English Football Thread 2013/14
- Thread starter Bevab
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StinkyBoHoon
National Board President
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well you also lost to chelsea and getting beat by dortmund means you failed a test, not passed it.
Bevab
Staff Member
How about ?zil as a false nine? He did play there for Germany a few times, that experience should maybe add an option. Don't know how well did he play in those games though.
Why don't United try Varela at right back (In the absence of Rafael)? He surely can't do worser than what Smalling currently does at the same position.
thedon5
Panel of Selectors
That applies more to the other clubs who currently have very few injuries. We have a tonne injuries right now, and we're doing just fine, let's see how we do when we aren't affected so heavily by injuries.
Cissokho was our absolute worst player in the first half. Looked petrified to do ANYTHING with or without the ball! Rightly subbed off imo for Coutinho, although Rodgers could have gone 4-3-1-2 with Coutinho behind SAS, Sakho at LB and a Henderson, Lucas, Gerrard midfield trio, considering it was at the center of the park where Arsenal completely pwned us. Gerrard and Lucas at double pivot = massive fail imo - not for the first time this season, it showed.
thedon5
Panel of Selectors
Yeah I'm sure from that statement then that you watched neither game.
Against Chelsea we played our complete second XI except for Koscielny. Even Bendtner played. Chelsea's second XI is easily the best in the league, they would probably qualify for Europe so of course they beat us. Proves nothing, I expected us to lose.
Against Dortmund we actually played really well and deserved something out of the game, they had one decent attack in the second half and scored from it (the electric Dortmund counter attack at it's finest!). The fact was though that the goal was scored by a player who shouldn't have been on the pitch, Lewandowski committed a worse offence than Chiellini did who got sent off, and he received just a yellow card. In any case, we played well against Dortmund, they would absolutely cruise to the PL. They are better than any PL side by a mile, top four team in Europe really with Bayern, Real and Barca. That is like saying Man Utd last season were so awful and didn't deserve the title at all as they lost to Real Madrid, who as we all know would also cruise to a PL title by a huge margin.
So neither result says anything at all about the league - in fact remember neither result was even in the league. You are just looking for reasons to praise Man Utd.
https://twitter.com/AndrewAskew48/status/395262465581121536
Kos, Monreal (better than Gibbs imo), Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla, Rosicky (who is pretty much a first XIer now) all started. That's 6 first XIers (or atleast 4 if I'm being geneorus).
thedon5
Panel of Selectors
Giroud is very important to us, but we certainly aren't in big trouble if he gets injured. Podolski can definitely play there and is our clear second choice CF. Walcott should also be back for Man Utd and will be our third choice CF. The problem is Podolski is quite static, his movement is lacking when he plays as a centre forward and Walcott can't do anything with his back to goal. But it's definitely good enough for now as back ups and Podolski's movement is something that can be improved with more game time. No need to resort to false 9s. We have January to pick up a natural second choice/rotational striker too.
Agree on Varela though he is fresh out of South America, it'd be very tough for him to transition straight to starting games for a club like Man Utd. Jones isn't that great but IMO he is much better than Smalling, he should be playing there. Smalling is just awful at RB. I used to think he would grow to become a brilliant defender. Slowly I'm losing that idea.
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Monreal has a better pedigree than Gibbs, he certainly hasn't been better though. He has looked positionally quite awkward, his defence isn't as good as Gibbs and lacks the pace of Gibbs. He has been better in attack. He needs to adapt to the team and the country more but for now Gibbs starts ahead of him for a reason. With Gibbs injured though we'll get a good look at him now. He is a rotation option, like Chelsea
Wilshere and Rosicky certainly aren't close to being first teamers, they are playing now due to injuries and would have to fight to be on the bench when we have a full squad. Cazorla was just coming back from injury and isn't close to his best right now. So that leaves Koscielny and Ramsey.
I'm not sure what that's meant to prove though, a few first teamers up against a Chelsea team with the likes of Mata, Eto'o, Essien and Willian?
Surely you're having a laugh.
thedon5
Panel of Selectors
The sad thing about Bendtner is that Crystal Palace are probably going to pay us money for him in January...
War
Chairman of Selectors
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Hmm ha damn H, maybe i wasn't watching closely enough, but i really didn't think Cissokho was playing badly at all.
StinkyBoHoon
National Board President
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no I'm really not, as I said at the beginning of the season, quite a lot of times actually, in my opinion, Arsenal need to overturn their record against their premiership rivals if they are to win the league. I'd say against the fellow top teams, if you were to put them in their own mini-league at the end of the season, arsenal need to be at least somewhere in the middle of that to win the league.
no complaints from me if they do win the league, but that's what I've always said and that run of games didn't totally convince me.
thedon5
Panel of Selectors
Well we'll see how that goes this weekend then.
Chelsea and Man City have a lot more to prove, Man City's away record is awful and Chelsea just hasn't been that good at all.
I think it'll be between us and City at the end of the season with Chelsea not far behind. City have problems, but their absolutely formidable home form will take them places, as will their defence which is the best in the league statistically for the last few seasons now.
Another team with big problems is Spurs. Thanks to some lucky penalties they have points, the number of goals they have scored from open play though is around Sunderland and Crystal Palace level.
Chelsea and Man City have a lot more to prove, Man City's away record is awful and Chelsea just hasn't been that good at all.
I think it'll be between us and City at the end of the season with Chelsea not far behind. City have problems, but their absolutely formidable home form will take them places, as will their defence which is the best in the league statistically for the last few seasons now.
Another team with big problems is Spurs. Thanks to some lucky penalties they have points, the number of goals they have scored from open play though is around Sunderland and Crystal Palace level.
StinkyBoHoon
National Board President
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- Glasgow, Scotland
yeah, I think that's a really big game. bigger than normal. if you guys win, then you've pretty much buried man u and have a cushion that you should keep until at least the consecutive city and chelsea games. I'd think most people would agree if arsenals squad can cope with keeping those two at bay and get through the tough christmas fixtures and stay at the top I'd stop taking bets on the championship winners. if you lose obviously you're definitely going to be back to a two point gap, man u will consider themselves back in the hunt and those two games will look a bit more imposing.
exciting stuff, all of which points to draw which keeps everything sort of ambiguous.
exciting stuff, all of which points to draw which keeps everything sort of ambiguous.
Lee1981
International Coach
Anyone else notice a change in the Dons character since Arsenal have started to challenge for the league again (been a while).?
Become a bit of an arrogant twat.
Give it the large when you actually win something, not when your sitting at the top of the league in November!
Become a bit of an arrogant twat.
Give it the large when you actually win something, not when your sitting at the top of the league in November!
