing as pathetically in midfield as we did today.
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Waaaaaa... Song, Diaby and Denilson are rubbish. I joked last week that you would moan about Denilson next and he isnt even playing and you did. Change your record DM its getting sooooooooo boring!
 
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