So this is the thread for discussing the upcoming 2007-2008 season.
As it hasn't begun yet we can discuss the transfer window, other football news, and the champions league final and the Euro qualifyers.
gogogogo!
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So this is the thread for discussing the upcoming 2007-2008 season.
As it hasn't begun yet we can discuss the transfer window, other football news, and the champions league final and the Euro qualifyers.
gogogogo!
No European Championship or World Cup this summer :( - still there are the two days of qualifiers in early June to get a laugh from I guess.
As for tomorrow's final, I really have no idea who is going to come out on top. I may in the end plump for the natural law of footballing revenge to out and Milan to win. But so long as it's better than Saturday's game either way.
And any predictions for Derby v West Brom in the play-off final on Monday?
What I find the most interesting is the midfield battle.
Mascherano and Gattuso are similar types of player.
Alonso and Pirlo are similar types of player.
Gerrard and Kaka are (somewhat) similar types of player.
And they're all roughly equal in ability. (Before I get any whines about Kaka > Gerrard, come back when you stop believing in media hype, kthx. Form is temporary, class is permanent. Gerrard was better in '06, Kaka has been in '07. Regardless, they are both class players.)
Weirdly, my head says Liverpool, my heart says Milan. It should be the other way around, but it isn't.
I'm having more fun predicting the Liverpool line up than the actual score, though!
Definites: Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Riise, Gerrard, Mascherano, Kuyt.
That leaves three spots. Spot 1 will be contested by Arbeloa, Zenden and Kewell, and the other two will be for Sissoko, Alonso, Pennant and Crouch to contest. With Zenden and Kewell's fitness issues, I think Arbeloa will start at left-back, and Riise on the left of midfield. I think Rafa will either put Stevie in the middle with Mascha, and Pennant on the wing (and Crouch up front) or Stevie will go on the wing and Alonso will go in the middle. There is a chance of a 4-5-1 though. Part of me would love to see us go 4-5-1, stick Sissoko, Gerrard and Mascherano in the middle and watch the fireworks. :D
I'm really hoping that Liverpool win tomorrow - I have money riding on this! Ofcourse, I would be supporting them anyway because obviously I'd like to see an English team win in Europe - unless I was a bitter United/Chelsea/Arsenal fan. :jess:
For the play-off finals I really don't know who will be coming to the premiership next season. I did predict that it would be left down to WBA and Derby, though.
I am holding out for a Milan win. Nothing would please me more than seeing thousands of unhappy scouse gobs. That's my heart talking.
My head says they will win on penalties again.
Liverpool on top, Milan playing very poorly...and then there's that sucker-punch. But Milan will have to play better in the second-half or there's no way they'll be winning anything tonight.
According to the Official Liverpool website they already won it! A twatish mistake by a scouse webmaster resulted in this!
It did not last long & they rectified their mistake but even so. Tempting fate?
Lol i hope milan win chelsea for ever!!!:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuchulainn
Well that was a frenetic end to the game...I'm amazed Milan's zimmer frame defence made it in the end. They didn't deserve to win, but Liverpool fell into the Arsenal trap of not making the most of all their possession.
LOL!!!!!!
What a boring final, I fell asleep for 10 minutes. It was dissapointing, also because I didnt want Milan to win, but meh. :choc:
Can we make this about other leagues too? Like the bundesliga for example. I doubt there are enough people on EoFF interested in the Bundesliga to justify its own thread, but maybe if its joint up with this one it might be worthwile.
I had a feeling we'd boss the game and they'd sneak a late winner, like the Utd game. Wasn't too far wrong.
Also, I said it after the Chelsea games and I'll say it again: Pennant for England.
Re: Tempting fate. Well, after the 2005 game all our players wore special CL winners t-shirts, so unless we'd printed them in record time after Shevchenko missed, I'd say it's no big deal. I imagine the LFC website also had a story about us losing written up before the game too.
Bad luck Red Team. If you were going to lost, you at least deserved to be outplayed, but Milan were pretty dreadful for seventy-five minutes of that game, and nothing worth shouting about in the remaining fifteen. Unfortunately, you just don't win Champions League Finals when your most threatening player on the night is Jermaine Pennant. Still, you've beaten better teams than Milan this year, and I'm sure you'll be in another final soon enough.
Of course, the real losers tonight were the collective ears of the British public. Clive Tyldesley and David Pleat were as terrible as ever, and the prospect of ITV covering the FA Cup and international matches from next year is pretty grim. Jesus Christ, we're going to be looking to Robbie Earle for our analysis. :(
oh Oh OH! SAY WHAT?! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?T?!?!?!?!?!?!
Woo. Woo. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
You see, for all of you wondering what Psychotic did up there, his heart never actually believed that Milan would win. His head did though. People think it's easier to cope with loss by saying the worst possible scenario. SO, IS IT EASIER NOW?!
Also, you can't really compare Kaka and Gerrard. Not because one is better than the other (Pfftftftftftf WTF KAKA IS BETTER), but because they have such different styles of play. Kaka is more of a dynamic scorer. He can easily rip apart the defence. Gerrard is more of a playmaker and a leader....and KAKA IS BETTER.
(:D) Hell, these two teams were evenly matched to the core. Even the structure of the teams was incredibly similar. Kuyt/Inzaghi as the lone striker, with Kaka/Gerrard as the supporting midfielder. (Notice that the two long strikers had a nice warm spot on the bench. There's Crouch/Gilardino) Pirlo is Alonso. Gattuso is better, but similar to Mascherano. There was Nesta to match Carragher's aptitude in defence. The rest of the defence matched up with that of Milan's.
Also, as for the DOMINATING of the game by Liverpool...I'm sorry. I was watching the match facts after game, and if you manage to get 17 total shots, and only four of them are on goal, you pretty much deserve to lose.
I think Liverpool lost because of the following reasons:
No Peter Crouch.
I don't think they used Riise well enough. I think he is their second biggest asset, after Gerrard.
Revenge is a powerful motivator.
Milan won because:
Their team played much better together. Look at it this way. If we remove the best player from each team:
Kaka (Although I think Pirlo is their best player)
Gerrard
I firmly believe that Liverpool would crumble down without Gerrard. The same wouldn't happen if Kaka left. Or any other player. Liverpool places too much on that one player. If he's out, their whole team falls apart. I think Milan shares the workload much better, and that's why I think they one.
Also they won bevause they're Italian, and Italians never lose.
That must explain why the record for most losing finals in the European Cup is held by Juventus ;)