English Football Thread 2012/2013

[MasterBlaster76]

Very lucky that you played Southampton today. Had that been a team with a bit more experience of the Premiership, it could've been different. Oh well, that's what makes our league so wonderful.

Now c'mon Utd!

 

[Epic]

Very lucky that you played Southampton today. Had that been a team with a bit more experience of the Premiership, it could've been different. Oh well, that's what makes our league so wonderful.

Now c'mon Utd!

I know, we were so poor defensively, you could see Mancini yelling his heart out near the end there.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if some City players leave with a bit of a headache tonight.

 

[Lee1981]

Good win for Chelsea today, could have been a potential slip up, new guys look pretty tasty to

 

[War]

Joe Cole was pretty awful during our preseason and is very likely to leave Liverpool by transfer deadline day. Is on huge wages for absolutely doing nothing, and is often injured as well.


Among others who're likely to follow suit are Andy Carroll (didn't board our team bus yesterday), Jay Spearing (3m pound bid from Nottingham Forest apparently accepted) and Charlie Adam (transfer bait to secure Dempsey's services).

Damn was he that bad in pre-season?. I recall watching the first leg of that champions league qualifier and he i didn't notice anything that awful form him.

He had a very solid season at Lillee, so that's the basis of me thinking he can do ok in his second chance at the kop.

If you get rid of Spearing and Adam you will a bit short of mid-field back-up options that main trio of (Gerrard/Allen/Lucas). You will just have Henderson, which wont be ideal.

 

[Haarithan]

Damn was he that bad in pre-season?. I recall watching the first leg of that champions league qualifier and he i didn't notice anything that awful form him.

He definitely was. If you're talking about the Europa League qualifier, he played only 20 odd minutes of the first leg against Gomel before limping off and returning yesterday, before reportedly getting injured again.

But yeah, he definitely did have an awesome stint at Lille last season. Encouraged even me at the beginning, but that seems to be gone atm.

 

[War]

Looks like we're back to the 4-4-2 with surprisingly Rodwell in the middle, going to pay close attention to him today.

Seemed more like a 4-2-2-2, since Nasri and Silva never play on the flanks, always roam inside.

But yea surprised so see Mancini start Rodwell. Except that bad pass in mid-field that lead to one of Southampton's goal's he was ok.

His role seemed like a defensive mid-fielder tasked with making safe passes to more talented Toure and Nasri, since i don't recall him venturing forward at all.

Hopefully he can make the role his own this season. Good potential signs from a English POV that at three big clubs (United, City, Arsenal), three of the country's best mid-fielders (Cleverley, Rodwell, Wilshire) will be key first team players.

Wish Chelsea would have followed suite and given McEachran a similar chance, instead of investing heavily in Brazil's Oscar.

 

[Epic]

Seemed more like a 4-2-2-2, since Nasri and Silva never play on the flanks, always roam inside.

But yea surprised so see Mancini start Rodwell. Except that bad pass in mid-field that lead to one of Southampton's goal's he was ok.

His role seemed like a defensive mid-fielder tasked with making safe passes to more talented Toure and Nasri, since i don't recall him venturing forward at all.

Hopefully he can make the role his own this season. Good potential signs from a English POV that at three big clubs (United, City, Arsenal), three of the country's best mid-fielders (Cleverley, Rodwell, Wilshire) will be key first team players.

Wish Chelsea would have followed suite and given McEachran a similar chance, instead of investing heavily in Brazil's Oscar.

It even looked like a 4-2-3-1 at some points of the game with Tevez dropping back a bit, so yeah, free roaming attack it is. Rodwell, didn't really know much about him going into the game and I gotta say, I'm impressed. Looking forward to him starting more games and really settling down for us.

 

[thedon5]

Thanks for the advice, some advice for you, how about toning down the crazy statements, talk of Swansea being a top 6 team after 90 mins a prime example.

On Arsenal, all I'm saying is when did a draw with an average mid table team at home become decent, surely you couldn't ask for a better game to start, anything but a win is a very poor start.


Just seen the first Swansea goal,,, Rob Green,,

"Doing a Newcastle" doesn't mean coming in the top six in your second season in the PL. It is exceeding expectation and finishing better than last season when some people have possibly predicted the team to finish poorly.

I'm not happy with the points, no. I was happy with somethe performances of our new players and players who were "like new signings" as Wenger would say. Diaby looked lively like he did last season in the few games he played, should be a good squad player for us. Cazorla was outstanding, and Giroud showed good signs other than his finish (it was his weaker foot in his first game though, so I'll let him off. If there's on thing he can do, it's finish). Mertesacker made a couple of mistakes but otherwise looked solid enough to be a back-up defender. Jenkinson didn't lose us the game like he did in pre-season against City as well. We created chances, something people thought we wouldn't be able to do without RVP and Song.

Last season the same happened and our new hyped signing Gervinho got a red card, so I'm not too worried. We then were on something like 7 points from 7 games after losing our biggest player and another big player. Same happened this season, but nothing suggests we'll have another start to the season as bad as that this season.

 

[JBlues08]

Wish Chelsea would have followed suite and given McEachran a similar chance, instead of investing heavily in Brazil's Oscar.

We gave him chances and he's clearly not quite ready yet. That is not to say he was horrible or anything but he definitely look like he is gonna go out on loan, which would much more beneficial for him. Worth remembering that even Cleverley and Wilshere went out on loan first before claiming their place in the starting XI.

 

[thedon5]

I agree and reckon he should either stay at Chelsea for the Carling Cup and then go on loan or go on loan now back to Swansea.

Wish Ramsey would go there, but he's a Cardiff boy so I doubt it.

 

[JBlues08]

I agree and reckon he should either stay at Chelsea for the Carling Cup and then go on loan or go on loan now back to Swansea.

Wish Ramsey would go there, but he's a Cardiff boy so I doubt it.

Right now, what McEachran really needs is to play week in week out. Getting the odd game here and there at the club won't help his development one bit and a loan move to the Championship looks very much a possibility with Middlesbrough, Bolton etc all interested. Arguably a PL loan move would be better but then again, look where Bertrand is right now. Was loaned out 5 times to 5 different clubs previously and none of those were in the Premier League but he finally broke into the first team and look very much a capable replacement for Cole.

 

[thedon5]

Well then I suppose if no PL club wants him he'll have no choice then but to make the drop.

Btw what do you think of Michael Laudrup's potion?

 

[Bevab]

Never knew he was a magician to make potions.

 

[War]

Right now, what McEachran really needs is to play week in week out. Getting the odd game here and there at the club won't help his development one bit and a loan move to the Championship looks very much a possibility with Middlesbrough, Bolton etc all interested. Arguably a PL loan move would be better but then again, look where Bertrand is right now. Was loaned out 5 times to 5 different clubs previously and none of those were in the Premier League but he finally broke into the first team and look very much a capable replacement for Cole.

Yea fair shout and i see he has now gone to Middlesbrough. Will be watching his progress and hopefully he can return strong like Bertrand for England's sake.

BBC Sport - Middlesbrough sign Chelsea's Josh McEachran on loan