General Football Discussion

Tommy Platinum · 08-13-2008, 08:14 PM

Oh well, terrible performance or not, you will progress.

Better to get a bad performance out of the way there rather than draw at Sunderland.

Dmac · 08-14-2008, 09:58 AM

There is no guarentee that we will progress there is still a second leg in 2 weeks.

Tommy Platinum · 08-21-2008, 09:22 PM

Its damage limitation for us.

Our next 3 games are Pompey, Pool and Chelsea... all away.

No Ronaldo, other players still out too.

Dmac · 08-21-2008, 10:00 PM

Lets go Saha... *Claps*

Tommy Platinum · 08-21-2008, 10:45 PM

With Ronaldo, Nani, Anderson, Hargreaves and Tevez all out, the Newcastle result isn't as bad as it seems. Still bad though.

I can see us being without a win 5 weeks into the season. 3 more games and one missed due to the super cup.

Chino · 08-22-2008, 12:18 AM

With Babel returning, I hope Kuyt is dropped to the bench, but I'm not going to hold my breath as Rafa has a lot of man-love for Dirk.

I'd go with:

---------------- Reina ---------------
Arbeloa Carra Agger Dossena
---------- Gerrard Xabi ------------
Yossi ------------------------ Babel
------------- Keane ------------------
------------------ Torres -------------

But I wouldn't be surprised to see Kuyt playing on the right and either Yossi or Babel at LW, knowing Rafa.

Plessis just isn't 1st team ready, and his presence in midfield was a major part of our crap 1st half display against Sunderland. I was begging for Rafa to sub the lad, and was very pleased to see Xabi replacing him for the 2nd half. He isn't much of a ball winner, and doesn't have the confidence to go looking for the ball to help get it forward out of defence - so this left it up to our defenders to hoof it up or for Gerrard to drop back to get it, which would invariably leave a huge gab between our midfield and attack.

At least with the Gerrard-Xabi combination, we'll have more of a midfield presence.

Keane can play in the role Gerrard did so well last year, and he can do it phenomenally, but he needs time to adjust and he needs a decent midfield giving him decent passes to be effective. Against Sunderland, he had neither - it was his first premiership match for us, and the midfield behind was non-existent.

Hopefully we put in a much better display against Boro. Alves is a dangerous striker, and we'll need to have Carra and Agger on their toes to keep them at bay, not to mention the clever runs and quality skill of Sanli Tuncay. (He wouldn't have been a bad player to have playing behind Torres either for that matter).

Dmac · 08-22-2008, 10:28 AM

Why do you insist on constantly writing pointless essays like that?

Tommy Platinum · 08-22-2008, 12:21 PM

Why was the transfer window extended by 24 hours until the 1st Sept? So random.

Dmac · 08-22-2008, 12:28 PM

There was no reasoning, well if there was I couldn't find it.

Tommy Platinum · 08-22-2008, 12:33 PM

Another day to get Berbatov on board.
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We need him right now more than we ever will in future though.

Having said that, Tevez is back and Rooney will be closer to full fitness now. I fear for Rooney though. He needs to improve.

General Football Discussion

This is a discussion on General Football Discussion within the European Sports forums, part of the Sports Forums category; Oh well, terrible performance or not, you will progress. Better to get a bad performance out of the way there ...