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The 2011-2012 Football Thread

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Terrible weekend for me, with both Liverpool and Columbus registering losses. Liverpool's league campaign has been effectively irrelevant for some time, we ought to go all-out for the FA Cup and plan to open the checkbook in the summer. Whether we finish 5th or 10th makes no difference to me, and the monetary difference is small. We need a striker and creative midfielder ASAP. To be done by Bendtner makes the loss that much lamer.

As for Columbus, early-season optimism has given way to injury worries, though the loss came at altitude in Colorado against wobbly but lucky opposition. Let's hope the home opener is better.

Has 'Arry's potential England job fatally undermined the cohesion of Spurs' squad? Arsenal look set to sneak a 3rd place finish this season.

Liverpool could still finish 5th and take both domestic cups, which would make our season look way better than it actually was. If a lesser manager than Dalglish were in charge there would be '[Manager] OUT' signs in the Kop.

Maybe we should swap Carroll with Vermaelen up top. :rolleyes:
 
Lord Blackadder said:
.Maybe we should swap Carroll with Vermaelen up top. :rolleyes:
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As I've said before, at Newcastle the team played around Carroll, where as at Liverpool, he's a squad player than needs to fit in to the team. It seems he's not too adept at doing so

Edit: Taken from the BBC's gossip section
Manchester United are the latest club to be linked with Lille and Belgium midfielder Eden Hazard. The 21-year-old would cost £30m and bolster the United midfield following the news that Anderson could miss the rest of the season with a severe hamstring injury.
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Anyone spot what's wrong with that? :rolleyes:
 
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Hazard has already stated he is attracted to Arsenal because of there is a fellow Belgian in Vermaelen and a French speaking coach in Wenger plus style of football.

Gotze would fit into Arsenal as well because of Podolski and Mertesacker and style of football :p

If Wenger manages to pull both signings off i would be pretty amazed but it's unlikely.

Gotze, Song, Wilshere/Ramsey/Arteta + Podolski, Hazard and RVP up front.

*sigh* if only...
 
Fergie was in the crowd at Hazard's last match. He seems likely to go to England, but which team is anyone's guess.

Fizzoid said:
As I've said before, at Newcastle the team played around Carroll, where as at Liverpool, he's a squad player than needs to fit in to the team. It seems he's not too adept at doing so.
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That is certainly a significant factor. I think that the role he's being asked to play in Liverpool is more demanding, since he needs to learn how to take advantage of Suarez's movement with the ball and position himself better. I don't know if that's ever going to happen.

The newspapers are calling today's derby a "must win" match for Liverpool, but I think today's match is pretty meaningless for anything other than morale purposes. The FA Cup is far more important to Liverpool at this stage. I honestly don't care if Everton finish above Liverpool.

EDIT: Bog-standard Liverpool performance, with the notable exception that someone (Gerrard) showed quality finishing skills today and it resulted in a deserved, if not spectacular, win. A rather clean match for a Merseyside derby as well. No goals from our strikers yet again, though Suarez was influential.

EDIT2: Jaffa's boys thrash Cardiff 3-0, and didn't need extra time and penalties to do it. Well done. ;)

Inter out of the Champions League, and my goodness but Basel got torched by Bayern. So much for all that upset talk...
 
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Shambolic defending from Basel. Robben isn't too hard to mark out of a game. He plays one way and one way only; come in and shoot with left. Done. But i suppose there's also Ribery to worry about.

That said, Mario Gomez; Clinical.

Still don't think Bayern will lift the trophy though.

Inter were unremarkable before Mourinho and have also embraced that label after his departure.

Liverpool needed to win and lo and behold the captain leads by example. Good moments from the two up front but still can't score.

I wonder how Everton would improve if they had say...£50M to spend purely on players.
 
daneoni said:
Shambolic defending from Basel. Robben isn't too hard to mark out of a game. He plays one way and one way only; come in and shoot with left. Done. But i suppose there's also Ribery to worry about.

That said, Mario Gomez; Clinical.

Still don't think Bayern will lift the trophy though.
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The thing about Robben is, he is such a dangerous player that despite a predictable style he will punish the smallest mistakes.

Nobody has the tiniest chance of winning the Champions league except Barca and Real; one or the other might get knocked out in a huge upset - but even if that happens the other will surely win the final with ease. It's either going to be a big El Clasico showdown or a total rout of some hapless underdog.

daneoni said:
Liverpool needed to win and lo and behold the captain leads by example. Good moments from the two up front but still can't score.
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Like I said before, this was a morale-booster but it means little else. Our only chance to do anything is in the FA Cup, the league is just a distraction now unless Spurs and Chelsea begin to choke massively (which is possible, to be fair). And at this point I'd trade a 3-0 win with a Gerrard hat trick for a 1-0 win on a Suarez/Carroll combination goal.

daneoni said:
I wonder how Everton would improve if they had say...£50M to spend purely on players.
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I doubt we'll ever know. You need to have money in order to be able to waste it.

Jaffa Cake said:
An lo and behold – suddenly we're back in the play-off places...
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The Premier League beckons...
 
^
I don't think Carroll will ever do it for LFC sadly and i think the club need to write off that £35M. Suarez needs to play off someone and i'm not sure Carroll is it. If anything he seems to play better with Gerrard (then again who doesn't)

If Gerrard, Suarez and Bellamy play then i think LFC can nick the FA Cup. Even more so if Agger returns to replace Carragher who i think is starting to be more liable than reliable.

On another note i read somewhere that Suarez is eyeing a PSG move.
 
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I heard about the Suarez move, but I don't think there's anything in it.

As for Carroll, we needn't take quite a £35 million loss on him - I'm sure a midtable side would be willing to take him off our hands for £10-£15 million, possibly even more.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
I heard about the Suarez move, but I don't think there's anything in it.

As for Carroll, we needn't take quite a £35 million loss on him - I'm sure a midtable side would be willing to take him off our hands for £10-£15 million, possibly even more.
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I imagine you're going to have to sell if you want to buy a new striker and a new midfielder, especially after spending all of the £s on Carroll, Henderson, Downing, and Adams. It's an awful lot of money to keep on the bench.
 
pivo6 said:
I imagine you're going to have to sell if you want to buy a new striker and a new midfielder, especially after spending all of the £s on Carroll, Henderson, Downing, and Adams. It's an awful lot of money to keep on the bench.
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Probably - but since we have some deadweight to get rid of, selling isn't a problem to me. The problem is whether Dalglish and FSG are prepared swallow their pride and get rid of players they've recently bought. At least two of those four you mentioned should probably be replaced (Downing is the only one that might be worth keeping), and there's no guarantee we'll keep journeyman Bellamy. He came on a free IIRC, so we'll make a small profit on him.

Alternately, Henderson and Carroll in particular have to show big improvements in form by next August to justify their places and Dalglish's faith in them.
 
What, you don't believe in tapping up? ;)

This tantrum by the Premier League chairman at a sports conference in Qatar was rather rich:

"England gave the world football. It gave the best legacy anyone could give. We gave them the game," Richards said. "For 50 years, we owned the game … We were the governance of the game. We wrote the rules, designed the pitches and everything else.

"Then, 50 years later, some guy came along and said: 'You're liars,' and they actually stole it. It was called Fifa. Fifty years later, another gang came along called Uefa and stole a bit more."
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...this coming from a fatcat who heads the organization (the Premier League) that has effectively stolen football from the English themselves. What a whiny, self-absorbed little child of a man. He's pushing the beer issue for the Qatar World Cup merely out of spite. Last time I checked they didn't serve beer in most English stadia, at least in the top divisions. (though, no beer in the WC stadia would be very lame indeed)
 
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NutsNGum said:
I don't know about that, if he got a decent offer I'm not sure how likely he would be to stay on at Liverpool given that they're barely challenging for a Europa League spot these days. Sad times.
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From what I heard (via Philippe Auclair on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast), French journalists asked Suarez leading questions about PSG and then twisted his response into a "I want to play for PSG" headline. Apart from this incident there has been nothing to suggest that Suarez wants to leave or that he is getting any offers.

We are, by the way, guaranteed a spot in the Europa League by virtue of our Carling Cup win. Plus, we will have Lucas back next season, and that is a big deal. Not that the Europa League excites me much. The whole idea of parachuting failed Champions League sides into it ruins the competition.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
From what I heard (via Philippe Auclair on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast), French journalists asked Suarez leading questions about PSG and then twisted his response into a "I want to play for PSG" headline. Apart from this incident there has been nothing to suggest that Suarez wants to leave or that he is getting any offers.

We are, by the way, guaranteed a spot in the Europa League by virtue of our Carling Cup win. Plus, we will have Lucas back next season, and that is a big deal. Not that the Europa League excites me much. The whole idea of parachuting failed Champions League sides into it ruins the competition.
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Aye, I wasn't necessarily referring to PSG though. I read the interview and I agree that it was being led somewhat in that direction. Having Lucas back will be a plus though. Personally speaking, it'd be nice to see Adam doing well, cos he's one of ours, but I can't see him getting a game when Lucas returns and he hasn't been great for a while.

José Enrique and Downing seem alright, but there's always time for the others to improve. If you'd said a few years ago that you thought having Lucas back was a big deal, people would have assumed that you had been stricken with a debilitating brain illness. Now he's almost irreplaceable.
 
NutsNGum said:
José Enrique and Downing seem alright, but there's always time for the others to improve. If you'd said a few years ago that you thought having Lucas back was a big deal, people would have assumed that you had been stricken with a debilitating brain illness. Now he's almost irreplaceable.
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Adam is trying to play above his level. Occasionally he does it, most often he doesn't. You're right about Lucas though, he looked substandard compared with Alonso and Mascherano (both of whome continue to perform at the highest level). But after a bumpy start he really grew into his role and was arguably Liverpool's best player until he picked up that nasty injury. I hope he can find his previous form. I was mystified as to why we were playing him at first, but he proved me completely wrong.

Jaffa Cake said:
Even better, apparently on his way to his post rant slap up lunch he fell into a swimming pool and had to be fished out by Bolton's Phil Gartside. :D
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That is comedy gold. I would have left him in there, myself. He needs a good ducking. ;)
 
^
Well EBJT was effectively managing alongside Di Matteo by telling him to tell Essien to sit in midfield (right down to same hand gestures) so who knows...maybe he's in training.

Congrats to Chelsea dug deep and showed grit. The spine-trio of the team (Drogba, Lampard, EBJT) come through once again.
 
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We shouldn't forget though that only played Napoli. Strong team but not all that. They better hope for Apoel or Marseille next round.

If they face Bayern, Real or Barca its all over. Spine-Trio or not.
 
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